Revd Frederick Tavender became minister of the Congregational Church in Quoiting Square in 1892. He was from Devon, his wife Annie from Wiveliscombe in Somerset.
Frederick was raised C of E but decided to follow Congregationalism and went to study at Western College, Plymouth with that in mind. He was ordained at Wiveliscombe on the 2nd September 1886 and became minister there.
At Wiveliscombe Frederick increased the number of Sunday school pupils from 186 to 420. He also lead the charge in establishing Congregational places of worship and Sunday schools for the first time in numerous surrounding villages. He was considered one of the best ministers around for gaining new worshippers. Marlow was lucky to be able to obtain his services.
Frederick wasted no time when he arrived in town joining the Marlow branch of The British And Foreign Bible Society, becoming a prominent member of the Marlow Institute and founding the Marlow Total Abstinence Society of which he was President before the year 1892 was out. He also played cricket for Marlow in various competitions such as the traditional Married v Single Gentleman match that started the cricketing season.
The Marlow Institute was a place for lecture, entertainments, classes and debates. Frederick was a success there and in other nearby towns with his talk and "oxy hydrogen" lantern projecting images from his Continental holiday in 1891 encompassing "a trip to Lucerne and the Italian lakes, the Apennines, Florence etc". During this trip he took part in some mountaineering. Six years later Frederick was off again, this time to the USA to attend the Congregational Council in Boston. Marlow was treated to a lecture on what he had seen there upon his return. Unsurprisingly given the rarity of travel abroad in those days the lecture room was packed with those eager to hear about his trip. It was a lengthy trip for him and Mrs Tavender. The sea voyage took 9 days each way. Then after attending the Council he explored both the USA and Canada seeing Niagara Falls, New York, Chicago, Washington, Omaha, Toronto and Montreal.
On a more serious note Frederick took part in debates at the Institute such as one on whether parks and museums should be allowed to open on Sundays (he thought not). He also helped set up technical education classes there and in other locations in the area.
Education was a passion of his. He tried long and hard and ultimately unsuccessfully to get a school board established in Marlow. These were non denominational boards which organised schools in an area and had power to impose a local rate tax to fund them. He argued that the existing school buildings were sub standard and the education given to the children unacceptably poor due to a lack of money. Existing schools survived largely by fund raising. The prospect of paying more tax wasn't popular and Revd Tavender found himself much in the minority in desiring a school board in the town. He pulled no punches when it came to describing how bad the schools were in his eyes, which offended some. Inspectors' reports generally considered them adequate educationally but did agree that building conditions and overcrowding were major problems. Revd Tavender would argue that the inspector's standards weren't very high so if they said education was adequate that wasn't necessarily a great compliment. Supporters of the existing system admitted poor educational achievement in some pupils but said that this was down to: a bout of teacher illness causing long absences, whole school closures due to efforts to stem disease outbreaks in the children, and the natural incurable stupidity of some of the pupils!!
His trip to the USA and Canada in 1899 had been used also as a fact finding trip into how they organised their schools. He sought out many senior education officials on his travels and visited as many schools as possible. He thought their teaching methods far superior to what was being used in England.
In 1904 Frederick was one of a host of Marlow nonconformists who refused to pay their rates as a form of passive resistance to the Education Act of 1902. This saw nonconformists have to pay taxes to support Church of England schools even though they disagreed with what was being taught religiously to the children in those schools. That these publicly funded schools were to have no public scrutiny into how they were run or how they allowed C of E aligned teachers to present nonconformist viewpoints was especially upsetting. A nationwide passive resistance campaign grew up.
As a result of his refusal to pay the portion of the rates for education, goods to the value of the amount owed were seized from him and other protesters and auctioned off from a table outside the police court in Trinity Road by auctioneer Walter Lovegrove (of whom more in future).
The ever kind Doctor Dickson of Marlow made the only bid for all the seized items of Marlow men and women. He bid the exact amount needed plus the exact costs to the court. He returned all items to the homes of their owners.
The Conservative government lost the next election but still dominated the Lords and thus attempts to overturn their Act failed. Resistance faded in the face of the seeming impossibility of overcoming the Lords hurdle.
Frederick's had other social concerns too- he chaired the Marlow Institute's committee set up to think of ways to help the local unemployed during the hard years of the early 1900s and promoted and fund-raised for the Cottage Hospital.
He also set up "Pleasant Sunday Afternoons" in Marlow to attract those men who shied away from traditional church services. This was part of a nationwide movement. Lighter hymns were sung, music perfumed and Bible study offered as well as prayers. Frederick allowed secular music and songs to be performed at his Marlow events, which was quite unusual, but he said all music came from God and the afternoons had an overall strong Christian flavour. He drew the line however at allowing clapping. That he said was too much like behaviour at a leisure concert. He offered prizes for those Sunday afternooners who did well at their Bible study. There was in addition Pleasant Tuesday Afternoons.
Like many of the Marlow Congregational worshippers Frederick was a supporter of Liberal political candidates in local elections.
As if he did not have enough to do, Frederick offered tuition to those young men seeking to do well in university entrance exams, as well as lessons in French, mathematics, Latin and English to pupils of all ages. Adult learners who lived some distance away could receive lessons from Frederick via correspondence.
Mrs Tavender helped man the stalls at church fundraising bazaars. She was also an active member of the Wycombe Branch of the Women's Total Abstinence Society, eventual President of the Marlow branch of the same and a member of the South Bucks and East Berks Band Of Hope Union.
The Tavender family left Marlow so Frederick could take up a position as minister in Exmouth, Devon in 1908. At his farewell celebrations tribute was paid to his work for the benefit of Marlow's people especially the aged, sick and unemployed. It was noted that he had broken down many sectarian barriers, and encouraged co - operation with other Marlow churches and chapels. The couple went away laden with parting gifts, including a study chair (from the Marlow Free Church council), purse of gold (that is £20 from the congregation), an eiderdown quilt (Pleasant Tuesday Afternoon group), several illuminated addresses, a book, fountain pen and an inscribed gold brooch for Mrs Tavender from the Woman's Total Abstinence Society Marlow branch.
Related posts:
For more church related content see the Church Related option on the menu. To find every mention of an individual on the blog use the Person Index Option on the top drop down menu. Fellow campaigning Minister Andrew Mearns (poverty campaigner) features in a post here while tax rebel Revd James Mountain can be found here
A post about the entertaining attempts to bring temperance to Marlow is available here
Poverty in Victorian Marlow here
Christchurch URC have scans of interesting booklets about their history available on their website (under the Magazines and Resources tab) link
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For more see:
1901 census Great Marlow.
South Bucks Standard 29th April 1904 and 24th January 1908.
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