06 February 2025

A day of reflections in
Lichfield Cathedral in
the company of
the ‘Ladies of the Vale’

The three spires of Lichfield Cathedral seen through an archway in the Cathedral Close this afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I have spent much of today in Lichfield, visiting the chapel in Saint John’s Hospital, going for walks along Cross in Hand Lane, Beacon Street, and around Minister Pool and Stowe Pool, attending Choral Evensong in Lichfield Cathedral this evening and, earlier in the day, attending the mid-day Eucharist with the Thursday Prayers for Peace at the Saint Chad Shrine in the Lady Chapel, celebrated by Bishop Paul Thomas. He is Bishop of Oswestry, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Lichfield, and a provincial episcopal visitor in the Province of Canterbury since he was consecrated two years ago (2 February 2023).

For many reasons, both Lichfield Cathedral and the chapel in Saint John’s Hospital have been my spiritual homes since my late teens.

For residents of Lichfield and visitors alike, the three spires of Lichfield Cathedral symbolise of the city. It is the only mediaeval cathedral in England with three spires: Truro Cathedral in Cornwall also has three spires, but it was built in 1880-1910; in Scotland, Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh, also has three spires, and was built in 1874-1879.

The three spires of Edinburgh Cathedral are known as Main, Barbara and Mary. But, while the three spires of Lichfield Cathedral are often known as the ‘Ladies of the Vale’, I do not know of them ever having individual names.

David Adkins of Buton upon Trent, who labels himself an anthropologist and historian, recently claimed to have solved a mystery and that he knows why Lichfield Cathedral is the only mediaeval cathedral in England with three spires.

‘They have always been something of a mystery as no-one has ever discovered why the cathedral has these three enormous spires’, he asserts. ‘A mystery that is until you remember that Lichfield was the seat of the third archbishop of England. The Archbishopric of Lichfield was short-lived and disappeared over 1200 years ago, it only lasted from 787 to 803 AD and meant that Staffordshire was the only other county in England to have ever had an Archbishopric based within it’.

He claims: ‘The three spires can only represent one thing – the three Archbishops of England – and it is almost certain that the medieval stonemasons created the three spires in memory of Lichfield’s past. The two smaller spires symbolised the two original archbishops – York and Canterbury – and the larger central spire represented the Archbishop of Lichfield itself.’

However, Adkins provides no evidence or sources to support his suppositions. And his assertion lacks credibility for a number of other.

Archbishop Hygeberht of Lichfield in a window at the east end of the Chapter House in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

King Offa of Mercia created the position of Archbishop of Lichfield in 787. The dioceses of Winchester, Sherborne, Selsey, Rochester and London remained within the Province of Canterbury, while the dioceses of Worcester, Hereford, Leicester, Lindsey, Dommoc and Elmham became suffragan sees of Lichfield. Pope Adrian I concurred, and it was approved at the Council of Chelsea, sometimes known as the ‘contentious synod’.

Hygeberht, or Higbert, who had been the Bishop of Lichfield since 787, became the first and only Archbishop of Lichfield. In response, King Offa agreed to send an annual shipment of 365 gold coins to the Pope – seen as the origin of Peter’s Pence, an annual levy paid to Rome by the English Church – and to supply the lights in Saint Peter’s in Rome.

However, the position of Archbishop of Lichfield lasted for only 16 years, until Hygeberht resigned in 803. One of his last acts as archbishop, it is said, was to consecrate his successor Ealdwulf as Bishop of Lichfield, and the title of archbishop was laid aside. Hygeberht is listed as an abbot at the Council of Cloveshoo in the year 803 that oversaw the demotion of Lichfield in 803, and he died some time later. His successor, Bishop Aldulf, renounced the metropolitan powers in favour of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and died ca 814-816.

Far from being a protected secret part of the history of Lichfield Cathedral, the story is told publicly in windows by Charles Eamer Kempe in the chapter house.

Adkins in his innovative but unsourced claims says the masons gave the central spire of Lichfield Cathedral ‘extra height to set it above both York and Canterbury, and as a result the whole building is a commemoration of Lichfield’s prestigious past. It clearly depicts Lichfield’s position as the third major player in Anglo-Saxon politics and religion.’

There has been a cathedral in Lichfield from about the year 700, and there may have been a church on the site as early as 659. After the invasion of 1066, the Normans built a new cathedral

Roger de Clinton, Bishop of Lichfield in 1129-1148, built a new cathedral in Lichfield in honour of Saint Mary and Saint Chad, and also laid out the main streets of Lichfield in a grid pattern, still in evidence almost 800 years later. Work on building the cathedral continued in the 13th and 14th centuries. This work probably began with the choir at the east end and progressed west through the transepts, chapter house, nave, and south-west tower. The choir dates from 1200, the transepts from 1220-1240 and the nave was started ca 1260. The octagonal chapter house was completed in 1249. The cathedral was completed when the Lady Chapel was built in the 1330s.

The central tower, the south-east tower and the three spires followed. The central spire of Lichfield Cathedral is 77 metres (253 ft) high and was completed in 1315, and its story is told in the current exhibition in the Chapter House, ‘Story of a Spire’, which was due to close last August but has been extended until this month. The west spires are about 58 metres (190 ft), with the south spire a little taller than the north spire. These towers were added over five years after the death of the one and only Archbishop of Lichfield, and it stretched creduity to imagine that at that stage anyone would go to such lengths and to such expense to structurally comment in such a brief episode in church history that is remembered as a mere political aberration.

The cathedral was besieged three times in the Civil War in the mid-17th century and was severely damage. The central spire was demolished, the roofs ruined and all the stained glass smashed. Bishop John Hacket began restoring Lichfield Cathedral in the 1660s, and had repaired the cathedral within nine years. The restored cathedral was rededicated on Christmas Day 1669.

The interior of the cathedral was rearranged at the end of the 18th century and further restored in the 19th century by Sir George Gilbert Scott, giving us the cathedral we see today.

There is no source to indicate that Hackett saw the restoration of the cathedral spires as an exercise in remembering one single episode in the history of Lichfield almost 900 years earlier, when there was a single Archbishop of Lichfield.

CE Kempe’s window in the South Quire Aisle showing Bishop John Hacket restoring the spires of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Adkins does not indicate anywhere on his social media profiles what his qualifications are, apart from stating he studied at the University of Leeds. There are no indications that he has ever held an academic post in either discipline, that he has been published in peer-reviewed journals or that he is author of academically acclaimed books.

On the other hand, he has made some extravagant claims, including that he has unravelled the mystery of the Staffordshire knot, and that he alone knows that the Shroud of Turin is a tablecloth that was made in Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire.

He claims that lost treasure that could include the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail may be lying underneath Sinai Park, a manor house near Burton. He says he is convinced the priceless treasures were taken from Jerusalem in 1307, were stored beneath Sina Park, and that this was a secret location of the Knights Templar.

His sensationalist claims about what he describes as ‘one of the greatest religious treasures in the world’ have led to equally sensational newspaper headlines like: ‘Raiders of the Lost Park’.

In other headline-grabbing claims, he has said the so-called Shapira Scroll – said to contain ‘the 11th Commandment’, ‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart: I am God, your god’ – is buried in Stapenhill Cemetery in Burton. The Shapira Scroll was denounced widely by scholars in the 19th century as a forgery.

This evening, I am on my way from the Cathedral to the Old Grammar School on Saint John’s Street, across the street from Saint John’s Hospital. The building dates back to 1577, and is to become home to the local history group Lichfield Discovered.

Over the coming years, Lichfield Discovered plans to transform some of the spaces at the Old Grammar School and to work with local people, groups and the city’s museums and heritage sites to celebrate the history Lichfield.

Lichfield Cathedral in today’s afternoon sunshine … the only mediaeval cathedral in England with three spires (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025:
4, Thursday 6 February 2025

‘He … began to send them out two by two’ (Mark 6: 7) … two walkers on the beach in Ballybunion, Co Kerry, at the end of the day (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and less than four weeks away from Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025) and the beginning of Lent. The Calendar of the Church of England today (6 February) remembers the Martyrs of Japan (1597).

In 1597, 26 men and women, religious and lay, including Paul Miki, were first mutilated then crucified near Nagasaki. The period of persecution continued for another 35 years, and many new martyrs were added to their number.

After a long and demanding day in Milton Keynes University Hospital yesterday with consultations and hearing the results of a number of tests, I am planning to spend much of today in Lichfield, visiting the chapel in Saint John’s Chapel and attending the mid-day Eucharist and Choral Evensong in Lichfield Cathedral. Later in evening, I hope to be in the Old Grammar School on Saint John’s Street, which dates back to 1577 and is about to become home to the local history group Lichfield Discovered.

Over the coming years, Lichfield Discovered plans to transform some of the spaces at the Old Grammar School and to collaborate with local people, groups and the city’s museums and heritage sites to celebrate the history Lichfield.

Before today begins, however, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

When I set out on journeys, too often I take too much with me … ‘A Case History’ or ‘The Hope Street Suitcases’ by John King in Liverpool (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 6: 7-13 (NRSVA):

7 He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; 9 but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. 10 He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. 11 If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ 12 So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. 13 They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

‘He ordered them … to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics’ (Mark 6: 8-9) … sandals in a shopfront in Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Mark 6: 7-13), Jesus sends out the 12 Disciples in pairs, two-by-two, on a limited commission, but advises them to prepare for rejection and to be ready to move on.

Going out in pairs was a well-known practice at the time. For example, Yose ben Joezer of Zeredah (first half of the second century BCE), is often paired with his colleague, Yose ben Johanan of Jerusalem. They are the first of the zugot(Hebrew זוּגוֹת, ‘pairs’; singular זוּג; zug), the name given to the pairs of sages responsible for maintaining the chain of the Oral Law from Antigonus of Sokho, the pupil of Simeon the Just, to Johanan ben Zakkai. They represent a link between the prophets and the tannaim or rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Mishnah.

Yose ben Joezer was the nasi of the Sanhedrin and his colleague was the av bet din. Because of their profound erudition and piety both Yoses were called ‘the grape clusters’. Yose ben Joezer says in the Mishnah (Avot 1: 4), ‘Let thy house be a meeting place for scholars; sit amid the dust of their feet; and drink in their words with thirst.’ The Midrash (Gen. R. 65: 22) says he was sentenced to death by crucifixion.

So, in this passage, Jesus echoes the wise sages of the Mishnah, in teaching and in practice. And, indeed, his death has many similarities with the crucifixion of Yose ben Joezer.

When Jesus tells the 12 they are to fasten their belts, put on their sandals and wrap themselves in their cloak, he is sending them out into the world on a limited mission. But in places that are not welcoming or receptive to their teaching, they are to leave and to shake the dust off their feet.

In this reading, we are challenged to see how being sent by God is always being in service and as being part of the ‘Sent Community.’

What do you take with you on a journey? What are the essential items you pack in your case? Is it a small bag for an overhead cabin on a Ryanair flight and a short overnight stay? Or was it a large suitcase or two for a two-week summer holiday, filled with towels, sun cream and swimwear?

Apart from my passport, the requisite toothbrush, plastic cards, phone chargers, presents for hosts and friends, and changes of clothes and sandals, I always need to take my laptop and more than enough reading: books, magazine, journals and newspapers.

And I always regret that I have packed too much – not because I do not wear all those T-shorts or read each and every one of those books, but because I find there is not enough room for all the books I want to take back with me, and because restrictions on overhead bags often mean I cannot return with a bottle of local wine.

In this Gospel reading, as the disciples prepare for their journey, we might expect them to take with them an extra wineskin, an extra tunic, an extra pair of sandals, some water, some spending money.

But Christ tells the disciples, as he sends them out in mission, two-by-two, to take nothing for their journey except a staff – no bread, no bag, no money, no spare shoes, no change of tunic, no coins for tips in the taverns or inns where they stay and eat.

Perhaps the disciples set out filled with doubts and uncertainty, full of fear and anxiety, rather than with full suitcases.

But what the disciples would soon learn is that for the people they are going to encounter along the way, it is not food or money or clothes that they need most. What those people need most, like the women in Tuesday’s Gospel reading (Mark 5: 21-43), is healing. And so, Christ requires the disciples to give what is the hardest thing in the world for us to give: the hardest thing to give is ourselves.

Sometimes, the moments when we put aside the comforts of home and step into uncertainty and risk are moments when we find we are closest to God.

Perhaps this Gospel reading is challenging me to ask myself: What baggage have I been dragging along with me in life, on my journey of faith?

Have I been carrying this baggage around not because I need it, but because I am comfortable with it?

What unnecessary junk am I still carrying around with me in life that I ought to have left behind long ago?

For the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933), in his poem ‘Ithaka’ (1911), the beginning of the journey is as important as the end itself, the journey as important as the destination.

In this poem, Cavafy transforms Homer’s account of the return of Odysseus from the Trojan War to his home island, and, after a long absence finding Ithaka disappointing. Cavafy tells Odysseus that arriving in Ithaka is what he is destined for, that he must keep that always in mind: one’s destiny, the inevitable end of the journey, is a thing to be faced for what it is, without illusions.

The meaning of Ithaka is in the voyage home that it inspired. It is not reaching home or again escaping its limitations once there that should occupy Odysseus so much as those elevated thoughts and rare excitement that are a product of the return voyage.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

Christ sends his disciples out, as he has been sent, with no real resources, but ready to rely on the hospitality of others for their basic needs, and depending on God for the power to fulfil their mission.

We are challenged to embrace the call of God, and go out as servants of Christ in dependence on God’s resources, God’s strength, to sustain us.

There is no shortage of work to be done in the world today. The issues of justice are many and diverse and require people of passion, commitment and with a sense of being ‘called’ or being ‘sent.’

But, for justice to become a reality in this world, in our country, in our communities, there must be a sense in which all the individual initiatives connect and form part of a larger whole. It is not just as individuals that we are sent out into the world, but we are sent out as groups and communities. As we work together, each with our own particular gifts or focus, we can make a significant difference.

‘He … began to send them out two by two’ (Mark 6: 7) … two walkers set out into the light of day in Porto (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 6 February 2025):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Common Humanity and Love for Religious “Other”.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Reflection by the Revd Dr Salli Effungani, a minister in the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC), Programme Officer for the Programme for Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa (PROCMURA), and Adjunct Lecturer on Interfaith Relations at Saint Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 6 February 2025) invites us to pray:

We pray against discrimination, bigotry, and torture meted out by people because of their religious affiliations.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
by whose grace alone we are accepted
and called to your service:
strengthen us by your Holy Spirit
and make us worthy of our calling;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of truth,
we have seen with our eyes and touched with our hands the bread of life:
strengthen our faith
that we may grow in love for you and for each other;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:
God of our salvation,
help us to turn away from those habits which harm our bodies
and poison our minds
and to choose again your gift of life,
revealed to us in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘He … began to send them out two by two’ (Mark 6: 7) … two walkers in the narrow streets of San Marino (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

05 February 2025

Three pubs and a Georgian house in Newport Pagnell

The Rose and Crown at 74-76 Silver Street, Newport Pagnell, is across the street from Lovat Bank (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I was in Newport Pagnell a few days ago, visiting Lovat Bank on Silver Street and taking photographs of the splendid Victorian mansion designed for the Taylor family by the Ston Stratford architect Edward Swinfen Harris.

It was a quick and short visit to complete a talk I am giving on Swinfen Harris later this month (25 February 2025) in the library in Stony Stratford.

It was a very focussed visit to Newport Pagnell this time. But between the bus stop on High Street and Lovat Bank on Silver Street, I could not help but notice three pubs, dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries.

The name Rose and Crown is second only to the Red Lion as the favourite pub name in England (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Silver Street is a quiet part of Newport Pagnell and is a short walk from the High Street, reached by walking down Bury Street, with Cedars School on the right. Across from Lovat Bank, the Rose and Crown is at 74-76 Silver Street.

The name Rose and Crown is second only to the Red Lion as the favourite pub name in England. Some sources say the Rose and Crown in Newport Pagnell was originally known as the Red Lion, while others say it was first called the Blue Boar.

The old Rose and Crown was a stone building several centuries old and inside today you can see the old beams running through it. It was modernised and lengthened in 1966 to include an old house next door. although the outer rendering makes this difficult to see.

There was once a large malting at the rear, and two other ancient cottages, built in brick, timber and thatched, were demolished in 1966 to make way for the car park. It has been refurbished again recently by new tenants, with grey-painted panelling and discrete beams.

No 84 Silver Street is one of the largest buildings on the street and probably dates back to 1810 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Close by, on the same side of the street, No 84 Silver Street is a Georgian house built in brick with stone quoins and a stucco finish. The roof has large slates were specially imported from Belgium.

This is one of the largest buildings on the street, and probably dates back to 1810. On the right hand side of the building you can see a stone wall, which runs through the whole of the house and on into an outside wall. It is thought that outbuildings at the back were once used for livestock.

A small neolithic axe head was discovered in the garden. The house was owned in the later part of the 19th century by William Cowley, who founded Newport’s Parchment Works.

The Coachmakers’ Arms at the junction of High Street and Bury Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

On my way back to the bus stop on High Street, I stopped to look at the Coachmakers’ Arms is in a quiet corner at the junction of High Street and Bury Street.

A sign outside says it was established in 1753, but it is an early 17th century stone and timber building. The stone-walls of the building are enormously thick in places, sometimes up to four feet. It has been a listed building since 1972.

On the High Street, I was tempted to skip the bus that was arriving, and cross the street to see the Dolphin Inn once again. This is a 16th century public house and another of the ancient inns in Newport Pagnell, and I have been there at least once before.

But the afternoon was beginning to close in, and I decided it was better to catch the bus and to promise myself to return to Newport Pagnell soon again.

the Coachmakers’ Arms was built in the early 17th century, although the sign outside dates it from 1753 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025:
3, Wednesday 5 February 2025

‘Is not this the carpenter?’ (Mark 6: 3) … ‘Christ in the House of His Parents’ (1850) by John Everett Millais

Patrick Comerford

Since the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (2 February 2025) or Candlemas on Sunday, we have been in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar; the liturgical colour is now green, and it just four weeks from today until Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025) and the beginning of Lent.

Later today, I have two medical appointments in Milton Keynes University Hospital as my heart, lungs, kidneys and pulmonary sarcoidosis continue to be monitored. Before today begins, however, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘Is not this the carpenter?’ (Mark 6: 3) … ‘The Shadow of Death’ (1870-1873) by William Holman Hunt

Mark 6: 1-6 (NRSVA):

1 He left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him. 2 On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offence at him. 4 Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honour, except in their home town, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’ 5 And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. 6 And he was amazed at their unbelief.

‘Is not this … the son of Mary?’ (Mark 6: 3) … a recital poster on railings in Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Mark 6: 1-6), Jesus returns to his home town. He has been acclaimed throughout Galilee as a teacher, a rabbi, he has even been called Lord. But in his own home town, those who think they know better are unwilling to acknowledge who he really is.

Instead they try to put him down, reminding him of where he comes from, who is family are, and telling him he is getting above himself.

Instead of confronting the leaders of the community, he turns to those they have marginalised … the sick, the maimed, and those in need of healing.

When we marginalise and demean people, when we only value them for the ways they are useful to us and enhance our own lifestyles, we sow the seeds of eventual disaster.

I am reminded of Leona Helmsley who said many years ago: ‘We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes’ (New York Times, 12 July 1989). Her dismissive ‘Only little people pay taxes’ was one way of saying ‘let them eat cake’, and has found political expression in the Trump administration.

She eventually became the author of her own misfortune, and Forbes came to list her at the top of the 10 greatest tax fraudsters in the US.

The little people matter little to the village elders in the town who look down on Jesus at his homecoming. Yet there is a simple message linking today’s Gospel reading with Gospel reading in a few weeks’ time (1 March 2025): the little people matter … ‘for it is to such as these that the Kingdom of God belongs’ (Mark 10: 14).

Saint Mark tells us that Christ is faced with rejection in his own hometown. He has returned to Galilee, where he is spoken of in ways that, put together, amount to a very public rejection. He is spoken of as ‘the carpenter’, ὁ τέκτων (ho tékton). Now, as we know, 1, being a carpenter is a very positive, beautiful craft exercise; and 2, the word τέκτων in the New Testament describes a variety of people with interesting skills, including architects, planners, singers and poets.

But in a way that any of us who has lived in a small community, or in a small town, knows only too well, they are looking down on him. Other people are describing him as Rabbi, Teacher … even Lord. But never let him get above himself … let him always remember that he began his working life at the lathe and with the saw and hammer, wood and nails … the very way he is going to end his life too.

And he is described as ὁ υἱὸς τῆς Μαρίας (ho uios tis Marias), ‘the son of Mary.’

In a small community or a small town in Ireland, people can always tell you when you return: ‘We know who your people are.;

They know Jesus is the son of Joseph the Carpenter, they know where he was brought up, they know where he got his first haircut, where he went to school, they know his mother, his family, as they say in some Irish villages, they know his ‘seed, breed and generation.’

Unlike the two other synoptic Gospel writers, Saint Matthew and Saint Luke, Saint Mark provides no lengthy genealogy for Jesus, back through David, the Prophets and the Patriarchs (see Matthew 1: 1-17; Luke 3: 23-38).

But to refer to Jesus as ‘the son of Mary’ is be dismissive, is to rob him of his legitimacy.

Christ already has had a difficult homecoming in this Gospel (see Mark 3: 19-35). So we are presented with a stark homecoming story where he is teaching in his home synagogue and is robbed of his reputation, his role and his legitimacy.

His healing and teaching ministry in Capernaum, on the seashore, throughout Galilee, is already well-known. But back home, in his own synagogue, he is rejected.

How do we respond to rejection?

Sometimes, we take stock, readjust, and move on.

Sometimes, we walk away in anger – the ‘I’ll-never-come-back-here-again’ attitude.

Sometimes, our desire for acceptance is so strong that we buckle under and accept what others say, so that we become quiescent, conforming, uncritical operatives.

Sometimes, we seek comfort – comfort in parental figures, or inappropriate comfort in alcohol, distracting hobbies or even in inappropriate relationships.

Sometimes, we accept the images others project onto us, so we remain imprisoned and never become ourselves fully and holistically.

Sometimes, we stand and fight … we stand on our dignity and aggressively assert ourselves, setting ourselves up for another put-down.

And sometimes we draw on a little bit of each of these defensive responses. We each know that we have responded with a little of one and a little of the other responses at different times, in different situations, to different people.

We say things to family members that we would never say to neighbours or employers; we say things to fellow employees that we would never say to our own family members.

What does Jesus do this morning?

His response is often quoted but seldom understood. He actually understands where the people of Nazareth are. It is difficult for them, but it is not difficult for him.

It is passage which in the Greek has four poetic openings to phrases in the space of three verses: οὐχ οὗτός εἰσὶν … οὐκ εἰσὶν … Οὐκ ἔστιν … οὐκ ἐδύνατο … (verses 3-5). No, no, no, no way.

In the face of this strong negativity, Jesus does nothing, apart from laying his hands on a few people and healing them, apart from treating as fully human those who are on the margins and rejected in the community.

There are people in the Church today who are rejected and marginalised. Why, who do they think they are?

And there are people who sit in judgment on them, who believe they alone have access to a secret knowledge that permits them to make exclusive claims not only for Christ, but for their interpretation of the Church and the Bible.

They boast of exclusive revelations; they claim to speak for the only true Anglicans; they play power games in contrast to the self-emptying of Christ and the weakness of Saint Paul; they reject and deride any other interpretations of the Bible but their own; and they boast of their success based on filling pews and holding large conferences.

But size and numbers seem to disguise and excuse negativity and bigotry. None of this matches the self-emptying Christ displays in the Gospel reading today.

‘Is not this … the son of Mary?’ (Mark 6: 3) … Sir Jacob Epstein’s sculpture of the Madonna and Child above the entrance to Dean’s Mews on the north side of Cavendish Square, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 5 February 2025):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Common Humanity and Love for Religious “Other”.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Reflection by the Revd Dr Salli Effungani, a minister in the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC), Programme Officer for the Programme for Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa (PROCMURA), and Adjunct Lecturer on Interfaith Relations at Saint Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 5 February 2025) invites us to pray:

Our dear Father, we bring before you the mission of the church in a growing, changing context. Grow us to trust you through the highs and lows of change, so that you may get the glory.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
by whose grace alone we are accepted
and called to your service:
strengthen us by your Holy Spirit
and make us worthy of our calling;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of truth,
we have seen with our eyes and touched with our hands the bread of life:
strengthen our faith
that we may grow in love for you and for each other;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:
God of our salvation,
help us to turn away from those habits which harm our bodies
and poison our minds
and to choose again your gift of life,
revealed to us in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘Is not this … the son of Mary?’ (Mark 6: 3) … the west door of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

04 February 2025

The Greeks have a word for it:
50, Metamorphosis, Μεταμόρφωσις

A butterfly in Platanias, east of Rethymnon in Crete … the most beloved of natural metamorphoses may be the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

While we were staying on the Left Bank in Paris last year, my eye was caught by Les Metamorphoses, a shuttered and closed jewellery shop on Rue du Petit Pont, around the corner from the Shakespeare bookshop, forever associated with James Joyce, and across the river from Notre Dame.

Perhaps this shuttered, closed and forgotten shop, covered in spray paint and graffiti, took its name from the French translation of the Metamorphoses, a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by Ovid that is considered his magnum opus.

The trend-setting name sign was designed to be read in its mirror-like, reversed composition. Now it is part of a grey and deserted building, like part of the landscape of a wasteland. Perhaps, after all, it was named after a French translation of Franz Kafka’s novella, The Metamorphosis, first published in German as Die Verwandlung in 1915.

Many events last year marked the 100th anniversary of the death of Franz Kafka on 3 June 1924. Few 20th century writers – apart from, perhaps, James Joyce and TS Eliot – receive as much attention as Kafka. Although he did not live to see his 41st birthday and worked for much of his life as an insurance clerk, Kafka is a giant on the stage of world literature.

The Metamorphosis, one of Kafka’s best-known works, tells of a travelling salesman, Gregor Samsa, who lives ‘in the quiet but completely urban Charlotte Street.’ He could have believed that from his window he was peering out at a featureless wasteland, in which ‘the gray heaven and the gray earth had merged and were indistinguishable.’

One hundred years after the death of Franz Kafka, the University of Oxford celebrated his life and work, with a series of events. The #OxfordKafka24 programme included an exhibition at the Bodleian’s Weston Library, ‘Kafka: Making of Icon’, a public reading of The Metamorphosis in the Sheldonian Theatre, and a new limited-edition imprint of The Metamorphosis from Oxford University Press that was given to every Oxford student and distributed to schools and libraries – I was generously given a copy in Pusey House.

Butterflies on a display at the railway station in Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops, including birth transformation or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal’s body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some insects, jellyfish, fish, amphibians, mollusks, crustaceans, cnidarians, echinoderms and tunicates undergo metamorphosis, which is often accompanied by a change of nutrition source or behaviour.

Natural substances may also metamorphose, or undergo metamorphosis. Heat and pressure over thousands of years may eventually turn tiny organisms into petroleum, and coal into diamonds. The most beloved of natural metamorphoses are probably the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies and of tadpoles into frogs.

The word metamorphosis derives from the Ancient Greek μεταμόρφωσις (metamorphosis, ‘transformation, transforming’), from μετα- (meta-, ‘after’) and μορφή (morphe, ‘form’).

In Middle English, Methamorphoseos is the title of Ovid’s poem or its contents, borrowed from the Latin Metamorphōsēs, as the title of Ovid’s poem, literally, ‘transformations’ (Late Latin metamorphosis ‘transfiguration, change into another form’). This, in turn, was borrowed from the Greek metamórphōsis (from 1st century CE), ‘transformation’, from metamorphō-, a variant stem of metamorphóō, metamorphoûn, ‘to transform’.

Many ancient myths end in a metamorphosis. As Apollo is chasing the nymph Daphne, she calls on her river-god father for help and he turns her into a laurel tree to save her. Out of anger and jealousy, the goddess Athena turns the marvellous weaver Arachne into a spider that will spin only beautiful webs.

The Transfiguration or Metamorphosis depicted in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó, in the hills above Hersonissos in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on image for full-screen viewing)

In Greek theology, the Transfiguration of Christ is known as the Metamorphosis (Μεταμόρφωσις). In New Testament usage, metamorphoûsthai means to be transfigured. The Transfiguration of Christ is recounted in the Synoptic Gospels (see Matthew 17: 1-8; Mark 9: 2-13; Luke 9: 28-36) and is also referred to in II Peter 1: 16-18. Although Luke and II Peter do not use the word metamorphosis, the form of the word found in Matthew and Mark is μετεμορφώθη.

The other two uses of the Greek verb μεταμορφόω (metamorphoo) are both in the Pauline letters. In II Corinthians 3: 7-18, Saint Paul uses the word μεταμορφούμεθα as he discusses the glory of God’s revelation on Mount Sinai, which made Moses’ face shine. In Romans 12: 2, Paul challenges his readers: ‘Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed [μεταμορφοῦσθε] by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.’

Charles Wesley takes up Saint Paul’s language of transfiguration in II Corinthians in his hymn ‘Love Divine, All Loves Excelling’:

Finish, then, thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be;
Let us see thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in thee;
Changed from glory into glory
Till in Heav’n we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise!

The Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó in the mountains above Hersonissos in Crete was established in 2002, completed in 2008 and dedicated in 2014 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The thematic prayer for Transfiguration Sunday (the Sunday before Lent, 2 March 2025) in the Revised Common Lectionary Prayers invites us to pray for a transfiguration of our own:

Holy God, mighty and immortal,
you are beyond our knowing,
yet we see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ,
whose compassion illumines the world.
Transform us into the likeness of the love of Christ,
who renewed our humanity so that we may share in his divinity,
through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Les Metamorphoses in Paris … locked up and abandoned like Gregor Samsa? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Last word: 49, Ἠλεκτρον (Elektron), electric

Next word: 51, xxx

xxx (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Previous words in this series:

1, Neologism, Νεολογισμός.

2, Welcoming the stranger, Φιλοξενία.

3, Bread, Ψωμί.

4, Wine, Οίνος and Κρασί.

5, Yogurt, Γιαούρτι.

6, Orthodoxy, Ορθοδοξία.

7, Sea, Θᾰ́λᾰσσᾰ.

8,Theology, Θεολογία.

9, Icon, Εἰκών.

10, Philosophy, Φιλοσοφία.

11, Chaos, Χάος.

12, Liturgy, Λειτουργία.

13, Greeks, Ἕλληνες or Ρωμαίοι.

14, Mañana, Αύριο.

15, Europe, Εὐρώπη.

16, Architecture, Αρχιτεκτονική.

17, The missing words.

18, Theatre, θέατρον, and Drama, Δρᾶμα.

19, Pharmacy, Φᾰρμᾰκείᾱ.

20, Rhapsody, Ραψῳδός.

21, Holocaust, Ολοκαύτωμα.

22, Hygiene, Υγιεινή.

23, Laconic, Λακωνικός.

24, Telephone, Τηλέφωνο.

25, Asthma, Ασθμα.

26, Synagogue, Συναγωγή.

27, Diaspora, Διασπορά.

28, School, Σχολείο.

29, Muse, Μούσα.

30, Monastery, Μοναστήρι.

31, Olympian, Ολύμπιος.

32, Hypocrite, Υποκριτής.

33, Genocide, Γενοκτονία.

34, Cinema, Κινημα.

35, autopsy and biopsy

36, Exodus, ἔξοδος

37, Bishop, ἐπίσκοπος

38, Socratic, Σωκρατικὸς

39, Odyssey, Ὀδύσσεια

40, Practice, πρᾶξις

41, Idiotic, Ιδιωτικός

42, Pentecost, Πεντηκοστή

43, Apostrophe, ἀποστροφή

44, catastrophe, καταστροφή

45, democracy, δημοκρατία

46, ‘Αρχή, beginning, Τέλος, end

47, ‘Αποκάλυψις, Apocalypse

48, ‘Απόκρυφα, Apocrypha

49, Ἠλεκτρον (Elektron), electric

50, Metamorphosis, Μεταμόρφωσις

A butterfly in the garden in the Rectory in Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025:
2, Tuesday 4 February 2025

‘The Daughter of Jairus’ by James Tissot (1836-1902)

Patrick Comerford

The 40-day season of Christmas came to end on Sunday with the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (2 February 2025) or Candlemas. We have returned to Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, the liturgical colour has returned from white to green, and it is little more than a month before Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025) and the beginning of Lent.

Today, the calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Saint Gilbert of Sempringham (1189), founder of the Gilbertine Order. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him’ (Mark 5: 21) … a crowded boat in the Mediterranean (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 5: 21-43 (NRSVA):

21 When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him; and he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet 23 and begged him repeatedly, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.’ 24 So he went with him.

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. 25 Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years. 26 She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.’ 29 Immediately her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ 31 And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, “Who touched me?” ’ 32 He looked all round to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.’

35 While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?’ 36 But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’ 37 He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. 38 When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 When he had entered, he said to them, ‘Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.’ 40 And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha cum’, which means, ‘Little girl, get up!’ 42 And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. 43 He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

‘Christ raises the daughter of Jairus’ (left), in the Hardman window by JH Powell at the west end of the nave in Saint Nicholas Church, Adare, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Mark 5: 21-43) tells the stories of how Christ responds to the plight of two very different people: a young girl who is on her deathbed, and a woman who has been suffering for the previous 12 years, as long as the young girl has lived.

The women in this reading remain unnamed, like so many women in the New Testament: three women in all, the dying girl, the older woman, and the girl’s mother.

The young girl who is on her deathbed and her mother are from a religious family; the older woman who interrupts this story, and who disrupts Jesus and intrudes on the crowd, has endured a lifetime of suffering. The two principal women in this story both suffer and are marginalised, are seen as not worth bothering about, because of their gender and because of their age.

This reading reminds us that Christ calls the unnamed, the marginalised, and the long-suffering from the outside into the community. They call out, just as the psalmist cries out, ‘Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord’ (Psalm 130: 1).

God is attentive to our pleas, despite everything that has gone wrong, God forgives, God is merciful, God offers unfailing love and freedom, God’s love for us surpasses the love of any father or mother for their children.

In this Gospel reading, one of the key people is the daughter of a leading member of the local synagogue. But religious position and social status are of little value when a small child is struck with a death-threatening illness or disease.

In both cases these women are ritually unclean … a bleeding woman, a dying or dead women. Jesus should not touch them. Yet their plight touches his heart, and he reaches out to them with a healing touch.

One young woman is restored to her place in her family and in her community. One older woman, who has lost everything, who is at risk of being marginalised, even by the Disciples, is offered the hope of her proper place.

The crowd who gather around Jesus by the lake becomes a large crowd pressing in on him.

Too often in a crowd, it is those who get to the front first, who have the loudest voices, who are heard, whose demands are met.

But in this case, it is not the loud and the proud, the rich or the famous, who grab the attention of Christ – it is a weak, timid, neglected impoverished, exploited and sick woman. All her money has gone on quacks, and she has no man to speak up for her.

But look at what Christ does for her. Without knowing it, he heals her. And when he realises what has happened, he calls her ‘Daughter.’

In a society where men had the only voices, where to have a full place in society was to be known as a Son of Israel, she is called ‘Daughter.’ She too has a full and equal place in society, in the world, and before God.

It is shocking that when the unnamed girl dies the first reaction of some key local figures is to upbraid her father for seeking help, and not to offer him comfort and sympathy.

Their lack of compassion and sympathy contrasts sharply with the compassion Christ shows for both the older and the younger woman.

Some years ago at the annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (the United Society Partners in the Gospel) in High Leigh, I heard powerful and engaging stories of how projects supported by USPG are empowering women around the world.

Canon Delene Mark from South Africa gave harrowing accounts of gender-based violence, people trafficking, child murder and forced prostitution.

Sheba Sultan from the Church of Pakistan reminded us that women in Pakistan cannot achieve anything without tackling bigotry and intolerance.

We heard from India where the Delhi Brotherhood is challenging gender-based violence, including rape and murder.

The Revd Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, now the Archdeacon of Liverpool, talked about gender justice, which is much more than ending gender-based violence. She shared a vision of equality for men and women created equally in the image and likeness of God, made one in Christ, called and equipped by the Holy Spirit, and living with the promise of abundant life for all.

We were challenged each day to ask ourselves: how is the Gospel good news for women? Speaker after speaker insisted that the Gospel is Good News – but only if we read it, accept its consequences for us, and then live it out.

The Gospel is Good News for women like the two women in the Gospel story and for the women I heard about at that USPG conference. But … only if we read it and if we put it into practice.

Newspapers on sale at a kiosk in Rethymnon in Crete … when and how is the Gospel good news for people on the margins? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 4 February 2025):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Common Humanity and Love for Religious “Other”.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Reflection by the Revd Dr Salli Effungani, a minister in the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC), Programme Officer for the Programme for Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa (PROCMURA), and Adjunct Lecturer on Interfaith Relations at Saint Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 4 February 2025) invites us to pray:

God, reveal yourself to us in ways that we can understand, so that we can live a life that is worthy of our calling.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
by whose grace alone we are accepted
and called to your service:
strengthen us by your Holy Spirit
and make us worthy of our calling;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of truth,
we have seen with our eyes and touched with our hands the bread of life:
strengthen our faith
that we may grow in love for you and for each other;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:
God of our salvation,
help us to turn away from those habits which harm our bodies
and poison our minds
and to choose again your gift of life,
revealed to us in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him’ (Mark 5: 21) … boats in the harbour in Kinvara, Co Galway (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

03 February 2025

Lovat Bank in Newport Pagnell, an Arts and Crafts house designed by Swinfen Harris for the Taylor family

Lovat Bank, designed by Swinfen Harris for the Taylor family, on the banks of the Ousel or Lovat River in Newport Pagnell (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I have been invited to speak in Stony Stratford Library later this month (25 February 2025) to speak about the Stony Stratford architect Edward Swinfen Harris (1841-1924), a significant figure in the Aesthetic Movement and the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Swinfen Harris was a long-standing friend of the architect Edward William Godwin (1833-1886), and his wider circle included William Butterfield, George Edmund Street and other leading Gothic Revival architects of the day. His works, mainly in the Arts and Crafts style, can be seen throughout Stony Stratford and many neighbouring towns in Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire.

Lovat Bank on Silver Street in Newport Pagnell is regarded as the ‘chef d’oeuvre’ of Swinfen Harris (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Earlier this afternoon, I visited Lovat Bank on Silver Street in Newport Pagnell, an impressive house in the Domestic Revival style that is regarded as the chef d’oeuvre of Swinfen Harris. The house was built in 1877 for Frederick James Taylor, a chemist and member of the family of mustard and mineral water manufacturers in Newport Pagnell.

The site originally had workshops, barns and stables with light industries, including wool stapling or sorting wool into different grades or types. Frederick Taylor demolished the workshops and three cottages adjacent to the property in 1877 to build a lodging house, now Lovat Lodge.

The brick and stone gothic porch at Lovat Bank (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Lovat Bank, which was designed by Swinfen Harris and built in 1877, is a two-storey house designed in the Domestic Revival style, with tall chimneys and pinnacles, mock Tudor beams, a metal weather, gabled dormers and attics. It is built in red brick, English bond, with some limestone dressings and some timber-framed upper floors with brick noggings and gables with plaster infill impressed with sunflower designs, and tiled roofs.

The front elevation has a brick and stone gothic porch with stone strings and hood, and an inner order on carved stone capitals. There is a recessed glazed timber door.

The stair tower is octagonal, then returns to a circular shape with a conical slate tower (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The entrance on the north side leads into the reception area and stair hall, with reception rooms on the south side, a service wing on the left beyond and a service stair in tower.

The stair tower rises from multiple chamfered brick offset courses. It is octagonal with decorative brick panels, returning to a circular shape before multiple out-setting courses below the eaves. The conical slate tower has decorative ironwork.

The first floor has a timber-framed bay and pointed brick arches (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The first floor has a timber-framed bay, and there are simple sash windows under the near-flush pointed brick arches in the manner of William Butterfield (1814-1900), the Gothic Revival architect of the Oxford Movement whose work includes Keble College, Oxford, and All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street, in London.

The rear elevation of Lovat Bank has stone mullioned and dressed windows, and two gables, one framed, the other tile hung. Sunflowers, the symbol of the Aesthetic Movement, can be seen in one of rear glables

The staircase has carved newels, turned balusters and a turned baluster gallery overlooking the hall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Inside, the house has a staircase with carved newels and turned balusters and there is similar turned baluster gallery overlooking the hall from the first floor. The house still has some of its original fireplaces.

Other interior features include Minton tiles, window box-seats, panelled doors, a gilded timber cornice in the dining room and a panelled ceiling on carved wall posts and corbels.

There are fine stained and painted glass windows, especially in the dining room, where four panels representing the Seasons are possibly by Nathaniel (NHJ) Westlake (1833-1921) of Lavers & Westlake. Westlake was a close associate of Swinfen Harris. They worked together on the memorial windows in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford and Westlake’s East Window (1888) dominates the chancel and Holy Trinity Church in Old Wolverton.

The original weather vane on the tower had the initials FJT. Other unusual features of the property include the bottles cemented into the wall motifs.

The interior features include Minton tiles in the hallway (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

FJ Taylor was a member of the family known for Taylor’s Prepared Mustard. The family was at the heart of business life in Newport Pagnell for almost 200 years, beginning with William Taylor, a Berkshire-born businessman and chemist who moved to Newport Pagnell 200 years ago in 1825 and began running a business selling soda water.

William Taylor’s original premises were next to the old Fire Station at the top end of the High Street. He then moved to a new base and founded a factory in Union Street. Taylor’s mustard, the first ready prepared English mustard, went on sale in 1830.

William Taylor passed the business on to his sons, Thomas and Frederick James Taylor, in 1863 and the partnership thrived as T & FJ Taylor.

Sunflowers, the symbol of the Aesthetic Movement, can be seen in one of rear glables (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Thomas Taylor and his family lived at the Limes, an attractive red-brick house. Frederick Taylor bought workshops and premises in Silver Street, and Lovat Bank, designed by Edward Swinfen Harris, was built there in 1877. Lovat Bank became the family home of Frederick Taylor, his mother, and his three sisters, and the garden was said to be full of exotic plants and flowers.

Frederick Taylor was also the chief officer with the town’s fire brigade before retiring in 1891. The steamer fire engine, named Lovat after his family home, is now in the Transport Hall in the Milton Keynes Museum. He sponsored many annual social occasions in Newport Pagnell, financed many improvements to Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church, gave cash prizes for swimming competitions and handed out oranges to schoolchildren before their Christmas holidays.

He suffered from poor health for some time and died in March 1917. As a mark of respect, all businesses in the town suspended trading during his funeral. On the evening of his funeral a full muffled peal rang out from Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church.

The Taylor businesses, which included properties and a chemist shop, were inherited by Francis William Taylor, and then by Frederick Thomas Taylor and his wife Florence who lived in the Limes.

The Taylor family continued to live Lovat Bank until 1957 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Taylor family left Lovat Bank in 1957, and the family business was split in two: Frederick’s son Stephen took on the drinks and mustard operation; his sister Ann inherited several flats in the High Street, as well as the family pharmacy.

The drink side of the operation was merged with Aylesbury firm, North and Randle in the 1960s. Liquid production ceased in Newport Pagnell in 1981, and Stephen Taylor retired five years later, although mustard continued to be manufactured in Newport Pagnell until 1990. A fire destroyed the old Taylor’s Yard and its building on New Year’s Eve 2002, taking with it 170 years of history in the town.

As for Lovat Bank, it was used by the Territorial Army in the 1960s. Lovat Hall, which was built on the site of a Territorial Army depot, is now a Baptist Church. Lovat Bank was used by the local council for some years and is now private offices and consulting rooms.

Taylor’s Mustard is now made in Glasgow and the Taylor family no longer has a connection with Newport Pagnell. But several generations of the family are buried at the Taylor monument in the cemetery and the Old Mustard Mews in the town is a reminder of the business that began 200 years ago with the arrival of William Taylor in Newport Pagnell in 1825.

Lovat Lodge, beside Lovat Bank, was (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)