In the Beginning
Holy Innocents only become a parish church in 1971. Until then it was a Chapel (right) - a small place of worship whose legal status consisted in its being attached to the orphanages.
In 1907 a Miss Ellis gave a sum of money for it to be built (she repeated this generosity for other churches within the Southwark Archdiocese), and work began in August that year. It was situated between the two orphanages containing the latter-day 'Holy Innocents', and stood majestically on the hill.
The Chapel's foundation stone was laid on 10 August 1908, the building completed in 1909, and opened on St. Patrick's Day. The church bell was donated by the past pupils of St Anne's, and the tabernacle and large candlesticks by the boys of St Joseph's.
When the Church was consecrated its congregation consisted only of the seven Catholic families living in Orpington and the neighbouring villages. Only about a dozen people from outside the orphanage community attended Sunday Mass. However, with continued population growth in Orpington, the congregation increased.
Transport from outlying villages was always difficult, and people looked round for other buildings in which to celebrate Mass. In 1963 a new church named St Michael and All Angels was built in Locks Bottom as the 'daughter church' of Holy Innocents, afterwards becoming a parish church in its own right.
History of Holy Innocents Church 2
History of Holy Innocents Church 3