Tag: religion

St. Boniface Missionary College

Some notes by the Reverend Henry Robert Whytehead in the booklet The Minster And Church Life In Warminster, published in 1911:

ST. BONIFACE MISSIONARY COLLEGE
St. Boniface began its life fifty-one years ago. The buildings are now more or less completed, and form a striking block, as seen from the Bath road. They consist of a large hall, lecture rooms, and studies, for fifty students and the Staff. The chapel is only a temporary building of iron.

In 1910, the year of the College Jubilee, the event was celebrated by a visit from the Archbishop of Canterbury. His Grace was duly met at the Railway Station, the Grammar School Cadets and Boys’ Scouts forming a Guard of Honour, and after receiving an address of welcome at the Town Hall, from the Chairman and members of the Urban Council, a procession was formed at the College, consisting of some fifty students, eighty clergy, and six diocesan bishops, the Marquess of Bath, and Mr. Phipps (House of Laymen), the Bishop of the Diocese, and the Archbishop (whose train was carried by two boys in scarlet cassocks and lace cottas), accompanied by the Canon of Salisbury, and his Chaplains. The procession with cross and banners, moved along Church Street to the Minster, where the Te Deum was solemnly sung, and the Archbishop preached.

Former students of St. Boniface, to the number of some four hundred, are working as missionary priests, in almost all parts of the world. A former Principal, Dr. Welsh, is the present Bishop of Trinidad, and the Rev. A. H. Anstey, who succeeded him at St. Boniface, is now the Head of Codrington College, Barbadoes. The present Principal, the Rev. J. A. Sharrock has worked for thirty years in India. The Principal is assisted by the Vice-Principal, Tutor, and Lecturer.

St. John’s Church, Warminster

The following notes by the Reverend Henry Robert Whytehead, are from the booklet The Minster And Church Life In Warminster, published in 1911:

St. John’s Church
For many years the people of Warminster, living in the township of Boreham, had felt the need of a Church, the Minster being a mile and a half distant. At length the late Squire of Bishopstrow and his son, Mr. George Temple, both keen and devoted churchmen, gave eight acres of valuable land, as a site, burial ground, and part endowment, besides £500, and when on S. Matthew’s Day, 1865, the beautiful Church was consecrated as a chapel-of-ease to the Minster, the whole of the £2,700, which the building cost, was either paid, or promised. Sir E. Street was the architect, and St. John’s is a model of what a country church should be. It consists of Nave, N. Aisle, Chancel, Organ Chamber, and Vestries. The benches are of plain oak, substantial, and unpretending. The East Window represents the Ascension. The reredos, by Earp, is a beautiful one, and is a memorial of Mr. W. J. Temple. The Altar was offered by Bishop Hamilton, and the pulpit, the low screen, the font, lectern, and several stained-glass windows, have been given by various friends. The upper brass screen of very        handsome design, was placed in memory of Mr. George Temple by his widow.

The massive stone lych-gate was erected in memory of Mrs. Temple by her three daughters. Close by are the school and sexton’s house, of which Sir E. Street was also the architect. More recently a large addition to the school was made in memory of Lieutenant Vere de Lone Temple by his family. Visitors are always struck with the combination of Church, lych-gate, house and school, and with the exceptionally lovely churchyard, with its carefully planted trees, its neat gravel paths, and smooth soft turf. A few years ago by the strenuous exertions of the Reverend E. W. Legg, then assistant curate, and the members of the Guild of the Ascension, and their friends, a Parish Room was added to the group of St. John’s buildings. This serves as an invaluable meeting place for all kinds of parochial purposes, both religious and social.

At the present time, a large scheme is afloat for the enrichment of the interior of St. John’s, by pictures of scripture scenes, which have been prepared by Mr. C. E. Ponting, consulting architect of Salisbury Cathedral, to be carried out by Mr. J. Powell, of Whitefriars, in opus sectile. The Reverend J. W. R. Brocklebank, assistant priest at St. John’s, and his father, have given very largely to this work, which it is hoped will be continued by the efforts of many friends of the Church, until the interior is generally enriched.

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