n the face of it, Williams and Glyn's Bank is a relative newcomer to Kingston upon Thames: it was in 1976 that it opened its branch in Thames Street. In fact, though, the firm has links with the Royal Borough stretching back to the 19^th century, and incorporates Child & Co., the oldest bank in England, which traces its history as far back as 1584.

In 1848 Georgiana Tufnell, the daughter of a Berkshire clergyman, married George Grenfell Glyn, whose family had founded one of Britain's most respected banking organisations.

In 1873, on the death of his father, George Glyn became the second Baron Wolverton. The new Lord and lady Wolverton found themselves plunged into such an arduous business, political and social round that they decided to create an idyllic rural retreat in Kingston. In 1884 they bought a solid Victorian house at the top of Kingston Hill and transformed it into a stately home famed for its luxurious appointments and exquisite landscaping. The Prime Minister of the day, Mr. William Gladstone, was a frequent guest, as were members of the Royal Family.

Soon after moving into their new home, the Wolvertons learned of St. Luke's, the most impoverished district in Kingston. lady Wolverton acted immediately, meeting all the deficits on the building fund, organising working parties, bazaars, and social events in her splendid home, and becoming a regular worshipper at St. Luke's. Lord Wolverton never saw the new building that replaced the temporary iron ore. He died in 1887, leaving instructions that he was to be buried in Kingston.

This could not be done, but his widow, and the town itself, ensured he would always be remembered there. lady Wolverton had a memorial plaque placed as near to her pew at St. Luke's as possible and, later, provided a spire. Kingston Corporation named a new key thoroughfare, created to provide a direct link between Kingston Hill and Norbiton Station, Wolverton Avenue.

The Wolvertons' stately home, Warren House, still stands at the top of the hill. It is owned by l.C.I., who have maintained it and its grounds in their original magnificence. But perhaps the memorial that would please the Wolvertons most is that their family firm has arrived in the Royal Borough and, as a tribute to them, and to their part in creating one of the parish churches of Kingston, has given generous support to this publication.

 

his year marks the 125th anniversary of the establishment of the Surrey Comet, the little four page, one penny publication which has grown to become Ihe major regional newspaper it is today.

Over the years the Surrey Comet and its publishing company, Knapp Drewel I & Sons Ltd., have contributed to the growth of Kingston, its commercial organisations and its cultural and social life. The newspaper's editors and publishers have traditionally maintained a vigorous approach to matters affecting the town and its people.

It has made friends and has made enemies, earned praise and scorn for its stand on matters of public interest.

But always the Comet strived to be honest.

Thomas Philpott, founder of the Comet and its first publisher, was a dedicated Christian who regarded his newspaper as a missionary enterprise as it spotlighted social problems and matters of public concern. Ten years after its establishment, and with the Comet by then having been sold to Russell Knapp, the little paper engaged its first staff reporter, schoolmaster's son William Drewett who later rose to become editor of the newspaper.

The Comet owes a great deal to William Drewett, and so does St. Luke's Church.

St. Luke's Church was built as a result of enormous courage and self-sacrifice by a group of Kingston Christians. It began as a mission to St Paul’s, Kingston Hill, in 1883 but achieved a permanent building, and separate parochial status, in 1889. Throughout that time it suffered vicious attacks because it was the only high church in the borough, at a time when to have candles on the altar, or to wear vestments,, was considered the work of the devil.

Wllliam Drewettl was a champion of the project from the start. He devoted columns of space to it in his newspaper, showing up the malice-mongers and spotlighting the heroism of the vicar and worshippers. He also gave much from his private purse, and was the church's first organist and choirmaster (services he carried out voluntarily).

When at last a permanent building was in the offing he was on the building committee set up to mastermind the new project. He also did much to launch the parish magazine (begun in 1887 and continued to this day) and printed it for a nominal sum.

He put all the early issues into handsome bindings as a gift for the vicar, and these bound volumes have recently been presented to the borough archives.

To the end of his life, he supported the church in a number of ways, but always anonymously, or simply under the initials "W.D." Presumably, that is why there is no memorial to him in the church, although he played such a key role in its creation.

William Drewett, newspaperman and churchman, would have been proud to have known that, today, the two enterprises to which he devoted himself are still, in their own ways, caring for the needs and interests of the community.

 

y a picturesque coincidence, both the original St. Luke's site in Elm Road and its present one in Gibbon Road, were part of the glebe land of the old parish of Kingston. This land formed part of the endowment of Kingston Church when it was first established by the Saxon kings.

When Merton Priory was founded in Norman times, it was given to Kingston Church. Thus the Priory became the rector, with the right to the glebe and to the tithes of the parish. But with those privileges went the responsibility to provide for the religious needs of the parish by appointing and maintaining a vicar and whatever priests were required for the four chapelries of the parish, Richmond, Petersham, Thames Ditton and East Molesey.

When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1538, Merton Priory and its possessions came into the hands of the Crown and were disposed of to laymen. The outcome was that the rectory (in the sense of the right to receive the tithes of Kingston parish) and the advowson (the patronage of, or right to present to the living) were thereafter in the hands of laymen and could be bought and sold like any other property. Thus Kingston had lay rectors, who made their own arrangements for collecting tithes.

In 1671 the advowson and rectory were bought by Nicholas Hardinge. The manor of Kingston Canbury, which had also belonged to Merton Priory, was bought by him at the same time. He built the enormous tithe barn, famous as one of the largest of its kind in the country, which stood on the spot where Kingston Railway Station now stands. The usual arrangement by this time was that a rector was entitled to the 'great tithes' of corn, hay, wood and fruit, and a vicar to the 'small tithes' of other produce. The tithe barn was for the corn.

The Hardinge family were lords of Canbury Manor, rectors of Kingston and patrons of the living for more than a century. In 1692 and again in 1778 one of their own family was presented as vicar. They sold the advowson in 1786 to Kings College, Cambridge, which from that time made the presentations to the living.

The manor of Canbury was eventually sold to the Tollemache family of Ham House, but the rectors of Kingston in the early 19th century were members of the Kent family of Chestnut Grove, a riverside mansion located where Chestnut Road is now.

In the Kingston tithe map of 1840, the present site of St. Luke's Church is part of arable land described as "in the Forty Acre." This was a large field between Cowleaze and King's Road.

The site where St. Luke's School now stands is described in 1840 as "osier bed in Hog Lane." (the old name for Elm Road). Osiers were a species of willow used to make the baskets that were then an important cottage industry in Kingston.

It would seem that the reason St. Luke's permanent church could not be built there was that the site was unstable through water; it lay beside a stream coming down from the Latchmere area.

 

 

 

 

 

t Luke’s is by no means the oldest, or even the finest church in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, but it is in many ways the most remarkable.

Its people fought and overcame great adversities to achieve it. Many sacrificed their health, even their lives, to ensure its survival.

Its seeds were planted in the 1860's, when a group of labourers and their families began meeting for prayer in a cottage parlour in Acre Road. This thoroughfare, like all others in the area at that time, was little more than a dirt track. It was also devoid of lighting, and the clergy of St. Peter, at Norbiton, had to stumble through total darkness, up to their knees in mud, to reach the makeshift mission once a week.

This odd little parlour congregation met steadfastly together for the next 17 years, until 5th June 1883. That was the day St. Luke's was born, in an old iron building that had been moved from its original site in Norwood, and re-erected in Elm Road, in the Canbury area of Kingston. Elm Road had existed for centuries as a curiously twisting track across flat open countryside. By 1883 much of it had been developed as a residential road of small, working-class houses; but it was still the travellers' nightmare it had always been: a knee-deep morass in wet weather, a hard-bake of ruts in dry. It was also, by an aberration of planning, virtually marooned from much of the surrounding neighbourhood. Hence the creation of St. Luke's Passage to provide access to Acre Road.

Here, in this most unpromising spot, the new church took root. Someone gave a harmonium. Discarded wood benches from Kingston's parish church of All Saints provided much of the seating. An old curtain was hung across part of the West end to form a temporary Sunday school. All was then ready for the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Anthony Wilson Thorold, to lead the opening service and preach the first sermon.

Ten volunteers had struggled to beautify the building with flowers for the occasion, but nothing could hide its shortcomings.

"The floral embellishments provided as good an effect as can be expected in a building of this description", said the Kingston and Surbiton News, meaningfully.

The bishop was more forthright.

"I see no reason at all why we should have cathedrals and beautiful churches built for the use of the high born, and think an iron church, good enough for the poor", he declared in his sermon, adding pointedly that he hoped St. Luke's would achieve a seemlier edifice within the next 20 years.

He underestimated the new congregation. It was only six years later that he came again to St. Luke's to consecrate the handsome brick building that had replaced the shabby iron structure. In that time St. Luke's had become one of the most controversial churches in the history of Kingston.

It seems strange that such a humble little gathering should have had such an impact. St. Luke's, based in an ill-equipped building in the poorest part of Kingston, did not even have parochial status at that time. It was simply a chapel-of-ease to St. Paul's Parish Church, Kingston Hill, and under the control of St. Paul's vicar, the Rev. Arthur Cornford. Yet it aroused such bitter passions that the curate appointed to St. Luke's, the Rev. Thomas Longstaff - known affectionately to his flock as "Mr. Shortstaff'' - resigned in despair after only nine months. In that time he had formed a choir of 18 men and several boys, organised a Sunday school of 100 children, and initiated fund-raising so efficiently that by the time St. Luke's celebrated it first anniversary in 1884, all the £1,200 costs of buying and transporting the iron building had been paid, with the help of £400 from the Diocese of Rochester, of which Kingston then formed a part.

"Circumstances on which it would be useless and profitless to speak made me give up my charge in this parish", Mr. Longstaff told his saddened congregation in his farewell sermon, before departing to take up the curacy or Christ Church, Somerstown.

By a strange coincidence, on the very day Mr. Longstaff resigned, a young priest left his card at St. Paul's with the enquiry: "Do you know of any work?"

He was the Rev. George Swinnerton who, though curate at the rigidly evangelistic Emmanuel Church, Streatham, was experiencing a growing commitment to Anglo-Catholic ideals. He was at once offered - and accepted - the curacy of St. Luke's.

The same "circumstances" that had so depressed Mr. Longstaff soon assailed Mr. Swinnerton, and but for his courage would undoubtedly have prevented the evolution of St. Luke's as we know it today.

To understand the situation, and St. Luke's impact upon Kingston, it is essential to know something of the previous years, both locally and nationally.

As far as local history is concerned, Canbury, or Canonbury as it was known in earlier centuries, got its name because it was owned by the Canons of Merton Priory. It remained as rich valley farming and fruit-growing country until late in the 19th century, with Richmond Road just a rural lane containing only a scattering of cottages and the mansions of Bank Grove and Chestnut Grove (still remembered in the names Chestnut Road and Bank Lane).

The coming of the railways changed all that. In 1863 the market gardens that had supplied London with salad, and the enormous tithe barn where for centuries the lay rectors or Kingston had stored their dues, gave way lo the new Kingston Station and its major approach way, Ceres Road (now re-named Wood Streel).

The opening of the station meant the end of Kingston’s long stagnation, and the start of an economic and social upheaval that gradually transformed the fields of Canbury into a densely populated "new town". It also meant a fresh look at the Borough’s church life.

Foe centuries All Saints had stood supreme as the only parish church in Kingston. It was not until 1842 that a second parish, that of St Peter’s, was established at Norbiton.

However the rapid increase in population, prompted largely by the railways, meant that the two churches were no longer sufficient. So, in 1870, part of the large areas attached to each were annexed to form the district - later the parish - of St Paul’s, Kingston Hill. The Rev. Arthur Cornford, a curate at St. Peter's, was given its charge, and he used his own money to provide its first church: a corrugated iron tabernacle, at the junction of Park Road and Elm Road.

The new St. Paul's district was then a semi-rural place, still rich in arable and pasture land, with a population of 3,000. By 1880, when Mr. Cornford was at last instituted as vicar, most of the land had been transformed into housing estates by the British Land Company, and the population had risen to 7,000. Mr. Cornford, with a stipend of only £130 and no vicarage house, was heavily overworked.

"I endeavour to visit the sick, schools, newcomers, and members of the congregation. I have no time for more", he declared in the Diocesan Visitation of 1881.

The result was the formation of St. Luke's Chapel, and at first there wus goodwill towards the new enterprise. Such a poor little place, catering mainly for impoverished labourers, was, it was felt, a worthy object for Christian benevolence. This attitude changed rapidly as the "poor little place" grew steadily more independent and which, for all its ugly shabbiness, attracted society figures as well. Princess Frederica of Hanover, the Duchess of Teck, Lady Bowater, Lady Londesborough, Lady Freake and Mr. and Mrs. John Galsworthy, parents of the famous author, were only a few of St. Luke's distinguished patrons in its early days.

Under Mr. Swinnerton, church membership increased apace. The Sunday school gradually grew to nearly 1,000 pupils, and it was obvious the old iron church could no longer cope in isolation. So, exactly one year after Mr. Swinnerton's arrival, a large iron room was opened alongside the church. By then the population of the district had swelled to 4,000 and the new room, designed to serve as a Sunday school and a church hall, was urgently needed. It cost £400, and much of the cost was met by Mr. Charles Hodgson, whose family owned the famous Hodgson's Brewery in Brook Street. He was among the first to sense -the spiritual potency of St. Luke's that was to inspire so many to acts of self-sacrifice in the years to come. He decided to give his physical energy as well as his money. During weeks of bitter winter weather, he directed operations on site, with the result that he became seriously ill, and had to miss the opening of the new building on 17th February 1885. His was not the only sacrifice. A number of labourers gave up a day's work, at great financial cost to themselves and their families, to decorate the building and prepare it for the great moment when it was opened by Sir Douglas Fox, son of the engineer responsible for the famous Crystal Palace. He lived at Coombe Springs, whose lodge and gates still stand in Coombe Lane West. With him on the platform were several other prominent residents, including the Earl of Tankerville and the Galsworthys.

The new building was opened on the first anniversary of Mr. Swinnerton's arrival at St. Luke's. It was constructed entirely of iron, lined inside with pine, and seated 350. Later, in 1893, it was moved to Canbury Avenue to begin a new career as St. Luke's Mission Church of the Good Shepherd. In the meantime, though, it represented the first big step in St. Luke's struggle to become an independent body, and no longer a charge on the hard-pressed resources of St. Paul's. True, St. Luke's was fortunate to have rich and distinguished patrons. Nevertheless, its progress would have been impossible without the halfpennies and the pennies from worshippers so poor that their Sunday churchgoing clothes were fetched from the pawnshop on Saturday night and returned first thing on Monday. In the first quarter of 1884, for example, their offerings totalled £15. 13s. 1 ld. For the last quarter of that year, they had increased to £40. 2s. 7d.

These efforts did not go unnoticed. In 1886 the Bishop of Rochester sent a three-man team to survey St. Luke's and report on whether it could maintain its own church. The verdict was that it could. It was impossible to confer parochial status because there was still no permanent church building. But on 17th January 1886, St. Luke's was declared a district in its own right, separate from St. Paul's, and responsible for its own management under Mr. Swinnerton and a council elected by the congregation.

This progress delighted the Rev. John Lemon, who had succeeded Mr. Cornford at St. Paul's in 1887.

"St. Luke's Mission District has become a very great blessing in the parish, being worked most ably by the Rev. Swinnerton, who is most honest in every work which he engages in," he noted in the Visitation of 1889.

It did not, however, delight all his parishioners, nor those of the. neighbouring churches. Their chagrin was partly rooted in jealousy of St. Luke's financial improvement at a time when thousands of pounds were still needed for massive alterations lo AII Saints, and when St. Paul's was still without a chancel, a lower or a vicarage. Most of all, though, it sprang from misunderstanding of the services held at St. Lu kc's.

Here it is necessary to take a brief look at national church history - in the 19th century.

During the 1830's and 40's, the Anglican church had been roused as seldom before by the Oxford Movement. The leaders of this included outstanding clerics such as John Keble, John Newman and Edward Pusey, and their message was that the Church of England was essentially Catholic, following the Sacraments and Apostolic Ministry ordained by Christ himself. They bitterly denounced the corruptions of this Catholic tradition brought about by Romanism, Protestantism and the State, and called for the Church of England to return to pure Catholicism in its teaching and liturgy.

The controversy that followed was based largely on fear and ignorance. A distrust of Rome was, for valid historic reasons, ingrained in the average English mind, and the man in the street immediately associated the word "Catholic" with papism. He could not see that the Anglo-Catholics, as followers of the Oxford Movement were later called, were certainly not Romanists. They were dedicated members of the Church of England, who deplored the fact that a number of post-Reformation influences, notably Puritanism, had gradually robbed that church of her rightful Catholic heritage.

Though many people were enraged by the Anglo-Catholic message, others were thrilled and inspired - so much so that the spirituality and dedication of Anglo-Catholic priests became a byword.

The first English Catholic congregation to be established anywhere near Kingston was at Teddington. Many Kingstonians journeyed there each Sunday to join the huge crowds that packed the church and overflowed onto improvised seating in the churchyard, and soon efforts were made to establish an Anglo-Catholic church in Kingston. They came to nothing. However, when St. Luke's was formed the question arose again, and it was decided it should follow English Catholic lines.

Mr. William Drewett, a founder of the famous Kingston printing and publishing firm Knapp Drewett, and himself one of the first worshippers at St. Luke's recalled the controversy in his newspaper, the Kingston and Surbiton News (later to become the mid-week Surrey Comet):

"Some who ought to have rejoiced at the good work being carried on at St. Luke's spoke slightingly of the 'attractions', as they called them, but they would not go and see and hear for themselves where the 'attractions' lay," he wrote in 1889. "There was a feeling of resentment shown by those who were being relieved of pecuniary responsibility by the growing independence of the 'child', though in the plainest language it had been told to run alone under the guidance of its own minister. Misrepresentations, many of them palpably wilful, were set about as to the way in which the services were conducted, and as to the doctrine taught; but no-one had the temerity or courage to try and prove what they hinted at. Thus, for some time the work at St. Luke's was carried on by its curate under great and peculiar difficulties, the extent of which only he knew; but all the unworthy attempts made to deprecate what he was doing only drew his people closer to him and brought about him more friends."

Looking back now, it is hard to see why St. Luke's services caused such uproar. Mr. Swinnerton had no desire to stimulate the controversy raging elsewhere in the country, where priests were being jailed and their churches despoiled by rioting mobs for so-called 'ritualism'. Thus, he would have no coloured vestments at St. Luke's (they were not introduced until 1910) no incense, no confessional and few of the embellishments popularly known today as 'high'.

There was only, to use Mr. Swinnerton's own description, a 'moderate ritual', with a cross, lighted candles and flowers on the altar; an emphasis on choral communion; a surpliced choir; a raised altar with a coloured frontal and the fact that Mr. Swinnerton wore a surplice in the pulpit instead of a plain black gown. These things are commonplace in Anglican churches today. In 19th century Kingston they were regarded almost as work of the devil by a town long noted for its powerful branch of Protestantism, and where effigies of the Pope were burned publicly on the Fairfield.

Mr. Swinnerton was dedicated to English Catholicism, but he also understood what so many of his critics did not; that people in impoverished areas like Canbury lived lives of unparalleled drabness. They needed church services of beauty and colour to help them understand the Christian message, and to inspire minds dulled not only by the dreariness of everyday existence, but by the tedium of so many Victorian Protestant services.

Thus Mr. Swinnerton was able to tell the Archdeacon’s Visitation of 1894:

"Dissent is the thing in Kingston, but many have left the Dissenters, and re-united themselves at Confirmation with the church, or been baptised into the church, though there is a Primitive Methodist chapel and a Particular Baptist church nearby, both built before St. Luke's. Also the Salvation Army."

He recorded an average congregation of 700 adults on Sunday mornings and 820 in the evenings, plus about 800 children.

That had not seemed possible a few years earlier, when the insults and obstacles heaped upon the members of St. Luke's made them the more determined to build a permanent church before the '80's were out. The official building fund was launched at the third anniversary celebrations on 5th June 1886. By truly Herculean efforts, £2,000 was collected in the first year. A further £3,000 was raised over the next two years. Much of the fund-raising was due to the devotion of worshippers who went without meals and new clothes to contribute. The rest was due to such influential figures as the Duchess of Teck and Lady Wolverton, both of whom stayed faithful to St. Luke's until the end of their lives. Lady Wolverton dipped deep into her own purse. She also organised fortnightly working parties at her stately home, Warren House, which still stands in Warren Road.

Meanwhile a nine-man building committee was formed, consisting of Mr. Swinnerton and Messrs Charles Baker, Francis Crowther, William Drewett, Walter Gribbon, Alfred Homersham, Bernard LeBlond, Septimus Snowden and William Watts. Plans were prepared by London architects Kelley and Birchall, and of five tenders submitted by local building firms, that of Mr. W.H. Gaze of Union Street was accepted because it was the lowest: just over £5,000 for chancel and nave. The tower, it was decided, would have to wait.

Two years previously Mr. Gaze had built the handsome St. Luke's parsonage, which still stands at 4 Burton Road. This, too, had been used as ammunition by critics, who taunted.that "parsons look after their own house first, and the church after."

What they did not know was that Mr. Swinnerton's wife, Bessie, had used her own money to build the house after she and her husband found it impossible to manage with their cramped rented accommodation in Alexandra Road. The Swinnertons again saved the church a large sum when it came to building the permanent structure.

The site in Elm Road would, it was discovered, present serious problems of excavation; so Mr. Swinnerton persuaded his uncle to buy a fine site on the corner of the Burton and Gibbon Roads, and present it to the church as a gift. His one stipulation was that the Ecclesiastical Commissioners should convey the Elm Road site to trustees for parochial purposes.

At last, after setbacks so numerous they could fill a book in themselves, the building of the new church began. Three hundred people attended a thanksgiving service on the site on St. Luke's Day, 1888, and clearly there was good reason for the choice of hymn sung by the choir as it walked in procession through the streets from the iron church: Through the Night of Doubt and Sorrow!

Three weeks later, on 7th November, the Duchess of Teck arrived to lay the foundation stone. She was accompanied by her daughter, Princess Victoria Mary, later to be world-famous as Queen Mary, consort of George V, and the grandmother of our present Queen.

It was bitterly cold, with a fierce wind and driving rain, as the royal party arrived on the site. There had been no money available to make elaborate preparations, and the Duchess, known affectionately as "Fat Mary" because of her ample 17-stone, looked on good-humouredly as borrowed tarpaulins and curtains were rigged up into a makeshift shelter from which she laid the stone, watched by more than a thousand spectators.

Later she sent a message to the congregation:

"HRH was especially pleased with the very nice arrangements made for her comfort." Clergy from a wide area were present, but the event was not without its critics.

"The adjacent parish of St. Peter's was NOT represented," remarked the Kingston and Surbiton News, adding that when the Duchess came to lay the stone she "proved quite an adept at the work, handling both trowel and mallet like a skilful mason."

The Duchess and her daughter then went to the parsonage to thaw out with hot tea. They were given a charmingly unusual send-off. As they left, the choir, massed on the beautiful staircase that is still one on the glories of the house, sang out the National Anthem.

The population of the district had by this time grown to 5,000, mostly made up of what reports of the time describe as "the artisan and labouring class."

Their loyalty to St. Luke's is movingly illustrated in the foundation stone itself. Beneath it lies a glass jar containing two jubilee coins. These were treasures belonging to a small boy named Teddy Bridges, a pupil at St. Luke's Sunday School. He died at the age of 11, a few weeks before the stone-laying, and it was his last wish that his savings of 11s. should go to the building fund.

It was devotion like this that kept the people from wavering in what seemed the impossible aim of having a church ready for worship before the dawn of the l 890's. They achieved it - just. On 14th December 1889 Bishop Thorold consecrated the new building, and the following summer St. Luke's was legally constituted an ecclesiastical parish, with Mr. Swinnerton as its first vicar. The euphoria was great, but brief. There was so much to be done in the new parish, and so many problems to surmount.

One of these was the rapidly expanding population. When Mr. Swinnerton arrived in 1884 there were about 4,000 people in the district. By the turn of the century there were 10,000 - and the number was still growing rapidly. Another problem was that, unlike most parishes, there was no balance between rich and poor. St. Luke's parishioners, almost without exception, were artisans with incomes varying from inadequate to nil, as dictated by the climate. For instance, when the ground froze, or became waterlogged, hundreds of labourers were immediately out of work. Thus, far from being able to GIVE to their church, they were often compelled to GET from it. The funeral lists, published each month in the parish magazine, make shocking reading. Deaths among children and young adults, many of them weakened by inadequate food, clothing and heat, were common-place. They would have been even higher had it not been for the soup kitchen, the penny dinners, the coal and clothing clubs, the maternity basket and other social services organised by the Swinnertons and a dedicated band of volunteers.

Nevertheless, by 1890 the church was free from debt, though still without a tower and spire. Lady Wolverton intervened here. She still remembered her first visit to the parish, when the coachman lost his way, and it was a long time before they could locate the church amid the honeycomb of houses. "A tower and spire will serve as a guide, and ensure no-one else suffers the same experience," she said, and promptly gave £1,000 for the work to be done.

On 6th August, 1891, Mr. Swinnerton crawled up the scaffolding to lay the capping stone on the spire.

"He was present amongst the workmen at the giddy height, as cool as an experienced aeronaut after his recent mountain climbing in Switzerland," remarked the Kingston and Surbiton News.

The next day the cross was lifted into place, and all was ready for the unveiling. Lady Wolverton was ill but carried out the ceremony in novel style. She sat in her carriage and pair at the North porch and pulled a cord. Immediately the white sheeting enclosing the spire fell away, and the only brick spire ever built in Kingston was revealed for the first time. The spire was dedicated by the Bishop of Rochester some weeks later, on 18th October. The Duke and Duchess of Teck and Princess May were there, and it was noted by the local press that "males formed a far larger proportion of the assembly than is generally the case at churches."

Today it is hard for us to comprehend to what extent the pioneers of St. Luke's had to give of their energy and time. The fact was that as the responsibilities of the church grew greater, its financial resources became less. This was, in part at least, due to the controversy that had surrounded it in its role as, to quote the church council, "the only church in Kingston to give full expression to the Catholic side of the teaching and ceremonial of the Church of England in accordance with the Book of Common Prayer." Mr. Swinnerton could scarcely conceal his bitterness at the financial discrimination wielded against his parish. It received no aid at all from the Church Commissioners in its early years but was entirely dependent on collection receipts and the annual revenue from the 37 5 rented seats. This, together with fees, brought a gross total annual income of £266. 18s. 3d. Everything, including the vicar's stipend, had to be met from this, and there was no question of a curate.

"I feel growing upon me the sense of being unable to do the work of the district single-handed," he wrote in a St. Luke's magazine of 1889. "We are the poorest district in the neighbourhood; we have the largest Sunday School; and yet not a penny of grant or endowment… - sometimes the work seems hopeless."

He was near breaking point from overwork when the Rochester Diocesan Society offered £120 a year for three years towards the stipend of a curate on condition the congregation found an additional £30 a year.

A few weeks later the Rev. Alfred Hooper, curate of Benwell, Newcastle-on-Tyne, accepted the curacy of St. Luke's. He did particularly valuable work among the children, but after three years was offered the preferment of St. Bartholomew's, Camberwell. In the meantime, the Society's conditional guarantee of £120 a year had come to an end. It looked as if Mr. Swinnerton would once again have to shoulder the burdens of the parish alone when the Society agreed to continue a grant, but only at the reduced rate of £80 a year. The Vicar was forced, once again, to plead for more from his flock. Somehow the money was scraped together, and in the June of 1893 the Rev. Arthur Dunn, former curate of Horsleydown, arrived to begin work at St. Luke's.

It was through him, and his predecessor, that many people began to realise for the first time how crushing was the burden of pastoral work in a poor Victorian parish. Mr. Dunn literally gave his life for St. Luke's. He worked ceaselessly, living frugally on his meagre stipend, and insisting he was in perfect health, until he collapsed at the three-hour service on Good Friday, 1894. He was carried from the church and died a few months later at the age of 28.

The following year Mr. Hooper collapsed with a heart attack after a return visit to St. Luke's.

"The anxieties of his large parish have caused this sad breakdown," said Mr.Swinnerton.

The next curate, the Rev. William Tuting, found his health wrecked by the arduous work at St. Luke's after only a few months. He resigned in 1895, less than a year after his arrival.

"I am not strong enough for the strain of work in the neighbourhood of London," he explained, as he left on medical orders for the more peaceful surroundings of Cornwall.

Later, in 1918, St. Luke's was to lose two priests within a few weeks. One was the

Rov.John Hunt who had been baptised and brought up in the parish, and whose family worship al SI. Luke's still. He came as an assistant priest in September 1918, but died only six weeks later in the great 'flu epidemic of that year.

Another casually of' the epidemic was the Rev. Ernest Higgins, who had served as acting vicar for St. Luke's for a period.

Still the population and the responsibilities of the parish increased, while the money available became less. The Diocesan Society's aid dwindled, and finally ceased altogether because funds were exhausted. Thus, at a time when at least two curates were needed to cope adequately with the load, Mr. Swinnerton found he could not even have one unless he paid from his own purse.

It was on these terms that the Rev. Reginald Jeffcoat took up work at St. Luke's immediately after his ordination. For all his enthusiasm he soon left because he was unable to manage on the small sum which was all the vicar could afford.

Mr. Swinnerton's great support in these hard years was Walter Galt Gribbon, a highly respected businessman who lived on Kingston Hill, and was St. Luke's first Vicar's Warden. He gave everything he could to the parish, in money, energy and time, until he had literally burned himself out. His death in 1895, at the early age of 49, came as a stunning shock to church people throughout the borough, the more so when it was revealed that the many hardships peculiar to St. Luke's at that time had hastened his encl.

Everyone, even the critics, were unanimous on one point: Mr. Swinnerton was a most remarkable man. His powers of religious inspiration and leadership were enormous. He had a warmth and stability of character, allied to an unaffected approach and genial sense of humour, that endeared him to royalty and cottagers alike.

His gifts earned him nothing in the pecuniary sense. Quite the reverse. He and his wife had to pay dearly for the privilege of working themselves almost to death. They provided the vicarage and paid for its upkeep. For much of the time they paid the stipend of one, and occasionally two, curates. Mrs. Swinnerton ran her home, coped with the many visitors, cared for her four children and carried out a daunting programme of parish work with only one servant to help her.

Her only luxury was the new bonnet her husband always bought her from his Easter offering from the congregation. After 21 years hard labour at St. Luke's, she finally collapsed in 1905 from exhaustion, and was forced to take a long rest.

"No-one realises the strain of begging in a parish like this," declared her husband. Only the highest missionary sense kept them there. Mr. Swinnerton was offered other,

infinitely more comfortable livings as, for example, in 1894.

"I could not possibly stay without private means," he wrote to his parishioners, announcing he had refused the offer being pressed upon him. "What I ask is not the impossibility of more income, but thorough co-operation from you all by sympathy, by prayer, by work as district visitors, teachers and helpers."

In 1898, at long last, St. Luke's was deemed worthy of an endowment. The vicar could not conceal his disgust at the sum granted.

"After 13 years of waiting, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners bestow an income of

£75 a year," he wrote in the magazine. "It is difficult to understand why a rich adjoining parish should be endowed by the same Commissioners with double the amount; but the ways of the church are mysterious, and beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. A parish of 8,000 people, rapidly increasing, requiring at least three clergy, is endowed with £75, the salary of a boy clerk in Somerset House. The non-conformists would be ashamed to offer a minister £75 a year."

Nevertheless, he found that financial poverty at least helped to keep his parishioners' minds on spiritual things. In the Visitation of 1894, he was asked how Sunday was observed in the parish:

"Fairly well by the working classes; but there is a tendency to make it entirely a day of pleasure by those who can afford it," he replied. Asked to name the chief obstacle to his priestly work, he declared: "The river!" adding that there were those who preferred to spend Sunday on the water rather than in the pew.

There are few people left who can remember St. Luke's in the 1880's and '90's. One who can is Mr. George Ford, who was baptised at St. Luke's iron church in 1885, and brought up in Thorpe Road. He recalls houses in the parish where poultry ran freely in and out of the rooms, where all the fences had long since vanished for firewood and where the animals lived in much the same style as the householders. For example, there was a costermonger with a donkey and cart who lived on the St. Luke's side of Richmond Road. He was known as Donkey Hammond because his donkey always slept with him in the front room of his terraced cottage. This was an area where the policemen always patrolled in pairs and where children from St. Luke's school were apt to set upon what they considered to be their "posher" brethren from Richmond Road Schools. Canbury Park Road, meanwhile, was a favourite promenade for what were euphemistically called "ladies of the street."

But all classes, including Royalty, came together under one roof at St. Luke's on Sunday. The Duke and Duchess of Teck and Princess May always came in the morning, driving through Richmond Park from White Lodge to arrive at the West Door by 11 a.m. and Mr. Ford recalls a memorable day in the 1890's when there was a major hitch.

"Latecomers often disturbed the rest of the congregation by the continual opening and shutting of the main door, and getting to their seats," he says. "Finally, the Vicar and wardens decided it would be better to lock the door on the stroke of 11 a.m. and not re-open it until the first psalm, when all the seats were free. This was done, and all went well until the inevitable happened. The Royal Party were late, the door was shut and locked at 11 a.m., and they were outside. Oh my gracious! The Vicar's Warden came hurrying down the aisle and in a very loud voice said: 'You know what you've done.' 'Yes,' came the reply from the verger, 'Shut and locked the door as usual.' 'Yes,' he said, 'and you've shut the Duke and Duchess and Princess May outside.' Anyway, the door was opened, and the Royal Party escorted to their seats, and to everyone's surprise not a word was said about the event.

"The Royal Duke and Duchess with Princess May continued to give their very good help at all times, right up to the end. Queen Mary used to send goods for the annual bazaar and took a great interest in all that went on in the parish.

"And who was the verger who locked them out? My father!!"

By 1907 even the indomitable Mr. Swinnerton was beginning to feel the strain of 23 years at St. Luke's. Already he had suffered spells of serious paralytic illness caused by overwork. He suspected, too, that it was perhaps becoming too much "his" parish, and a new incumbent with fresh ideas might revitalise the congregation. Reluctantly he accepted the living of All Saints, Blackheath, and at last left the parish he had done so much to create.

He could not bear to stay away permanently. In 1915 he retired to Kingston, attending St. Luke's regularly in the seat that was always reserved for him until his death in 1925. His successor at St. Luke's was the Rev. Reginald Wright, who was instituted on 31st October 1907. He arrived fresh from a curacy in Barnes, and there is no doubt he and his

wife found their new parish disconcertingly different from their old.

The usual winter hardship was at its peak, and during Mr. Wright's first 12 weeks, St. Luke's soup kitchen dispensed 2,880 quarts of soup and 960 loaves of bread at a nominal charge of a penny for a quart of soup and a third of a loaf of bread. Though he privately subsidised many parochial essentials from his own pocket, he offered no easy options.

"The Vicar is not a money lender," he declared, a few months after his arrival. "He has become accustomed to be regarded as a relieving officer by a certain class of people. But there are others who, too proud to beg, are prepared to borrow . .. the Vicar is not, nor ever will be, prepared to lend .. . his purse is not like the widow's cruse of old."

In 1908 he condemned the shameful abuse of charity in the parish.

"For many years in this parish there has been assistance given to poor mothers after confinement by the provision of a maternity bag containing necessary garments etc. together with tickets for meat, milk and groceries," he wrote. "lt has been our painful experience during the past few months to have bags applied for, provided and never returned; in some cases articles have been removed, and all knowledge of their existence denied."

He discontinued the maternity bag forthwith.

"To relieve indiscriminately those who are undeserving is to pauperise the poor," he said, and set about finding more positive ways of helping the out-of-work.

His most successful idea was an unemployment bureau. He drew up a list of people available for all types of manual work, and invited Kingstonians to hire them for gardening, decorating, plumbing etc.

Another of Mr. Wright's major achievements during his short ministry at St. Luke's was to get the little iron mission room of the Good Shepherd in Canbury Avenue licensed for full religious services under its own priest-in-charge, the Rev. Albert Shewring.

The service of dedication and the installation of Mr. Shewring, was carried out in June 1908.The building, formerly the parish room, had been moved from Elm Road in 1893 to make way for St. Luke's Church Schools. Until the 1920's it was a centre for valuable mission work in what the Bishop of Kingston, the Rt. Rev. Cecil Hook, described as "a wilderness of houses." It then became a youth centre until its eventual sale in 1939, and its site is now covered by housing.

The rigours of life at St. Luke's soon claimed another victim. The Vicar's wife had enjoyed splendid health, but the enormous parochial demands of Canbury ruined it. Within 18 months she had been reduced to an invalid, and her husband was obliged to seek a quieter situation. In 1909 he exchanged livings with the Rev. Eugene Templer Candler, Vicar of Priors Marston, Warwickshire, and St. Luke's lost a priest whose efficiency had promised to benefit the parish as much as his predecessor's had done. Mr. Candler was instituted to the living of St. Luke on 14th December 1909, and soon proved to be a priest of outstanding ability and personal charm, allied to a dedication that was to cost him his life. He had been a Non-Conformist but was drawn to the Anglican church by its claim to be a true part of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. After much deliberation he became a zealous English Catholic, scrupulous in following what the Rural Dean of Kingston, Canon Hasloch Potter, described as "a stately form of worship."

Mr. Swinnerton had laid the Catholic foundations of St. Luke. Mr. Candler built much of the liturgical superstructure that is still one of its glories. It was he, for example, who introduced incense, coloured vestments, wearing a chasuble there for the first time during the Patronal Festival of 1910. Another highlight - quite literally! - of Mr. Candler's ministry was the lighting of St. Luke's by electricity for the first time on Easter Day, 1912. Until then the church had been lit by scores of gas jets. These were lit by the verger, armed with a long hooked pole to manipulate the gas tap, and another long pole with a lighted taper on the end to ignite the flames.

Mr. Paul Typke, a member of the choir and one of St. Luke's most generous benefactors, paid for the installation of electric light throughout the building. He also provided the specially-made electroliers which are still a handsome feature of the church today. Under Mr. Candler's leadership, St. Luke's became solvent for the first time. He introduced a weekly freewill offering scheme, and launched the fund for the social centre that was eventually opened in Elm Road. This hard work took a toll of his health, but he was told by his doctors that all would be well if he would forego his work at St Luke's. As with so many before and after him, however, the welfare of the parish was his first priority, and he paid for it dearly.

On 16th February 1914 Mr. Typke entertained clergy, choir, organist and church-wardens to supper at the Kingston Hotel. After the meal Mr Typke proposed a toast to the clergy, wishing Mr. Candler long life and happiness. The Vicar rose to reply and was in the middle of a comic story when he collapsed and died.

"Everybody in the room, including the waiters, knelt on the floor while the Curate offered up a prayer. Many of those present were visibly affected by the sad occurrence, the scene being most impressive" reported the Surrey Comet.

Mr. Candler was only 52 and left a widow and four young children.

The fourth Vicar at St. Luke's was the Rev. William Bartlet, curate of St. John the Divine, Kennington. He was married on 22nd April and instituted to St. Luke's on 11th May,1914 before a congregation still grieving for his predecessor.

Mr. Bartlet was appalled to find that pews on the South side of the church were still subject to rentals, as they had been since the building opened. Only the North side was free, and Mr. Ford recalls that some of the people who sat on them were so poor they had to economise on soap. Consequently, the free pews were often overlaid with a sticky film of dirt that could cause unwary worshippers to stick fast to their seats.

"The church, alas, is partially pew rented," reported Mr. Bartlet in the Visitation returns of 1915."I shall abolish the pew rents as soon as I can."

Certainly, income from that source was dwindling. As Mr. Bartlet pointed out, many of the seats were unlet and the rent receipts, which had been £195 in 1894, had dropped to £154 by 1914.

His dream of a church where all seats were free to all was finally realised in January 1917. The income from pew rents was replaced by an endowment scheme aimed, as Mr. Bartlet explained, at "enabling those in authority to be able always to place a Vicar here simply on his merits."

Until that time no St. Luke's incumbent received a living wage. Only men with some means behind them could even consider coming.

The freeing of the pews had involved long and delicate negotiations involving the bishop, the congregation, the finance committee, the PCC and, as founder of the parish, Mr. Swinnerton. It was Mr. Bartlet's most significant achievement in the parish, though he himself was unable to gain anything by it. His devotion to St. Luke's was beginning to affect his health. To make matters worse, the outbreak of World War I had meant the loss of one of his curates, with no possibility of a replacement. After three years he realised his physical stamina was not equal to further work in Kingston's most arduous parish, and he accepted the living of St. John the Divine, Kennington, the church where he had been curate.

He was succeeded by a man who was already one of the most popular personalities in the parish: Herbert Hamer, who had served three years as a curate at St. Luke's before going to the Western Front as a chaplain at the outbreak of war. He was still serving as chaplain when he was appointed Vicar but was later recalled from the Front to resume a ministry which made him loved and respected not only in Kingston, but throughout the Diocese. Until his return, however, the Rev. Ernest Higgins acted as priest-in-charge.

Father Hamer was a dedicated English Catholic, a brilliant musician and a man who never minced his words.

He did much to beautify the ceremonial at St. Luke's, and it was during his ministry that High Mass, and the hearing of Confession was introduced, and the parish clergy began to be addressed, as they are today, as "Father. "

His most controversial move, however, was an extension of the use of incense. In 1919 a petition signed by 150 communicants (including Mr. And Mrs. Swinnerton) was handed to the Vicar asking if incense, already in use at some services, could be extended to the 11 a.m. Eucharist on Sundays and at Solemn Evensong on festival clays. The choir-men were appalled and threatened a boycott. Battle raged. Finally, Fr. Hamer held a ballot, in which 207 voted for incense, and only 11 against. So, incense arrived as a regular feature, and has remained so ever since.

Father Hamer exhorted his congregation, after this episode, to present an undivided front.

"When we have made up our minds whether it is to be a Catholic (English Catholic, not Roman) or a Protestant front, we shall be able to stand shoulder to shoulder," he declared. "A judicious blend is all very well for a smoking mixture, but a Protestant-Catholic congregation is rather like a cup of tea and coffee mixed. "

He also summed up succinctly why St. Luke's was short of voluntary workers:

"We have no leisured class to draw on," he wrote in 1924. "Gibbon Road and the adjoining roads are not what is called a 'residential district’. People who retire don't like to reside in a district where the spicy breezes blow soft from the fried fish and chip shop, and wherever they walk abroad they sniff the tainted gale from the gasworks."

Father Hamer placed great value on a vigorous social life, and among the many landmarks of his ministry was the conversion of the former St.Luke's Infants School in Elm Road into a social centre. It was dedicated to the memory of Mr.Candler and after more than 50 years of constant service, the building is now about to be sold, and the proceeds put towards a new social centre attached to the church.

Those who remember the Social Centre in its final years may find it piquant to compare what it looked like then with its original appearance as described by Father Hamer when it opened in 1924:

"The colour scheme is bright, and suggestive of spring flowers, bubbling fountains and sunlit glades ...the main hall will be the daintiest parish hall in the district."

This, of course, was before the buildings had been requisitioned without warning by the War Office in 1939,handed back the following year, then let out for industrial use for the duration of World War II.

Father Hamer was largely instrumental in founding the St. Luke's Players in 1927 and today, more than half-a-century later, the group is still flourishing, and presenting an annual pantomime that is one of the parochial events of the year. He also launched a voluntary orchestra, to back up the choir at special services.

Father Hamer had joined St. Luke's as a curate in 1912 and was destined to be yet another who gave his life for the parish. Despite medical warnings and ominous physical signs, he continued to work unstintingly with never a thought for his own condition. In fact, he was feeling ill during the Silver Jubilee week of May, 1935, when George V celebrated 25 years as a monarch. Nevertheless, he kept a promise to attend an old people's jubilee tea at the social centre, made an amusing speech that roused much laughter, then went home to bed.

Six days later he died from peritonitis. He had served 23 years at St.Luke's, and at his funeral the procession of mourners stretched from the church door to Richmond Road.

As he lay dying he expressed the hope that he would be succeeded by his curate, the Rev. Leslie Isaac. That hope was fulfilled, and Father Isaac was instituted on 18th September, 1925.

Father Isaac served St. Luke's faithfully for 25 years, first as curate, then as Vicar, during some of the darkest days in its history. The Depression of the 'thirties, followed by the horrors of World War II, had a catastrophic effect on the congregation, not only at St. Luke's, but throughout Britain. Many families moved away from Canbury and were replaced by a big influx of newcomers who knew nothing of St. Luke's. So, in a church where once people had arrived an hour early to be sure of a seat, there was row upon row of empty pews.

This was heartbreaking to Father Isaac, a gentle personality with a special gift for comforting the sick. This quality was needed as never before during the war years, when he was always first on the scene to help the many in Kingston who suffered as a result of air-raids.

In 1958 he announced that the parish was proving too much for him to cope with single-handed. His predecessors, he pointed out, had usually had two assistant priests. He had no-one, and at one stage was responsible for no fewer than nine services on Sundays.

He resigned to take up a long-cherished ambition to work overseas, taking a post as chaplain in a hospital in Nairobi.

He was succeeded by the Rev. John Allan, who had been _Vicar for 15 years of the Church of the Ascension, Lavender Hill. Father Allan was inducted to St. Luke's in September, 1958 and after nine years devoted service in the parish left to go into what he described as semi-retirement as chaplain to a convent in Devon. Before his departure from Kingston he was made an honorary canon by the Bishop of Southwark.

The seventh Vicar of St. Luke's was the Rev. John Walker, who came from St. James, Merton. He was a popular and respected priest, but his health obliged him to leave in 1974 for the quieter surroundings of Mickleham, Gloucestershire. It was under his leadership that St. Luke's became one of the first churches in modern times to introduce a nave altar.

For a year after Father Walker's departure, St. Luke's was in the charge of its curate, the Rev. John Van der Linde, and there was a suggestion it should be merged with the parishes of All Saints, Kingston and St. John's, Knights Park. This idea was not carried out, and in 1975 the Rev. C. W. Bryan Vickery was appointed priest-in-charge. Father Vickery has done much to enrich the worship and fellowship at St. Luke's. Under his leadership, the nave altar has been placed on a specially constructed raised platform where concerts and plays can be held. He has also introduced coffee gatherings after Sunday Mass, coffee mornings once a month in the church and frequent wine and cheese parties in the Vicarage. These, and other social events, have brought people from all walks of life into even closer Christian fellowship to ensure the survival of the parish church their predecessors sacrificed so much to create.

 

 

 

Photograph by Jeff Edwards, Surrey Comet

 

evout Victorians loved 'gothic' architecture, as they called it, and the Christians of Canbury were no exception. So, it is not surprising that when it came to building St. Luke's they should have chosen what the architects described as 'the Gothic style and architecture of the 13th century.'

The church was designed by the London architects Kelly and Birchall, and built by Mr. W.A. Gaze of Union Street, whose firm became one of the best-known of its kind in Surrey. Mr. Gaze was a regular worshipper at St. Luke's, and members of his family still attend the church today.

The total cost of the building, without tower and spire, came to £5,139. This was regarded as a great bargain, even then.

"It is a wonder to many that so much has been got for the money," remarked the Kingston and Surbiton News at the consecration in 1889.

The exterior is entirely of brick, with stone facings. Its outstanding feature is its spire, completed by Messrs Gaze in 1891, and given by Lady Wolverton to guide worshippers to the new church. For that reason she wanted it to be the highest building in Kingston; and so, until recent years, it was. From the ground to the top of the gilt cross is a distance of 150 feet.

Brick spires are rare, and this one, built of bricks made in Claygate, is the only one in Kingston. The spire itself measures 62 feet, and is built on top of a square, 88-foot tower. The tower has two louvre windows on each of its four sides. Above these are circular apertures containing the dial plates of a clock made by the celebrated Victorian firm, William Potts of Leeds.

After tower and spire had been completed, it took a year of fund-raising to get the .£180 needed for a clock which the makers guaranteed would be "one of the best ever placed in a tower." As they had already supplied some of the finest church clocks in England (including those in Bath Abbey and Lincoln Cathedral) no-one doubted their ord.

On 4th December 1892 the Mayor of Kingston, Councillor J. Gridley, drove in state from the Town Hall to St. Luke's to set the new timepiece in motion. He was accompanied by the Borough Recorder, Mace-Bearer and most of the Town Council in procession.

The clock hands had been set at 10.55 a.m., and at exactly that time the Vicar, the Rev. George Swinnerton, conducted the Mayor to the organ chamber, where he was to pull a specially connected cord, and set the clock pendulum moving. The Mayor {whose small timber business in Union Street evolved into the famous firm of Gridley Miskin) pulled at the cord and returned in stately fashion to his seat, confident he had earned a niche in local history by starting the most prominent clock in Kingston.

In fact, he never started it at all. He had not pulled the cord sharply enough, so the Vicar gave it a surreptitious tug and, unknown to the packed congregation and the large crowds outside, was in reality the one who set it going.

Ninety-five-year-old Mr. George Ford, who vividly remembers the ceremony, recalls what a godsend the new clock was in a neighbourhood where those fortunate enough to own a timepiece had to tell the time for everyone else.

"People would relay a request for the time from house to house, until it reached a clock owner. The information would then be relayed back, each neighbour passing it on to the next, sometimes the entire length of a road," he said.

At night, however, parishioners were still in the dark - quite literally - over the correct time. Though the clock had been specially equipped with lighting apparatus, St. Luke's could not find the £30 a year for the necessary gas.

Eventually the Town Council agreed to meet the lighting bill, conceding that a clock that could be seen from as far afield as Hampton Court was a worthy public amenity.

Inside, the church consists of chancel, nave, North and South aisles, plus a Lady Chapel and vestries which were added in later years. Originally there was seating for 850, but this was reduced when the front pews were taken out, and the pulpit moved back, to make way for a nave altar early in the l 970's.

Until 1917 seats on the South side were let at 10s., 15s, and £1 per sitting annually. The most expensive seats were at the front, which is where the Duke and Duchess of Teck and other aristocrats always sat. The rented pews were covered with rugs for extra comfort. The free ones on the North side were bare. However, the moment the choir entered at the start of a service, all seats automatically became free to all.

St. Luke's was considered unusually generous to offer so much free seating.

"Such liberality in a church which is entirely dependent upon its own congregation for the maintenance of minister, services and fabric ought to induce those who attend the church, but do not contribute in the way of pew rents, to give more generous support to the weekly offertories. As it is, reminders of a very plain character have often to be given," declared the Kingston and Surbiton News.

For many years it was fashionable to deride Victorian architecture. Now it is being appreciated as never before, and enthusiasts might well be interested in the architect's description of St. Luke's at the time of its opening:-

"The dimensions are 75 feet 6 inches long and 57 feet 6 inches wide. The chancel, with apsidal termination, is 30 feet by 23 feet 6 inches, and has an organ chamber 12 feet 6 inches by 12 feet 6 inches, on the North side, and chancel aisle 14 feet 6 inches by 14 feet 6 inches on the South side. Opening South of the chancel aisle is a small vestry, which will be a vestibule to a large choir vestry and parish room, not yet completed. The height of the nave roof is 60 feet, and of the chancel roof 43 feet.

"The nave arcading consists of five bays, having the arches in three orders, supported by quatrefoil shafts, with carved caps and moulded bases. The stone label terminations to the nave arcading are carved with heads. The chancel arch is supported by shafts with carved caps and moulded bases. Arches open from the organ chamber into the chancel and North aisles, and from the chancel aisle into the chancel and South aisle. These arches are to be filled in with oak screens. The roof principals of nave and chancel are supported by stone shafts, having moulded and carved corbels, bands and bases. The stone corbels in the chancel are carved with angels, bearing emblems of the Passion. The roofs throughout are open framed timbered. The nave and aisles have framed principals. the chancel roof has moulded curved ribs, filled in between with diagonal boarding, and has a moulded embattled cornice. Five traceried windows light the chancel, and lancet windows the aisles. Clerestory, and a large group of lancet windows at the West end light the nave. The porch and West doors have the orders supported by stone shafts, with moulded and carved caps and bases. A low traceried stone screen divides the chancel from the nave.

"On the South side of the chancel is a carved stone sedilia, and on the North side a carved stone credence niche. The altar steps are of polished white veined marble. The moulded oak communion rail is supported by wrought metal standards. The choir seats and prayer desks are of oak, with carved ends and traceried fronts. The nave seats are open deal benches with traceried fronts. The doors are of oak and have ornamental wrought iron hinges and furniture. The passages of aisles and nave are paved with wood blocks, laid herring-bone pattern, with straight borders. The chancel and porch are paved with Maw's red encaustic tiles. Messrs Jones and Willis supplied the wrought iron work and executed the font from the designs of the architects. The whole of the stone carving was executed by Mr. Millburn. With the desire of having done in Kingston all that was possible, the execution of the lead light work for the windows was entrusted to Mr. C. Clifford of London Road, Kingston, who gave complete satisfaction to both architect and builder."

Certainly, everyone was full of admiration for the new building. The Bishop of Rochester was particularly impressed by the prayer desks and chancel fittings and sent for Mr. Gaze to tell him so. Meanwhile the Vicar and his wife rewarded every workman engaged in the project to that great Victorian treat, a meat tea.

"Afterwards the Vicar kindly provided pipes and a supply of the fragrant weed to those present," reported one of the participants.

What the dry and factual prose of the architect's description does not disclose is that the pillars were designed to illustrate certain passages from the Bible, notably the third chapter of the Book of Revelations, in which pillars are used to represent Christian souls in the church. St. Luke's Church has i2 pillars, representing the 12 apostles. Though every pillar is the same in shape and style, the carving of each capital is different. This is meant to show that though all members of the Catholic church build their lives on the same foundation of faith, each has different characteristics and looks.

A point of special interest here is that the carved heads over the capitals are not imaginary figures, but real people who became pillars of the English church.

On the North side, in order from the chancel, is Justus, the first Bishop of Rochester; St. Hilda, Prioress of Whitby Abbey; and the Venerable Bede. On the South side, starting at the chancel end, is Queen Bertha, wife of Ethelbert, King of Kent. Then comes St. Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury. The remaining three, in the words of the sculptor, "represent the men and women who worshipped in the early church. They had different dress, different manners, and they lived in different times; but they were all baptised into the same faith, and used the same form of prayer as we use today." He added, with craftsman's pride, _that "there is a positive and exact likeness between the carvings and pictures extant of the personages named."

The church has double West doors, but the usual entrance is from Burton Road, from a porch opening into the North aisle. Just inside this door, on the right as one enters, is a stained glass window depicting St. Luke. It is there as a memorial to Edward Whitaker Green and his wife, Deborah. He was a lay reader, she a Sunday School teacher, and both were among the first worshippers at the old iron church in which St. Luke's was born in 1883.

Further down the North aisle is a window that recalls a double tragedy in the summer of 1911.

The 19-year-old scoutmaster, Stanley Brown, took the St. Luke's patrol for a week's camping at Cobham in August, but within two days of pitching camp he was drowned while bathing. A few hours later another regular St. Luke's communicant, 31-year-old Rhoda Stedman, was drowned while bathing in Jersey. The window to their joint memory shows Jesus stilling the waves and was unveiled by their families in J 9 J 3. Further down the North aisle is a window - sadly vandalised - showing the return of the prodigal son. Nearby, on the right, is the fine carved pulpit. It is in memory of Mr. Walter Gribben, St. Luke's first Vicar's Warden, whose death at 49 was hastened by the enormous volume of work he did for the church, and the personal abuse he had to bear for his fearless adherence to English Catholicism.

The original pulpit in his memory was of Caen stone, marble and alabaster, supported on polished marble columns, and was designed to match the font. Unfortunately, despite its imposing appearance, it soon began to disintegrate. In 1903 it was replaced by the present one, which cost three times more than its predecessor, and was the gift of Miss Mary Johnstone. It is hand-carved oak, bearing the figure of St. Luke, and was designed by Mr. Kelly, the architect of the church.

The North aisle ends with the Calvary Chapel, so named because of the beautiful carved oak panel depicting the Calvary which is placed over the altar. The panel was given in 1916 by Mrs. Florence Burton in memory of her husband, Octavius. Mr. Burton was Vicar's Warden under each of St. Luke's first four incumbents, and at one point in the church's history was responsible for all of the many parochial organisations at once. He was yet another whose death it was believed, was made premature by his ceaseless work for St. Luke's. His wife was an equally devoted worker, and when she died in 1917 the Calvary panel was made into a memorial to them both.

It was in this corner that the Rev. Wllfrid Hatch, who spent 10 years at St. Luke's during the incumbency of Father Hamer, spent many hours teaching the children of the congregation. Wherever he went, even in the main streets of the town, he was surrounded by crowds of children. He died in 1937, after spending his summer holiday working at St. Luke's, and the Calvary Chapel was created in his memory.

To the right of the chapel, at the foot of the nave aisle, is the raised and carpeted platform built in 1978 to accommodate the nave altar which has now replaced the High Altar at Sung Mass. St. Luke's first began using a nave altar in 1918. It was a portable structure, kept for children's services, because it was felt the High Altar was too remote.

The present nave altar is the one used at the great Anglo-Catholic Congress held at the Royal Albert Hall in the 1960's. It was subsequently presented to St. Luke's and placed in its present position early in the 1970's. Beneath its altar stone are relics of St. Pius X, St. Maria Goretti and St. Theresa of Lisieux.

To the left of the nave altar dais is a hand-carved wooden statue of St. Luke, four-foot high and mounted on a pedestal. It was given to St. Luke's in honour of its Diamond Jubilee in 1949 and dedicated by the Bishop of Southwark on St. Luke's Day.

In front of the dais, to the right, is the unusual brass lectern given to the church by Mr. Gribben, the first Vicar's Warden. It was originally embellished with delicately-wrought roses, but these have disappeared.

The statue of Our Lady was given in memory of two young people, Lieut. Woodall, killed in action in Palestine in 1917 and of his sister Freda who died in 1920.

The wrought-iron chancel screen is a handsome piece of work donated in 1908 by

Mr. Paul Typke, who contributed richly to the church furnishings over many years. Above it is one of the most striking features of the church: a hanging rood in memory of parishioners killed in World War I. It is modelled on the famous crucifix in Amiens Cathedral, and shows Christ robed and crowned with a victor's diadem to represent victory won through suffering. It was designed by an eminent architect of the day, Fellowes Prynne, and put into place in 1924 at a total cost of £215. The names of the war dead are inscribed on brass plaques.

The High Altar has a richly gilded and coloured reredos designed in 1923 by W.H. Randall Blacking of Guildford and paid for from bequests made by Mr. Octavius Burton and Miss Anna Maria Strahan. The original centre panel depicted Christ in Glory. This was replaced during the 1940's by a representation of the Calvary, donated by a member of the congregation in memory of a relative.

The Silver sanctuary lamp hanging near the High Altar is in memory of one of the best-loved personalities who ever served St. Luke's. He was Mr. William Miles, who was sacristan for more than 30 years and spent all his time, and most of his money, beautifying the church with flowers and other ornaments. He frequently worked in the sanctuary until after midnight, and on more than one occasion was mistaken for a burglar by the police, who crept up on him with truncheons at the ready! The lamp was dedicated in 1925 to commemorate his ceaseless care of the altar and sanctuary, and his work in training servers.

The stained glass in the East windows recall other people connected with St. Luke's. The window on the far left was dedicated in 1904 to the memory of Isabella Hirst, one of the early worshippers in the old iron church. It depicts Our Lord's Entry into Jerusalem, and the Last Supper.

Adjoining are three windows dedicated in 1895 to the memory of Lady Wolverton, who paid for a substantial part of the church building. Members of the royal family were present at the dedication at their own request. The windows illustrate the Agony in the G;arden, Our Lord Greeting his Mother While Bearing the Cross and, beneath, the four prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel.

The central window is in memory of Maria Louisa Welch, another generous benefactor. She gave the bell in the tower, which was specially made to harmonise with the 6th bell i 11 the peal at All Saints, Kingston.

The next window is in memory of Elizabeth Swinnerton, mother of St. Luke's first vicar. It shows the Entombment and Resurrection of Jesus above the figures of the four sainted martyrs, Alban, Stephen, Catherine and Agnes. The windows to the right are in memory of William Russell, who died in 1906, and Alfred Rickard, who died in 1896.

The stained glass in the West window is a memorial to Mr. Swinnerton. He died on 1st January, 1925, and the window and an alabaster tablet in the chancel, were installed In his memory at a cost of £160. The window was designed by Horace Wilkinson and depicts The Risen Lord.

The baptistry in the South aisle is a moving memorial to the children of the church in St. Luke's early days. They saved their coppers and made handicrafts for sale until they had amassed enough to pay for the font. It has a carved alabaster bowl supported on eight Devonshire marble shafts, with alabaster caps and bases. The whole rests on a green marble base. The font was dedicated at a special children's service the day after the church was consecrated. The first to be baptised over it was Charles Dubbin, the infant son of one of the Sunday School teachers.

The two stained glass windows in the baptistry were also provided by the children. One, showing the Baptism of Christ by John the Baptist, was dedicated on Easter Day, 1896. The other, showing Christ Blessing Little Children, was dedicated in 1913. It is a piquant thought today that the first cost £25, and the second £27.

The South aisle contains other windows to the memory of people who played a role in the history of St. Luke's. One, showing the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, was dedicated in 1916 in memory of Frances Crowther, Vicar's Warden for 14 years, who died suddenly after a few hours' illness. Another, showing the Annunciation, was dedicated in 1909 to the memory of Jane Smith. She was matron of Kingston Infirmary, and earned universal admiration for continuing to worship and work as usual despite an agonising illness that killed her at 48.

There is a memorial to Roy Langrish, who died in 1914 on the day he was promoted to army sergeant. He had enlisted three months previously and was preparing to go to the Front when he was stricken by a fever which killed him within 24 hours. He had been a choir member and altar server, and his loss caused great grief to the congregation. Also remembered in the South aisle is Lord Wolverton, whose memorial plaque was specially placed by his wife to be in line with her regular pew; Ernest Gaze, leader of the Church Lads Brigade and a Sunday school teacher who died of a mystery illness in 1913 leaving a widow and four young children; and Anna Maria Strahan, who died in 1921 leaving property to the church which helped to pay for the reredos and other items. The window in her memory depicts Martha and Mary.

The Lady Chapel and choir vestry were both built in 1896. The stained glass window in the Lady Chapel was the gift of the Young Women's Bible Class in memory of the Duchess of Teck who, with her daughter, the future Queen Mary, was a regular worshipper. It was unveiled in 1904 by her son, Prince Alexander of Teck, and shows the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.

The Lady Chapel was considerably improved and beautified in 1937 in memory of the Rev. Herbert Hamer. In 1977 it was newly carpeted in memory of Anthony Hewitt-Hulin.

Hanging on its South wall is a copy of the Sistine Madonna, painted by Mr. Edward Batty. He was said to be of "an extraordinarily nervous and retiring disposition," and spent most of his life in complete seclusion painting copies of Old Masters which he presented to various churches. He also made and carved the frames.

The sacristy, which adjoins the choir vestry, was built in 1912.

The Stations of the Cross on the North and South walls were painted in Brussels. The two church wardens staves, of ebony topped with silver, were given in 1951 in memory of Mr. Norman Croll.

 

 

 

 

n 1889 the organ in St. Luke's was a small instrument made by the firm of C.H. Walker, of Croydon, and may have been brought from the old mission church. By 1905 this organ was pronounced unplayable, and T.C. Lewis & Co. were employed to rebuild it. In fact, they practically built a new instrument, although retaining some of the original pipework. The flute stops on the Great and possible one of the pedal stops used pipework from the C.H. Walker instrument. Some of the pipes hidden away under the tower have decorative patterns on them: obviously, they were originally intended as facade pipes to be seen as well as heard.

Thomas Christopher Lewis ran his organ works from premises in Ferndale Road, Brixton, where he also operated his other business - a bell foundry. He was responsible for building a large number of fine organs - his tonal qualities being particularly noticeable. Lewis's flue work was especially outstanding, and his diapason choruses and gedacts owed much to the inspiration of the work of the organ builder, Edmund Schulze (1823- 1870). The quality of Lewis's pipework is admirable, and he used a large amount of tin in making his alloys - a particular feature being the 'spotted metal' pipework. Other examples of his work can be found at Southwark Cathedral; Westminster Cathedral; St. Alban's, Teddington; St. Peter's, Eaton Square; St. Luke's, Battersea; and St. Mary's, Beverley. Much of Lewis's pipework has been incorporated in many rebuilt organs. The best work of the Lewis firm was between 1860 and 1910.

The organ of 1905 was still a two-manual instrument on the North (or tower) side of the chancel. Mr. Paul Typke a very rich and generous man from New Malden - paid l'or most of the work done .to the instrument, either in 1905 or subsequently. It had been planned to include a 16 foot reed on the Swell, and the slides were put in for this. However, there was a change of mind and the 8 foot Vox Humana was put in instead!

The rebuilding would have been done under the direction of Alexander H. Griffin, the church organist, who was also the organist at the Alexander Palace, in North London. I le lived in one of the houses adjoining the church-yard in Gibbon Road, and married the daughter of Gaze, the builder and churchwarden of St. Luke's. There is a memorial tablet to him near the organ console, and the bars of music carved on it are the opening 11otes of his own tune to 'Of the Father's heart begotten' - a rather dramatic processional with organ/orchestral interludes. He composed one or two other hymn tunes and some Anglican chants of "indescribable fruitiness".

The 1905 rebuild provided St. Luke's with a very good organ. Lewis was famous for Ii is rich diapason tone, and for very low wind pressure - the mellowness of tone which is such a feature of the instrument is due to this. During the First World War, the firm of

T.C. Lewis went bankrupt - they had always given far too much value for money, always using the very best materials and sparing no efforts to construct the best possible instruments. In the closing months of the firm, at least two churches seem to have rushed in to get Lewis to enlarge their organs: St. Alban's, Teddington and St. Luke's.

In each case a Solo Organ was added to the existing two manual instrument - unusual, in that a Choir Organ would normally be added first. The reason for this was probably because Lewis's had to use what pipework and other materials they had to hand and were not able to get new materials made. The third manual at St. Luke's was put on the South side (Lady Chapel) of the chancel and a new console was added, again on the South side, under the Solo section. Indeed, the Solo Organ consists of an interesting and most unusual collection of sounds unlike anything anywhere else - including the most unusual stop for a church organ - the Carillon stop. (Lewis's were also noted for building cinema theatre organs - this may have been one of the left overs!).

Soon after this time, the Lewis firm was absorbed into the company of Henry Willis. Nearly all Lewis organs have been rebuilt by Willis - this is true of the instruments at St. Alban's, Teddington and Southwark Cathedral. However, Willis's have very different ideas about what an organ should sound like - for example, they have a strong preference for high wind pressure. (Southwark Cathedral started off as a low wind-pressure Lewis, was converted to high wind-pressure by Willis's, and in recent years has been restored to low wind-pressure!).

St. Luke's somehow escaped the attentions of Willis's. The organ was thoroughly overhauled by the late S.A.T. Seare during the early fifties. Seare, who had been the organ tuner for many years, spent three months on it, but he respected Lewis's work, and carefully retained its character. Ralph Downes is said to have been so impressed with Seare's work on the St. Luke's instrument, that he successfully recommended Seare to the authorities at Westminster Cathedral, who took him on to replace Willis to tune their two organs. (Sadly, Mr. Seare died as a result of a fall from the organ loft in the Cathedral some years ago).

After the attention and work of Seare the firm of Harrison and Harrison, of Durham, took over the tuning and maintenance of the organ. The organ is now in the care of Matthew Copley and the firm Organ Design and Construction Ltd., a local organ builder and tuner from Surbiton. In the past two years one of the parishioners, Mr. Dennis Baker, has designed and built a humidifier for the organ to combat the problems of ciphering during hot and humid weather.

One of the most important things about St. Luke's organ is that it is now still in its original state since the First World War - even the original hand pumping mechanism still exists from pre-electric days. However, time moves on, and mechanisms and materials gradually wear out and deteriorate. One day we hope that we shall be able to rebuild and preserve this historic instrument. It has served St. Luke's church for many years now and continues to do so, not only as an instrument in its own right, but also as an integral part it plays in services of worship.

Graham D. Long (Director of Music)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am indebted to Miss Joan Wakeford of Kingston upon Thames Archaeological Society for material on the history of the Canbury area, and to the archivists of both the Surrey and the GLC Record Offices for their guidance in locating sources of research.

I would like to express my thanks to Father Hugh D. Moore, now of St. Alphage, Edgware, and one time Curate of St. Luke’s for his help in providing much useful information.

To Muriel Owen for the drawing on page 22.

To Freddie Cook for the drawing on page 6.

J.S.

 

Designed and typeset by Marion Cook

Printed by VICTORIA, Kingston upon Thames, Kingston

 

NOTES

Pages 1-31 represent the scanned content of the original booklet, reproduced with some small changes to punctuation, layout and typefaces.

A Celebration Edition of this 1979 booklet was printed in 2019. It contained additional text giving some background to the new, second, edition:

A Celebration Edition of the book written in 1979 by |June Sampson when she was a regular member of the congregation of St Luke’s Church and the Features editor of the Surrey Comet. This edition has been created by June’s friends at the Heritage Garden Party and Celebration of June at St Luke’s Vicarage on Saturday July 27^th, 2019

There is additional text at the foot of the first page (p3), saying "Note that things in Kingston and the world have changed since this book was originally published, in 1979 - William and Glyns Bank, the use and ownership of Warren House, Imperial Chemicals Industries…"

Additional text (p20) also accompanies reproductions of the pictures in the original booklet (p21). The scans are taken from the booklet as it was not possible to find all the original drawings and photographs and the reduced size reflects on the perceived inferior quality of the reproductions.-Scanning and restoration was performed by Bryon Dunn of Tolworth Photographic.

My own reproduction of the original drawings and photographs are included here. The sequence and placing of pictures here is as in the 1979 booklet, with the exception of the Muriel Owen drawing which has been moved from page 22 to page 28. The Specification of the Organ has not been converted to text and exists here as a scan of the specification in the 1979 booklet.

The Celebration Edition is referred to as the Second Edition from June 2019 on the back of the booklet. It was reformatted by Bab Philips and printed by Lulu.com.

As far as I can tell the text has only ever been published as a saddle-stitched booklet with 32 pages and a soft cover.

I have not been able to track the sources used by June Sampson.

 

Kingston church bell turned off due to erratic chiming

By Ellie Brown - Local Democracy Reporter, Kingston Nub News

23rd Feb 2022

https://kingston.nub.news/news/local-news/kingston-church-bell-turned-off-due-to-erratic-chiming (retrieved 27/3/2024)

THE Vicar of St Luke's Parish Church in Kingston has been forced to turn off the church bell and clock because of its erratic chiming.

The church clock, which dates back to 1892 has been temporarily stopped at 1.25 following complaints about its unreliability and inaccuracy in correctly chiming the hours at the right time.

Vicar Father Martin Hislop told today how two of his parishioners 'valiantly' climbed up the stone stairs of the 88-foot tower, clambered up a ladder to the trap door and into the clock chamber to heroically turn off the power to the clock mechanism and pendulum and silence the chime-challenged bell.

Unfortunately, one of the parishioners, an un-named woman, suffered slight bruising when she stumbled, as she came down the step ladder.

The big decision followed a week of erratic chiming including just two chimes for the popular 8am Sunday morning service.

One local resident wrote on a community website: "Martin (Vicar) has now turned off the bells and is trying to identify a supplier of a more robust/accurate/flexible mechanism to ding the church bells.

"I am sure he would appreciate a recommendation if anyone knows of a company other than Public Bells England."

Earlier, he wrote: "Is it only me who is put out - yet again - by the Church Clock (St. Lukes) inaccurately chiming the hours? It 'dinged' 10 at 0600 this morning, 12 at 0800 and then weirdly 1 at 1000! I guess it is only likely to affect insomniac pedants such as me.. but if you are equally as concerned please email the Vicar.

"I realise he will say it is not his problem, that the clock is managed by Public Clocks, England BUT he is the conduit between this mortal world and the overseeing deity that are Public Clocks England."

Today Father Martin, who has been Vicar at the Anglo-Catholic church in Burton Road for 23 years, said: "The bell has been chiming at all sorts of strange times. It is controlled by some kind of mechanism and we thought it was better to turn it off altogether, which is not easy.

"Two of my parishioners very generously volunteered to climb up the spire and turn it off manually.

"We have been in touch with Public Clocks England but they say they are very busy and can't visit for at least two weeks. It is serviced every year but now needs a complete overhaul. It seems to have developed a mind of its own.

"I always hold my breath when the clocks change because it's some kind of device which should alter the time automatically but recently it has been behaving very strangely and erratically."

The 62-foot spire is the highest point in the area and after its completion in 1892 it took a year of fund-raising to get the £180 needed for a clock.

According to a church guidebook, the makers guaranteed the clock would be "one of the best ever placed in a tower."

On December 4th 1892 the Mayor of Kingston, Councillor J. Gridley drove in state from the Town Hall to St Luke's to set the new timepiece in motion.

The clock hands had been set at 10.55am and at exactly that time the Vicar, the Rev. George Swinnerton conducted the Mayor to the organ chamber where he was to pull a specially connected cord and set the pendulum moving.

According to the guidebook the Mayor pulled a the cord and "returned in stately fashion to his seat, confident he had earned a niche in local history by starting the most prominent clock in Kingston."

But the book adds: "In fact, he never started it at all. He had not pulled the cord sharply enough, so the Vicar gave it a surreptitious tug and, unknown to the packed congregation and large crowds outside, was in reality the one who set it going."

At the time the clock was described as a 'godsend' for the neighbourhood where those "fortunate enough to own a timepiece had to tell the time for everyone else."

At night those without a clock or timepiece were still in the dark over the correct time because, although the church clock had been "specially equipped with lighting apparatus, St Luke's could not find the £30 a year for the necessary gas."

"Eventually," says the guidebook, "the Town Council agreed to meet the lighting bill, conceding that a clock that could be seen from as far afield as Hampton Court was a worth public amenity."

Father Martin added: "There are quite a lot of young mums who live in the vicinity and I have been told by them that when they wake up in the middle of the night to feed their little ones they find the bells quite reassuring. You wouldn't choose to live near a farm if you didn't like animal noises, would you?

"The Parish is very keen to explore the options both practical and financial to ensure the clock and bell mechanisms are updated so that they continue to play the significant feature of the local scene that they have for over 130 years."

Nub News has attempted to contact Public Clocks, England but received no response.