Ian Fry

Do you know why you were given this name?

No I don’t really, by my parents but I’ve never really questioned it to be honest with you.

Could you tell me a little about your family please?

Well my immediate family originate from London, South East London, Peckham and Camberwell and they moved to the island some 70 years ago and they had several businesses to sell, so my father was a plumber, plumbing and heating. They worked in different places around the island. I could go on and on but I haven’t got the time I’m afraid at this present time.

What do you do for a living?

Right now I’m semi-retired, like, taking life easy.

Where did you grow up?

Me, I’m Sheppey born and bred. I’m a ‘swampie’.

Do you like it here?

Yeah I moved away 7 times but there’s just that tie, something about the island, you get drawn back but I don’t know what it is. I’ve got webbed hands and feet. You probably don’t know that one but your colleague will tell you all about it.

Do you have any siblings?

Yep, two boys, three girls, nine grandchildren. Don’t ask me their dates of birth because I can’t tell you.

Do you have any brothers or sisters?

Yeah I do. I’ve got one brother and one sister.

Did you visit the church often?

No we don’t/didn’t, personally, no it’s just a little bit of history I know. A little bit of information I’ve got to give to you and your colleague, it’s what I do know.

Would you be able to tell us about that?

Yeah well I worked in the Prison Service for some 25 years and whilst in the Prison Service I was in the maintenance department and one of the tasks I was given was to empty this building called the Banbury building and it had all sorts of materials, building materials in there and the like, which had just sort of been packed in there over many years and as I was telling you, I was told it was between 10 and 18 years’ worth of rubbish or bits and pieces in there. Anyway it was my task to empty and clear this building and keep what was relevant and get rid of what wasn’t and over the weeks and months I came across several boxes, half a dozen or maybe ten boxes of stained glass windows and when I enquired about these stained glass windows all I could find out was there were some stories going about that these were some of the stained glass windows out of the church down at the dockyard.

Anyway I looked after them, in fact they were put in my workshop at the prison and, from my workshop, the chap who was in charge of me, his name was Billy Best but unfortunately he’s no longer with us but he contacted Canterbury Cathedral and I don’t know why but I was there one day and then I was at different jails and things like that and when I got back some weeks later to my workshop they’d gone, and apparently it was Canterbury Cathedral that picked them up. So I don’t know if that’s of any relevant interest or not but you know that was approximately 2003 to 2005. So how long they’d been there I don’t know, sort of 10 to 18 years of rubbish if you like but that was some of the treasures amongst the rubbish. But I just thought, I saw this on Facebook and I just thought to myself, you know, I’m sure you haven’t heard this story because, you know, unless you’re in the Prison Service you wouldn’t have, so here I am telling you today.

Do you think, in terms of the church now, what do you think we should do?

Oh it would be lovely wouldn’t it to restore it but we’ve got to get the finances to do that so, lottery fund maybe?

We’ve already applied to them.

Any good?

We’re quite confident

Oh good.

So keep an eye on the press.

Yeah, most definitely, I’ll just keep an eye on the, perhaps not the press but my papers, not the Times or Guardian.

What do you think in terms of the value of the church to the island?

Yeah, it’s part of the island, part of the history of the island isn’t it, it’s part of all the history of the docks. Perhaps you could get the dockyard to come across with some support, you know, I mean it’s just across the road as well you’ve got a hospital as well haven’t you which I’m glad to hear is now a Grade 2 listed building? Yeah that’s good. You know, it’s too easy to knock things down and get rid of them isn’t it? My last sort of 10 years in the Prison Service, I actually worked at East Sutton Park Prison over at Sutton Valance. I don’t know if you know it but it’s a Grade 2 listed site. It’s a female prison, houses a hundred women. I took a little bit of demotion to go there but it was great because just doing the everyday things, became mundane just doing the building tasks and building maintenance, to go to that site and it was Grade 2 listed and then obviously dealing with English Heritage and Maidstone Borough Council, it was great, really good, but they offered me a package and I took it, so the rest is history.

Do you recall any of the fires?

Personally no, I’m not that old. I don’t think they were in my life, were they?

Yes

Oh right, well there you go now you’ve answered your question. No I was probably out partying or something. Believe it or not we were all young once.

“…over the weeks and months I came across several boxes, half a dozen or maybe ten boxes of stained glass windows and when I enquired about these stained glass windows all I could find out was there were some stories going about that these were some of the stained glass windows out of the church down at the dockyard.”

If you have your own memories of the dockyard church – as a church, a social club or as it is now, we’d love to hear from you. We're also keen to build an image archive by making copies of photographs and memorabilia of the church.

If you’d like to contribute memories or images to the archive, please tell us a bit more about what you have using the form.