The Early History of St Margaret's Church, Ilkley. by J F Hewitt

There it stands on the hill! A mighty specimen of what men can do when they labour for their God.
Come Winter! Come snow! Come depression!
We worship Thee Almighty!

The church of St. Margaret’s is a beauty in the landscape – a joy for ever.

Unattributed report of the Consecration of St. Margaret’s Church from The Ilkley Free Press of 13th September 1879.

Letter from Norman Shaw, Architect of St. Margaret’s Church Ilkley, to William Fison, Esq., Trustee of the proposed church.

Jan 22 1876

Dear Mr Fison,

I send you a preliminary plan of the new church and a tracing of the sort of thing I would suggest. I am so sick of the everlasting modern church with its orthodox pitched roof and its feeble spire and I do think it would come in so badly in your valley that I long to do something that I hope would come in better. I should like to keep it all simple, but as large in mass as possible. Let us save as much money as possible in the choice of plinths and cornices and string courses, but let us have the roof as high and as thick as we can afford, and let the tower be as bulky as possible – after all there is plenty of room for it in the valley. It won’t choke you up much.

I shall be very anxious to hear what you think of this general scheme, it is mass that tells and not mouldings or architecture.

Then you would find it very splendid effect if you had very few windows in the aisles and the great preponderance of light coming from the clerestory and from a large west window. I should like to get the windows interesting in their tracery if I could, as I know grim plain lancets are not much approved of by some of your members.

I do sincerely hope you will not think this is too outrageous, but will smile kindly on it and then I can carry it a stage further.

Believe me to remain

yours very faithfully,

R Norman Shaw

PREFACE

I first became aware of Mr Hewitt’s History at the time of the first Church Open Day in 1995, when photocopies of the original articles formed part of the displays.

Paul Kershaw then edited the text down into a series of articles for the new Church Magazine and I collected these articles, adding a number of photographs, to create a small booklet that has remained on sale at church for some years.

Having had the opportunity to re-read the original, I decided that there might be some demand for the full newspaper articles to be available for the interested reader, and began the task of re-typing them. It was then that I realised the inherent difficulties for today’s reader. Mr Hewitt wrote of people who were well known in the 1920’s and about whom no explanation was required. Some of those who had been involved in the planning and building of the church were still alive and others would be well remembered by a more static population and congregation.

As a Bradfordian I lacked the local knowledge and I realised that I needed help, and thought that other offcum’d uns would also need help.

And so was born the task of annotating the original, in the hope that it might provide further insight into the great work that resulted in the building of St. Margaret’s Church, one of the most warmly loved churches in the area.

It was searching on the Internet that brought home to me quite how much information could be found from the comfort of home. Within an hour, I found Canon Danks’ description of Canterbury and an unexpected diary entry featuring Rev. Ottley. From that moment on, it became inevitable that the annotations would exceed the original text in quantity, although not in quality. Without apology, I took as my model the great Scottish polymath Alasdair Gray, who has not only spent decades producing his magisterial Anthology of Prefaces, but also in his fantasy A History Maker ran the current editor a close second in the matter of footnotes.

Bradford Library brought me ecclesiastical history and Victorian law relating to Patrons and new churches. Ilkley Library offered editions of The Ilkley Gazette and Free Press that charted the planning, building and opening.

I then examined the thick leather albums that are the repository of invaluable contemporary notes and documents relating to the early life of St. Margaret’s. And then there were people; people who explained things to me that had made no obvious sense. I pondered long over a reference to the building of St. John’s, knowing that St. John’s, Ben Rhydding was not built until the turn of the century. A word with Peter Jamieson sent me some fifty yards further up Queen’s Road and back on the right path.

And then, just as it seemed to make some sense, Anne Kilvington, our unofficial archivist, presented me with an envelope guarding two of Mr. Hewitt’s notebooks that contained earlier drafts of the lectures that were to become the newspaper articles. Suddenly, there appeared subtle (and less subtle) variations on the Ilkley Gazette theme. Slightly different explanations are given, differing accounts of personality and motivation, evidence of (and I’m sorry, but there is no better word) SPIN! Clearly, whatever Mr Hewitt was willing to say in a lecture about Rev. Snowden and poor Mark Robinson, he was less willing to put in print, especially in the local newspaper, likely to be read by relatives. Well, from a distance of a further 73 years, I feel secure in presenting the unvarnished truth as the author had originally seen it! SM

(To access the footnotes, click on any of the coloured number. Click the browser page back < to return to the part you were reading)

 

THE EARLY HISTORY OF ST. MARGARET’S 1

by J.F. HEWITT2.

Celebrations of the jubilee of St. Margaret’s Church, Ilkley, are to take place in July, when sermons will be delivered by a number of eminent Divines3, and in view of this a brief outline of the circumstances which led to the foundation of a second Church in Ilkley and of its early history will doubtless be of interest to your readers.

During the years of the war, I was hon. Verger, and, in turning out a number of old books in the safe, I discovered two books relating to the building of the Church – a minute book and a cash book. These made interesting reading, and I asked the permission of the Vicar (Canon Glennie) to use the extracts from them for a lecture which I gave to the St. Margaret’s Branch of the Church of England Men’s Society. In connection with the material for this lecture and also for the following article, I received valuable assistance from many old inhabitants of Ilkley, including, among others, Mr. E.W. Crawley4, Mr. Vincent Taylor, and Mr. George Smith, Mr. Smith being a choir boy at the first of the services which were held in the National Schools when the Parish Church was found to be becoming too small for the needs of the parish5.

An early synopsis

Amongst the papers in the safe was a synopsis of the position in the early days, written apparently by Canon H. Bickersteth Ottley, which was as follows: -

The erection of a second Church in Ilkley as a permanent building was completed in September, 1879, but it was only the crowning result of a movement extending as far back as 1873. Previous to that year the only place of Church of England worship in Ilkley was the ancient Parish Church of All Saints, of which the Rev. John Snowden, M.A. had been Vicar since the year 1842. This building had long since felt to be insufficiently large to meet the continued increase in the population, and the rapidly growing influx of summer visitors caused by the wider repute of Ilkley as a beautiful and healthy watering place was one obvious reason for further church accommodation. To meet these increasing requirements the Nonconformist residents were more prompt than Churchmen, and three buildings were erected about the years 1868-1870 by the Wesleyans6, Independents7 and Quakers8 respectively, and it was not until the year 1873 that any definite movement of a similar kind took place on the part of the Church of England.

On March 4th, 1873, a meeting of churchmen who recognized the urgency of the case was convened at the vicarage, when the following gentlemen were present: - The Rev. J. Snowden9, Mr. Davis Stansfield, Mr. F.W. Fison10 and Mr. W.P. Harrison11, then medical lessee of Wells House12. This may be called the first official meeting in connection with the proposed new church13.

Some preliminary steps had been taken with regard to a site; and Mr. Middelton14, the lord of the manor, had offered two sites, one on the ‘Raikes’ on the flat ground between the Wells House and Wells Terrace, and the other on the Riddings where the present church now stands. Owing to strong opposition by neighbouring owners, the former site was abandoned, though it was perhaps the better site, and the latter was accepted.

At the second meeting, held June 10, 1873, the committee was formally constituted as follows: The Rev. J. Snowden (chairman), John Milner15 and William Margerison16 (churchwardens of All Saints), Dr. Harrison, Messrs. D. Stansfield, F.W. Fison. Messrs. E.W. Crawley and F.W. Fison were appointed secretaries at a later meeting, but the former shortly afterwards resigned17. Mr. John Armistead, of Craven Bank18, Ilkley was appointed treasurer. It was decided at the second meeting that the patronage should be vested in trustees, and that all the sittings19 should be free.

At the third meeting, July 4, the question of architect was raised. After some discussion it was unanimously settled in favour of entrusting the work to Mr. R. Norman Shaw20, A.R.A., afterwards R.A. of London.

Considerable difficulty was experienced in dealing with the patron21 of the living of Ilkley, N.L. Hartley, Esq., of 124 Park Street, Grosvenor Square, W., whom it was found so difficult to approach that the previous intention of the committee to proceed on the lines of a district church was abandoned, and the scheme was carried on under the Private Patronages Acts which enabled the committee to dispense with the concurrence of the patron22.

At subsequent meetings it was decided to vest the living in five trustees, The Rev. John Snowden, Francis Sharp Powell, M.P.23, William Fison and Robert Hudson and the Rt. Hon. Gathorne Hardy. Mr. Hudson having declined the position of patron, the name of Mr. Alfred Harris24 was inserted in his place.

Services in National Schools

As stated in the Synopsis, it was found necessary to provide further church accommodation. In 1871 overflow services were held in the National Schools25 and proved to be a success, and this led many people to think that there was need for a second church. There was some idea of erecting a church on land near where the present Baptist Church stands, but this did not come to anything. The first indication of the intention to build the present church is a letter written by the Rt. Hon. Gathorne Hardy, afterwards Viscount Cranbrook26, on January 29 1872, in which he demurred to being a trustee, or to laying a foundation stone; but on October 20, 1873, he wrote again accepting nomination as a trustee.

A second church was not only de­sired to provide accommodation for the increasing population27 and for visitors28, but there were a number of residents who thought there was room for a church to represent a different school of thought. It has been said that the building of St. Margaret’s was a direct outcome of the Oxford movement29. No doubt the Oxford movement30 had some­thing to do with it, but it must be remembered that there had been a big quickening of church life in Leeds, during the vicariate of Dean Hook31, and there were many people who, while not agreeing entirely with all that the Ox­ford movement stood for, yet wished for a different type of church and service. No doubt the Rev. John Snowden was a good man and had done good work, but he was well on in years, and I suppose felt that what had been good enough for his generation, was good enough for others32.

To follow up the items in the min­utes; at the first meeting the site was opposed by Dr. Harrison, of Wells House, Mrs. Douglas at the Hall, and Marshall Hainsworth33. No reasons were given. At the second meeting it was resolved that the Church should be a district church and all sittings free, and that the patronage should be in the hands of trustees—a very wise proceeding34. To have given the patronage to the Vicar of Ilkley or the Patron would have been simply perpetuating the existing order of things, which was the last thing the promoters thought of. When the Rev. John Snowden died, Mr. F.W. Fison35 was appointed patron in his place.

The present patrons36 are the Rt. Hon. Viscount Irwin37, Bishop Heywood38 (for­merly Bishop of Southwell), Mr. L.S. Wood, H.M.I., and Sir A. Copson Peake39.

Origin of the Name

On December 31, 1873, Mr. W. Middelton formally transferred the site measuring 4,446 square yards and valued at 5s. per yard, to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Mr. Norman Shaw was appointed architect, and. was instructed to prepare plans for a church to hold 600, including fences and wall, warming apparatus and every requisite for £5,00040.

It was decided to name the Church “St. Margaret’s” out of compliment to Miss Margaret Snowden, daughter of the. Vicar of Ilkley41, and for a num­ber of years after the Church was built Miss Snowden was a very active worker42.

At a very early stage of the move­ment it was decided that the first £l000 raised should be set aside as an endowment43, and as soon as it was raised it was handed over to the Eccle­siastical Commissioners. This explains the note at the foot of the annual bal­ance-sheet which refers to the endow­ment of £33.

By 1874 it was apparent that some steps must be taken quickly to provide further accommodation, and finally what was called the “Tin Church” was erected in the Riddings44. After the per­manent church was built this building was sold to the. Wesleyans and was used by them as their Church at Ben Rhydding for a number of years and is now the Ben Rhydding Wesleyan Sun­day School building45. Before this, how­ever, Mr. Sewell46 had offered the use of the new College Hall, but this was not accepted.

Vicar-Designate Appointed

In June, 1874, the work for the provision of a temporary church was so far forward that the committee discussed the desirability of asking the patrons to appoint a Vicar, and the Rev. John Snowden informed them “that he would not stand in the way of the Patrons appointing a vicar-designate who should be curate of the temporary church, but if they tried to appoint a man of whom he did not approve he should certainly object47.”

The Patrons appointed the Rev. W. Danks, a gradu­ate of Queen’s College, Oxford, who had been curate respectively of the New Basford and All Saints, Cheltenham and Vicar of Rainhill48, Lancashire. He was then in the early thirties, and I have heard him facetiously spoken of as “the young man at the Church on the Moor, who preached strange doctrines”.

By the end of July the temporary church was finished49, and the first ser­vices were held on Sunday, August 9, 187450. By a little strategy on the part of some of the committee, it was arranged to have the Vestry at the west end of the church, and on this Sunday morning the congregation were sur­prised to see a surpliced51 choir come from the vestry and go in procession to the choir. The service was a choral celebration52. I am told by one of those responsible for the surplices, that they did not dare to say anything about get­ting them at any committee, but they were surreptitiously obtained and smuggled into the vestry. They would have liked cassocks53, but they did not dare go so far.

‘ Kind Friends and Helpers’

This lead to trouble54. Many of the congregation were up in arms and “No Popery” and suchlike cries were raised55. The promoters unflinchingly stuck to their purpose, and Mr. Danks backed them up. For a time there was very bitter controversy56, and I find in the first report issued by Mr. Danks in March 1879, “I pray God to keep far from us the spirit of bitterness and self-assertion which has been the ruin of so much earnest work and to knit us together even more and more closely in brotherhood to each other and in loyalty, to our Master.” However, as time passed, the opposition to the ser­vices seems to have died down, and at the conclusion of the next report is the following which is more hopeful: — “It has been a sincere happiness to me to find myself surrounded by so many kind friends and helpers. May God’s blessing be theirs, and may they keep a place in their prayers for the work of the clergy in the Church in Ilkley.”

Mr. W. Dean was appointed organist, and Mr. Mark Robinson verger; Mr. Dean had five sons57 in the choir, two of whom are still members of the choir together with two grandsons. There was a choir of 18 men and 33 boys, and afterwards a waiting list had to be formed.

Having provided temporary facilities58 for divine service, the Committee was now able to set to work on the permanent church, and early in 1875 Mr. Norman Shaw was requested to send a ground plan and sketch, and the following suggestions were made to him:

that transepts intercepting from part of the congregation a full view of the chancel, are not desirable.

that stress be laid upon massiveness and grace of proportion than upon minuteness of decoration.

I have said the opposition had died down, but it still smouldered and some of those who had objected now took to ridicule, and said, “Nobody could ever build a church on that site, it would be hidden by the moor and never seen. Others said it would slip down the hill, and I think the second recommendation was to answer some of the Objectors. As to the church being dwarfed, they were evidently unaware of the architectural skill of Norman Shaw, and I am only stating a well-known fact in saying his design for St. Margaret’s secured his admission as R.A. to the Royal Academy. St. Mar­garet’s was always his favourite child59, and his interest in it continued right up to his death60.

The second objection very nearly came true, and I will deal with it in due course.

In February, 1877, I find in the Minutes that tenders were accepted for re-painting the temporary church61, so they were still a long way from their goal in securing the permanent church. Mr. Norman Shaw suggested a church to hold 1,000 instead of 600, and there seems to have been a good deal of discussion as to the size of the church. Mr. Norman Shaw gave his ideas, and in January, 1877, plans for a church to seat 1,000 were agreed upon, and it was decided to obtain the various estimates.

Church Finance

At this point I may say a little about finance. The erection of the temporary church and the handing over of £1,000 to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners took practically all the funds in hand, so before starting the permanent church, they had to consider how to raise money. A scheme of collecting was decided on; collecting cards and circulars were issued and other means em­ployed to raise funds. These subscrip­tions were entirely for building, the temporary church being kept going by offertories and guarantors. In Febru­ary, 1876, Mr. Armistead offered to allow 4 per cent. on money deposited, and a circular was issued asking all who had promised, to pay the money into the Bank so as to gain the benefit of the interest. The response had a very stimulating effect on the Commit­tee, and they then pushed forward the building scheme very energetically. At a meeting in October, 1877, all tenders, etc., were on the table, and it was de­cided that, provided satisfactory arrangements could be made with regard to funds, the whole of the nave should be built at once. Plans were passed by Mr. G.E. Street, the diocesan archi­tect, who said in his report, “A very pretty and picturesque church which it is proposed to build by degrees.”

As Mr. J.W. Atkinson62 was building St. John’s63, also a Norman Shaw de­sign, an arrangement was come to whereby a clerk of works and a mortar mill were used for the two buildings. I believe it was desired to have the church built entirely of Ilkley stone64, but this was not fully carried out. In some of the arches a different coloured stone may be seen.

The preliminary work was then commenced, and on May 1, 187865, the foundation stone was laid by the Earl of Wharncliffe66, and it is to be found at the base of the first pillar of the North West aisle67 facing the West door.

Chancel Arch

I have referred earlier to the statement about the church slipping down the hill, and would remind you that it was intended to build the nave only at first, and brick up the chancel arch and build a chancel at a later date when funds permitted, but during the build­ing the builder reported the chancel arch would not stand alone. This was a very serious matter and practically brought about a deadlock. Such an event was entirely unforeseen. It was found it would cost £4,000-£5,000 more to build a chancel, but satisfactory ar­rangements were made with the Brad­ford Old Bank68 and guarantors found. In July, 1879, one of the promoters69 fancied the two pillars at the chancel end were falling. He had tested them himself and saw they were moving daily. The clerk of works said they were not moving, and that the inclina­tion took place a year previously. Mr. Norman Shaw was consulted, and, as a precautionary measure, tie-rods were inserted in each pillar spanning the arches, and after being in position three years, these were removed with the consent of Mr. Shaw, with the ex­ception of the one facing the organ, which it is now proposed to remove. On some of the pillars just above the capitals the places where the tie-rods were placed are still to be seen.

I need not weary you with details of furnishing, etc. The Church was ready and passed by the Diocesan Architect70, and was consecrated71 by the then Bishop of Ripon72, Bishop Bickersteth73, on Sep­tember 10, 1879, and a luncheon was

afterwards held in the College Hall74.

Dr. Armes75, organist of Durham City, was at the organ;

Dr. Gott76, the vicar of Leeds, was the preacher morning and evening77 on the first Sunday, and the offertory was £87.

I am sorry to say the work and worry entailed by the whole scheme had undermined the health of Mr. Danks, and in the end of 1878 he had to take a rest. In June 1879, he was reluctantly obliged to resign78. The Rev. T.H. May79 was placed in temporary charge80 and was in charge when it was consecrated. The Patrons appointed as Vicar, the Rev. H. Bickersteth Ottley81, a graduate of St. John’s College, Oxford, who had been Vicar of Newton-on-Trent, and he was inducted in October, and took up his duties in November 1879.

The total cost of the erection, building, furnishing, etc., of the church was £12,809 16s 4d. To this has to be added the £1000 paid to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, the cost of the erection and taking down of the temporary church82, and legal and other expenses, making in round numbers £15,000, all of which was paid off by March 1, 1886.

The money was collected as follows; -

When the temporary church was used for six months of the year – May to October – the offertories on the first Sunday of the month, less £7 deducted for current expenses, were given to the building fund: a number of subscriptions were given; the Parish Church very generously gave several special collections, and every possible way of raising money was employed. In some of the schools the pupils got up sales of work or entertainments, others organised concerts83, even a football match was pressed into service as I find an entry “Proceeds of a football match per Mr. Cecil Atkinson84.” Bazaars85 were held which raised items as follows: - 1878 - £1450 13s 11d; 1881 - £1,540 7s 11d; 1885 - £1,336 8s 10d. There is also a record of a sale of work promoted by Mrs. Atkinson and held at St. John’s which yielded over £20086.

Early Workers

On Mr. Ottley’s institution he at once set to work to get the parochial machinery into working order. Mr. Mark Robinson87 was appointed verger and Mrs. Leah Rayner doorkeeper and caretaker. Mrs. Rayner was in office until 1900 and I have heard her spoken of very affectionately by a number of the early worshippers. Her memory is commemorated by a brass tablet on the N.W. pillar88. Temporary wardens were appointed, and on Christmas Day a meeting was held in the vestry at 10.00 am., when sidesmen were appointed and four gentlemen, Messrs. F.W. Fison, O. Birchall, J.G. Mammat, and J.W. Atkinson were appointed lay readers. It is interesting to note in the robes closet in the clergy vestry, the names of some of these gentlemen still over the hooks89. A sacristan was also appointed, and I find that in one year two were appointed, but this office seems to have lapsed after a few years.

One of Mr. Ottley’s first acts was the institution of the daily services90. As he was working single-handed help was occasionally necessary, and the Parish Church clergy gave considerable help.

In the first report I do not find any mention of the Sunday school, but half hour services on the second and fourth Sundays were started. Subsequent reports indicated progress, but it appears to have been carried on under difficulties as there was no building which was large enough for the whole school to meet in. Mrs. Ottley91 held the class for young ladies at Belmont, some classes were held in the vestry, and then I find Dropping Well House was rented and used, but there is also mention of classes being held in private houses92. However, the building of St. Margaret’s Hall did away with these difficulties.

A parochial hall on such lines was discussed in Mr. Ottley’s time, but it was not taken up until Canon Dank’s second vicariate93, the wiping off of the building debt on the church taking precedence of any other building scheme. After this was completed, they at once set to work on the terms of the building of St. Margaret’s Hall, and this was completed in 188994.

Permanent Vicarage

There was some difficulty in securing a permanent vicarage. In the days of the “Tin Church” Canon Danks once said that he was a sort of peripatetic wandering vicar95. Mr. Bickersteth Ottley was the same, and it was not until the time of Canon Irton Smith that a permanent vicarage was obtained, but I find entries of grants having been made in lieu of a vicarage.

Mr. Ottley made a speciality of obtaining special preachers, and he himself was a preacher of some repute as I find on one occasion he preached at St. Paul’s, and on another at the Savoy Chapel Royal96.

For several years a ladies’ working party met and made a number of garments for the use of patients in the Leeds Infirmary, and the Girls’ Friendly Society97 was first started in Ilkley in 1882. It was started, of course, for all Ilkley, but its inception was due mainly to Mrs. Ottley.

One of the earliest ideas of Mr. Ottley was the formation of a Parish Council98, and, assisted by Mr. F.W. Fison and Mr. E.W. Crawley, the constitution of such a body was determined on. It was formed very early in the church’s life and still continues, though in a slightly different form99.

The health of Mr. Ottley was somewhat uncertain, and in 1882 he decided to take a trip to the Holy Land100. An anonymous gift of £700 was sent to him and the congregation subscribed £145, and he started his tour in February, 1883.

Finally, the Rev. H. Bickersteth Ottley101 resigned, preaching his last sermon on January 29, 1884102, and became vicar of Horsham. He was made Hon. Canon of Canterbury in 1907, and afterwards acted for some years as the secretary of the Imperial Sunday Alliance103.

On the resignation of the Rev. H. Bickersteth Ottley, Canon Danks, who had recovered health, was invited to return104 and was warmly welcomed.

The youngest child of Thomas Danks, of Sherwood House105, New Basford, he was born in September 1845, and married in 1869, Helena, the daughter of Thomas Manlove, of Nottingham. The Rev. W. H. Shaw106 gives a vivid picture of him when he says: —

“In 1877 I came to live at Ilkley, and used to listen every Sunday in a temporary wooden church, on the hillside to the young incumbent of St. Margaret’s (Canon Danks) with his strange, unforgettable voice, his stern note against conventional Christianity, his quotations from John Stewart Mill107 and Huxley108 and Ruskin109, and all the heretics, his strong undercurrent of tender religiousness and Christ worship. His doctrines, shocking then, almost orthodox now, scared old women of both sexes out of their wits. They gave new life and inspiration to us younger folk110.”

During his second vicariate111 Canon Danks was offered and declined a New Zealand Bishopric. He became an Arch­deacon of Ripon in 1894112; and was made Canon of Ripon in 1896, and Canon of Canterbury in 1908113. A tablet to his memory is placed in the North Wall of the church114.

Canon Danks was succeeded in 1890 by Canon Irton Smith115, who was vicar to 1908. He was made Rural Dean of Otley in 1898, and hon. Canon of Ripon in 1905. He became Vicar of Leigh, (Lancs.) and afterwards went to the South of England116. He was followed by Canon H.J. Glennie117 who was vicar from 1908 to 1922, and was made hon. Canon of Bradford in 1921.

The present vicar, the Rev. A.B. Carter118, has held the office since 1922.

Notable Curates

At first the income scarcely allowed of a curate being kept, and I note a gift by a lady of £80, for the purpose of obtaining clerical assistance, but in 1892 the Rev. S.C. Lowry was appointed curate. He had been curate at Doncaster Parish Church, and I find from Crock­ford, he is a vicar at Bournemouth. Whilst he was here, Mr. H.C. Pollock, son of Chief Baron Pollock119, came and was ordained, and was curate for a time at a stipend of 5s. a year. After he left120, a curate was engaged regularly.

It is of course well known that two curates of St. Margaret’s have risen to Episcopal rank, Mr. Lucius Smith121 now Bishop of Knaresborough, was curate in 1886 and 1887, and the Rev. G.H. Frodsham122, now Bishop Frodsham of Halifax, was curate from 1891 to 1896. Mr. W. Hudson Shaw was hon. curate in 1887, 1888 and 1889. Other curates included the Reverends Corbett, M. Moone, Joseph Prime, W. Mann Statham123 (hon. curate), Austin A. Slack, W.A. Spence, H.R. Dixon, C.S. Thomas, J. Raper, P. Dodd, A.H.E. Lee, A. Mounsell, P.B. Robin124, W.D. Geare125 (who was Chaplain to the Forces 1916-17, and killed in action July 31st 1917), J.H. Glover, E.P. Orr, B.V. Burroughs, and O.H. Gibbs-Smith126.

Many Gifts

The church has received many valu­able gifts. The first organ127 was not included in the cost, but was subscribed for separately, and was obtained by Mr. E.W. Crawley at a cost of about £300. This was afterwards sold to a chapel near Rawdon and is still in use. The musical portion of the services was under the guidance of Mr. E.W. Crawley128 as hon. precentor, ably seconded by Mr. E.W. Dean as organist, and a very high standard of musical excellence was set and maintained for some years129. Several oratorios were given. Mr. Dean was organist until 1894, and Mr. Craw­ley continued as precentor until 1899, when he resigned, and at the formal opening of St. Margaret’s Hall, a presentation was made to him. The present organ130 was obtained in 1901 and cost approximately £2,000. It is interesting to note in this connection that part of the jubilee fund is intended to go towards the renovation of this organ131.

The lectern was bought by the church but its cost was defrayed gradually by Mr. Evans, Mrs. Fletcher, a visitor from Sheffield, gave a Faldstool132, which, however is not the present one in use, as this was given at a much later date by the Goodricke family. The pulpit was given by the Birbeck family in memory of I.L. Birbeck, who had gone to South Africa, and fell during the first South African or Majuba Cam­paign. The children gave the window133 over the vestry steps: This is a very pretty one, and it is to be regretted it is seen by so few. The children also gave a second window, the beautiful Burne Jones134 window by the South door. There is a window given by the rela­tives of the late Matthew Todd135, an early worshipper and supporter; this window has been the subject of controversy, some contending the colour scheme is not in harmony with the general decoration of the church. Objection has also been made to the de­signing in the window: if you look at the Levite in the left hand lancet it is difficult to tell which way he is going. Various gifts of altar linen, service books and other furnishing were given at different times. Mr. F.W. Fison gave a second chalice. Numerous gifts were given in later years, but it would be beyond the scope of this article to enumerate them. There is still room for further beautification, and if anyone wishes further to enrich the church, I have no doubt the vicar and church­wardens will gladly receive any such gifts.

Footnotes

1 Originally a series of four weekly parts published in The Ilkley Gazette and beginning on Friday 31st May 1929, as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations. By special request, the lecture (“which will last one hour, and is open to all”) was repeated in the Club Room, Wells Road on Wednesday 16th October at 6.00 p.m. The notes suggest there had been a lecture some years earlier as one of the notebooks (see preface) gives the list of current patrons as including J Cecil Atkinson, who died in 1923 (see footnote 84).

2 Mr Hewitt’s daughter was Miss Edith Hewitt, a loyal member of the St Margaret’s congregation, who died in 1991.

3 Canon C C Bell of York Minster, The Bishop of Wakefield, Bishop Lucius Smith, the Bishop of Knaresborough, Bishop Frodsham and Bishop Gore all preached in the week of jubilee services in July 1929.

4 Edward W Crawley, Honorary Precentor and benefactor, whose name crops up throughout this account.

5 The Parish Church had been restored in 1830, 1850 and again in 1860 when the nave and aisles had been lengthened by 16 feet.

6 The Methodist Church on Wells Road was dedicated in 1870.

7 Ilkley Congregational Church was built on The Grove in 1869, its first service being on 16th June.

8 The Friends, who had been using a house on Wells Road in the early 1860s, opened their Meeting House on Queens’ Road on 16th May 1869.

9 John Snowden was born in Durham on February 6th, 1806 and after serving a curacy in Stockton, moved to Ilkley on August 4th, 1842. Over the next thirty-five years he was at the centre of the growing community. He was responsible for two major building projects, the enlarging of the church at a cost of £1,300, completed in May 1861 and also the Ilkley Hospital, completed in 1862 at a cost of £3,016. Education was his next target, with the building of the All Saints' National Schools, which opened in July 1872. Buildings to educate 440 children cost £3,000. He also was responsible for The Church Institute, opened as a church hall in 1875 in Leeds Road, and has been more recently used by The Operatic Society. He died after a fall down the vicarage stairs on February 5th 1878, so did not see the opening of St. Margaret's in 1879. His wife had died some 25 years earlier. He grew to be a friend of, and benefactor to, the new church. Canon Danks’ appraisal of him ran, "Anyone more gentle, more genial, more courageous, self-forgetful, it has never been my lot to meet. You may have vicars more energetic, but you will never see one wiser".

10 William Fison and his partner, the Liberal-Quaker politician and M.P for Bradford William Edward Forster owned and ran Greenholme Mill in Burley in Wharfedale. Although undoubted philanthropists, each made a sizeable fortune from cloth and yarn. William died in 1900. His eldest son Frederick William Fison, born on the 4th December 1847, was an important factor in the development of the church. He was a most generous benefactor, donating £736 1s 9d, as well as being a guarantor in the additional sum of £1,200. Other members of the Fison family raised a further £570, making them the greatest contributors to the church. At the Luncheon to mark the consecration of the church Mr F S Powell said of F W Fison “if he did not conceive the idea, (he) was the first to give form to the project, and had since carried it out most energetically.”

F W Fison (Sir Fred, as he was known after the creation of the baronetcy in 1905) was M.P. for the West Riding Doncaster Division between 1895 and 1906. He died on 20th December 1927.

The only Fison memorial in St Margaret’s is to Hugh Valentine Fison, the second son on F W Fison and his wife Isabel. Hugh died of enteric fever at Alexandria on 5th October 1989 at the age of 23, after fighting with his regiment at the battle of Omdurman.
11 Mr Harrison, M.D., MRCS England, LAC London, had been one of the first members of the local Board of Health.

12 The Wells House Hydropathic Establishment had opened in 1856 and became very popular because, although initially it did not possess its own internal baths, it was only a short distance (aided by the services of local entrepreneur Donkey Jackson - supplier of horses) from White Wells where the cold water cure could be taken. An early visitor to Wells House was Charles Darwin who came to take the waters in 1859, at the time of the publication of his most famous book, Origin of Species.

13 The Ilkley Gazette of March 13th 1873 reported: - “It has been decided to erect a new Episcopal Church in this town. For some time past, and especially during “the season”, the parish church has been found totally inadequate to accommodate the large numbers attending the services and steps have been taken to provide a new building. We hail the foregoing with pleasure and sincerely hope that the work will soon be completed, so as to enable the pleasure-seekers, during “the season”, the facility of public worship.”

14 The Middelton family had been Lords of the Manor of Ilkley for many years. In 1490 there was mention of a Peter Middelton, knight, and by the late 16th century there are records of both Stubham (later Middleton) Lodge and Stubham Park, an estate for hunting of game that surrounded the Lodge. The Middelton family was Roman Catholic, facing many difficulties and steep fines for its recusancy. Indeed, before it became the family’s principal home in 1793, when William Middelton (formerly Constable) settled locally, the Lodge was often temporary home for Roman Catholic clergy. William lived at the Lodge until his death in 1847, when his son Peter succeeded him. Peter himself died in 1866 when his own son William became resident at the Lodge and Lord of the Manor. His religious beliefs disqualified him from Patronage of either All Saints or St. Margaret’s Churches, although the Lord of the Manor often filled such a role. William Middelton also donated land at Stockeld Road (named after Stockeld Park, Wetherby, also part of the Middelton Estate) for the Church of the Sacred Heart which was opened on 23rd July 1879, just weeks before St. Margaret’s. He died, aged 71, on 26th February 1885. Rev. William Danks attended his funeral, having recently been re-appointed as Vicar.

15 John Milner was a Photographic Artist who lived in West View House, Ilkley. He was an early member of the board of the Ilkley Water Works Co. at a time when controversy brought about the resignation of all elected members.

16 The family of William Margerison, born 8th September 1843, owned property in the area. His grandfather took up residence in Manningham, Bradford in 1803. He is described as “Gentleman of Ilkley and Bradford”.

17 In a short history of the scheme to mark the Consecration, The Ilkley Gazette names Mr Fison and Mr H A Thorne as Secretaries.

18 Craven Bank was the first bank in the area, opening in Settle in 1791. Its founder was a Mr Birkbeck. In days before the centralization of issue of Bank notes, the Craven Bank issued a pound note featuring the famous craven heifer (beloved of public house signs). In 1906 the bank changed its name to The Bank of Liverpool. In 1928 Martins Bank Ltd. became its owners until 1969 when Martins were taken over by Barclays.

19 Pew Rents were a controversial issue for a new church. The provision, at a price, of pews to the wealthy families of the area was a good source of regular income for a church. Many clerics continued to support the practice, although there was evidence that the practice was responsible for keeping working people away from services. Rev. W R Wroth spoke for them in an address to the Church Congress of 1863: - “We don’t like to go where we don’t appear to be wanted – where we have to sit in seats marked “free seats” or “for the poor”, and where rich folk seem to think we ain’t fit to come near ‘em”.

In 1834, when Ilkley’s population was 940, All Saints Church seated 611 people, 111 sittings (65 of which were free) having been added that year. By the 1890’s most pews were free, but the issue was important for all new churches, as we shall see.
As late as 1936, the cover of the St. Margaret’s Church magazine announced “All kneelings free; liberal offerings essential; upkeep expenses (including 5 stipends) £1250.”

20 Richard Norman Shaw was born in Edinburgh in 1831 and after articles with William Burn spent a year abroad, returning to publish a volume of architectural sketches. He started his own practise in London in 1862, becoming A.R.A. in 1862 and R.A. in 1877. (The plans of St. Margaret’s are to be found at the Academy by reason of this.) He trained in the Gothic style of architecture. He built a number of town houses (often including studios for artist clients) in a style based on English vernacular buildings. Best remembered for the design of New Scotland Yard (1891), he also was responsible for the extension to Bradford Town Hall. He was highly regarded by his contemporaries for the sincerity in his art. He died in 1912, retaining an interest in the furnishing of St. Margaret’s into his old age.

21 The Patron of the Church was an important role, whose involvement was required for many aspects of change in a parish, especially the appointment of a new incumbent. The Patron could be an individual or a corporate body. Historically, patronage was justified because a new church would usually be built at the expense of a local dignitary, and often on his land. His role as Patron ensured that he would retain some involvement with (or control of) his investment in the future. At this time the right of patronage was a form of property that could be bequeathed or sold at the choice of the patron. This position changed with the passing of the Benefices Act 1898 (Amendment) Measure 1923 which made the majority of patronages unsaleable.

22 The procedure for the establishing of a new church was tortuous, despite legislation introduced from 1843 (The New Parishes Act) onwards. There were two separate issues on which the Ecclesiastical Commissioners had to give approval. The first was the building of the church, and the second was whether the new church should have its own parish, or be part of a pre-existing benefice. In this case a new parish was to be created. This impinged upon the rights and property of Mr Lionel Hartley, the Patron of Ilkley Parish Church. Initially he had given approval and consented when a conveyance for the purchase of the church land had been drawn up. However in a letter of 10th July 1875, he indicated that he had no intention of giving up his assignable rights absolutely, and withdrew his co-operation: -

“Your draft conveyance goes beyond this and makes me deal with my successor’s interests, which I decline to do”.

A Deed of Agreement to which the Bishop, the Patron and the Incumbent of the mother parish would subscribe was now out of the question.

This meant that an additional application had to be made by the promoters under the Church Building (Private Patronage) Acts in respect of the patronage of a proposed church and for it to be assigned, when consecrated, a particular district (parish).

This in turn meant that St. Margaret’s must stand on its own feet. It could not rely on the stability of All Saints Church and must prove itself to be financially viable.

At this point the decision about free seats became crucial. Under the Church Building Act (1818) and the New Parishes Act (1843 and 1856) the Ecclesiastical Commissioner would order that no less than 1/5th of the seats be free seats, set aside for the poor of the parish, and the rest would be let at a rate to be fixed by the commissioners. Thus would a regular income be established.

In the case of a church needing to go down the Private Patronage route and which had decided not to charge pew rents, other safeguards had to be found. Accordingly the commissioners required that the promoters must provide a Church satisfactory to the Board and the establishment of an endowment of £1,000 together with a repair fund of between £150 and £200. Until these issues were resolved, the church building site could not be legally conveyed. The application was submitted by 3rd March 1877 and the statutory notices were served by June of that year. The Instrument of Patronage was eventually forwarded to the Diocese on the 2nd September 1879, in time for the Consecration.

Although the Ecclesiastical Commissioners retained the power to distribute grants (they were now responsible for Queen Anne’s Bounty) the provision of such endowment gave rise to “no claim to a grant”. This seems to have been the case for St. Margaret’s, as the final accounts make no reference to such a grant.

There is an intriguing, and unexplained, letter in the archive album, immediately preceding the correspondence from Mr Lionel Hartley. In a letter to Mr F W Fison of 2nd March 1875, the Office of the Registrar in Lunacy, Chancery Lane, London confirms that the “Commission of Lunacy in the case of Mr Leonard Lawrie Hartley was superseded on 6th Feby. 1860.” Mr L L Hartley had been the Patron of All Saints at the time of the appointment of Rev. Snowden, the Hartley family having inherited the patronage from the Bowles.
Were the sponsors seeking to by-pass the lack of co-operation from Mr N L Hartley (by the eighth meeting of the committee, he had failed to reply to correspondence and Rev. Snowden was undertaking to contact him), by calling into question the validity of his appointment as Patron of All Saints due to the mental health of his predecessor?
Interestingly, by the time of the appointment of Rev. A C Downer to the living of All Saints in 1878, the patronage had vested personally in Bishop Bickersteth, Bishop of Ripon.

23 A public benefactor, Francis Sharp Powell, later created a baronet in 1892, who was born in Wigan in 1827, was MP for that town from 1857-59 and again from 1885-1910. Today he is better known in his home town by his statue in Mesnes Park; a touch of its ‘golden’ foot is said to bring good luck! He was also active in Bradford politics being the successful candidate for the Northern Division of the West Riding from 1872 – 74 and was made a Freeman of the City of Bradford in 1902. His home, at the time of his death was Horton Old Hall in Bradford. He had also served as MP for Cambridge in the 1860s. He donated £530 to the building appeal as well as guaranteeing a further £200. He died on Christmas Eve 1911, maintaining the position of trustee of the church until his death.

24 C. Alfred Harris jnr., Banker of Kirkby Lonsdale, was a member of the founding family of the Bradford Old Bank.

25 The curate, Rev. C R Greene, conducted these auxiliary services with Mr Crawley taking responsibility for the choral parts of the service. Here can be found the beginnings of what was to become the St. Margaret’s Church choir.

26 Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 1st Earl of Cranbrook, (1814-1906), British statesman, was born at Bradford on the 1st of October 1814. He entered active political life in 1847, standing as an unsuccessful candidate in Bradford. In 1856 he was returned for Leominster, and in 1865 defeated Mr Gladstone at Oxford. In 1866 he became president of the Poor Law Board and in 1874 he was secretary for war; and when in 1878 Lord Salisbury took over from Lord Derby at the Foreign Office, Viscount Cranbrook (as Mr Hardy became within a month afterwards) succeeded him at the India Office. He took this opportunity of assuming the additional family surname of Gathorne, which had been that of his mother. He sat on Royal Commission on Cathedral Churches, 1879-85 and was regarded as a good debater and platform speaker, an ardent sportsman and broad churchman. His was a somewhat second-hand involvement with the church, which he acknowledged in correspondence. He enclosed a bank draft for £25 in his letter of the 3rd January 1872 (not 29th as above).

27 David Carpenter (Ilkley: The Victorian Age) notes “The period 1861-71 saw the township’s population increase from 1043 to 2511, a phenomenal growth of 141%.” Rev. Robert Collyer in his much earlier work noted that in 1861 there were 197 houses, a figure which by 1871 had grown to 397.

28 A letter to The Ilkley Gazette of June 4th 1874 spells out the problems: - “The temporary Church will be a welcome relief, and the sooner it is ready the less likely shall we be to have a repetition of the scene which occurred on Sunday Morning, of young ladies fainting, caused no doubt partly by the overcrowding (of the Parish Church), and more probably by the hasty preparations to get to Church in time to obtain a seat.” The anonymous writer went on to suggest that arrangements might be made so that pupils of young ladies’ schools might sit together.

29 A movement in the Church of England that sought to restore High Church principles. Begun by churchmen at Oxford University in the 1830s, it had a radical (and divisive) effect upon the church. It led the way in issues of worship and ceremonial matters, but also in social issues, connected with life in Victorian cities. During the celebrations of the centenary of the movement in 1933, Rev. A H Wellington (who had been appointed Vicar in January 1931, on the resignation of Rev. Basil Carter) stated at a public meeting that all of them who entered St. Margaret’s Church at any time owed all they valued most in their spiritual life to the Oxford movement.

30 In one notebook can be found the following: - “general idea καθολίκοσ (sic) but not advanced.”

31 Walter Farquhar Hook was born in 1798. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford, his first living was Holy Trinity, Coventry, before he moved to Leeds Parish Church in 1837. Within a year of that appointment, he had preached at the Chapel Royal, affirming the apostolic succession of Anglican orders, and went on to rebuild Leeds Parish Church in 1841. He had left Leeds to become the Dean of Chichester in 1859 to his death in 1875. His influence on the renewal of parish life and worship was considerable.

32 One version of the notes here adds “Also liked a good dinner and bottle of Port”!

33 Marshall Hainsworth, a mason and builder, lived on Crossbeck Road, and built two semi-detached villas near to his home.

34 Another version of the notes says “The real difficulty (about the question of Patronage) was Rev. J. S(nowden). Wanted to get the patronage into the hands of either the patron of All Saints or the Vicar of Ilkley, and was very obstinate. At last he was told if he persisted in his attitude ‘he would go down to posterity as the man who opposed Church expansion in Ilkley.’”

35 In the earliest draft of the lectures (pre-1923), Sir F.W. Fison, now a baronet, was still listed amongst the patrons. He had died some two years before these articles were published.

36 The present patrons are The Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield.

37 Viscount Irwin, the latest holder of the title of the Ingram family, whose home (up to its purchase by the Leeds City Council in 1922) had been Temple Newsam.

38 Rt. Rev. Bernard Heywood had been Vicar of Leeds from 1917 to 1926. He was consecrated Bishop of Southwell in 1926, becoming Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of York between 1929 and 1931. For the next three years he was Bishop Suffragan of Hull, and then became Bishop of Ely, where he served between 1934 and 1940. He retired to Buckingham and died on 13th March 1960.

39 A solicitor who practised in Leeds, Sir Arthur Copson Peake was President of the Law Society in 1922 at a time when such office holders received an automatic knighthood.

40 In documentation of the time, it is recorded that the first donation was received on 12th March 1874.

41 Another version spells it out more clearly; - “The Vicar had a daughter named Margaret to whom he was much attached and the Church was named after her. This considerably mollified his opposition.” Rev. Snowden’s wife, who had died in 1853, was also called Margaret. There is a window dedicated in her memory in All Saints, Ilkley.

42 There is the following note in the same version: - “Miss Snowden was alive a few years ago.”

43 The Ecclesiastical Commissioners were not alone in their concerns to avoid the problem of funding to pay for the upkeep of the church. Bishop Bickersteth, Bishop of Ripon wrote (although not referring to the St. Margaret’s scheme), “I find no difficulty in getting funds to build a church. But when you remind persons that clergymen must live, and ask for an endowment, there is the greatest difficulty in obtaining it.”

44 It was constructed by William Hartley, joiner and cabinetmaker, and inaugural chairman of the second Ilkley Local Board of Health.

45 The Tin Church stood at the foot of The Drive. It was used as a place of worship and Sunday School in 1880 to 1881 and was subsequently used as a church hall. It was still standing until quite recently and modern photographs of it still exist.

46 Mr Edward Sewell was head of the college and a supporter of the new church. In an intriguing letter of 18th March 1874 he writes of his efforts to engage the interest of, and money from, the nobility. He believes that he is sufficiently well connected with the Marquis of Ripon to obtain support, and makes further reference to “the Ducal Family” as a source of further assistance. The accounts show that the Marquis (then Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England) donated £10 10s.

47 This somewhat grudging comment makes more sense when seen in the context of Rev. Snowden’s attitude towards the new church, as revealed in the other notebooks. In one of them, this particular phrase is described as his “parting kick”!

48 He was curate in charge of Rainhill in Liverpool. His appointment had been heralded by his preaching at morning prayer at All Saints’ Church in July 1874

49 In an article of August 1874, The Ilkley Gazette describes the building as follows: -

“The building, devoid of any outward ornamentation, is 64 feet long and 30 feet wide, the extreme height being 19 feet and to the inside square 13 feet. At the west end there is a vestry and porch, the former measuring 12 feet by 12 feet and the latter 12 feet by 7 feet.” The building was “well lighted with five windows on each side, looking north and south; a good sized window in the east and a neatly peaked one looking west.” There were seats for 40.

After a year (to quote from a notebook) there was a “complaint about the ventilation; the matter was much ‘ventilated’”, (and you thought the current editor’s humour was forced!)

The following donations were noted in The Ilkley Free Press: - Communion Plate (Mr A Harris, jnr. of Bradford), brass altar desk, service book and lectern (Mr Fison), loan of harmonium (Mrs Fison), offertory bags (Mr R Nicholson), 16” alms dish (Mrs A M Allbutt), altar cloth in crimson and gold (Mr D Stansfield), credence table (Mr H Leather), chancel carpet (Mr H Thornton), Hymns A & M and psalters (Mr W Margerison and Mr Crawley, who also collected and arranged a chant book), matting for the aisles (Thos. Crabtree and Mr E H Knight), mats (Mr Armistead) and a bell (Mr E H Wade). The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge made a grant for purchase of quarto service books.

50 On the 4th August 1874 a fee of a guinea (£1.05) was paid for a “Bishop’s licence for performance of Divine Service in St. Margaret’s Mission Church, Ilkley.” The Bishop of Ripon dedicated the temporary church on the 9th August 1874.

51 As The Ilkley Free Press reported: - “… and the choir, 25 in number, who for the first time appeared ensconced in surplices, subscribed for by that number of persons.” It should be remembered that one of the innovations of the Oxford Movement was the wearing, by the preacher, of a surplice instead of a black gown. Wearing of Eucharistic robes became one of the “six points” adopted by the extreme Anglo-Catholic churches in the 1860s – others being use of the eastward position, lighted candles on the altar, use of communion wafers, use of incense, and the mixing of wine and water in the chalice. In 1871, all except candles and, strangely, incense, had been ruled illegal by the Privy Council in the prosecution of Rev. John Purchas, the Vicar of St. James’, Brighton. In 1889, the protestant Church Association prosecuted Edward King, the Bishop of Lincoln, for sanctioning, inter alia, the use of the Agnus Dei.

52 It is reported that at the 8.00 am choral celebration there was a moderate attendance of communicants. The 10.45 morning service revealed “the choir very creditably singing the responses.” Rev. Danks preached his first sermon on the text “Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Corinthians, ch. 2, v. 16)
Rev. Snowden preached at evening service.

53 In succeeding years, confidence had risen sufficiently to purchase the cassocks. By August 1879, Mr Crawley had raised, through subscriptions, £15 9s. 6d. for the purchase of cassocks, which with the proceeds of a tea on 10th November (£11 14s. 7d.) raised most of the £31 required to purchase 214 yards of material from Hird Bros. of Bradford, and for them to me made up by William West & Co. of Leeds. From the report of the consecration in The Ilkley Free Press: - “A special feature in the service was the choir, dressed in their new cassocks.”

54 Another version reads “There was a surpliced choir, and for a time there was a good deal of controversy over the services.” (emphasis added). The suggestion that the services rather than the vestments caused the trouble is confirmed in the following, “Unfortunately, several members of the congregation were running with the hares also and one member had (?)examined a copy of the ordinary Service paper and made a good deal of ‘Processional.’”

In the Book of Common Prayer, the only reference to a procession is in the funeral service.

The controversy did not appear to reach the Correspondence columns of either The Ilkley Free Press or Gazette in the months that followed, more interest being generated by the Brook Street Fountain!

55 There were a number of riots at the Ritualist churches which pioneered practices which are today not only accepted, but are the norm in all flavours of churchmanship.

Rt. Rev. Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1903 to 1928, submitted to the Report of the Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Discipline his view “that whereas cassocks, surpliced choirs, processional hymns, chanted psalms and the like had once been the cause of disturbance and even riot, by the end of the century they were widely accepted as normal.” (quote from The Prayer Book in the Victorian Era: R.C.D. Jasper)

56 Although extreme and controversial for Wharfedale, it is improbable that the early services at St. Margaret’s reached the heights of solemn rituals to be experienced at such churches as St. Albans, Holborn. A contemporary description of a Mass for the Feast of the Purification in 1873 shows how far things had moved in parts of the Church of England, and how far things could still move for new churches like St. Margaret’s. It was only on the 31st July 1925 that The Church Times was able to report that “recently the weekly sung Mass, with vestments, has been introduced (at St. Margaret’s).”

57 The Old Testament Kings’ window was given in memory of Henry Dean, a former chorister, who served with the Northumberland Fusiliers and died in Egypt after the battle of Omdurman in 1898.

The plaque commemorating his contemporary Hugh Fison who died after the same battle is, appropriately, adjacent to the window.

58 Not everyone approved of the building.

It provoked controversy by protracted correspondence in The Ilkley Gazette which was summed up (and concluded) by a writer revelling in the nom de plume, Sartor Resartus, in a letter dated June 2nd 1874 refers to “the wooden church, about which (according to one of the scribes) there is only one idea prevalent, that is “That it will be a hideous and unsightly object.” He goes on to say that he readily admits “that the structure has no claims or pretensions to architectural beauty or ecclesiastical design”, but points out the temporary nature of the building.

It could be, and was beautified.

A report of the first Harvest Festival of Sunday 19th September 1874 noted that “the seating accommodation of the place was fully taxed” and that “flowers gracefully hung from the gasoliers of each beam on the north and south aisles.”

Fruit from that service was later taken to the Ilkley Charity Hospital.

59 In a letter of the 4th December 1878, he enclosed a donation of £20 to the building fund. He mentioned how impressed he had been with the money raising.

60 The topic of the canopy over the font (which was dedicated on 20th July 1911) was one that was only resolved shortly before Shaw’s death in the following year. His very last valedictory letter to the church was written the day after the dedication. He wrote to Rev. Glennie: - “I thought of you last night between 8 and 9, and trust that all went well. I have no doubt you had a characteristic sermon from Canon Danks. He was always interesting! I should like to have been present, but Alas! that is not possible, as I hardly get out at all now, and have neither strength or spirit left.”

61 £18 18s was paid for “painting, varnishing, colouring the inside of the new wood church at Ilkley”. Clearly, the tin was less obvious inside the building.

62 John William Atkinson, solicitor, was one of the early partners of Dibb, Atkinson & Braithwaite, later Dibb & Co. He donated £101 10s. and was a guarantor in the sum of £200.

63 St. John’s, Queens Road, Ilkley is a fine example of Shaw’s style of design for town houses. It is now a series of flats. It was the scene of a very successful sale of works, organised by Mrs Atkinson.

64 The stone was obtained from B Whitaker & Sons, of Horsforth.

65 The ceremonies began with “a choral celebration of the holy sacrament” at 9.30 am, followed by a procession to the new site whilst Psalms 84 and 122 were sung. An introductory prayer in Latin was intoned before the stone was laid. A bottle was placed in the stone, containing recent copies of The Ilkley Gazette, The Ilkley Free Press and The Otley & Ilkley Guardian, together with the Order of Service and a set of gold and silver coins minted in 1877.

66 Edward Stuart-Wortley, 3rd Baron Wharncliffe (1827 – 1899). His grandfather had been a politician and statesman, after a short military career. Although a Tory, his views altered both with regard to Catholic emancipation and the Reform Bill that he helped to guide through the House of Lords. Edward Stuart-Wortley succeeded his father (the second Earl) in 1855. Very much a man of his time, the third earl was greatly associated with the railways. He was chairman of the Manchester, Lincoln and Sheffield Railway, which under his guidance became the Great Central. He had been created 1st Earl of Wharncliffe and Viscount Carlton in 1876.

67 In one of the notebooks, it is noted that: - “I find the stone was not placed in accordance with Masonic tradition. (The) Foundation stone is at NW; Mas(onic) trad(ition) says NE.”

68 On 2nd May 1803, uncle and nephew Edmund Peckover and Charles Harris, members of a Quaker family, started the Harris & Co, which was Bradford’s first bank. They sought advice from Mr Birkbeck of the Craven Bank (see 17 above), who advised them that there was no need for another bank as they were already established in Leeds, Halifax and Settle. Despite this gloomy advice, they persevered. Their original premises were in what was to become Bank Street and the firm became, in turn, Harris’ Bank and then Bradford Old Bank. The Bank continued to thrive, until it became part of Barclays. As well as Bank Street, Bradford has Peckover Street and Harris Street to commemorate its founders.

69 It was Mr E W Crawley who wrote on August 5th 1879. In addition to his musical contributions, he donated £52 and was a guarantor in the sum of £200.

70 The church was also surveyed in August 1879 by Ewan Christain, Esq., on behalf of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England.

71 The Bishop and clergy processed into church to Psalm 24. After the legal formalities were concluded, morning prayer (Mattins) was sung. Rev. T H May lead the prayers, and the two lessons were read by Rev. Arthur Cleveland Downer, the new Vicar of All Saints, and Rev. Ottley. The Te Deum was sung to a unison setting in Bb by E J Hopkins, together with a unison setting of the Jubilate in F by Berthold Tours. The hymns O Praise ye the Lord, Veni Creator, to the tune St. Anne (this was presumably the translation “Come Holy Ghost, Eternal God”, to be found as Hymn 508 in Hymns Ancient & Modern) and the Old Hundredth were also sung. There followed the Ante-Communion (without celebration) during which the Nicene Creed was “recited in G, with organ accompaniment”. The Bishop preached, taking as his text “The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth light” from 2 Corinthians, ch. 3. v. 6.

700 service books were printed for the consecration service at a cost of £2. 2s. 0d. Regrettably, there is no copy in the archives.

72 Although St. Margaret’s is now within the Bradford Diocese, this did not come into being until 1919.

73 Robert Bickersteth was born in 1816 and after graduating from Queens’ College, Cambridge in 1841 became secretary to the Irish Church Missions. Three years as treasurer at Salisbury led to his enthronement as Bishop of Ripon in 1857. He died in 1884. Part of a famous evangelical family, he had a reputation as a fine preacher. Although he spoke against High Church theology in a number of his Diocesan Charges to his clergy, his episcopate was an even handed one for a diocese that still included the conurbations of Leeds (with Rev. Hook), Bradford and Huddersfield. He saw himself as a Bishop who happened to be an Evangelical, rather than the Bishop of an Evangelical Diocese. In his 28 years as Bishop, he consecrated 157 new or re-built churches, a figure which does not include temporary meeting rooms and churches like our own “Tin Hut”.

74 Some 300 guests sat down for luncheon, which was carried out under the supervision of the manager of the Middelton Hotel.
F S Powell presided, and apologies were given for the absence of Viscount Cranbrook, who was detained by reason of his duties as the Indian Secretary. (A recent massacre in Kabul foretold of further military action in Afghanistan.)

The Bishop commented of the church that “there were some connected with Ilkley who were so impressed with it as to think that it should be the seat of a bishopric.”

Mr Fison, in paying tribute to the late vicar-designate showed a remarkable gift of prophecy when, noting that he was too ill to attend, suggested that “should Mr Danks’ health be restored he would undoubtedly find a place for himself wherever he might be, and they in Ilkley would not have heard the last of him.”

Rev. Bickersteth Ottley, the Vicar Designate, also spoke at the luncheon, stating that he was astonished and delighted with the church, and that the choir was a treat to hear. Mr Fison noted that in all the letters received regarding his appointment, there had been only one sentence of caution, and that from his uncle, the Bishop, who “thought he was too young, but that he would soon get over that.” Tributes were also paid to Rev. T H May.

75 Philip Armes was born in Norfolk in 1836 and died in Durham in 1908. He was educated as a chorister at Norwich and Rochester, when the Dean and Chapter presented him with the gift of a grand piano in appreciation of his skills as soloist. He became organist at Chichester in 1861, moving to Durham Cathedral the following year, where he held the post until the year before his death. He set the first examinations for music degrees at Durham University in 1890, and was appointed Professor of Music in 1897.

In 1879, as General William Booth was doing his Lord’s work in the North East, a reporter for The Northern Star compared a Salvationist Meeting with the recent enthronement of a Bishop in Durham. Armes came in for special mention.
“All the clergy of the diocese, habited in snowy surplice and many-coloured hoods, defiled in long procession down the nave and took up positions in the choir and beneath the tower, adding thereby immensely to the beauty of the building.
In the other case, the worshippers assembled within the walls of a theatre, in the public streets, or within the unfinished walls of a public hall. The services were conducted by men and women who were destitute of any pretensions to culture. In place of the organ on which Dr. Armes discoursed sweet music in the Cathedral, the Tyneside congregations had to content themselves with the solitary strains of the Hallelujah fiddle.”

76 John Gott was born in 1830. He became Vicar of Leeds in 1873, remaining there until his appointment as dean of Worcester in 1886. Whilst at Leeds he founded the Leeds Clergy School. He became the Bishop of Truro in 1891, remaining there until his death in 1906. He preached in the morning (Sunday 14th September) “to an overflowing congregation.”

77 The Ilkley Free Press reported that it was Rev. T H May who preached in the evening when “the noble church was again crowded.”

78 He wrote to the parish on July 8th 1879, “ The morning on which I write these words is one of the saddest of my life. Though I am assured of ultimate restoration to health, the work (at St. Margaret’s) cannot be allowed to wait during the long rest I need.” He went to Exeter immediately after the resignation, but his adventures were just beginning. In February 1884, The Ilkley Gazette gave details of his subsequent journeying: - “In January 1880 he crossed the seas in search of his health, sailing through the Panama Isthmus, along the coast of Central America and Mexico to San Francisco, California.” There he took charge of a suburban district, but was forced to return home due to his wife’s ill-health. Upon his return to England, Mr Howard, M.P., asked him to become chaplain of Castle Howard. In July 1883 he was appointed to the living of New Basford, his home town.

79 Thomas Henry May was born in Brompton on 26th May 1851. His wife Caroline was the daughter of a Leeds Solicitor, Henry Nelson. An assistant Master at Giggleswick Grammar School between 1871 and 1874, he was priested the following year and served curacies in Bramley, Preston and Leeds Parish Church, his position when he took up temporary duties at St Margaret’s. He moved to the Chester diocese in 1889 and was Rector of Heswall until 1921. He was made Canon of Chester Cathedral in 1914, and was appointed the Cathedral Librarian in 1922. He died on 30th March 1932.

80 He is recorded as being in temporary charge between February 1879 and September 1879, but elsewhere the dates are given as 1878-79). In one of the notebook is the following: - “Mr Danks had arranged to pay him, but the church did so.”

The Ilkley Gazette of 7th August 1879 noted that Rev. T H May “is held in high esteem by a considerable number of church people, desirous that he should be favoured with the appointment.”
It was not to be.

81 Fielding Henry Bickersteth Ottley was born in the North Riding in 1851, being the son of the Rector of Richmond. He married Marian Marriott of Devizes on 14th September 1876 and in 1881, at the age of 30, he became Vicar of St. Margaret’s. The couple had two sons, Fielding Henry and Laurence, who were born in Newton-on-Trent in Lincolnshire shortly before their father’s appointment. He had served his curacy at All Souls’, Langham Place (hardly a Ritualist hotbed!) and was the nephew of both the Dean of Lichfield and Bishop Bickersteth, the evangelical Bishop of Ripon, which also suggests that St. Margaret’s was not extreme in its ritual at this time. After 1907 and his last parish appointment, the family seems to have gone to the West Country. In 1908 his guide to the Devon Coast (Up and down the Devon coast; my day on the Steamer trips) was in its 4th edition, and it appears to have been still in print in 1930.

82 The cost of the tin church, less its sale, was £557 19s 8d.

83 There were particular problems with the proceeds of a performance of Messiah on December 13th 1882. The sum of £53 2s 11d appears to have been taken at the door and immediately sent by the Vicar to be placed in the building fund. Unfortunately, this ignored the fact that Mr Crawley had certain costs to cover and the Vicar had to write to Mr Fison, admitting his mistake and requesting the return of the money. In the event, the more modest sum of £32 17s 8d was later transferred.
It is a problem that has been experienced after other St. Margaret’s charity concerts through the years!

84 J Cecil Atkinson was a solicitor who followed his father J W Atkinson (see 61 above) into the family firm and had a distinguished career until his death in 1923, when at the age of 67 he was struck by a motor lorry as he was leaving for work. The central panel of St. Margaret’s imposing reredos was dedicated to his memory in 1925. His obituaries tell of his roles as secretary to the Governors of Leeds Grammar School, and the then owners of The Yorkshire Post, but fail to mention any footballing prowess.

85 Bazaars were big business in more ways than one. In 1892 there is a bill from John T Reach & Co., of Leeds, Belfast and Edinburgh, who described themselves as “The Artistic Bazaar Decorators” and who specialized in preparing such events.

86 A grant of £450 had also been received from the Incorporated Society of the Promoting the Enlargement, Building and Repairing of Churches and Chapels, “it being understood that a Sermon will be preached, within a year from the payment of the Grant, setting forth the benefits derived from the Society’s help, and that a collection will be made in aid of the Society.”

£519 was also received from the Diocesan Building Fund.

87 One notebook states: - “I find M(ark) R(obinson) in hot water for not having Church cleaned properly, and later on I find him giving notice that he wanted more money for cleaning. I think he was not very amenable to discipline, but when it came, he had to toe the line.” This last sentence was then scored through in pencil.

Of greater, and more frustrating, interesting is the additional aide memoir “give his history + clock incident.”

Unfortunately there is no further mention of this and, like the Hon. Galahad Threepwood’s story of Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe and the prawns, it must frustratingly remain a literary mystery.

88 The inscription reads “Waiting daily at my gate, watching at the post of my door.”

89 A more painful contemporary memorial was discovered with the removal of the vestry cupboards for choir robes. A lengthy academic cane was found, clearly intended as an aid to treble top notes!

90 Daily services, like weekly communion, were still regarded as an innovation. In 1829 in the diocese of Winchester 161 out of 319 parishes offered no more than one service a week. By 1899, five churches in the diocese were still closed from Sunday to Sunday. Daily public worship was held in 182 churches, with twelve offering a daily celebration.

91 Marion Florence Carrington Ottley was the daughter of a distinguished military family, her father being a General Marriott.

92 The appeal document for the new hall states that “at present 200 scholars are being taught, every Sunday, in hired rooms which are so totally inadequate in size and accommodation, that not only are teachers and classes oppressed by want of space and air, but we are literally unable to retain our elder scholars in the school.”

93 The cost of the Church Hall scheme seems to have become a point of parochial controversy. When the building was opened, the costs had risen to £3.062, of which only £1,571 had been raised. The debt remained with the church for some years. On December 5th 1896, William Danks wrote to Rev. Irton Smith about the project. He starts “ It has been mentioned to me that there is some irritation among the St. Margaret’s People and the debt so that the question is occasionally put “Whose fault is it?” He goes on to explain that “the Enterprise was deliberately chosen by the Parish Council against my wishes in 1886” and that a more extravagant design had then been approved. Canon Danks cautiously states “I do not write this for publication”, but the Editor feels that no damage would be done to the reverend gentleman’s reputation by disobeying the injunction!

94 The corner-stone was laid by F S Powell, M.P. (using a specially engraved silver trowel at a cost of £3 18s.) on 16th November 1889 and the opening took place on 25th September 1890. The occasion included a Conversazione with music from Mr W Dean’s (the organist) band (fees for two wind players totalled £1 and it cost £2 for the hire of a piano), and a musical programme separated by the presentation of Testimonials to Mr Crawley, the late Hon. Precentor.

95 A somewhat cheeky (and thoroughly Yorkshire) attempt to have one’s cake and eat it had been proposed by Canon Danks in 1877, when the Ecclesiastical Commissioners were asked if the promoters might invest the £1,000 endowment fund (required under the Private Patronage Acts) in the building or purchase of a Parsonage House. The commissioners sharply replied on the 27th November that they could not countenance such a scheme and that the moneys for the two endowment funds would have to be handed over before consecration.

96 He clearly kept his reputation as a fine preacher. One Henry Malet Veal refers to him in a journal of 1904. Henry Veal, who was born in 1831, married in disobedience of his father, went to South Africa where he made sufficient money in farming to follow a comfortable life style. In 1904, he returned with his wife from Naples and spent most of the year in the West Country, to keep an eye on his Devon properties and to watch cricket. He regularly attended church at Buddleigh Salterton where he found a curate with a reputation for preaching.

Sunday 3 July Fine with high wind - In morning Gertie, wife & I in evening in fly at 5.30 to B Salterton to Church there - it being the anniversary of consecration of the Church the Vicar preached a very good sermon though we had come over to hear Mr. Ottley & were therefore disappointed –

But four weeks later: -

Sunday 31 July Lovely Day - In morning we four walked to Witheycombe church for Matins and in evening we drove to Budleigh Salterton to hear Mr. Bickersteth Ottley who preached a magnificent sermon from the text of Hagar –

97 The Girls’ Friendly Society had been founded by a Mrs Townsend in 1875 (preceding the Mothers’ Union by a year). Her concern was for the well being of girls who were leaving home to seek employment in the cities. Branches were formed throughout the country where girls could meet for company and appropriate recreation. No doubt the Ilkley branch catered mainly for girls who were in domestic service.

98 Until the Parish Councils Act of 1894, the incumbent of a parish was chairman of the parish council, exercising both church and secular community powers. The Vicar of All Saints would have been chairman of the Ilkley Parish Council to that time. Internally, the Vestry was the only body set up to assist the Vicar and Churchwardens. Church Councils were established on an ad hoc basis until the Enabling Act of 1918 and the Parochial Church Council Measure of 1921 formally established a P.C.C. in every parish. “It shall be the primary duty of the council in every parish to co-operate with the incumbent in the administration, conduct and development of church work, both in the church and outside”. (The Law of the Parish Church by Sir William Dale)

99 Such was the success of the Parish Council that, within three weeks of his arrival at his subsequent appointment in Sussex, Rev. Ottley had printed and circulated a constitution for a Provisional Church Council, based on the St. Margaret’s model.

100 Almost certainly drawing on these experiences, in 1884 he published a book entitled Modern Egypt, its witness to Christ.

101 The Parish must have seen little of Rev. Ottley during those last months. His own health recovered but his wife became extremely ill in the autumn of 1883. He wrote to the parish on 26th December 1883 explaining his resignation.

“Our home in Ilkley had been broken up by the protracted illness of one whose health I was bound to regard as my first and highest consideration. I was compelled to seek a temporary home for my family in a district far removed from the too rigorous climate of a Wharfedale winter.”

It was arranged that he move for three months to London, where he assisted Canon Trench at All Saints’, Notting Hill. He was intending to return to Ilkley at Christmas, leaving his family in London, but was offered the living of Horsham in Sussex by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He promised to return for a farewell service and by 19th February 1884 was writing from his new Vicarage.

He went on to serve parishes in West Hackney, Eastbourne and South Norwood, but held no further parish appointments after 1907. However in 1917 he was on service (through the Y.M.C.A.) with the British Expeditionary Force and was awarded the MM in 1917. After the war he worked with both the Red Cross and the League of Nations’ Union, publishing books of his experiences with both organisations. He died on 21st March 1932.

102 The parish presented him with “a good watch”, so that he might keep a memento of Ilkley with him at all times. Mr Crawley and the choir presented an album and there was a further gift of 60 guineas.

103 A Society incorporated to maintain and defend the operation of the Sunday Observance Act of 1625. The Alliance adopted perhaps a more practical approach than certain of its better known fellow organisations, as it was willing to consider some modification to the current position. The minutes of the Lord’s Day Observance Society reveal that they wrote to the Bishop of Durham on 18th March 1910 about proposals of the Imperial Sunday Alliance placed before Convocation “in favour of affording facilities, under Church sanction and encouragement, for Sunday recreation.” This was certainly during Rev. Ottley’s time as secretary of both the Alliance and the London Sunday Defence Union.

104 The Ilkley Gazette of December 29th 1883 revealed that a petition had been sent to the patrons requesting that “the living of St. Margaret’s, now vacated by the Rev. H B Ottley, should be offered to our old friend, and much beloved clergyman, the Rev. W Danks.” The Gazette noted “We doubt not that not only the members of St. Margaret’s congregation, but many Nonconformists will be glad to see him back again in our midst.” This time the appointment was made as they wished.

105 The reference in Who Was Who (compiled from Rev. Danks own submissions to Who’s Who) describes the address as Sherwood Rise.

106 Rev. W Hudson Shaw, who was to become hon. curate in 1887.

107 John Stuart Mill, philosopher, was born in 1806. Taught solely by his father, he held down a job as junior clerk in the India House whilst furthering his philosophical pursuits. A disciple of Bentham, he formed the Utilitarian Society, edited Bentham’s Treatise on Evidence and became proprietor of The London Review in 1837. He died in 1873 and his controversial Three Essays on Religion was published the following year.

108 Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) was a scientist who studied and published widely. Initially his successes were in the field of human biology, but he went on to publish influential works on fossils. He became involved with the great Darwinian debate with the publication in 1863 of Zoological Evidences as to Man’s Place in Nature and in 1988 with the publication of Science and Morals defining the relationship between science and religion. He carried on a fascinating debate through the correspondence pages of an influential magazine with Mr Gladstone on the subject of the Gaderene swine. He became President of the Royal Society in 1883 and was made a privy councillor in 1892, three years before his death.

109 John Ruskin (1819 –1900) was a polymath; an artist, author, lecturer and social reformer. He was acquainted with all the leading artists of the day and in 1843 published anonymously the first of five volumes of Modern Painters, which, as his identity became known, enhanced an already growing reputation. He wrote on architecture, greatly influencing the Gothic revival and published pamphlets on many issues, including workers’ education, and organisation of labour. He started a number of industrial experiments, establishing cloth production in the Lake District and the Isle of Man. He became the first Slade Professor of Art at Oxford. As he came to the end of his life, he spent his father’s fortune on a number of charitable and philanthropic projects.

110 Canon Danks’ reputation as preacher reached into the realms of academe. He was appointed Select Preacher at Cambridge in 1888, with a similar appointment at Oxford in 1909.

111 The support of his nonconformist brethren was vindicated in an incident recounted in Canon Danks’ Memoirs. “At Ilkley in 1885 a movement was (put forward) to provide opportunities for Social Gatherings for working men. It was supported by Church people and by Nonconformists, but the only place available for these gatherings was the wooden building which had once done duty as St. Margaret’s Church, but was now a Wesleyan Chapel. A notice of these proposed meetings posted in the porch of St. Margaret’s Church gave offence to some of the local Church people, and called forth a rigorous sermon from the Vicar who protested against a Church policy which would refuse to co-operate with Nonconformists in all movements for the national good. Such a policy he branded as both suicidal and unchristian.”
He was appointed Rural Deal of South Craven in 1886.

112 On leaving St Margaret’s, he became Rector of Richmond and Rural Dean of Richmond West.

113 Clearly, Canon Danks had a great regard for Canterbury. In 1900 he published a small volume (Canterbury – described by Canon Danks) that he describes as follows “This little essay on a great subject is neither a guidebook nor a history, though it may, for many, be enough, for their purpose, of both”. This work, though long out of print is to be found on the Internet, at www.kellscraft.com/canterburycontext.html.
In 1912, he collaborated with Eveleigh Woodruff on a book entitled “Memorials of the cathedral and priory of Christ in Canterbury”.

His book “Nation and Church” is available in the Ilkley Library and a selection of his St Margaret’s sermons was published in 1886 under the title The Church on the Moor.

114 He died on 4th April 1916.

115 He was born in 1855 and married Caroline, the daughter of
T H Cowie, QC, Judge-Advocate-General of Bengal. During Rev. Irton Smith’s eighteen years in Ilkley, the majority of the church building projects were completed and paid for. The congregation continued to grow during this time, an increase of 20% without material increase of parish population “and this in spite of the rapid and deplorable change which is going on in people’s church-going habits.” In his subdued valedictory Annual Report of 1908 he notes, “We have entirely cleared the heavy obligation (perhaps nearly £2,000) which lay upon the Parish Hall Buildings then just erected. We have secured the Vicarage, and we have furnished the church with a costly organ, besides many other handsome embellishments. In other words, the “plant” of the Church is now complete, and the way lies open to my successor to devote himself exclusively to spiritual work, i.e., to the essential purposes for which the Church was projected.” He died on 4th March 1933 and the Altar rails, made in oak by Robert Thompson of Kilburn, were dedicated in his memory by Bishop Frodsham on the 22nd April 1934.

116 He was Rector of West Grinstead between 1916 and 1923.

117 Canon Herbert J Glennie was vicar from 1908 to 1922. Born on 22nd January 1860 the son of the Vicar of Croxton, Staffordshire, he was educated at Keble College, Oxford. He was curate at Leeds Parish Church, where he was also acting Chaplain of the General Infirmary. He was appointed Ripon Diocesan Inspector of Schools in 1905. Shortly after his arrival, he instituted a mission to the poor parish of Holy Trinity, Bradford, which continued for a number of years. His correspondence with Norman Shaw shows the continuing interest that the architect had with St. Margaret’s and his obvious friendship with the new incumbent. Canon Glennie sadly records Shaw’s death in the parish’s Occasional Paper of December 1912. He left to become Vicar of Hawley Green, Hampshire. Canon Glennie died there on 19th October 1926 after an operation.

A silver cross, a pair of candle-sticks made in walnut, inlaid with mother of pearl and a pair of silver flower vases were placed in the Lady Chapel in his memory.

118 Anthony Basil Cater was born on 27th April 1881. Previously vicar of Christ Church, Leeds from 1917 to 1922, he was vicar at St Margaret’s from 1922 to 1930 when he left to become Vicar and Rural Dean of Scarborough until 1936. He was then appointed Archdeacon of Cleveland in 1938. After his death on 14th March 1942, the statue of Our Lady and Child was dedicated to his memory on 18th February 1948.

119 I fear that Mr Hewitt may have had a spot of bother on the subject of Pollocks.

Sir Jonathan Frederick Pollock, Bart. (1783-1870), was the Chief Baron of the exchequer; the baron being an ancient legal title (somewhat similar to a High Court Judge) that ironically fell into history in 1897 with the death of his fourth son, Sir Charles Edward Pollock, the last of the barons of the exchequer although, importantly not Chief Baron. Chief Baron Sir J Frederick Pollock had been senior wrangler at Cambridge, and became F.R.S. in 1816. He was raised to the bench in 1844, and created a baronet in 1866. He was twice married and had eight sons and ten daughters: - hence the confusion!

Rev Herbert Charles Pollock (our Pollock) was the eldest son of Sir Charles, and therefore the grandson of the Chief Baron. He was born on 1st May 1852 and was ordained Deacon and married in 1883.
Sir Charles, who had been created a knight in his own right (a brother succeeding to the baronetcy), was a frequent visitor to the church during his son’s curacy. In January 1883 he attended the St. Margaret’s Sunday Classes, and spoke at a celebration meeting that followed.

120 He left on 31st March 1884 to take up a curacy at Nottingham Parish Church. He was Vicar of St Leonard’s, Newark from 1886 to 1990 and was Canon of Rochester from 1892 until his death on 10th September 1910. Like Canon Danks, he was Select Preacher at Cambridge in both 1895 and 1902.

121 Rev Lucius Smith was born 6th January 1860, the son of the Vicar of Shelf. He served a curacy at St Thomas’, Toxteth Park in Liverpool before his appointment to Ilkley. He left to a further appointment in Richmond, thence serving as vicar at Easby, Calverley and Macclesfield. He became Canon Residentiary of Ripon in 1905, being consecrated Bishop of Knaresborough in the same year. He remained at Ripon until 1921 when he became Archdeacon of Leeds and Rector of Methley, positions he held until his death on 31st December 1934.

In the programme for the jubilee celebration (when he preached at Evensong on 21st July 1929 – the celebrations taking place at the Patronal rather than the Dedication Festival, as occurred at the Centenary), he is described as being assistant priest between 1887 and 1890.

122 Bishop George Frodsham was born in Sale, Cheshire, in 1863. He trained as an insurance broker and underwriter but was ordained as a deacon in 1888. He was assistant priest at St. Margaret’s between 1891 and 1896. He worked in many parts of the world, including Australia and South Africa. He served a year as Chaplain to the Bishop of Brisbane until he was consecrated Bishop of North Queensland in 1902. He left the diocese in 1913 to become Canon Residentiary at Gloucester Cathedral. He was Vicar of Halifax from 1920 until his death in 1937. He too preached at the Jubilee, at the Dedication of the re-built organ on 28th July 1929.

123 William Mann Statham died on 12th April 1902, when he was the Rector of Ivor Heath in Buckinghamshire. The Old Testament Prophets’ window is dedicated in his memory.

124 Bryan Percival Robin was born on 12th January 1887. He was made deacon in 1910, and served his curacy at St Margaret’s from then until 1914. He left Ilkley for Australia, becoming a member of the Bush Brotherhood of St Barnabas in North Queensland until 1920, missing Bishop Frodsham by months. Other Australian appointments followed until he returned to the Chester diocese in 1931, being appointed Hon. Canon of Chester in 1940. The following year he returned to Australia, consecrated as the Bishop of Adelaide, where he remained until 1956. He was assistant Bishop of Portsmouth between 1959 and 1967 and died on 17th June 1969.

125 William Duncan Geare became chaplain to the King’s Liverpool Regiment and was killed in action at Ypres on 31st July 1917. He is commemorated by a plaque in the Lady Chapel.

126 Rev. Oswin Harvard Gibbs-Smith had taught at Harrow School from 1925 before coming to Ilkley. He was four years an assistant priest at St. Margaret’s until October 1931 when he left to take up an appointment as Priest-in-Charge of the Convential District in Mill Hill, London, where he built and became the first Vicar of John Keble Church, Mill Hill, staying there until 1941. He became the Archdeacon of London and was Canon Residentiary of St Paul’s between 1947 and 1961 and he was due to return to St. Margaret’s for the dedication of the statue of Our Lady and Child in memory of Fr Basil Carter, until other pressing business intervened. He was yet another Select Preacher at Cambridge in 1950.

In 1961, the same year that he was awarded the C.B.E., he became Dean of Winchester, where he remained until his death on 26th September 1969.

On his departure from Ilkley, the organist, Mr Eric Read, paid warm tribute to his work with St. Margaret’s choir.

127 The first organ was built by the firm of Morten & Taylor of London and consisted of two manuals (Swell – Cornopean 8’, oboe 8’, salcional 8’, viol d’amour 8’, principal 4’ and piccolo 2’; Great – Clarionet 8’, open diapason 8’, clarabella 8’, dulciana, harmonic flute 4’, flautina 2’) and a single pedal stop (a 16’ bourdon).

128 As early as 1884 Mr Crawley had compiled a book of “Anthems used at the Church of S. Margaret, Ilkley, Yorkshire” which was printed by John Dale & Co. of Bradford and “presented as a Christmas gift to the Church, by E.W. Crawley and R. Thornton Dale”. Full analysis of the contents is beyond this footnote, although it might be suggested that it actually contained anthems that might in time be used, as there are words for some 582 anthems, many set to music by more than one composer. At a conservative estimate, based on two anthems a week, it would have taken over seven years to sing through the whole book.

In January of the same year he published “The Church Psalter”, then regarded as a radical development in church music. It was noted that “the orthodox method of punctuation has been entirely ignored”. Now commonplace in psalters and prayer books, the use of asterisks (to denote pauses) and “perpendicular bars” (for divisions of the line) were novelties in this publication, priced 1/6d.

The Resurrection window was donated by Mr Crawley in 1906 as a memorial to his wife Sarah Frances Jane Crawley, who had died the previous year.

129 A report of the Christmas services for 1883 mentions the performance of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah “given in a manner worthy of St. Margaret’s choir.”

By January of that same year, Choral Evensong was being sung weekly on a Thursday evening at 7.15 pm.

130 In 1900 an order was placed with William Hill & Sons of London, to build an organ better suited to the building. Dr. Peace, City Organist in Liverpool, was the consultant for the design of the instrument.

131 In 1929, with the monies raised, the organ was overhauled and additional work done on it. This was carried out by Wm Hill & Sons, Norman & Beard, and was the last work done on the organ until the major restoration of 1981. The 1929 work was marked by a re-dedication on the Sunday in St. Margaret’s-tide by Bishop Frodsham. (see 2)

132 A folding stool used in the sanctuary by the bishop, when not seated on the throne.

133 This was installed in 1882 and was the first stained glass window at St. Margaret’s. It is attributed to Clayton & Bell on stylistic grounds.

134 Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-98), painter and designer. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he met and befriended William Morris. He was little regarded until he exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877. Among the best known of his pictures are the Pygmalion series (1879), the Golden Stairs (1880), King Cophetua (1884), and the Garden of Pan (1887). He designed tapestry and stained glass for Morris & Co. This window was a Burne-Jones design for William Morris & Co. and was installed in 1902.

135 Matthew Todd died on June 11th 1881.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

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The Lords of Ilkley Manor. The Roads to Ruin.    David Carpenter Smith Settle 1999

Parish and People in the Yorkshire Dales    Susan D Brooks 1973

The Prayer Book in the Victorian Era    R.C.D. Jasper published in The Victorian Crisis of Faith (edited Anthony Symondson) S.P.C.K. 1970

A Ahort History of the Building of the Church   compiled by Paul Kershaw St Margaret's Church 1996

The Templars and Temple Newsom    David Weldrake W. Y. Archaeological Service 1995

Victorian Architecture    R Dixon & S Muthesius Thames & Hudson 1978

The Victorian Church    Owen Chadwick A & C Black 1970

Who Was Who – Vols I – V    A & C Black

i) Reform, Revival & Realignment: The experience of Victorian Anglicanism   Gerald Parson

ii) Father Stanton at St. Alban’s 1873    C.M. Davies (article reprinted in Orthodox London or phases of Religious life in the Church of England)

iii) Bickersteth, Bishop of Ripon: The Episcopate of a Mid-Victorian Evangelical    D.N. Hempton

Above three published in Religion in Victorian Britain (vols. I, III, IV) O.U.P. 1988

 

OTHER SOURCES

Four Centuries of History at Myddleton Lodge David Carpenter www.angelfire.com/ms/middelton/index.html
(An edited version of this article appeared in the Ilkley Gazette of 11th November 1993)

Devon Local Studies: Author Catalogue www.devon.co.uk/library/localstudy

Memoirs of Henry Malet Veal www.geocities.com/Heartland/Bluffs/6239

Canterbury – described by Canon Danks www.kellscraft.com/canterburycontext.html

The Lord's Day Observance Society and Sunday Sport 1834-1914 Dennis Brailsford

www.umist.ac.uk/brailsfd.html