Death of the Late Vicar of Penn.

The Rev. John Grainger, who was one of the first assistant mathematical masters at Eton under the ….. of the late Rev. Stephen Hawtry, from 1851 to 18.. has died at St. Mary Hearne, Hants, aged 81. In 1860 Mr. Grainger was presented by the first Earl Howe to the living of Penn, and continued to hold it til last year (1898), when he resigned owing to advanced age and failing health.
Bucks Herald April 29th, 1899.

Transcription from the Bucks Herald, Saturday December 2nd, 1899

To the Editor of the Bucks Herald

Sir, – I have been waiting for some little time fully expecting that your attention would have been drawn by other persons more directly interested, or by the Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society, to the extraordinary proceeding – I can call it nothing less – on the part of the Vicar of Penn Church, the Rev. Benjamin John Short Kirby. A few weeks since I received a catalogue from a firm of London booksellers offering for sale, at the price of 175 guineas, the following: –

PENN RELICS

“The pulpit of Penn Church, the pulpit cloth (worked by Martha Penn), and the ancestral pew of the Penn family.

The vendors offered as guarantees of the genuineness of these historic relics of one of our most celebrated Buckinghamshire families the following declarations, which, Sir, you will note are attested by the reverend gentleman: –

“I, Benjamin John Short Kirby, Vicar of the Church of Holy Trinity, in the parish of Penn, in the County of Buckinghamshire, known as Penn Church, do hereby solemnly declare that the properties hereafter specified were formerly part of the ordinary furniture or fittings of Penn Church, a structure dating from the year 1213, wherein the Penn family the ancestors of that William Penn who settled in Pennsylvania, were wont to worship, and that they were sold by me to Messrs J and M L Tregaskis.

“1. The complete parts of a pulpit which stood in the north-east corner of the nave, next against the chancel (as shown in the view annexed), which was the pulpit of Penn Church from some remote period, no record of any alteration therein having been found in the registers of the said Church, which date from 1560, until the date of its removal under a faculty, by my direction, in August 1899.

“2. The doors, seats, cheek, and other sound parts of a high-backed pew, presumably the ancestral pew of the Penn family, Lords of the Manor, situate at the east end of the south aisle (as shown in the view annexed), facing the 16^th and 17^th century tombs of the Penns. Under the flooring the coffin of William Penn, who died in the year 1638 was discovered. In later times the pew had been divided by a partition, and had been repaired with a panel, containing the Creed, taken from the walls of the Church. These were removed under a faculty, by my direction, in August, 1899.

“Witness my hand this 23^rd day of September in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-nine.”
(Signed) BENJAMIN J S KIRBY, “Vicar of Penn”

“I, Benjamin John Short Kirby, Vicar of the parish of Penn in the County of Bucks, do hereby solemnly declare that the red velvet pulpit cloth is the pulpit cloth referred to in the following extract from “A Terrier for the Vicarage of Penn” dated 27^th May 1726, and attested by the vicar and wardens of the parish of that date:-

“There is an old green pulpit cloth, with a green cushion, both of which are fringed round with a green silk fringe, and were constantly used till ye year 1721, in which year Ms Martha Penn, sister to Roger Penn, Esq, patron of ye Church, was so kind as to give a handsome pulpit cloth of crimson velvet, with a broad gold lace all round it, and also a cushion of ye same, bound with ye same sort of lace, and a gold fringe tassel at each corner, and letters and figures upon ye pulpit cloth are these – M. P. 1721”

“Witness my hand this 5^th day of October 1899″
(Signed) BENJAMIN J S KIRBY, “Vicar of Penn”

Now, Sir, I ask this reverend gentleman the meaning of this act of vandalism on his part, for these relics, are valuable beyond price. For, Sir, these are not only relics of antiquity, hallowed by their age and association with the sacred edifice from which they have been so sacrilegiously divorced by the person, of all others, who should most have cherished them, but, historical and national, from their connection with that family of Penn of whom our county is so justly proud. Possibly their future and last resting place is to be across the Atlantic in that State founded by and taking its name from the great member of the Penn family – William Penn. Thus, we are possibly for all time the losers, while those things thought of such little count here by their custodian will be in their new resting place a revered, a most precious, and a prized possession. Sir, where was the Patron of the Living of Penn, where the Lay Rector, the Churchwardens, and the parishioners, that this most monstrous procedure on the part of the Vicar of Penn should have been possible or permitted. Had he the right to do this? I suggest it was his duty to have prized and preserved these relics, and have handed them on as he received them, safe-guarded and kept, in the fullness of time, to his successor. I trust, Sir, that public opinion will be so roused in the matter that the Vicar of Penn will be forced to obtain again these relics and replace them in their ancient and proper resting place.   Yours truly, ‘OLD MORTALITY’

Transcription from the Bucks Herald, Saturday December 2nd, 1899

I went to see Herbert Druce, a few weeks after his 100th birthday, with the thought of recording his long memories of Holy Trinity, Penn, which start in 1922 when he was a 7 year-old choir boy and there was no electricity or water in the church. It will take two or three articles to recount all his memories and I will start with the secret passage. When the Penn and Tylers Green Society started, in about 1980, to collect information about local houses of interest, the then owners of the Old Vicarage next door to the church said that when they first came to the house there was an underground passageway to the church from their cellar which they had blocked up.

This account is confirmed by Herbert Druce, who was told about the underground passage before the last War, by Bert Randall who was Captain of the Tower. Herbert doesn’t know the line of the tunnel, but assumes it had been revealed when Bert Randall was involved in putting a boiler house at the back of the tower. There was no west door in the tower at that time.  Herbert himself had been in the Old Vicarage cellar. He was locked in there as a joke when a boy and remembered it was always flooded. He didn’t know anything about an entrance at the time and doesn’t remember seeing one there.

The present Old Vicarage we see today was built in 1825, but stands on the same ground as its many predecessors so the passageway could have been built at any time. Of course, it could have been simply to give a warm, dry passage to the church rather than to allow a Catholic priest secret entry to the church, but we do have to remember that the Reformation was a dangerous time for churchmen. We should also have in mind that the manorial Penn family remained Catholic in sympathy for nearly a century after the Reformation.

On 30 August 1539, Thomas Cromwell was sent a letter reporting that Thomas Grove and William Culverhouse had accused the Vicar of Penn of ‘the utterance by him of certain opprobrious words’. The Vicar’s own confession was enclosed and he had been committed to gaol in Aylesbury. Both the Vicar’s accusers were from well established Penn families and may well have been the two churchwardens. It was an extraordinary event and allows us just a glimpse of the conflict and turmoil that the process of reformation had stirred up in a country parish. One wonders how the confession had been encouraged.

Finally, I was intrigued by a comment from a map dowser, who without any prior briefing, reported that he had found a 3 ft wide passageway entering the Vestry, which is indeed where you would expect it to go to.

© Miles Green March 2015

Herbert, who was born in 1915, followed his father’s example and was in the choir for 70 years from the age of 7 and a bellringer from the age of 12. He loved singing and used to sing all day when working at Slades Garage. There was no electricity in the church until 1938 and he was a candle boy responsible for the nine candles on the candelabra over the chancel step and on the altar, lighting them with a taper on a long arm and putting them out after the service. Oil lamps were lit by Mr Busby. The organ was between the Lady Chapel and the choir stalls and was powered by bellows which were pumped manually by a handle behind the organ with a floating indicator to tell you whether more air was needed. Heating was a tortoise stove. Earl Howe’s pew was still in the chancel with red cushions.

Rev. Ernest Smith

He just remembers Mr Kerby, who was the Vicar from 1898 to 1922.  He had a nanny goat beard, and, so he was told, used to bash the pulpit if people slept during his sermon. He remembers a sixth bell being installed in the tower to mark the signing of the Peace Treaty in 1919. Herbert was there for the licensing of the next Vicar in 1922, the Rev. Ernest Smith, a nice man, he remembered, but he didn’t go down too well with many of the parishioners because he was so High Church, replacing the communion table with an altar and using incense. The congregation dropped off.  (See Altar Arrangements, Part 4)

In 1937, the Rev. Smith retired and a new Vicar, Kenneth Mumford, arrived. Herbert had already met him as a boy when, as Vicar of Coleshill, he was their religious studies teacher at the Penn Church school. He remembers a biggish man who drove a little Austin 7, and recalls, ‘he was a remarkable man. You could hear a pin drop when he stood on the chancel steps to give a sermon. No notes’. He energised the congregation, started the Parish Magazine which has continued to this day, raised large sums for much-needed repairs, installed electric light and water and played an important part in the discovery of the Doom painting. Herbert told me that a good many pieces were found in the dell used as a parish rubbish dump in the field off Gravelly Way, opposite what is now known as Lions Farm.

Unhappily, Kenneth Mumford died of lung trouble after only 15 months. He was always very short of breath, which Herbert attributes to a result of gassing in the First War, and is buried with his wife, a former ballet dancer, at Coleshill.

It is extraordinary to have a first-hand witness to these events of nearly 100 years ago and I am very grateful that Herbert Druce is still with us to provide them.

© Miles Green, May 2015

“Sir Edward Maufe, Architect and Cathedral Builder”

Sir Edward Maufe RA (1883-1974) is chiefly remembered today as the architect of Guildford Cathedral completed in 1962. However, he was responsible for designing sixteen new churches during his long career and in later life was also intimately linked with works carried out at the medieval Holy Trinity Church, Penn. Juliet Dunmur has just published Sir Edward Maufe, Architect and Cathedral Builder, a biography of Edward Maufe and his wife Prudence, which recounts their fascinating lives.  (ISBN 978-1-905597-92-5.
Available from the author – j.dunmur@gmail.com for £20.00)

Prudence Maufe worked with Sir Ambrose Heal as an advisor on interior design from 1915 onwards. Edward Maufe designed an extension to Ambrose’s home in Knotty Green in 1925 and ten years later was responsible for rebuilding Heal’s retail premises in Tottenham Court Road, London. It is assumed therefore that it was through this link with a parishioner that the Rev. Oscar Muspratt was able to engage Sir Edward to advise on various projects at Penn.

Not long after he joined the parish, Rev. Muspratt wrote in April 1946, “At a recent meeting of the PCC, I asked for a long-term policy to be formulated in regard to the care and restoration of the Church and its interior furnishings. Since then we have been fortunate enough to secure the assistance of Mr Edward Maufe ARA one of the leading church architects in the country. Among other matters we have asked him to advise us on a suitable memorial to those who gave their lives in the war.” The war memorial took some time as Edward was busy working on the War Memorial for St Paul’s Cathedral which understandably took priority. But in the meantime a complete set of drawings of Penn Church were prepared by J.W. Broadbent, a lecturer at the RIBA College and local resident, with four of his students, as a starting point for Edward to prepare his proposals for improvement and restoration that would be spread over a number of years.

One of Rev. Muspratt’s first priorities was replacing the old organ. This meant moving the pulpit across from the north side to the south side of the nave in order to provide space for the new organ console. The site of the organ itself in the south aisle was a reluctant compromise “mainly because Mr Maufe did not wish to consider amending the present arrangements at the West End.” (PCC report for 1947). Incidentally, the organ, which was partly second-hand, was purchased on advice from Dr Lloyd Webber, father of Andrew Lloyd Webber and organist at All Saints, Margaret Street. He played it at the service of dedication in January 1948.

The ‘Pennsylvania’ window
with the WW2 memorial below it,
and the Book of Remembrance cabinet
designed by Sir Ambrose Heal. .

By June 1948 the war memorial, designed by Edward Maufe and carved by Darsie Rawlins, was installed and again Dr. Lloyd Webber was at the organ for the service of dedication. In August that year the church received the visit of the Bishop of Pennsylvania and part of the service was broadcast via the BBC to North America. As the window above the war memorial was “in an advanced state of dilapidation”, the following year it was decided that it should be replaced and “Mr Maufe suggested we could well commemorate the various historical links between the parish of Penn and the diocese of Pennsylvania. Accordingly Mr Pawle [the stained glass window designer] in collaboration with Mr Maufe has devised a strikingly dignified design.” (PCC Newsletter October 1949) that commemorated the visit of the Right Reverend Oliver J. Hart.

In 1950 Edward Maufe designed the new belfry screen that was made and installed by William Lacey of Hounslow. By 1951 it was found that the chancel and south transept roofs were in very poor condition and so Edward advised a full survey be carried out by J.E.M. Macgregor of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. As well as the roof work it was found that the South Porch roof had dry rot. During this round of restoration, four windows were found where none were suspected and the decorators “stumbled across the three consecration crosses” (PCC Newsletter April 1952).

To be continued…

Oliver Heal March 2020

Edward Maufe was knighted in 1954 for his work for the Imperial War Graves Commission and, in particular, the Runnymede Air Forces Memorial. He was busy completing Guildford Cathedral and working on the restoration of the Inns of Court at this period so perhaps had little time for the detailed concerns of Holy Trinity Penn. The next mention in the parish newsletters does not occur till 1961.

Edward Maufe and his wife Prudence often worked together and so it is not surprising to find Revd Oscar Muspratt recording that he had dedicated the “beautiful new Sanctuary carpet chosen by Lady Maufe to tone with the new kneelers.” The same report notes that plans for the Churchyard extension had been worked out: “For over twelve months an immense amount of careful thought has been given to the intricate task of drafting the scheme for the permanent layout. Sir Edward Maufe has prepared a most attractive ground plan and the sketch of the central cross. These must now be submitted to the Diocesan Advisory Committee.” The intention was to make provision for the next hundred years. By September 1963 not only had the Faculty been granted but the appeal for funds had been sufficiently successful to enable Darsie Rawlins, the local, highly regarded sculptor, to start work on the cross that Edward specified was to be carved in Clipsham stone. Maufe’s attention to detail is illustrated by the fact that he personally selected the cherry trees that were planted as a central feature of the churchyard.

Three years later it was proposed to move the organ, installed in 1947 and apparently blocking two windows in the south wall, to an acoustically better position on the west wall of the nave. This turned out to not be physically possible and the only alternative was to commission a new organ donated by a generous anonymous parishioner.
This new organ, installed in 1967, was constructed by J.W. Walker & Sons of Ruislip in a case designed by Penelope Adamson RIBA, the architect responsible for the works, in consultation with Edward Maufe. According to Walker’s advertisement in Musical Opinion, June 1967, it was Sir Edward Maufe who designed “a magnificent ‘Rays of Glory’ scheme in blue and burnished gold, for the soffits which delicately balance the plain simplicity of the ancient font.”

The work required at that time turned out to be more significant than Oscar Muspratt had anticipated as, at the other end of the church, cracks in the east wall required three deep channels to be cut and filled with reinforced concrete and the entire building had to be rewired as bare wires were found in the roof. Although the church had to be closed for five months it had been transformed when it reopened. Not only was there the new organ above the repositioned font but the 14th century Doom painting was installed above the chancel arch for the first time since the reign of Henry VIII.

Maufe’s influence on Penn Church even extended after his death in 1974. A brass plaque records that “three dormer windows proposed by Sir Edward Maufe RA were added in 1988” to bring daylight to the south aisle. He must have suggested the idea to Revd. Muspratt many years before as part of the long term plan.

Compared with some of Edward Maufe’s other works such as Guildford Cathedral, the reconstruction of the London Inns of Court, St John’s College, Cambridge or his work for the Imperial (renamed in 1960: Commonwealth) War Graves Commission, Penn church and its churchyard was a very minor exercise for Sir Edward and does not get a mention in Juliet Dunmur’s book. For the parishioners of Penn however, it can be seen that his twenty-year involvement with the Church is very largely responsible for the way it looks today. Appropriately enough, some of his archives concerning Penn Church have ended up in Pennsylvania State University Library, USA, whilst others are held by the RIBA in London.

Juliet Dunmur has recently published ‘Sir Edward Maufe, Architect and Cathedral Builder’, a biography of her grandparents, Edward Maufe and his wife Prudence, which recounts their fascinating lives. (ISBN 978-1-905597-92-5. Available from the author – j.dunmur@gmail.com for £20.00). For anyone wanting to know more about the man behind the sympathetic, organic changes to our church, or with an interest in twentieth century society, architecture, sculpture, design, planning, the impact of Swedish design on taste or how to conceive a church for a ‘deaf and dumb’ congregation, this book is strongly recommended.

Oliver Heal, June 2021