Diary of a [not so] madman
The diary and terrier of the vicarage of Brotherton gives detailed descriptions by the various vicars relating to the church and vicarage.
It also notes social and economic changes that affected village life but most significantly, this unique book gives us some of the thoughts and feelings of a succession of incumbents of St Edward the Confessor, which are both amusing and at times quite scathing of the people of Brotherton!
‘I would recommend it to all my successors to have their cows brought home from ye town pasture to milk. Because many young men and children in ye town make a practise of duly attending ye maids when they milk ye cows’ John Law, vicar, 1779 commenting on his milk cows and milk maids!
Perhaps one of the most interesting and amusing entries made is by Rev Justice Southam who concludes that Brotherton is indeed an evil place!
The diary takes us briefly through both World Wars and notes with concern that Byram Park was an ammunition dump and if ‘the Nazi’s dropped a bomb there it would blow Brotherton off the map’
In 1946, 50 German prisoners of war attended Midnight Eucharist on Christmas Eve. The diary goes on to tell us that there were approximately 100 POW billeted in Brotherton Hall. It also notes, quite scathingly, that since the end of the war, attendance at church was down and that perhaps people believed that the ‘millennium has arrived and that there is no further need for God’.
It is quite rare to find a diary spanning so many years that gives us a glimpse of the changing attitudes of incumbent’s towards their congregation whilst at the same time showing how national affairs affected village life.
Vote for the Dairy & Terrier book of Brotherton Parish today!
Do you live in Brotherton? Are you familiar with the parish? Leave us your thoughts here!
The diary and terrier of the vicarage of Brotherton gives detailed descriptions by the various vicars relating to the church and vicarage.
It also notes social and economic changes that affected village life but most significantly, this unique book gives us some of the thoughts and feelings of a succession of incumbents of St Edward the Confessor, which are both amusing and at times quite scathing of the people of Brotherton!
‘I would recommend it to all my successors to have their cows brought home from ye town pasture to milk. Because many young men and children in ye town make a practise of duly attending ye maids when they milk ye cows’ John Law, vicar, 1779 commenting on his milk cows and milk maids!
Perhaps one of the most interesting and amusing entries made is by Rev Justice Southam who concludes that Brotherton is indeed an evil place!
The diary takes us briefly through both World Wars and notes with concern that Byram Park was an ammunition dump and if ‘the Nazi’s dropped a bomb there it would blow Brotherton off the map’
In 1946, 50 German prisoners of war attended Midnight Eucharist on Christmas Eve. The diary goes on to tell us that there were approximately 100 POW billeted in Brotherton Hall. It also notes, quite scathingly, that since the end of the war, attendance at church was down and that perhaps people believed that the ‘millennium has arrived and that there is no further need for God’.
It is quite rare to find a diary spanning so many years that gives us a glimpse of the changing attitudes of incumbent’s towards their congregation whilst at the same time showing how national affairs affected village life.
Vote for the Dairy & Terrier book of Brotherton Parish today!
Do you live in Brotherton? Are you familiar with the parish? Leave us your thoughts here!