The Kingfisher Church is under the overall leadership of Rev Allan Coutts, Vicar of
St Thomas’ Church, Trowbridge. Leaders on the ground are Alison and Mark Bennett.
Alison and Mark have lived on Paxcroft Mead for 5 years and have two daughters, Lydia and Abigail who both attend the Mead School. Alison has previously worked in HR management for Bowyers, Chippenham College and Nutricia and currently runs her own executive coaching business. Husband Mark is a Training Co-ordinator for Avonvale Training Ltd and co-ordinates the training of apprentices and adults in engineering across the West Country.

Prior to their arrival on the Mead, Mark and Alison worshipped at Southwick Baptist Church, where incidently, Mark’s family have worshipped for the last 300 years!! So it was a big step to ventur all the way across town to St Thomas’ and Paxcroft Mead, but they both felt a strong sense of God pushing them in that direction for a reason that wasn’t apparent at the time, but soon became clear when they took up the vision for a church plant and when Allan approached them to become leaders.

The Church will also be served by various lay persons and clergy.

Photo: L to R - Mark Bennett; Rt. Rev. Stephen Conway, Bishop of Ramsbury; Alison Bennett; Rev. Allan Coutts, Vicar of St. Thomas'.

The first prompting for this name came one day when Alison had a rare encounter with a kingfisher by the bridge over the stream that flows through Paxcroft Mead Centre. These beautiful birds are apparently more common along the River Biss which feeds the stream on Paxcroft; it is not usual for these shy birds to roam too far from their main territory, so it was indeed, a rare and awesome occasion that coincided with Alison happening to be there at that special moment. After that, it seemed wherever Alison went, she would come across an image of a kingfisher. She shared this with others from St Thomas’ and it rather caught their imagination.

The origin of ‘kingfisher’ is obscure; the term comes from ‘king’s fisher’ but why that name was applied is not known. However, members of the new community church know exactly why they should apply the term ‘king’s fisher’ to each and every one of them. Jesus – the King of Kings, instructed His disciples to go and fish – for men! And that is exactly what they aim to do. Hence their choice of name.