Beginnings of a Global Faith – Celebrating the 200th Anniversary of the American Unitarian Association and the British and Foreign Unitarian Association Mark W. Harris
The Fordham family of Hertfordshire, as seen in the Diary and Reminiscences of Henry Crabb Robinson Alan Ruston
H. Crabb Robinson from ‘Diary, reminiscences, and correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson‘ 1869 (Wikipedia)
Friargate Unitarian Chapel, Derby – A regrettable closure David Burton
With thanks to David Burton for this image
Unitarian Biographical Dictionary 1902 Alan Ruston
Review
Supplement: Obituaries of Ministers of Unitarian and Free Christian Congregations
I recently acquired this postcard of St Agnes Church, Ullet Road, Liverpool. It’s a church that often features in Edwardian postcards but this was the first time I had seen this view which is interesting because it shows the church before the houses were constructed on the end of Buckingham Avenue and Ullet Road. The church itself was built between 1883 and 1885, the hall and vicarage being added in 1887. This picture must date from the around the turn of the century, the side and the front are already covered in ivy.
St Agnes Church, postmarked 28 September 1903
The view of the church from a similar point in 2026
A modern view of the church from the same angle shows no ivy clinging to the side of the building. Like the nearby Unitarian Church the exterior is brick but the interior is stone. St Agnes, the Unitarian Church on Ullet Road and St Clare’s RC Church just a short walk away, are all very significant ecclesiastical buildings which caught the eye of Andrew Lloyd-Webber back in the 1990s when he provided funding for all three churches to be made open to the public. They remain remarkable buildings which illustrate the ability of churches to follow suburban expansion at the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century and build churches of the highest quality which were pleasing to the eye and built of the best materials. There was once a fourth church in this group, much less celebrated in architectural terms but the first of the suburban outreach churches to move into the locality and a striking edifice with a spire placed at the top of the hill of avenues in 1879. This was Sefton Park Presbyterian Church, which was demolished just over 100 years later and of which there is today no trace, although it would have remained an appropriate reformed companion to the other three churches.
St Agnes, or the Parish Church of St Agnes and St Pancras to give it its full name, was paid for by Liverpool stockbroker Douglas Horsfall to represent the Anglo-Catholic tradition within the new diocese of Liverpool. A low church, evangelical spirit was the dominant mood within Liverpool but Douglas Horsfall was a keen proponent of the ritualism that was so controversial within the Church of England at the time.
Interior of the church from about 1910. One of a number of Toxteth church postcards in my collection which record handwritten details of the organs in use. In this case ‘Organ built by Wordsworth (3) Rebuilt by R[ushworth] & D[reaper] 1908-9.
The architect was J.L. Pearson, the newly appointed architect of Truro Cathedral, and he created a remarkable building which, in the words of Joseph Sharples, ‘conveys an impression of cathedral-like dignity’.
Nikolaus Pevsner was very impressed, calling it, ‘the noblest Victorian church in Liverpool, erect and vigorous, and not in the least humbled by being of red brick. The style is that of the C13, English with French touches, combined to achieve perfect unity.’
Another postcard c.1910, and recording the same details of the organ
The St Pancras part of the name refers to a relatively short-lived continuation of the suburban extension of the churches into the Smithdown Road area early in the 20th century. St Pancras was built on Lidderdale Road but was later utilised as part of the infant school there, and is now demolished.
But St Agnes remains, a surviving symbol of 19th century Anglican controversies, but one of the most impressive churches in Liverpool.
Another view of the interior, this time published by Sidley’s Library, Lark Lane and posted on 14 January 1910 by Esme to Miss Jones of Raby Hall, Bromborough (a house designed in 1847 by Harvey Lonsdale Elmes, who also designed St George’s Hall in Liverpool)
I was really pleased to be invited to Knutsford to give a talk on Unitarian history earlier in January and so pleased to see such a good turnout and to find such a lot of interest in the topics discussed. I was delighted too to be asked to preach on the Sunday in the impressive meeting-house of 1689.
I have put together a short video that looks at one of the connections between Knutsford and Dunmurry, mainly that represented by Rev Alexander Gordon and his wife Clara Maria Gordon (née Boult). It can be viewed here:
Elizabeth Gaskell, Clara Boult & Alexander Gordon. Click above to see the video
Alexander Gordon himself was descended on his mother’s side from an ejected minister of 1662 and part of his enornous contribution to history was to produce Freedom after Ejection and the Minutes of the Cheshire Classis, both still important works of reference which have close connections to the story of the early dissenting community of Knutsford.
Of course, the most famous person connected with the chapel is undoubtedly Elizabeth Gaskell, who is buried in the chapel graveyard along with her husband Rev William Gaskell.
An old plaque commemorates ‘Mrs Gaskell, the Authoress’
Elizabeth Gaskell is possibly the most famous nineteenth-century Unitarian of all in terms of her continuing impact on modern culture and literature. She is also someone claimed as a Unitarian who really was exactly that; the daughter of a minister, raised in Knutsford Chapel, married to a prominent Unitarian minister and part of that extended community throughout the north west. Her religion was part of her, even to the extent of utlisiing some of the reports of the Manchester Domestic Mission for her descriptions of urban hardship in nineteenth-century Manchester in her novel North and South.
The exterior of the Chapel
Along with Elizabeth Gaskell, Knutsford is also the burial place of Clara Gordon and her gravestone is an invaluable aid in uncovering the tragedy of her and Alexander Gordon’s home life. Two children killed in war, a young daughter died in Rostrevor, county Down, and buried in Warrenpoint, a fact that can hardly be discovered anywhere else than from Clara’s gravestone.
Mary (May) Gordon 1879-1904
The tragic story of the family is told in the video. May was born in Belfast, the above picture was taken in Manchester, in a studio in Rusholme.
The video also shows Alexander Gordon’s close allegiance to Dunmurry. A dedicated member there from 1889 to 1931 despite his commitments to the Unitarian Home Missionary College, the University of Manchester Faculty of Theology, and the churches in North West England.
A walk around Falkner Square in Liverpool is always interesting. The buildings are quite impressive although not quite as grand as the houses in the nearby Georgian Quarter, now much utilised for film locations, although Falkner Square itself made a film appearance in the 1971 film Gumshoe with Albert Finney.
What’s attractive about it is that it has its own central park and resembles the sort of square you would find in Bloomsbury. I was always told, that in days gone by, only the people who lived in the Square had a key to the park, although the City Council now claims it as ‘one of the earliest public open spaces in the city’. I suspect it wasn’t open to the public in its earliest days.
Falkner Square is said to be named after Edward Falkner, an ex-soldier and former High Sheriff of Lancashire, who mustered a force of 1,000 men to defend Liverpool in 1797 when fears of a French invasion were at their highest. He was a successful merchant, involved inevitably in the slave trade, but who died in 1825, so he can’t have been directly involved in the development of the Square.
Joseph Sharples’ Pevsner Architectural Guides Liverpool says ‘The central garden is shown planted on a map of 1831, but the stuccoed houses did not begin to appear until the mid 1840s.’ The only architect he mentions is William Culshaw who designed number 29 in 1845 along with many Liverpool buildings.
One relatively new feature is the Memorial to Black Merchant Seamen who served in the Second World War. This was unveiled in 1993 on the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic and contains the words “They Held Their Course” RespectDue. The bronze plaque, which, shockingly, has endured some vandalism but is now restored, is attached to a large decorated piece of sandstone. This came from the old Liverpool Sailors’ Home, which was once a very prominent landmark in Canning Place near the city centre. Now only the ornate gates survive and can still be seen at the entrance to Liverpool 1.
Memorial to Black Merchant Seamen who served in the Second World War
I was delighted to attend the launch of Balloo, Killinchy, A Hidden History by Lesley Simpson, Moira Concannon and Leanna Russell on Saturday, 15th August at Florida Manor, Killinchy. It was a wonderful occasion and a great start for a fascinating and beautifully produced book.
With Rev Dr Stanley Gamble, Rev Dr John Nelson, Lesley Simpson and Moira Concannon
The authors tell the story of the locality through maps, family history, newspaper reports, churches, mills and stores and, most of all, the local houses. Of particular interest to me is the house known as Templebrook Valley which was the home of the Rev Samuel Watson minister in Killinchy from 1797 up to his death in 1856. He was at the centre of one of the major disputes between the Synod of Ulster and the Non-Subscribers in the 1830s and the new Remonstrant meeting house was built for him in Killinchy in 1846.
When the Non-Subscribers were ejected from their original meeting-house, for three years they held services in the grounds of his house. The book tells the story of the Rev Samuel Watson and his ‘long and interesting life from his suspected involvement with the United Irishmen to his move towards Unitarianism’. One of 13 children, three of them becoming Non-Subscribing Presbyterian ministers, Samuel Watson was also a significant farmer in the locality. Sadly his house was left to fall into dereliction in the twentieth century although a new house has now been restored on the site.
There is a great deal in the book about Samuel Watson. At the stone-laying ceremony for his new meeting-house it was reported that:
…seventy clergymen and strangers joined the congregation for a celebration which culminated in a substantial dinner, in a commodious wooden house that had been erected for the occasion with the Rev. Samuel Watson presiding.
I was particularly amused by one quotation taken from James Gourley in 1874, a perhaps not entirely unbiased commentator, who asked an old man who had sat under Samuel Watson’s feet:
What sort of doctrines did he preach? ‘Ohm’ said he ‘at that time there was no word about doctrine.’ ‘And what then did he preach about?’ ’Mainly about far away countries and wild beasts’.
Samuel Watson’s obituary in the Northern Whig described him as ‘…one of the oldest and ablest Ministers of the Church.’
The book is full of detail and uncovers such fascinating stories as the 1893 excavation of Templebrook Valley by the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society with the co-operation of Samuel Watson’s two youngest daughters – Anna and Sarah who were photographed at the excavation which uncovered Bronze Age vessels now in the Ulster Museum.
The view from the back of Florida Manor
The book is richly illustrated throughout and is full of fascinating information. It is a credit to its authors and will be enjoyed by all with an interest in local history, the history of county Down and Irish Presbyterian history. The launch was a splendid occasion at Florida Manor, as the following photographs show.
I was pleased to again take part in a tour of Belfast City Cemetery led by Tom Hartley. Tom is now the author of four books on the cemeteries of Belfast and I was pleased also to pick up a copy of his latest work, More Stories from the Belfast City Cemetery. This was his penultimate tour of the last series he would give as part of the Féile an Phobail and like all these tours there was a very large attendance.
Start of the tour, showing some of those present
I see the first guided tour I attended was in March 2022. You can read that account here – Silent yet eloquent Memorials. There are a number of changes to the Cemetery made since that time, like the completion of the visitors’ centre, new signage all around the Cemetery, the restoration of the Vaults – which house the remains of such industrial luminaries as Sir Edward Harland and Thomas Gallaher – and a lot of new planting.
It is a very impressive cemetery, imaginatively laid out and designed by William Gay of Bradford in the shape of a bell (as in Belfast) and it contains some incredible Victorian, Edwardian and later memorials.
Gustavus Heyn, shipping magnate
Some parts are still quite heavily overgrown and other parts have suffered badly from vandalism.
The Jewish section of the graveyard comprises a separate walled section although this has particularly suffered from vandalism and since 1964 Jewish burials now take place at Carnmoney Cemetery.
Entrance to the Jewish Cemetery
Inside the Jewish Cemetery. On the right is the remains of the Tahara, the mortuary chapel
The Cemetery also includes a Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery with 296 burials from the First World War and 274 from the Second World War. There is also a Cross of Sacrifice (the same size as that in Botley Cemetery) and a First World War Screen Wall which carries the names of 74 soldiers who are buried in the First World War plot, 58 soldiers who are buried in unmarked graves and 8 soldiers who are buried elsewhere in the Cemetery.
Cross of Sacrifice
Part of the First World War Screen Wall
Second World War Royal Navy and Merchant Navy graves
There are a lot of significant people from Belfast’s past who were Non-Subscribing Presbyterians who are buried here, perhaps most notable are Lord and Lady Pirrie. Viscount Pirrie was the chairman of Harland and Wolff when the Titanic was built and was to have sailed with his nephew, the designer Thomas Andrews, on its maiden voyage, but was prevented from doing so by illness.
Grave of Lord and Lady Pirrie
I have written before about one of the most notable Non-Subscribing Presbyterian ministers buried here, the Rev John Scott Porter, and was pleased to hear from his great great great granddaughter as a result. He is buried with his brother, William, who was once the attorney general at the Cape Colony, and actually introduced at that time a franchise that was inclusive of all races. The Celtic Cross that marks their grave is one of the most impressive in the cemetery:
The grave of Rev John Scott Porter and William Porter
I also produced a short video about John Scott Porter at that time. This is available to view here:
Click above to see the videoThe grave of Florence and Albert James Lewis, the parents of C.S. LewisThe tour at the Vaults and Central Steps
In this post we are looking at some more examples of the work of Allen Daniel Coon. The total output of postcards he produced between 1902 and his death in 1938 must have been enormous and they covered a very wide geographical area. I hadn’t noticed that one card I picked up a few years ago was by him:
Old Cemetery, Ballycarry, 1929
This was produced for John McKee News Agent and Confectioner, Ballycarry, and is interesting because he has labelled different features of the graveyard, although you can only see the tip of the spire of St John’s Parish Church and can’t see the ruins of the old church at all as they are obscured by trees.
This is what the ruins look like today:
Ruins of Templecorran Church, Ballycarry
You can read about our recent visit to this graveyard here.
Allen Coon produced a lot of postcards for this part of County Antrim in the later 1920s, in this case giving his location as Moira, NI. Five years earlier his postcards produced for Mrs Johnston, Draper & Boot Merchant, Hillsborough still give his location as Letterkenny:
Town Hall and Court House, Hillsborough, 1924
Interior of Parish Church, Hillsborough, 1924
The cards produced in Antrim in 1927 stand out from the others having a large border and a glossy finish. This time they are published for Mrs Simpson, Newsagent and Stationer, Antrim, who must have wanted something different in terms of design. By this time he is well settled in Moira:
First Antrim Presbyterian Church, 1927
Motor Boats on Lough Neagh at Antrim, 1927
Presumably the motor boats were used as pleasure craft taking people on tours of the Lough.
In Whiteabbey in 1929 he produced about 18 postcards for H. Quiery, Newsagent & Tobacconist. He must have exhausted all the possible views of the surroundings.
Whiteabbey Dam and Mill, 1929
Whiteabbey Memorial Hall, 1929
A lot of Allen Coon’s pictures are straightforward architectural treatments of churches or halls. But this one is slightly different in that a passer-by boldly walks into shot in front of the Whiteabbey Memorial Hall (opened just two years earlier in 1927). Was this pre-arranged to add a bit of extra detail? Or did the lady accidently cross into the frame while he was standing there with his camera? If this was an unforeseen intrusion into his picture he must have liked the look of the finished article since he could easily have taken another one. But there she remains for posterity, out on her messages, captured on film.
In this video we take a look at the career of Allen Daniel Coon, one of the pioneers of photography and cinematography in Ulster. The video tells something of his story, with many examples of his postcards, and tracks down his last resting place.
Video: Allen Daniel Coon (1867 -1938) Photographer and Cinematographer
The previous post on this blog is all about Allen Coon’s postcards produced for W.J. Ross of Finaghy Stores in 1927, but these are just a small sample of his vast output produced between his arrival in Ireland in 1902 and his death in 1938.
Allen Daniel Coon was born in Buffalo, New York in 1867. The son of a Baptist pastor and, tradition has it, a native American mother, his career followed a fairly conventional path in its early years. He read law at university and then established himself as an attorney in Buffalo. But at some point he tired of this life and took the road to prospect for gold first in California and then in Alaska. One assumes this was not entirely successful because at some point he took up photography. He was a friend of George Eastman, the founder of Kodak, and may have been related to him. Either way he travelled to England with him in 1900 moving to Ireland a couple of years later to set up his own photography business.
This was right at the beginning of the boom in the sale of postcards. In 1902 you could send a picture postcard for a halfpenny and expect it to be at a local destination at lunchtime. For skilled photographers the opportunities were obvious and operating initially from Londonderry, later from Letterkenny and ultimately from Moira (each place was printed as his location on the front of his postcards) he produced hundreds of postcards of impressive views, street scenes, local landmarks, prominent buildings and sometimes interesting people.
Clough Castle (no publisher listed on the back)
It is recorded that he charged local traders less than £5 for 2,000 postcards, which also included their name on the back of the card. From about 1924 he started numbering the cards starting with the last two digits of the year they were produced which is very helpful in dating the cards.
In the Census of 1911 he was recorded as living with his wife of three years, Clara, at Church Wall, Londonderry where he recorded his profession as Photographer and Theatrical Showman. Also recorded were their two eldest children (Gladys and Gaynor) and the fact that while his wife was a Presbyterian he declared himself to be an agnostic.
Moira Market House, published by Job Palmer, General Trader, whose shop can be seen on the right
The Theatrical Showman side of his profession was not an idle boast. Although his income from postcard sales must have been steady he was also perpetually ‘on tour’ travelling all over the north of Ireland with his camera and darkroom, setting up in towns as he went to film moving pictures and then show them to a fascinated populace along with films of Charlie Chaplin and other entertainers. In fact he also seems to have had an interest in some of the earliest cinemas established in county Donegal and in Belfast but his commitment to travelling from town to town with his films never waned right up to his death.
Moneymore, First Presbyterian Church (‘Published by Coon for Devlin, General Merchant, Moneymore’)
After partition he moved from Letterkenny to Moira and was ultimately buried there in the Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church graveyard after his sudden death while on tour in Sligo. It is clear that his family had a close association with the Church, other family members are buried in the churchyard, but in the 1940s when the Non-Subscribing Presbyterian denomination launched a tercentenary appeal for the Sustentation Fund (1642 – 1942), Allen Coon’s wife Clara and his daughter Sylvia were amongst the members of the little congregation at Moira who gave their support. Indeed Miss Sylvia Coon was also one of the two local appeal officials for Moira.
Donations from Moira to the NSPCI Tercentenary Sustentation Fund Appeal, including Clara and Sylvia
We have a good collection of postcards of Dunmurry in our Library at First Dunmurry (Non-Subscribing) Presbyterian Church. The following video tells their story:
Here are the postcards:
Kingsway 1
Dunmurry Lane
Dunmurry Primary School
Kingsway 2
Multi-view 1
Mill Hill
Presbyterian Church
Multi-view 2
The Park
St Colman’s
Kingsway 3
All published by W. McCartney, Stationer, Newsagent & Tobacconist, Dunmurry. All with the unusual spelling of ‘Dunmurray’ on the front and back of each card!
Visiting Botley Cemetery for the first time, despite seeing the signs for the Commonwealth War Graves, I didn’t expect to find such a large military cemetery of a size and with such features as you would expect to find in France or Flanders. Like all Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries it is immaculately maintained, and a very moving place to visit.
I was surprised to find such a large graveyard of this sort in Oxfordshire, although it is inevitably true that many service men and women did die at home, either on home service, or were brought back because of wounds or found themselves in hospital because of accident or illness. Oxford provided a major regional hospital during the First World War, and again during the Second World War. Oxfordshire was also a major centre of RAF activity in the Second World War and Botley was then designated as a Royal Air Force Regional Cemetery. In the First World War the University Examination Schools housed the 3rd Southern General Hospital with room for 1,500 patients. The Schools weren’t the only venue for the war-time hospital, also put to use were Somerville College (for officers only), the Workhouse on Cowley Road, the Town Hall, University and New Colleges, and the Oxford Masonic Buildings on High Street. In the Second World War the Examination Schools were again used as a hospital.
Botley Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery has all the features that can be found in major cemeteries of this type. At the centre of the grave yard there is a Cross of Sacrifice, a large cross containing a bronze longsword, with its blade pointing down, it is said to be present in all graveyards containing 40 or more war graves. These were designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield and are a familiar symbol of sacrifice in so many places. By 1937 there were already over 1,000 of these crosses in Europe alone, more were to follow after the Second World War.
Cross of Sacrifice
The Cemetery also has a Stone of Remembrance designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens for use in CWGC Cemeteries containing more than 1,000 graves. There are now hundreds of these all around the world but only 12 in the UK. With around 743 graves Botley was regarded as a special case, perhaps indicating that it is one of the dozen largest Commonwealth War Grave Cemeteries in the UK. Although not designed as such the Stone resembles an altar and carries a quotation from the book of Ecclesiasticus: Their Name Liveth for Evermore. Sir Edwin Lutyens was one of three principal architects of the Imperial War Graves Commission (as it was then called) and as well as his work in New Delhi and elsewhere is perhaps best remembered for his contribution to memorial architecture for the First World War, designing the Cenotaph in London and the Thiepval Memorial to the missing of the Somme.
Stone of Remembrance
The third building found in the graveyard is the Shelter, designed by Sir Edward Maufe, the Principal architect of the Commonwealth War Grave Commission after the Second World War.
Domed Shelter
One of the first graves I noticed must be among the most poignant. It is that of Air Mechanic 3rd Class Osmund R.T. Fleeton of the Royal Flying Corps who was just 16 when he died. He came from Cork where his parents Robert and Jeanie Eloise Fleeton, lived at 1 Brookfield Villas, College Road. The official record says he ‘died of sickness 26th April, 1917’. ‘Ossie Always Beloved, Never Forgotten,’ his family inscribed on his grave.
Grave of Osmund Fleeton
Another Irish grave is that of Private James Byrne from county Kilkenny of the 1st Battalion the Leinster Regiment who died on 13th May 1915.
Private James Byrne
In one corner of the grave yard there is a solitary grave of a nurse – Staff Nurse Mabel Murray, of the Territorial Force Nursing Service, who worked at the 3rd Southern General Hospital and who died of influenza on 2nd November 1918 at the age of 35. She was one of the victims of the so-called ‘Spanish flu’ which swept over the nation at the end of the First World War, and it may be that the reason her grave is situated in a lonely corner is that they expected more of her colleagues to fall victim to influenza, but thankfully this did not transpire. She is not the only woman buried in the cemetery, however. Nineteen years old Aircraftwoman Glenys Doreen Harris is buried in the RAF section having been killed when an RAF Mosquito crashed in training at Upper Heyford on 24th September 1945.
Staff Nurse Mabel Murray
The graveyard contains the graves of many nationalities from both world wars including those who came from the then dominions of the British Empire (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa) as well as other countries including Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Italy, The Netherlands, and Poland. Botley also contains the only grave of a Greek soldier in Britain – Private T. Lagos, who died in Oxford on 18th October 1944. His headstone is inscribed with a quotation from Pericles’ funeral oration as recorded by Thucydides: ‘The whole earth is the tomb of famous men’. There are also a number of German graves from the First World War as well as a large section of 33 graves of German soldiers all dated 1944 who presumably were prisoners of war. It was strange to see the German war graves although their presence is perhaps slightly reminiscent of the memorial in New College Chapel to former German students who had been killed in the Great War.
German war graves
The precise number of graves in the CWGC cemetery at Botley varies according to which source you consult but I did notice a number of other military graves from the world wars located outside the Commonwealth War Graves area which might account for the variations. But it is certainly a very peaceful place, a well-cared-for corner of a municipal cemetery, a silent memorial to those who gave their lives.
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