All Saints’ Church Nottingham and its Parish
Rev. Paul Watts, editor
150 Years 1864–2014
The purpose of this booklet is to record and recognise the significance of All Saints’ with its parish over the past 150 years and to highlight the chief issues, hopes and fears of the people involved.
Contents The explanation of the structure
3
The history and social context of the parish and the church buildings prior to the 90th anniversary in 1954
4
The 1950s & 1960s and the roots of change
7
Yesterday, today and tomorrow:
11
some of an article written by John Weller, a curate at the church, to mark the 90th anniversary in 1954
2
The history and development of All Saints’ and its parish since 1954
14
Current position and questions for the future
18
Appendix: All Saints’ in the Great War
20
Bibliography and web addresses
20
Structure This booklet is really two documents (in different fonts) in one cover. One was written in 19547 for the 90th anniversary; part of it is included here but all of it has been printed in a separate booklet and is included on the parish web site, for those who are interested. The rest of this document has been written in 2014 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary. The former is a very traditional history written around the arrival and departure of each vicar. This approach is no longer appropriate because Church life today is created by the community in which it is placed. The booklet takes you back to Nottingham immediately after the Enclosure Act of 1845, when new parishes and church buildings were springing up rapidly. Since then All Saints’ has always been a privileged place; far more was invested in the site than in all of the other Nottingham churches being built at the time. Its parish had a real variety of income levels, with the most expensive homes around several green spaces such as the Arboretum, the Forest and the General and Rock Cemeteries. So this is a history of a parish, its church, its vicarage, and its associated church school. It describes and analyses what has been and is being done with them as the people in the area have changed. Two World Wars and the collapse of the local social structure in the 60s have meant that massive social changes have taken place.
Paul Watts 2014
Legend Parish boundary 1918 All Saints’ Church Mediaeval walking route through area New road created by the Enclosure Act 1860 The Location of All Saints’ within Nottingham 3
History & Social Context Prior to 1954
J
ohn Weller was the curate of All Saints’ from 1951–1954, so when he wrote in 1954 on the 90th anniversary of All Saints’, he was writing a farewell. He had known the parish twice. His father, C.H. Weller, was Vicar from 1929–1937 so he had lived in the Vicarage from being a young child to his early teens. The early part of his 1954 paper7 describes the parish in the following way:
“The area on which our parish stands used to be known as the ‘Sandfields’. Those who have done any digging will know the reason. These fields, with the ‘Clayfields’, belonged to the burgesses of Nottingham, who jealously preserved them from the encroachments of builders. Thus, for many years after Nottingham began to grow into an
industrial town, it had its ‘green belt’, and was unable to expand in area. Our area was a pleasant little valley called Larkdale, and there were windmills on the ridge above it, which is now Forest Road. In the early years of the Nineteenth Century the population of Nottingham grew rapidly, doubling itself every 20 years. Because of the ‘green belt’, the town became more and more crowded (and insanitary), and after a serious outbreak of cholera in 1832, it became clear that this overcrowding must be relieved. Two Acts of Parliament were passed in the 1840s, and at last the surrounding fields were sold to the builders. Maps of the 1850s show a ribbon of houses stretching along the Alfreton Road, then widening as the streets below it were formed.
Historic print by T.C. Hine the architect, for W. Windley who funded the buildings 4
The area was thus a ‘new housing estate’ by l860, and there arose the question of providing for the spiritual needs of those who came to dwell there. The Church in Nottingham had at last come alive to the challenge of the increased population, and new parishes were constantly being formed. It was a rich silk merchant called William Windley who offered to provide a church for our own area, and he spent no less than £10,000 in providing the magnificent buildings we now possess. By 1864, the church, vicarage, parish rooms and verger’s house were almost complete, solidlybuilt in local sandstone. Windley also went to immense trouble to find the right man to be the first Vicar, and at last the Rev. Edwin Gyles accepted the task. He was an M.A. of St. John’s College, Cambridge, and Vicar of Laughton, near Gainsborough. By All Saints’-tide 1864 everything was ready for the new parish church to begin to function.”
Enclosure Awards 1845–1865 in Sandfields
Street. The Forest was to be left as common land but in the later years of planning the Commissioners needed more money for sewage etc. So they sold off the land between Mount Hooton Road and Southey Street, shortening the Forest itself, adding to All Saints’ parish. This created Waverley Street as the main road (and current tram route) and distanced All Saints from the public. 1.
The Enclosure Commissioners
ALL SAINTS’
+
Owners 1 Mayor; 2 Aldermen; 3 Burgesses; 4 Mayor, Aldermen & Chamber Estate; 5 James Orange; 6 Mayor & Chamber Estate; 7 Gedling Trust; 8 Entire Land; 9 Charitable Trusts; 10 Mayor, Aldermen & Burgesses; 11 Brunts Trust; 12 Trust of Freemen. Plots not marked, owned mainly by individuals. Scale 1: 11,700
Illustration by Roger Smith showing ownership pattern of land once enclosed
What were some of the key social influences on the first 100 years of the life of All Saints’? The Enclosure Act was very late coming in Nottingham. Basford, the next parish to the north, was enclosed in 1791, much earlier than Nottingham which was enclosed between 1845–1860. Before the church was built the area was unenclosed fields, with all sorts of mediaeval rights. Burgesses could fence in certain traditional areas for feeding and tending cattle. Other parts produced food to be part of the salary of the City Centre clergy. By the time
the evidence of present ownership of farming rights had been established and compensation agreed, almost 15 years had gone past. By this time, modern towns had piped water supplies, drains and gas pipes. In Basford, all the Enclosure Commissioners had to do was define new field boundaries. In Nottingham it was town planning rules that were needed. The Commissioners achieved a remarkable population mix in All Saints’ parish, by setting the price of houses or land for houses at a variety of levels. How they did this is not entirely clear but the effect it had was remarkable. In the plan All Saints’ was sited near one of the main roads north towards Basford, still a significant village i.e. Burns Street to Southey
managed to end up producing a mix of housing which attracted a wide mix of residents. John Player’s first house was five doors along from the Vicarage, but between the two was a row of cottages for working people with no domestic help. The area became gradually what would now be called the intellectual quarter of the City. The staff of the University College, previously the Technical College, the Art College and of the Women’s Hospital wanted to live in the area. The area and therefore the church became a place of mixing the social classes. The church was the way for people to differentiate themselves by culture and behaviour rather than by wealth or heredity and to accept rather than reject the mixing of social classes. It was a “church for the rich” but it gave wealthier people the opportunity to do some good. This is the ethos of the way the Institute was set up in 1906 when the school closed. Even as late as the 1960s, people say that the church helped them radically change the way their lives might have developed. As is described later, the Institute employed a gym instructor and the halls were all used for energetic as well as sedentary recreation.
The Institute 1864 – 1906 This history is of the church site in its parish, not just the church building. Who drew up the specification for the church school? Thomas Hine, the church architect? William Windley, the Lace manufacturer and benefactor? There is no evidence. Whoever it was, in hindsight, they got it wrong. By the time the site was finished the first debates had taken place in Parliament to replace all fee‐paying schools with free compulsory education provided by 5
the local authority. No schools were told they had to close but parents voted with their feet and took up the free offers once the “Board Schools” had proved their worth. All Saints’ school opened charging five pence per week for classes 1 & 2, with four pence for class 4 and three pence for class 5.7 The school is clearly shown on the 1881 map along with the head’s house fronting Raleigh Street, the vicarage (notice how much larger this is) and the Church. All Saints’ school lasted until 1906 when the church could no longer afford to subsidise an education which fewer and fewer children were attending. The three schools (girls, boys and infants) became the resource of the Institute. From 1906 to about 2000, the parish used the old school as an Institute.
The Institute from 1906–1950 The parish raised funds and built on extensions to meet its new needs. What were they? A billiard hall just behind the Head’s house, a gymnasium to replace the open playground, and a small hall for meetings at the Vicarage end of the Infants hall. This speaks volumes about the way the Institute worked. However, Weller7 and Farrand have both described how the horror of the First War affected All Saints’. Rachel Farrand’s summary of the drastic influence of the First World War on the church and the parish is provided in Appendix 1. This tragedy took away many of the younger, more energetic men, around whom the church had built its link to their families. They were the sportsmen who taught the next
All Saints’ Schools, Church & Vicarage OS Map 1881
6
generation. Yet despite the problems, the institute worked well until the Second World War. Early in the war the Institute Committee, once one of the most powerful local institutions, effectively disbanded until its premises were returned, but they were mostly kept on as lecture rooms. The Sports instructor, by tradition a Sergeant, who had been given the head teacher’s house with the job, eventually gave way to a verger. But the social collapse of the area ended the use of the premises as the foundation of making the new links with residents. In the later years the old buildings were little more than empty shells. The Second World War destroyed the resource which the church had used; the institute was never restored.
The 1950s & 1960s and the roots of change
T
he social structure of the area of the parish collapsed quite quickly during the 1950s and 1960s. John Weller, in 1954, recognised that many of the large old houses were going into multiple occupation. However, the scale of the flight from the area and the effects of cheap rents and unscrupulous landlords were not apparent. After the Second World War the area lost many of its long standing families and their houses went into low cost renting and multi occupation2 & 3.
Nottingham Civic Centre Proposals 1963
Why did the area turn into one with plenty of dereliction and decay in its housing and a local population who felt abandoned and without a voice? Secondly, why did the church lose contact with the people living in its parish? So why was the church not the agency to give people a local voice? Why was it unprepared for the new renovation of the area? The social status of the church changed completely during Rev. John Perkins’ time. There is a fuller description of what happened on page 14 of this document. A. The collapse of the local social structure has been well documented by two visionary people. Dr Roger Smith, who sadly died in a car accident in the 1990s, wrote about All Saints’ as a national case study for his academic and teaching commitments. His loss was a tragedy for the area, which he was beginning to make known nationally. The other was Alan Simpson3, until 2010 MP for Nottingham South, but who, on graduating from Trent Polytechnic and a year as Union President, became in 1971 the Community Worker in the area for the Nottingham Areas Project. Both worked by recording conversations and attitudes of local people as their evidence. Roger Smith2 described the process of collapse of the social structure in the urban decay of the 1980s by a number of factors some of which show how fundamental social change was the result of the serious effects of both world wars.
Proposed Civic Centre Proposed Building All Saints’ Parish
1960s plans for civic buildings
7
1
Nottingham Road proposals 1966
The growth of suburbs, with private gardens, and “independence” from the local community, had been attracting more and more people from the early part of the twentieth century. The development of nearby Mapperley Park gave local churchgoers the feeling of staying in the area but actually leaving it behind. The largest suburbanising event was the University’s move out to the Highfields site in 1929, where its main campus still is. This gradually led staff to leave the All Saints’ area and move to be nearer the campus.
2 The Second World War hit the area hard, especially the parish of All Saints’. On the church site, the All Saints’ Institute was requisitioned. On page 5 of this document there is a description of the history of the school built on the site, its closure in 1906. It was finally removal from the parish’s responsibility around 2000. The pastoral policy of the parish was built around the Institute. It provided local families with a combination of All Saints’ Parish reading, sport, and that intangible thing, the Primary Distributator opportunity to better oneself. Its activities were varied and Main District Distributator numerous. Its committee was open to people who were Main Pedestrian Movement active in their street or area. The Second World War closed all this down for the duration Scale 1:13,800 of the war. Later the rooms were used as temporary lecture halls as they were needed for The 1966 road plan which would have seen the spire sticking up out of a “spaghetti junction.” Technical College teaching space until the early 1970s. The consequence 8
was that the activities were never properly restored when the rooms were abandoned to a by now dysfunctional parish. In addition some areas had had a strong local life. For example the tree‐ lined pedestrians’ streets, Waterloo Promenade, Crescent and Avenue which are just off Forest Road West, had an active social life, street gardens and their own programme of classes. They too were requisitioned in the war. The three streets had always had a seat on the Institute Committee; election to which was an honour and signified local leadership. By 1947, both the Committee and the Institute were things of the past. The houses had dry roofs but it was too much for many to resurrect the gardens so social customs going back to 1860 were lost.
3 Civic hopes, announced as plans in the 1960s, assumed that local people had no emotional stake in their area. Morale fell on the production of two successive civic plans. The roads plan saw the area as the hub of an urban motorway, with the church poking up as if it were in Spaghetti Junction. Large parts of the Cemetery, Forest, Arboretum and All Saints’ land were to be taken over for an Urban Motorway from Canning Circus to Mapperley Rd. The Civic centre plan saw the area between the All Saints’ motorway junction and the City centre designated for offices and Higher Education Colleges, thus demolishing much housing. For example, even as late as 1973, the Polytechnic, as it became, expected to build academic and student buildings across Peel St and well beyond. Local people wondered what the point was in working for a good sense of community if the power of the political system was against them. However the civic plans came to nought, but had undermined people as they worried about them.
4 What finished people‘s hope was the
legal tenure of the housing. Much of the parish was built in the 1850s‐1880s on ninety‐nine year leases. This was seen by Victorian civic leaders as wise stewardship i.e. ninety‐nine years of use then allowed new decisions about what would be best. By the 1950s this decision condemned the area to twenty or thirty years of planning blight as owners saw no point in improving the properties. This became worse over the years just before the leases ended and the time came for the new decision. For example the Bridge and Chambers estates, both ancient charitable foundations going back to Henry VIII, were the principal landowners of the City who had a policy of keeping leases and re‐leasing for rent. They would not collaborate with leasehold reform, so the condition of their housing ran down in the face of this barrage of negative messages. A downward spiral was created. Houses were bought by landlords out for quick profit; prostitution became endemic in the area. Houses were left unrepaired and in a decade looked ready for demolition. The area in 1860‐1880 was successful in making a settled mixed life style possible. The Enclosure Commissioners were successful by creating this. Second time round, ninety‐nine years later, the message was that it was intended to be a lower income rented area, often in multi‐ occupation. So the social collapse which took place in the 1950s and 1960s was the loss of the unusual mix of social classes settled in the area from the 1860s.
5 In All Saints’ parish, the early 1970s saw the housing in the area being inspected for demolition as had happened in St Ann’s and The Meadows. Fortunately rehabilitation, not demolition became more acceptable before the bulldozers got to some of the All Saints’ area. Local residents won their appeal against compulsory purchase in Cromwell Street and Portland Road. Finally, the District Plan of 1983 confirmed housing to be the main use for the
area, for rent through Housing Associations, which included tenants in their management.
6 1975 saw the first County Deprivation Survey. This itemised employment, income, benefit levels etc at the enumeration district (ED) level, usually about 200 households. This provided detailed information as it was the smallest possible area for release of census data. It was found that some parish EDs were the most deprived in the whole county. The data were now public; the housing plans were influenced by local expertise and energy but it was hard. What appeared to be a desirable area was created but it was one in which people felt trapped and were trapped. Most of the smaller local Housing Associations were registered charities and "Right to Buy" did not apply to them. In the housing area between Portland Road and Forest Road, it was estimated that up to seventy per cent of households had no source of income other than what was set by the Government. They had to live on the basic pension, benefits and discretionary payments, or student grants, with no chance of breaking out of this low level of income. With the regulations went a feeling that local people were being made powerless to do anything for their own good. Imagine being rehoused in a new house close to the City Centre, with a housing management structure which was trying to support its tenants. Your children go to newly modernised schools, on safe streets but you are unemployed and then you hear of a job in London or your children are bullied by a neighbour’s family. The English tradition was to solve either problem by moving but you cannot; you have no right to a move just as you cannot set out to earn more, because your income is set by national levels. This breeds resignation and depression, not challenge and hope.
9
Entrance to the site from Raleigh Street The second tallest spire in Nottinghamshire All Saints’ interior
10
Yesterday,Today and Tomorrow A Brief history of All Saints' Church Nottingham, 1864–1954 Pages 11‐13 of this document are parts of an article written by John Weller, a curate at the church, to mark the 90th anniversary in 1954. Weller's whole article can be accessed from the parish office or web site. The commentary written by Paul Watts re‐starts on page 14. On November 3rd, 1864, the Bishop of Lincoln (in whose diocese Nottingham then was) conducted the opening service. The offertory of over £100 was, by a happy thought, given towards reducing the debt on St. Saviour’s and St. Ann’s Churches, which were built in the same year, but without the same munificent financial support as our own. On Sunday, Mr. Gyles administered Holy Communion for the first time. There were 60 communicants. During the earliest years of the Church’s existence, Communion was celebrated fortnightly, alternately at the Morning and Evening Service. As soon as the spire was complete (the weathercock was fixed in 1865 at l77ft. above the ground), the bells were installed, and changes were rung. Only a year after the dedication, the Church was seriously damaged by lightning, which dislodged some masonry, and led to a gas explosion in the south aisle. No services were possible for a fortnight. The first decade of the Church’s life was one of steady growth. Congregations increased year by year. Mr. Gyles was an Evangelical of the old school. All that he wrote was liberally sprinkled with scriptural quotations. He usually preached three times each week at an Evening Service on Wednesday as well as the Sunday ones. On January 4th, 1880, the first Vicar preached his 2,150th and last sermon at All Saints’. His 15 years of devoted labour had done much to ensure that the work here rested on solid foundations.
The second Vicar was the Rev. Alfred Pearson, who continued to work on the lines laid down by his predecessor. In November 1886 there was the first parish Mission which resulted in the establishment of a regular weekly prayer meeting. In 1888 Mr. Pearson accepted the living of St. Margaret’s, Brighton. He was later Suffragan Bishop of Burnley. His successor was the Rev. H.A. Gem, previously Vicar of Holy Trinity, Wicker, Sheffield. He was licensed on October 20th by the Bishop of Southwell (the diocese had been formed four years before). In 1890 Mr. Gem carried out a very necessary reform, instituting a weekly celebration of Holy Communion. It was still celebrated at Morning Service on the 1st Sunday of the month, and in the Evening on the 3rd, but from now on there was one at 8a.m. on all the remaining Sundays. The nineties were years of quiet, steady progress. At the turn of the century came several changes. The first structural alteration to the Church was made, by the addition of the choir vestry. Then in 1902 Mr. Gem announced his resignation. He was sorry to leave, but felt that God was calling him to other work, as Vicar of Wirksworth. He was later Vicar of our neighbouring church at Old Radford, and a Canon of Southwell. Two months later, the name of the new Vicar was announced, none other than the eldest son of the founder, the Rev. Thomas Windley. He had been a missionary in Burma but he was no stranger to Nottingham, as he had been Vicar of Sneinton. He immediately completed his predecessor’s reforms by celebrating Holy Communion every Sunday and Saint’s Day at 8a.m, and
discontinuing the Sunday evening celebration. Services were thus almost precisely the same as today. He also set out to make the Church a House of Prayer. Mattins was said daily from 1903 and Evensong from 1906. Later he furnished the Lady Chapel for these services. Another of Windley’s reforms was the alteration of the magazine, which under the title of “Church News” was soon achieving a wide circulation. He used it for clear, sound teaching, at which he excelled. In 1905 he instituted the Communicants’ Guild, which under the energetic leadership of Mrs. Adams became an important feature of the Church. The same year saw the loss of the Windley School. The financial burden was so heavy that in spite of energetic efforts by means of bazaars, it was plain that the school could only be maintained by crippling the Church. The latest Education Act had limited the powers of Managers to secure proper Church teaching and it was plain that in future this must be done in the Sunday School and similar institutions. This period was the heyday of many of these organisations. There were numerous Sunday Schools, well staffed, a Children’s Army ably led by Mr. Browning, a Boys’ Brigade, whose members were forbidden to smoke because the habit was ‘’a sign in growing boys of general weakness and seediness and sickliness”, a men’s institute which arranged numerous sporting activities and many other organisations. It was an unspeakable tragedy that so many of the young Christians whom this work produced were soon to fall on the battlefields of Flanders. In 1907, there was a Mission to Nottingham including All Saints’.
11
Communicant figures show a sharp rise during this period to a much higher level than ever before. Much was also done in this period to beautify and improve the interior of the Church. The present organ was installed in 1906, and in 1911 the stained glass windows in the South Aisle, the oak panelling in the chancel, and the screen at the head of the North Aisle were among the additions made. In 1909, the Vicar broke down through overwork. He recovered sufficiently to continue for another three years, then resigned. His people gave striking evidence on both occasions of their affection for him. He too was sorry to go. “No parish priest could desire to work with a more friendly and generous minded and helpful congregation. No part of my life has been so far as I can judge, more fruitful, fuller of teaching for myself, or happier than the past 9½ years and it is with deep pain and regret, which my wife shares with me, that I feel that the time has come for me to give place to a more active and vigorous man.”
November 1st, there were five celebrations, at which no less than 426, people made their communion. During the year as a whole, there were 6,320 communicants, or an average of over 120 per week, which is the highest figure ever reached in the history of our Church so far. 1914 was unfortunately memorable for other reasons besides the All Saints’ Jubilee. Britain was at war on August 4th, and the events of the next four
“Activity” and “vigour” were not lacking in the new Vicar. The Rev. Herbert Lovell Clarke was the son of the Archbishop of Melbourne. He had spent five at Wimbledon (as one of a staff of eleven curates!) before coming to All Saints’. He wisely took considerable trouble to avail himself of the advice of his predecessor, and to build upon the foundations that had been so well laid. The Church was by now nearly half a century old, and one of the new Vicar’s first tasks was to arrange the celebrations of the 50th anniversary. It was decided to carry out further improvements to the Church and a Jubilee Improvement Scheme was launched, in which £500 was raised by Free Will Offerings. On the Sunday itself, Side Chapel 12
years make many tragic marks on the records. Every month there were several obituary notices in the magazine, and many of the men who died had been communicants at All Saints’. In 1916, the time of the evening service was altered because of the danger of Zeppelin raids, and on March 5th there was a raid warning, when it was cancelled altogether, by order of the police. Many soldiers and Service women worshipped at All Saints’ during the War, and availed
themselves of the Canteen and Rest Centre which was set up in the Parish Room, and staffed by members of the congregation. In the meantime, the work of the parish had continued. It was in this year that the Vicar asked Miss Minnie Trease to form a Guide Company, and to lead it “temporarily, until someone else can be found”. She proceeded to form a Company, which soon began to win numerous competitions, and she commanded it until her last illness, more than 32 years later! In 1918, a change in legislation enabled the Vicar to join the Army, and he served in the 2nd Artists’ Rifles. During his absence of seven months the Rev. D. H.D. Wilkinson was in charge of the parish. On Armistice Day, November 11th 1918, the Church was full at 12.30p.m, 1p.m, and at 7p.m. One of the Vicar’s first actions on his return was to call a Parish Conference. Each aspect of Parish life was considered and prayed about, during a week in July, 1919, and a policy was worked out. The Vicar’s watchword at this time was an admirable one — “Every believer a communicant, every communicant a worker”. In 1920 a faculty was obtained for a series of improvements to the Church. The font was given a tall and shapely cover, designed by Mr. Harry Gill, who was a worshipper at All Saints’, and the baptistery was also panelled. The altar in the Lady Chapel was provided with a reredos. The War Memorial (also by Harry Gill) and various memorial tablets were introduced. In this year the Enabling Act set up the system of Parochial Church Councils to “co-operate with the Incumbent in the initiation, conduct and development of church work”. Such a body had already existed unofficially for several years at All Saints’, but was officially elected by an Annual Parish Meeting for the first time on April 8th, 1920. On November 6th, Thomas Windley died. “His heart,” wrote the Vicar in
the magazine, “was in All Saints’, the gift of his father to the parish and to the city. He loved the very stones of it. He loved you more . . .” There could have been no more fitting memorial to him than the magnificent window which adorns the Lady Chapel. Early in 1923 Mr. Lovell Clarke’s ministry at All Saints’ came to an end. The new Vicar was another member of the Windley family, the Rev. W.H.M. Lonsdale. We have now traced the Church’s history to within 30 years of today, and therefore to recent memory, so the account can be brief. The main event during Mr. Lonsdale’s ministry was a Mission of Service, held in October, 1926. Mr. Lonsdale resigned in 1929 and returned to India. The Rev. C.H. Weller was the seventh Vicar. He was Vicar of Great Longstone, Derbyshire, and had previously been on the staff of St. Mary’s, Nottingham. For most of his time at All Saints’ he was supported by the Rev. C.R. Shepherd, now Vicar of Brathey, near Ambleside. The communicant figures had been falling steadily since the peak of 1914, but this fall was now arrested. The 70th anniversary of the Church was celebrated in 1934 on Thursday, November 1st and on the Sunday (November 4th). £150 was raised for a Thanksgiving fund. Mr. Weller left in 1937 to become Rector of Gedling; he was later made a Canon of Southwell, and is now living in retirement in Nottingham. The Rev. E. Dunnicliffe was now appointed as Vicar; he was previously Vicar of Ollerton. Early in 1939 a triptych showing the Feeding of the Five Thousand, painted by a Nottingham artist, Mr. Hammersley Ball, was inserted into the reredos of the high Altar. It was given in memory of Mrs. Browning, by her family, all of whom have, like her, done a great deal for All Saints’. The Second World War was a difficult period for All Saints’. The impossibility of “blacking out” the
Church made evening services there impossible during winter. The rooms were taken over by the Army. In 1942 the vicar joined the R.A.F. as a Chaplain, and Canon Leeper, Vicar of St. Michael’s, was in charge. Two of his Curates kept the services going. In 1945, the Free Will Offering system was introduced. Since then, the Church has received an increasing income by this means; the figure has now risen to more than £7 a week. When at last the war ended, a great task of reconstruction remained to be done, as much of the life of the Church had been temporarily suspended. A new Vicar was appointed; the Rev. T.W. Richardson had been the Curate of St. Margaret’s, Aspley, before serving in the war as a chaplain. His leadership soon began to produce results. The communicant figures began to rise again. There was a good number of adult Confirmation candidates, and the Electoral Roll increased each year. The 10th Company of the Boys’ Brigade was refounded. The magazine was modernised, and produced under the name of the All Saints’ Chronicle. In 1950, Mr. Richardson was asked to return to his old parish of St. Margaret’s and the living was thus once again vacant. In September, 1950, the present Vicar, the Rev. C.W. Harrington, was instituted. He had been Curate at Gedling to Mr. Weller (whose eldest son came to All Saints’ as Curate in 1951), and subsequently Area Director of the Industrial Christian Fellowship and then Vicar of Woodborough. The increase in communicants and congregations continued, slowly but steadily. The Daily Offices were once again said in Church. The practice of conducting Baptisms at the main services of the Church, was observed. A Bible Study and Prayer Group, set up in 1953 proved immensely valuable in the life of the Church. There is abundant proof that the Parish Church which God has blessed and used so wonderfully in the past, is still a place where He is at work.
13
The History and Development of All Saints’ and its Parish Since 1954
T
he Rev’d Charles Harrington (1950–1955) was John Weller’s Vicar. Charles was fond of the parish but left in 1955 soon after John’s article was written. I was helped to understand Church & institute life in those days by Michael Reddish of Bulwell. He was one of eleven children brought up at 35 Tennyson Street, round the corner from the church. As a youth he saw the church as his rescue so he joined in everything. He had seen an All Saints’ article in “Bygones”10 and could tell me about the work in the 1950s. His overall feeling was that it had always been a church for the rich, but didn’t look down on people like him who wanted to try to improve.
From 1955‐1979 Charles was succeeded by the Rev’d John (JND) Perkins. In 1955 he came from a rural Wiltshire parish to exactly the church life and attitudes that had been described by his two predecessors. The social status of the Church of England changed completely during John Perkins’ time. This meant that All Saints’ lost contact with the people living in its parish and was unprepared for the renovation of the area in the 1960s/70s. John retired in 1979, worn out by struggling to live through constant battles and hampered by his war wounds, especially deafness. The then Archdeacon of Nottingham (now Bishop) Roy Williamson said of him that he was determined to outlast the previous Archdeacon, Michael Brown, who was publicly committed to All Saints’ closure. JNDP succeeded in his desire at enormous personal cost. If he had left after five or seven years, he would have been remembered as a caring and safe pair of hands. But he stayed on, seeing the activities he had developed or tried to maintain disappear as the local social structure collapsed. Secondly, he was by nature a conservative person, a maintainer of the ways he wanted to hand on. That was not the theological or social mood of the 1960s and subsequently. Before the publication of Bishop John Robinson’s radical book Honest to God in 14
1963, clergy could usually expect to be treated with deference and respect “to the cloth”. Honest to God was a sign of a change of attitude. The Church no longer expects to be listened to as of right, but only if it earns respect. It took many parts of the Church, including All Saints’, a generation to discover this. Nationally the church was beginning to see that understanding social data was part of the work of the Gospel, giving people opportunities to analyse local conditions. This helped them to bring up their families, find work and create a local community sense. But many in All Saints’ congregation, who did not live locally, were almost entirely ignorant of what was happening; it was not thought to be anything to do with the church. So the local community workers, housing advisers, the staff in schools catering for this new inner city housing area started their work not seeing the church as having anything to do with them. It appeared to offer no interpretation of the signs of the times. A hundred years before, All Saints’ had used its own school and institute to win respect from families. Now the church could try to work with community activists but had few resources or understanding to offer. This was the situation in 1980 when the next incumbent, Paul Watts arrived. His time, which lasted until 1985, is also written up in booklets 4.
The Rev’d Paul Watts, 1980‐1985, had been full time Chaplain at the Trent Polytechnic for seven years and worked with students on placements in the area. Two local housing associations had been started for students by the chaplaincy in partnership with academic staff. Offered the chance to work at All Saints’, this seemed to be the opportunity to relate polytechnic life to the parish area. Staff members were very helpful; by the time of Paul’s institution in January 1980, five thousand pounds had been given and plans drawn up for the site. This gift had a greater symbolic value than its crude spending power. It came from a secular source — the Action Resource Centre — and validated the view that there would be secular support for new development.
What happened to the site when its renovation was begun in 1980? It was established that each building on the site had to meet four criteria: a. They must attract support (financial and otherwise) for their renovation and long term life of the whole site. This would involve be cross subsidy. b. They must attract support for their specific use which must be capable of paying the upkeep and maintenance costs c. The uses must be demonstrative of the gospel message. d. These uses must be credible as a means of developing local community life.
The Vicarage
The renovation of the buildings and activities fell into five programmes. 1. The Vicarage, funded mostly by the Church Commissioners. The vicarage was rearranged into two vertical houses, from four horizontal flats. The vicarage faced the site with the larger rooms; the back became a Community House 2. The Community House, funded mostly by small grants and a mortgage, with five volunteers living there including a full‐time “leader” who was an ordinand, paid by Toc H. The two from this period, James Power and Mark Beach, are now Chaplain to Harrow School and Dean of Rochester respectively. It became a power house of local community networks, supporting groups and individuals. 3. The immediate cleaning and repair of enough of the whole Institute to prove it was worth renovating and to get some work off the ground. 4. The Institute side of the grounds (the 1864 school, and the three later halls) was converted into a variety of uses. These were self managing workspaces, the sports hall and meeting rooms, a parish office, gym and advice centre. The rents from the workshops were thought to be enough to maintain the fabric, once renovated so the Institute became a lively place again. 5. The reordering of parts of the church, particularly around the nave altar area and the west end, really on an experimental basis to see if worship in the building could come alive.
East end & nave altar
Action 3 & 4 was funded by Government Programmes and Charities, 5 by the congregation.
Church Life from 1980-1985 The pattern of services changed almost immediately, supported by a “loan” of fifteen parishioners of St Nicholas, Maid Marion Way, for six months. In the first two years numbers rose only slowly, despite the best efforts of the team, which included Rev’d John Burgess who helped for one year. A 10.30 or 6.30 Eucharist was introduced in place of Mattins, the office was said every morning and the arrival of Rev’d John Walker as curate, with his musical gifts and active presence in the schools, began to show results. By 1983, there was a parish team of eight; vicar, curate and ordinand c/o TocH. The Institute treasurer, Paul Griffiths, also lived in the community house and there were three Manpower Services workers, one a secretary and two site managers. The worshipping congregation from outside the parish found this a difficult time to comprehend but felt it was going in the right direction and were pleased as there was an influx of worshippers from within the parish. The fact that the worship could change so much is a tribute to the tenacity and flexibility of the hard core of twenty‐five or so people who had kept the church open. They outlived JNDP, as he had outlived the Archdeacon Brown. Bernard Baines who lived and worshipped locally for many years retired as a head teacher in 1981. He was a
larger than life character who had been a prisoner of war from 1940 to 1945 and made the nave altar in gratitude for the Diocese sponsoring him as one of the first Locally‐ordained priests. Most of the congregation remaining from the days of JNDP trusted him but he was also committed to change and a great support to the clergy. Neville Hoskins, a local historian and President of the Thoroton Society, was one of the churchwardens. He oversaw the changes to the worship as a constructive defender of what was good from the past. He regularly listened to that day’s half baked idea of how to change a Victorian building, smile and make a constructive suggestion. Key figures who kept the church alive included Dr Mary Browning. As a child she had played with Canon Gem’s children because she lived locally before moving to Mapperley Park as an adult. The first woman to receive a Physics PhD in the whole of the UK, she retired in 1948 and kept worshipping at All Saints’ until the day she died in her late 90s. Great efforts were made to get her to a royal event to show our appreciation. The only offer was for her to receive Maundy Money, which she did but never felt right about it as she said she had too much money. Arthur Bennett, still an active churchwarden in his 90s and a member of the fellowship of All Saints’ for the past 40 years, who ran the YMCA for many years, was a wise and valuable resource. It is unfair to pick just these few people; there were many others. In the 60s and 70s, groups of Afro‐ Caribbean people came to live in Nottingham, many old friends from Clarendon County Jamaica. Nottingham was, relative to their experience in London, cheaper and easier to find a raesonable landlord. Many of the families in the parish became involved in the church. The goat curry provided for parish events was sensational. Herman & Lynda Taylor typified these, though later they returned to Jamaica and now live with a daughter in New York. Lynda was a woman whom everyone consulted before any big decision. Their house just behind the church was always full of people talking. Their daughter, Marjorie, says “There was no protesting about attending Church on Sundays. A Jamaican tradition which my father made quite clear to us all, Sunday was a time of worship, reflection and preparation for a good life. All Saints’ Church welcomed the black 15
the right one and it was in Nigel Peyton’s time that they negotiated a mother house in Derby and a small group in Radford in John Walker’s parish.
Meeting area in the church’s west end community with simple warmth and kindness. Strong faith and self belief made slight prejudices shown by a few white people of little importance. The house of the Lord is colour blind, hence the joy of attending church on Sundays was fulfilling for the adults and fun for the children. After service, we as children were delighted with the large selection of cakes, biscuits and soft drinks on offer whilst we waited for our parents as they chatted and made new friends with the established congregation. The children’s choir, Christening of our children, weddings of our adult children and funerals of our loved ones were all so important to us. Fast forward to 2014 and as we prepare to celebrate the centenary of All Saints’ Church, I have no doubt that my parents and the black community of Radford and those that are no longer with us would thank and praise the good Lord that they were fortunate to enter His House and were made to feel welcome as He would have wanted.” The Community of the Holy Name (CHN) wrote to Paul after an article on the Community House. They wanted to move from Malvern to an inner city area and were challenged to live in community in Tennyson Street. The challenge was not 16
The Rev’d John Walker was a remarkable man because he made the vital difference to the ability of the church to work in the parish with people not just for them. He was a far‐ sighted people person with a knack of quickly having a mental picture of how the people he met were coping with their lives and where they wanted to be. He made friends not contacts. Technically the curate, he was in reality the leader of much of the evangelism that went on and helped to bring the number of adults in church on a Sunday to the 80 to 100 mark on local occasions. Paul Watts left early in 1985 to become Director of the Council for Voluntary Service, which exists to support schemes like All Saints’ The Rev’d Nigel Peyton, 1985‐1991, came next. He moved his family, including a child with cerebral palsy, from Scotland. In a recent email to me he said “Life in the Vicarage, even when awful, was never dull.” He understood the rationale for the different areas of church work, especially the community links, which he worked hard to develop. John Walker had plans already to move to Radford. Nigel brought order to the parish expectations of how events like Easter were celebrated; it had all been a bit ad hoc under Paul and John. Nigel also wrote “although John Walker and Mark Beach had moved on, I never felt alone. I had Bernard Baines, lay reader Clarence Rickards, a CHN sister, a Parish worker, a Community Centre warden, a Workspaces Manager and countless ordinands and others from St John’s Theological College and the East Midlands Ministerial Training Centre.” Clarence Rickards came from the University Chaplaincy to begin a long term supportive role, holding together the services, leading much of the worship himself in interregna and encouraging an
attitude of pastoral care for one another in the congregation. The worship stayed focused on the 10.30am eucharist and an important development was finance from Dr Browning for the Chapel to be renovated as a meditative place for weekday services. Nigel went on to become vicar of Lowdham, Archdeacon of Newark and is now Bishop of Brechin. The Rev’d David White, 1992‐1998, came to a surviving inner city church, well connected in its parish, but which was skating on thin ice. The links with Nottingham Trent University had largely disappeared. Toc H hit harder times and stopped its support for an ordinand without whom the community house began to run down. Experiments in community living were not fashionable and it became impossible to maintain the community house. Without it the congregation was significantly weakened. They were missing the skills and energy brought in by five young people. For example, the Rights advice and tribunal representation work done by the Association based in the Institute lost its key workers. The account of the use and disuse of the Institute is set out as one document9 because it provides a short summary of change in the area and is the only record of the background to the sale of the Institute. Whereas the Church of England in the 1970s and 1980s believed in subsidy to inner city activity and congregations, the feeling in the 1990s was more focussed on income and saving. All Saints’ was no longer a good example of a pioneering way of living the gospel, but an expense, even though it met its share of diocesan income. In the Institute, the Community Care Funded work, which had run since 1984, developed and became a separate part of the Community Association, eventually becoming separately funded and employing its own development workers. The Community Care Project provided practical and essential support for people living in the area with long term and serious mental health illnesses. They had previously been housed and cared for in large institutions which closed rapidly during the eighties as the new idea of ‘care in the community’ came into effect. By the early nineties All Saints’ Parish was reported to have had proportionately more hostels and homes for those with mental health illnesses than any other in the country. The Project answered a clear need and provided a daily drop‐in
(including two late evenings each week) and a place where advice and advocacy could be obtained. It created links with local health professionals (such as Community Psychiatric Nurses working in the area and those who were key workers for their clients) yet it always retained its autonomy and independence. It had originally been the raison d’être of the Community Association, but it outlasted the Association and eventually closed when its funding ceased around 2005. In time this was partly replaced by a YMCA project but history repeated itself and when funding was cut, the scheme closed. The other important occupier of the Institute was First Data Training, a training project. It provided courses in computer operation for those who could not go to a College of Further Education or other comparable educational institution. They were funded by the then European Social Fund and other local organisations/charitable funders. First Data subsequently left the Institute for larger premises on Newdigate Street and finally closed in 2008. They had always been a great supporter of the Institute and its role and purposes. David White worked hard at the pastoral and community links in the area. The congregation of local people maintained or increased, but it was hard to find new people as others regularly moved away. By now the people in parish and diocesan church posts from the early 1980s, when the new model was set up, had moved on. This is a classic demonstration of the dangers of funding permanently necessary projects, through short term policy making. Like the houses built on 100 year leases to give the chance of a rethink, three year or ten year funding for work which could find no other source of income gave hope in the short term but in the end abandoned the people it was designed for. . The agreements reached over use of the Institute were forgotten. I was never able to discover what legal standing the conversion of the school was given. In lay terms, the old school belonged to the parish and they could do what they liked with it; “possession being 9/10ths of the law”. There was an attempt by John Perkins in the early 1970s to demolish the Institute and build houses on the site. This had the
useful effect of getting it listed Grade 2*, which meant that it was protected from demolition and was eligible for some public funds. It also alerted the Diocesan Board of Education to the possibility of income. If a closed church school is disposed of, its value is put back into funds for new school buildings. The Board finally got its income when the parish said it could not sustain the work required to develop the Institute around the year 2000. The renovation of the institute had always had the possible effect of making the parish pay twice; once to repair the old school and then to buy it back from the Education Board at its new increased value. To stop this happening, the PCC had their asset valued before the work began and the management of their Institute was put in the hands of a registered charity, The All Saints’ Community Association. This acted as the umbrella body for the whole site and worked to keep funded activities, like the All Saints’ Community Care Scheme, with day centre activities, advice and case work with benefit tribunals. Sadly, this structure was weakened by the underfunding of John Major’s Government and could not attract supporters able to keep up their independence. So the Institute reverted to its previous status as a “White Elephant” in the eyes of the congregation and in the eyes of the diocese, a closed church school suitable for sale. In desperation, the congregation handed it over to the Diocese who then sold it, freehold, with no responsibilities within the site, and no duty to collaborate with the Vicar, PCC
or anyone else. The Grade 2* listed site is now in split ownership, with no mechanism for agreeing joint use and maintenance of the features on which the Listing depends
The Rev’d Gilly Myers, 2000–2002, was part time priest in charge while working on her research and managing other issues with the Diocesan Board of Education. After a 2 year interregnum which was not easy, she was able to do little more than maintain church life. One of her strengths was liturgy so she skilfully devised the versions of the Eucharist and the other services which are still used today. She left in 2002 and saw the Church through to the merging of St Peter’s with All Saints’. This was the first step towards the Nottingham City Parish which came about in 2007 when the combined parish joined with St Mary’s. She is now Precentor at Southwark Cathedral. Canon Andrew Deuchar, 2002–2008, came to Nottingham having worked for the Archbishop of Canterbury. He brought a great deal of enthusiasm and experience to the merging of St Peter’s and All Saints’ but before it could be fully worked out in practice what the united parish would look like, it was decided to include St Mary’s too, so planning had to begin again.
Part of the Institute; the cover photograph shows that this is only about a quarter of the building 17
Current Position and Questions for the Future The Rev’d Christopher Harrison is the present Vicar of the combined Parish; arriving in 2009 from Derbyshire. Before that, he served in two inner city parishes in London. Here was someone who had a vision for the possibilities of the place. Community initiatives, such as the Peace Garden, were supported. Its fabric was restored, with funds from the combined parish, and a change of name to All Saints’ House is symbolic of a desire to bring the house back into use as part of the mission and ministry of the parish. For two years, following the renovation of the house, students from the Christian community at Nottingham Trent University lived in All Saints’ House; there is currently a plan to work with the Nottingham Arimathea Project to enable it to give much‐needed accommodation to refugees and asylum seekers. Ideas are being pursued to make the Church building attractive to mid week activity, with improved facilities at the west end. It is also hoped that government grants may be awarded to help with some renovation of the nave. All Saints’ will continue to be part of a joint City Centre Parish for the foreseeable future, which has brought the benefits of support by members of the other two churches and from the parish office, who give their services to its funding, maintenance and management. St Peter’s choir sings at All Saints’ once a month, and on special occasions. These contributions should not diminish the valuable work done by members of All Saints’ church itself, however.
The Institute had been owned by Castle Cavendish, a profit making company who rented it to Nottinghamshire YMCA; it has recently been purchased by the Covenant Restoration Assembly, a Nigerian Church. All Saints’ has also been pleased to enable other churches and groups to use its building for worship and other purposes. For some years the Apostolic Faith Mission, a Zimbabwean church, used the church on Sunday afternoons; it is now used for worship by a new church of Iranian Christians. The Vicarage is lived in by the Rev’d Dr Richard Davey, Co‐ordinating Chaplain of Nottingham Trent University, an experienced priest who has played an important part in building up the congregation and developing links with the wider community. Richard has wide experience and an academic background in the relationship between spirituality and art, and has played a valuable part in helping the church to be integrated in the wider parish.
The Rev’d Dr Norman Todd, who has served the diocese of Southwell and Nottingham over several decades as a stipendiary priest as well as during his retirement, has shown that age is no bar to playing a vital role in developing the spirituality of a church, in particular through his much‐sought after spiritual guidance and leading of groups. Why is All Saints’ here? Who is it for? Who is All Saints’ church for? What is the current answer to the question posed in 19547? What is its “today and tomorrow”? Most of the next section comprises the words and ideas of many people but are summarised here by Christopher Harrison. Firstly, it is of course a Christian foundation. The use of the site and its resources is always open to the question ‘Is this what God wants?’ The answers to this question should always be about people, and this means valuing all people, whatever their background or social status. Can we be
The head’s house is now the offices of the Covenant Restoration Assembly true to the original inclusiveness of All Saints’ church, but in a way which goes far beyond the limited social diversity of Victorian times? Secondly, can the work of the Church, as well as the associated organisations on the All Saints’ site, lead to an improved quality of life for all those involved, as well as for people in the community as a whole? Can their activities be mutually supportive – which will mean dialogue, or even collaboration, between the different churches on the
The Peace Garden 18
All Saints’ site? This will mean accepting and respecting different church traditions, while coming together for various purposes in a common desire to serve the community. Thirdly, what are the implications of the existence of large numbers of students in the area, each staying for a short time? It has proved difficult, in recent years, to make All Saints’ into a base for Christian thought and action in their short term communities, although some of them have been belonged to the church for varying periods of time. It is worth noting, however, that a small but increasing number of longer‐term residents now appear to be coming to live in the area around All Saints’, which may be the beginning of a new demographic trend. Underlying all of these challenges, it must be remembered that All Saints’ church finds it hard to meet the costs of its ministry without the skilled and financial support of its two partner churches. Some thirty years ago, in the 1980s, the movement to challenge urban deprivation meant that dioceses chose to appoint clergy to places of deprivation, such as the parish of All Saints’, by means of a subsidy from central funds. During the 1990s, however, the message gradually shifted to “Stand on your own feet, there is no money for subsidy.” In the face of this trend, however, the combined parish has brought new
strength and opportunity to All Saints’ church. The parish has made an important statement of support for ministry in this area of deprivation by embracing All Saints’ church within the overall parish finances. That being said, the church building itself is not especially expensive to run and maintain, at least by comparison with the other two churches in the parish. In an area of Nottingham where many of those living are transient (probably students) or trapped in low incomes and low hopes, All Saints’ church therefore has to be one of the key resource bases for community analysis and debate of alternatives. The present congregation is increasingly responding to this challenge, by looking at ways of giving support to those in particular need, whether these be rough sleepers, asylum seekers, the elderly and housebound, or those with mental health problems. At its heart, the strengths of All Saints’ church lie in the deep commitment of its members to worship and fellowship in which all are valued and welcomed with a non‐judgemental and inclusive approach to life and faith. Its Eucharistic worship does not have the formality or preciousness which characterises some churches of a similar tradition, and there is a quiet and reverent simplicity to services which appeals to people of a variety of spiritual backgrounds. Among congregation members, there is an
understanding of prayer and spirituality which goes far beyond superficial and transient fashions, and a profound empathy with the struggles of those on the edges of society, both in Nottingham and further afield. While congregational numbers are not large, these qualities more than make up for this, and All Saints’ church should never be seen as the poor relation of larger and wealthier churches. All the same, All Saints’ greatly values the help and support it receives from members of the other churches in the parish. There are currently some very encouraging signs of growth in All Saints’ church on a number of levels. Several younger people have joined the church recently, and a new sense of fellowship is arising from the weekly coffee mornings which were started some months ago. The All Saints’ branch of the Mothers’ Union, which closed in 1965, has recently been relaunched, and it is hoped that this will help with support for families both within and beyond the church itself. Nurturing All Saints’ church in the coming years will involve traditional forms of ministry and mission which emphasise care for each individual, as well as making space and providing opportunities for people to meet in fellowship, to grow in faith, and to share in authentic worship. Community initiatives may come and go, depending on resourcing which is all too often short term in nature. What is needed at All Saints’ church is determined, consistent and coherent leadership, support and care for the church at all levels, but starting with the congregation, as without this any church will soon fail. A quotation from Arthur Bennett, our church warden in his nineties serves as an excellent summary to this history: “The question, does God want an All Saints’ Church in the community has been asked elsewhere in this booklet. Surely the answer must be yes. Now, as limited in numbers as we are, we must be responsible for ways of making God’s love and well‐being known to every member of the All Saints’ Community. We cannot, we must not fail Him.”
Sunday at All Saints’ 19
Appendix 1 — All Saints’ in The Great War as researched by Rachel Farrand A roll of honour appeared in each edition of the monthly parish magazine; one of the last records was published in August 1918.*
Thirty‐eight obituaries — just over a third of those published between January 1917 and September 1919 — describe the men’s connection with All Saints’.
762 109 21 10 65
training, on active service or sick killed in action, died of wounds or died of disease prisoners of war missing returned to civilian life [i.e. discharged]
967
Total
Fourteen men had either attended All Saints’ Day School, Sunday School, the Boys Brigade or were former choristers or a combination of all these. The suggestion is that as young adults they did not attend church or at least not frequently enough to be described as ‘communicants’, although it was noted that one man had joined St Mary’s church (High Pavement).
Nottinghamshire Archives has a set of the parish magazines dating from January 1917 to December 1919. The magazines include war obituaries, which were reported up to September 1919, and approximately 100 obituaries were recorded from 1917 to 1919. The obituaries for the early part of 1917 included men who had died in the latter months of 1916; so the record covers nearly half the war years. Biographical details were included about each man, many of whom may not, of course, have attended All Saints’; a number of obituaries record that the deceased were non‐conformists or Roman Catholic. Some of the men had no direct connection with the parish, for example one was related to the architect of the church, and some were former parishioners or past members of the congregation, so not all the men listed in the obituaries appear on the parish war memorial.
Twenty‐four men were referred to as ‘communicants’, i.e. regular worshippers, or as having a ‘long connection’ with the church. This group of 24 young men also provided six members or leaders of the church’s Boys Brigade and five Sunday School teachers. Two were members of the choir and six attended the Men’s Bible Class. It is difficult to assess the short and long‐term impact on All Saints’ of the loss of this group of active, committed members of the church who were, no doubt, seen by the clergy and congregation as the next generation of ‘church elders’. However, the popularity of the vicar, Reverend Lovell‐Clarke, meant that church attendance remained high in the years immediately after the Great War and it is probable that this ensured the continuation of the church organisations to which so many of those who had fallen in the Great War had contributed. * The last ROH in my notes is August 1918 so is probably the last one to be published. However, there is a possibility that figures in later magazines might not have been transcribed.
Bibliography and Web Site Addresses 1
2
3
4
20
http://southwellchurches.history. nottingham.ac.uk/nottingham‐all‐saints/hintro.php Prof J.C. Beckett Smith, R., Growth, Decay and Revitalisation in an Inner City Parish. All Saints’ Nottingham. 1984. Trent Papers in Planning no 20. Other works by Roger Smith used in this survey are:‐ Towards the Mature Industrial City 1800 –1880. The development of All Saints’ Parish Nottingham. Midland History 1989 Vol XIV Waterloo Promenade and its Environs‐ The changing character of Inner Nottingham. 1800–1983. Compiled with David Shaw. 1983. A report of a WEA/University Adult Education group research project. The impact of Public and Private Capital in Inner City Residential Renewal. Dept of Town and Country Planning, Trent Polytechnic, 1984 Simpson, A. What jobs for the boys? A report to the All Saints’ Residents Association. Published by Nottingham Areas Project and ASRA 1978. Watts, P.G., The renovation of buildings and people — All Saints’ Institute, 1979‐84. SPOCS 1985.
5 6
7
8
9
10
Other work by Paul Watts are leaflets produced parochially. 1985 to 2005. Looking back on All Saints’ 20 years after the pamphlet “ The renovation of buildings and people”.. Two documents produced for funding appeals. All Saints’ Church and All Saints’ Institute, Renewal for community use. 1982 Cartwright, S. The future of All Saints’. Placement report. 2004 Weller J.C. “Say to the wind” the revival of religion in Nottingham 1780‐1850 Weller J.C. “ Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” 1954 Full copy of the text available on the parish web site. Barraclough R. “All Saints’ School 1867 to 1876” unpublished essay, available as below. Watts P G. An outline history of the All Saints’ Institute, written in parallel with this Booklet, 2014. Text available on the parish web site. Lowe D. Church to celebrate its 150th Anniversary. Evening Post 9/7/14 and Bygones 7/7/14
Much of the documentation referred to here is in Local History Library in Chapel Bar.
