Through the centuries, Tytherington has had forty or fifty vicars.. but of these only one has come down to us through the years as a real person. Most are no more than names. Two or three receive passing mention in the records. John Lacy's bishop found him, in the 16"-- century, 'not a graduate, not a preacher.' Thomas Price, vicar from 1570, owed Thomas Smith, yeoman, some £20 at Smith's death, and owed Smith's widow £7 at her death. William Elbridge spent £133 on a new vicarage in 1662. William Jones, a graduate of Balliol, vicar from 1615, was recorded in 1650 as 'a man of note, a prominent Puritan ten years earlier.' Thomas Bin, vicar from 1679-1708, added many provocative remarks in the Baptism register, such as 'reputed wife of’ and 'supposed son of'. But in no case does a real man emerge.
A lucky break, however, lets us see much more of
George Wade Green, vicar of Tytherington from 1817 to 1830.
Glancing idly at the Visitors' Book while sidesman in the church one
evening, I saw a brief entry 'Thomas Lloyd, a descendant of Reverend G W
Green.' A contact then established led me to the estate in Dyfed to
which Green moved on leaving Tytherington, still occupied by his
descendants, and to private papers about his life.
1817 was an important date for the church in
Tytherington, for it marked the beginning of a short but stimulating
interlude in its life. For almost a hundred years, the Lord of the Manor
had been the patron of the living, and had appointed various of his
relatives to the benefice. This was a period when the Hanoverian church
lost touch with its people, when many clergymen lived away from their
parish, and were pluralists (by holding more than one benefice
simultaneously), and when there was great disparity between the income
of the wealthy clergy and the miserable stipends paid to curates. As an
example, Thomas Shellard, vicar 1750 - 1785, was also Rector of
Rendcombe some 30 miles away. His Tytherington stipend was £95 p.a. For
35 years he had a curate who was paid £30 p.a. Early in the 19th century
the Reverend James Hardwicke had for years obtained his bishop's
permission to live in Bristol, not Tytherington, 'on account of the
insufficiency of the house of residence and from his inability from ill
health to undertake any regular duty'. No doubt Sopworth, of which he
was Rector at the same time, also managed with a curate. He died in
1817, at an unfortunate time for the patron of the living, who was
running out of ordained relations, and whose son, destined for the
living, was only eleven years old. The patron's wife, Mrs Hardwicke, had
a niece recently married to a young curate in Chippenham named Green; he
was persuaded to take the living of Tytherington on the understanding
that when the young Hardwicke was ordained, he would resign. In 1817 he
was instituted to the church of Tytherington.
George Wade Green was born in Islington in
1785, the sixth of eight children of well-to-do parents. He was a
scholar at Westminster School, a King's Scholar at Trinity College,
Cambridge, and was ordained in 1808. Five years later, he married Mary
Ann Key, daughter of a Lord Mayor of London, a wealthy stationer. The
marriage settlement from his father was £5000, from his father-in-law
£3500. But, curiously, his Trustees had to buy a curacy for him, first
at Marlow, and then at Chippenham. Then in 1817 he agreed to come as
vicar of Tytherington. Green was one of the clergy who began to
change the ways of the established church, with a sense of
responsibility and with professionalism. He clearly intended to live in
his village, and, the vicarage being old and probably run down, he
proceeded to rebuild it, retaining some parts at the rear but renewing
the front. Its appearance is almost unchanged to this day, apart from a
recently added portico (It was renamed 'The Manor' some seventy years
ago when a new vicarage was built.) Within the church, he added a vestry
and, possibly, the gallery at the west end which was removed at the
restoration of 1884. He planted trees in the churchyard: it is very
likely that the chestnuts date from this time, as does the beautiful
copper beech in the vicarage garden. The Green's first two children had
been born before the Tytherington days, but the next seven (of twelve in
all) were born here. One of his sons, in later years, wrote about his
parents, and I quote from his notes:
`My dear Father, Mother and Aunt were much liked. My Father in sickness or
health visited his poor people. My good Mother always had her medicine
chest at hand to relieve their bodily wants and the poor considered her
equal to, if not better than, the doctor. She was clever and successful
in her treatments and that was sufficient. My aunt, Miss Elizabeth Key,
was better than any curate and visited the poor people at their houses,
reading to and comforting them, as she only could, in her quiet way. She
went daily to see the children at school when weather permitted,
teaching them all that was good and the girls sewing to make them useful
housewives.'
The main part of the house is as it was rebuilt in 1819, though with
late Victorian accretions. Another contemporary photograph shows that at
the back some of the original 1663 Vicarage still existed. This was
removed in 1925 when the interior of the Vicarage was remodelled and the
house renamed The Manor.
Green's account book has some interesting entries;
for instance:
24 flints 3s 0d,
2 lbs of gunpowder 9s Od
reminds us that flint and steel guns were then in general - and skilful
- use, it seems, for he records the size of a heron which had been shot,
4 ft 1 in high, 5 ft 5 in from wing-tip to wing-tip.
Other items in the account book were:
12 lbs bacon 16s 4d,
a bushel of barley meal 8s 6d,
2 lbs black tea 16s
Bought in London were a pair of black silk stockings 15s, a pair of
silver knee buckles 5s, and a pint of rum 3s. The rum was doubtless
welcome in bleak winter evenings in a large vicarage. In 1818 a top for
Frank (the eldest boy) cost 2s 9d and, later, marbles were bought for
him though the cost was not recorded. 'Killing mad dog 1s' is somewhat
enigmatic; it does not seem to be a very munificent reward considering
the risk, but possibly it was no more than a contribution to a
subscription list. In 1827, we have 'Matches for instantaneous light 1s
0d', which indicates that this was the transition period from flint,
steel and tinder box to the 'Lucifer' match with combustible head. The
change is underlined by the drop in the price of flints; in 1827 12
flints cost no more than 3d. There are payments to governesses (there
were three changes within five years; were these nine children too much
for them?), and, later, fees were paid to Joseph Helm who kept a school
at Aust near the New Passage, which the eldest boy attended. Was the
`Parrot £2-10s' bought to interest the children? Green's grandson
Francis remembered it from his childhood, as he did also the 'Single gun
and caps £8-10s' bought in 1828 and with which forty years later he made
a wonderfully long shot at a woodcock. One of the last entries made
while in Tytherington was 'Rabbits for Frank 3s-0d'. Frank was by then
14 years old.
The vicar had the benefit of 61 acres of glebe which, in the previous
period of absentee incumbents, was let to one of the farmers in the
parish. In 1789, John Smith paid £44-2s rent for the glebe. Green,
however, was interested in farming and especially in pure bred livestock
and probably retained for his own use the nearer fields, while letting
some of the more distant land such as the Bockneys by Midsummer bridge.
In 1826 he paid 3s-9d for shearing 14 sheep and shortly afterwards
bought 'two Spanish lambs' for two guineas. Was this to improve the wool
by introducing Spanish merino blood? The Napoleonic Wars had severely
interrupted the supply of Spanish merino wool, at that time the
preferred wool for the Stroud cloth industry. In the same year, he
bought a Devonshire cow and calf for ten guineas, and in the next year a
Spanish ram for the seemingly low price of 15s-Od. It was in 1826 that a
severe drought occurred and Tytherington suffered badly. We read in his
son's notes 'The cattle and sheep had to be driven three miles for water
and came back as thirsty as they went'. Perhaps they found water in the
mill pond at Tortworth. After this, Green `caused a well to be sunk
nearly opposite the entrance gate to the Vicarage and put up an iron
pump for the use of the inhabitants', and it is there today on Duck
Street, pictured below.
By
this time, after ten years in the village, Green and his patron the Lord
of the Manor, Thomas Hardwicke, were no longer on the best of terms.
Green found himself disapproving of the young man who, it was planned,
was to take over the living. He began to look for other benefices. His
wife was a grand-daughter of Bluett Jones of Iron Acton who had many
close relationships in West Wales, and their thoughts turned in that
direction. One day, after young Mr Hardwicke had taken Holy Orders, the
patron asked Green to give the young man a title, in other words to take
him as curate. Green declined to do so and resigned the living.
After searching North and West Wales and Devonshire, Green found a
suitable property at Court Henry, some ten miles from Carmarthen, in an
area in which Mrs Green would have found many friends. Travelling, a
century and a half ago had its problems. Their furniture was loaded on
wagons, taken to Bristol docks, shipped to Carmarthen, and then taken on
again in carts. The Green entourage went by road, taking five days. The
second night was spent at The Castle Hotel in Brecon. Behind the
carriages were the horses, and behind them were driven the cattle.
George Wade Green had twelve children and forty-five grandchildren,
many of whom had distinguished careers. A grandson became the first
Archbishop of Wales. Two of his sons served with distinction in the
British Army in India: one led the 2nd Punjab Regiment 'with great
heroism and distinction throughout the Indian Mutiny 1857-1858' and
became Major
General Sir George Wade Guy Green. The other son, besieged in Lucknow during the Mutiny, lost his
newly-wedded wife there. On returning to England, he remarried and lived
for a while in The Grange in Tytherington, chairing a vestry meeting in
1864. This was the family's final link with the parish.
,
Their departure left Thomas Hardwicke in a quandary, and he was driven
to enter into another formal Bond of Resignation, this time with a young
parson of 27, William Henry Moncrieff Roberson. Fate was unkind
to Thomas Hardwicke, and to Tytherington. Scarcely had Roberson been
instituted when young Hardwicke died. Roberson was asked to resign in
accordance with the Bond, to make room for the patron's next appointee;
but he refused to go, arguing (correctly) that his resignation was
required only when young Hardwicke, and only he , was ready to be
appointed. The squire was understandably furious, and verbal tradition
in the village has kept warm many stories of the subsequent rows between
squire and vicar, culminating, it is said, in a victory in the courts
for the vicar. The squire never attended church again, the vicar settled
down to a very comfortable living to which ordinarily he could never
have aspired. The parish in West Wales received a sympathetic and active
parson; on the material side, a new church was built, also a new bridge
over the river, and Green is credited with having established in his
parish the first Benefit Club in the country. In Tytherington he had
filled the church. Many years later his son re-visited Tytherington and
finding a very small congregation in the church spoke to one of the
older villagers, named Taylor (perhaps James Taylor of Tower Hill Farm).
His reply was `Ah! It is not as it was in Parson Green's time. Then we
were glad to get a seat on the gallery stairs or the pulpit steps, it
was so full'. No doubt his Welsh parishioners responded in the same way.
He died in 1868 age 83. Roberson in Tytherington also stayed, for 50
years, until his death in 1881 but he was scarcely such a success in the
parish. A book entitled The Church Goer was published in Bristol in
1850. Its author, J Leech, went out on his horse on Sundays to visit
and, as it were, to report on a variety of churches, one of which was
Tytherington where Roberson was vicar. His article is a formidable
indictment of the state in which he found the church. On his way he
enquired of villagers at what time the service began, but no-one could
tell him 'I can't tell you, indeed, Sir, 'tis so long since I was there.
I have not been at Church since Mr Roberson came.' His next enquiry
produced no result, `...for it is a place, Sir, I don't often go to.'
Having heard that the incumbent of Tytherington was `remarkable for the
dispatch with which he went through the prayers', our visitor was
surprised to hear the service read in a decorous and devotional tone and
with feeling. But the officiating clergyman was a stranger to the
congregation of twelve, brought in at short notice as Roberson was
elsewhere. Talking to a farmer in a blue coat, the visitor found that
there was no sermon and no singing. 'How is it that you have no
singing?' `I don't know. There are some who do be for having it, but
they are not encouraged. Mrs Morrish and Mr Honnywell I believe offered
to get books for them, but Mr Roberson does not see the use of it.' Our
visitor derived some consolation by riding up to the hill and finding
there 'a noble view'.