Notable Norfolk Clergy

Reverend Wilbert Awdry OBE

St Edmund’s Church, Emneth

There are many things a visitor expects to find in a Norfolk church but a stained-glass window of Thomas the Tank Engine is not one of them. The window in St Edmund’s Church in Emneth commemorates its creator, Reverend Wilbert Awdry OBE, who was vicar there from 1953 to 1965. Reverend Wilbert’s passion for railways was forged during his upbringing in Wiltshire. He grew up in a house called ‘Journey’s End’ close to a steep incline of the Great Western Railway main line and would listen to the steam engines going by and the whistle signals as he was lying in bed. Reverend Wilbert created stories about the antics of the trains for his son Christopher and went on to publish 26 books about Thomas the Tank Engine and his locomotive friends. The TV series enjoyed worldwide popularity and Thomas the Tank Engine became a beloved aspect of countless childhoods. A blue plaque at the Old Vicarage in Emneth memorializes Reverend Wilbert, the vicarage where he set up an extensive model railway in the loft. Emneth station was on the East Anglia Railway line but is now a private residence. He died in 1997 and is buried in Gloucestershire.

Father Clarence Porter

Winterton-on-Sea, Holy Trinity

The northwest corner of the church is known as Fishermen’s Corner. It was set up by the rector Father Clarence Porter in the 1920s as a shrine of remembrance for those who had succumbed to the perils of the sea. The cross is made from ship’s timber and the canopy is a fishing net. Father Clarence helped with the operation of the life-saving apparatus and taught the village boys to swim. He was much loved and people would travel for miles to worship at the church. The coast at Winterton can be treacherous due the uneven sea bed and strong currents. On 7th July 1932 a group of boys were swimming in the sea and ten year old choir boy Douglas George got into difficulty some 40 yards out. Father Clarence swam out and managed to bring the boy into shallower water. Father Clarence was then seen lying face down in the water. His death, the coroner recorded, was “a gallant end to a brave man’s life.” Between five and six hundred people attended his funeral and Douglas George’s father acted as a pallbearer. Father Clarence was posthumously awarded the Carnegie Medal for heroism. He is commemorated by a memorial in Fishermen’s Corner and is buried in the churchyard. The annual Sea Sunday service takes place around the anniversary of his death.

Canon Walter Marcon

St Peter & St Paul’s Church, Edgefield

St Peter & St Paul’s Church in Edgefield owes its survival to a man of great determination and enthusiasm, Canon Walter Marcon a.k.a. ‘The Cycling Parson’. Visitors may be forgiven for assuming this medieval church has been on this spot for hundreds of years but that is not the case. In fact, in 1882 the rather decrepit church that had been isolated by the Black Death was moved stone by stone nearer to the village and soon thrived amongst its community. The cost of £2,000 (£132,000 in 2017 money) was gradually raised. The octagonal tower was left in situ and can still be seen, alone amongst the fields. Not only was Canon Walter born in Edgefield rectory, as his father was rector before him, but he also died there in 1936. His long incumbency of over sixty years has earned this admirable man his rightful place in the local history books and in the beautiful stained glass window in the south aisle which depicts him riding his bike.

Reverend Samuel Green MC & Bar

St Barnabas’ Church, Norwich

At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Reverend Samuel Green was the Curate of St Barnabas’ Church in the Heigham area of Norwich. He volunteered to become an army chaplain and served as chaplain to two battalions of the London Regiment from 1916 until the end of the conflict. His first appointment was to a casualty clearing station in France. He later witnessed the horrors of trench warfare at Arras, Passchendaele, Bapaume and Cambrai and suffered shrapnel wounds and the effects of gas. He was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry twice. One of the citations reads: ‘During the advance he attended to the wounded, frequently under fire. He went forward and stayed for over an hour with a badly wounded signaller lying out in the open under shell fire, until the stretcher-bearers could fetch him away.’ Each month Reverend Samuel wrote a letter back home for publication in the St Barnabas parish newsletter sharing his experience of war. Readers of the magazine raised money for cigarettes for Reverend Samuel’s troops, and sent magazines and newspapers for them to read. A collection of his letters was published as ‘Somewhere in Flanders’ in 2005. In 1921 he became Rector of All Saints’ Church in Mundesley on the north Norfolk coast, where he was buried with full military honours in 1929. In 2005 a plaque commemorating Reverend Samuel was placed in St Barnabas’ Church. The war memorial contains almost 300 names from the joint parish of St Barnabas and St Bartholomew, the highest number lost from any Norwich parish. The Army Chaplains’ Department had over 4,400 chaplains by the end of the war. 179 died on active service. Three were awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest award for gallant action by a member of the armed forces in the face of the enemy.

A chaplain, “of course, finds out all the critical cases, and much of his time is taken up with them, and especially by constant attendance on the dying. It is his duty to take down the last messages to the people at home, to write, perhaps the last dictated letters, to receive instructions as to how the dying soldier wishes to dispose of the few personal possessions he has out here, and to see that his wishes are carried out.”

Excerpt from a letter from Reverend Samuel to his parish

Reverend James Woodforde

All Saints’ Church, Weston Longville

For 45 years Reverend James Woodforde (also known as Parson Woodforde) kept a diary, providing a fascinating insight into rural parish life. He was born in Somerset in 1740 and was ordained in 1763, serving locally as a curate for ten years. Reverend James returned to Oxford where he had obtained his Bachelor of Divinity and worked as a sub-warden at New College. In 1776 he moved to the parish of Weston Longville in Norfolk to take up the position of parson and would remain in post until his death 27 years later. Reverend James’ captivating diary became well known once it was published in five volumes between 1924 to 1931. The diary covers a wide range of topics from his meals, purchases, interpersonal difficulties, village fairs, care of the poor, and national and international affairs. Notes on the weather for any given day have provided a useful source of study for climatologists. Reverend James’ nephew William inherited the diaries and they eventually found their way to the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The only known likeness of Reverend James was painted by his nephew Samuel in 1908 and hangs in the church.

The worst singing I ever heard in a Church, only the Clerk and one man, and both intolerably bad.

Excerpt from Reverend James’ diary

Reverend James Adams VC

Holy Trinity Church, Stow Bardolph

Reverend James Adams was the first clergyman to be awarded the Victoria Cross. He served as chaplain to the Kabul Field Force during the Second Afghan War and his brave deed occurred on 11^th December 1879. During the fighting at Killa Kazi, men and horses of the 9^th Lancers fell into a deep ditch full of water with the enemy closing in. Reverend James risked his own life by rushing to their aid and dragging them out under heavy fire. With Afghan forces advancing within a few yards of Reverend James, he had to turn his horse loose in order to narrowly escape on foot. He received his medal from Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace. Reverend James then took part in the Third Anglo-Burmese War. He was made Honourable Chaplain to the Queen in 1900 and Chaplain in Ordinary to King Edward VII in 1901. He served the parishes of Wimbotsham and later Stow Bardolph, where he is commemorated on a memorial plaque in the church. Reverend James died in Rutland in 1903.

Reverend Edmund Nelson

All Saints’ Church, Burnham Thorpe

Reverend Edmund Nelson, father of Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, took up the position of Rector of the Burnhams, the group of villages taking their name from the river Burn, in 1755. This windswept corner of Norfolk lies only one and a half miles away from the North Sea. Reverend Edmund and his wife Catherine had eleven children. Horatio was born in the rectory in 1758 and baptised in All Saints’ Church, Burnham Thorpe. Catherine was distantly related to Britain’s first Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, and Horatio was named after his godfather Horatio Walpole 1st Earl of Orford. Nearby Burnham Overy Harbour was the young Horatio’s link to the wider world as it was from here that he was captivated by sights of ocean-going vessels and interacted with merchant seamen. Catherine died in 1767, leaving a grief-stricken Reverend Edmund to raise eight children. Favours were sought from relatives to ensure the children were provided for. Reverend Edmund wrote, “as it has fallen to my lott to take upon me the care and affectation of double parent, they [the children] will hereafter excuse where I have fallen short and the task has been too hard.” In 1790 he moved out of the rectory, which is no longer there, so that Horatio and his wife Frances could move in and establish their household. He lived in a cottage nearby and made trips to Bath for his health, accompanied by Frances. Reverend Edmund died in 1802 and is buried in the churchyard. A ledger stone in the church commemorates him.