Bosham under construction
Selsey
Nutbourne
St Richard's School
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Our parish churches – St Richard’s (and School), Our Lady of the Assumption, Nutbourne, Selsey - owe their existence to the inspiration and zeal of parishioners who, for twenty five years, ran a football pool that raised more than three quarters of a million pounds – and rewarded ticket holders with more than three hundred thousand pounds in prize money.
The fascinating story is told by surviving founders at the suggestion of Brian Taylor, formerly chairman of the Building Subcommittee that keeps the churches well maintained.
In September 1955, Ted Bailey, a parishioner at St Peter’s was in at the start. (Sadly, Ted died on 4th September 2006, RIP).
A younger colleague, Trevor Tupper, then at St Richard’s and now also at St Peter’s, became involved as soon as the law allowed when he was 16 in 1956. He was to become the future treasurer.
Trevor, seen here with Fr Fox (Later Bishop of Menevia), has checked the dates against his personal records.
In the mid fifties, parishioners at St Peter’s worshipped in a fine church, built before the war. However, there was a pressing need for a new church at Chichester. Trevor says “the old nineteenth century church in South Street, a building with a remarkable history, was far too small to hold the growing congregation. So latecomers would stand outside in the street to hear Mass.”
The enterprising Parish Priest, Father Tak (from Holland) had earmarked a site for a new church in The Hornet, but apart from proceeds from selling the South St building, there was no money to complete the project. The existing school, in St Paul’s Road, also needed a new site.
Father Tak was offered a land swap by the District Council which wanted the Hornet site and would provide a field for church and school at Cawley Road, on land used for horticulture. But where would the money to build it come from?
At this point, a newcomer, Phil Jukes, suggested starting a football pool. The date was September 14th 1955. Football pools were in their heyday and there was no national lottery. Ted Bailey and Trevor recall that the promoter was Father Sexton (later, Father Wilson). A team of sellers, collectors, and back office volunteers was formed with 60 collectors, soon to be 100. 1400 tickets were sold at one shilling apiece (5p but closer to £1 in today’s money) and all Chichester was buzzing with enthusiasm for the scheme. Brian Taylor recalls “We just ‘had to’ belong to the pool”. Driving it all was Phil Jukes with Gerry Jannece (and Lotte in support), Gerry Pierce, Ted Bailey and the Treasurer Dick Kirkham. The pool rapidly expanded, and up went the church building – in faith that funding would follow. And so it did - the money flooded in, week by week.
St Richard’s was opened in 1958 (£75,000). St Richard’s School was built starting in 1959.
By mid 1959 there were 200 collectors selling up to 13,000 tickets a week.
The Selsey church of Our Lady of Mt Carmel and St Wilfred followed in 1962 (£75,000). Then Our Lady of the Assumption at Bosham (£60,000) – replacing a wooden hut. Nutbourne opened in 1968 (£50,000) replacing a room at Southbourne. Ziggi Janiec of the Building subcommittee recalls that “St Richard’s had been ‘starkly finished’ but in 1965 was fitted with its Loire stained glass windows from Chartres (Fr Fox was on the twinning committee with Chartres and commissioned the Loire glass) together with marble, at a cost of £30,000 – all from the pool”. David O’Connell, a Catenian, painted the altar panel and Stations of the Cross. There were improvements, too, for St Peter’s.
Although the churches were practically complete, the football pool was in top gear. Other parishes joined in and benefited, led by St Richard’s at Slindon, then Midhurst and Petworth. The Chichester Swimming Pool Appeal also joined for a while, followed by the Pensioners' Centre (now the Newell Centre). During this period some 13,000 to 14,500 tickets were being sold each week by 300 collectors, the majority to non parishioners.
The weekly meetings of collectors, the back office team with the Saturday night result collecting and ticket printing volunteers, fostered togetherness in the Parish. There were dinners – one, in 1963, is archived in monochrome stills by Trevor Tupper who became treasurer in 1963 after Dick Kirkham emigrated to America. In 1960 a London news agency featured the Chichester pools phenomenon. The young Trevor Tupper was photographed “selling” a ticket to Mary Dunnaway, who in fact was the acting housekeeper!
In 1981, when 6000 tickets were being sold, it was decided the mission was accomplished and the pool was closed. Some of the activists have died – but those who remain can worship, safe from driving rain, perhaps remembering wet vigils outside the tiny South Street church and the enterprising clergy who, fifty years ago, inspired Phil Jukes to introduce his pool, backed up by a far sighted team.
The benefits were prodigious: they raised £750,000, and gave away £375,000 in prizes. In today’s money the take was worth almost ten million pounds, half of it invested in bricks and mortar at Chichester, Bosham, The Witterings, Selsey, Nutbourne and beyond. Trevor Tupper had a successful career in the Civil Service, and was appointed O.B.E. for his services.