Historic and Post-Fire Image Galleries

These photos were gathered starting immediately after the fire so they could be available to the fire investigators and during the rebuild. Now they act as a wonderful historical record of St Peter’s before, during and after the 2014 fire.

Old photos of St Peter’s are still welcome and will be added to the appropriate galley if suitable. If you have any images of the church, especially of the interior (and particularly the interior of the Bell Tower), then please send them to stpetersropley@gmail.com — images of the fire itself will also be very useful. If there are too many to attach then just send a link if possible. Flash drives or CD/DVDs are also welcome — get in touch via email please.

Groups of Image Galleries

Pre-Fire Images

Galleries that show St Peter’s before the fire

Historic Images from Tim Day's Collection

St Peter’s images from the personal Ropley History collection of Tim Day – many from old postcards.

Paul Smith 2012 Interior Detail

A subset of the 180 photographs taken by Paul Smith from Billingshurst in August 2012 – these show interior detail.

Paul Smith 2012 Organ

A subset of the 180 photographs taken by Paul Smith from Billingshurst in August 2012 – these are the best we have of the organ, of which effectively nothing survived the fire.

Paul Smith 2012 Monuments and Plaques

A subset of the 180 photographs taken by Paul Smith from Billingshurst in August 2012 – these concentrate on monuments an plaques.

Paul Smith 2012 Windows

A subset of the 180 photographs taken by Paul Smith from Billingshurst in August 2012 – these show some of the windows and stained glass.

Paul Smith 2012 Exterior

A subset of the 180 photographs taken by Paul Smith from Billingshurst in August 2012 – these show the exterior.

Ron Beal – 2002 Photos for Village Design Statement

Photos taken by Ron Beal in 2002 as part of preparation for the Ropley Village Design Statement

Ropley School Pupils Pre-Fire

A set of images produced by Ropley Primary School pupils in May 2014 as part of a photography competition.

Becky and Kyle Bennet Wedding

The 2013 wedding in St Peter’s of Becky and Kyle Bennett, also the christening of Angelica. Thanks to Becky.

Barbara Pettegree

Images from Memory Stick and Scanned Photos. Family wedding and some inside of the Bell Tower showing clock mechanism and bell frame etc. Nice ones of harvest festival decorations.

Miscellaneous

Digital and scanned photos that don’t justify their own gallery

David Quick Aerials

Hexacopter drone images of St Peters taken on 29 July 2014 by David Quick of Alton Camera Club (working with the Curtis Museum in Alton).

Images Taken After the Fire and During the Making Safe

Photos taken during a period from just after the fire until rebuilding started

Not long after the fire – by Rodney and Ron

Photos taken not long after the fire by Rodney Skinner and Ron Beal. All are from outside the security fencing as access was still thought dangerous.

Interior Damage Detail

Images of the interior damage taken as the bells were being removed – also late November 2014. It’s obvious there is not much interior left! Thanks to Michael Bailey and Andy Bonner for these excellent images.

Andy Bonner – Bells on 11th August 2014

Photos of the bells still in situ – taken by Andy Bonner from the surrounding scaffolding.

Andy Bonner – Rebuilding 2014

Photos taken by Andy Bonner in 2014

The Bells being Removed

For a considerable time after the fire, it was considered too dangerous to go anywhere near the bell tower as the damage to the beams was so great and the bells very heavy. These are photos of the bells finally being brought down from the tower, taken by Rodney Skinner and Michael Bailey, Don’t try this at home!
Heat and firefighting water had cracked two bells, the #3 (thought possibly repairable) and the #5 (much worse).

Notes on the Aerial Drone Gallery (Above)

These images were taken by David Quick of Alton Camera Club using a “Hexacopter” drone on the 29 July 2014. The original resolution is much higher than available on this site – images here are downsized to a 1024 pixel maximum for performance reasons. For the originals, see David’s gallery on flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidquick/sets/72157646012011852 from where they can be downloaded.

Alton Camera Club has started maintaining a bank of ‘then and now’ photos of Alton and surrounding villages with the assistance of the Curtis Museum.

Aerial Images from Kevin Milner of Alresford

Photographer Kevin Milner used a remote controlled drone to take these images from 250ft above St Peter’s Church in Ropley. Kevin, from Alresford, has been a professional countryside and equine photographer for seven years, and his work can be seen on greetings cards across the country. He said: “I have taken it to give to the church. I supply them with church cards and it’s nice to give something back to the community. Once it has been rebuilt they can put it up.”

The images are excellent and give a current and sobering indication of what little is left of the church. Note that the images are copyright of St Peter’s PCC and Kevin Milner — they should not be re-used or re-posted, particularly by news media, without permission (stpetersropley@gmail.com). The images on this page are much reduced from their original resolution – clicking on the actual images here will display an improved quality image.

The first image shows the situation of St Peter’s Church Ropley — at the very heart of our community:

Wide angle drone image of the destruction at St Peter's Church, Ropley — Drone image kindly donated to St Peter’s by Kevin Milner

The second image shows a closer view of the destruction — almost nothing is left of the interior:

Benefice of Ropley, Bishop’s Sutton and West Tisted

Benefice of Ropley, Bishop’s Sutton and West Tisted

Historic and Post-Fire Image Galleries

Groups of Image Galleries

Notes on the Aerial Drone Gallery (Above)

Aerial Images from Kevin Milner of Alresford