Splendid group photo but what’s the big occasion?

We found this photograph on Wigan World; it was posted in 2012 by Mary Sayers. It fascinates and infuriates us.

It’s a big group photo, even today it would take some organising and skill to get a decent picture. There are in the region of one hundred people in the photo. Mainly men but a pleasing number of women. Outfits include men in dog collars, women in very ornate hats, some seemingly full of flowers. Towards the back there are men wearing straw boaters. Over on the left at the back, are a couple of top hats. People are carrying umbrellas. It’s not a cold day, no one is wearing an overcoat. It looks as if it’s summer time as there are leaves on the trees.

Because of the number of clergy and the setting we can assume it was a church occasion. The building in the background is The Hall in Frog Lane. The people are sitting on land now occupied by the Deanery High School.

But what would bring all these members of the clergy together? Who took the photograph? It must have been a very special occasion.

In the Liverpool Diocesan Gazette there are details of the Bishop of Liverpool’s regular visits to deaneries in the diocese when members of the clergy, lay people, choir members, churchwardens, sidesmen, Sunday school teachers were invited. Perhaps this is one such occasion.

We’ve been able to identify some of the people in the photograph and suggest a rough date.

The small man left of the centre in the front row is Right Revd. Bishop Francis Chavasse, second Bishop of Liverpool serving from 1900 to 1923. Bishop Chavasse was a frequent visitor to Wigan. In 1904, for instance, he visited Wigan 13 times. He preached sermons, laid Foundation Stones, and famously, following the Maypole Colliery Disaster in 1908, conducted a memorial service for the dead miners not in the church in Abram but in the field adjacent to the colliery within a hundred yards of the pit itself.

Next to the Bishop is a very grand looking lady. We think it’s Lady Constance Lily, nee Pelly. She was the wife of David Lindsay of the Crawford family who lived at Haigh Hall. David would become 27th Earl of Crawford in 1913 on the death of his father.

The man in the middle is the Rector of Wigan, Revd. Roland Matthew and next to him his wife, Ethel. He became rector in 1896.

The man wearing the chain is Hugh Ross who was mayor in 1905/6 and deputy for four to five years afterwards. Look him up, his life came to a tragic end in the River Mersey.

The man to the left of the Bishop looks younger than most of the others, he could be a curate at the Parish Church or maybe the Bishop’s chaplain. The woman to his left is likely to be Edith Chavasse, wife of the Bishop.

We can see Revd. William Wickham of St. Andrew’s, Springfield (famous for the photographs of his parishioners) on the third row, extreme left, just above the woman who turned away at the wrong moment.

It’s difficult to identify any others. Possibly Revd. James of St. David’s, Haigh is on the second row to the left of Rector Matthew.

We think that the photograph was taken about 1910. During those years, a number of Wigan churches were built and consecrated and there must have been much cause for celebration.

And a sobering thought to finish on. On such a happy day there was probably no thought of a forthcoming conflict. But at least four fathers and one mother seen in the photograph would go on to lose sons in the First World War.

There is often a rogues’ gallery of vicars and curates hidden away in church vestries – anyone want to have a go at matching up faces?

https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=5&id=19902&gallery=Wigan&page=2

With thanks to Ron Hunt of Wigan World