Holy Trinity in what was then Gun Lane but is now Trinity Road was consecrated by the Lord Bishop of Oxford on 20th August 1852. It had been built because the main parish church was not big enough. It was also the case that, like lots of other churches of the time, All Saints had some of the seating reserved only for certain rich families who had bought themselves seats. Even if they didn't occupy them during a service no other worshipper could sit in them as they were private. Holy Trinity was to be entirely free seated.
The foundation stone of the church was laid in May 1851 by Alexander Higginson, one of the biggest contributors to the funds for building the church. Another prominent donor was Charlotte Cocks of the Glade in Glade Road Marlow (later known as the Cedars) and other members of her family. Many of her family were buried in the church and two of the original plain glass windows were replaced with stained glass ones in memory of members of the Cocks family. More about Charlotte can be read in a post published earlier this year.
The consecration was celebrated by the giving of a joint of meat to 2000 poor people of the parish.
Other donors also paid for stained glass windows in the church- Messrs Burisons and Grylls were paid to put in 2 lights in stained glass in the West window in 1876 for instance, the rest of the window to be done when funds allowed.
The church had generally a peaceful history but there was one unhappy instance in 1908 when 13 year old Eliza Anderson was prosecuted by the vicar for taking primroses from the churchyard. He admitted he did not see precisely which grave she took them from but was sure he saw her stooping several times to pick something up. As she had primroses gathered in her apron he presumed that is what she had been stooping down for. Picking of these flowers which were growing abundantly in the churchyard was a big problem he insisted. Eliza said she picked up some flowers discarded in a heap rather than living ones. She was found guilty and admonished but not fined. The vicar had given a statement that he wanted to make a public example of Eliza to stop others taking primroses from graves but not punish her any more than that.
Primroses still grow in the churchyard now. What a pity a child's innocent pleasure in them was dealt with by giving her a criminal conviction (which would have compromised her employment chances) rather than a talking to at the time. Perhaps as the vicar admitted that he was not close enough to see which graves Eliza was bending over or exactly what she picked up, more weight should have been given to the girl's denial that she had disturbed any graves.
Lower congregation numbers meant that the church closed in 1977 and the building is now in commercial use.
We have photographed most of the (relatively few) remaining gravestones in the churchyard. The majority of these pictures have already been uploaded onto the blog. See under Graves on the menu. For similar content to this post see under Church Related on the menu.
Researched by Charlotte and Kathryn Day.
Sources:
The Church Of The People [journal] 1864.
Mussons and Craven Commercial Directory, 1853. University of Leicester Library.
Reading Mercury 28th August 1852. Copy held at the British Library via BNA.
South Bucks Standard May 15th 1908. As above.
Bucks Herald 8th May 1920. As above.
©You are welcome to reuse this content for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog and a link here.
No comments:
Post a Comment