Published in Windlesora 07 (1988)
© WLHG
The Church of St Edward the Confessor in Alma Road was opened in October 1868. It was the fulfilment of the dream of John Riley, a Windsor Catholic, who died some fifty years earlier. His obituary in the Reading Mercury of 5th May 1817 reads:
“On Saturday the 26th inst died at his house in Peascod Street, Windsor, in the 78th year of his age John Riley Esq. deservedly regretted by his friends, by the poor his loss will be severely felt, his charities being most extensively dispensed; humanity and liberality of sentiment were the leading features of his character, and his benevolent and bountiful hand was at all times open to every call of distress both public and private.”
John Riley had lived through the time when the restrictions placed upon Catholics were gradually relaxed. When he was born the celebration of Mass in public was against the law in England, and Catholics were harassed by many penalties. By the time he died most of these disabilities had been removed, although Catholic emancipation was not fully achieved until 1829 and the Roman Catholic hierarchy was not re-established in this country until 1851. John must have longed to see a church established in Windsor where local Catholics could worship openly. He said nothing in his Will about building a chapel, but during his last illness he asked his son, William Felix, to provide a Catholic chapel in Windsor.
In 1817, the year in which John died, the Inclosure Award for Clewer was drawn up and it shows that William acquired land on the south-east side of the Winkfield Road bordering on the Great Park. Here he built his house, Forest Hill, later known as Forest Park, around 1822 when he married Mary Sophia Harcourt Ramsbottom. The main gate to the drive was nearly opposite the present entrance to the Safari Park, but the house was demolished in 1957.
William Felix then acceded to his father’s request to build a chapel together with a house for the Priest, but he erected it, not in central Windsor, but at Clewer Green at the further end of his land. This house was first of all known as Chapel House and subsequently as The Hermitage. It still exists though it has since been divided into two – The Hermitage and The Old Hermitage. Following the opening of St. Edward’s Church the chapel was secularised and became the principal drawing room.
Catholic chapels had to be registered at the Quarter Sessions and on 4th April 1826 the following Certificate was issued:
“Ordered that a Roman Catholic chapel near Windsor in the parish of Clewer in said County of Berkshire as certified by the Rev C P A Cumberback (sic) to be recorded. . .”
The chapel was dedicated to St John and was first listed in the 1827 Catholic Directory although more information is given in the 1828 edition: “Clewer, Windsor, Rev C Comberbach. Divine Service on Sundays 3 times a day: at 9, solely for the Roman Catholic soldiers stationed at Windsor; at 11 for the Catholic inhabitants of the environs; and at 4 in the afternoon the prayers and litanies for country congregations. A discourse after the Gospel of each Mass, and a lecture in the afternoon. NB On Festivals of Obligation and of Devotion, Mass at 10.”
More information is given in the 1827 edition of The Visitants Guide to Windsor. . . :
““Riley, William Felix Esq. Forest Hill. This house is of recent erection and is surrounded by the Forest and Great Park. . . Riley is the principal gentleman of the RC religion in the neighbourhood of Windsor who lately erected at Clewer Green two miles from Windsor a chapel and dwelling house for the resident priest; it is a neat building and the altar is fitted up with chaste simplicity.“
Father Comberbach only stayed about two years and was replaced by Father John Wilkinson who had a small school at the house for which there was a school master. He stayed at Clewer Green for twenty years but all the time felt very keenly his failure to establish a church in Windsor and a school there for the children of the poor. Correspondence with the Bishop shows that he blamed W F Riley for putting barriers in the way. After Riley’s death in 1863 his son Major John Riley, appears to have been just as unhelpful. The Riley family’s objection to the removal of the chapel from Clewer Green seems to have been for sentimental reasons. A letter says the family. .. cannot endure the thoughts of giving up the present chapel.
In 1854 Father (later Canon) Augustus Applegarth followed Father Wilkinson at Clewer Green and he also wanted to build a church in Windsor. Clewer Green was then a hamlet outside Windsor, and it is understandable that he should want to serve in the town. No doubt many of his congregation came from there, and the opportunities for Catholic witness would be so much greater. Catholic visitors to the Castle attended Mass at Clewer Green and perhaps he wished for more than a country chapel in which to welcome them. In addition, Catholic soldiers stationed at Windsor worshipped there and in 1865 Canon Applegarth, wrote to the Bishop, on the inadequacy of the chapel:
“.. . The present congregation cannot be put down at less than 150 without counting soldiers of whom we have now 50 to 60, but another Regiment is being expected. . . should the Guards go away as in the late war we should have a Regiment perhaps as before with 450 Catholics in it. . .”
A subscription list for building a church in Windsor had been opened by Father Wilkinson and we can be sure that Canon Applegarth had continued it, but it was not until the mid-1860s that the considerable financial help needed was forthcoming from Count Ramon de Morella who lived in Wentworth. The Count, who was born Ramon Cabrera in Tortosa, Spain was an extraordinary and colourful character. His humble, devout parents had intended him for the church but instead he became a fanatical bandit leader with such powers of leadership that he eventually became Carlist commander-in-chief scoring great military success. He made Morella his headquarters and was awarded the title of Count de Morella for capturing the fortress there. His other title, Marquis del Ter, to mark his final battle in the Spanish campaign, was awarded at the time of his wedding in May 1850. He had arrived in England in 1849 and soon met and married the English heiress, Marianne Catherine Richards. In 1855 they moved to the mansion which later became Wentworth Club House, and here he assumed the role of an English country gentleman. We do not know how he came to be so generous towards the Catholics in Windsor but he not only bought the land in Alma Road on which the church was built, but also guaranteed the building costs.
On October 18th 1868 the new church of St Edward the Confessor was opened with a Pontifical High Mass. Designed by Charles Alban Buckler of London and built by E. W. Kelly of Victoria Street, Windsor, the building was originally intended to have a tower and spire, but this was not carried out.
The Count and Countess of Morella had five children. Their third son Leopold had the reputation of being a ‘social misfit’ but after his death in the 1900s he was commemorated by stained glass windows in the sanctuary. The Count died on May 24th 1877 and each year on the anniversary, a Requiem Mass is celebrated for him at St Edward’s.
Although the Riley family did not want to see the Clewer Green Chapel closed, they nevertheless decided to give a Lady chapel as a memorial in the new church. They used the money from the sale of Chapel House at Clewer Green, although the Count de Morella felt that this should have been earmarked to offset the cost of the site of the new church and there is, in the correspondence, evidence of friction between Major John Riley, the Count and Canon Applegarth.
Be that as it may the Riley family had given the Catholic cause much support and Masses are still celebrated annually for them at St Edward’s. And there is no doubt that the fine building in Alma Road would have gladdened the heart of that earlier John Riley.
Jean Kirkwood
Sources
Information relating to the Riley family and the building of St Edward’s Church was found amongst the correspondence and other papers, copies of which are held at St. Edward’s Church (the originals are with the Portsmouth Diocesan Archives. St Edmund House, Edinburgh Road, Portsmouth); and also from the Berkshire file of the Catholic Record Society, 114 Mount Street, London W1.
The Inclosure Award and Map for Clewer are held at the Berkshire Record Office, Shire Hall, Shinfield Park, Reading.
CHANT, Roy Heman. Spanish Tiger: The Life and Times of Ramon Cabrera Tunbridge Wells: Midas Books.
KNIGHT, Charles The Visitants Guide to Windsor Castle and its environs 1827ed. : Reading Central Library.
Reading Mercury: Reading Central Library.
Windsor Local History Group 