Review of Edwyn Hoskyns's book Under the Heavy Clouds, by Julie Bunting
This review is by Julie Bunting, and was published originally in
The Peak Advertiser, the Peak District's local free newspaper,
on 14th February 2005, and is reproduced with Julie's kind permission.
‘UNDER THE HEAVY CLOUDS’ [Ed: subtitled 'The Church of England in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, 1911-1915']
Between 1911 and 1915 Edwyn Hoskyns, Bishop of Southwell, undertook a
parochial visitation of his diocese, which at that time included Derbyshire.
The Bishop personally visited each parish to investigate the relationship
between the inhabitants and their church. His detailed reports, brought
together in this newly published volume from Merton Priory Press, also
provide valuable glimpses of everyday life in the years leading into the
First World War.
The Revd Canon Michael Austin, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society,
provides a clear and in-depth introduction. Thus we learn, for instance, that
in July 1913 well over 3,000 people gathered in Bakewell cattle market to
hear speeches from the Duke of Devonshire and a Welsh miner, opposing
disestablishment of the Welsh church.
Bishop Hoskyns had visited Matlock, Bakewell and their surrounding villages
the previous year. In most parishes he found that people came to church
‘in goodly numbers, even when a few beautiful days drove everyone into
the hay fields.’ He observed a level of poverty in the Buxton Deanery
but was pleased to note ‘an improved moral standard [and] much less
drunkenness’. The inhabitants of Wirksworth Deanery proved hardy and
industrious.
In the Ashbourne Deanery the observance of Sunday worship had to allow for a
seven-day preoccupation with milk production, the Bishop writing: ‘ ...
that which governs the whole of the life and work of your people is
milk.’ Nevertheless, the population of one small village had come
together to hear the entire ‘Messiah’ played through a
gramophone, confirming to the Bishop that ‘country people think deeper
than your townsman’.
On the wider scene Bishop Hoskyns lamented the ‘political upheaval and
angry strife’ arising from unemployment and low wages, with the
knock-on effects of poverty, child mortality and lack of decent housing. He
also had to consider social change, from divorce and remarriage to the
effects of excursionists and motorists on villages in the Peak.
‘Under the Heavy Clouds’ will be of interest to present-day
clergy and church members, while opening a window onto life in Derbyshire
almost a century ago. Published by
Merton Priory Press and on sale priced
£14.95; in case of difficulty please refer the bookseller to
ISBN 1-898937-63-X.
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[Created 29 Jan 2005. Last updated 20 Dec 2007 - 12:09 by Rosemary Lockie]