Reproduced from
DRYPOOL -
Being a History of the Ancient
Parish of Drypool cum Southcoates
by M. Edward Ingram (1959)
by M. Edward Ingram (1959)
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A further stimulus to population growth came with the opening of the Alexandra Dock. No doubt the flag flew from St. Peter's tower on that snowy January day in 1881 when Colonel Gerard Smith turned the first sod of the dock in the presence of a vast concourse and to the accompaniment of a choir of 2,000 voices and a dozen bands. It would fly again four years later when the Orlando proudly sailed into the lockpit of the new dock. The church had anticipated the influx of people, and in 1877 permission had been granted to hold services in the sacristy of the Burial Ground. For a short time after 1885, this had been designated St. Nathaniel's Church, but at the request of the Archbishop, the name was changed to St. Bartholomew. A small sketch of this tiny building appears in "The Church in the King's Town," 1925. Thomas Davis left Drypool in 1886, and was succeeded by John James Beddow, one of whose first tasks was to provide a more roomy mission church for the eastern part of the parish. Messrs. W. Harbrow, of South Bermondsey, "Iron church and chapel builders," were employed to erect what has been popularly called a " Tin Tabernacle" for 300 people on the frontage to the Burial Ground. The church was opened by the Bishop of Beverley on 8th December, 1891, and regular services commenced, with Holy Communion after Evensong on the second Sunday in each month. A Communion Service was given by Mr. and Mrs. Castle, and this is now at St. John's. The church was placed under the care of the Reverend S. H. Greenway. In 1893, the vicarage at the corner of Franklin Street was sold to the Hull Savings Bank and the present vicarage, at the corner of Lee Street, built for the sum of £1,725. |
We have now reached the end of the first decade of the present century, and Mr. Beddow's ministry finished in April, 1914. The population had now reached 47,000 and the parish was being run by two men. Nothing had been done towards endowing St. Bartholomew's or the new church, and the time was ripe for a change. Mr. Beddow was an extreme Low Churchman. To him music and ceremonial of any kind was anathema, and detracted from the preaching of the Gospel. Yet he could hardly be said to be in the true Evangelical tradition. Whilst others had introduced such things into their services without detriment, those at the parish church remained on what the Hull Daily Mail describes as " austere Evangelical lines." There was little music, and only a short time before he left had the vicar been persuaded to permit the psalms to be sung. For the sermon he wore a Geneva gown. His extreme Protestantism was rather akin to that of the seventeenth century Puritan. His attitude to the Church can best be summed up in his successor's obituary notice, printed in "Drypool Leaves" on Mr. Beddow's death in 1926 : "His firmness of principle made him feel that there were tendencies in the Anglican Church that made it impossible for him to continue as the incumbent of a parish, and therefore with great faith and boldness he resigned his benefice and took up work elsewhere." On Mr. Beddow's resignation the new incumbentthe Reverend Edward Arthur Berry-came to a parish beset with problems. Unlike Sculcoates, Drypool's growth had been retarded, but after the building of St. Andrew's it had come on apace. But planning was haphazard and it was difficult to forecast where the Church could best serve the growing population. |
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