The Society of the Sacred Mission
The Kelham Fathers
BEGINNINGS
SSM was inaugurated on the 9th of May, 1893, with Kelly, Badcock, and Chilvers as its initial novices. Central to its ethos since then, has been the inclusion of ordinary men. Kelly was clear from the outset that that this was not a way of life for religious virtuosos. "No system can be sound which depends for success upon rare and special gifts, rather than upon the steady use of those more limited and commonplace powers which God ordinarily wills to bestow." - H. H. Kelly (SSM, 1898)
KELHAM HALL
Kelly's missionary work began in 1902 in South Africa, and the next year Kelham Hall was purchased to become the main centre, a theological college and the head office. The college was established in 1894; their hoods were "black, the cowl faced 3 inches and bound 1 inch (with) sarum red."
"The present Kelham Hall was built between 1859 and 1862 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. He also built St Pancras Station a few years later and both building share the same Gothic style. In 1903, it became a theological college for Church of England priests known as the Society of the Sacred Mission. They added a great domed chapel in 1924. In 1969 the hall was taken over by Newark and Sherwood District Council. A few hundred yards from the hall, situated within the trees is the delightful parish church."
Kelham Hall really was the core of the organisation for the first sixty years of its existence. "It had no lighting except oil lamps, no heating except open fires and no water above ground floor, but there was room for 100 students and plenty of space for gardens and playing fields. Kelham remained the mother house of the Society for seventy years." However, it was occupied by military personnel during both world wars. The Great Chapel was built there in 1928: "it was almost square with a great central dome, (62 feet across and 68 feet high) the second largest concrete dome in England."
Kelham Hall "was sold to the society of the Sacred Mission in 1903 and housed the Monastic order for the next 70 years...the main accommodation building at the front of the Hall was completed in 1939 to house the Monks and the theological students but its first occupants were a garrison of the "Blues" cavalry and also Texas and Oklahoma oil men who were involved in drilling for oil at the nearby Eakring oilfield. After the war, the SSM Order returned to the site and, until their organisation was re-structured in 1972, continued to live there adding a certain charm and interest to the village."
While in 1962, the "SSM reached a numerical peak of more than 80 members and a large novitiate..by 1972, the college at Kelham closed as number of student applications drop." Applications to Kelham "dropped from 400 a year before the war to less than 40 students in 1971 and the college closed in 1973." Consequently, by 1973, a "subgroup of SSM move to Willen (Near Milton Keynes) to run a priory." By 1997 the contraction went further as "SSM members move out of Willen priory to a smaller house in Willen."