GUIDE TO THE CHURCH OF

ST THOMAS OF CANTERBURY, HORCOTT

BY Richard Barton

April 2003

Historical Background The first mention of a church at Fairford dates from the eleventh century but, except for the lower part of the central tower, it was completely rebuilt from about 1490. John Leland states that ‘John Tame began the fair new Chirche of Fairforde and Edmund Tame finished it’. The new church was consecrated on June 20th 1497 and its great benefactor died on May 8th 1500 and his tomb is situated close to Our Lady’s Altar in St Mary’s Church. This fine old Parish Church is renowned for its complete set of original stained glass windows and offers us a picture of pre-Reformation piety and devotion. From the religious settlement of Queen Elizabeth I, St Mary’s Church ceased to be a place of Roman Catholic worship and its clergy were no longer in full communion with the See of Rome. However, on May 24th 2000, the Vicar, Churchwardens and Parochial Church Council invited the local Catholic community to celebrate Mass there once again to mark the beginning of the new millennium. The story of the local Catholic Mission moves to Hatherop Castle where the families of Blomer and Webb maintained a priest and private chapel from the seventeenth century until the death of Lady Barbara de Mauley in 1844. There is a fine recumbent effigy of Lady Barbara, placed between two standing angels, in her memorial chapel in the Anglican Parish Church of St Nicholas at Hatherop. It is in white marble and was beautifully carved in the most natural detail by Raffaelle Monti in 1848, the year that Monti fled to England after serving in the Risorgimento. Following the death of Lady Barbara, her mother’s cousin, the Countess of Newburgh, gave support to the Mission until her own death in 1861 aged 99 years.

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During the mid 1840’s, Richard Iles, a farmer of Kempsford, his wife Dorothy (née Arkell) and her sister Mary had been received into full communion with the Catholic Church. The story is told that Iles had become frustrated with the local Anglican incumbent when he refused to visit one of his dying farm-workers. Using funds donated by members of the Webb and de Mauley families, they set about erecting a small church at Horcott. After nearly four hundred years there was once again a Catholic place of worship in the Fairford area, although very modest in comparison with the ancient Parish Church of St Mary. The Church of St Thomas of Canterbury is a simple buttressed church, in lancet style, consisting of chancel and nave with a west porch and a thin bellcote. It was built in 1845 at a cost of £700. When it was opened, the only ornament was the stained glass window above the altar, depicting St Thomas of Canterbury, and flanked with scenes from the lives of Pope St Gregory the Great and St Augustine of Canterbury. It is believed that Pugin may have influenced the design of the building. The construction of the roof and other details are certainly reminiscent of some of Pugin’s humbler churches in England, Ireland and Australia. Interestingly, we know that in May 1842, Pugin sketched Fairford Parish Church and he visited the town again in July 1850. The Reverend John Mitchell, who had for some years served the Hatherop Mission from Chipping Norton, performed the opening ceremony and celebrated the first Mass in the building on Sunday 12th October 1845. Fr Pascal O’Farrell, the Franciscan Priest from St Mary-on-the-Quay in Bristol, preached at the High Mass and Dr Daniel Rock, the Chaplain at Buckland, preached in the evening. When Fr Pascal died he was the last survivor of the post-Reformation Franciscan Province in England. Dr Rock, a friend and supporter of Pugin, was himself an eminent ecclesiologist and antiquarian who had served for many years as Chaplain to Lord Shrewsbury at Alton Towers before moving to Buckland. Dr Rock can be seen in the mainstream of that liturgical movement, of which Augustus Welby Pugin is the best-known representative, which sought to restore medieval worship in all its exuberance. Monsignor Crichton has since written, ‘They wanted churches furnished with and screens with burning lights before altars and shrines, chantry chapels and the whole disorderly profusion of late medieval objects’. Shortly afterwards Father John Mitchell resigned from serving the new Fairford Mission. For a few years priests from the new Passionist Retreat at Northfields, near Nailsworth, looked after the needs of the local Catholic community and it is recorded that the Blessed Dominic Barberi, who received John Henry Newman into the Catholic Church in 1845, celebrated the first Easter Mass at Fairford. It is possible that Cardinal Newman had some connection with the Fairford mission as the alb that he is said to have worn to celebrate his first Catholic Mass has belonged to the parish for many years. We know that Newman stayed with John Keble’s family in Fairford on a couple of occasions during his Anglican days. The closest neighbouring mission to Fairford was at Buckland where the patron, Sir Robert Throckmorton, commissioned a new church for Dr Rock and his congregation; this opened on Low Sunday 1846. The new mission at Fairford served a wide area and led to the establishment of further missions at Swindon (1851), Cirencester (1855), and Cricklade (1938). The church has not always been served by a resident priest but Mass has been celebrated here continuously.

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In 1863, Father Peter Seddon was appointed as resident missioner at Fairford. He was responsible for erecting the Presbytery, the school and schoolhouse. He also opened the graveyard. The buildings were designed by the brilliant young Catholic architect, Benjamin Bucknall, who designed Woodchester Park, near Stroud, the unfinished masterpiece of Victorian building. The Presbytery contains many interesting stone features including window seats and a turned stone staircase. The Catholic school closed at the end of 1888. This was partly due to the opening of an Anglican school for infants in a cottage at Whelford during the late 1860’s and the lack of Catholic children in the area. In 1967 the old school building at St Thomas’s was described as being in an appalling condition but it was briefly revitalized as a parish hall. Eventually it was sold in 1974 and incorporated into the private house that is situated beyond the graveyard. The church was built with a small sacristy attached and there is evidence that a doorway once gave access from the sanctuary. It is likely that, when the Presbytery was erected, this sacristy was extended towards the road by Bucknall. At this time, the doorway into the church was moved from the sanctuary into the nave and this also involved the elimination of one of the nave windows. The rear window of the sacristy was not inserted until 1964. In about 1908, a brick extension was added to the rear of the Presbytery, financed from a legacy from the estate of Susan, Lady Sherborne. She had died during the previous year, aged eighty- three years, and was buried in the family vault at Sherborne. At various times the church has been embellished and renovated, notably just before the First World War when Fr Michaud acquired the , three hanging candelabras, votive candle stands, and riddel curtains for the altar. He also introduced a pair of statues of adoring angels, which stood on either side of the altar. Within a few years three more stained glass windows were installed in the church. The wooden altar rails were replaced with wrought iron ones and the stove, which stood by St Augustine’s window, was replaced with new heaters. For thirty years Father Edmond MacSweeney was Parish Priest and, during that time, the parish welcomed Father Leonard Czapski and the many Polish families who settled at Fairford Park Hostel in the aftermath of the Second World War. The Irish employees who worked on the construction of RAF Fairford, together with the American Air Force personnel who were later stationed there, helped to swell the congregation at St Thomas’s. The Iles family continued to support the mission until the death of Margaret Iles in 1962. It is said that the visit of Monsignor Richard Iles, his brother Daniel and sister Mary, in July 1968, was the last occasion when members of the family attended Mass at St Thomas’s. In 1962, Father Michael Roche succeeded Father MacSweeney and set about refurbishing the parish property. The architect Eric Cole of Cirencester drew up a full restoration programme, and for some time Father Roche lived in a caravan whilst the house was being gutted. Not only were the kitchen and garage rebuilt at the rear but the main rooms were also rearranged. This decision was justified by the architect who felt that the central hall was unusable because it lacked windows and had so many doors leading from it. The result was that the whole appearance of the Presbytery was changed with the re-positioning of the front door and the provision of a window where the

3 door had been situated. In some ways it is rather sad that Bucknall’s original design for the Presbytery was so severely altered. At this time the church was also refurbished and the sanctuary of the church was re-ordered. The riddel curtains were taken away and the wall around the altar was faced with marble. Before 1965, the centre of the aisle was paved with stone slabs and there were stone pedestals for the statues of the Sacred Heart and Our Lady. The whole floor was now filled with concrete and a new hardwood block floor was laid in the nave. The stone pedestals were replaced with the wooden ones that had previously supported the angels on either side of the altar. The old ones are now situated outside the Presbytery and one can only regret their removal from the church. Whilst the building was no longer damp and was properly heated, some were saddened to see the church modernised in this way – even the doors were replaced. The whole renovation scheme left the church and sacristy in sound order and offered a simple yet dignified setting for the celebration of the sacred liturgy. The total cost for this refurbishment of the church and Presbytery was nearly £6,000. The re-ordering of the church during the 1960’s took place shortly before the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, when it became common for the priest to celebrate the Mass facing the people. Fortunately the altar, which Eric Cole described as being “not of any architectural merit, in fact the reverse”, escaped being chiselled back to a plain front. It also survived an attempt to replace it with a modern stone altar that had been designed by Cole a year or so earlier for the Camp chapel at RAF Fairford (in 1964 the Americans were planning to leave Fairford and it had been anticipated that this altar would then become available). In 1982 Eric Cole & Partners drew up another scheme for Father Evans, which involved the erection of a new stone altar in the chancel arch. This did not advance beyond the planning stage but eventually, in 1989, Dike & Son of Cirencester moved the existing altar forward. An aumbry for the Blessed Sacrament was set in the east wall, utilizing the brass door of the old tabernacle. The font was moved from its position by the church door into the sanctuary but it was returned to that position in December 1997. The church was solemnly dedicated, or consecrated, on 4th June 1991 by Mervyn Alexander. Six consecration were provided, which is unusual as the liturgical requirement is for either twelve or four. On that occasion three new stained glass windows were also dedicated. In 1999, an extensive programme of restoration began on the exterior of the church. The whole building was completely re-pointed, much of the stone was replaced, and the porch and sacristy roofs were re-slated. Further phases in this programme included the re-roofing of the church and Presbytery. Over a period of five years nearly £70,000 was spent on improving the buildings.

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Dedication of the Church to St Thomas of Canterbury We cannot be sure of the reasons why it was decided to place the church under the patronage of St Thomas of Canterbury. Certainly he was one of the first saints to be removed from the Church’s Calendar by King Henry VIII who had also destroyed his shrine at Canterbury Cathedral. Thomas à Becket was born in 1118, the son of a wealthy Norman family. He was appointed Chancellor of England and became a close friend of King Henry II. His enthronement as Archbishop of Canterbury brought an abrupt conversion of life and led him to oppose the king over Church rights. After six year’s refuge in a French monastery he returned to his diocese, but careless words from the king inspired four knights to assassinate him in his Cathedral Church on the 29th December 1170. He was immediately acknowledged as a martyr, and he is remembered for his courage in defence of the rights of the Church. There were at least eighty churches dedicated to St Thomas of Canterbury before the Reformation but, in 1537, Henry VIII blotted out his name from the service-books, and most of the saint’s churches had their dedications changed. One of Becket’s earliest biographers was Robert of Cricklade, the Prior of St Frideswide’s in Oxford. The miraculous cure of his lameness was attributed to the intercession of St Thomas and this story provides a local link with our patron saint.

Tour of the Church Immediately above the porch is the church bell which was originally rung from outside. This was refurbished by Whites of Appleton and re-hung on 7th June 1999. A new porch lamp was provided in the following year and is the work of a traditional blacksmith and craftsman, Bill Pankhurst of Oakridge, who is a member of the Stroud Valleys Craftsmen. We have a photograph of the church taken in the 1860’s and it shows that the porch was open to the elements and secured with a wooden gate. For some years it has been enclosed and Joe O’Leary, a parishioner from Purton Stoke, constructed the present outer door in the 1980’s. During the year 2000 Matt Mullin, a friend of a member of the congregation, made the glass fronted notice board that stands just outside the door. Entering the church one is immediately struck by the fifteen stained glass lights that have gradually been added to the church since it was built. They represent the changing fashions and styles of nearly 160 years and are the work of at least seven different artists. The Sanctuary Windows The three light east window is the oldest in the church and its patterned glass provides a backcloth to three elliptical shaped medallions. The central light depicts St Thomas of Canterbury robed in his pontifical vestments and wearing the pallium around his neck. He carries the metropolitan of Canterbury and the sword of William de Tracy, his assassin, passes through his head. The inscription ‘+S. Thomas Cantuar’ reminds worshippers of the name of their patron saint. Pope St Gregory encountering the Anglo-Saxon youths in a Roman slave market flanks St Thomas on the right. On the left, St Augustine of Canterbury is received by King Aethelberht of Kent and Bertha his Christian Queen, having arrived on the Isle of Thanet in 597.

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William Wailes of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who designed the window, carried out work for Pugin at this time before the architect turned his attention to John Hardman’s stained glass workshop in Birmingham. The central figure of St Thomas is somewhat Puginesque in its style and adds weight to the theory that Pugin may have had some involvement with the design of the church. The window is signed with the date 1845 and the initials WW. During 2003, this window was restored by members of the Bowman Family of Cuddington in Buckinghamshire. The glass painter, Stewart Bowman, was trained by the well-known stained glass artists, Clayton and Bell. The two small quatrefoil windows are the most recent in the church and were commissioned in 2002 and designed by Sarianne Durie of Lechlade Mill. The one above the altar portrays the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove holding an olive twig in its mouth. The other depicts the Eye of God within a triangle, surrounded by a circle and with radiating rays of light. This is a late Renaissance symbol of the infinite holiness of the Triune God who is all knowing, all seeing, and ever present. The Feast of the Holy and Undivided Trinity was especially popular in England in the twelfth century perhaps through its association with St Thomas of Canterbury who was consecrated bishop on that day in 1162. The window opposite the piscina in the sanctuary depicts the Seven Seals of the Lamb. In 1912 Austin Iles wrote to the Bishop requesting permission to put a stained glass window in the sanctuary in memory of his parents, Richard and Dorothy Iles. In the event, the window was also in memory of his brother, Fr Daniel Iles, and his brother and sister, Francis and Susan Iles. Canon Daniel Iles and his nephew, Monsignor Richard Iles, were both priests of the diocese of Clifton and maintained close associations with Fairford. The window contains a lozenge shaped medallion depicting the Lamb breaking the seven seals of the book in the Apocalypse. The ‘Agnus Dei’, or Lamb of God, with his vexillum or bannered cross, held in his uplifted foot, is seated upon ‘a book, written within and without, sealed with seven seals (Apocalypse 5.1). The Windows depicting Our Lady and St John The window depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary is in memory of John Chard, who died in 1918, and complements the one opposite that shows a figure of St John the Evangelist holding his Gospel in his left hand and a chalice in his right hand. There is a tradition that a priest of Diana challenged him to drink a draught of poison but that, when he made the sign of the cross over it, Satan rose from it in the form of a dragon and flew away. This window is in memory of John Francis Iles who was killed in France in June 1917, aged 24. This pair of windows is probably the work of Jones and Willis. The Apostles Windows The Catholic workers, mainly Irish, who were employed on the building of RAF Fairford from 1943 to 1944, donated a window in honour of St Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland. Fr MacSweeney had been appointed as chaplain by Sir Robert MacAlpine & Co. Ltd. and the workers subscribed to the window as a way of showing their appreciation to the parish priest. The window comes from the studios of John Hardman of Birmingham and is one of a pair. The window is decorated with snakes and shamrocks and these refer to the traditions that St Patrick banished the snakes from Ireland and that he explained the mystery of the doctrine of the Trinity using the leaf of the shamrock. The lower section refers to St Patrick’s vision, in which he is called back to Ireland. It is said that during the watches of the night fresh visions came to him and he heard ‘the voices of those who dwelt beside the wood of Foclut which is nigh to the western sea, and thus they cried, as if with one mouth, “We beseech thee, holy youth, to come and walk among us once more”.’ ‘Thanks be to God’, he adds, ‘that after many years the Lord granted to them according to their cry.’

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The other window in the pair portrays St Augustine of Canterbury, the Apostle to the English, and bears the inscription ‘In Thanksgiving 1945’. One is left pondering whether this is a thanksgiving for the end of the war or a commemoration of the centenary of the church. There is a tradition that St Augustine met the Celtic at The Oak, near Down Ampney, and that he healed the blind man at nearby Lertol’s Well. This may well account for St Augustine featuring so prominently in St Thomas’s Church, together with his acorns and oak leaf motif. St Augustine is wearing his Benedictine habit and is holding the Gospels and his Metropolitan Cross. Above is the dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit, and it is possible that this may be an emblem of Pope St Gregory the Great, rather than St Augustine, as there is a tradition that the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove had been seen hovering over Gregory’s head so as to inspire him as he wrote. The lower section of the window shows St Gregory, presumably in the company of St Augustine, encountering Anglo-Saxons for the first time at a Roman slave-market. It is said that he saw youths for sale, described by Bede as having ‘fair complexion, handsome faces and lovely hair’. Their appearance was so striking to Gregory that he was prompted to ask where they came from, and heard that they came from the island of Britain where paganism still ruled. His reaction to this was to lament that men with such bright faces could live in such darkness as this and, when on further questioning he discovered that they were called Angles, he responded “they have the appearance of angels, and such men should be fellow heirs of the angels in heaven”. This incident is said to have been influential in the decision of St Gregory to send St Augustine to England in 597. It is strange that this window presents once again a theme that had already been illustrated in the east windows fifty years earlier. Three more Windows Geoffrey Robinson of Joseph Bell & Sons of Park Street, Bristol, has designed three windows for St Thomas’s. The first depicts the Carmelite nun, St Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897). The saint is surrounded by roses, a reference to the fact that on contemplating her death, Thérèse wrote that she would let fall a shower of roses – meaning favours or miracles - through her intercession. Often she is known as ‘the Little Flower’. Beneath St Thérèse is the portrait of Sarah, the grandchild of Sir Colin and Lady Joan Goad. The inscription – ‘of your charity pray for the soul of Joan Goad who died October 18th, 1980’ – reminds us that the window is a memorial to Lady Goad who is buried in the churchyard with her husband. Sir Colin wrote to Fr Eamon Mc Glinchey in September 1987, “Enclosed is a rather treasured photograph of my granddaughter which might serve, I hope, for the window expert to include a small likeness of her face though even I realize how formidable a task it must be to achieve even an approximation”. An anonymous donor gave the second window that shows St Joseph the Worker holding his mallet and chisel, surrounded by planks of timber. Beneath is St Joseph’s budding staff of lily, a symbol of his purity. There is an old legend that Zechariah the high priest told Mary that in a revelation he was instructed by an angel to bring together marriageable men and have each leave his staff in the temple overnight. The Lord’s choice of a husband for Mary would be revealed

7 through a sign. In the morning, the staff of Joseph the carpenter was found to have blossomed, while those of the other suitors were barren. The window depicting St Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) was commissioned in November 1988 and was again designed by Geoffrey Robinson who considered it to be “the best of the three”. Above St Francis are Brother Sun and Sister Moon from the Canticle of Creatures. St Francis is shown preaching his beautiful sermon to the birds. The birds in the window are as follows: perched on his left hand – blue tit; on the grass at his feet (left) – blue rock thrush, (right) – grey wagtail; at left of the inscription – turtle dove; across panel at base (left to right) – kestrel, roller, bee eater, robin, woodpecker, redwing, thrush. The designs were carefully checked with ‘A Field Guide in Colour to Birds’ and all are birds that may be seen in Italy. The text ‘Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace’ is from the first line of one of the prayers of St Francis. The Porch Windows On Thursday 12th October 1995, a special Mass was celebrated by Bishop Mervyn to mark the 150th anniversary of the first celebration of Mass, and a reception followed in the Palmer Hall. At the time it was decided to commission a permanent reminder of this event and so, in February 1996, Daniella Wilson-Dunne of Brewery Arts, Cirencester, was invited to design two porch windows. One of them shows the crest of the de Mauley family: ‘rising out of a ducal coronet or (gold), three arrows, points downwards, one in pale and two in , entwined at the intersection by a snake’. Beneath the crest is the family motto: ‘Pro Rege, Lege, Grege’ which means: ‘For the King, the Law and the Flock’. This window recalls the closure of the Catholic Chapel at Hatherop Castle by the first Baron de Mauley and his financial support for the building of this church. The other window commemorates 150 years of the Mass being celebrated in the church, illustrated with symbols of the Bread of Life and the Cup of Eternal Salvation. On either side are the Greek letters Alpha and Omega which are referred to in the Apocalypse: ‘ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty ’ (Apocalypse 1.8). These windows were installed in June 1997 at a cost of £300. Two New Windows Recently Sarianne Durie has been invited to design two windows for the west end of the church. One of them will commemorate St Clotilde’s School at Lechlade Manor, which flourished from 1939 until 1998. The second is in thanksgiving for the Founders and Benefactors of our Parish. These windows are on either side of the crucifix that is mounted on the wall. Above them is a small quatrefoil window, which depicts the ever-present Eye of the Triune God. St Clotilde’s window will be bathed in violet rays to represent the school colour. The design will incorporate the heads and shoulders of the deacon martyr, St Lawrence, who was roasted alive on a gridiron for not complying with the Roman authorities; St Clotilde supported by her husband, King Clovis, and Madame Desfontaines, the foundress of the Congregation of St Clotilde. St Lawrence was chosen because Bishop Lee celebrated the first Mass in the Convent Chapel on the feast of St Lawrence in 1939 and the local Parish Church, built in the mid-fifteenth century, is

8 dedicated to St Lawrence. When the Chapel was built in 1960 the side altar was dedicated to St Lawrence and the community always celebrated the martyr’s feast with special solemnity.

When the Congregation of St Clotilde was founded in Paris in 1821 the Archbishop chose the patron, St Clotilde, because as a fifth century Christian woman she so influenced her royal husband, Clovis, that he became the first Christian King of Gaul. Antoinette Sophie Aubry Desfontaines was born in 1760 and educated at the Convent of St Aure, a contemplative community of nuns in Paris. At the age of nineteen she entered the noviciate at St Aure where she would have developed a deep devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1789 the French Revolution broke out and five years later the nuns of St Aure were imprisoned in the Port Royal gaol. After several months, they were released, due to the fall of Robespierre and as a result of the gratitude of their guard whose little child was nursed by the nuns when seriously ill. In 1796 the nuns grouped together in Paris in new circumstances and Antoinette established a school. Gradually a new religious order was born which has since educated numerous young women and developed the motto ‘Suaviter et Fortiter’ – ‘Gently and Firmly’. The second window will depict personalities from the pages of local Catholic history. The Blessed Stephen Rowsham is shown at the top of the window. In the centre is James Radcliffe, third Earl of Derwentwater with his wife Anna Maria Webb, the eldest daughter of Sir John Webb of Hatherop Castle. Beneath them will be the Blessed Dominic of the Mother of God. Stephen Rowsham was born in Oxford in about the year 1555. He became Curate of St Mary’s Parish Church in Oxford where he became acquainted with the Jesuit Priest, William Warford, who described him as “a man of pleasant countenance with a brown beard and full sweet voice; small and a little crooked, his neck awry and one shoulder higher than the other”. Within two years of taking orders in the Church of England, Rowsham resigned his living in Oxford and was received into full communion with the Catholic Church. He journeyed to Rheims and was eventually ordained priest at Soissons in 1581. In due course he returned to England but was quickly arrested and imprisoned before being banished from the country. This did not deter him for he returned once more to England in 1586 and was later arrested in the home of Bridget Strange, ‘a most ancient and perfytt Catholique’, of Chesterton Manor in Cirencester. Rowsham was later imprisoned in Gloucester and sentenced to death. During his time of incarceration he became friendly with Mr Thomson, a well-known recusant from Burford, and he encouraged Rowsham to circulate details of the strange mystical visions that he had experienced. He was hung drawn and quartered at Gloucester and March 1587 is the traditional date given for his death. A story is told that on one occasion he consumed a large spider that fell into the chalice whilst he was celebrating Mass. On 10th July 1712 Anna Maria Webb of Hatherop Castle was married to James, third Earl of Derwentwater. He was young, rich and attractive, a grandson of Charles II, a Roman Catholic, and a great landed proprietor in the North of England. In 1715 he suffered on Tower Hill at the age of twenty-seven for complicity in the Jacobite rising. The couple spent the first two years of their married life at Hatherop and it was to this house that the young widow retired with her children and where she received the beautiful letters of sympathy from her friend Father Lane. Lady Mary

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Radcliffe, wrote to her nephew’s widow: “Madam, you and I may have this comfort, yt by the Grace of God he made a Most Happy and Glorious End, worthy of his Education and worthy of his family, chusing rather death than renounce his Faith, which offer I understand was made to him, and therefore I don’t question but he truly dy’d A Martyr”. Blessed Dominic Barberi was born into a peasant family in Italy in 1792. His parents died when he was a child and he was nearly conscripted into the Napoleonic army that was then marching on Moscow. He became a Passionist and on a number of occasions he had visionary experiences that led to a great interest and desire to work in England. Having taught theology his enthusiasm for missionary work in England was re-kindled and he finally arrived in England in 1841. He made for Aston in Staffordshire but he became the laughing stock of the place. He looked funny, his clothes never fitted properly and his squeaky, broken Italian voice offered little magnetism. Gradually his sheer holiness and sincerity disarmed all, especially non-Catholics, and he must be regarded as an Apostle to England and as a Herald of Ecumenism. He received John Henry Newman into full communion with the Catholic Church in 1845 and later set up a Retreat at Northfields near Nailsworth. From there he travelled to St Thomas’s Fairford to celebrate the first Easter Mass in the new church and members of his Passionist Community served the Fairford mission for some years. Blessed Dominic died on August 27th 1849 having collapsed at Pangbourne Station. He died in the Railway Tavern at Reading and was beatified by Pope Paul VI on October 27th 1963. The Black Madonna The picture of Our Lady of Czestochowa, which hangs in the sanctuary, is signed ‘STUR June 1955’ and was painted by Stefan Turek for the chapel at Fairford Polish Hostel. On Wednesday 3rd May 2000, the Polish Community of Swindon visited St Thomas’s as part of their golden jubilee celebrations and presented a brass plaque to mark the existence of the Fairford Hostel from 1947 to 1958. Byzantine in style, the original icon of Czestochowa in Poland is of ancient origin. It was brought to the monastery of Jasna Gora at Czestochowa six hundred years ago, in 1382. Since then it has been revered as the national shrine of Poland. The sabre slashes visible on the face were inflicted in 1430 when a band of Hussites robbed the shrine and tried to abscond with the picture. After this incident the damaged icon had to be restored. Over the centuries, kings, peasants and soldiers came to pay homage to their Queen of Czestochowa. Statues The plaster statues in the sanctuary niches are of Our Blessed Lady and her husband, St Joseph, both with child, whilst those in the Nave are of Our Lady and Child and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Careful examination of the walls reveals evidence of earlier stencilling around the statue of Our Lady, with crowned shields containing ‘M.R’, a Marian device. A hundred years ago the sanctuary walls were richly stencilled too. Devotion to the Sacred Heart can be traced back to its medieval roots but it grew into its present form as a result of the influence of St Margaret Mary Alacocque (1648-90), a nun of the Order of the Visitation of Paray-le-Monial. She enjoyed a series of visions of Christ in which he told her

10 that love for his heart must be spread, through her, throughout the world. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is a symbol of his love for human beings. Other Furnishings Fr Roche acquired the Stations of the Cross from the Catholic Church at Burnham on Sea. They have recently been restored by Simon Fry of Ebrington and were re-hallowed on Thursday 19th February 1999. Fry has also set the tabernacle in a painted diptych depicting angels copied from a design by A.W. Pugin. From Maundy Thursday until Good Friday the doors are closed and worshippers can then see the reverse design which depicts the ‘Blazon of the Wounds’, or ‘Passion Shield’, the badge of the Catholics in the Pilgrimage of Grace. The brass tabernacle door is engraved with the Sacred Heart. Timothy McDonald of Walsingham presented the sanctuary lamp and Bill Pankhurst of Oakridge worked the bracket, which incorporates the Star of Bethlehem. According to sixteenth century Anglican Divine, Lancelot Andrewes, the star was often engraved on the cover of the hanging pyx in the old ritual ‘to shew us that now the star leads us thither, to his body there’. The Rood, now on the west wall of the Nave, was acquired by Fr Michaud (1912-13) and it was still hanging in the chancel arch in 1936; over the years there have been various plans to re-hang it there. Captain Radcliffe of Kempsford carved various wooden furnishings in the church including the lectern and sanctuary stools. The crucifix behind the altar was given by Mr and Mrs George Kuck. The list of Missioners-Apostolic and Parish Priests is the work of Margaret Fitzpatrick of Clanfield and shows the continuity between the ancient Hatherop Mission and the present Fairford Parish. The Organ During the early 1890’s the Missioner at Fairford was Canon George Crook. He is remembered for his interest in music and when he died he left a sum of money for the purchase of an American organ for St Thomas’s Church. In about 1905, Captain Lindsay Garrard retired from the 5th Dragoons and he set up an organ building business in a large conservatory next to his home, Ryton House, in Lechlade. Sadly, the firm did not succeed financially and Garrard enlisted as a private soldier in the Pembroke Yeomanry at the outbreak of the First World War. He built at least a dozen instruments, some quite large, including an organ for St Thomas’s Church, which he gave as a thanks offering for his conversion to the Catholic faith. No details survive of this instrument but we know that it was later moved to Swindon. In December 1998, the present organ was acquired for the church from the Catholic Church in Lambourn. It was built in 1873 by William Hill & Son of London and the firm’s records reveal that it was commissioned for Hitcham Church in Maidenhead. Tour of the Grounds Near to the entrance of the church, and already dwarfing it, is a mature Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata); these have been known to grow to a height of forty-five metres. Also in the grounds is a fine magnolia tree, planted by the late Leslie Burry, and a ‘Peace’ rose grows near to the door of

11 the church. In medieval times, the Feast of the Translation of the Relics of St Thomas of Canterbury was celebrated on July 14th and this ancient feast is marked with a bed of Canterbury bells that flower at that time of the year. The statue of St Thomas of Canterbury in the niche on the front of the Presbytery is the work of Patrick Conoley of Hartpury. Patrick is a member of the Guild of Gloucestershire Craftsmen and is a sculptor with fifty years’ experience. From 1947 to 1964, he was employed, first by R L Boulton & Sons of Cheltenham, and then by Robert Bridgeman & Son of Lichfield. He has completed sculptures for many cathedrals, churches and public buildings, including St Gregory’s Church in Cheltenham as well as Magdalen and Christ Church Colleges in Oxford. Since 1965, he has worked as a free-lance sculptor on more than 300 commissions including the carved wooden crucifix which used to hang in the Chapel of the Annunciation at Lechlade Manor and which is now at St Mary’s Church in Cricklade. St Thomas is carved from Caen limestone and was blessed on Sunday 31st October 1999. The statue of Our Lady, in the grounds behind the Presbytery, comes from the former convent at Lechlade and was blessed after a Reunion Mass for former staff and pupils of St Clotilde's School in July 1999. It was made by Verrebout of 64 Rue Bonaparte, Paris, and has recently become a focus for outdoor Marian devotions. A bed of flowering plants associated with Our Lady surrounds it. In 1939, the community of Sisters of St Clotilde came from Eltham Park and settled at Lechlade Manor where they ran a school until their departure from the parish in 1998. The closure of the convent and the dispersal of the chapel furnishings resulted in many fittings coming to St Thomas’s. It is still possible to visit the Convent cemetery at Lechlade where a number of sisters, chaplains and friends are buried. These include Monsignor Laurance Goulder who was, from 1951 until 1968, the Master of the Guild of Our Lady of Ransom. The framed list of the Lechlade Sisters, which was presented to the last five members of the community at their Farewell Mass, is now hanging in the sacristy at St Thomas’s. The Graveyard The graveyard was opened in about 1867 and Richard and Dorothy Iles and their children occupy the graves nearest to the church. Their relatives, the Chards, the Powells, and the Hills, are buried close by. Members of the United States Air Force gave the statue of Christ the King to the Fairford Polish Community during the early 1950’s. The plinth was made, as a result of a team effort, by the Polish men and was erected by Roman and Stanislaw Pawlaczek (sons of Zofia Pawlaczek). Stanislaw polished the plinth to give the effect of black stones. Pope Pius XI established the liturgical feast of Christ the King in 1925. His personal motto, “Christ’s peace through Christ’s reign,” was developed in his inauguration of the feast when he asked what were the causes of the deluge of evils submerging humanity. In response, he blamed “the apostasy of a great number of people who have banished Christ and his most holy law from their individual and family lives and from public affairs”. He emphasised that, instead, “we must look for the peace of Christ in the reign of Christ”.

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At All Souls’ tide each year members of the Swindon Polish community come to pray for their fellow citizens who are buried in the graveyard. The Millennium Garden, in the far corner of the graveyard, was commenced in 1999 when a garden seat was purchased and shrubs planted around it. These include a Rowan tree, Rosemary - ‘for remembrance’ - and an old English Rose. To mark the new millennium, the Fairford Garden Club presented the church with a Glastonbury Thorn, which together with a yew tree was planted in the graveyard during the ecumenical procession on Rogation Sunday 2000. The Glastonbury Thorn is said to flower every year on Christmas Day in honour of St Joseph of Arimathea who, having landed on the Isle of Avalon, stuck his staff in the ground whilst he slept. When he woke, he found that the staff had taken root. Memorial to Edward Peach Before St Thomas’s Church was opened in 1845 a gamekeeper’s cottage at Coln St Aldwyns was used for Mass. Edward Peach, the gamekeeper, died in 1870 and is buried beneath a simple stone cross amongst the older gravestones which bears the word ‘Catholicus’. The wording on a neighbouring Peach gravestone reminds us that ‘It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins’ (II Maccabees, 12.46). Memorial to Monsignor Edgar English Dr English (1851-1910) was the son of Alban Hudleston English of Bath. His early years as a priest were spent at the Vatican in the household of the Pope. In 1880, Monsignor English came to England and was stationed for a short time at the Pro-Cathedral in Clifton, and later at Holy Cross Church in Bristol. He held his position at St. Thomas’s, Fairford for 15 years, until his death in 1910. The English Family gave more than one priest to the Church. One of the late Monsignor’s uncles was the Right Rev Ferdinand English who became Archbishop of Trinidad whilst another, Monsignor Louis English, was Rector of the English College in Rome. In 1877, Pope Pius IX made Isabella, the aunt of Monsignor Edgar English, a Roman Countess. Memorial to Canon Daniel Iles Canon Daniel Iles (1855-1912), the son of Richard and Dorothy Iles of Reevey Farm, studied at Prior Park and Oscott before his ordination in 1881. In 1899, he succeeded Canon John Mitchell as Rector of St George’s, Taunton, but occupied that post for only a short period before being called for work at Prior Park College, Bath, in 1902. On February 1st 1912, Canon Iles died at Dunfield and was buried at St Thomas’s. Memorial to Provost Chard Joseph Bernard Chard (1858-1935), the son of Francis and Josephine Chard, was born near Shepton Mallet. His father was later Innkeeper of the Bull, Fairford, and his sister was married to Austin Iles. In 1894 he was appointed as Rector of St Peter’s Parish in Gloucester where he remained until 1934 when he retired through ill health. He is buried alongside other members of the Chard and Iles families in the churchyard at St Thomas’s. Both Provost Chard and Canon

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Daniel Iles were uncles of Monsignor Canon Provost Richard Iles (1890-1974) who was also born in Fairford parish and buried in Taunton.

MISSIONERS APOSTOLIC AND PARISH PRIESTS

Robert Bowes alias Lane 1698-1735 William Turville 1735-1765 James Lolli alias Chester M.D 1765- William Hull 1780-1793 Francis Leigh 1823-1830 John J Reeve, alias Power, from Courtfield, 1836 afterwards from Prior Park

Canon John Mitchell from Chipping Norton 1840-1846 Augustine of the Mother of God C.P. from 1846-1848 the Passionist Retreat, Northfields, Nailsworth Thomas Tierney Fergusson D.D. 1848 Patrick Kelly 1848 Vincent of St Joseph C.P. from 1849-1850 the Passionist Retreat, Woodchester William Godwin 1850-1852 Edward Anselm Glassbrook O.S.B. 1852-1857 (from Cirencester after 1855) John Clarke from Swindon 1857-1858 James Clark from Swindon 1858-1863

Peter Seddon 1863-1867 John Dickenson 1867-1869 Robert Platt 1869-1871 James Dawson 1871-1876 John Kennedy from Swindon 1876-1877 Francis A. Coopman 1877-1887 Joseph Butcher 1887-1888 James A. Lonergan 1888-1891 Canon George Crook 1891-1894 Monsignor Edgar English D.D. 1894-1910 Ignatius Gurd 1910-1911 Canon Harold Sugden 1911-1912 Arthur Michaud 1912-1913 Francis McElmail 1913-1915 Albert H. Williams 1915-1920 John Field 1920-1921

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Canon Harold Sugden from Swindon 1922-1923 Canon Joseph Judge from Swindon 1923-1924

Henry Mather 1924-1925 Thomas P. Staunton 1925-1932 Edmond MacSweeney 1932-1963 Michael Roche 1963-1967 Michael A. Meehan 1967-1973 Francis J. O’Leary S.T.L. 1973-1976 James A. Coghlan 1976-1979 Patrick W. Evans 1980-1983 Eamon McGlinchey 1983-1993

Anthony Fejer 1993-1997 Michael D’Arcy Walsh 1997-1998 Richard J. Barton 1998- 2004 Patrick Cheeseman 2004-2006 Phillip Beisly 2006-

Perpetual Masses for Benefactors

26th day of each month, The Powell Family, Deceased

January 4th The Iles Family, Living or Dead

February 5th The Iles Family, Living or Dead

February 14th Dorothy Iles (Anniversary)

March 4th Richard Albert Iles, Deceased

April 4th The Iles Family, Living or Dead

May 9th Richard & Ann Williams & their Catholic children

June 5th The Iles Family, Living or Dead

July 10th Mary Agnes Iles

July 21st Augustine Thomas Iles

August 4th The Iles Family, Living or Dead

September 5th The Iles Family, Living or Dead

October 4th The Iles Family, Living or Dead

November 9th Richard & Ann Williams & their Catholic children

December 5th The Iles Family, Living or Dead

December 10th Richard & Ann Williams & their Catholic children

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Please Pray for our Founders & Benefactors

Lady Newburgh’s Foundation

One Monthly Mass for Anthony James, Earl of Newburgh

Anniversary Mass for the same, May 6th

One monthly Mass for Anne Countess of Newburgh

Anniversary Mass for the same, May 4th

One quarterly Mass for Joseph Webb and one for Sir Thomas Webb, The Brothers of Anne Countess Newburgh

One half yearly Mass for Barbara Countess of Newburgh

One half yearly Mass for Joseph and Mary Webb, Father and Mother of Anne Countess of Newburgh

38 Masses in all

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