The Stokesley parish magazine of 1876

A few notes from the Stokesley, Whorlton & Ingleby Parish Magazine of 1876.

(I find to my dismay that I can't find the source of these notes at the moment!  Perhaps if I have time to go through my hand-written notes, I'll find it.  I think the Northallerton County Library is the source).

The following services were held in January 1876:

Stokesley:  Sundays at 10.30 am and 6.30 pm, with a 2.30 pm service on the first Sunday of the month

Easby: Sundays at 2.30 pm

The Workhouse: Wednesdays at 6 pm

On Saints' Days there were services at Stokesley at 11 am and 7.30 pm.
Daily Prayer was held at 4.30 pm and 7.30 pm on Wednesdays and Fridays. 

Other activities:

Bible Class
Mothers' Meetings
Catechising at Church on Sunday afternoons
"working parties at the Rectory"
"an instruction class in church".

"In case of sickness … send at once to the Rectory, to the Rev R E Briggs, or to the Rev W V Palmer".



The Rector was Francis Digby Legard.  He had come to Stokesley in early 1873 from Whitwell on the Hill, where he had been the first vicar of the newly built church.  He was born in 1829 and in 1872 married Jane, daughter of Admiral Frederick Vernon Harcourt.  Jane died in 1875 aged 29, leaving a son and daughter.  Francis died in Stokesley in 1883.

In 1876, Stokesley church had been reopened after renovations.  The Archbishop had come to preach on 2 December 1875.  The magazine was now produced in a new format.  It now included Whorlton and Ingleby and was advertised as being "An Old Friend with a New Face".

"It is with pleasure we notice the welcome given of Thursday, May 11, to the eldest son of J Emerson Esq, of Easby, on his return home with his bride"

By June it was necessary to have a meeting of ratepayers – by 1876 the half-acre cemetery laid out at Lady Cross in 1850 was full.  The Rector promised to give an acre of glebe for the extension, and they needed to raise a 6d rate to create it.

There are descriptions of Whorlton's Sunday School's Summer Treat, Ingleby's Parish Library ("nearly 300 well selected volumes" subscriptions 1/- p.a), Ingleby's Clothing Club, and the proposed Reading Room for Swainby.

The three clergymen and "a party of eight" went to the Sunday School Union Meeting at Middesbrough on Saturday 30 September – there were nearly 200 teachers present.

At the Harvest Festival "the church had been most tastefully decorated by ladies' hands, and never looked so well before".

The Harvest Thanksgiving with "special psalms and hymns" was "well sung by the choir" at Whorlton.

The Reading Room opened in Swainby – two rooms, one for games of draughts, chess, dominoes etc, and the other for reading.  Daily and weekly papers were provided, and monthly magazines.  There were plans for a lending library.  The subs were 2d a week, or 2/- per qtr.

Harvest Thanksgiving at Ingleby Greenhow – "parishioners were most liberal in their offerings of flowers and corn, and the decorations were pronounced quite equal to those of previous years.  The psalms were well chanted by the choir".  There was a concert in the evening.

The School Board accounts show the Stokesley School income:

Income
Govt grant......................£105. 9s. 10d         
School fees.....................£79. 16s. 1d.              
Small payments...................£5. 5s. 0d.                 
Rate, at 5d in the £..........£150. 0s. 0d.
          
Total.................................£340. 10s. 11d.                                               

Expenses
Salaries of teachers etc.....£99. 0s. 0d.
School books etc..............£45. 10s. 8d. 
Repairs, fuel, lights.............£9. 5s. 1d.
Election expenses.............£24. 12s. 0d.
Sundries................................£1. 8s. 1d.
In hands of Treasurer.......£160. 15s. 1d.

Total.................................£340. 10s. 11d.