How Essex became a Diocese with Chelmsford as its Cathedral

(Written in 2017, following an event held by the Essex Society for Archaeology and History)

At the annual Morant Lunch, held on 15 October 2017 at The Purleigh Bell, Tony Tuckwell spoke about the formation of the Essex Diocese of the Church of England at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The massive expansion of London had resulted in two reorganisations during the nineteenth century. In 1846 Essex parishes were transferred from the Bishop of London to the Bishop of Rochester. This geographically unsatisfactory arrangement continued until 1877 with the creation of the Diocese of St Albans, which covered the whole of the counties of Essex and Hertfordshire. In terms of communication, with all railway lines leading to London, the Bishop lived in Euston choosing St Albans as a summer residence. By the early twentieth century the Diocese had become unmanageable having experienced a growth in population of over 20%, particularly in the area of Essex known as London-over-the-Border. Revd Reeve, the Rector of Stondon Massey, thought the excessive workload contributed to the untimely death of Bishop Festing. Reeve suggested that it “is easier for a Bishop to know his Bradshaw than his Bible”.

In 1905 a proposal was made to divide the Sees of St Albans, Ely and Norwich into five areas, creating new Dioceses in Essex and Suffolk. The Bishopric of Ely was incredibly rich in relation to its geography. In order to finance this new arrangement, the Bishop of Ely agreed to forego a stipend of £1⁄2m per annum. The Suffolk cathedral was to be situated at Bury St Edmunds taking West Suffolk from the Diocese of Ely and East Suffolk from the Diocese of Norwich. The Diocese of Ely would gain the counties of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire. The Diocese of St Albans would gain the county of Bedfordshire, where railway communications were good, and lose the county of Essex to the creation of a new See coterminous with the historic county boundary.

The Bishop, the Rt. Revd. Edgar Jacob, who had been incumbent since 1903, decided that the choice of the cathedral church for Essex would be by referendum. (History says that referenda do not always produce the intended outcome.) Several towns put forward submissions for cathedral status: West Ham, Colchester, Barking, Chelmsford, Woodford, Waltham Abbey and Thaxted. There then followed interviews by the Bishop with the contenders. The notes taken pretty verbatim have survived. West Ham was the newest borough with a population which had soared to 309,000. Chelmsford, by comparison, had a population of 18,000 and Thaxted, 1,600. Strategically there was an argument to place a cathedral where the greatest need for church growth would be, i.e. West Ham, but financing would be a major issue. The older towns had income to support cathedral status: weekly collections and finance to extend their present parish church. Barking, though poor put forward the widow’s mite argument in that the parish would give all it could. Thaxted’s bid failed because of the town’s inaccessibility by public transport. Chelmsford’s bid was led by local architect and lead churchgoer Frederick Chancellor. (President of the Essex Archaeological Society, 1908-11.)

On 5 March 1908 a meeting was held at which 388 out of 461 benefices in the county, representing a population of 1,088,857 (1901 census) submitted their preference for their choice of town for the new cathedral. Chelmsford secured votes of 191 benefices, just short of 50%; Colchester, 101 benefices and West Ham 63 benefices. Thaxted scored one, voting for itself.²⁰⁹

Although the central geographic location probably clinched the choice of Chelmsford, the matter became one of controversy because there had been some thought that perhaps the Diocese would need to be divided into two in the not-too-distant future. It was claimed that the parishes did not know what they were voting for. In addition, some clergy voted on behalf of their whole congregation, whilst others took a more democratic view.

The decision required an Act of Parliament. Unfortunately, this was considerably delayed due to the crisis between the House of Commons and House of Lords over the Liberal Government’s ‘People’s Budget’. The General Enabling Bill was finally passed, Reeve wrote, “at the extreme end of the Parliamentary session in 1913: and, having received the consent of the House of Lords and His most gracious Majesty King George V, passed into Law on August 15”. By reference to “extreme end” this meant that the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, introduced the Bill at midnight in the House of Commons, in order to push it through.

The first Bishop of Chelmsford was Dr John Watts Ditchfield, an unusual choice in that he was not an Oxbridge graduate and had not attended Public School. Originally a Methodist he had worked as a clergyman among the poor in Bethnal Green. He was enthroned at St Mary’s Church, Chelmsford on 23 April 1914 the day when the former parish church became the Cathedral for Essex. The Plans to enlarge the building, doubling its size, to reflect its new role did not come to fruition. The Diocese needed to build new churches in the London-over-the-border area. The only addition to the Cathedral was a 17 feet extension to the Chancel.

The town of Chelmsford had to wait until 2012 for City status.

Footnotes

Tony Tuckwell is author of ‘Coming of Age: The Life and Times of Chelmsford Cathedral 1914-2014 (2013). He also gave a talk to the High Country History Group in February 2020 entitled ‘Education in Essex’.

Revd. Philip Morant (1700-1770) is remembered twice annually being the first author of published Essex history. His two-volume work was published in 1768.

The diners at the Morant Lunch were amused by the four different table mats depicting an A-Z history of the village of Purleigh. ‘A’ stood for ‘All Saints Church, built in the 14th century but refurbished in 1892 to retain its medieval past’. ‘B’ was ‘The Bell, the public house overlooking the Vineyard’. ‘T’ stood for ‘Trouble’ the name of the pub cat that slept soundly throughout proceedings.

²⁰⁹ See also Journal No. 52: Centenary of Chelmsford Diocese (1914 – 2014) – High Country History Group.

Additional sources:

Cox, Rev J Charles. The Cathedral Church and See of Essex (1908) p17

Reeve. Notes for a Parish History. ERO T/P 188/3 f8, f11