On Saturday last week I was unexpectedly swept up in it all over again! Despite being busy, and despite obstacles, like road closures, I nonetheless found myself in St Paul's church in Woodhouse Eaves for the last of the open sessions for this year, at which a good friend of mine was delivering a talk on ... William Railton!
As I've just said, I've been researching Railton for quite a number of years now, and I've mentioned Railton and his Loughborough connections once or twice before on this blog. The talk re-awakened my thirst for researching and for getting to the bottom of stories, so I found it impossible to not turn on the pc and let my fingers Bing it, Yahoo it, Dogpile it, or even Google it - "it" being Railton. Seven hours later, and many, many exclamations of "Oh my goodness ...!" I finally emerged ...
The problem with "Google it" is, that if you don't delete your browsing history the search engine remembers where you've been before and assumes you want to go there again! Often this is not the case: I'm usually after new information, not stuff I've found before, but this time I didn't mind being reminded of the plans of various churches that Railton had designed, as such architectural drawings are always interesting, and sometimes simply beautiful.
This time though, I searched a little deeper, and from the same information source found an absolutely fascinating description of thousands of churches across the country, along with pictures of most of them, often cuttings taken from newspapers, sometimes postcards. I searched every one of the 30 volumes for mention of Railton's churches and was most dismayed to read the author's opinion of Railton's St Philip and St James church in Groby:
"a pathetic little church", with "a dolls house tower and runner bean roof"
Personally, I rather liked Groby church when I visited.
Anyway, back to the mysterious author, who had this to say about Copt Oak church:
"...stands by itself - of dark granite in flat slabs, and rather forbidding...The church is 1837, plain E[arly].E[nglish]., by Railton."
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| Copt Oak Church May 2017 |
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| Copt Oak Church May 2017 |
After a lot of scurrying around, I discovered that the author of these wonderful descriptions was Basil Fulford Lowther Clarke, son of ordained minister, William Kemp Lowther Clarke, and was himself an ordained minister, as well as being involved in work for the Council of Churches. His description of Launde Abbey is extensive, although with regard to Railton's restorations, he merely says: "It was restored in 1846..."
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| Launde Abbey |
Apart from this Railton connection, I couldn't help but wonder if William Kemp Lowther Clarke was in any way connected to the family of Charles Eamer Kempe, a designer of stained glass, and some from the firm of C.E. Kempe and Co. (1) grace St Paul's in Woodhouse Eaves.
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| Bottom half of a Kempe window in St Paul's |
Well, my tenacity for going back generations of both these families was not holding out, but I did happen upon many other connections.
Charles Eamer Kempe worshipped at All Saints Church in Lindfield, but following a disagreement with folk regarding a memorial for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee moved to worship at what is now known as the Holy Trinity Church in Cuckfield, but was the church of St John the baptist in Kempe's day, where he designed the south porch. Further research into Cuckfield revealed that some of the ceiling bosses depict a chained bull, a crowned portcullis, crossed staples and the red rose of Lancaster, all of which were badges of the Neville family. The suggestion is that the ceiling may have been gifted to the church by Edward Neville, Lord Abergavenny. Edward Neville was the grandson of John of Gaunt who had a connection with Cuckfield in the mid-1600s. Lord Neville's name is associated with the hospital in Abergavenny (I haven't done any research on this, but I assume that as the hospital is called Neville Hall, that the hospital was built on the site of the former Neville Hall): this is a connection close to my heart.
Getting ever closer to Loughborough, we find that John of Gaunt died at Leicester Castle in 1399. But the bells that Cuckfield were ringing in my head were stronger than Leicester, and I eventually reached Loughborough when I remembered that our very own Revd Henry Fearon was born in Cuckfield in 1802, a year after his father, Joseph Francis Fearon, had become vicar of Cuckfield Church! Sadly, Joseph died whilst still vicar of Cuckfield in 1816, and his role was taken up by Canon Henry Plimley. Henry would have only been 14 at the time of his father's death, and would probably have been at school in Winchester. After successfully completing his degree at Emmanuel College Cambridge, Fearon was ordained as deacon, working at Chichester, and then priest. By 1840 he was back with the Cuckfield church, and on the 1841 census he is listed as a clergyman living at The Stable, Cuckfield (2).
Henry Fearon remained in Cuckfield until 1848 when he came to Loughborough, in the position of Rector. And the rest is history, as they say!!!
Connections with Loughborough don't end there though!!! There is a vague connection in that an architect called John Henry Taylor did some work at Cuckfield church, probably the extensive 1855 interior alterations. No relation to our own Taylors, of bellfoundry fame, but, of course, there is a connection hidden away! The bells at Lindfield church were originally made and repaired at nearby Horsham, and were later repaired and recast by the Whitechapel foundry. In celebration of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee (1877), the peal of 5 was increased to 8.
Getting ever closer to Loughborough, we find that John of Gaunt died at Leicester Castle in 1399. But the bells that Cuckfield were ringing in my head were stronger than Leicester, and I eventually reached Loughborough when I remembered that our very own Revd Henry Fearon was born in Cuckfield in 1802, a year after his father, Joseph Francis Fearon, had become vicar of Cuckfield Church! Sadly, Joseph died whilst still vicar of Cuckfield in 1816, and his role was taken up by Canon Henry Plimley. Henry would have only been 14 at the time of his father's death, and would probably have been at school in Winchester. After successfully completing his degree at Emmanuel College Cambridge, Fearon was ordained as deacon, working at Chichester, and then priest. By 1840 he was back with the Cuckfield church, and on the 1841 census he is listed as a clergyman living at The Stable, Cuckfield (2).
Henry Fearon remained in Cuckfield until 1848 when he came to Loughborough, in the position of Rector. And the rest is history, as they say!!!
Connections with Loughborough don't end there though!!! There is a vague connection in that an architect called John Henry Taylor did some work at Cuckfield church, probably the extensive 1855 interior alterations. No relation to our own Taylors, of bellfoundry fame, but, of course, there is a connection hidden away! The bells at Lindfield church were originally made and repaired at nearby Horsham, and were later repaired and recast by the Whitechapel foundry. In celebration of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee (1877), the peal of 5 was increased to 8.
"The new bells were conveyed from the railway station at Haywards Heath on a timber carriage drawn by four horses, bedecked with ribbons and bells...The bellfounders were Taylor and Co. of Loughborough, Leicestershire."Well, didn't you know it!!!
Anyway, that's enough for one blogpost!
(1) The stained glass company run by Kempe was re-named C.E.Kempe and Co. after his death in 1907. It was run by Kempe's young nephew Walter Ernest Tower, and continued until 1934. Kempe's 'signature' was either a single wheatsheaf, or a trio of wheatsheaves, but once the company was run by Tower, the 'signature' changed to include a wheatsheaf with a black tower on it, and it this that can be seen on the St Paul's window pictured above.
(2) The Stable appears not to be one single dwelling, but many dwellings, but I'm not quite sure where exactly.
(2) The Stable appears not to be one single dwelling, but many dwellings, but I'm not quite sure where exactly.
You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:
Dyer, Lynne (2019). Burleigh Hall. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/08/railton-taylors-and-fearon.html [Accessed 25 August 2019]
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