07 September 2022

Former Congregational
church in Winslow recalls
links with early Puritans

The former Congregational Church on a prominent position on the bend of Horn Street in Winslow, Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

The former Congregational Church in Winslow stands on a prominent position on the bend of Horn Street, and is clearly visible from a number of locations throughout the small, pretty town between Buckingham and Aylesbury.

Although the church has been closed since 1989, it once played an important role in the history of the Congregational or Independent tradition in Buckinghamshire that links back directly to the Puritans of the mid-17th century.

During the Cromwellian era, the Book of Common Prayer was replaced by the Directory of Public Worship, although it is not clear whether the Puritans ever gained control of Saint Laurence’s parish church during that time.

The Independent or Congregational tradition, a legacy of the Puritans of the Cromwellian period, survived as Dissenters in Buckinghamshire, particularly in Newport Pagnell. A small group emerged in Winslow, and for a time, at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, they assembled in Keach’s Meeting House near the Market Square.

For some time before this, the Independents had used this Baptist chapel on alternate Sundays. But their growing numbers called for a larger building and more frequent services, and in 1816 they bought a barn on Horn Street to fit out for their own worship.

When the chapel opened on 10 April 1816, it had a seating capacity of 250. The preachers at the opening were the Revd DW Aston of Buckingham and the Revd Thomas Palmer Bull, the Independent pastor in Newport Pagnell, who also ran an academy or seminary for aspiring ministerial candidates. The first pastor, the Revd John Wilson (1816-1824), had trained at Bull’s seminary at Newport Pagnell.

There was a brief schism in 1827, when some of the Independents joined the Baptists in Keach’s Meeting House, where a gallery was built at the east end to accommodate the influx of Independent seceders.

But unity was soon restored, and in 1829 the Congregationalists bought more land nearby to rebuild the chapel and to add a vestry and schoolroom.

The new chapel opened on 4 May 1830 and could seat up to 300 people. The early trustees included TP Bull, and students from his academy preached regularly on Sundays.

The Revd Joseph Denton, who was minister in 1830-1840, tried unsuccessfully to get permission to hold a weekly service in the Workhouse in 1838. The first marriage allowed under a new act took place in the Winslow chapel on 4 September 1850.

The Revd JB Attenborough was described as ‘a big burly man with a voice like the rolling of distant thunder’ and as ‘a man of great weight and power.’ When he retired in 1856, the Oxford Chronicle described him as the ‘dissenting minister,’ and when the Revd John Fogg arrived as the new minister in Winslow in 1857, the chapel was described as ‘the Dissenting Church.’

William Craft, an escaped slave from Macon, Georgia, spoke at a public meeting in the Independent Chapel in 1858, and described his and his wife’s escape, giving ‘a very accurate and sober account of slavery and its taskmasters’ and ‘a vivid account’ of his escape.

From the beginning, an influential minority in the congregation opposed Fogg’s appointment, and eventually he resigned in 1861. He was succeeded by the Revd Wesley Spurgeon Rae (1863-1867), from Ireland, and later by the Revd John Riordan (1881-1888).

The church continued to identify with the cause of abolition, and the Jubilee Singers, a choir of freed slaves, gave a concert in 1881, singing ‘stirring melodies said to have been sung … while in slavery.’

While a new Congregational Church was being built in Winslow, the congregation met in the Assembly Rooms at The Bell (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The congregation decided in 1882 to build a new church and to convert the existing into a schoolroom. While the church was being built, the congregation met in the Assembly Rooms at The Bell.

The new church was built in 1884 at a cost of £2,400. The building was designed by the London-based architect Sir John Sulman (1849-1934), who also designed the Congregational Church in Newport Pagnell. Sulman, who was strongly influenced by Sir George Gilbert Scott, later emigrated to Australia. The builders were Yirell and Edwards of Leighton Buzzard.

The foundation stone was laid by Margaret Verney, later Lady Verney. Her husband, Sir Edmund Hope Verney (1838-1910), was a nephew of Florence Nightingale and the Liberal MP for North Buckinghamshire until he was expelled from the House of Commons in 1891 after being jailed for procuring a girl under 21 for ‘immoral purposes’.

The foundation stone was laid by Margaret Verney, later Lady Verney (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Sulman’s design was inspired by 15th century English parish churches, but his design was made more difficult by the limited, triangular shape of the site.

The new church opened on 20 January 1885. The most prominent feature was the 58 ft high square tower, inspired by the watchman’s room in the old tower in Irthlingborough Church, Northamptonshire. The tower was surmounted by a weather vane. The upper part of the tower was a large room of 17 feet square, lit by seven windows, and used as a Sunday School classroom.

The church was lit by Gothic windows filled with cathedral toned glass. The principal window in the tower was 18 ft hight and 16 ft wide, and was said to be a reduced copy of a window in York Minster.

The church could seat 240 people on the ground floor and another 82 in the gallery. The building included a Sunday School and a large classroom.

Sulman’s design was inspired by 15th century English parish churches, but his design was made more difficult by the limited, triangular shape of the site (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The Revd John Riordan retired in 1888 and moved to a church at Sheerness.

The church fielded its own cricket and football teams in the late 19th century, and had its own tennis courts at Hollow Furrow.

At a church meeting in 1896, a resolution was carried expressed deep sympathy with ‘the suffering Armenian people’ and called on the government ‘to take strong and effective diplomatic measures in depriving the Sultan of Turkey of the power to sanction or connive at further bloodshed and persecution’ and ‘to rescue the remnant of the Armenian nation from total annihilation.’

On the initiative of the Welsh-born pastor, the Revd JG Evans, the church hosted an Eisteddfod in 1898 on the lines of the Welsh musical festivals, with 77 entries.

The church celebrated the tercentenary of the birth of Oliver Cromwell in 1899. At the service, Evans read portions from a facsimile of Cromwell’s Soldier’s Pocket Bible, and he described Cromwell as the greatest hero and the greatest religious reformer England had ever seen, ‘a Citizen, a Puritan, and a Protestant.’

Evans preached his farewell sermon in 1902, when he announced he had decided to sever his connection with Nonconformity, to be admitted to the Church of England and to seek ordination to the priesthood.

The Revd John Riordan returned to Winslow in 1904-1914.

The widowed Lady Verney returned to Winslow in 1924 to unveil a new organ in the church.

The Revd AT Quarterman (1939-1942) was the last pastor of the church to live in Winslow. The Congregational Church closed in 1989, and the war memorials were transferred to Saint Laurence’s Church, the Church of England parish church.

The former Congregational Church in Winslow has since been converted into a six-bedroom house. It was placed on the market recently through estate agents Fine & Country Birmingham with an asking price of £1.25 million.

The former Congregational Church seen through the houses on Church Street in Winslow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Praying with USPG and the music of
Vaughan Williams: Wednesday 7 September 2022

‘O enter then His gates with praise’ … an open gate in Tombs Meadow at sunset in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

Before today begins, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose music is celebrated throughout this year’s Proms season. In my prayer diary for these weeks I am reflecting in these ways:

1, One of the readings for the morning;

2, Reflecting on a hymn or another piece of music by Vaughan Williams, often drawing, admittedly, on previous postings on the composer;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

The Berliner Dom in Berlin, popularly known as Berlin Cathedral … the images inside the dome illustrate the Beatitudes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Gospel reading for today in the lectionary as adapted by the Church of Ireland is:

Luke 6: 20-26 (NRSVA):

20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
‘Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
‘Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
22 ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. 24 ‘But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
25 ‘Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
26 ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.’



Today’s reflection: ‘The Old Hundredth’

For my reflections and devotions each day these few weeks, I am reflecting on and invite you to listen to a piece of music or a hymn set to a tune by the great English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958).

This morning [7 September 2022], I invite you to join me in listening to Vaughan Williams’s arrangement for ‘The Old Hundredth’ or Psalm 100.

Psalm 100, as the Canticle Jubilate Deo, is one of the psalms said or sung as a Canticle at Morning Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer.

In mediaeval times, Jubilate was the second of the fixed psalms at Lauds on Sundays and holy days, and it was also sung at Prime. Thomas Cranmer did not include it in the first Book of Common Prayer (1549), but it was introduced in the 1552 Book of Common Prayer as an alternative to Benedictus. The 1662 Bok of Common Prayer specifies that it should be used when Benedictus is ‘read in the Chapter for the Day, or for the Gospel on Saint John Baptist’s Day.’

Vaughan Williams wrote this triumphant setting for Psalm 100 in 1953 for SATB, congregation and full orchestra, organ with brass fanfare, and it was first performed on 2 June 1953 in Westminster Abbey at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The order of service that day directed just before the Holy Communion:

‘The organ shall play and the people with one voice sing this hymn: The Old Hundredth Psalm Tune. Text by W. Kethe (Daye’s Psalter, 1560-1), arrangement for choir, orchestra and organ by R Vaughan Williams.’ It was the first time at a coronation service that the congregation was permitted to join in the singing of a hymn.

Vaughan Williams’s arrangement of ‘The Old Hundredth’ was sung five years later in Westminster Abbey at his own funeral, with the Abbey Choir, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. His ashes are buried in the Musicians’ Aisle with his wife Ursula.

The stirring grandeur of Vaughan Williams’s setting of ‘The Old Hundredth’ has become a familiar component of many large-scale state and national occasions. It was originally scored for Full Orchestra, Organ, Choir and Fanfare Trumpets, with Vaughan Williams setting the fanfares for ‘all available trumpets,’ which ring out to introduce the first and last verses. It is without doubt the most thrilling setting of this much loved hymn.

‘The Old Hundredth’ is a hymn tune in Long Metre from Pseaumes Octante Trois de David (1551), the second edition of the Genevan Psalter and is one of the best known melodies in the musical traditions of the Church. The tune is usually attributed to the French composer Loys Bourgeois (ca 1510-ca 1560).

Although the tune was first associated with Psalm 134 in the Genevan Psalter, the melody receives its current name from an association with the version of Psalm 100 translated by the puritan William Kethe as ‘All People that on Earth do Dwell.’

Kethe was a Scottish evangelical polemicist and satirist who went into self-imposed exile in the reign of Mary Tudor. Initially, Kethe was based in Frankfurt am Main. But his extreme Calvinism led him to be received into John Knox’s congregation in Geneva on 5 November 1556.

Kethe’s literary talents came to the fore in the 25 metrical Psalm settings he contributed to the 1561 Forme and Prayers and Ministration of the Sacraments approved by J[ohn] Calvyn. This version of Psalm 100 is the most famous, and was set to a pre-existing tune by Bourgeois.

The Genevan Psalter was compiled over a number of years in response to Calvin’s teaching that communal singing of psalms in the vernacular language is a foundational aspect of church life. This contrasted with the prevailing Catholic practice at the time in which sacred texts were chanted in Latin by the clergy only. Calvinist musicians, including Bourgeois, supplied many new melodies and adapted others from sources both sacred and secular.

The final version of the psalter was completed in 1562. Calvin intended the melodies to be sung in plainsong during church services, but harmonised versions were provided for singing at home.

Vaughan William’s arrangement incorporates the harmonisation of the tune by John Dowland (1563-1626) from Thomas Ravnescroft’s Psalter (1621).

All people that on earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice;
Him serve with fear, his praise forth tell,
Come ye before him, and rejoice.

The Lord, ye know, is God indeed,
Without our aid he did us make;
We are His folk, he doth us feed,
And for His sheep he doth us take.

O enter then his gates with praise;
Approach with joy his courts unto;
Praise, laud, and bless his Name always,
For it is seemly so to do.

For why? the Lord our God is good;
His mercy is for ever sure;
His truth at all times firmly stood,
And shall from age to age endure.

To Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
The God whom heaven and earth adore,
From men and from the Angel-host
Be praise and glory evermore. Amen.

Sarah Purser’s mosaic of John Dowland in Sorrento Park, Dalkey, Co Dublin … Vaughan Williams’s arrangement of ‘The Old Hundredth’ incorporates the harmonisation of the tune by John Dowland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer, Wednesday 7 September 2022:

The theme in the USPG prayer diary this week is ‘Season of Creation,’ was introduced on Sunday by the Season of Creation Advisory Committee.

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:

We pray for climate activists, who devote their lives to raising awareness of climate change and teaching ways to adapt and respond to the effects of global warming.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org