Revd. Fitz Wygram Read about Revd. Fitz Wygram Mrs. Alice Fitz Wygram, born on April 8th 1839, was daughter of Lady Ward, Grace and Favour Apartments, Hampton Court Palace and Henry Ward, R.C.M.G., Governor of Madras at the time of his death. She came to Hampton Hill when she was twenty two and her husband thirty four. She moved into Larkfield Lodge across the road from the vicarage after her husband’s death and proceeded to make it another centre of church life, in addition to the vicarage. She lived thirty one years as a widow much loved for her kindness and generosity. She died in 1912. Read more about Mrs. Fitz Wygram

When the church was completed, the Revd. Fitzroy John Fitz Wygram, M.A., was appointed vicar and the building was consecrated in honour of St. James on December 11th, 1863, by Bishop Tait, Bishop of London.

At Revd. Fitz Wygram’s induction ceremony, the Bishop of London was reported as having said, “It is a barn of a church and a wilderness of a place”. At the same occasion the Revd. J. Burrows, Vicar of St. Mary’s, Hampton, described the area as “a wilderness with a number of habitations of the most wretched kind, inhabited by a still more wretched class of people”.

The inhabitants of the community were also described by the Hampton historian, Henry Ripley, as being “destitute of every social and useful institution”. Revd. Fitz Wygram’s response was to say that “if people are taught to say thanks to God, they must have something to give thanks for”. He and his wife then dedicated their lives and a good deal of their money to improving the unpleasant living conditions and poor prospects of the parishioners. In the words of Henry Ripley: “The many squalid, unhealthy and overcrowded cabins were acquired and pulled down; streets lined with comfortable cheaply-rented cottages or commodious villas sprang up in all directions, and nearly every institution or movement necessary to the well-being of a community was inaugurated and carried out to a successful issue, without any regard to the expense entailed”.

An 'Order of Queen in Council' was published from the Court at Windsor on April 7th, 1864, showing the boundaries of “the District Chapelry at Hampton Hill”. This was the first time the village had been called Hampton Hill but the old name of New Hampton persisted for the next twenty years. See the whole Document

Running the Church
The administrative committee of a church was called a Vestry from the 16th until the 20th century, when it became the Parochial Church Council. Because the parishioners originally met in the church vestry to transact the business of the parish, the word Vestry came to be applied both to the body of parishioners and to their meetings. The local community was looked after, during these years, by the vicar and his leading laymen. They looked after peoples' human rights and dignities, keeping them safe from injustice and encouraging healthy use of leisure. So both the secular and spiritual affairs of New Hampton, as the new parish was then known, were originally overseen by the Hampton Vestry. However, a new Vestry, separate from that at Hampton, was established in New Hampton in 1863. An Annual Vestry Meeting took place every Easter. This was the equivalent of the Annual Parochial Church Meeting and was convened for the reading of reports, passing of the year's accounts, and the election of two churchwardens, the vicar's and the people's, and other church officers. Mr. William Chandler was verger and sexton from the time the church was opened until his death in 1900 at the age of eighty-one. The Revd. Studholme Wilson was curate for the last three years of Revd. Fitz Wygram’s incumbency.

Music
The first organist of St. James's Church was William Singleton, born in 1852. When he died in 1877 Mr. Dawkins became organist.

Schools
Early on in his incumbency, Revd. Fitz Wygram discovered that only thirteen children out of a population of 1,100 went to any sort of school. Having a keen interest in education, he made a grant of land in Mill Lane to the vicar and church-wardens “on trust for the education of children and adults, or children only, of labourers, manufacturing and other poorer classes, and for no other purpose”. The boys’ school was where the Greenwood Centre stands today. The girls’ and infants’ building is still standing in School Road, and is today a warehouse. Beyond the warehouse on the same side, are the two teachers’ houses, built in 1886. In 1867 School Road was a country lane with a narrow entrance from Windmill Lane.

The schools were to be run on the principles of the Church of England’s National Society for Promoting Religious Education (founded in 1811 and still in existence). The children were examined annually in the three R’s by Her Majesty’s Inspectors, the amount of grant being assessed on the success of each individual pupil. The management committee was composed of local resident communicant members of the church who subscribed to the schools. The funds for running the schools came from the church offertories and donations, the government grant and the children’s pence, other subscriptions and letting the school rooms for various activities like the New Hampton Cottagers’ Flower Show and “dramatic entertainments”. By the time the schools of St. James’s, Hampton Hill, were started, the state had begun to concern itself with education with the first great Education Act being passed in 1870.

The vicarage was a large, elegant, gabled, typically Victorian one, which cost almost as much as the church itself. It was built in 1864 next to the church on the same site as the present vicarage, but farther from St. James’s Road, down which it faced. A small grant was made by the Church authorities but most of the cost was borne by Revd. and Mrs. Fitz Wygram.

During this period the children had to sit at long, backless desks from 09.00 to 12.00, and from 14.00 to 16.15. There was very little equipment but Scripture, Catechism and Church History were well taught, for the annual reports of the Diocesan Inspectors were almost uniformly good throughout the school’s history. Many children left before their eleventh birthday. The staff at the St. James’s Schools consisted of a certificated teacher at the head of each division, uncertificated assistants and pupil teachers.

Social Events
The social life of New Hampton almost certainly centred around the “Beer Houses”. To encourage the cottagers away from them and the drunken fights that followed, a series of popular entertainments, known as Penny Readings, was started at St. James’s School in 1865. People paid one penny admission and the programme was usually made up of readings on a variety of subjects, interspersed with glees.

St James’s Day was always celebrated with different services, including a special children’s service. No magazines were produced during Revd. Fitz Wygram's incumbency. However, from the earliest magazines that were produced, there were articles about St. James's Day which would also have been appropriate for this time, one of which reported: “According to usual custom well over 500 children met at the Schools and marched with the Hampton Hill Brass Band to the Church. After a short service the procession was once more formed, and passing round the race course staked out in the Vicarage grounds, filed into circles of seats which had been arranged respectively for the boys, girls, and infants. The 100 flags, which to the intense satisfaction of the children had been carried in the procession, now decorated the race course and other parts of the Vicarage grounds. As soon as grace had been sung, the children set to work in good earnest on the bread and butter, buns, cake, and tea. The children then scattered in all directions to take part in the various activities arranged for their amusement including Punch and Judy.” The adults also enjoyed the afternoon with wheelbarrow races, three-legged races, sack races, and spoon races for the women. Then there was bobbing for sugar plums, bell in the ring, the basket trick, and quintain. “The Band played during the intervals and towards evening was responded to by a goodly company of dancers. On Sunday there were festival services in the Church, which were bright and well attended.”

The ornate chalice and paten. Find out about these chalices and patens

Groups
The New Hampton Cottagers’ Garden Society was founded in 1871 and held its annual shows in the extensive grounds of St. James’s Vicarage. Many other clubs and societies were started, including a Masonic Lodge, the Crown and Anchor Harmonic Society, a Pigeon Club, Slate Clubs, the Tam O’Shanter Lodge of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes, and a new lodge of Odd Fellows.

At the beginning of the 1880s Revd. Fitz Wygram started a Working Men’s Club and Coffee House, the village’s first community centre, with the parish library being housed in its club room. The club was where the men could play chess, draughts and dominoes, read the daily papers and buy reasonably priced refreshments. This is described by Ripley as “a commodious block of buildings” which is “replete with every feature essential to the edification and amusement of the working man, and is an institution of which any village might be proud.” The Surrey Comet stated that it was established mainly “to encourage habits of temperance and to counteract the evils of strong drink".

There was a New Hampton Quoits Club and the Fulwell Football Club. The Lawn Tennis Club, established May 1st, 1880, was started “to enable the middle-class to indulge in this favourite exercise". However, even though leading churchmen were great supporters of the sports clubs, they were not actually run by the church.

The Church Building
As a result of improved housing and social activities, the situation in Hampton Hill rapidly improved, the population increased and more and more people came to worship in the little church. In 1872, Ripley was able to say that “the Parish was beginning to make rapid strides as regards both the numbers and respectability of its inhabitants”. The church became too small to accommodate the increased population of the parish and the number of worshippers, and therefore during the next twenty years or so the church underwent many alterations and extensions.

'David Rex' and 'Sancta Cecilia' were the windows erected in the north aisle "by the Grace of God in loving memory of William Singleton first organist of this Church, born Jan 18th 1852, died Apr 15th 1877".

These developments started in 1873 with a northern aisle, together with an outer porch at the west entrance. When the first organist, Mr. William Singleton, died in 1877, two windows were erected in the north aisle in his memory. These were the first stained windows in the north aisle which was later beautified with more windows dedicated to well known parishioners of this time. See the north aisle windows. The church was temporally closed during the building work with services being held in the schools. After the dedication of the extensions by the bishop, the Surrey Comet criticised that “the work did not seem to be in keeping with the old. The addition consists of a northern aisle of six bays with transverse gables. To gain height and light these gables pierce the roof of the old nave. The new work has a more pretentious appearance”. However the comments about the interior were much more positive:

“The advantage of the increased height obtained by the gabling tells admirably. It has afforded space for stone columns of a fair height with remarkably well proportioned arches also of stone work, permitting at the same time of aisle windows, large enough thoroughly to light the northern side of the church. The Chancel, always effective from its admirably proportioned arch and triple lancet windows, showed at its best from the removal of the organ into the eastern bay of the new aisle and a slight change in the position of the pulpit. It has gained vastly in effect from the introduction of stained glass of geometrical pattern to the eastern window, an offering from the Rev. John Fitz Wygram.”

The organ Find out about the organ

When the church reopened after the extensions in December 1873, Revd. Fitz Wygram mentioned the changes in the area during the previous five years: “Those who are acquainted with the neighbourhood will remember the little church on the rise between the railway and Hampton hill. But five years ago it and the vicarage stood alone. Now the whole neighbourhood is being dotted with villas, many of good size and considerable pretensions. We hear that an arrangement has just been made for the rapid completion of all houses …. and for a more systematic covering of a considerable additional portion of building ground. This should make New Hampton one of our fashionable suburbs with pure and bracing air and pleasant walks in pretty country lanes”.

A new vestry and organ chamber were added to the church in 1874. The chancel was enlarged in 1876 and the Vestry recorded: “The chancel which is too small will be lengthened eight feet, additional seats provided for the choir by the new choir stalls, the whole of the chancel will be repaved with tiles of choice design, the late east window will be removed to the west end of the church and a new beautifully stained window by Baily of London, of three divisions (one the gift of G. T. Ewens, chapel warden) will take its place. The alterations are again from the designs of the architect of the church, W. Wigginton. The estimated cost is £700 exclusive of the window, of which the Rev. Fitz Wygram has donated £400”. See the east window with the divisions of 'The Birth of Jesus', 'The Ascension' and 'Holy Family and Magi'. See the choir stalls.

The church in the 1880s The church’s dedication stone is placed on the outside of the east wall and reads “To the Glory of God, St. James Church, Consecrated AD 1863....”

In 1877, the November Vestry reported: “It is desirable to enlarge the Church by the addition of a south aisle, a new porch, a tower and spire in accordance with plans now submitted to the meeting by Mr. Wigginton and that the said plans be approved and signed on behalf of this Vestry”. To fund these improvements, the next two years were devoted to subscriptions, sales of flowers, needlework, bran pies and other fund-raising activities resulting in nearly £300 being raised. Church societies donated £220 and the balance was once more met by the vicar and his wife bringing the total to £2,001.

‘The Transfiguration’

The porch and south aisle were completed, and the work was again dedicated by the Bishop of London on Friday, July 18th, 1879. Ten columns were built altogether to support the nave roof, each being topped by a stone capital. Each of these capitals were carved with a different relief design of leaves with flowers or fruit. The heads of 'St. Mary' and 'St. James' were carved on the arch corbels in the chancel. See the capitals and corbels. All seats in the new aisle were entirely free while in the rest of the building people had to pay for the privilege of using a particular pew which was reserved “until the commencement of the Psalms”.

The Churchyard
The church was built with only a small churchyard immediately surrounding it as the cemetery at Hampton was still to be used. The earliest grave, that of Walter Richard Daines, a name well known in early parish times, was the only one in 1864.

The End of Revd. Fitz Wygram's Incumbency
On August 12th, 1881, whilst on a visit to Ilkley, Yorkshire Revd. Fitz Wygram died. His death was sudden, although there had already been signs that his health was deteriorating. The Surrey Comet stated that the church was packed for his funeral, referring to him “as a guiding spirit, a trustworthy friend, a safe adviser . . . he stood alone in the possession of faculties and experiences that we rarely see combined in a single character.” Read about Revd. Fitz Wygram's funeral.

He was buried in the churchyard where his grave is still standing near the entrance into the vestry. See Revd. and Mrs. Fitz Wygram’s grave. £500 was collected by public subscription to install memorials for him. A window, called ‘The Transfiguration’, at the west end of the church, above the original porch which was also built in his memory. The plaque is inscribed "To the Glory of God and in loving remembrance of Fitzroy John Fitzwygram, first vicar of this parish, 1863-1881. This window is erected by his parishioners and friends for 'A faithful man and feared God'." See detailed pictures of ‘The Transfiguration’. The south aisle series of windows based on the Parables were also added together with the original west porch, with a gable and stone cross replacing the old bell turret, and the single service bell was re-housed. See the south aisle windows.