Putting Clergy in their Place at Shamley Green

In rather a companion piece to the last post, my travels a couple of weeks ago took me to Shamley Green to inspect Christ Church, a church which was built on land donated by the uncle of its first incumbent, appointed in 1881. Those were the days in the Church of England. Architecturally and liturgically Christ Church is a modest place, advancing in a moderately Catholic direction over a long while: its Lady Chapel was created out of the south aisle (the usual pattern) in the late 1940s, a modern statue of the BVM arrived in 1958, and the aumbry wasn't installed until 1994. However the great treasures of this little building are the reredos and eastern wall paintings, designed by a pair of sister artists, Mary and Eleanor Dacres, in the 1870s and 1890s. They aren't works of wondrous quality, but have a charm. 

The parish history contains short pen-portraits of previous incumbents, and among them are quite the frankest statements I have ever read in texts of the kind. The hapless Mr Alexander who was vicar in the 1940s is described as 'well-meaning but inept ... He had the ability to get people's backs up without meaning to, a process to which his wife unfortunately often contributed'. Makes you wonder what they'll say about you when you're gone.