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Most of the 19th century in Purley was dominated by two very long serving and very well off rectors. Between them they spanned 75 years. Both did a lot for the parish with their money, both were very interested in education and were generally ahead of their time in this regard. It was during this period that tithes were sorted out, the parish fields were enclosed and above all the Great Western Railway drove its tracks right across the parish.
It was also a period of immense social change. The Reform Act was passed in 1832 and parishes had been grouped into Unions to reduce the burden of the Poor Laws on the rich. Throughout the nineteenth century the Reformers were at work and gradually the Church of England was awaked from its eighteenth century hibernation.
Purley was always a very agricultural parish and the changes affected agriculture profoundly. Peasant farmers were turned into labourers at near starvation wages, transport was revolutionised so people and produce could get more easily to the great towns and the old feudal way of life entered its death throes.
Charles Manesty MA is Purley's longest serving rector. He was born in 1774, the son of James Manesty who was curate of Purley at the time at the time of his son's appointment. Charles had probably been brought up in the village. He was inducted on 23rd March 1800. He was educated at St John's College Oxford taking his BA in 1794 and MA in 1798.
Henry Wilder died in 1814. He had been rector of Sulham since 1744 and had also served as curate to Purley, making the triennial reports in 1780 and 1783. The Wilder family had been associated with the manor of Nunhide since 1602 and purchased the manor of Sulham in 1712 and Purley Hall a little later. The family still own most of these lands as Mrs Iris Moon, the present owner is the granddaughter of the last Reverend Wilder of Sulham. Henry was educated at St John's
College Oxford where he obtained the degree of Doctor of Laws. He held both the livings of Sulham and Edgecott in Buckinghamshire by special dispensation and acted as a Magistrate for Berkshire. He was buried in Sulham on 30th January 1814.
In 1818 Charles Manesty replied to a questionnaire from the Committee of Education in London, that there was a day school in the parish for younger children and that the older children went to school in a neighbouring parish. The school was reported on again in 1838 when it was stated that it was available to all the children of the village.
The patronage of Purley Church was transferred from the Crown to the Lord Chancellor's Department in 1822.
At the Archdeacons visitation of August 23rd 1826 the churchwardens paid 13/6 for nine briefs. This was the last recorded payment of briefs as the system was abolished by Act of Parliament the next year.
Charles Manesty was granted leave of absence for one year in 1828 by the bishop and John Horsley Dakins was licensed as curate at a stipend of £75 pa, with the use of the rectory where he lived with his wife Sophie. In May he baptised his daughter Emily Caroline.
Other curates who served during Charles's incumbancy were James Manesty (1789-1803), H. Romaine (1803), Edward Boisser (1825-26), G.Ogle (1826-27), Josh Bockett (1827) and R.T.Powys (1829). Richard Powys was the chaplain to the Alms Houses in Goring and related to the lords of the manor of Purley Parva.
Three men broke into the church in 1829 and stole a surplice and other items. The Churchwardens spent £10-17-2 to prosecute them.
Charles had enlarged the parsonage in 1805 when he built new stables and a barn in what had been an orchard and 1830 he mortgaged the rectory for £560 to pay for essential repairs and to make it larger.
At the Court Baron of Purley Parva in 1818 Charles' wife Eliza was made the second life on the copyholds that he held of the manor. His neice Emma Wharton was made the third life. He had just inherited these lands from his father James who had died 1n 1816.
The belfry and roof of the church were repaired in 1831. The churchwardens paid a man with three horses 8/6 to take the old lead, removed from the steeple, to Theale and bring back new lead. Most of the work was done by Messrs Thomas Draper and Buckeridge assisted by a carpenter and two men. The final bill came to £13-12-3. At the same time new bellropes were purchased for £1-12-0.
In the 1830s Charles was involved in the sale of part of the Glebe lands to the Great Western Railway for the construction of their new line between London and Bristol. He indulged in a very complex transaction whereby he sold land from his glebe to the GWR while at the same time Philip Powys of Hardwick sold them the land that Charles rented from the estate. All this on the condition that the GWR sell back the land they did not actually need to Charles as his own personal property, which they duly did.
In 1836 the Archdeaconary of Berkshire was transferred from Salisbury Diocese to Oxford Diocese in a large scale shake up of Diocesan boundaries.
After his sudden death on November 11th 1844, there was a sale of Charles Manesty's effects on 30th November. This was advertised in the Berkshire Chronicle and gives a fascinating picture of the domestic possessions of a fairly wealthy 19th century parson. It included over 600 ounces of silver and silver plate and around 800 books.
It would seem that his final illness caught Charles somewhat unaware as he had not bothered to make a will until the day before he died. There was not time to summon a solicitor from Reading and his gardener Jesse Lewenden together with Edward Sherwood and his sister Sarah witnessed the will. He was buried in Purley and a plaque to his memory was erected in the chancel.
Richard Palmer had been rector of Blaby in Leicestershire from 1824 before being appointed to Purley where he was inducted on December 28th 1844.
He was born 28th December 1795, the son of Richard Palmer of Hurst and was educated at Westminster School and Christchurch, Oxford where he took his BA in 1816 and MA in 1819. He studied law at Lincoln's Inn from 1819.
Richard Palmer was a great one for putting remarks in the parish registers. In 1846 he recorded that he had planted a Cedar of Lebanon and three other trees in the churchyard. Later in 1863 he planted a Bellintonie Gigantes in the churchyard, noting also that it had been an unusually fine winter. He followed this up by planting another cedar on the rectory lawn in the autumn of 1863. In 1868 he observed that it had been a very dry hot summer and the harvest had been very early.
Richard Palmer made several references to flooding in the parish registers. On 29th October 1848 he recorded 'There was so high a flood this day that the congregation was conveyed to and from the church in waggons' On 14th November 1852 it was ‘A very high flood. The churchyard impassable Divine service in the school room for two Sundays' In
March 1862 'After a very dry and mild winter a high flood in March. Not so high as '48 or '52 '
A day school was built in 1847 at a cost of £140 and the number of scholars was reported on periodically as:-
|
year |
scholars |
|
1853 |
30 |
|
1854 |
35 |
|
1857 |
31 |
|
1866 |
28 |
|
1869 |
34 |
|
|
|
In the 1851 population census held on 30th March, Richard Palmer was recorded as a 55 year old bachelor living at the rectory with a housekeeper, a maid and a groom. An ecclesiastical census was held on the same day (Sunday) Purley was recorded as having 96 sittings of which 60 were free. There were two services, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. The morning congregation was 60 with an additional 25 at Sunday School. In the afternoon the figures were 25 plus 19. All these figures were reported as being close to the averages for the previous 12 months.
In 1869 he had to confess to the bishop that he had been absent from his parish for 77 days in the previous year as he had been detained in London through illness. He had a curate, William Stephens who held the fort in his absence.
It was Richard Palmer who initiated the rebuilding of Purley Church in 1870, and Purley Church of England School shortly afterwards. His father had bought Sonning Manor in 1795 which went to Richard's elder brother Robert on his father's death. He was left the estate and a considerable fortune by his brother, part of which he used to build a new school in 1875. He never lived to see it completed however as he died in 1875 at Holme Park. He left all his money and property to his sister Susanah, it was valued at over £300,000 and he was buried at Sonning. Shortly after his death his sister transferred the title of the school land to the rector and vestry of Purley.
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