And All Saint’s Church, Windsor
Published in Windlesora 06 (1987)
© WLHG
All Saints’ church, described by Sir John Betjeman as ‘a spacious, big-boned church,’ stands at the junction of Alexandra Road and Frances Road in Windsor, a mile from the Castle.
In 1862, Canon Ellison, Vicar of Windsor, announced that the seating in the parish church in the High Street was proving inadequate because many of his poorer parishioners could not afford to pay the pew rents and were therefore unable to attend church. Of the 1,700 seats, less than 200 were free, and so the idea of a new church with free seating was mooted. This was approved by Queen Victoria who graciously contributed £300, and signified her special pleasure that her daughter, the Crown Princess of Prussia (the Princess Royal) would lay the foundation stone.
Mr (later Sir) Arthur Blomfield, the eminent architect, was commissioned for the work, but it was his young apprentice Thomas Hardy, later to achieve fame as a novelist, who visited the proposed site in Windsor to make the necessary plans and drawings.
By November 21 1863, the date chosen for laying the foundation stone, further donations had been subscribed by the Dean and Chapter of St.George’s, Eton College, and local townsfolk, including even the poorest, the final total being £3,400. The ceremony was a happy occasion as the Princess was also celebrating her birthday. Others in attendance included the Bishop of Oxford, a large body of clergy, gentry of the neighbourhood and other local dignitaries. Mr Blomfield, and his young assistant, Thomas Hardy, were also on the platform. On page 48 of The Life of Thomas Hardy, Hardy describes how Blomfield handed the Princess the trowel, and during the ceremony, ‘she got her glove daubed with the mortar. In her distress, she handed the trowel back to him with an impatient whisper of “Take it, take it.”
Exactly one year to the day, on November 21 1864, an even grander event took place; the consecration of the church. Accompanying Her Royal Highness from nearby Windsor Castle was a numerous and brilliant Royal party who joined a host of local people to witness the event. Bishop Wilberforce of Oxford preached a sermon entitled “The need was great.”
The final cost of the church was £4,000 with free seating for 600. From the start, mother and daughter churches have been working as one parish, with parishioners using sometimes one and sometimes the other church. Her Majesty the Queen sent flowers to mark the Centenary on November 1 1964.
As a Windsorian, I was naturally curious when it was brought to my attention in the mid-seventies that plans and drawings of All Saints’ executed by Thomas Hardy had been discovered behind the organ of Windsor parish church. These have been expertly cleaned and framed and hang in All Saints’. The church hall originally envisaged by Hardy over 120 years ago is to be built in the near future.
Ellen Dollery
Instrumental to my researches have been Dr C.J.P. Beatty, author of Thomas Hardy’s career in Architecture (1978): and Professor Michael Millgate, author of Thomas Hardy, a biography (1982). I am indebted to them both for their interest in this little known episode of Hardy’s architectural career, and for the visits made by them to All Saints’.
Windsor Local History Group 