It was dedicated on Palm Sunday, 1931, by the Chaplain General to the Forces - a converted forage barn, and contained only the bare necessities of a church, with little or no decoration, yet during the next decade it was to become one of the most beautiful of all garrison churches.

Firstly a fine two manual organ was provided by the Church of England Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen’s Association, followed by choir stalls, pews, a pulpit and a lectern. But the greatest adornment was a beautiful red and gold reredos, designed by the eminent craftsman, Martin Travers in 1936, containing a life-size figure of the Risen Christ, surrounded by the words, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” In each corner is carved the Royal Engineers’ grenade and their motto, “Ubique”.

The reredos was paid for by the mysterious Railway Depot Garden Fund, money raised by troops who ran allotments during World War I, which had lain forgotten and accumulating interest in a Petersfield bank for seventeen years.

During the following four years further improvements were made, culminating in the installation of five beautiful windows, again designed by Martin Travers, commemorating the men of the four main railway companies and the London Passenger Transport Board who had been killed in the Great War, containing the coats of arms of cities associated with each company and patron saints of the countries they served.

After the Second World War a further series of windows was commissioned from Travers and his assistant, Lawrence Lee, who later designed windows in the nave of Coventry Cathedral. These culminated in one dedicated jointly to the men of the Royal Engineers and the Royal Army Service Corps, to commemorate the formation of the Royal Corps of Transport in 1965.

With the disbanding of the Longmoor Military Railway, the Army School of Transport moved to Leconfield, in Yorkshire, and the reredos, the windows and all the other furnishings and memorials were taken to a new St. Martin’s Church created in a former Royal Air Force parachute packing shed, which was dedicated in 1978. Longmoor church was demolished. Through the good offices of the Chaplain General’s Office and the padre at Leconfield, I was able to see all these treasures once again recently.

Armed with the necessary security passes, my wife, once a Longmoor resident, and I were met by the verger, Maureen Johnston, and shown everything we wanted to see, bringing back memories of half a century ago. The exterior may be nothing in particular, but once through the outer doors, the very doors through which we had once entered Longmoor church, we were greeted by a stunning scene.

The east wall is dominated by Travers’ great reredos, now reaching from floor to ceiling, as do the ten strikingly coloured windows, five on each side. The font, the pews, the choir stalls - they are all there, lit by the original wheel shaped lights. The timber for these was all prepared and cut to size in the Longmoor workshops by Raymond Lintott, who is still living in Petersfield. The church has been further adorned by a new Harrison organ, dedicated to the memory of Francis Arthur Morant, verger and organist at Longmoor between 1954 and 1973, and a new altar, carved by Thompson of Kilburn, the Mouseman.

Those of us with happy memories of Longmoor can rest assured that the treasures of the old St. Martin’s Church are well looked after and our heritage is zealously guarded. The garrison church at Leconfield is much loved and used every day.

Tom Muckley, May 2007

This article was originally published by the Petersfield Post

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