S. JAMES’S PARISH MAGAZINE’
BREAM.
October 1902 No. 338
USUAL SERVICES
PARISH CHURCH
Sunday:
8. Holy Communion
11. Matins and Sermon every Sunday, with Holy Communion, 1st and 3rd
Sundays..
6.30. Evensong with Sermon.
Holy Days:
7.30. Holy Communion,— 6.30, Evensong.
Wednesdays and Saturdays;
6.30. Evensong.
Churchings at any Service. Holy Baptism on 1st Sunday in month at 5.0;
and Wednesdays at 6.0.
YORKLEY WOOD MISSION CHURCH
Sundays:
11. Matins and Sermon every Sunday, with Holy Communion on the 2nd and
4th Sunday.
3. Evensong with Sermon
Churchings at any Service. Holy Baptism, Sundays, at 2.15.
FIRS MISSION HOUSE
Sundays:
3. Evensong with Sermon.
SUNDAY SCHOOLS
BREAM — 10.10 and 2.30 (except on 1st Sunday in month)
YORKLEY WOOD — 10.10 and 2.10
FIRS — 2.10
NOTICES
Mothers’ Meeting in the Schools, every Monday at 5 p.m.
S. James’ Sick and Burial Club Meeting, at School, first Monday
in every month, 7.30.
Penny Bank at Schools, Fridays 4.
Library at Schools, Fridays, 4.15.
Vicar: Rev. ERNEST F. EALES, M.A.
Curate: Rev. ALBERT HENRY BANCROFT, L.D.
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Price Three Halfpence. Sold by — District Visitors, Bream, and
Mrs. J. W. Manners, Yorkley Wood.
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BAPTISMS.
"
Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for
of such is the Kingdom of God."—S. MARK, x, 14.
September 5—Gladys Lilian, daughter of George Edgar and Edith
Lilian Phillips Watkins, 1, South View, Camden road, Bath, grocer.
September 6—Doris Hilda, daughter of William Charles and Elizabeth
Martin, Bream, collier
September 6—Cissie Gladys, daughter of John and Beatrice Dent,
Brockhollands, collier.
September 10—Ivy Dorothy, daughter of Richard and Clara Watkins,
Bream's Woodside, collier.
September 14—Corona Alexandra Matilda, daughter of James Henry
and Emily Wintour, Turnout Farm, farmer.
BURIALS
"
Here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come." Heb.,
xiii, 14.
August 27—Eliza Knight, Bream's Eaves, aged 83.
September 21—John Brookes, Bream, aged 35.
September 23—Emma Morgan, Saunder's Green, aged 71.
SPECIAL NOTICES
October 1—Harvest Thanksgiving at the Parish Church.
October 2—Harvest Tea and Social Evening.
October 18—Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist.
October 28—Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles.
November 1— Feast of All Saints.
N.B. The proposed Mission visit will not be held at Yorkley Wood Church
this month, as it will be best to wait till the new Vicar comes.
HARVEST THANKSGIVING
Harvest Thanksgiving Services were held at Yorkley Wood Church on Wednesday,
September 17th when Holy Communion was celebrated at 10 a.m., and Choral
Evening service followed at 7 p.m., with a sermon by the Vicar of Lydney.
The Church was very prettily decorated, and the musical part of the Service
very sweetly sung, and accompanied with taste and reverence upon the American
organ by Miss Bernice Johnson. The Prayers and Lessons were read by the Vicar.
At the Firs Mission the Thanksgiving Service was held on Thursday,
September 18th, at 7p.m., the whole Service being conducted by the Rev.
A. H. Bancroft, assistant Curate of Bream, in the unavoidable absence
of the Vicar. The room had been nicely decorated by Miss Miles, of Noxon,
with the help of a variety of fruits, flowers, &c., the offerings
of the people of that part of the Parish. Mr. J. R. Worgan ably presided
at the American organ, and the singing was of the heartiest.
Altogether one is encouraged to believe that people are ready to give thanks
to God for His temporal mercies, even though some of the fruits of the earth
may be blasted. And this is as it ought to be.
E.F.E.
LETTER FROM THE VICAR
My dear Parishioners and Friends,
It is with very mingled feelings that I have to announce to you the speedy
severance of my connection with you as Vicar of Bream. Most unexpectedly,
and quite without my seeking it, the Bishop has offered me the Rectory of
Naunton, near Stow-on-the-Wold, and I have accepted it because he seems to
wish me to do so, and because the population at Naunton is far smaller than
here, and therefore more within my power to minister to. I cannot easily
express to you, in words, how great a wrench it is to part with you, but
it seems to be God's will. May I ask your prayers that God will over-rule
this matter for the good of His Church, and will send you a Vicar who shall, "faithfully
serve God in his office to the Glory of His Holy Name and the edification
of His Church" —(Collect for the Ordination of Priests.)
Your affectionate, Vicar and friend,
Ernest F. Eales
HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS
The Vicar begs that all Missionary Boxes may be bought to the Vicarage during
October, so that he may make out the accounts before leaving.
HISTORICAL SCRAPS
CHURCH RESTORATIONS IN BREAM (continued).
2. Henry Poole's Restoration.
On the Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist, April 25th, 1822, the church of Parkend,
built by the Rev. Henry Poole, was consecrated, in the name of St. Paul the
Apostle, by the Hon. Henry (Ryder) Lord Bishop of Gloucester, by whom also,
apparently, Mr. Poole was admitted as first Vicar of St. Paul's. Mr. Poole
was at the same time curate of Bream, and we read in "Nicholls" that
on that very day of the Consecration of St. Paul's he hauled the first load
of stone for the re-building of the Chapel of Bream. This gives us the beginning
of this Restoration, for the end of which we turn to records in the Diocesan
Registry at Gloucester.
THE DEED OF CONSECRATION, shows that on the petition of Henry Douglas,
Vicar of Newland, Henry Poole of Parkend, and others, the Chapel of Bream
was consecrated in the name of St. James the Apostle by Christopher (Bethel)
Lord Bishop of Gloucester on October 13th, 1826—the Feast of the
Translation of King Edward—the old Burial Ground being consecrated
the same day.
Between these two consecrations lies the period when the Chapel of Bream was
undergoing restoration, and most of the period is covered by a gap in the Baptismal
Register from April 21st, 1822, to November 6th,1825—when the Chapel
was probably roofless.
The reasons for this Restoration or re-building may be given in Nicholls' own
words, or in Mr. Poole's words as quoted by him—"The Chapel of Bream
was a mean building" (Nicholls). "The Chapel of Bream is too small
to accommodate even one third of the population its own tything" (Poole).
Now in the Newland Vestry Book we find that the population of the Tything
of Bream in 1821 was 417, or about half of what it is today, and this
gives us the accommodation of the old Chapel as not more than 140. Nicholls
statement that the Chapel was a mean building has been already disputed
by us, nor has anyone today much confidence in the opinion of the Church
architects of the early nineteenth century, whose works generally are
their own severest condemnation.
Henry Poole's Restoration seems to have been confined almost entirely to the
Nave and Western part of the Chapel, his avowed object being to provide more
room for the people.
The old Chancel appears to have been as described in our last article, but
a small Vestry seems to have been built on the North side of the Chancel, with
which it was connected by a doorway; and it is certain that Mr. Poole placed
over the Holy Table the picture of "Jesus breaking bread," which
still hangs in the Church.
The Nave is said to have been widened by Mr. Poole to its present width, and
the Font reduced in size and altered in shape, and an octagonal tower, surmounted
by a low spire and pierced by four small windows, erected for the bell outside
the (then) West wall now occupied by seats between the Font and the bell ropes.
In this business Mr. Poole deserves great praise for having retained so much
of the old work when he pulled down and rebuilt the walls—the tracery
of the square windows &c., being practically the same now as it was three
or four hundred years ago. Mr. Poole either erected a new gallery for the singers
or else restored the old one.
We can find no further details of Mr. Poole's work except that he partly
or wholly re-seated the Chapel. The Re. Henry Poole appears to have served
the Chapel of Bream, either in person or by deputy, from 1818 to 1854,
when John Baverstock came to Bream as first Vicar. During these years
there seems to have been no instrument of music used in public worship
here, except certain wind and string instruments played in the West Gallery,
where the Chapel Clerk and singers had their seats, and the services
themselves must needs have been irregular for lack of sufficient clergy.
It would be interesting to know when the Chapel of Bream was first known by
the name of St. James the Apostle. In "ECTON'S THESAURAS" of the
year 1742 it is called Bream, St. James, so the name is probably as old as
Thomas Donning's Restoration in 1618—the reign of James 1st—but
whether or no it has come down from the misty days before the16th century Reformation,
who shall say?
All Mr. Poole's work, whether in Bream or elsewhere, deserves to be spoken
of with the greatest possible respect, for he was a Godly man, and perhaps
the greatest Church builder ever resident in the Forest of Dean.
E.F.E.
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