An outrage upon the familiar sentiment and aspect of a well known locality
Nowadays if we want to make any alteration to the church we go through a faculty process – plans are submitted to the Diocesan Advisory Committee, notices are posted on the church and people are given a set period to register any concern.
It wasn’t like that in 1874. When the Trustees wanted more space for a growing congregation the chosen architect, F P Cockerell, suggested pulling down the church and starting again rather than adding an extension. A petition was got up and signed by some 270 people. Not that many, you may think, to effectively prevent the church’s destruction, until you look at some of the names:
W Holman Hunt
RL Stevension
George du Maurier
George McDonald
Anthony Trollope
Ford Madox Brown
William Morris
Coventry Patmore
Edward Burne Jones
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
FT Palgrave
Sidney Colvin
It would have been a brave Trustee who advocated going ahead anyway. So they didn’t.