The Chetwynd divorce trial that was a society sensation and scandal beyond Lichfield and Staffordshire in the 1860s

Longdon Hall, between Lichfield and Rugeley … at the centre of a sensational divorce case in 1864-1865 (Photograph: Longdon Hall School)

Patrick Comerford

With my recent return visits to Rugeley, Brereton, Stafford, Wolseley, Lichfield, Tamworth and other parts of Staffordshire, I have written about the Chetwynd family, the supposed murder by Dorothy Chetwynd of Sir Walter Smyth, the elderly husband who was three times her age, and the complete lack of historical evidence or primary sources for the stories in local lore of that murder or of Dorothy’s alleged execution by being burned at the stake.

Those stories of the Chetwynd family also led me to further genealogical and historical research into other family stories, and I came across stories of one branch of the Chetwynd family in Rugeley who were direct descendants of the Comberford family of Comberford Hall and the Moat House on Lichfield Street, Tamworth.

This branch of the Chetwynd family included another Dorothy Chetwynd who was a nun in Bruges, a 17th century; a 17th century MP for Stafford; and an 18th century MP for Lichfield who ran up heavy debts and whose funeral was delayed for weeks by his creditors.

Another branch of the Talbot family were given the title Earl Talbot, donated land for Saint Michael’s Church in Brereton, and gave their name to many places in the Rugeley area, including the Talbot Arms, associated with the ‘Poisoner of Rugeley’ William Palmer. After one Earl Tabot also became Earl of Shrewsbury, the pub became the Shrewsbury Arms, and is now known as ‘The Shrew’.

When I was writing about these stories of the Chetwynd and Talbot families, I referred to another marriage involving the Chetwynd and Talbot families that resulted in a sensational divorce case in 1865, and promised then to tell that story another evening.

William Henry Chetwynd (1811-1890) is remembered as one of the parties in the sensational Chetwynd v Chetwynd divorce case in 1864-1865, a case that highlighted Victorian attitudes to marriage, divorce, morals scandal, women’s rights and roles, children’s protection and family law.

William lived at Longdon Hall, halfway between Lichfield and Rugeley, where his income came from his family’s large landed estates and farms and from horse trading. The family estates were centred on Brocton Hall, their ancestral seat with 700 acres in Staffordshire, but also included Grendon Hall in Warwickshire, and the Bishton Hall estate inherited through the Sparrow family.

William was born on 17 September 1811 at Brocton Hall, Staffordshire, the family seat of the Chetwynd baronets. He was the second son of Sir George Chetwynd (1783-1850), 2nd baronet, and his wife Hannah Maria Sparrow of Bishton Hall, Staffordshire. Sir George succeeded to his father’s title and estates in 1824, and William Henry Chetwynd’s elder brother, Sir George Chetwynd (1809-1869), succeeded as the third baronet when their father died in 1850.

William Henry Chetwynd spent his childhood at Brocton Hall, which was largely rebuilt around 1815. He married the aristocratic Blanche Mary Talbot (1836-1898) at Saint George’s Church, Hanover Square, then a fashionable venue for society weddings in London, on 15 August 1854.

Blanche was born on 14 November 1836, a daughter of the Revd Hon Arthur Chetwynd-Talbot (1805-1884) and Harriet Elizabeth Frances Hervey-Aston (1815-1845) and a niece of Henry Chetwynd-Talbot, 18th Earl of Shrewsbury, and a granddaughter of Charles Talbot, 2nd Earl Talbot. She was baptised on 4 January 1837 in Ingestre by her father, who was the Rector of Ingestre, and later Rector of Church Eaton and a rural dean in the Diocese of Lichfield. Blanche and William were distantly related: a distant ancestor, Charles Talbot (1685-1737) had married Catherine Chetwynd, and inherited the estates of the Ingestre branch of the Chetwynd family.

William Henry Chetwynd and Blanche Mary Talbot were married in Saint George’s Church, Hanover Square, London, on 15 August 1854 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

At the time of their wedding, William was 42 and Blanche was 17, an age difference of 25 years. William later alleged that at the time of their marriage Blanche was two months pregnant by another man. He claimed in court during their divorce hearings that he knew this, but that he had gone ahead with the wedding regardless, claiming he had saved her from social disgrace.

Despite these repeated allegations, I have found no records of a child born within seven months of their marriage, although they were the parents of two children:

1, Florence Chetwynd (1856-1936), born in February 1856. She married her distant cousin Lord Berkeley Charles Sydney Paget, a son of Henry Paget 2nd Marquess Anglesey, on 5 June 1877.

2, Arthur Chetwynd (1857-1926), born on 22 July 1857, died on 15 August 1926.

As their relationship deteriorated , there were allegations of mutual infidelity, cruelty and financial mismanagement, exacerbated by Blanche’s secret decision to become a Roman Catholicism in 1862 and her independent dealings in horses and loans.

In December 1864, Blanche petitioned the Divorce Court for the dissolution of their marriage on grounds of her husband’s adultery with servants and cruelty, including claims that he forced her to perform menial tasks, used abusive language, and ill-treated animals and children in her presence.

William denied the charges and filed a recriminatory suit, accusing her of adultery with a prominent barrister Henry Matthews and a theology student named Nichols. The only evidence for these alleged infidelities were entries in her private diary revealing intimate feelings toward Matthews and criticisms of her husband.

Due to its complexity and the Christmas season, the trial lasted for many days, and because of its lurid details it attracted widespread press coverage. The evidence included anonymous insulting letters written by William Chetwynd and intercepted correspondence.

The judgment, delivered in Chetwynd v Chetwynd (1865), granted the divorce despite recrimination, finding William Chetwynd guilty of adultery and Blanche Chetwynd guilty of adultery based on the entries in her diary. In a landmark decision on child welfare, the court deemed both parents unfit and awarded custody of the children to third parties, reflecting shift in the Victorian era towards prioritising minors' moral protection over parental rights.

The divorce case heard how Blanche Chetwynd slept on the stairs or was forced to flee Longdon Hall

The case heard how early discord was reflected in petty arguments, such as a dispute in 1854 over Blanche's supposed tardiness at breakfast and another following her late return from a hunt at Beaudesert, where Chetwynd accused her of disrespecting him and suggested she find another place to live.

The rift to deepened by the late 1850s, with further financial pressures. Blanche was accumulating debts over £2,000 against William’s annual income of £1,200 through buying and selling horses at fairs, often borrowing from dealers at high interest rates secured by her family connections.

Rumours of mutual infidelities were supported by periods of separation and temporary relocation, including Blanche’s secretive departure from Longdon Hall. A pivotal escalation came in 1862, when Blanche became a Roman Catholic without her husband’s knowledge. She fled in distress to the home of the Revd James William Knight (1820-1878), Headmaster of Lichfield Grammar School (1859-1866).

Henry John Chetwynd-Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury and Earl Talbot … negotiations on behalf of the Talbot and Shrewsbury interests facilitated a brief reconciliation

Negotiations involving her family solicitor, Mr Nicholson, acting for the Talbot and Shrewsbury interests, facilitated a brief reconciliation, but trust was eroded once more by anonymous harassing letters, later shown to have been written by William. Blanche finally filed for divorce in late 1864 on grounds of her husband’s alleged adultery and cruelty. William countered with claims of his wife’s infidelity.

The case of Chetwynd v Chetwynd began in late 1864 in the Divorce Court, presided over by Sir James Wilde, and continued into February 1865. Evidence was heard over several days, drawing extensive media attention for their salacious details.

Blanche claimed her husband had been guilty of great cruelty, had taught their children to spit in her face and to call her foul names, had locked her out of the house or forced her to sleep on the stairs, threatened her with a horsewhip and a pitchfork, had been guilty of repeated acts of adultery with his female servants and had lived with the children’s governess, Helen Booth.

Servants who were called to court alleged William’s repeated adultery with female domestic staff at Longdon Hall, as well as acts of cruelty such as teaching the children to insult their mother and spit in her face, and locking her out of the house at night.

The witnesses who gave evidence on her behalf included the Revd James Knight, a family acquaintance and master of the Grammar School, Lichfield. He had known Blanche since she was a child and William since 1856. Knight recalled Blanche’s distressed state during visits to his home in 1863. She sought safety at night in Knight’s house in Lichfield before returning to Longdon Hall. But she returned to Lichfield to seek safety in Knight’s home a second time.

Detectives and hotel staff corroborated William’s extramarital liaisons, detailing a pattern of infidelity and domestic abuse.

William’s defence, was led by Sir Henry Hawkins, a prominent barrister and later a controversial judge. William sought to bar the divorce under the doctrine of recrimination. When he took the stand, he refuted allegations of violence, cruelty and neglect and claimed his wife had left home without notice for religious reasons and managed independent horse dealings that incurred debts exceeding his annual income.

He alleged Blanche was pregnant when they married, and that he was not the father of the child but that he ‘removed her from disgrace’. Excerpts from Blanche’s private diary were read into evidence, revealing her intimate feelings for Henry Matthews, a family friend. These including passages on unrequited love, passionate encounters, and moral turmoil, which Hawkins argued demonstrated her own adulterous intent.

Witnesses, including hotel proprietors, placed Blanche with Matthews, and separately with Nichols, in compromising situations, including sharing a bed at the Falcon Hotel in Birmingham in December 1863.

Cross-examinations highlighted inconsistencies in witness accounts, with William portraying himself as a victim of Blanche’s extravagance. He accused his wife of associating with what he saw as low company, including ‘horse dealers’ and ‘pig jobbers’ at fairs. Part of William’s evidence included claims that his wife had called him ‘Dear Old Billy.’ There was laughter in the court when lines were quoted from a ballad well-known in Staffordshire, ‘The Wednesbury Cock’ but that William had confused with Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians.

The co-respondent in William Chetwynd's counter-petition, Henry Matthews, was implicated through letters and diary entries suggesting improper intimacy, although there was no direct testimony from him.

Despite the mutual accusations, the court found Chetwynd’s adultery proven beyond doubt, while his recriminatory claims against his wife were deemed insufficient to bar relief, as her journal was evidence of intent but not of consummated acts.

On 25 February 1865, Sir James Wilde granted a decree nisi to Blanche, awarding costs against her husband, and ordering alimony payments to Blanche. The court also deemed both parents unfit and awarded custody of their children to third parties, reflecting emerging child welfare principle. They were put in the care of William’s elder brother, Sir George Chetwynd.

The Schoolmaster’s House (left) at the old Grammar School on Saint John Street, Lichfield … it is now the home Lichfield Discovered (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Following the case, William Henry Chetwynd returned to live at Longdon Hall, between Lichfield and Rugeley. There he lived a more secluded lifestyle without his children, and was a Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace for Staffordshire. He married a second wife, Mary Parkin, on 7 December 1875 at Saint George’s Church, Hanover Square, the same church where William and Blanche were married 21 years earlier. William died at Longdon Hall on 5 July 1890, aged 78, and was buried at Saint Michael and All Angels Church, Colwich, near Longdon Hall.

The Chetwynd case was an early instance where the Divorce Court exercised broad discretion in fault-based proceedings. The finding of mutual culpability led to a rare outcome where neither party was deemed the ‘innocent spouse’, resulting in the denial of custody to both parents and placing their children with third-party guardians, illustrating an emphasis on marital fault extending to parental rights.

The case also reflects the privileges afforded to the upper classes in accessing the divorce court, while families with limited resources often endured marital discord without formal dissolution because of financial barriers. The case highlights entrenched gender and class norms, with women’s private thoughts subject to more rigorous scrutiny and questioning than men’s actions, and reinforcing the patriarchal double standards of the time in family law.

Because of the development of a popular media and cheaper newspapers, the case acquired popular notoriety and was a greater source of gossip not just in Staffordshire, but across the world, compared, for example with another divorce case in the same part of Staffordshire a century earlier, involving Sir William Wolseley who married Ann Whitby in 1752, a sad story I recounted in recent weeks.

Brocton Hall, near Rugeley and Stafford … home to generations of the Chetwynd family of Rugeley

Whatever happened to the principal characters in the Chetwynd divorce drama?

William Chetwynd died at home in Longdon Hall, in 1890, and was buried nearby in Colwich. His property, including Longdon Hall, passed to the children of Blanche and William, Florence and Arthur. Arthur Chetwynd continued to live at Longdon Hall and to manage the estate; Lord Berkeley Paget died at Longdon Hall on 25 November 1913, and Florence died there on 26 May 1936. The family title and Brocton Hall were eventually inherited in 1938 by Arthur’s son, Sir Arthur Henry Talbot Chetwynd (1877-1972).

Blanche never married again, and died on 15 July 1898. Her half-brother, Canon Arthur Henry Chetwynd-Talbot (1855-1927), was later a Prebendary of Lichfield, Provost of Denstone College, Uttoxeter, and the Rector of Edgmond, Newport, Shropshire. Her uncle, Henry John Chetwynd-Talbot (1803-1868), 3rd Earl Talbot, eventually succeeded as 18th Earl of Shrewsbury in 1856, and those titles have continued with his descendants. Those descendants included John George Chetwynd-Talbot (1914-1980), 21st Earl of Shrewsbury and 6th Earl Talbot. He sued for divorce in 1958, but Judge Charles A Collingwood refused the application in 1959, and he did not get a divorce until a subsequent case in 1963.

The Revd James William Knight, the kindly and concerned Master of Lichfield Grammar School who offered Blanche refuge on at least two occasions, was later Sub-Warden of Saint Paul’s College, Stony Stratford (1873-1875). He died on 26 August 1878, at Car-Colston Vicarage, Nottinghamshire. The Schoolmaster’s House at the old Grammar School on Saint John Street, Lichfield, where he lived is now home to the local history group Lichfield Discovered.

William Chetwynd’s counsel, Sir Henry Hawkins (1817-1907), later 1st Baron Brampton, became a controversial judge and was known as a severe ‘hanging judge’. His sisters included Susanna Hawkins who married William Comerford Casey of Cork and Liverpool. He was a cousin of the Revd Edwards Comerford Hawkins (1827-1906), of Saint Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, London, father of the writer Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, author of The Prisoner of Zenda.

I have yet to identify the theology student or seminarian named as a theology student named simply as Nichols.

The co-respondent, Henry Matthews (1826-1913), was a prominent Roman Catholic and a Conservative politician. Matthews never took the stand at the Chetwynd case, and so it seems ironic that he made his name at the Bar for his examination of witnesses, especially Sir Charles Dilke in a sensational divorce case in 1885. He was MP for Dungarvan, Co Waterford (1868-1874), and later for Birmingham East (1886-1892), and he was the Home Secretary (1886-1892) throughout the Whitechapel Murders, some of which are attributed to Jack the Ripper. He was given the title of 1st Viscount Llandaff in 1895 and died unmarried in 1913 at the age of 87.

The intricate and puzzling details of the Chetwynd and Talbot family trees in Staffordshire and Wexford is a tangled web that continues to fascinate me. The story of how the Chetwynd-Talbot branch of the family in Rugeley and Brereton managed to convince their peers that they were the rightful heirs to the titles of Earl of Shrewsbury, Earl of Waterford and Earl of Wexford is another genealogical riddle that I hope to try to unravel or disentangle on another evening.

Henry Matthews (1826-1913), the co-respondent in William Chetwynd's counter-petition, later become Home Secretary and Viscount Llandaff … he never married

Further Reading:

HE Chetwynd-Stapylton, The Chetwynds of Ingestre, being a history of that family from a very early date (London: Longman & Green, 1892)

The memorial stone in Saint Mary’s Church, Ingestre, for Blanche’s uncle, Henry Chetwynd-Talbot (1803-1868), 18th Earl of Shrewsbury and 3rd Earl Talbot

‘Our grudges are no longer our grudges, Our silent resentments are no longer silent,Our eternal vows of vengeance are no more’

‘And we pray for those children whose nightmares occur in the daytime’ (Ina J Hughes) … street art seen in Buckingham this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Thursday was a horrific day for the Jewish community in Britain, Britain at large, and the Jewish community throughout the world, with the frightening attack on Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester. May the memories of those who were killed be a blessing and may those who were injured recover quickly and fully.

Feelings of safety within the Jewish community in the UK have declined sharply in the last couple of years, according to the largest survey of British Jews since 7 October 2023. The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said this morning that antisemitism has been rising in the UK.

The local synagogue in Milton Keynes has had several telephone calls and messages since the attack from local people wanting to express solidarity with the Jewish community, trying to reassure Jewish people that they are not alone. It was reassuring that the police were at the synagogue in Milton Keynes yesterday morning even before anyone there had heard of the attack in Manchester, and they continued to do regular patrols by the synagogue throughout the day.

Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement is the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar, the climax of the Ten Days of Awe or the High Holy Days. I spent some of these days, including Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year Day, and Kol Nidrei, the beginning of Yom Kippur, in my local synagogue in Milton Keynes, where the services were led by Rabbi Roberta Harris-Eckstein, who used the new Reform Judaism High Holy Days Machzor.

The revised and modernised prayer book has been 10 years in the making. It was produced by an editorial group of clergy – including Rabbi Mark Goldsmit, who chaired the group, and the joint editors Rabbi Paul Freedman and Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet – along with inputs from rabbinic and cantorial colleagues and local congregations.

As a companion to the renewed Reform Siddur for daily and Shabbat use, the High Holy Days Machzor incorporates changes and improvements that were needed to reflect today’s Progressive Jewish society and those of the next 30 to 40 years. These changes and improvement include gender neutral language, reflected in the introduction of the Matriarchs: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah were missing on the High Holy Day. One key aim was to demystify the principles, customs and practices of the Yamim Noraim or Days of Awe.

In many places in this two-volume resource, the usual liturgy on the right-hand page is creatively complemented by readings and poetry in a blue typeface on the facing page, either for congregational use or to give permission to the individual to ‘wander’ and find new meaning during a service.

The hope is that the new Machzor allows everyone to take part in Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in a way that addresses their personal needs and reflects today’s Reform and Progressive values and place in Jewish tradition.

The Torah scrolls in Milton Keynes and District Reform Synagogue (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The services for Rosh haShanah, Kol Nidrei and Yom Kippur in Milton Keynes this week and last were led by Rabbi Roberta Harris-Eckstein. She has been part-time rabbi of Eastbourne Liberal Jewish Community and has taught the Hebrew Bible, History of the Ancient Near East and Biblical History, as well as courses in Judaism for non-Jews.

The Torah readings for Rosh haShanah are a tapestry of stories about children – the rescue of Ishmael, the birth of Isaac, and the birth of Samuel. One engaging reading introduced by Rabbi Roberta is an adaptation of the poem ‘A Prayer for the Children’ by Ina J Hughes:

We pray for the children who put chocolate fingers on everything,
who love to be tickled,
who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants,
who eat candy before supper,
and who can never find their shoes in the morning.

And we also pray for those who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
who never bound down the street in a new pair of shoes,
who never played ‘one potato, two potatoes’,
and who are born in places where we would not be caught dead in and they will be.

We pray for the children who give us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
who sleep with their dog and bury their goldfish,
who hug us so tightly and who forget their lunch money,
who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink,
who watch their fathers shave,
and who slurp their soup.

And we also pray for those who will never get dessert,
who have no favourite blanket to drag behind them,
who watch their fathers suffer,
who cannot find any bread to steal,
who do not have rooms to clean up,
whose pictures are always on milk cartons instead of dressers,
and whose monsters are real.

We pray for the children who spend their allowance before Tuesday,
who pick at their food,
who love ghost stories,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed,
who never rinse out the bathtub,
who love visits from the Tooth Fairy, even when they find out who it really is,
who do not like to be kissed or hugged in front of the school bus,
and who squirm during services.

And we pray for those children
whose nightmares occur in the daytime,
who will eat anything,
who have never seen a dentist,
who are not spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and wake up hungry,
who live and move and have no address.

We pray for the children who like to be carried
and for those children who have to be carried,
for those who give up on and for those who never give up;
for those who will grab the hand of anyone kind enough to offer it
and for those who will find no hand to grab.

For all these children, Adonai, we pray today,
for they are all so precious. Amen.

‘We pray for the children … who live and move and have no address’ (Ina J Hughes) … street art in Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

As I pored over the new Machzor in moments of silence and reflection, I was taken by many of the resources it offers ‘All Our Grudges’ by Trisha Arlin is described as an ‘Alternative Kol Nidrei’:

All grudges, resentments, and vows of vengeance and bitterness,
All undying hatreds or annoyances that we may hold onto
Or talk endlessly about, boring our friends,
Or lose sleep obsessing over
Or write bad poetry about
Or bring up at family dinners to the consternation of all present;

From the previous Day of Atonement until this Day of Atonement
For the benefit of our mental health
And the peace of mind of all who surround us;
Regarding all of this that we have refused to let go,
Despite the fact that they are long past
Or pointless
Or one-sided
Or ridiculous
Or destructive of the innocent
Or hurting ourselves more than anyone else;

Regarding all of them, these intrusions on the Holy Wholeness,
we repudiate them.
All of them, we let them go,
Give up
Wave away
Acknowledge as stupid
Declare null and void
Because we are done.

Our grudges are no longer our grudges,
Our silent resentments are no longer silent,
Our eternal vows of vengeance are no more.

The entire community acknowledges and takes action
So that everyone we have been angry at is forgiven,
Every hurt we did not speak about will be dealt with,
Every relative will be loved for who they are rather than who they are not,
Every change in the world that needs to be made will be made rather than contemplated.

Holy Wholeness!
We need help to step back into connection with the One.
We look for the compassion and mercy
That is always there
If we but pay attention.

‘Anyone who puts on a tallit when young will never forget’ (Yehuda Amichai)

Wearing a tallit at the evening service is a tradition associated with Kol Nidrei. Normally, a tallitis worn at services during daylight hours, and tradition says the tallitis not worn at night. The exception to this rule is the night of Yom Kippur or Kol Nidre, and it is customary for those who wear the tallitto wear it throughout Yom Kippur, for all prayer services, including Kol Nidrei.

‘A Tallit Poem’ by the late Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai depicts some of the symbolism, feelings and emotions captured by memories of the tallit:

Anyone who puts on a tallit when young
will never forget:
taking it out of the soft velvet bag,
opening the folded shawl,
spreading it out,
kissing the length of the neckband
(embroidered
or trimmed in gold).
Then
swinging it in a great swoop
overhead
like a sky,
a wedding canopy,
a parachute.
And then winding it
around your head
as in hide-and-seek,
then wrapping
your whole body in it, close and slow,
snuggling into it like the cocoon
of a butterfly,
then opening would-be wings to fly.

And why is the tallit striped
and not checkered black and white
like a chessboard?
Because squares are finite
and hopeless.
Stripes come from infinity
and to infinity they go
like
airport runways
where angels land and take off.

Whoever has put on a tallit
will never forget.
When stepping out of a swimming pool
or the sea,
wrapping yourself in a large towel,
and spreading it out again
over your head,
then you snuggle back into it
close and slow,
still shivering a little,
then you laugh
then you say a blessing.

The prayer Vidui Zuta, also known as the Short Confession or the Ashamnu, is recited during the High Holy Days, particularly on Yom Kippur, when it is recited ten times. It is a familiar acrostic in which the first letter of each sin named corresponds to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, with the final letter of the alphabet repeated, for a total of 23 sins. Many people, as they confess these sins, beat their chests with their hands to signify the admission of their misdeeds.

But the new Machzor includes an interpretation of Vidui Zuta, with an English-language acrostic from A to Z:

We have abused and betrayed. We were cruel.
We have destroyed and embittered other people’s lives.
We were false to ourselves.
We have gossiped about others and hated them.
We have insulted and jeered. We have killed. We have lied.
We have misled others and neglected them.
We were obstinate. We have perverted and quarrelled.
We have robbed and stolen.
We have transgressed through unkindness.
We have been both violent and weak.
We have been xenophobic.
We have yielded to wrong desires, our zeal was misplaced.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

A selection of tallitot or prayer shawls in the Synagogue Kadoorie Mekor Haim in Porto (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A dozen churches and cathedrals named after the Holy Trinity and recalled on Trinity Sunday

An icon of the Holy Trinity in the Church of Aghia Triada in Kalamitsi Alexandrou, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Today is Trinity Sunday (15 June 2025), and this year we are celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in the year 325 and the agreement that became the Nicene Creed, with its clear understanding of the Trinitarian faith of the Church.

I thought it might be interesting this afternoon to introduce 12 cathedrals and churches that I know or that I have personal links with and that are dedicated to the Holy Trinity.

1, Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Cathedral of the Holy Trinity):

The bridge at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin … the formal name of the cathedral is the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, where I was a canon for 10 years from 2007 to 2017, and where I was ordained 25 years ago, is formally named the Cathedral of the Holy and Undivided Trinity.

It is the cathedral of the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough and is one of two mediaeval cathedrals, the other being Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.

Christ Church Cathedral was founded in the early 11th century under the Viking king Sitric Silkenbeard. The cathedral was originally staffed by secular clergy, but the Benedictines were later introduced. Christ Church was converted to a priory of the Regular Order of Arrosian Canons (Reformed Augustinian Rule) by the second Archbishop of Dublin, Saint Laurence O’Toole, in 1163.

The Priory of the Holy Trinity was headed by an Augustinian prior, who ranked as the second figure in the diocese, and not a dean, until re-establishment in 1541. The Priory of the Holy Trinity became the wealthiest religious house in Ireland, holding estates of over 40 sq km (10,000 acres) in Co Dublin alone, including Grangegorman, Glasnevin and Clonkeen, now Deansgrange.

At the Dissolution of the monastic houses during the Tudor Reformation, the Priory of the Holy Trinity was abolished in 1539. The Prior and Canons of Holy became secular clergy, to be known as the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church. The Prior and Sub-Prior became the Dean and Precentor, the Seneschal and Precentor became the Chancellor and Vicar-Choral, and the Sub-Precentor or Succentor and Sacristan, became the Treasurer and Vicar-Choral of the new foundation.

A partial collapse in the 16th century left the cathedral in poor shape and the building was extensively renovated and rebuilt in the late 19th century, giving it the form it has today, including the tower, flying buttresses, and distinctive covered footbridge.

The west front of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I was ordained deacon there in 2000 and priest in 2001 by Archbishop Walton Empey, and I was appointed to the chapter by Archbishop John Neill in 2007. During my 10 years as a canon of Christ Church, I served on the cathedral board, on the arts and music committees, introduced many events, including exhibitions of icons and film evenings, occasionally sang with the choir, and regularly presided and preached at the Cathedral Eucharist as a canon-in-residence.

I was most recently involved in the life of Christ Church Cathedral in May 2023, when I spent some days making a documentary with a television station in Montenegro about the unusual story of Prince Milo, a claimant to Balkan royalty who lived in Dublin and Connemara and who is buried in Limerick.

2, Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick:

Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick, was built in 1831, but there has been a church on the site since the 13th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

For five years, I was priest-in-charge of the Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of Parishes in the Diocese of Limerick, including Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick (2017-2022). Holy Trinity Church was built at the west end of Rathkeale in 1831, but there has been a church on the site since the 13th century. Along with the hilltop pinnacle of Saint Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, the tower of Holy Trinity forms a notable skyline in Rathkeale that is visible for many miles.

A comprehensive list of Rectors of Rathkeale survives from the mid-15th century, when Dennis O’Farrelly (Offeralye) was Rector from 1459 to 1471.

It is believed the present church was designed by the Limerick-based Pain brothers, James Pain (1779-1877), whose other works in the Rathkeale group of parishes include Castletown Church and the former Rectory in Askeaton, and George Pain (1792-1838). The church is the third to be built on the site and may incorporate parts of a church that was standing there in 1825.

Inside Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, looking east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The simple and regular form of the nave and the single-cell with tower design are characteristic of Board of First Fruits churches of the era. Samuel Lewis wrote in 1837: ‘The church is a very handsome edifice, in the early English style, with a lofty square tower, embattled and crowned with crocketed pinnacles: it was erected in 1831, near the site of the former church, and is built of black marble raised from a quarry on the river’s bank near the town …’

Funds were raised in 1877 for a new chancel, so the church is a composite of work carried out throughout the 19th century.

The carved stone features add artistic interest to the façade, as do the stained glass windows by Catherine O’Brien: the east window depicting the Parable of the Sower (1931) and the double lancet window in the south nave depicting Saint Paul and Saint Luke (1937). The variety of window openings includes Tudor and Gothic Revival styles.

The churchyard is the burial place for many Palatine families who moved to this area in the early 18th century. They were brought to the Rathkeale area by in 1709 by Thomas Southwell, whose family inherited some of the old Billingsley and Dowdall estate in the Rathkeale area. The names of the Palatine families buried here include Bovenizer, Teskey, Shier and Sparling. The most imposing memorial is the Massy vault, built in 1800 by James FitzGerald Massy of Stoneville in 1800 and restored by Lucy Massy in 1907.

3, The Chapel, Trinity College Dublin:

The chapel in Trinity College Dublin was designed in the 1790s by Sir William Chambers (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

While I was on the staff of the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, I was an Adjunct Assistant Professor in TCD, sitting on academic and staff committees and Courts of Examiners, supervising research and overseeing examinations. Group photographs of the BTh and MTh graduates were taken each year on the steps of the chapel in TCD. I was also a visiting lecturer on other degree courses.

I received a post-graduate Diploma in Ecumenics at TCD in 1984, and studied classical Greek there in 1987. Later, I was twice the Select Preacher in the Chapel, and I have chaired and been the secretary of the Dublin University Far Eastern Mission (DUFEM).

Parliament Square, or Front Square, in TCD, with the portico of the chapel on the left (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Overlooking Front Square, at the heart of the TCD campus, the chapel was designed by Sir William Chambers in 1798 to form the north range of Parliament Square. Chambers was George III’s architect, and he also designed the Examination Hall on the south side of Parliament Square. The building work was overseen by Christopher Myers and his son Graham Myers, and it is likely that Myers heavily influenced the end design.

The chapel and the theatre are similar in form, creating a pleasing balance to the square and evoking a sense of Palladian symmetry with the two buildings serving as end pavilions. However, the chapel is both longer and narrower.

The classical elegance of the design is seen throughout the chapel, particularly in the stonework carved by George Darley and Richard Cranfield. Inside, the classical motif continues in the plasterwork by Michael Stapleton, spiral staircases by Robert Mallet, and the organ gallery carved by Richard Cranfield. Henry Hugh, a general carpenter throughout the project, may have worked on the pews.

The 19th century saw significant modifications to the interior, with stained glass by Clayton and Bell and Mayer & Company installed and polychrome floor tiles to designs by John McCurdy added.

The chapel has been ecumenical since 1970. In addition to the Anglican chaplain, Canon Paul Arbuthnot, who is known as the Dean of Residence, there are Roman Catholic and Methodist chaplains.

4, The Church of Aghia Triada, Platanias, Rethymnon:

The Church of Aghia Triada in the suburban village of Platanias, on the eastern fringes of Rethymnon, dates from 1959 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Church of Holy Trinity or Aghia Triada (Αγία Τριάδα) in the suburban village of Platanias, is just 100 metres south of long sandy beach that stretches for kilometres east of Rethymnon. I have been visiting Rethymnon almost annually since the mid-1980s. I stayed in the suburban areas of Platanias and Tsesmes, east of Rethymnon, from 2015 to 2021, and I visited the villages and friends there again when I was staying in Rethymnon at Easter (April 2025) and the year before (April 2024).

This area is a mix of suburban, commercial, and slowly developing tourism. The shops and supermarkets cater primarily for the local residents, but there is a number of small hotels and apartment blocks where I have stayed, including La Stella, Varvara’s Diamond, and Julia Apartments, and restaurants and cafés where I receive a warm welcome each time I return.

A Sunday morning in Aghia Triada Church in Platanias (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

These two villages near Rethymnon have merged almost seamlessly over the years, and although they have two churches, they form one parish, served by one priest, Father Dimitrios Tsakpinis. These are recently-built parish churches: the church in Platanias dates from 1959 and Saint Nektarios Church in Tsesmes from 1979. They are small, and in many ways, unremarkable churches, compared to the older, more historic churches in the old town of Rethymnon.

But when I have stayed in Platanias and Tsesmes, I have seen them as my parish churches, and I have always been welcomed warmly. The church in Platantias is dedicated to the Holy Trinity.

5, Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, Wiltshire:

Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, on the eastern fringes of Calne in Wiltshire, long post-dates the presence of the Quemerford and Comerford family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, is on the eastern fringes of Calne in Wiltshire. For many generations, my family continued to regard Comberford in Staffordshire as our ancestral home, although my research shows convincingly that the name actually comes from the village of Quemerford.

Holy Trinity Church long post-dates the presence of the Quemerford family in this area. The church was built in 1852-1853 as a chapel of ease to Saint Mary’s Parish Church, Calne, to serve Quemerford and the areas east of Calne. The site was donated by Lord Lansdowne, and the building costs were met by Canon John Guthrie (1794-1865), Vicar of Calne (1835-1865), largely at his own expense. The churchyard became the parish graveyard because the one at Saint Mary’s was overfull. The Vicar of Calne appointed an assistant curate to serve Holy Trinity in Quemerford.

A chalice and a paten both hallmarked 1866 were given to the church by the curate assistant, the Revd JRA Chinnery-Haldane (1840-1906), later Bishop of Argyll and the Isles (1883-1906), and are still used today.

Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, was designed by the architect CH Gabriel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The church was designed by CH Gabriel and is tall, of coursed rubble and in the Decorated style. It has a west bell cote and spirelet and consists of a chancel with north vestry and a nave with south porch. The chancel is long, has tall south windows and diapering in relief on the sanctuary’s walls and is separated from the vestry by a traceried screen.

The chancel arch is high and wide, and the nave has an open timber roof with cusped trusses and wind-bracing.

Originally there was stained glass in the east window, but a fire in February 1970 caused major damage to the roof, destroying windows and the organ. The church was rededicated on 25 January 1972. The church was not licensed for marriages until 1990.

Today, Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, is part of the Benefice of Marden Vale in the Diocese of Salisbury, with Saint Mary’s, Calne, and Saint Peter’s, Blackland. The Team Rector is the Revd Caspar Bush; the Team Vicar is the Revd Sarah Errington.

6, Waterford’s two cathedrals:

Holy Trinity Cathedral on Barronstrand Street, Waterford, was designed by John Roberts and is the oldest Roman Catholic Cathedral in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Waterford City has two cathedrals dedicated to the Holy Trinity: the Church of Ireland cathedral on Cathedral Square – Christ Church Cathedral or, more formally, the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity; and the Roman Catholic cathedral on Barronstrand Street – Holy Trinity Cathedral. Both were designed by John Roberts, who shaped much of Georgian Waterford.

For a period in the 1640s, before the Cromwellian siege of Waterford in 1649-1650, the older Church of Ireland cathedral was used by the Roman Catholic diocese, when Patrick Comerford (1586-1652) was Bishop of Waterford and Lismore (1629-1652).

The copes, chasuble, dalmatic and other vestments he had used in Waterford, were long lost and disappeared for generations. A later bishop, John Brenan, claimed the ecclesiastical Patrick Comerford had taken the ‘ornaments’ of the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore to France.

Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford … said to be the finest 18th century church building in Ireland, it replaced the earlier cathedral used by Bishop Patrick Comerford in the 17th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The City Corporation decided to build a new Church of Ireland cathedral a century later. John Roberts built Christ Church Cathedral (1773-1792) on the site of Waterford’s mediaeval Gothic cathedral. He also built a new Roman Catholic cathedral on the site of the old Penal chapel on Barronstrand Street (1793-1796).

During the demolition of the older cathedral, the mediaeval vestments missing since Patrick Comerford left for France in 1651, were found in the crypt. In a gesture of ecumenical goodwill, centuries before ecumenism became standard practice, they were presented by Bishop Richard Chenevix to his Roman Catholic counterpart, Bishop Peter Creagh, and they are now kept in the Museum of Treasures in Waterford and the National Museum in Dublin.

Patrick Comerford listed among the distinguished theologians, priests and bishops from Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Bishop Patrick Comerford is named twice in tablets in Holy Trinity Cathedral. One plaque lists him with other distinguished theologians, priests and bishops from Waterford, including Peter Lombard, Archbishop of Armagh, James White, the Jesuits Michael Wadding, Peter Wadding and Ambrose Wadding, Thomas Walsh, Archbishop of Cashel, and the historian Geoffrey Keating. A second plaque lists him among the Bishops of Waterford, between Patrick Walsh and John Brenan, who accused him of taking the cathedral vestments with him when he left Waterford.

Bishop Patrick Comerford died at Nantes on 10 March 1652, aged 66, and was buried in Nantes Cathedral with full episcopal honours.

The family tradition continued in the city’s cathedrals: Edward Comerford was the organist at Holy Trinity Cathedral until he died in 1894.

7, The Chapel, Trinity College, Cambridge:

Trinity College, Cambridge, was founded by Henry VIII in 1546 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Trinity College Cambridge, founded by Henry VIII in 1546 and one of the oldest and largest colleges in Cambridge. Trinity College Chapel, which dates from the mid-16th century, was begun in 1554-1555 by Queen Mary and was completed in 1567 by Elizabeth I.

The architectural style is Tudor-Gothic, with Perpendicular tracery and pinnacles. The roof is of an earlier style than the rest of the building, and may have been re-used from the chapel of King’s Hall, the college that preceded Trinity on this site. Only the walls and roof date from the Tudor era.

The chapel has memorials to the Cambridge Triumvirate – Brooke Foss Westcott, Joseph Barber Lightfoot and Fenton Hort – and to Isaac Newton, Bishop John Robinson, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Charles Villiers Stanford, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Bertrand Russell, Thomas Babington Macaulay and AE Housman.

The chapel has a fine organ, originally built by ‘Father’ Smith in 1694. Many alterations were made over the years until, in 1913, an almost totally new organ was built. Some of the pipes were so large that they would not fit in the organ loft and instead had to stand in a corner of the ante-chapel. In 1976 the present mechanical-action instrument, based on the surviving pipework and within the original cases, was completed by the Swiss firm Metzler Söhne. There are regular recitals on Sundays during term time.

Inside the chapel of Trinity College Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, is composed of around 30 male and female Choral Scholars and two Organ Scholars, all undergraduates of the college. As well as singing the liturgy in the chapel, the choir has an extensive programme of performances and recordings.

The Dean of Chapel is the Revd Professor Michael Banner, and the Director of Music is Dr Steven Grahl. Trinity College has two Chaplains, the Revd Anne Strauss and the Revd Sophie Young, who share responsibility for pastoral care, as well as leading daily worship and running many groups and activities.

8, The Chapel, Trinity College, Oxford

The chapel in Trinity College, Oxford … the college was founded in 1555 by Sir Thomas Pope (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Trinity College, Oxford is formally the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope (Knight). The college was founded in 1555 by Sir Thomas Pope, on the site of the former Durham College, home to Benedictine monks from Durham Cathedral.

Durham College was originally dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Saint Cuthbert, and the Trinity, and Trinity College takes its name from the last part of this dedication.

The main entrance to Trinity College is on Broad Street, between Balliol College and Blackwell’s bookshop, and opposite Turl Street. The rear of the college backs onto Saint John’s College, and has entrances on both Saint Giles’ and Parks Road. As well as its four major quadrangles, the college also has a large lawn and gardens, including a small area of woodland. Despite its large physical size, the college is relatively small, with about 400 students.

Durham Quadrangle, the oldest part of Trinity College, occupies the site of the mediaeval Durham College, founded in the late 13th century as a house of studies for Benedictine monks from Durham Cathedral. Durham College closed in 1544 and the buildings were bought by Sir Thomas Pope.

The four sides of Durham Quadrangle incorporate the Chapel, the Hall, the Library and an accommodation block. The Old Library, built in 1417, is the only surviving part of the original Durham College buildings. An effigy of Sir Thomas Pope looks down into the Quadrangle from above the Hall entrance.

Pope was a successful lawyer during the reign of Henry VIII. He amassed a fortune during the Reformation through his work as treasurer of the Court of Augmentations, which handled the revenues of the dissolved monasteries, including that at Durham. Pope was a prominent civil servant to Queen Mary I, and he founded Trinity College as a training house for Catholic priests.

Pope was married twice but had no surviving children. He intended that he, his parents, and both his wives would always be remembered in the prayers of Trinity’s members. Pope and his two wives Margaret and Elizabeth are buried in a tomb at the top left-hand corner of the chapel.

Inside the chapel in Trinity College, Oxford, facing the Altar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The chapel is relatively modest in size compared with its Oxford counterparts. It was built in 1691-1694 to replace the mediaeval chapel of Durham College. It was designed by Henry Aldrich, with advice from Sir Christopher Wren. It was consecrated in 1694.

The magnificent chapel interior is the product of a collaboration between the woodcarver Grinling Gibbons, the Huguenot artist Pierre Berchet, and a skilled but unknown plaster sculptor. It was the first chapel in Oxford designed on purely classical principles, and is a masterpiece of English baroque. The architectural historian Sir Niklaus Pevsner called the chapel ‘one of the most perfect ensembles of the late 17th century in the whole country.’

Five different woods are used inside the chapel: walnut, oak, pear, lime, and Bermuda Cedar. The exquisite woodcarvings by Grinling Gibbons are among his finest work. This work includes intricately carved fruits and flowers in the panels between the chapel and ante chapel and in the limewood swags behind the altar. The carved gospel writers are perched above the screen and gaze upwards taking inspiration from the figure of Christ at the centre of Pierre Berchet’s painting in the ceiling of the Ascension.

Opposite Pope’s tomb is a concealed pew where once the college president’s wife could see the services and receive Holy Communion without being seen in an otherwise all-male college.

The only changes to the chapel since 1694 have been the addition of the organ loft and the stained glass. A fine window of Munich glass was inserted in the antechapel in 1870 as a memorial to the theologian Isaac Williams, and the remaining windows were filled in 1885 with figures of northern saints associated with Durham College.

The four statues on the Tower are attributed to Caius Cibber, and represent Geometry, Astronomy, Theology and Medicine.

After a year’s closure, Trinity’s Grade I listed chapel re-opened in April 2016 and, after a great deal of painstaking work, is once again resplendent in its refurbished glory. The chapel remains at the heart of college life. Services are held regularly in term, and Evensong is celebrated with the college choir at 6 pm on Sundays. The Revd Joshua Brocklesby, the College Chaplain and Fellow, was appointed in 2022. The chapel is open to members and visitors for prayer and reflection, and is used regularly for musical events. Members of the public are welcome at Evensong.

9, The Church of Aghia Triada, Kalamitsi Alexandrou, Crete:

The Church of Aghia Triada behind the narrow streets of the village of Kalamitsi Alexandrou in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The villages of Kalamitsi are two villages neighbouring villages in Crete that share the same name – Kalamitsi-Amigdali and Kalamitsi-Alexandrou – and they are sometimes known as the ‘divided village.’ About 140 people live round the year in Kalamitsi Alexandrou, and about 210 in Kalamitsi Amygdali, or 350 permanent residents between the two.

Where one village stops, the next village begins. They lie in the beautiful green Apokoronas area between Souda Bay and Rethymnon, and less than a 15-minute drive to Georgioupoli on the coast.

Inside the Church of Aghia Triada in Kalamitsi Alexandrou (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

When I visited Kalamitssi a few years ago, it was to see the large, modern, cross-shaped Church of Aghia Triada or the Holy Trinity, behind the narrow streets in Kalamitsi Alexandrou. With its large narthex, and tall dome and belltowers, it can be seen for long distances across the surrounding countryside.

Unlike many churches in Greece of this shape, the dome has long remained undecorated, without any Pantocrator and the usual supporting frescoes. The walls and pillars of the church are largely undecorated too, without frescoes, and the old icons preserved in the church, many predating its building in the last century, are in wooden frames that are seldom seen in Greek churches.

These framed icons include, naturally, an icon of the Holy Trinity, and an icon of the Virgin Mary said to have been found in the foundations of an earlier church when the present church was being built. The top of the iconostasis or icon screen is crowned with a verse from Saint John’s Gospel that begins: ‘I am the light of the world …’ The central door of the iconostasis has an image portraying Christ present in the Eucharist, as part of a symbolic presentation of the Holy Trinity, with the Holy Spirit represented by the image of a dove above, and above that the all-seeing eye of God the Father.

10, The Monastery of Chryssoskalitíssa, Elafonisi, Crete:

The Monastery of Chryssoskalitíssa, or the golden step, perched above the Libyan Sea on the south-west tip of Crete, is dedicated to the Holy Trinity and the Dormition of the Virgin Mary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Monastery of Chryssoskalítíssa (Μονή Χρυσοσκαλιτίσσας), at the south-west tip of Crete, is perched on rocks above the lagoon of Elafonisi and is 35 metres high, overlooking the Libyan Sea. This monastery once had a community of 200. But like many monasteries in Crete, numbers have dwindled and today there is only one nun and one monk.

The monastery, which dates from the 13th century, is dedicated to the Holy Trinity (Agia Triada) and the Dormition of the Virgin Mary (Koimisis Theotokou). But the popular name comes from a local tradition that one step in a set of 98 leading up to the monastery appears as a golden step (chryssí skála) to those who are pure of heart.

The monastery celebrates its feast on 15 August (Δεκαπενταυγουστος, Dekapendavgoustos). It was built during the Venetian era on the site of Saint Nicholas Monastery. Before the first monastery was built, there was another church on the site dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin Mary.

The Monastery of Chryssoskalítíssa depicted on bottles of monastery-produced olive oil (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

It is said the staircase and the golden step were sold to the Turks to pay off taxes demanded by the Sultan. The legend also says that 200 years ago, at Easter 1824, after the massacre of Christians by the Ottomans of Ibrahim Pasha on Elafonísi, Turkish soldiers went to the monastery with plans to plunder the place. At the entrance to the monastery, however, they were attacked by a swarm of bees that saved the monastery from looting.

The church seen today was built in 19th century. The monastery was dissolved in 1894, along with other monasteries on the island, but was re-established in 1940.

During the Nazi occupation of Crete, several resistance fighters were given refuge there. German soldiers expelled the monks and occupied the monastery in 1943. When the Nazi forces left, the monks returned to the monastery.

Elafonísi (Ελαφονήσι, ‘deer island’), also known as the ‘Pearl of the West,’ is a popular destination for day trippers. No buildings are allowed on the lagoon or on the island, which helps to keep the feeling that this is a wilderness away from everything.

11, The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Gibraltar:

The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, the Anglican cathedral in Gibraltar, was built in 1825-1832 and is noted for its Moorish revival-style architecture (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Cathedral Square was originally built as a church for the Anglican civilian population. The cathedral was built in 1825-1832, and is noted for its Moorish revival architecture. It was consecrated in 1838 in the presence of Queen Adelaide. With the formation of the Diocese of Gibraltar it became a cathedral in 1842. Today it is one of the three cathedrals of the Diocese in Europe – the other two are in Brussels and Valetta, Malta.

After World War II, new vestries were added along with a second chapel dedicated to Saint George in memory of those who died in the Mediterranean during World War II, and a small stone with a cross from the ruins of Coventry Cathedral was set into the wall.

An explosion in 1951 caused substantial damage to the cathedral, lifting the roof and smashing the stained glass.

In 1980, the Diocese of Gibraltar was extended and become the Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe. The Diocese in Europe, as it is generally known, is geographically the largest diocese of the Church of England, covering one-sixth of the Earth’s landmass and stretching from Morocco, through Europe, Turkey and the former Soviet Union to the Russian Far East.

Inside the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity … one of three cathedrals serving the Diocese in Europe (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe, Bishop Rob Innes, a former Chancellor of the Pro-Cathedral of Holy Trinity Brussels, was consecrated bishop on 20 July 2014. The Archdeaconry of Gibraltar, Italy and Malta consists of Andorra, Gibraltar, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Portugal and Spain. Archdeacon David Waller, who was appointed in 2020, is based in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol, and crosses the tiny border almost every day.

The Very Revd Ian Tarrant has been the Dean of Gibraltar since last October (13 October 2020). The cathedral ministry is a visible witness to Christian compassion and social conscience, working with migrant workers and refugees and using the cathedral space for crèche and counselling facilities.

Gibraltar is an open, tolerant society, with a large and visible Jewish community. Roman Catholics are in the majority (78 per cent), but the Anglican presence (7 per cent) remains significant.

12, (former) Holy Trinity Church, Bordesley, Birmingham:

Holy Trinity Church, Bordesley, was once the most important and controversial Anglo-Catholic church in Birmingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Holy Trinity Church, Bordesley, is a Grade II listed former Church of England parish church, about 2 km south-east of Birmingham city centre. But the church is lonely and forlorn on the top of Old Camp Hill, isolated in a virtual traffic island between two roundabouts, Bordesley Circus and Camp Hill Circus, on the Middleway ring road.

Holy Trinity Church was consecrated and opened in 1823, and it was once at the centre of the most important Anglo-Catholic controversies in Birmingham that led to its Irish-born vicar, the Revd Richard Enraght, being jailed and dismissed.

Historically, Bordesley was part of the parish and union of Aston, on the edges of Birmingham. The hamlet was originally small, with only a few scattered dwelling-houses, such as Stratford Place, still standing at Camp Hill, and the Old Crown in Digbeth, which claims to be the oldest pub in Birmingham.

Holy Trinity Church is an example of a Commissioners’ church. It was built between 1820 and 1822 by the architect Francis Goodwin (1784-1835) in the decorated perpendicular gothic style. Goodwin’s later works include Lissadell House, Co Sligo, designed for Sir Robert Gore-Booth, and the gatehouse at Markree Castle, near Collooney, Co Sligo.

Goodwin is said to have modelled Holy Trinity Church, Bordesley, on King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. The church was consecrated on 23 January 1823 by the Bishop of Lichfield, James Cornwallis. A parish was assigned out of the parish of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Aston. At first, the living was in the gift of the Vicar of Aston, and was called a vicarage from 1872. The patronage was transferred to the Aston Trustees in 1884.

The church was built on a conventional rectangular plan with shallow canted apse, faced in Bath stone that is enlivened by spirelet pinnacled buttresses diving the windows and with octagonal pinnacled turrets holding the corners. A larger pair flank the effectively recessed full height entrance bay under the parapeted gable.

The soffit has a pattern of ribs over the large decorated west window, and the tracery is of cast iron. The porch proper is shallow and contained within the recess, a tripartite composition with an ogee arch to the central doorway with an ornate finial.

The east end above the apse has a cast iron tracery rose. It is said the coved ceiling still partially remains, but the interior decoration, which was of a high standard for its time, has been stripped and a floor inserted.

Holy Trinity Church played an important in the history of the High Church or Anglo-Catholic movement in the Church of England in the 19th century.

The Revd Samuel Crane, who was the first vicar in 1823-1841, was succeeded by the Revd Dr Joseph Oldknow, who is often regarded as Birmingham’s first Anglo-Catholic or ‘ritualist’ priest.

Oldknow was succeeded in 1874 by the Revd Richard William Enraght, whose trials and tribulations came to a head in the ‘Bordesley Wafer Case’ were first brought to my attention in 2016 by a friend at Lichfield Cathedral, Stephen Wright.

Holy Trinity Church, Bordesley, is lonely and forlorn on the top of Old Camp Hill, between Bordesley Circus and Camp Hill Circus (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Revd Richard William Enraght (1837-1898) was an Irish-born Anglican priest and one of the Anglo-Catholic priests who were prosecuted and jailed in the 19th century for their ritualism. He was born on 23 February 1837 at Moneymore, Co Derry, where his father, the Revd Matthew Enraght (1805-1882), was the Curate of Saint John’s, Desertlynn.

Matthew Enraght was born in Rathkeale, Co Limerick, where I was the priest-in-charge for five years (2017-2022). When Matthew later moved to England, Richard remained in Ireland and in 1860, at the age of 23, he graduated BA from Trinity College Dublin. He then moved to England, and in 1861 he was ordained deacon in Gloucester Cathedral by the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol.

Richard Enraght became Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, in 1874. He introduced weekday celebrations of the Eucharist. His practices at Holy Trinity included the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, candles on the altar, wearing a chasuble and alb, using wafers at the Eucharist, mixing water with the wine, making the sign of the Cross, bowing during the Gloria, and allowing the choir to sing the Agnus Dei.

The ‘Bordesley Wafer Case’ resulted in Enraght’s conviction on 9 August 1879 on 16 counts. He spent that Christmas in prison and was released after 49 days. Bishop Philpott revoked Enraght’s licence in March 1883 and appointed the Revd Alan H Watts to the parish, against the wishes of the congregation.

The church was closed in 1968. There were plans to demolish the church in the 1970s and proposals to convert the building into an arts centre, but these never came to fruition. Instead, the church was used for some years as a shelter for homeless people until about 1999.

There were plans to retore the building for church and community use as the Birmingham Trinity Centre, a conference and wedding venue and the meeting place of All Nations’ Church, Birmingham. The church was marketed for a residential conversion in 2014, but remains empty and forlorn.

A modern icon of the Trinity in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Gibraltar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)