The Donegal House Clock in Lichfield hides stories of parlourmaids, contested wills and wealthy widows

The clock between the Guildhall and Donegal House on Bore Street, Lichfield … a gift of the Swinfen-Broun family in 1928 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Along with the Cathedral Bells ringing out across the Cathedral Close, and the many church chimes on the hour, quarter hour and half hour, Lichfield has two public or civic clocks that have been keeping time in Lichfield for generation.

The clock on the façade of Donegal House in Bore Street has been one of the landmarks on Bore Street for almost a century, while the Friary Clock, first erected in 1863 at the junction of Bird Street and Bore Street, was moved to its present site beside the Bowling Green roundabout in 1928.

I had a good look at the Friary Clock and its plaques four months ago, so it was good to see the Donegal House clock back in place last week on the front of Donegal House after some recent repairs and renovations

Apart from the internal workings, the clock was restored in 2015 by Smiths of Derby. Unfortunately, the clock had been losing time, and because of this the original internal gearing had to be replaced with an electric motor.

The original gearing from the clock is kept in the original winding house in the Lichfield Festival office in Donegal House, along with part of the original winding instructions as well as old pulley wheels and weights.

The clock was donated to the people of Lichfield by Mrs MA Swinfen Broun almost a century ago, in 1928 – months after the Friary Clock had been moved to a new site away from the centre of Lichfield. A plaque beneath the clock declares: ‘This clock was presented to the Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of the City of Lichfield by Mrs M.A. Swinfen-Broun. Swinfen Hall Lichfield. On the 5th November 1928.’

The Swinfen-Broun clock has been repaired and restored once again in recent months (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Donegal House sits between the Guildhall and the Tudor Café. It was built for a local merchant, James Robinson, in 1730 but takes its name from the Chichester family, who held the titles of Earl and Marquess of Donegall, and who once owned vast estates near Lichfield, including Fisherwick Park and Comberford Hall.

Lichfield Council acquired Donegal House for use as offices in 1909. Plans to create a large new Council Chamber on the first floor of Donegal House never went ahead. Council meetings continued in Guildhall while Donegal House was used as offices, and connecting doors were made between the two buildings on ground floor and first floor.

Mrs MA Swinfen-Broun, who presented the Donegal House clock to the people of Lichfield, is often overlooked and most references to the clock discuss her husband, Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Alexander Wilsone Swinfen-Broun (1857-1948). Indeed, even the plaque beneath the clock does not hint at her own original names.

Laura Swinfen Broun (1853-1932) was born Laura Crossley Eno on 17 September 1853, in Newcastle upon Tyne, a daughter of Elizabeth Ann (Cooke) Eno (1827-1907) and James Crossley Eno (1827-1915), a member of the Eno family of fruit salts fame.

Laura first married Dr John Nicholson Fleming (1848-1881), a doctor, in Gateshead, in July 1874. They lived at South Lodge, Champion Hill, Surrey, where he died on 3 July 1881, and he was buried in West Norwood Cemetery.

Laura was still in her late 20s and was left what was then a small fortune of £43,276 6s 9d – the equivalent of £6.7 million today. She was a wealthy widow still in her 30s when she married Colonel Michael Alexander Wilsone Broun on 13 October 1891, in Denham, south Buckinghamshire; she was 38 and he was 34.

He was born Michael Broun at Castle Wemyss in Renfrewshire, Scotland, on 9 July 1857, the second son of Charles Wilsone Broun (1821-1883) and his second wife Annie Rowland.

Charles Broun had spent his early childhood in a prosperous part of Glasgow. His father was called William Brown (1792-1884), and made some of his fortune in the slave trade. Charles preferred the affected or antiquated spelling of Broun, which his sons also used. After attending Glasgow University, he became a property developer and landowner, buying an estate at Wemyss Bay in Renfrewshire. There he built Castle Wemyss for his family, a large home with views across the surrounding countryside and out to the sea.

It is said that Anthony Trollope wrote part of Barchester Towers while was staying at Wemyss Bay, and that Portray Castle in The Eustace Diamonds is based on Castle Wemyss.

Charles Broun married his first wife Ellen Buchanan in 1846, but was widowed within a year. Two years after his first wife died, he married his second wife Annie Rowland. She was pregnant seven times in the space of 10 years, but only four of her children survived. She died at Castle Wemyss at the age of 37, when her youngest child was only one, leaving Charles a widower for the second time.

Three years later, Charles met Patience Swinfen, the widow of Henry Swinfen, who was the only son of Samuel Swinfen, the owner of Swinfen Hall, a large estate near Lichfield. Henry was a descendant of Samuel Swinfen, who built Swinfen Hall in 1757 and who, at various times, also owned Comberford Hall, in 1755 and again in 1759-1761.

The extraordinary tale of Patience Swinfen’s inheritance and her battle to become the chatelaine of Swinfen Hall have been told and retold in countless articles and books. The ex-parlourmaid’s claim to Swinfen Hall and her eventual victory was a Victorian sensation and the legal wrangles made national headlines. It is a story that is the stuff of trash novels, court intrigues and salacious rumour-mongering.

Henry Swinfen (1802-1854) had been living a dissolute and aimless life in Paris and London and was 29 when he met Patience Williams, the 18-year-old daughter of a Welsh farmer. When Henry first met Patience she was a parlourmaid in a lodging house in Bloomsbury. They married secretly in March 1831 without letting their parents know and spent the next 13 years travelling on Continental Europe. Attractive and much more intelligent than her husband, Patience charmed all she met, including Henry’s ageing father, Samuel Swinfen.

When Henry Swinfen died in June 1854, Patience had already charmed her way into the affections of her father-in-law, if not his bed. Samuel Swinfen was 80 and in his last illness he a made new will naming Patience as his heir. He promptly died three weeks later in July 1854. Patience had been left Swinfen Hall, 1,200 acres of land 4.5 miles south of Lichfield, and £60,000.

But her inheritances was challenged by other members of the Swinfen family and a series of court cases ensued involving several celebrated lawyers. Charles Rann Kennedy (1808-1867), who eventually acted for Patience, became involved with her in a romantic and sexual relationship, abandoning his wife and six children.

Kennedy won the case for Patience, but when he tried to claim a large fee from her she resisted and instead Patience married the widowed Charles Broun in 1861, much to Kennedy’s chagrin. Kennedy then dragged Patience and Charles back into the courts in what became a scandalous trial that the newly-wed couple eventually won.

Charles and Patience moved onto the Swinfen Estate near Lichfield, and two of Charles Broun’s children, including four-year-old Michael, adopted the name Swinfen-Broun, although they were not descended from the Swinfen family. As for Kennedy, he turned from calling Patience the ‘suffering Dame’ in his poetry or doggerel to calling her ‘the Serpent of Swinfen’. He was disbarred from practising law and when he died in 1867, he was bitter, disgraced and utterly broken.

The plaque below the Swinfen-Broun … the full name of the female donor is noticeably absent (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Michael Alexander Swinfen-Broun, as he was now known, was sent to school at Rugby. From there, he was commissioned in the South Staffordshire Regiment in 1876.

He married the widowed and wealthy Laura Fleming in 1891 when she was 38 and he was 34. The following year, he became the commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion of the South Staffords in 1892. He fought in the Boer War in South Africa in 1901-1902, and he remained an honorary colonel after he retired from the army in 1904. He was the High Sheriff and Deputy Lieutenant of Staffordshire in 1907 and was a senior magistrate in Lichfield.

The Swinfen-Brouns were generous patrons and benefactors of good causes in the Lichfield and Weeford areas. He was the President of the Lichfield Victoria Hospital for 14 years, they both gave major donations to the hospital, and they gave many gifts to the City of Lichfield, including a valuable collection of silver as well as the public clock on the wall between Donegal House and the Guildhall.

His other bequests to Lichfield included statues by Donato Barcaglia, known locally as ‘Old Father Time’, and by Antonio Rossetti, known in Lichfield as ‘The Reading Girl’.

Laura died at Swinfen Hall on 23 August 1932, at the age of 78, and she was buried in Weeford, outside Lichfield.

The Swinfen-Brouns were the parents of an only daughter, Elizabeth Doris Farnham (1893-1935), known as Elsie. She married John Adrian George (Jack) Farnham (1890-1930) at Saint Peter’s Church, Pimlico; she was 20 and by now the Eno heiress, he was 22. But the couple had no children, the marriage was unhappy; after five years, Elsie left Jack and they were divorced in 1925. Jack married again in 1926, but he died after a heart attack on 24 September 1930, aged only 40 and leaving a young widow and three young children.

Within three years of her mother’s death, the divorced Elsie died on 16 April 1935 and she was buried in Saint John the Evangelist churchyard in Frieth, Buckinghamshire.

Although widowed and bereft, Colonel Swinfen-Broun remained active in public life, and the City Council conferred the Freedom of Lichfield on him in 1938 as a token of gratitude for his generosity.

He continued with this benevelonce and his most valuable gift to Lichfield was 12 acres of land at Beacon Park, given in 1943 to extend the recreation grounds and for use as a public park and garden. He died on 8 June 1948.

Swinfen-Broun left his estate to the Church and the City of Lichfield, and most of the land was sold off. Swinfen Hall was unoccupied for many years until 1987, when it was converted the main house into a hotel that closed in recent years.

Swinfen-Broun’s Barcaglia statue was sold at auction at Sotheby’s in London for £150,000 in 2008, as the council could no longer to provide it with a home that had suitable conditions to prevent its deterioration. ‘The Reading Girl’ is on display in the Hub at Saint Mary’s, Lichfield. And the Swinfen-Broun Clock is back in its place between the Guildhall and Donegal House on Bore Street in Lichfield.

The Swinfen-Broun Clock is back in place between the Guildhall and Donegal House on Bore Street in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Further Reading:

Angela Coulter, A Stream of Lives (London, Troubador, 2021)

Swinfen Hall, Staffordshire, Heritage Impact Assessment, Donald Insall Associates, Chartered Architects and Historic Building Consultants, for Bushell Investment Group, June 2023, < https://docs.planning.org.uk/20240806/49/SGVKPUJEIFG00/stmiyo4snp9j4bdi.pdf >

The Wyatt Family of Weeford: a Staffordshire architectural dynasty

James Wyatt (1746-1813) of Weeford … the most famous member of the Wyatt architectural dynasty, his work on Lichfield Cathedral was condemned by AWN Pugin

Patrick Comerford

Tamworth and District Civic Society,

Christopher’s, Peel Hotel,

Aldergate, Tamworth

7:30 p.m., 11 April 2024

Introduction

There are several interesting architectural dynasties in the 19th century, including the Hardwick, Barry, Pugin and Scott families. But the Wyatt family tree stretches back much further than any of these, and the Wyatt family stands out for the variety and influence of its work by five or six generations of influential English architects in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

The best-known member of this dynasty was, perhaps, James Wyatt (1746-1813), although his work on rebuilding and restoring Lichfield Cathedral at the end of the 18th century drew the opprobrium of the greatest Gothic Revival architect of them all, AWN Pugin, when he visited Lichfield.

I am familiar with the work of the Wyatt family, not only because of my research on Pugin’s work, and because my family had worked on Pugin churches in the 19th century, but also because of their strong family links with the Tamworth and Lichfield area, because of Wyatt contributions to the architectural shape of Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge, and because of one unique architectural feature – Wyatt Windows – which are found in large measure in two towns in Ireland: in Bunclody, Co Wexford, which was the Irish home town of my father’s ancestors, and Rathkeale, the principal town in the group of parishes in the Diocese of Limerick in south-west Ireland where I was the priest-in-charge for five years (2017-2022).

Visiting Weeford

Saint Mary’s Church in Weeford … generations of the Wyatt family were baptised, married and buried there (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I was reminded once again of the Wyatt family’s prolific work and unique contribution throughout these islands on a visit some time ago to Weeford, between Tamworth and Lichfield, which has been associated with the Wyatt family for almost six centuries.

Weeford is one of the five original ‘prebends’ in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Weeford is 9 km (5.6 miles) west of Tamworth and 6 km (four miles) south of Lichfield, close to Toll 4 on the M6, but is in quiet rural Staffordshire. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book and it was one of the five original ‘prebends’ that paid ‘wax Scot’ or ‘Plough Alms’ to Lichfield Cathedral from the beginning of the 12th century. Indeed, there was a church in Weeford for many centuries, and there is still a stall for the Prebendary of Weeford in the chapter stalls in Lichfield Cathedral.

The Weeford Parish Registers are a valuable tool for genealogists and local historian (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In Lichfield, I recently bought a copy of the old parish registers for Saint Mary’s, dating back to 1562. The Weeford Parish Register was prepared for the Staffordshire Parish Register Society and edited by the society secretary, Norman W Tildesley of Somerford Place, Willenhall, and printed privately in Wednesbury around 1954-1956.

The Weeford parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials date from 1562 and continue until 1812. They were transcribed by HR Thomas of Wolverhampton. On the back of the fly leaf of the first register are two interesting prayers written in an unformed hand:

By thy crucified body deliver me from the body of this death.

O let this blood of thine purge my conscience from vain works to serve the living God.

A footbridge over the Blackbrook River in Weeford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The registers record not just baptisms, marriages and burials, but the events too that led to these rites of passage. An entry in 1614 records: ‘Buried: Roger Whately, a Carrier, that was murthered at Weeford Park on Sundaie the 27th November, buried the last of November.’

There is a moving entry from 13 February 1745: ‘Buried a woman that came to ask charity at Packington Hall and died in the fold there.’

On 13 March 1758, the registers record the death of ‘James Holmes who was kill’d by a waggon wheel at Mr Manley’s of Swinfen.’ An unnamed ‘Travelling Irishman’ is recorded as being baptised on 15 August 1759, although this must surely refer to a burial. On 24 February 1760, we read of the death of ‘Mr Joseph Grundy from Swinfen Hall, who was killed by being ‘thrown off a load of Hay.’

Some of the entries record family tragedies in very simple terms. Jone (Joan) Basford, the daughter of Raphe Basford, was baptised on 28 January 1571, ‘and was burried [sic] the morrow after.’ An unknown stranger is buried on 3 February 1578 without being named. Thomas Thickbrome’s two daughters, Margaret and Ellin, are buried within ten days of each other in October 1580. Robert and Constance Turner, brother and sister, were baptised on 7 March 1586 – and both were buried five days later. Charles, the son of Joseph and Mary Wyatt, was baptised on 27 November 1757, and buried the next day.

To read this high rate of infant mortality, even centuries later, is heart-rending.

Thomas Tew and Ales Mustard were married on 2 December 1574, and their son William was baptised three weeks later, on Christmas Day 25 December 1574. The registers can be quite blunt, or even cruel, in commenting on domestic situations. A child baptised in 1576, and another in 1578, are each described as spurius, while a child baptised in 1584 is said to be ‘baseborne.’

There are three sad entries, one after another, on 2 August 1591, beginning with the burial of Elizabeth Maxfield, noting ‘The said Elizabeth Maxfield a little before her death of two sonnes, the name of the first is Edward, the other Thomas, the father of the said children is unknown.’ The writer then goes on to record the baptisms that day of each new-born child.

A child found in the church porch ‘was baptized by the name of Anne, according to the Cannon [sic]’ on 31 December 1637.

There are few entries for baptisms during the Cromwellian era (1649-1660) and the entries are poorly organised, indicating the strong Puritan streak among the ministers appointed to the parish, although this does not necessarily mean the parishioners agreed with the ministers imposed on them.

The four main families in the parish were Swinfen of Swinfen Hall, Levett of Packington Hall, Manley of Manley Hall and Lawley of Canwell Hall. Packington Hall had been built by James Wyatt for the Babington family, and later passed by marriage to the Levett family.

Early Wyatts in Weeford

An outline of the Wyatt family tree (Wikipedia)

As an indication of the social prejudices of the day, families like these tend to receive more attentive entries in the register. John and Ann Swinfen were witnesses on 14 October 1790 at the marriage of ‘The Honourable John Colvill, eldest son and heir apparent of the Right Honourable John, Lord Colvill of Culrooss in Scotland and Elizabeth Ford of Swinfen.’ It is interesting to note that Elizabeth’s parentage is not referred to.

These registers show that the Wyatt family was living in the parish since at least as early as 1540, if not earlier. The baptism of Thomas Wyatt, son of Robert Wyatt, on 29 July 1562, is the fifth entry recorded in the registers, and is followed by two daughters, Margery in 1565 and Margaret in 1567.

Entries for members of the Wyatt family, including inter-marriages within the family, continue for generations and for centuries. There are Wyatt memorials in the parish church and Wyatt graves scattered throughout the churchyard.

There were Wyatts in Weeford from before 1540, when William Wyatt was the father of Humphrey Wyatt, and the Wyatt architectural dynasty can be traced back to William Wyatt of Thickbroom, near Weeford, who died in 1572.

The Wyatt dynasty was consolidated by a great number of marriages between cousins – over 20 in all, with eight in one generation alone. Wyatt family members often worked together in the architectural world. But the family also includes artists, painters, sculptors and journalists.

The grave in the churchyard in Weeford of John Wyatt (1675-1742), his wife Jane (1677-1739), their son Benjamin Wyatt (1709-1772) and other family members (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Edward Wyatt, who was buried in Weeford in 1572, was the great-great-grandfather of Edward Wyatt (1632-1705), whose son, John Wyatt (1675-1742) from Thickbroom in Weeford, was the immediate ancestor of this outstanding architectural dynasty.

This John Wyatt married Jane Jackson (1677-1739) on 4 June 1699, and they were the parents of at least nine children, eight sons and one daughter. Their eldest son, John Wyatt (1700-1766), who was probably born in Thickbroom and baptised in Weeford parish church, was also related to Sarah Ford, the mother of Dr Samuel Johnson.

John was a carpenter by trade, and worked in Birmingham, where he became a talented inventor. His inventions included a compound lever weighing machine for weighing loaded wagons, and he developed a spinning machine that predated Richard Arkwright’s ‘Spinning Jenny.’

The second son of John and Jane Wyatt of Thickbroom was William Wyatt (1701-1772) of Sinai Park House, near Burton-upon-Trent. A surveyor, who was steward to the Paget family, and was involved in their unpopular enclosures of land in Staffordshire.

I shall return to his descendants and their architectural legacy later on.

Architectural genius

Swinfen Hall … the finest architectural achievement of Benjamin Wyatt (1709-1772)

Among John Wyatt’s eight sons, the first to work as an architect was Benjamin Wyatt I (1709-1772). He too was baptised in Weeford, in 1709, and in the same church he married Mary Wright on 27 May 1731.

He was a ‘farmer, timber merchant, building contractor and sometime architect.’ Benjamin and Mary Wyatt were living at Coton, near Tamworth, before he built his own house, Blackbrook in Weeford, which was home to seven generations of the Wyatt family.

Benjamin Wyatt’s finest architectural achievement was Swinfen Hall, between Weeford and Lichfield, which he built in 1757 for Samuel Swinfen and his wife. Half a century ago, Sir Nikolaus Pevsner observed in 1974: ‘Much more ought to be found out about the house.’ I think this has been rectified in recent decades.

Around 1769, Benjamin Wyatt built Soho House in Handsworth (then in Staffordshire), the Birmingham home of Matthew Boulton (1728-1809), a Birmingham industrialist and a member of the Lunar Society. Later work on the house was carried out by two of John’s sons, Samuel Wyatt (1737-1807), who extended the house in 1789, and James Wyatt (1746-1813), who added the main entrance (1796).

Other works in Staffordshire by Benjamin Wyatt senior include the General Hospital in Foregate Street, Stafford (1766-1771).

The gate lodge of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge … part of the alterations by Sir Jeffry Wyatville in 1832 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Benjamin and Mary Wyatt had a large family. Their eldest son, William Wyatt (1734-1781), was a land surveyor and inclosure commissioner, and he married his first cousin, Sarah Wyatt of Sinai Park.

Their second son, John Wyatt (1735-1797), was a successful surgeon in London. He returned to Weeford to marry Catherine Anderson on 31 March 1761, when his parents were still living at Blackbrook Farm, and when he died in 1797 he was buried in Weeford too.

Another son, Samuel Wyatt (1737-1807), nicknamed ‘Chip’ because he was also a carpenter, was an architect and builder. He married his cousin, Jane Wyatt. His works include Trinity House on Tower Hill, which has been described as ‘the last word in Georgian elegance.’

Pevsner says Samuel Wyatt was ‘the best architect to work at Shugborough’, which was originally built in 1693. He designed what Pevsner calls the ‘grandest portico in Staffordshire by far,’ the eight-column giant portico set in front of the house in 1794.

He also added the awkwardly projecting saloon, former dining room and drawing room, and the elliptical entrance hall, and designed the Milford Lodges at the entrance.

The next son, Joseph Wyatt (1739-1785), who married his cousin Myrtilla Wyatt, was the father of Sir Jeffry Wyatville (1766-1840). He changed his surname from Wyatt to Wyatville (frequently misspelled Wyattville in south Dublin housing estates), and Sir Jeffry Wyatville was responsible for significant works at Windsor Castle and Chatsworth House.

I have first-hand familiarity with Jeffry Wyatville’s alterations to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1832, including the gatehouse. Under his supervision, the exterior brick of Sidney Sussex College was covered with a layer of cement, the existing buildings were heightened slightly, and the architectural effect was also heightened.

Benjamin and Mary Wyatt were also the parents of Benjamin Wyatt II (1744-1818), who moved to Wales in 1785 and was the agent to Lord Penrhyn.

James Wyatt and Lichfield Cathedral

Lichfield Cathedral … Pugin called James Wyatt a ‘wretch,’ a ‘pest’ and a ‘monster of architectural depravity’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

But the most famous son of Benjamin and Mary Wyatt was James Wyatt (1746-1813), who was born at Blackbrook Farmhouse near Weeford, and became the most acclaimed and influential architect of his age.

His first major building, the Pantheon in Oxford Street, London, was described by Horace Walpole as ‘the most beautiful edifice in England.’ Sadly, this building burned to the ground in a spectacular fire in 1792, only 20 years after its opening. The site is now occupied by the Oxford Street branch of Marks and Spencer.

James Wyatt became the Surveyor General and was involved in the Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In 1792, James Wyatt was appointed the Surveyor General, which effectively made him England’s most prominent architect. He was also involved in works at Windsor Castle, Kew Gardens, the Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford, and the restoration of the House of Lords. His other acclaimed works include Fonthill Abbey near Hindon, in Wiltshire, Broadway Tower in Worcestershire, the folly on the second highest point of the Cotswolds, Heveningham Hall in Suffolk, Ashbridge Park in Hertfordshire, and the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich.

He also worked on Alton Towers for the Earls of Shrewsbury, although Pevsner was unable to determine the extent of his contribution.

James Wyatt rebuilt Saint Mary’s Church in Weeford in 1802-1804, now a Grade 2 Listed Building, and donated the altar, pulpit, screens, font and ornamental furnishings. Other family members involved in rebuilding the church included James Wyatt’s nephew, Lewis William Wyatt (1777-1853), son of Benjamin Wyatt II (1744-1853).

James Wyatt began working on the restoration of Lichfield Cathedral in 1788 – his first cathedral task – and worked until here 1795. He oversaw work to remove 500 tons of stone from the nave roof, replacing it with lath and plaster, and effectively saving the cathedral from collapse. He blocked up the four western choir arches, removed or altered the screen, put a glass screen in the east arch of the crossing, and added the two heavy buttresses outside the south transept. He also largely rebuilt the central spire.

The architect on the site was Joseph Potter senior.

When the great figure in the Gothic Revival, AWN Pugin, first visited Lichfield in 1834, over 20 years after James Wyatt had died, he was taken aback by his refurbishment of the cathedral 30 years earlier and believed the fabric of the cathedral had been mutilated by James Wyatt – and he also described Lichfield as ‘a dull place – without anything remarkable.’

Pugin described Wyatt as a ‘Wretch,’ a ‘pest,’ an ‘accursed tutor’ and a ‘monster.’ He declared: ‘Yes – this monster of architectural depravity, this pest of Cathedral architecture, has been here. need I say more.’

Referring to another Lichfield architect, Joseph Potter, Pugin said: ‘The man I am sorry to say – who executes the repairs of the building was a pupil of the Wretch himself and has imbibed all the vicious propensities of his accursed tutor without one spark of even practical ability to atone for his misdeeds.’

James Wyatt’s major neoclassical country houses include Packington Hall, two miles from Lichfield and 4.5 miles from Tamworth, and the home of the Babington and then the Levett family for generations.

James Wyatt’s major works in Ireland include Castle Coole, the Enniskillen home of the Earls of Belmore, Lady Anne Dawson’s mausoleum in Dartrey, Co Monaghan, the interiors of Curraghmore for Lord Waterford, and Avondale House, Co Wicklow, the family home of the Irish patriot Charles Stewart Parnell.

It interesting to note his broad and sweeping influence on the design of houses in towns such as Carlow, Bunclody (Newtownbarry), Co Wexford, and Rathkeale, Co Limerick, for example.

Wyatt windows can be seen in many buildings in Bunclody, including the former Comerford family home (until recently the Post Office). The rectory, built in 1808, has windows that diminish in scale on each floor in the classical manner, producing a graduated visual impression, once again in a style inspired by James Wyatt. Wyatt windows can be seen too in some of the many once-elegant Georgian townhouses in Rathkeale.

James Wyatt was also briefly the President of the Royal Academy (1804). His life came to an abrupt end on 4 September 1813, when the chariot-and-four in which he was travelling overturned on the Marlborough Downs. He was buried in the South Transept in Westminster Abbey.

James Wyatt’s second son and pupil, Benjamin Dean Wyatt (1775-1852), built the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, London, and was also the Surveyor at Westminster Abbey. Another son was the sculptor Matthew Cotes Wyatt (1778-1862).

The Irish work of the dynasty

Thomas Henry Wyatt built Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Ballsbridge, in 1864-1867 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I said I would return to William Wyatt (1701-1772), the elder brother of Benjamin Wyatt (1709-1772). This William Wyatt was the grandfather of Matthew Wyatt (1773-1831), who studied law instead of architecture. He moved briefly to Ireland when he was appointed a barrister and police magistrate in Roscommon.

Matthew Wyatt’s son, Thomas Henry Wyatt (1807-1880), was born at Loughlynn House, Co Roscommon, on 9 May 1807. Although he was born in Ireland, he is often regarded as an English architect.

When Thomas was about 11, the Wyatt family returned to England in 1818, and his brother, Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt (1820-1877), was born in Rowde, Wiltshire. By 1825, the family was living in Lambeth.

Thomas Wyatt first began a career as a merchant sailing to the Mediterranean. But he returned to the family’s tradition of architecture, and his early training was in the office of Philip Hardwick. There he worked until 1832, and was involved in work on Goldsmiths Hall, Euston Station and the warehouses at Saint Katharine Docks.

He began to practice on his own as an architect in 1832, and became the District Surveyor for Hackney, a post he held until 1861.

He married his first cousin, Arabella Montagu Wyatt (1807-1875), a daughter of his uncle, Arthur Wyatt, who was the agent of the Duke of Beaufort. By 1838, he had acquired substantial patronage from the Duke of Beaufort, the Earl of Denbigh and Sidney Herbert (1810-1861). David Brandon joined Wyatt as a partner, and this partnership lasted until 1851. Their works included Saint John the Baptist Church, Tixall, commissioned by the Hon John Chetwynd Talbot, and the now lost Saint Thomas Church in Wednesfield. In 1860, Thomas Wyatt’s son, Matthew Wyatt (1840-1892), became his partner.

Thomas Wyatt’s practice at 77 Great Russell Street, London, was extensive with a large amount of work in Wiltshire, thanks to the patronage of the Herbert family, and in Monmouthshire through the Beaufort connection. Wyatt worked in many styles ranging from the Italianate of Wilton through to the Gothic of many of his churches.

Inside Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Ballsbridge … the church has a unique place in the history of Victorian church architecture in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Wyatt probably received the commission for Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Ballsbridge, in the expanding, comfortable Victorian suburbs of south Dublin, through the patronage of the Herbert family who were the landlords of that part of Dublin. As the Earls of Pembroke, they give their name to a new township based on Ballsbridge. Wyatt worked closely with Sidney Herbert, younger brother of the Earl of Pembroke, who administered the family estates and donated the site for the ‘Pembroke District Church.’

Sidney Herbert was a brother-in-law of Thomas Vesey (1803-1875), the 3rd Viscount de Vesci, who married Lady Emma, daughter of George Herbert, 11th Earl of Pembroke. Lord de Vesci had commissioned Wyatt to restore Abbeyleix House, Co Laois, and to design the parish church of Saint Michael and All Angels in Abbeyleix.

Sidney Herbert, who had sent Florence Nightingale to Scutari during the Crimean War, was the father-in-law of both the theologian Friedrich von Hügel and the composer Hubert Parry. He lived at Mount Merrion in south Dublin and was managing the Pembroke estates when the site for Saint Bartholomew’s was donated and Wyatt was commissioned to design the new church.

Wyatt’s also enlarged and altered Saint Mary’s Church in Gowran, Co Kilkenny. He also reported on the completion of the restoration of Saint Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, and worked on several Irish country houses, including Abbeyleix, Co Laois, for Lord de Vesci, Ramsfort, Co Wexford, for Stephen Ram, Lissadell House, Co Sligo, for the Gore-Booth family, and Palmerstown House, Co Kildare, for the de Burgh family.

The font in Saint Bartholomew’s was a personal gift to the church by Thomas Henry Wyatt (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The font in Saint Bartholomew’s Church was his personal gift to the church. He died on 5 August 1880 leaving an estate of £30,000, and is buried at Weston Patrick.

Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt of Cambridge designed 24-25 Grafton Street, Dublin … today it is stripped of its original ground-floor shopfront (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Thomas Wyatt’s younger brother and former pupil, Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt (1820-1877), was an art historian and the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge. He too also worked in Ireland, and he designed Nos 24-25 Grafton Street, Dublin, in the ‘Celtic revival’ style for William Longfield.

This building had one of the finest Romanesque façades until the ground floor was vandalised to make way for modern shopfronts. The original shopfront combined details from many churches and cathedrals, including the doorway in Saint Lachtain’s Church, Freshford, Co Kilkenny, crosses from Monasterboice, Co Louth, and the chancel arch and crosses from Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Tuam, Co Galway.

The first and second floors, which have survived, have two super-imposed Romanesque arcades. Above them, the third floor looks like a Venetian loggia. The rich details throughout these three floors include interlaced capitals, keystone masks, foliated string courses, and chevron or saw-tooth ornamentation.

In 1863, the Irish Builder hoped Wyatt would ‘stimulate many an Irish architect to … recreate a national style,’ and praised the building for being ‘at once novel and successful.’

A continuing link

The grave of John Wyatt (died 1820) in Weeford Churchyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The grave of the journalist Woodrow Wyatt in Weeford Churchyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

As I strolled through Saint Mary’s churchyard in Weeford, I came across other interesting members of the Wyatt family, and more recent family members, including the former amateur cricketer and captain of Warwickshire, Worcestershire and England, Robert Elliott Storey (Bob) Wyatt (1901-1995), and the politician, journalist and chairman of the Tote, Woodrow Wyatt (1918-1997), who was made Lord Wyatt of Weeford by Margaret Thatcher and who is also buried in the churchyard.

The Old Schoolhouse in Weeford continues to celebrate the Wyatt name (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Across the country lane from the churchyard, the Wyatt dynasty is remembered in the Wyatt Pavilion, a popular wedding venue incorporated into the bar and restaurant in the old schoolhouse.

Conclusions:

Wyatt windows in a terrace of houses in Rathkeale, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Wyatt windows in the Mall House, the former Comerford family home in Bunclody, Co Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Thomas Wyatt has been described unfairly by John Betjeman as ‘one of the dullest Victorian architects.’ On the other hand, despite Pugin’s scorn and contempt for James Wyatt, John Betjeman has praised him for his ‘symphony’ of ‘exquisite plaster, marble and painted details.’

James Wyatt has been acclaimed both as ‘the successor to Robert Adam as England’s most fashionable architect in the classical idiom,’ and for his ‘mastery of the Gothic style.’ Sir Nikolaus Pevsner has called his work at Woolwich ‘one of the most important pieces of military architecture’ in Britain.

But James Wyatt is also controversial, because he is also taken to task for having followed fashions in a superficial way, and to Pugin he was ‘a monster of architectural depravity’ for his insensitive work at Lichfield and other cathedrals.

Little of Wyatt’s work at Lichfield Cathedral survived the later Victorian restoration and rebuilding. Pevsner has pointed out that much of Lichfield Cathedral, as it is today, is George Gilbert Scott’s work, including mouldings, capitals and statues, and most of the window tracery.

The finest surviving works by the Wyatt family in Staffordshire are Shugborough and Swinfen Hall.

If you wish to see their legacy in this part of Staffordshire, then visit Swinfen Hall, take a stroll through Weeford, or admire the work in Lichfield of James Wyatt’s pupil, Joseph Potter (1756-1842), including Newtown’s College in the Close (1800), the Causeway Bridge at Bird Street (1816), and Holy Cross Church, Upper Saint John Street, Lichfield (1835).

Potter’s other works in Lichfield and the surrounding area include:

● Christ Church, Burntwood (1819-1820);
● Chetwynd Bridge, Alrewas (1824);
● Freeford Hall, enlarged for the Dyott family (1826-1827);
● The High Bridge, Armitage (1829-1830);
● Saint John Baptist Roman Catholic Church, Tamworth (1829-1830).

His son, Joseph Potter Jnr. (1797-1875), took over his architectural practice and designed the Guildhall (1846-1848) and the Clock Tower (1863) in Lichfield.

Appendix 1: Wyatt works in Staffordshire:

Benjamin Wyatt I (1709-1772):

Blackbrook Farmhouse, Weeford (pre 1750), Wyatt family home in Weeford.
Swinfen Hall (1755-1757), for Samuel Swinfen.
Soho House, Handsworth (1769) for Matthew Boulton.
Benjamin Wyatt senior’s other works in Staffordshire include the General Hospital in Foregate Street, Stafford (1766-1771).

Samuel Wyatt (1737-1807):

Soho House (1789), extended for Matthew Boulton.
Shugborough House (1790, 1806), Milford Lodges and portico 1794 in front of 1693 house.

James Wyatt (1746-1813):

Lichfield Cathedral (1788-1795): restoration work.
Packington Hall, for the Babington and Levett families.
Little Aston Hall (late 18th century), rebuilt by Edward J Payne (1857-1859).
Soho House (1796), added main entrance front for Matthew Boulton.
Saint Mary’s Church, Weeford (1802).
Alton Towers (Pevsner is unable to determine the extent of his contribution).
Canwell Hall: added two wings (demolished 1957).

Thomas Wyatt (1807):

Saint John the Baptist Church, Tixall (1849), Wyatt and Brandon, commissioned by John Chetwynd Talbot.
Saint Thomas Church, Wednesfield (1842-1843), chancel by Wyatt and Brandon, burnt in 1902, rebuilt by FT Beck (1903).

Appendix 2: A search in vain

The Weeford Parish Register records the four children of James Wyatt (1717-1783) and his wife Elizabeth Somerford or Sommerford. This James Wyatt was a son of John Wyatt (1675-1742) and Jane Jackson (1677-1739). He was the youngest child in a family of eight sons and one daughter, and he was a younger brother of William Wyatt (1702-1772) and Benjamin Wyatt (1709-1772), the ancestors of the Wyatt architectural dynasty.

James Wyatt and John Wyatt, probably twins, the sons of James Wyatt and Elizabeth Somerford, were baptised on 22 January 1760. Infant mortality also struck this couple, and the two boys died later that year: John was buried on 23 September and James was buried on 20 December 1760. The baptism of a daughter Mary in 1762 is not noted, although the register records her burial in Weeford later that year on 22 October 1762, without naming her parents. A third son, also James Wyatt, son of James Wyatt and Elizabeth Somerford, was baptised on 24 May 1763. A fourth son, John Wyatt, son of James Wyatt and Elizabeth Sommerford, was baptised in Weeford on 27 December 1765.

Despite the heartbreak of infant mortality, James and Elizabeth appear to have been determined to keep the names James and John in the family. The second John Wyatt died in 1791.

James Wyatt was buried in Weeford on 15 August 1783. An entry on 23 February 1804 records: ‘Elizabeth Somerford from Lichfield, bur[ied], Copied to here.’ This is probably his widow, although this is not clear from the burial register; if she is his widow, one wonders why her married name is not used.

Weeford is less than 10 miles south of Comberford, in the neighbouring parish of Wigginton, and there is at least one record showing how close the two villages are with the burial of ‘John, s[on] of Edw[ard] Lakin of Cumberford’ on 27 November 1726.

As the register shows, the spelling of surnames did not become standardised until later in the 19th century, and I wondered whether some descendants of the Comberford family of Comberford that I had not known of may have continued to live in this part of Staffordshire for longer than my researches had shown.

Indeed, it would have been interesting to come across a marriage between the Wyatt and Comerford families, just at a time when the Comerfords were introducing Wyatt-style windows to the domestic architecture of Newtownbarry (Bunclody).

But I was quickly dissuaded. Perhaps Sommerford and Somerford were not misspellinsg for Comberford or Comerford, but derived from Somerford, about 18 miles west of Weeford and a mile east of Brewood, the same Somerford that also gave its name to Somerford Place in Willenhall, where Norman W Tildesley, the editor of this volume, lived in the 1950s.

Thomas Somerford of Somerford Hall, his wife, his mother and his children were Quakers by the 1680s. But the Somerford family had sold or lost Somerford Hall by 1705. If Elizabeth Wyatt is descended from that family I have yet to discover how.

Some sources:

‘The Wyatt Dynasty’, the Victorian Web, http://www.victorianweb.org/art/architecture/misc/wyattdyn.html (last accessed 22 April 2018).
Rosemary Hill, God’s Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain (London: Penguin, 2007).
(Sir) Nikolaus Pevsner, Staffordshire, The Buildings of England (Harmondsworth Penguin, 1974).
John Martin Robinson, The Wyatts: An Architectural Dynasty (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979).
Norman W Tildesley (ed), Weeford Parish Registers, Baptism, Marriages, Burials 1562-1812 (Wednesbury: Staffordshire Parish Registers Society, 1955).
Reginald Turnor, Nineteenth Century Architecture in Britain (London: Batsford, 1950).
Chris Woodcock, Notes on a line of the Galloway Family (2016).

Biographical Note:

(Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford is an Anglican priest living in retirement in Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire. He is a former professor at Trinity College Dublin, lectured in church history and liturgy at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, and spent many years in ministry in the Church of Ireland. He has family links with the Tamworth area that stretch back generations and centuries. He blogs daily at www.patrickcomerford.com, where many of his postings are about life, history and architecture in the Tamworth and Lichfield area.

Saint Bartholomew and some of the churches to which he gives his name

Saint Bartholomew the Apostle … a statue on the west front of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The Church Calendar today celebrates Saint Bartholomew the Apostle (24 August).

Exciting Holiness recalls that it has long been assumed that Bartholomew is the same as Nathanael, ‘though it is not a certainty’.

The gospels speak of Philip bringing Nathanael to Jesus, who calls him an Israelite worthy of the name. He is also present beside the Sea of Galilee at the resurrection. Although he seems initially a somewhat cynical man, he recognises Jesus for who he is and proclaims him as Son of God and King of Israel.

Earlier this morning, in my prayer diary on this blog, my reflections drew on the story and images of Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Farewell, on the northern fringes of Lichfield. But I though it might be interesting this evening to reflect on some other churches dedicated to Saint Bartholomew.

Saint Bartholomew’s Church crowns the highest point in Wednesbury, possibly the site once sacred to Woden, the Saxon god of war (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

During a recent visit to Wednesbury I also visited the parish church, Saint Bartholomew’s Church. Wednesbury Manor is just a short distance down the hilly slopes to the north-east of the church. Many members of the Comberford family were buried there in the 16th and 17th centuries, but the last remaining Comberford monuments were removed from the church soon after they were rediscovered in 1890.

Wednesbury stands on a site once sacred to the Saxon god of war Woden – as in Wednesday – and the site of an iron age fort (burgh) or hill (barrow). Wednesbury was fortified by Ethelflaed, daughter of King Alfred, in the year 916 to protect the borders of the kingdom of Mercia from Viking raiders.

Saint Bartholomew’s Church crowns the highest point in Wednesbury, possibly the site once sacred to Woden. The treasures of this ancient jewel include 15 stained glass windows crafted by Charles Eamer Kempe and a unique ‘fighting cock’ lectern.

The south porch of >Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Wednesbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Saint Bartholomew’s Church sits on the top of Church Hill and is seen for miles around. The church is a Grade II listed building and has been at the heart of Wednesbury for centuries. It is a large mediaeval church that was enlarged and developed by the Victorians. It retains many of its original mediaeval furnishings and fine collection of stained glass windows by Charles Eamer Kempe that I hope to return to see.

The church in Wednesbury is first mentioned in 1088, and there was a church at Wednesbury by the early 13th century, when the Plea Rolls of King John in 1210-1211 record that Master William, a royal chaplain, had been appointed to the church at Wednesbury.

The clock, tower and spire of Saint Bartholomew’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Saint Bartholomew’s Church stands on the site of the earlier 13th century stone-built church. The earliest parts of the fabric dating from perhaps the 13th century include a couple of windows and the lower parts of some of the walls.

However, much of the church dates from rebuilding in the late 15th or early 16th century. It has been restored and rebuilt since, and ruthless modernisation in the early and later 19th century, and again in the 20th century, have left the church looking more like a bright late Victorian church.

Both the Revd John Wesley and Francis Asbury attended Saint Bartholomew’s Church, and Wesley recalled being mobbed by the town’s anti-Methodist rioters on 20 October 1743.

The church tower was restored in 1757, when the top 16 ft were rebuilt and the ball and weathercock were replaced.

A statue of Saint Bartholomew above the south porch in Wednesbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Restoration work continued in 1764 and 1765 when the nave roof was repaired and a ceiling added to the nave. Unfortunately, during the work part of the parapet on the north side collapsed onto the roof and both fell onto the pews below, causing serious damage. Thankfully, the pews were empty at the time; people were seated there only an hour before during a funeral.

As the parapet on the south side was found to be in an extremely poor condition, the decision was taken to rebuild both parapets and to add a ceiling above the north aisle. As the restoration was now much larger and more expensive than previously imagined, neighbouring parishes were invited to make collections towards the cost of the work.

Part of the south transept was enclosed in 1775 and a wall added to form a vestry. The body of the church was coated with Parker’s cement in 1818. Nine years later, the church was enlarged by the addition of the north transept and an extended nave.

The pews were replaced and a new font and a new clock were presented to the church in 1856 by the Revd Isaac Clarkson (died 1860), Vicar of Wednesbury and a keen fundraiser for the church.

Restoration work continued in 1855, when the upper part of the spire was completely rebuilt and the eight bells were recast. Two new bells were also added, along with a new clock and weathercock. The spire was raised by 10 ft in 1878.

The east end of Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Wednesbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The architect Basil Champneys (1842-1935) was asked for suggestions on refurbishing and enlarging the church in the 1880s. His notable buildings include John Rylands Library, Manchester, Somerville College Library, Oxford, Newnham College, Cambridge, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, Mansfield College, Oxford and the Rhodes Building in Oriel College, Oxford.

His proposals for Wednesbury formed the basis of later work. This included the wholesale movement, stone by stone, of the multi-sided apse, which dated from the 15th or 16th century, some distance east to allow enlargement of the main chancel area.

During this restoration work in 1885, remains of the earlier church were found and consisted of a three-light window in a round-headed arch. The three lights date back to the 13th century but the arch could be earlier. The ancient window is at the west end of the north aisle. It is next to the doorway that gives access to the former choir vestry. This has a pointed segmental arch and is said to be from the same date as the window.

In addition, the internal galleries were removed in 1885, and the floor was lowered to its original level.

The tombs of Richard Jennyns, who died in 1521, and John Comberford, who died in 1559, were brought to light in 1890 as this restoration work continued. However, I could not find John Comberford’s tomb when I searched for it back in 1970, and it seems likely that Jennyns and Comberford were reburied after their rediscovery.

Inside Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Wednesbury, facing the east end (Photograph: Parish Website)

The apse has been decorated in a unified scheme involving stone panelling, painting and gilding, bright stained glass windows, and an alabaster altarpiece with sculpture. A triptych arrangement has a central scene of Christ breaking bread with the two disciples at Emmaus, and two groups of three standing saints to the sides, including Saint Bartholomew with a flaying knife, the symbol of his martyrdom.

The front of the altar has painted and mosaic panels, with five standing figures: in the centre, Christ is flanked by two angels, with Saint Peter on one side panel, and Saint John the Evangelist on the other with a representation of the poison chalice. These figures are painted on stone, in pieces as if stained glass, with mother of pearl haloes, and the blue sky behind and the outer edgings of the figures in mosaic. The ground for the central panel is delicately painted in the Pre-Raphaelite style of Sir Edward Burne-Jones.

It all serves to emphasise the Anglo-Catholic tradition that has long been part of Saint Bartholomew’s for centuries and that, curiously, would have been amenable to the Comberford family during their time in Wednesbury.

Further restoration work took place in 1902 and 1903, when the transepts were restored. The Chapel of the Ascension was added to the south transept in 1913.

The West Door of Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Wednesbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The church has 15 late 19th or early 20th century windows that include stained glass by Charles Eamer Kempe (1837-1907). The Kempe windows include the ‘Woden Window.’ It depicts the coming of Christianity to Wednesbury and was a gift to the church from the people of the town in 1904. It was saved in recent years thanks to £30,000 raised by the Ibstock Cory Environmental Trust and other charitable trusts, public and private donors.

The Jacobean pulpit dates from 1611, and the church has an ancient wooden lectern and a chest from the 16th or 17th century. The woodwork and alabaster stone tracery are of a later date. Two large, grey panels record the various bequests and gifts to the church, ‘copied from decayed wood tablets dated about 1808.’

The church has about 25 or so monuments, with three from the 17th century, including a great tomb chest with carved statues and a ‘kneeler’ monument, a couple from the 18th century, one of which is a characteristic obelisk monument, and a number of 19th century plaques, showing variations on the classical tablet, and a few Gothic ones.

The most notable 17th century monument is that of Thomas Parkes, a prosperous iron founder, who died in 1602, and wife Elianor, with an unusual combination of English and Latin on one inscription. The kneeling figures in high relief of Thomas on the left and Elianor on the right are facing each other, both in profile, with a broad plaque underneath showing their children.

Thomas Parkes was the most powerful of Thomas Comberford’s tenants in Wednesbury, but their relationships were never very happy and resulted in a series of lawsuits. It is ironic, therefore, that the Parkes family monuments have survived but not those of the Comberford family.

Father Mark Danks has been the Vicar of Wednesbury since 2018. Sunday services are at 9 am and 10 am.

Saint Bartholomew’s Church in Dromcollogher, Co Limerick … built in 1824 and renovated in 1861, 1906-1909, the 1950s and the 1990s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In the Church of Ireland Diocese of Limerick, Dromcollogher and Broadford and are within the Rathkeale Group of Parishes, where I was the priest-in-charge in 2017-2022, although they have no parish churches; in the Roman Catholic Church, they form one parish of Dromcollogher-Broadford.

Dromcollogher is a picturesque small town or village in Co Limerick, not far from the border of North County Cork and about 12 km west of Charleville. It has a population of about 600 people.

An early mediaeval church in Dromcollogher was destroyed by war in 1302. It was rebuilt and was known as the capella Dromcolkylle in Corcomohid in 1418, when it was part of the larger parish of Corcomohide.

Dromcollogher was one of the starting points for the Irish Co-Op Movement. The first co-operative creamery was set up here in 1889 on the initiative of Count Horace Plunkett. The songwriter Percy French composed a song ‘There’s Only One Street In Dromcollogher.’

Inside Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Dromcollogher (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The protected or listed buildings in Dromcollogher include Saint Bartholomew’s, the Roman Catholic parish church built in 1824.

Saint Bartholomew’s Church was built almost 200 years ago in 1824 by Father Michael Fitzgerald, who bought the site from Robert Jones Staveley of Glenduff Castle, Co Limerick, a judge of the High Court.

Renovations were carried out in 1861 by Father Patrick Quaid, who also built a new church in neighbouring Broadford. Father Michael Byrne (PP 1902-1917) refurbished and decorated the church in the early 20th century, with improvements designed in 1906-1909 by the Limerick-based architect Brian Edward Fitzgerald Sheehy (1870-1930). The apse and many of the stained-glass windows were added at this time.

The High Altar and apse in Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Dromcollogher (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The stained-glass windows behind the altar depict (from left to right) Saint David, the Virgin Mary, the Sacred Heart, and Saint Catherine. They were donated by David and Mary O’Leary Hannigan of Kilbolane Castle, Milford, Co Cork, and other members of their family in 1906.

The stained-glass windows in the left transept depict the Sacred Heart, donated by Mrs Toomey in memory of her parents, and the Holy Child of Jerusalem, similar to the Child of Prague.

A stained-glass window of Saint Patrick in the right transept was donated in memory of Patrick Quaid Hannigan and his wife Mary. A stained-glass window of Saint Joseph was donated by Patrick O’Sullivan.

James Pearse (1839-1900), father of the 1916 leaders Patrick and William Pearse, donated the statue of the Virgin Mary to the left of the High Altar. The statue to the right is of the Sacred Heart.

A Pieta statue is in memory of John Gleeson. Other statues in the church include Saint Theresa of Lisieux, Saint Joseph, and Saint Anthony. The Stations of the Cross are in memory of Dorcas Mary Aherne.

The walls of the nave were removed and replaced with glass panels, forming light-filled, cloister like side aisles (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Further renovations were carried out in the 1950s and again in the 1990s. There was considerable debate in the 1990s about whether to build a new church or to radically upgrade the existing church.

The walls of the nave were removed and replaced with glass panels, forming light-filled, cloister like side aisles. The glass panels are the work of Kevin Kelly and the Abbey Stained Glass Studios.

The glass is engraved with both religious and secular scenes, including scenes from the life of Saint Bartholomew, the calling of Saint Nathaniel, who is identified with Saint Bartholomew, in Saint John’s Gospel (see John 1: 43-51), scenes from local history and excerpts from poetry by the local bardic poet, Daibhi O Bruadair (1625-1698), who lived in Springfield Castle, outside Dromcollogher.

The glass panels in Dromcollogher depict scenes from the life of Saint Bartholomew, including the calling of Saint Nathaniel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This is a cruciform-plan double-height gable-fronted parish church, aligned on a north-south axis rather than the traditional liturgical east-west axis.

The church had a three-bay nave, with a recent porch at the front, glazed side aisles at each side, three-bay transepts at the sides, and a canted, three-bay chancel at the liturgical east end (north). There are timber-frame balconies in each transept.

The once free-standing three-stage bell tower to north (liturgical east) is linked to the church and sacristy by a recent corridor.

Much of the church’s historic character remains intact, mostly through the retention of key historic features, including the stained-glass windows, decorative stone details and the bell tower. These alterations to the nave make for a light and airy interior that retains many artistic features, including the finely-crafted balconies and statues.

Father William O’Donnell, who was parish priest for 33 years and died in 1876, is the only parish priest buried inside the church. Four parish priests are buried in the church grounds: Michael Byrne; Canon James Foley; Canon John Reeves; and Archdeacon Hugh O’Connor.

A large Celtic cross in the churchyard is a memorial to the victims of a fire at a film showing on Sunday evening, 5 September 1926. William ‘Baby’ Forde had hired a room from Patrick Brennan in the centre of Dromcollogher and planned to show Cecil B DeMille’s Ten Commandments in a make-shift, timber-built cinema. But, during the showing, a reel of nitrate film caught fire from the flame of a candle. The fire spread, and 46 people died that night, with two more dying later in hospital.

The 48 people represented one-tenth of the population of Dromcollogher at the time. Many who died were children. One entire family died – a father, mother and their two children. The victims were buried in the churchyard in a communal grave marked by the Celtic cross. The tragedy, known locally as the ‘Dromcollogher Burning,’ was the worst-known fire disaster in Irish history until the Betelgeuse fire in 1979 and the Stardust disaster in 1981, in which 50 and 48 people died.

Saint Bartholomew’s Church at the junction of Clyde Road and Elgin Road in Ballsbridge, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I have often presided at the Eucharist, preached and spoken in Saint Bartholomew’s Church, a unique parish church in the Diocese of Dublin, with a strong liturgical and choral tradition dating back to its consecration in 1867.

This beautiful church, which stands at the junction of Clyde Road and Elgin Road in Ballsbridge, close to the US Embassy, was consecrated in 1867. Saint Bartholomew’s was designed by the well-known English architect, Thomas Henry Wyatt. It was built in the Gothic revival style, using Dublin granite and with sandstone facings. But there are also interesting features which show the influence of the Celtic Romantic Revival, which was becoming popular in the 1860s, including the stairway to the clock tower which is in the shape of an Irish round tower.

The interior of Saint Bartholomew’s ... reflects the Italian and Byzantine influences on Sir Thomas Deane during his visits to Florence, Rome and Palermo (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

The unique interior decoration, dating from 1878, was designed by Sir Thomas Deane and reflects the Italian and Byzantine influences on Deane during his visits to Florence, Rome and Palermo. Many of the original features of the church remain intact to this day, including the sanctuary mosaics and the elaborate wrought-iron choir screen.

Saint Bartholomew’s has an important collection of Irish stained glass (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The stained-glass windows represent two important periods in the development of Irish stained glass. Around the High Altar, the five apse windows, including the Rose Window, date from 1868-1872 and are the oldest in the church. They are the work of Michael O’Connor, who was an important figure in the early days of the Gothic revival of stained glass in Ireland.

There are also important windows by Catherine O’Brien, who was influenced by Sarah Purser and the Arts and Crafts Movement. Her works in Saint Bartholomew’s include the Emmaus Window in the South Transept, and the four porch windows depicting Saint Patrick, Saint George, Saint Brigid and Saint Margaret.

The church also has important windows from the 1870s and 1880s by the London firm of Heaton, Butler and Bayne.

Saint Bartholomew’s has always been known for its High Anglican liturgical tradition, which is an integral part of the Anglo-Catholic tradition. In its early days, Anglo-Catholicism was conservative both theologically and politically, but in the latter part of the 19th century many Anglo-Catholics became active in radical and socialist organisations.

Saint Bartholomew’s is celebrated for its fine music too. The choir of boys and men is the only remaining all-male parish church choir in the Church of Ireland. But the girls’ choir, formed in 2003, plays an increasingly prominent role in the life of the church.

The three-manual organ was built in 1887 by Gray and Davison, but has been rebuilt since then in 1925 and 1963, and more recently by Trevor Crowe in 2002.

The first Vicar of Saint Bartholomew’s, the Revd Arthur Altham Dawson (1864-1871), resigned to work in England. He is commemorated in the Ascension window in the north transept.

His successor, Canon Richard Travers Smith (1871-1905), was the author of many theological and historical works, and the Donnellan Lecturer at Trinity College Dublin. He is remembered in a brass behind the vicar’s stall.

The Emmaus window by Catherine O’Brien in the south transept of Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Ballsbridge, commemorates a former vicar, Bishop Harry Vere White (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The third vicar, Canon Harry Vere White (1905-1918), had returned to Ireland from New Zealand to work as the Irish organising secretary of the SPG. While he worked with SPG, he lived at 3 Belgrave Road, so his former dining room in Rathmines was later my office when I worked with CMS Ireland (2002-2006). He later became Treasurer and Chancellor of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, Archdeacon of Dublin and Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, before becoming Bishop of Limerick. He is commemorated by Catherine O’Brien’s Emmaus Window in the south transept.

Canon Walter Cadden Simpson (1918-1951) was Vicar of All Souls’, Clapton Park, London, before moving to Saint Bartholomew’s. Catherine O’Brien’s mosaic of the Epiphnay over the vestry door is a memorial to him.

Robert Norman Sidney Craig (1951-1957) was once Vice-Principal of Bishops’ College, Calcutta. He later worked in the US.

Henry Homan Warner (1957-1964) was a curate of Saint Bartholomew’s before becoming Vicar.

James Maurice George Carey (1964-1972) was a noted liturgist and preacher, and the first incumbent to introduce Eucharistic vestments. Maurice later became Dean of Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork, and returned to Dublin as Priest-in-Charge of Saint John’s, Sandymount. I got to know him well when he chaired the editorial board of Search.

John Thomas Farquhar Paterson (1972-1978) later became Dean of Saint Brigid’s Cathedral, Kildare, and then Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.

John Robert Winder Neill (1978-1985) came to Saint Bartholomew’s at a time of significant liturgical renewal. He later become Dean of Waterford, Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry, Bishop of Cashel and Ossory, and then Archbishop of Dublin.

John Andrew McKay (1985-2000) had previously been one of my predecessors as Rector of Rathkeale, Askeaton, Foynes and Kilcornan (1982-1985). He later spent several years as Chaplain of Saint George’s Venice, and Christ Church, Trieste, returning to Dublin in 2005 as priest-in-charge of Saint John’s, Sandymount. He died in 2010.

His successors were the Revd William James Ritchie (2000-2004) and the Revd Michael Thompson (2004-2008). The present Vicar of Saint Bartholomew’s is the Revd Andrew McCroskery.

The curates of Saint Bartholomew’s have included: (Archdeacon) Raymond Gordon Finney Jenkins, (Archbishop) George Otto Simms, (Bishop) Roderick Norman Coote, Father Alan Bird Crawford, later a Benedictine monk of Glenstal Abbey, (Archishop) Richard Lionel Clarke, later Bishop of Meath and Kildare and Archbishop of Armagh, (Canon) Edward George Ardis, later Dean of Killala, then Rector of Donnybrook and Irishtown, and Dean’s Vicar of Cork, and Nigel Kenneth Dunne, now Dean of Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork.

Thomas Henry Wyatt, who designed Saint Bartholomew’s Church, was a member of the outstanding architectural dynasty descended from John Wyatt (1675-1742) from Thickbroom in Weeford, outside Lichfield.

Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Ballsbridge, was designed by Thomas Henry Wyatt, a member of the architectural dynasty descended from John Wyatt (1675-1742) from Weeford, near Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
who gave to your apostle Bartholomew grace
truly to believe and to preach your word:
grant that your Church
may love that word which he believed
and may faithfully preach and receive the same;
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:

Almighty God,
who on the day of Pentecost
sent your Holy Spirit to the apostles
with the wind from heaven and in tongues of flame,
filling them with joy and boldness to preach the gospel:
by the power of the same Spirit
strengthen us to witness to your truth
and to draw everyone to the fire of your love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.