Showing posts with label Wolverhampton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wolverhampton. Show all posts

09 December 2025

19 million people in Romania,
Trump’s secret $19 million,
£19 million for Wolverhampton,
and 19 million blog readers

Mount Olympus seen from the Monument of Alexander the Great in Thessaloniki … Central Macedonia in Greece, has a land area of 19 million sq metres or 19,000 sq km (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This blog continues to reach more and more readers, and has reached yet another staggering today, with 19 million hits within the past hour (9 December 2025) and almost 400,000 readers so far this month, with over 396,000 hits by 6 pm today.

I first began blogging back in 2010, and the 18.5 million mark was reached less than a fortnight ago, at the end of last month (27 November 2025), having passed the 18 million earlier that month (2 November 2025), the 17.5 million mark the previous month (18 October) and the 17 million mark less than three weeks earlier (30 September 2025).

The latest figure of 19 million is all the more staggering because half of all those hits (9.5 million) have been within this year, since January 2025. The rise in the number of readers has been phenomenal throughout this year, and the daily figures have been overwhelming at times. With this latest landmark figure of 19 million readers today, I once again find myself asking questions such as:

• What do 19 million people look like?
• Where do we find 19 million people?
• What does £19 million, €19 million or $19 million mean?
• What would it buy, how far would it stretch, how much of a difference would that much make to people’s lives?

The courtyard in Stavropoleos Monastery in Bucharest … Romania has a population of 19 million people (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Official estimate earlier this year show Romania has a population of 19 million, and São Paulo in Brazil has a population of 19 million, making it the 19th largest city in the world.

A report earlier this year shows over 19 million people in Yemen need humanitarian aid due to conflict. There 4.5 million people who internally displaced people in Yemen with major humanitarian need.

By the end of March 2025, East Africa, the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region hosted some 19 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 5.7 million refugees and asylum-seekers, or a total of 24.7 million displaced people. The internally displaced persons are mainly in Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Burundi, while the majority of the refugees and asylum-seekers are in Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan.

Central Macedonia, the largest region of Greece, has a land area of 19 million sq metres (19,000 sq km) and a population of 1.8 million. It is the second most populous region in Greece after Attica, Thessaloniki – the city of Alexander the Great and of Aristotle – is the capital and largest city of the region, and Mount Olympus (2,918 m) is its highest mountain.

Central Macedonia is fourth-most-popular tourist region in Greece and the most popular destination that is not an island. The Chalkidiki peninsula has 550 km of sandy beaches, including 85 Blue Flag beaches. Chalkidiki is also home to Mount Athos, one of the most important centres of pilgrimage in the Orthodox world.

According to a recent report from Family Carers Ireland, Irish family carers provide 19 million hours of unpaid care every week.

A £19 million scheme is underway to transform Wolverhampton city centre, with works focused on Lichfield Street, Queen Square, and Darlington Street. The improvements, which began early this year, are expected to take 24 months, and aim to create wider, safer streets with new street furniture, tree planting, and improved event spaces. The project is fully funded by the UK central government.

Lichfield District Council submitted a bid for over £19 million in ‘levelling up’ funding in August 2022 to help deliver a new leisure centre and other regeneration projects. This specific bid was not entirely successful, but a new leisure centre project is progressing.
The fossil fuel industry poured more than $19 million into Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, accounting for nearly 8% of all donations it raised, according to analysis published in July, raising concerns about White House’s relationship with big oil.

Altogether, Global Witness identified $19,151,933 in donations from fossil fuel-linked donors. That number is probably an underestimate, it says, as it does not include contributions from unverified energy-linked donors, or from diversified investors and businesses that do not work primarily in oil and gas. Trump’s profile of inaugural fund donors starkly contrasts with that of Joe Biden, who banned contributions to his fund from the oil and gas sector.

Following the stock market crash in October 1987, Trump claimed he had taken no losses and sold all his stock a month before. But SEC filings show he owned large stakes in some companies during the crash. Forbes calculated that Trump lost at least $19 million related to Resorts International stock, while the journalist Gwenda Blair noted $22 million from stock in the Alexander’s department store chain.

The Horsman Fountain in Saint Peter’s Garden, facing onto Lichfield Street, Wolverhampton … a £19 million scheme is transforming Wolverhampton city centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Your blood can travel 19 million metres (19,000 km) a day, which just goes to show how hard your body is working for you. And 19 million minutes is 13,194.45 days or about 36.12 years.

Once again, this blog has reached another humbling statistic and a sobering figure, and once more I am left with a feeling of gratitude to all who read and support this blog and my writing.

A continuing and warming figure in the midst of all these statistics continues to be the one that shows my morning prayer diary continues to reach up to 80-100 people each day, with similar figures for my daily Advent Calendar postings at noon. It is almost four years now since I retired from active parish ministry, but I think many of my priest-colleagues would be prayerfully thankful if the congregations in their churches averaged or totalled 560 to 700 people twice a week.

Today, I am very grateful to all the 19 million readers of this blog to date, and in particular I am grateful for the small and faithful core group among you who join me in prayer, reading and reflection each morning.

Lichfield District Council submitted a bid for over £19 million in ‘levelling up’ funding in 2022 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

06 September 2025

Two buildings side-by-side on
Bird Street are part of the history of
Lichfield’s libraries and museums

Lichfield Registration Office was built as the Free Library and Museum in 1856-1859 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

A good measure of a literary city and a cathedral city is whether it has a good library, a good museum and good bookshops.

Since my teens, I have valued the research and reading facilities at the library in Lichfield in its varied locations, first at the former Public Library and Art Gallery on Bird Street, later at the Friary, and more recently, since 2019, in the former Saint Mary’s Church, though with the sad and controversial loss of the Lichfield Record Office, established in 1959.

The original Library and Museum, bedside the Museum Gardens and Beacon Park on Bird Street in Lichfield, was built in 1857-1859 and designed in an Italianate style by the Wolverhampton architectural practice of Bidlake and Lovatt. It forms an interesting pair with the former Probate Court next door, and both face the Remembrance Garden on the other side of Bird Street and the causeway over Minster Pool.

Lichfield Cathedral has an important library that has been housed in the upper room of the Chapter House since 1758. But, until the mid-19th century, towns in England and Ireland did not have public libraries as we know them today.

Most libraries were attached to colleges or cathedrals or were in private stately homes. Commercial libraries were a response to the popularity of the rise of the novel in the 18th and 19th centuries, but libraries were still unknown to the working class, many of whom were uneducated and illiterate.

The Chartists, who demanded social and electoral reform and building land colonies, also set up reading rooms. By the mid-19th century, many clubs societies and institutes for working people provided lectures, libraries and book borrowing facilities, charging a nominal annual membership fee.

A Reading and Mutual Instruction Society was formed in Lichfield in 1850, and soon had over 100 members. That year, the Public Libraries Act was passed, allowing local councils to levy a halfpenny rate to fund local libraries and museums. One of the first of these was in Lichfield, where the Free Library and Museum opened in an elegant Italianate building on Bird Street in 1859.

The Reading and Mutual Instruction Society in Lichfield wound itself up and donated its books to the new library, giving everyone access to books. That year too saw the Museum Grounds open as a public park.

The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner describes the library as ‘small, of yellow brick and funny.’ The library was built in 1857-1859 and was designed by the architectural practice of George Bidlake and Henry Lovatt, based in Wolverhampton.

Robert Bridgeman’s lone sailor on the former Free Library and Museum faces the gardens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The two-storey-over basement building was designed in the renaissance style with a right-angle plan with an inset octagonal entrance tower with a cupola. It is built in brick with buff brick façades, ashlar dressings, a parapeted roof, three-window and six-window ranges, blind arcading. The plinth has a square ashlar plaque inscribed: ‘Free Library and Museum’.

Other features include flanking roundels, lotus capitals, tympana with archivolts and keys, blind arcading, ashlar colonnettes, 20th century buttresses, and ashlar balustrading. Inside there is a geometrical stair with slender iron balusters and a wreathed handrail.

A stone statue of a lone sailor is a familiar site on the side of the building, with the name ‘HMS Powerful’ on his hat band. HMS Powerful was a Royal Navy cruiser launched in 1895, and it played an important role in delivering troops and guns for the relief of Ladysmith during the Boer War.

The lone sailor was originally intended for a Boer War memorial in York, but was later given to the City of Lichfield by Robert Bridgeman in 1901 and placed on the Free Library and Museum, Bird Street, now the Registry Office.

The architects Lovatt and Bidlake designed an impressive list of works, from railway buildings, docks and reservoirs, to churches, hotels and theatres, and landmark buildings in London. The include the Carlton Hotel, Nos 16 and 17 St James’s Place, later the Stafford Hotel, and His Majesty’s Theatre in the Haymarket, the New Gaiety Theatre in the Strand, and the King’s Theatre, Hammersmith, as well as the New Theatre Royal in Birmingham, Bilston Town Hall and the Congregational Church Sedgley. The firm also built the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris for GE Street.

Henry Lovatt (1831-1913) was born in Wolverhampton and trained as an architect. He formed a partnership with another local architect, George Bidlake, in Darlington Street in 1853. Then in 1858 he bought the small firm of builders and contractors, John Ellis, also in Darlington Street, and turned it into an important firm in the Victorian building industry.

Lovatt lived a full and varied life. On his estate at Low Hill in Wolverhampton, he bred pedigree shorthorn cattle and sheep, grew equally celebrated orchids and collected art, including a collection of watercolours that he sold at Christie’s in 1907 when he retired and left Low Hill.

Lovatt’s partner George Bidlake (1830-1892) was a Wolverhampton architect who lived at No 54 Waterloo Road, next to the Subscription Library. His offices were in Darlington Street until his partnership with Lovatt in 1853.

Bidlake also designed Queen Street Congregational Chapel (demolished), Saint Jude’s Church (1867-1869), Tettenhall Road, Saint Mary’s Church, Coseley, Tettenhall Towers, now part of Tettenhall College, Trinity Methodist Church, Compton Road (demolished), the workhouse at Trysull, and the Congregational Chapel, Stone.

Bidlake wrote on architectural matters and in 1865 published Sketches of Churches Designed for the Use of Nonconformists. He later moved to Leamington.

His son, William Henry Bidlake (1861-1938), was the leading Birmingham architect in the Arts and Crafts movement and was the Director of the School of Architecture at Birmingham School of Art in 1919-1924. He had been a pupil of George Frederick Bodley (1827-1907), a leading Gothic Revival architect, and was known in his own time as ‘the man who rebuilt Birmingham’.

The museum moved in 1958 into the former probate court to the north of the library building. The museum closed in 1970 and the collections went into storage. The library moved out of its original building to the Friary in 1989-1990. The building was listed Grade II in 1993 and in 2003 became the Lichfield Registry Office, now the Lichfield Registration Office. The location beside Beacon Park and the views of Lichfield Cathedral from the Remembrance Gardens and Minister Pool provide romantic backdrops for wedding photographs.

The former Probate Court stands on the site of the childhood home of David Garrick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The former Probate Court next door is also a Grade II listed building. It stands on the site of the house where the actor David Garrick (1716-1779) spent his early life. Hs mother, Arabella Clough, was the daughter of a Vicar Choral of Lichfield Cathedral, Anthony Clough, and he was educated at Lichfield Grammar School before becoming one of the first and last students at the school Samuel Johnson set up in Edial.

Garrick’s early family home was demolished in 1856, and the former probate court was built in 1856-1858. It is a single-storey building with a basement. An interesting feature is the elliptical-headed entrance has moulded arch and hood, the recessed six-panel door and the frieze above inscribed ‘Probate Court.’

In many dioceses, each archdeaconry had its own probate court. In Lichfield, this did not happen and the Consistory Court was the main court for the whole diocese. Until 1858, wills were generally proved in the diocesan courts, so the building in Lichfield is a rare example of a purpose-built probate court.

A plaque on the former Probate Court recalls the actor David Garrick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

23 July 2025

Bedlam in Lichfield: how
Comberford descendants
continued for generations
in the Heveningham family

Pipe Hall near Lichfield … once home of the Heveningham family (Photograph © Pipe Green Trust)

Patrick Comerford

I was writing at the weekend about William Stanley (1474-1552) of Comberford Hall, between Lichfield and Tamworth, and how I came across his will in the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford, where it is part of the Weld Family Papers, including papers of the Stanley, Heveningham, Simeon, Weld and Eyre families, dating from 1293 to 1809.

William Stanley was the second son of Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe Hall and Dame Ellen Lee. He came to live at Comberford Hall when he married the much younger Margaret Comberford (1494-1568), daughter of Thomas Comberford of Comberford and Dorothy FitzHerbert. She was a sister of Humphrey Comberford of Comberford Hall and Master of the Guild of Saint Mary and Saint John the Baptist in 1530; Richard Comberford, the putative ancestor of the Comerfords of Kilkenny and Wexford; Henry Comberford, Precentor of Lichfield Cathedral; and John Comberford of Wednesbury.

William and Margaret had probably married late in life, when he was in his late 50s and she was in her 30s, and they were the parents of an only daughter Dorothy Stanley (1530-1587), who married her cousin Christopher Heveningham (1540-1574) of Pipe Hall. Yet, despite this late marriage and having only one child, the descendants of William Stanley and Margaret Comberford continued to live in the Lichfield area for many generations and for centuries long after they died.

The lines of descent from William and Margaret are tangled, confusing and difficult to unravel. But they tell tales of failed court battles to recover family estates at Pipe, near Lichfield; the intrigues of a schemer who had his wife’s cousins locked up in the Bethlehem Asylum, the original Bedlam in London; illegitimate children written out of their aunt’s will; and the spiralling decline into poverty of descendants of a once landed family who became leather workers and tailors in Lichfield, and fell into oblivion in subsequent generations, eventually employed as low-paid housemaids in the Cathedral Close.

These are stories of recusancy in the Elizabethan and Jacobean era, of royalists who lost their estates, of a soldier’s lost children brought from Ireland to live in Lichfield, and of young men who went into exile in the West Indies, Jamaica and Virginia. These are stories of downward social mobility, but they also show how the descendants of the Comberford family in the Stanley, Heveningham and Wakelin families, persisted in living in the Lichfield area for 350 years or more after the death of William Stanley of Comberford Hall.

Comberford Hall, east of Lichfield and north of Tamworth … William Stanley was living at Comberford when he made his will in 1552 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

William Stanley and Margaret Comberford had probably married late in life, when he was in his late 50s and she was in her 30s, and they were the parents of an only daughter Dorothy.

Dorothy Stanley (1530-1587) married her cousin Christopher Heveningham (1540-1574), daughter of Mary Moyle and Erasmus Heveningham. Dorothy and Christopher were the parents of Dorothy Heveningham and Sir Walter Heveningham, of Aston and Pipe, and the descendants of these lines of the Stanley and Comberford families continued to live in the Lichfield area for many generations.

The Heveningham family in Staffordshire is traced back to Erasmus Heveningham of the manor of Aston in Staffordshire and his wife Mary Moyle. Erasmus came to Staffordshire from Ketteringham in Norfolk and he inherited by marriage the Staffordshire estates of Sir John Stanley of Pipe, her maternal grandfather.

Their only child was:

Christopher Heveningham, acquired in 1565 from John Stanley and Jane his wife, a 300-acre estate at Clifton Camvile. He died in 1574, but made no will. He married Dororthy, daughter and only child of William Stanley of Comberford Hall. William Stanley was a brother of John Stanley, father of Isabel, whose daughter Mary Moyle married Erasmus Heveningham – meaning Christopher married his grandmother’s first cousin.

Dorothy’s mother, Margaret Comberford , wife of William Stanley, was a daughter of Thomas Comberford of Comberford and his wife Dorothy, daughter of Ralph Fitzherbert of Norbury, Derbyshire.

Dorothy was named in 1581 as one of ‘the most obstinate and dangerous recusants’ in Staffordshire. She paid a fine of £10 a year for herself and her ‘servant’ Katherine Comberford in 1586, when they faced legal penalties for their recusancy. Katherine Comberford was a close family relation, for Dorothy’s mother (Margaret, wife of William Stanley) was a daughter of Thomas Comberford of Comberford and Dorothy (Fitzherbert) of Norbury.

John Comberford of Wednesbury, in his will dated 23 April 1559, left to ‘Cristall Hennyngham’ a black damask gown and left monetary bequests to his sister Margaret Stanley and his niece Dorothy Heveningham.

Dorothy and Christopher Heveningham were the parents of:

1, Walter Heveningham, of whom next.
2, William Heveningham.
3, Erasmus Heveningham.
4, Mary, married Anthony Fitzherbert, strengthening the links with the Comberford family.
5, Dorothy married (as his second wife) Sir Henry Townsend of Count, Shropshire.

The eldest son of Dorothy and Christopher Heveningham:

Sir Walter Heveningham (ca 1552-1636), of Pipe, was about 11 when his father died. He was the High Sheriff of Staffordshire (1609). He married Anne Fitzherbert of Norbury, strengthening the ties of kinship with the Comberford family. He died in 1636. They were the parents of an only son and three daughters:

1, Nicholas Heveningham, only son, of whom next.
2, Mary, who married (1) Richard Brereton of Malpas, Cheshire; and (2) Sylvester Plunket.
3, Margaret, born 1591, married Christopher Horton of Catton, Derbyshire, in Lichfield Cathedral in 1610.
4, Elizabeth.

The only son of Sir Walter Heveningham and Anne Fitzherbert was:

Nicholas Heveningham (ca 1583-1627). He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and died on 20 December 1627. He married Elizabeth Bowes, a descendant of the Stanley family of Elford, and they were the parents of three sons:

1, Walter Heveningham (1609-1691), born at Pipe Hall near Lichfield in 1609. He was a Roman Catholic, and was a royalist during the Civil War. He died in Aston, November 1691. He married Mary Middlemore of Edgbaston, also from a Royalist and Recusant family. They had no sons as male heirs, but had two daughters:

1a, Mary (1646-1694) married Walter Fowler, and had no children.
2a, Bridget, the eventual sole heiress, married Sir James Simeon, who retained Pipe Hall and the Heveningham estates near Lichfield in the face of bitter legal disputes that eventually brought about the financial and social ruin of the Heveningham family. Bridget and James Simeon were the parents of three children: Sir Edward Simeon, 2nd Baronet; Sir James Simeon, 3rd Baronet; and Margaret, who married Humphrey Weld of Lulworth Castle, Dorset. The estates of Aston and Pipe Hall then passed to the Weld family.
2, Simon Heveningham (ca 1617-1699), of whom next.
3, Christopher Heveningham, of Pipe, educated at Trinity College, Oxford (BA 1632, MA 1635). He fought as a royalist during the civil war, and died unmarried.

The ‘Site of the First Bethlehem Hospital 1247-1676’ near Liverpool Street Station, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The second son of Elizabeth (Bowes) and Nicholas Heveningham:

Simon Heveningham (ca 1617-1699) was born ca 1617. Unlike the Puritan and Whig Heveninghams of Suffolk, the Staffordshire branch were Cavaliers, and mostly ‘Recusants’. Pipe Hall was plundered by Roundhead soldiers about the time that Heveningham Church was desecrated by Puritan fanatics. Simon married Katherine Alport and they were the parents of three sons and a daughter:

1, John Heveningham, born after 1658; died 1689-1691 in the Bethlehem Asylum (Bedlam), London.
2, Henry Heveningham, born after 1658; died 25 November 1701 in the Bethlehem Asylum (Bedlam), London.
3, Christopher Heveningham (1658-1737), of whom next.
4, Dorothy, living unmarried in 1691.

The three brothers, John, Henry and Christopher, were educated abroad as Roman Catholics. When they returned to England, Sir James Simeon, who had married their first cousin Bridget, had John and Henry committed to the Bethlehem Asylum or Bedlam, London, to prevent them claiming the Heveningham estate that his wife had inherited. John died within a few weeks and Henry died 10 or 12 years later. Simeon also sent the third brother Christopher to the West Indies, where he remained many years and was said to be dead.

However, Christopher returned to England and conformed to the Church of England. This third son of Simon Heveningham was:

Christopher Heveningham (1658-1737). He was born in Lichfield ca 1658, and along with his two older brothers, was educated abroad as a Roman Catholic. After returning to England, he settled in Lichfield and his name is found in the poll-books of Lichfield down to 1718. He married Mary Brooke, only daughter and heir of William Brooke of Elford in Meryvale Church, near Atherstone, on 28 November 1692. She too was descended from the Stanley family of Elford.

Christopher Heveningham dissipated his wife’s fortune in his legal attempts to recover the Heveningham estates from the Simeon family. Shortly before their marriage, on 11 and 12 November 1692, Mary Brooke mortgaged The Holms and other lands attached to Elford Mills, to Samuel White of Middleton, Warwickshire, as security for repaying £63 on 13 November 1694.

Within five years, in a deed dated 15 April 1699, Samuel White’s interest was transferred to William Lovelace of Clifton Campville. In this deed, Christopher Heveningham is described as late of Elford, now of Burton upon Trent, and Mary his wife as daughter and heir of the late William Brooke, late of Haselour, Staffordshire, nephew and heir of John Brooke of Harleston, Staffordshire.

In a final deed, dated 10 May 1700, Isaac Hawkins of Burton upon Trent and William Lovelace assign their interest in the property mortgaged by Christopher and Mary Heveningham, including the Holms, Elford Mills and other lands in Elford, to John Goldsmith of Lichfield, milliner, and Ellinor his wife. By then, Christopher Heveningham was living in Lichfield.

The Johnson memorial in Saint Michael’s, Lichfield … Christopher Heveningham was a juror at the trial of Michael Johnson in 1718 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Christopher and his son Henry were on the panel from which the jury was selected in 1718 for the trial in Lichfield of Michael Johnson, father of Samuel Johnson, although only Christopher was selected.

He has been described as ‘a rolling stone’ who wasted his wife’s inheritance in unprofitable litigation, and as consequence his children and their descendants lived in more humble circumstances. He seems to be the ancestor of many Heveningham, Henningham and Wakelin families who continued to live for generations in Lichfield, Wolverhampton and the South Staffordshire and Birmingham areas.

Towards the end of his life, Christopher Heveningham moved to Tenford, near Cheadle, Staffordshire, where he bought a house from Edward Hale. He made his will on 23 November 1737 and it was proved in the Lichfield Diocesan Court on 3 March 1738. The inventory totals £25 6s 11d. His wife Mary had died in 1721 and was buried from Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield, on 4 April 1721.

Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield, at night … many members of the Heveningham family were baptised and buried from here (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Mary and Christopher Heveningham were the parents of five sons and a daughter:

1, Ann Heveningham (1692-1692), born in Elford, and died in infancy in Elford.
2, Henry Heveningham (1693-1748), of Spade Green on Abnall’s Lane, Lichfield, of whom next.
3, Walter Heveningham (1694-1734), fellmonger (leather trade), of Lichfield, born 1695, baptised in Elford 11 January 1695. He died in 1734 and was buried at Saint Michael’s, Lichfield, on 19 June 1734. His will is dated 7 April 1734 and was proved in Lichfield on 7 February 1735.
4, Christopher Heveningham (1698-1748), of whom after his brother Henry.
5, Brooke Heveningham (1700-1703), baptised at Saint Mary’s, Lichfield, on 11 January 1700, buried in June 1703.
6, Henrietta Maria, born Lichfield 170, baptised in Saint Chad’s 11 January 1701. She married (1) John Rumbold of Eccleshall, near Stafford,12 April 1722; (2) William Picken of Eccleshall, 2 July 1732.
7, Brooke Heveningham (1703-1773), of Lichfield and Tenford, near Cheadle. He was born in Lichfield in 1703, and baptised on 1 June 1703 in Saint Mary’s. He was left his father’s personal estate, including the messuage at Tenford. He died in 1773 and was buried on 25 April 1773 at Saint Mary’s.

Elford Hall, the ancestral home of Mary Brooke who married Christopher Heveningham, was demolished in 1964 (Photograph © Lost Heritage/Staffordshire Past Track)

The eldest son of Mary and Christopher Heveningham:

Henry Heveningham (1693-1748) was baptised at Elford on 8 February 1693. He was married three times: (1), Mary Ledward, married in Saint Mary’s, Lichfield, on 13 February 1715, died 1716, buried 23 June 1716 at Saint Michael’s, Lichfield; (2), Dorothy (‘Dorillio’) Walters in Saint Michael’s, Lichfield, on 16 February 1717, died 1734, buried at Saint Michael’s, 20 June 1734; (3), Mary Perry (1693-1768), ca 1730.

At the end of his days, Henry Heveningham was living in Woodhouses, west of Lichfield. Woodhouses, with neighbouring Burntwood and Ediall, was part of Saint Michael’s Parish Lichfield, and Pipe Hall manor house is in Woodhouses. Henry died in 1748 and was buried at Hammerwich on 4 February 1748.

His widow Mary later moved to Highgate, near London, and in her will, dated 7 January 1763, she left all her property to her daughter Mary Heveningham, including seven acres in Saint Michael’s Parish, Lichfield.

Henry’s children seem to have included:

1, John Heveningham.
2, Charles Heveningham (1737-1782), mercer and draper, of Dam Street, Lichfield, of whom later.
3, Thomas Heveningham (ca 1743-1823), mercer and draper, of North Street, Wolverhampton. He was twice married: (1) Elizabeth Reeve in Saint Michael’s, Lichfield, on 11 April 1774; (2) Sara Fleeming in Kingswinford, Staffordshire, on 31 March 1791. He died in Wolverhampton on 23 April 1823, and his widow Sara died in 1833. In all, he was the father of 19 children, and their descendants are scattered widely.

Other sources say Henry was also the father of:

1, Edward Heveningham, who died in 1758 and was buried in Saint Chad’s, Lichfield, 26 August 1758; his only son, also Edward Heveningham, had no children; his daughter Mary was buried at Saint Chad’s on 2 May 1753.
2, John Heveningham, living in 1764, and identified with the father of John Heveingham of Chesterfield County, Virginia, who made his will on 18 December 1809.

The second named son of Mary and Henry Heveningham was:

Charles Heveningham (1737-1782), mercer and draper, of Dam Street, Lichfield. He was born in Lichfield in 1737, and it is said he spent part of his childhood in Pipe Hall. He was a Roman Catholic. He married Mary Robinson in Appleby, Leicestershire, on 6 June 1771. He died in Lichfield and was buried at Saint Michael’s on 6 May 1782; his wife Mary died in 1820, and was buried at Saint Michael’s on 25 October 1820.

Mary (Robinson) and Charles Heveningham were the parents of:

1, Charles Heveningham (1772-1800), born in Lichfield 9 July 1772, died in Jamaica 1800, in the same year as his mother.
2, Elizabeth Heveningham (1774-1823), born in Lichfield 18 August 1774, died 1823. She married in Saint Philip’s Church, Birmingham, ca 1800 to William Warner (1762-1835) of Birmingham and Kitwell Hall, Worcestershire. Their daughter Margaret (1806-1883) was married three times: (1) Robert Jones Parry of Aston; (2) Samuel Banks of Rugeley; (3) Sir John Judkin-Fitzgerald (1787-1860), 2nd Baronet, of Lisheen, Co Tipperary.
3, Henry Heveningham (1776-1807), born Lichfield 7 June 1776, died unmarried in Manchester 1807, buried at Bridgewater Street Wesleyan Chapel on 5 July 1807.
4, Mary Heveningham (1777-1849).
5, John Heveningham ( 1778-1785), buried 10 April 1785 at Saint Michael’s, Lichfield.
6, George Heveningham (1782-1782), died an infant, buried 29 September 1782 in the same grave as his father.

Saint Michael’s Church, Greenhill, Lichfield … many members of the Heveningham family are buried in the churchyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The third son of Mary and Christopher Heveningham was:

Christopher Heveningham (1698-1748), currier in the leather trade, of Lichfield. He was born in Elford and was baptised on 6 December 1698. He married Mary Saxelby (1694-1744) of Abbot’s Bromley. He lived in Lichfield and his name appears in the poll books in Lichfield in 1721 and 1727.

Mary died in Lichfield in 1744 and was buried at Saint Michael’s on 22 April 1744; Christopher Heveningham died in Lichfield in 1748 and was buried on 28 February 1748 at Saint Michael’s. They seem to have been the parents of three sons and two daughters:

1, Edward Heveningham (1721-1760), born in Lichfield in 1721, and baptised in Saint Mary’s 21 April 1721. He joined the army and some accounts say he moved to America in 1747 and may have descendants living in the US. Other accounts say he married Mary …, and settled with her and their sons Edward and John in the hamlet of Woodhouses west of Lichfield in 1759, a daughter Anne having died in Lichfield in 1758. Edward died in 1760, and was buried at Saint Chad’s on 30 June 1760.
2, Thomas Heveningham, apprenticed to his father Christopher, a currier, and was living after 1754.
3, Joseph Heveningham (1729-1765) of Lichfield, possibly Joseph Henningham who married Mrs Mary Harris in Saint Martin’s Church, Birmingham, on 7 June 1789.
4, Mary (1727-1806), born in Lichfield in 1727 and baptised on 1 March 1727 in Saint Mary’s. She and her sister Arabella later went to live with the Weld family at Lulworth Castle, Dorset. She married the Revd Daniel William Remington, later a canon of Lichfield Cathedral, in Hall Green Chapel, Yardley, Birmingham, on 15 March 1754. She died in Lichfield on 21 February 1806. Her husband was the Vicar of Saint Mary’s, Lichfield, and Sub-Chanter of Lichfield Cathedral.
5, Arabella Heveningham (d 1820) of the Cathedral Close, Lichfield. In her will dated 7 September 1814, she mentions her niece Mary White, and Mary White’s son, Thomas Henry White.

The third child and second son of Mary and Christopher Heveningham was:

Joseph Heveningham (1729-1765), born in Lichfield 1729 and baptised in Saint Mary’s 20 December 1729. Joseph may have followed his elder brother, Edward into the army. He died in Lichfield in 1765. A pencilled note or marginal entry in a Heveningham pedigree in the William Salt Library, Stafford, says he was the father of Arabella Heveningham. Her mother’s name is unknown, no marriage has been found for Joseph, and the 1851 census shows that Arabella was born in Ireland.

Arabella Heveningham (1765-1854), of The Close, Lichfield. She was born in Ireland ca 1764/1765. Both Arabella Heveningham (d 1820) and Canon Edward Remington (d 1832) of Lichfield left legacies to Arabella and her children.

In her will, the elder Arabella Heveningham, who died in 1820, left an annuity for life of £20 16s 0d, paying an income of 8 shillings a week, to Arabella Wakelin (formerly Arabella Heveningham) of Lichfield, widow, and left legacies to her three daughters Mary, Ann and Susanna, and bequests to her sons by Thomas Wakelin.

Bore Street, Lichfield, at night … Arabella and Thomas Wakelin lived on Bore Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The younger Arabella Heveningham married Thomas Wakelin (1770-1802) in 1788, when the Revd Edward Remington officiated at their wedding. Thomas was the son of George Wakelin of Wolverhampton and Susanna White of Stowe, Lichfield. He was a tailor, breeches maker and glover and lived in Bore Street, Lichfield.

Arabella and Thomas Wakelin were the parents of seven children, three sons who received bequests of £5 each and four daughters, of whom three received bequests of £10 each in the will of her aunt Arabella Heveningham:

1, Mary Wakelin, born in Lichfield 1789, baptised Saint Mary’s, 25 October 1789; she married John Burgess in Saint Mary’s, Lichfield, on 18 January 1809.
2, Elizabeth Wakelin, born Lichfield 1791, baptised Saint Mary’s, 3 October 1791, believed to have died young.
3, Francis Thomas Wakelin (1793-1853) of Lichfield, of whom next.
4, Ann Wakelin, born Lichfield 1795, baptised Saint Mary’s, 11 November 1795, she married Philip Thompson in Saint Mary’s, Lichfield, on 24 July 1814.
5,Thomas Wakelin (1798-post 1861), tailor, of Lichfield. Born in Lichfield in 1798, baptised Saint Mary’s 8 April 1798. He was admitted a freeman of Lichfield before William Morgan, Senior Bailiff, Thomas Bown, Master, and John Larkin, Warden, on 13 July 1826. He later lived in Birmingham. He married Sarah Hughes of Tamworth in Saint Martin’s, Birmingham, in 1822, and they were the parents of five daughters and five sons.
6, Susanna Wakelin, born Lichfield 1800, baptised Saint Mary’s, 27 July 1800.
7, Samuel Wakelin born Lichfield 1802, baptised Saint Mary’s, 16 May 1802.

After her husband Thomas Wakelin died in 1802, Arabella (Heveningham) Wakelin was the mother of three further children born between 1806 and 1811. Although their father’s name is not known, she gave them the Wakelin name when they were baptised:

8, Charles Augustus Wakelin, born Lichfield 1806, baptised Saint Michael’s, 18 February, 1806. He may have married Sara Wright.
9, Caroline Wakelin, born Lichfield ca 1808-1811, baptised, Saint Michael’s, 29 August 1811, with her brother Louis.
10, Louis Wakelin (1811-1863) born Lichfield 1811, baptised Saint Michael’s, 29 August 1811, with his sister Caroline. He was married twice: (1) Ann Smith, in Saint George’s, Birmingham, 29 July 1832; (2) Mary Smith, in Birmingham, 27 December 1847. He was living on Stowe Street, Lichfield, in 1851, with his mother.

When Arabella was about 70, she married Sampson Robinson (1776-1850) of the Swan (now Swan Cottage), Blithbury, as his second wife in Mavesyn Ridware, Staffordshire, on 30 June 1835. After he died, she was living with her son Louis and his family in Stowe Street, Lichfield, at the time of the 1851 census, when she says she was born in Ireland. When Arabella died on 4 March 1854, she is described as an Inn Keeper, although it is not known at which inn Arabella was the inn keeper.

The Guildhall, Lichfield … Francis Thomas Wakelin was admitted a Freeman in 1817 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The eldest son of Arabella (Heveningham) and Thomas Wakelin was:

Francis Thomas Wakelin (1793-1853), tailor, of Lichfield. He was born in Lichfield in 1793 and was baptised in Saint Mary’s, Lichfield, on 29 April 1793. Francis inherited £5 from his great aunt, Arabella Heveningham, in 1820, and he inherited £50 from the Revd Edward Remington in 1832.

He an apprentice to Thomas Worrall of Lichfield, a tailor and a freeman of the Company of Tailors, for seven years. He was admitted to the Taylor’s Company, Lichfield, on 24 July 1817, before George Dodson and Dr Francis Sachaverell Darwin, Bailliffs of Lichfield, and Stephen Simpson, Town Clerk. He was a journeyman tailor and lodging at 89 Stowe Street, Lichfield, in 1851. He died in 1853. He married Ann Taylor (1795-1844) in Aston Juxta, Birmingham, on 26 December 1815, and they were the parents of three sons eight daughters, including:

1, Susanna Wakelin (1820-1854), a lady’s maid with the Mott family in the Close, Lichfield. John Mott (1787-1869), who rebuilt No 20 on the Cathedral Close, was Sheriff of Lichfield in 1836 and Mayor of Lichfield in 1850.
2, Francis Wakelin (1822-1889), baptised in Lichfield 6 January 1822, died in Walsall 1889. He married Jane Withnall and they were the parents of Elizabeth (Whitehead), Bertha (Pople) and Herbert Wakelin.
3, Arthur Wakelin (1824-1895), born in Lichfield, 23 September 1824, died 22 August 1895 aged 70 in West Bromwich. He married Mary Ann Wheelwright in Lichfield on 23 September 1848, and they were the parents of Evangeline Maria (Wakelin) Bowerman.
4, Sarah Wakelin (born Lichfield 1831), was a housemaid with the Mott family in the Close, Lichfield.

I am quite sure that through these families there are descendants of the Comberford family who continue to live in the Lichfield area.

The Cathedral Close in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Sources and references include:

The Visitations of Staffordshire and Warwickshire.
Michael Greenslade, Catholic Staffordshire 1500-1850 (Gracewing, 2006).

The Heveningham family tree on Geni (last accessed 21 July 2025).
The Heveningham Family of Staffordshire’ (last accessed 21 July 2025).
The St. Leger-May Family Home Page (last accessed 21 July 2025).
‘Townships: Wall with Pipehill’, in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield, ed MW Greenslade (London, 1990), pp 283-294. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol14/pp283-294 (last accessed 21 July 2025).
‘Burntwood: Manors, local government and public services’, in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield, ed MW Greenslade (London, 1990), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol14/pp205-220 (last accessed 21 July 2025).

Last updates: 14 May 2025 (typographical corrections

17 July 2024

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024:
69, Wednesday 17 July 2024

‘The human hearts has hidden treasures, in secret kept, in silence sealed’ (Charlotte Brontë) … part of ‘The Foundation of Poetry’, a sculpture by Peter Walker in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and this week began with the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII).

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

The Secret Garden in Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 11: 25-27 (NRSVA):

25 At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’

‘Grandma’s Secret Recipes’ … an invitation outside Nikos the Fisherman, a restaurant in Koutououfari a mountain village in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This morning’s reflection:

I love the way this morning’s Gospel reading gives us so many contrasting pairs in the space of just three verses: heaven and earth, hidden and revealed, intelligent and wise, wise and intelligent, Father and Son, all things and no one, no one and anyone.

That something sacred may be both hidden and revealed is repeated throughout Scripture. In Saint Luke’s Gospel, Christ says: ‘For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become known and come to light’ (Luke 8: 17).

Saint Paul tells the Colossians his mission is ‘to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints’ (Colossians 1: 25-26).

This contrast of the hidden and the revealed nature of what is sacred is first articulated when Moses summons the wandering people, reminds them how God has feed them from slavery, and has brought them into a covenantal relationship. He tells then: ‘The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and to our children for ever, to observe all the words of this law’ (Deuteronomy 29: 29).

Charlotte Brontë once wrote: ‘The human heart has hidden treasures, In secret kept, in silence sealed; The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures, Whose charms were broken if revealed.’

Despite all my fretting and anxiety about my health and my ministry and myfuture, I cannot know the hidden will of God and I cannot see into the future. These events belong to God’s wisdom alone. Sometimes, it is only with the benefit of hindsight, as I reflect on what has happened and what has been that I think I may be able to discern what God’s will has been or where God has been leading me.

But so often, God’s will or God’s plans seem hidden or concealed.

Where is the hidden God to be revealed to us?

Of course, God is revealed to us in God’s word, and is experienced through living a life that is rooted in the two great commands to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’ and to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ (Matthew 22: 37-39), for on ‘these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets’ (Matthew 22: 40).

Secondly, God is revealed to us as we live out the sacramental life of the Church. The first and most basic ecclesiological principle at Vatican II is that the Church is a mystery, or sacrament. To say that the Church is a mystery, or sacrament, means, in the words of Pope Paul VI, that it is ‘a reality imbued with the hidden presence of God.’

In other words, the Church is not just a religious organisation to which we belong or which we serve. Rather, the Church is the corporate presence of God in Christ, with a unity created and sustained by the Holy Spirit.

There is a presumption or a conviction in much of today’s theological thinking and writing that language and images that depict transcendent rather than empirical reality are mere metaphors. They are ‘symbols’ in the modern, popular sense, which means they are mere ‘signs’ that point beyond themselves to something else.

To early theologians in the Church, on the other hand, words and images are genuinely symbolic: they actually participate in the reality they depict. They have the capacity, under the right conditions, to take part in the very existence of the person, object, event or promise to which they refer. It is this capacity that enables words and images to become vehicles of divine revelation.

This understanding of the symbolic character of words and images is basic to Orthodox Christianity, according to the Orthodox theologian Father John Breck, who was Professor of New Testament and Ethics at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary and Professor of Biblical Interpretation and Ethics at Saint Sergius Theological Institute, Paris.

Because of their symbolic quality, they do more than simply point beyond themselves to some future reality – they actually participate in that reality, share in it and bring it to completion.

The Church as the Body of Christ recapitulates and fulfils the covenant relation God had already established with the people, and in Christ God reveals his presence and purpose within the realm of human history, the realm of our daily life.

To understand this, he says, there are two basic truths: that the ‘ineffable, inconceivable, invisible and incomprehensible’ God actually reveals himself in human history, in the framework of human experience; and that the mode of his self-revelation is essentially that of word and image.

Theological language always points beyond itself and beyond the limits of our understanding and experience. Behind every creedal confession, as behind every Gospel account or apostolic exhortation, there lies ultimate, unfathomable mystery, hiddenness.

As this morning’s Gospel reading reminds us, God reveals himself and makes himself known in the person of Jesus Christ. To a limited extent, words and images can capture that self-revelation and present it to us in language that we can understand. Behind the language, verbal or graphic, however, there lies an incomprehensible realm of being, power and glory that the human mind cannot begin to fathom, much less express.

God reveals himself, yet he remains essentially hidden. God calls us to use our intellects to search the Scriptures and to perceive, to understand, his presence and purpose within history and within our lives. Yet God remains mystery, inaccessible to thought and inexpressible by means of words or images, but experienced when we love God and love one another.

The Turf Garden on Bath Place has Oxford’s ‘only city walled garden’ and claims to be ‘Oxford’s best kept secret’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 17 July 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Advocacy, human, environmental and territorial rights programme in Brazil.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Dr Rodrigo Espiúca dos Anjos Siqueira, Diocesan Officer for human, environmental and territorial rights in the Anglican Diocese of Brasilia.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 17 July 2024) invites us to pray:

We pray for activists and human, environmental and territorial rights defenders who are under constant threats to their lives and families.

The Collect:

Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in 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.

Post Communion Prayer:

Lord God, whose Son is the true vine and the source of life,
ever giving himself that the world may live:
may we so receive within ourselves
the power of his death and passion
that, in his saving cup,
we may share his glory and be made perfect in his love;
for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Generous God,
you give us gifts and make them grow:
though our faith is small as mustard seed,
make it grow to your glory
and the flourishing of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Posada on Lichfield Street in Wolverhampton has a ‘secret courtyard’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

12 November 2023

Daily prayers in the Kingdom Season
with USPG: (8) 12 November 2023

Poppies tied around a tree in the churchyard at Saint Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

In this time between All Saints’ Day and Advent Sunday, we are in the Kingdom Season in the Calendar of the Church of England. Today is the Third Sunday before Advent (12 November 2023) and Remembrance Sunday.

Later this morning I hope to be present at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles, Stony Stratford, and I plan to attend the Remembrance Service on Horsefair Green this afternoon.

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

This morning, my reflections are following this pattern:

1, A reflection on Remembrance Sunday;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The War Memorial in the churchyard at Saint Michael’s Church on Greenhill in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Remembrance Sunday:

Instead of reflecting on any one particular church this morning, I have decided to post a collection of images – war memorials, monuments and churchyards – that I have seen in Berkhamsted, Lichfield, Oxford, Stony Stratford and Wolverhampton during my ‘church crawling’ in recent weeks.

Saint Michael’s Churchyard on Greenhill in Lichfield extends for nine acres and is older than the Church. It is said locally that the churchyard was one of the five ancient burial sites in England that were consecrated by Saint Augustine – the other four were in Glastonbury, Canterbury, Lindisfarne and York.

Other legends claim Saint Chad may have used the churchyard as a retreat for himself.

Trumpeter John Brown from the Charge of the Light Brigade is buried in the churchyard. Another grave has the bodies of the last three men who were hanged in Lichfield; they were hanged in 1810 for forgery.

The church and churchyard also have literary associations with the families of Samuel Johnson and Philip Larkin.

A trail around Saint Michael’s churchyard follows the theme ‘A churchyard journey – praying for a needy world.’

The prayer topics at the stations include, for example, ‘Governments, councils and leaders’ (Station 10). Station 2, at the War Memorial in the churchyard, takes the theme ‘Wars and Conflicts.’

The reflection at Station 2 reads:

‘Looking straight ahead we see the War Memorial that commemorates those from the parish who died in the first and second world wars. Around the churchyard we see many individual Commonwealth war graves. We pray here for the peace of the world, and for those made homeless.

They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Micah 4: 3)

‘Loving Father, Prince of Peace, we pray for all those involved in conflicts around the world – in Ukraine, Yemen, Sudan and elsewhere. We pray for politicians and leaders, that they may seek a just peace; for those who mourn the death of loved ones; for those struggling with injuries; and for those who have been made refugees. May we be generous to help with their healing and to welcome those who need sanctuary. Amen.’

Israel, Gaza and the West Bank could have been added appropriately in recent weeks.

World War I may have been labelled ‘the war to end all wars.’ But over 100 years later, we realise what a rash claim that turned out to be.

We need constant reminders of the causes, consequences and terrors of war and war crimes if we are ever going to eliminate war.

The War Memorial at Saint Peter’s Church, Wolverhampton, was erected in 1920 and was Grade II listed in 1992 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Matthew 25: 1-13 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] ‘Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. 6 But at midnight there was a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” 7 Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” 9 But the wise replied, “No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.” 10 And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. 11 Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” 12 But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.” 13 Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.’

The War Memorial in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 12 November 2023):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), draws on ‘A Prayer for Remembrance Sunday and International Day of Tolerance’. This theme is introduced today:

God of peace and gentleness
we remember with deep sorrow
the fault, fear, and failure
that repeatedly leads to the forming of enemies,
the escalation of hatred
and to war.

We repent of our complicity in cycles of violence
for colluding with anger
or defaulting to patterns of hostility
As we remember those who have
suffered because of our forgetfulness
or our inhumanity one to another,
that we may also disarm our desire to overpower, capture or vanquish.
Help us to resist peacefully every form of violence
so that we can follow you
in ways of gentleness and justice,
continually resolving to form life-giving relationships,
strengthened by the forgiveness of Jesus
the fearlessness of the Spirit
the transforming love of the Creator.
Amen Adapted from prayers from The Methodist Church

The USPG Prayer Diary today (12 November 2023, Remembrance Sunday) invites us to pray in these words:

Peaceful God,
Teach us to forsake division and violence.
Let us serve each other in peace,
And live side by side in harmony.

The War Memorial in Saint Barnabas Church, Jericho, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the King of all:
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of peace,
whose Son Jesus Christ proclaimed the kingdom
and restored the broken to wholeness of life:
look with compassion on the anguish of the world,
and by your healing power
make whole both people and nations;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Additional Collect:

God, our refuge and strength,
bring near the day when wars shall cease
and poverty and pain shall end,
that earth may know the peace of heaven
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

The War Memorial in the Chapel of Keble College, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

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

The War Memorial in Saint Aloysius Roman Catholic Church, Woodstock Road, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

29 September 2023

Wolverhampton’s only
synagogue survived
for 90 years and is
now used as a church

Wolverhampton Synagogue was rebuilt in 1903 and closed in 1999; it is now Saint Silas Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

Have you heard about the street named Short Street that became Long Street?

Or about the synagogue in the West Midlands that has become a fundamentalist church?

Wolverhampton Synagogue, also known as Wolverhampton Hebrew Congregation, was once the only synagogue in South Staffordshire, and closed in 1999. While I was in Wolverhampton last month, I went in search of the synagogue that has since been turned into a church by a fundamentalist evangelical group.

Wolverhampton is a city with a population of over 260,000, about 15 km north-west of Birmingham. It was part of Staffordshire until 1974, when it became a metropolitan borough in the newly created metropolitan county of West Midlands. It became a Millennium City in 2001.

The Jewish community in Wolverhampton dates back to the 1830s. Levi Harris, who is the first known Jew to settle there, arrived in Wolverhampton in 1834, having made the journey from Kretinga, Lithuania, to Gravesend, Kent, two years earlier. Levi Harris was a pawnbroker and clothier and he spent the last 21 years of his life in Wolverhampton. He became a British citizen in 1849, and owned property in Berry Street and Worcester Street.

Levi Harris was joined in Wolverhampton by a small Jewish presence. The first organised congregation reputedly owes its origins to a Mr Aarons of Berry Street who, after the death of his father in the mid-1840s, was able to organise a minyan or prayer quorum of 10 local Jewish men at his home to recite prayers during the week of shiva (שִׁבְעָה‎) or mourning.

At the end of the week, those 10 men met and decided to form an organised congregation. They initially meeting in private homes, with Marcus Gordon of Saint George’s Parade, Wolverhampton, acting as a lay reader. Later, premises were rented for a synagogue that opened on 16 October 1850. David Lazarus Davis from Kent was elected chair and Levi Harris became vice-chair of the synagogue.

The synagogue was rebuilt in 1903-1904 by the Wolverhampton architect Frederick Thomas Beck (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

That first synagogue in Wolverhampton was a licensed room in a house in the now demolished St James’s Square, Horseley Fields, that is now demolished. It was the home of Rabbi Isaac Barnett, a Polish Jew who had moved to Wolverhampton from Woolwich with his wife and three children. There was also a Jewish boys and girls school in St James’s Square, perhaps also in Rabbi Barnett’s house. The schoolmaster was the Revd Manasseh Cohen, originally from Pzydry, Poland.

The Duke of Sutherland agreed to a piece of his land becoming an Orthodox Jewish burial ground in 1851. The first burial was seven-year-old Benjamin Cohen. Levi Harris died on 5 November 1855 at the age of 60. The last burial was in 2000.

When the lease for the synagogue and house expired in 1857, a site for a new synagogue was bought on the corner of Fryer Street and Long Street – previously known as Short Street. The foundation stone was laid by JC Cohen, President of the Birmingham synagogue, in 1858, and the synagogue was consecrated later that year by the Chief Rabbi, Dr Nathan Marcus HaCohen Adler (1803-1890). By then, the Revd Manasseh Cohen was the resident rabbi in Wolverhampton.

Key prominent Victorian Jews were donors to the new synagogue, including Sir David Salomons, Baron Rothschild and Sir Moses Montefiore.

The synagogue had two doors, one for men and one for women (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The synagogue suffered a major fire in 1902. Remarkably, the Ark and the Torah scrolls were untouched by the fire. The entire building was largely rebuilt in 1903-1904 in the Ashkenazic style by the Wolverhampton architect Frederick Thomas Beck, a pupil of TH Fleeming, who designed some of the Victorian buildings in Wolverhampton, including the Municipal Grammar School, Midland Counties Eye Infirmary and Barclay’s Bank in Queen’s Square.

Beck was based in Darlington Street and he designed several churches in the area and many domestic and commercial buildings, including the Posada on Lichfield Street.

The exterior of the synagogue was said to be ‘very pleasing’ and made of Kingswinford brick with York stone dressing. There are two doors into the building, one for men and one for women.

Inside, men and women were seated separately, with men in the main hall below and women in the gallery. The interior was described as ‘light and attractive,’ panelled out and enamelled in cream with gold detail. The pillars raising the gallery were green and gold, with the pews and remaining woodwork made of oak. Electricity was added to the building and a Mikvah or women’s ritual bathing room and other accommodation were added in the basement.

The exterior of the synagogue was said to be ‘very pleasing’ and made of Kingswinford brick with York stone dressing (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The synagogue’s heyday was in the 1930s. Meanwhile, a Liberal Jewish Circle was formed in Wolverhampton In the mid-1960s and continued in existence until the mid-1970s.

The Revd Abraham Bernstein was the last resident minister to serve the Wolverhampton Hebrew Congregation. He arrived in 1953, and was the minister until about 1967. He then served in the South-East London District Synagogue at New Cross and retired to Prestwich, north Manchester, around 1972.

However, the congregation of Wolverhampton Hebrew Congregation had dwindled gradually after World War the II. When a quorum or minyan could no longer be found, the membership transferred to Singers Hill Synagogue in Birmingham in 1999.

Wolverhampton Synagogue closed in 1999, but narrowly escaped demolition, thanks largely to the Wolverhampton Civic Society. It was sold in 2000 and converted into a place of worship known as Saint Silas Church for an ultra-conservative evangelical breakaway group formed in 1994 and that calls itself the Church of England (Continuing). It has two bishops, two priests and four small congregations. It opposes the ordination of women, Anglo-Catholic liturgical practices and liberal religious and social values.

The Hebrew date 5663 and the western date 1903 mean the building is recognisable as the former synagogue(Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Although the old synagogue is now a church, it is still recognisable as the former synagogue, with an inscription of the Hebrew date 5663 and the western date 1903.

Many of the original interior features from the synagogue have been preserved, including the Ark, the gilded, double headed Luhot or Ten Commandments, the galleries, furniture, railings and panelling, although the Gothic bimah and pews have not survived.

Only three or four Jewish families survive in Wolverhampton today.

Meanwhile, the Jewish festival of Sukkot or Festival of Booths begins at sunset this evening (29 September 2023) and ends at nightfall on 6 October 2023. The first two days of Sukkot, from sundown of the first date until nightfall two days later, are full-fledged, no-work-allowed holiday days.

Shabbat Shalom

Wolverhampton Synagogue is now used by the Church of England (Continuing) as Saint Silas Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)