SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: There has been a Vicar of Croydon for more than a thousand years. Before next week’s formal installation service for the latest holder of that historic title, DAVID MORGAN has delved into the archives and found an earlier Bishop who became the vicar
High office: Edward Tufnell, the Bishop of Brisbane, who was Vicar of Croydon 1879-1882
The historic title of Vicar of Croydon is to be restored in a special service at the Minster next Sunday, when Canon Andrew Bishop becomes the latest to hold the office in a line of priests that stretches back more than one thousand years.
One of Rev Canon Bishop’s intriguing predecessors, who I found as I scoured the Minster archives recently, was Rev Edward Wyndham Tufnell.
Tufnell was the Vicar and Rural Dean of Croydon between 1879 and 1882.
Aged 65 when he came to Croydon, his life and career in the church was, even by Victorian standards, a rollercoaster. The details read like chapters from a Trollope novel.
The sailing ship Vimiera arrived in Sydney Harbour in August 1860 after a voyage from London that had lasted for 90 days. Among the ship’s passengers were Tufnell together with five priests, two deacons and four laymen. After transferring to a smaller vessel, the Yarra Yarra, they headed up the east coast of Australia, finally berthing at Brisbane on September 7. Here, their new lives were to begin.
Australian ministry: St Mary’s, Kangaroo Point, one of the churches built under Tufnell as Bishop of Brisbane
Tufnell was to be the first Bishop of Brisbane and his team were there to support him administratively and spiritually.
Quite how Tufnell had been appointed was a mystery to many in the congregations in his new see that covered hundreds of thousands of acres, reaching into the interior of the Australian outback.
The Diocese of Brisbane was vast, more than three times the size of England and Wales.
Tufnell openly admitted that he was not a horseman, despite his having to travel hundreds of miles to visit far-flung and remote settlements. Tufnell’s flock were far more rough and ready than those from Tufnell’s gentile English background: an Eton educated, Oxford graduate he was a Canon at Salisbury Cathedral and Rector of St Peter’s and St Paul’s in Marlborough in Wiltshire.
Perhaps it was Tufnell’s energetic support of the SPG, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in the Diocese of Salisbury which convinced Archbishop Sumner, the Archbishop of Canterbury, that Tufnell was the man for the job.
A week after Tufnell arrived, a service was held In the Episcopalian church in Brisbane for his installation. The Sydney Morning Herald ran a comprehensive report.
“There was a very large congregation, and more than half were ladies.” Maybe they were there to see what the 45-year-old bachelor clergyman was like?
Influence: John Bird Sumner, the Archbishop of Canterbury who appointed Tufnell to Brisbane. Sumner is buried at St Mary’s, Addington
Following his installation, Tufnell preached “an excellent sermon” introducing the team who he had brought with him from England and remembering especially one of their number, who had not survived the voyage.
Tufnell brought with him £7,166 for general purposes, plus a fund of £5,000 for diocesan development – in total, equivalent in purchasing power to about £1.8million today. Then, as now, part of the role of senior members of the Church of England is management – of their churches, of church properties, and their finances.
Bishop Tufnell ran into financial difficulties within a fortnight of his arrival.
He outlined a scheme where all church monies were to be sent to Brisbane and the costs of stipends – parish priests’ wages – and building costs were to be paid from this central fund. Local laity, used to being in direct, day-to-day control of their parish money, began to demand back their authority. Tufnell’s scheme was soon dropped.
Tufnell failed to comprehend the level of income of the majority of the churches and of the parishioners who attended them. He insisted that each parish should pay a stipend of £300 to their clergyman, and provide a vicarage. This, he said, was agreed when he was recruiting staff in England for the Brisbane diocese.
Grumbling complaints: it was not long before critical letters about Bishop Tufnell appeared in the Australian newspapers
The average wage in the Queensland outback in the 1860s was only between £100 and £200 a year. A teacher in one of the schools would receive between £150 and £200. So £300 a year – an equivalent of £46,000 a year now – would have made each parish priest considerably wealthier than members of their congregation.
Most of the parishes found it difficult to raise £300 and so were often in arrears. As a result, Tufnell had to appeal to various groups and societies in England to subsidise the stipends, often by up to £100. He, himself, took no salary for the first few years in Australia and, when he did so, it was largely paid for by donations from back home.
Another financial crisis soon blew up. While Tufnell was on route to Australia, the Queensland government cut its grants to the church and church schools. Tufnell wanted to develop a comprehensive and efficient system of church school education, but inherited six weak schools. He fought hard to overturn the abolition of state aid and partially succeeded in 1871, when it was agreed that teachers’ salaries should be paid by the state.
However, the Queensland 1875 Education Act would signal the end of the Anglican school system.
In 1865, after five hard years in Brisbane, Tufnell took the decision to return to England to campaign for more funds and support for his diocese. His absence didn’t go down well with some of those he left behind in Queensland.
One letter in The Courier bemoaned the bishop’s departure, saying that there were many questions left unanswered about the way in which gifts to the diocese were being spent, about the appointments of clergy and pointing out that no significant decisions would be taken on any major project until Tufnell returned.
Tufnell was away for two years. He was ill for many months with a bout of potentially fatal smallpox. Having recovered from this, he had his nuptuals to arrange.
He got married in February 1867. The bride was his cousin, Louise Tufnell. She was 30, he was 53. They were wed in the parish church at Great Waltham, Essex, by the Bishop of Rochester, with the Tufnell coat of arms prominently on display. One branch of the family owned the land where Tufnell Park Tube station in Islington stands today.
As befitted a great village occasion the day was memorable. The drums and fifes of the Dunmow Union marched through the village playing “a lively air”.
Bishop’s palace: Bishopsbourne, built at huge cost at the direction of Tufnell
The happy couple were driven to Ingatestone Station where they caught the train, going on to honeymoon in Brighton. As the couple got into the car, a shower of old slippers was thrown at the vehicle, “in the time-honoured custom”.
Married, Bishop Tufnell and his bride set off for Brisbane.
One of the projects awaiting his approval was the completion of a new residence for him and his wife. Bishopsbourne was an impressive building, designed by Benjamin Backhouse, an Australian architect and politician. Tufnell paid £4,406 for the new property, the money coming from the fund he had raised whilst he was back in England.
Several members of the Anglican church in Queensland thought the money might have been spent in a different way.
It was at Bishopsbourne where the Tufnells’ children were born. Ida was born on September 12 1870 and Arthur on February 18 1872.
A synod meeting held in June 1873 brought an announcement from Tufnell which some had suspected might have been coming for some time. He told the assembly that he was planning to return to England and offer his resignation to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Back in 1870 there had been grumbling by many parishes saying that Tufnell never visited them. He had replied that he was no longer capable of carrying out all the visits that he would like to. He had also said that he would resign his position if, by doing so, he would promote the welfare of the diocese.
At the next synod meeting in February 1874, an address was given expressing the meeting’s concern for the welfare of the bishop and his family. Charles Coxen, the chair of the committees, expressed regret that “it has not, on all occasions, been our good fortune to concur on your lordship’s views and policies”.
Journey home: how the voyage of the Tom Morton, from Queensland to Singapore, was advertised in 1874
Tufnell replied that, “No difference of opinion on public matters ever interfered in the slightest with private friendship.”
In the meeting, no mention was made of the generous gifts of money which Tufnell had donated to the diocese for its development or to stave off bankruptcy. No mention was made about Tufnell’s work in establishing the diocese and the setting up of a proper governance. No mention was made of his early years in the job when he managed to travel to all parts of north Queensland and beyond. No mention was made of all the church buildings erected and how many vicarages were constructed while he was bishop. Despite being the bishop for almost 14 years, many felt his face just didn’t fit.
Tufnell, his wife and two children left Brisbane on February 28 1874 on the Tom Morton, bound for Singapore on the first leg of their journey back to England. The family received many gifts from friends and colleagues in their final days in Australia. A crowd of clergy, church people and civic dignitaries stood on the quayside to wish them well and wave them off. No public service of farewell was organised, though.
When he was back in England, Tufnell was given a curacy in Charing, Kent for a short while before he was appointed as Vicar of Croydon. Exhausted by his years of toil in Brisbane, Tufnell fell back into the routines he remembered from his Salisbury days.
He must have kept his interest in church schools alive though as his name appears in the logbook for the Parish School in Croydon. This stated that the school was opened in January 1894 but acknowledged that Rt Rev Bishop Tufnell opened a school back in 1882, implying that it might have lapsed in the interim.
Tufnell moved on from Croydon to be a Canon at Chichester Cathedral and the vicar of Feltham, West Sussex. He continued to minister right up to his last days, despite fracturing a hip and being unable to step up into the pulpit.
After his death, his wife made a gift of £1,000 to open a children’s home in Nundah, a suburb of Brisbane, in his memory. The Tufnell Home for Children, managed by the Sisters of the Sacred Advent, ran until 1975.
Edwards Tufnell: the bishop, who became a vicar, who became a canon. Perhaps today, around one and a half centuries later, his ministries and achievements might be viewed more sympathetically.
Read more: Canon Bishop to take on historic post as the Vicar of Croydon
David Morgan, pictured right, is a former Croydon headteacher, now the volunteer education officer at Croydon Minster, who offers tours or illustrated talks on the history around the Minster for local community groups
If you would like a group tour of Croydon Minster or want to book a school visit, then ring the Minster Office on 020 688 8104 or go to the website on www.croydonminster.org and use the contact page
Some previous articles by David Morgan:
- Addiscombe artist who brought vivid colour to children’s books
- ‘Professor’ played piano on Surrey Street for 5 days and nights
- The church fire that consumed a thousand years of history
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
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Great, great stuff – thanks David