Reproduced from

DRYPOOL - Being a History of the Ancient Parish of Drypool cum Southcoates
by M. Edward Ingram (1959)

45 gives them both as " Architect and Builder" of George Yard and New Dock Street respectively. Earle was also a sculptor and father of the more famous Thomas. An example of John's work signed by him is to be seen in Drypool Churchyard. It is a slate stone to Elizabeth Pearson, and is dated 1840. Briefs were issued by Royal Mandate and it was a method of raising money comparable, says W. E. Tate, to the modern" Week's Good Cause." The rubric following the Nicene Creed in the Communion Office makes provision for the reading of Briefs. They were read from the pulpit, and after the service the Churchwardens stood near the door and exhorted the departing worshippers" Please to remember the Brief." During the course of time, the sums dwindled, abuses crept in, and the Act Incorporating the Church Building Society practically abolished the system. Thus the Drypool Brief would be one of the last to be issued. In the Brief it is stated that the church, "which was built prior to the year 1400, became lately much decayed, and was found upon examination to be in so ruinous a condition that it required to be taken down." The growth of population, too, necessitated that it should be rebuilt " upon a plan sufficiently enlarged to accommodate the numerous inhabitants who desire to assemble for the public worship of Almighty God." The Brief was laid at Easter, 1823. It was estimated that £1,990 was needed, and as the parishioners could not raise this by themselves they asked for" the charitable assistance of well disposed Christians." 10,800 copies were issued, and 9,386 were returned yielding £423 8s. 9id. The expenses and collector's salary swallowed £234 12s. 6d., the nett proceeds being £188 16s. 3id., less than half the sum collected. By the second decade of t he nineteenth century, the effects of the Industrial Revolution were beginning to be felt in the large increase of population, badly housed, ignorant and uninstructed. The excesses of the French Revolution were still fresh in men's minds, and these two factors induced the Government to vote money to

46 St Peter's Church, Drypool, 1935 [Click image for larger version]