St. Petrock's Church, 1920, Photographs by Stephen Bell
Title
St. Petrock's Church, 1920, Photographs by Stephen Bell
Subject
Description
Above are two photographs, identified as being taken in 1920 by Stephen Bell when he would have been around 23-years-old. The upper photograph is the 14th century Churchyard Cross at St. Petrock's Church in Timberscombe and below it is an interior photograph of the western end of the nave looking to the chancel. Stephen Bell would have known his subject matter well, as he was the son of the Rev. Henry Herbert Bell and Katharine Mary Elisabeth (nee Clarke) Bell. In 1900, 3-year-old Stephen had come to Timberscombe when his father became the Vicar of St. Petrock's Church (1).
Stephen was a third son. The first son of Henry Herbert and Katharine Bell was John Bell, born in Bishops Hull, Somerset, a village in the western suburbs of Taunton. John was baptised in 1890 by his father at St. Johns in Taunton, where the family address was given as 4 Wellington Terrace at Bishops Hull (2). He is listed on the 1891 Census as being five months old and living at the same address. After that, records of John Bell are scant. A second son, Henry, was also baptised by his father on the 25th of August 1895, at Angersleigh, Somerset, about four miles southwest of Taunton and where Rev. Bell was the then Rector (3). Sadly, his father also officiated at Henry's burial, when only 4-years of age, also at Angersleigh on the 25th of April 1900 (4). Born at Pitminster, four miles south of Taunton, Stephen was baptised by his father at Angersleigh on the 16th of September 1897 (5). On the 1901 Census, only Stephen was record as being with his parents at the Vicarage in TImberscombe.
It is possible that John Bell was attending a boarding school. Indeed Stephen Bell never attended the Timberscombe School, studying-- at least when he was 13-- at Marlborough School, a public school in Marlborough, Wiltshire (6). It also appears that Stephen Bell served with distinction in the UK Royal Navy during World War I (7). "Stephen Bell" is listed on the World War I Memorial and Roll of Honour Tablet at St. Petrock's Church--as is a "John Bell". The 1921 Census suggests that John Bell was in Oxford at that time and at the probate held after the death of Henry Herbert Bell in 1933, Rev. Bell's effects were left to "John Bell and Stephen Bell, Schoolmasters". Also on the 13th of September 1936, a new Vestry was dedicated at St. Petrock's, built as a memorial to Rev. and Mrs. Bell, as well at Lady Margaret Ryder of Knowle House, who had died in 1932. The Rev. George Pepys Whately, the Vicar at St. Petrock's from 1935 to 1936, recorded in the October 1936 Parish Magazine that the event had been attended by Messrs. John and Stephen Bell, accompanied by their wives (8). It appears that John Bell died on the 12th of February 1951 at Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales, as revealed by his probate which was held in Oxford.
In 1920, the date of these photographs, Stephen Bell was also in Oxford, according to the 1921 Census. Likely returning to Timberscombe to visit his parents, the younger Mr. Bell apparently stood on St. Petrock's pathway in the churchyard leading up to the church's main entrance, The North Porch, when he took the photograph of the Churchyard Cross in front of the ancient yew tree. The cross is on the left side of the pathway, with the eastern boundary wall of the churchyard built alongside Church Street, partially seen behind the cross and tree on the middle right side the photograph. The window seen past this section of wall is across the road on the western facade of the 18th century Great House Farm, when it was fully rendered (9).
It is possible in the distant past that the cross was moved into the churchyard from another location, perhaps previously being at the site of an open air place of worship or even was a memorial by the side of the medieval cross roads where the church was built. The yew tree was later classified as a Notable, meaning the tree was scientifically measured and deemed to be between 300 and 700 years old (10). In their 1955 booklet, "THE VILLAGE OF TIMBERSCOMBE AND ITS CHURCH", the authors, James Henderson and his brother, Edward Henderson, wrote that the yew tree served as a "canopy" for the Churchyard Cross (11).
Actually an original socket stone and a greater proportion of the shaft are truly the only extant 14th century sections of the cross (12). At the time of Mr. Bell's photograph, the Crucifix on top of the shaft and the base at its bottom, had been in place for 24 years. The Henderson brothers suggest "that vandal hands" may have broken off an earlier Crucifix. If so, it had been stolen awhile ago as earlier illustrations of the church, such as the watercolour created by William Walter Wheatley in the 1830s (and seen at SP-051), show a topless shaft. The present Crucifix and base were added and rebuilt in 1896 as a memorial to Rev. William Bailey Whitehead, the Vicar at St. Petrock's from 1826 to 1853 (13).
The two gravestones seen in the foreground of the upper photograph were moved during the 1971 levelling of the churchyard, when it was necessary to relocate various stones, also known as "kerbs" (14). The smaller one, with the cross, was that of Dorothy May Purchase, who had died at the age of 11 months on the 1st of April 1891, the daughter of William and Emily (nee Gillingham) Purchase (15). Dorothy's father was born at West Coker, Somerset and her mother was from Stoford in Essex (16). They were in Timberscombe as William Purchase was working as the under gardener at Knowle House (17). After the death of Dorothy May, they returned to Stoford, where their next daughter was born in 1893 and named Dorothy Kate Purchase (18).
Faintly visible in the photograph, "Sacred" is carved in large lettering at the top of the larger gravestone, followed by "to the memory of John Portman", who died on the 2nd of February 1849 (19). Born in Timberscombe, Mr. Portman, later an agricultural labourer, was baptised at St. Petrock's on 3 December 1769, the son of Thomas and Sarah (nee Willis) Portman (20). Below John Portman's name, engraved on the stone is "also Louisa Jane Reed, daughter of Henry and Jane Reed". Louisa Jane had died 28 December 1822 at the age of one year and seven months, so was likely already buried at this site before the time of John Portman's death (21).
Mr. Portman and the infant, Louisa, were related. Louisa Jane's mother, Jane Reed, was the half-sister of John Portman, whose mother, Sarah, had died in 1773, when he was 4-years-old. Thomas, John's father, married Mary Wheddon, a widow in 1780, with their daughter, Jane, born in 1787 (22). She married Henry Reed, a thatcher, at St. Petrock's on the 10th of July 1816. (23). Besides Louisa Jane, Henry and Jane Reed had six other children, including their youngest daughter born in 1826 that they also named Louisa Jane Reed (24).
After the church levelling, both kerbs were placed against the western wall of the churchyard, still side-by side, the first two stones seen to the right if entering the western gate of St. Petrock's churchyard (where the red telephone box/defibrillator is located in modern times).
On the lower photograph, Stephen Bell has entered St. Petrock's through the North Porch and turned his camera to the left. Shadows connect the ends of the pews as they cross the aisle of the nave, perhaps suggesting light coming from the south side of the church. However light also seems intense within the chancel, with the c. 1450 three-light window above the altar on the eastern wall lit so brightly that its stained glass is hardly evident. The rood screen, dated from the 1500s, normally the showpiece of the church, is almost silhouetted.
Bell also captured a full view of the eastern arch of the barrel (or waggon) roof, often eclipsed in photographs of the church. When the roof was renewed in the 1880's during renovations by John Dando Sedding, early timbers were retained whenever possible (25). At the middle top of Mr. Bell's photograph there looks to be a light fixture, or possibly an oil lamp, that seems incredibly inaccessible in a church that won't be electrified for about another 16 years (26) and which may have been removed at that time.
As an adult, Stephen Bell did not live in Timberscombe but apparently continued to return and take photographs of where he had grown up, as in 1933 (at SP-098 and SP-213) and 1951 (at SP-214). In 1936, Bell married Pamela Elsie Schuster in Bodmin, Cornwall (27) and worked as an Assistant Schoolmaster at Worthing in Sussex, where he and his wife and their young daughter, Laura, lived in a house called Timberscombe on Hoe Court Lane (28). Stephen Bell died in April 1963 at Herefordshire (29).
Stephen was a third son. The first son of Henry Herbert and Katharine Bell was John Bell, born in Bishops Hull, Somerset, a village in the western suburbs of Taunton. John was baptised in 1890 by his father at St. Johns in Taunton, where the family address was given as 4 Wellington Terrace at Bishops Hull (2). He is listed on the 1891 Census as being five months old and living at the same address. After that, records of John Bell are scant. A second son, Henry, was also baptised by his father on the 25th of August 1895, at Angersleigh, Somerset, about four miles southwest of Taunton and where Rev. Bell was the then Rector (3). Sadly, his father also officiated at Henry's burial, when only 4-years of age, also at Angersleigh on the 25th of April 1900 (4). Born at Pitminster, four miles south of Taunton, Stephen was baptised by his father at Angersleigh on the 16th of September 1897 (5). On the 1901 Census, only Stephen was record as being with his parents at the Vicarage in TImberscombe.
It is possible that John Bell was attending a boarding school. Indeed Stephen Bell never attended the Timberscombe School, studying-- at least when he was 13-- at Marlborough School, a public school in Marlborough, Wiltshire (6). It also appears that Stephen Bell served with distinction in the UK Royal Navy during World War I (7). "Stephen Bell" is listed on the World War I Memorial and Roll of Honour Tablet at St. Petrock's Church--as is a "John Bell". The 1921 Census suggests that John Bell was in Oxford at that time and at the probate held after the death of Henry Herbert Bell in 1933, Rev. Bell's effects were left to "John Bell and Stephen Bell, Schoolmasters". Also on the 13th of September 1936, a new Vestry was dedicated at St. Petrock's, built as a memorial to Rev. and Mrs. Bell, as well at Lady Margaret Ryder of Knowle House, who had died in 1932. The Rev. George Pepys Whately, the Vicar at St. Petrock's from 1935 to 1936, recorded in the October 1936 Parish Magazine that the event had been attended by Messrs. John and Stephen Bell, accompanied by their wives (8). It appears that John Bell died on the 12th of February 1951 at Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales, as revealed by his probate which was held in Oxford.
In 1920, the date of these photographs, Stephen Bell was also in Oxford, according to the 1921 Census. Likely returning to Timberscombe to visit his parents, the younger Mr. Bell apparently stood on St. Petrock's pathway in the churchyard leading up to the church's main entrance, The North Porch, when he took the photograph of the Churchyard Cross in front of the ancient yew tree. The cross is on the left side of the pathway, with the eastern boundary wall of the churchyard built alongside Church Street, partially seen behind the cross and tree on the middle right side the photograph. The window seen past this section of wall is across the road on the western facade of the 18th century Great House Farm, when it was fully rendered (9).
It is possible in the distant past that the cross was moved into the churchyard from another location, perhaps previously being at the site of an open air place of worship or even was a memorial by the side of the medieval cross roads where the church was built. The yew tree was later classified as a Notable, meaning the tree was scientifically measured and deemed to be between 300 and 700 years old (10). In their 1955 booklet, "THE VILLAGE OF TIMBERSCOMBE AND ITS CHURCH", the authors, James Henderson and his brother, Edward Henderson, wrote that the yew tree served as a "canopy" for the Churchyard Cross (11).
Actually an original socket stone and a greater proportion of the shaft are truly the only extant 14th century sections of the cross (12). At the time of Mr. Bell's photograph, the Crucifix on top of the shaft and the base at its bottom, had been in place for 24 years. The Henderson brothers suggest "that vandal hands" may have broken off an earlier Crucifix. If so, it had been stolen awhile ago as earlier illustrations of the church, such as the watercolour created by William Walter Wheatley in the 1830s (and seen at SP-051), show a topless shaft. The present Crucifix and base were added and rebuilt in 1896 as a memorial to Rev. William Bailey Whitehead, the Vicar at St. Petrock's from 1826 to 1853 (13).
The two gravestones seen in the foreground of the upper photograph were moved during the 1971 levelling of the churchyard, when it was necessary to relocate various stones, also known as "kerbs" (14). The smaller one, with the cross, was that of Dorothy May Purchase, who had died at the age of 11 months on the 1st of April 1891, the daughter of William and Emily (nee Gillingham) Purchase (15). Dorothy's father was born at West Coker, Somerset and her mother was from Stoford in Essex (16). They were in Timberscombe as William Purchase was working as the under gardener at Knowle House (17). After the death of Dorothy May, they returned to Stoford, where their next daughter was born in 1893 and named Dorothy Kate Purchase (18).
Faintly visible in the photograph, "Sacred" is carved in large lettering at the top of the larger gravestone, followed by "to the memory of John Portman", who died on the 2nd of February 1849 (19). Born in Timberscombe, Mr. Portman, later an agricultural labourer, was baptised at St. Petrock's on 3 December 1769, the son of Thomas and Sarah (nee Willis) Portman (20). Below John Portman's name, engraved on the stone is "also Louisa Jane Reed, daughter of Henry and Jane Reed". Louisa Jane had died 28 December 1822 at the age of one year and seven months, so was likely already buried at this site before the time of John Portman's death (21).
Mr. Portman and the infant, Louisa, were related. Louisa Jane's mother, Jane Reed, was the half-sister of John Portman, whose mother, Sarah, had died in 1773, when he was 4-years-old. Thomas, John's father, married Mary Wheddon, a widow in 1780, with their daughter, Jane, born in 1787 (22). She married Henry Reed, a thatcher, at St. Petrock's on the 10th of July 1816. (23). Besides Louisa Jane, Henry and Jane Reed had six other children, including their youngest daughter born in 1826 that they also named Louisa Jane Reed (24).
After the church levelling, both kerbs were placed against the western wall of the churchyard, still side-by side, the first two stones seen to the right if entering the western gate of St. Petrock's churchyard (where the red telephone box/defibrillator is located in modern times).
On the lower photograph, Stephen Bell has entered St. Petrock's through the North Porch and turned his camera to the left. Shadows connect the ends of the pews as they cross the aisle of the nave, perhaps suggesting light coming from the south side of the church. However light also seems intense within the chancel, with the c. 1450 three-light window above the altar on the eastern wall lit so brightly that its stained glass is hardly evident. The rood screen, dated from the 1500s, normally the showpiece of the church, is almost silhouetted.
Bell also captured a full view of the eastern arch of the barrel (or waggon) roof, often eclipsed in photographs of the church. When the roof was renewed in the 1880's during renovations by John Dando Sedding, early timbers were retained whenever possible (25). At the middle top of Mr. Bell's photograph there looks to be a light fixture, or possibly an oil lamp, that seems incredibly inaccessible in a church that won't be electrified for about another 16 years (26) and which may have been removed at that time.
As an adult, Stephen Bell did not live in Timberscombe but apparently continued to return and take photographs of where he had grown up, as in 1933 (at SP-098 and SP-213) and 1951 (at SP-214). In 1936, Bell married Pamela Elsie Schuster in Bodmin, Cornwall (27) and worked as an Assistant Schoolmaster at Worthing in Sussex, where he and his wife and their young daughter, Laura, lived in a house called Timberscombe on Hoe Court Lane (28). Stephen Bell died in April 1963 at Herefordshire (29).
Creator
Stephen Bell /
Stephen Bell
Stephen Bell
Source
Date
1920
1920
1920
Contributor
Language
English
Identifier
photographs of the Churchyard Cross and an interior view of the nave and chancel at St. Petrock's Church, taken in 1920 by Stephen Bell / Timberscombe / village centre
Acquisition Date
2020
Acquisition Method
Gift
Category
PLACES: Churches and Chapels / Timberscombe
Condition
Good
Condition Notes
entered by Tom Sperling
Condition Date
2022
Dimension Type
W X L
Dimension Units
cm
Dimension Value
21.5 X 13.5
24 X 14
24 X 14
Institution Name
St. Petrock's History Group
Notes
(1) 1901 England Census (2) Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1914 (3) Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1914 (4) Somerset, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1914 and FindMyPast.co.uk, forebears, io, England and Wales Deaths, 1837-2007 (5) 1939 England and Wales Register and Somerset, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1914 (6) neither John nor Stephen Bell are listed in the Timberscombe School ADMISSION REGISTER, 1897-1944 and Steven Bell is listed at Marlborough School on the 1911 England Census (7) UK, Navel Medal and Award Rolls, 1793-1972 (8) as detailed at SP-215 (9) Victoria County History.ac.uk (10) "St. Petrock's Church Timberscombe", church pamphlet written by MarionJeffrey (11) "THE VILLAGE OF TIMBERSCOMBE AND ITS CHURCH" by B. L. K. Henderson and G. O. E. Henderson, printed by E. Goodman and Son, Ltd., The Phoenix Press, Taunton, 1955 (12) English Heritage, BritishListedBuildings.co.uk (13) Historic Environmental Records, Exmoor National Park, MSO12029 (14) as recorded in a letter dated 25 August 1969 from the Diocesan Registry at Welles, Somerset and their solicitors, Harris & Harris, addressed to Mr. James Henderson, with details on how o proceed with church levelling, archived with the St. Petrock's History Group (15) Somerset, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1914 (16) England Select Births and Christening, 1538-1915, 1911 England Census and Somerset, England, Marriage Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1914 (17) as indicated on the Somerset, England, Church of England, Baptisms, 1813-1914 (for Dorothy May Purchase) (18) England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915 and 1911 England Census (19) Somerset, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1914 and UK and Ireland, Find A Grave Index, 1300s-Current (20) Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1914-1914 and 1841 England Census (21) Somerset, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1914 (22) Somerset, England, Church of England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1531-1812 and Somerset, England, Marriage Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1914 (23) Somerset, England, Church of England, Marriage Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1914 (24) Ancestry Family Trees, Somerset, England, Marriage Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1914 and England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915 (25) "THE VILLAGE OF TIMBERSCOMBE AND ITS CHURCH" (26)
TimberscombeVillage.com / History of Timberscombe / other Historic Structures/ The Reading Room 1913-1944, written by Lesley Webb (27) England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 (28) 1939 England and Wales Register (in later years the name of the house, Timberscombe and its address of Hoe Court remain the same, but the town has merged with nearby Lancing, where the house is currently identified (29) England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007
TimberscombeVillage.com / History of Timberscombe / other Historic Structures/ The Reading Room 1913-1944, written by Lesley Webb (27) England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 (28) 1939 England and Wales Register (in later years the name of the house, Timberscombe and its address of Hoe Court remain the same, but the town has merged with nearby Lancing, where the house is currently identified (29) England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007
Storage Location
St. Petrock's History Group Archive
Storage Date
2022
Storage Notes
St. Petrock's History Group PHOTOGRAPHS
Item Reference
SP-212
Technique
Copies
Citation
Stephen Bell /
Stephen Bell, “St. Petrock's Church, 1920, Photographs by Stephen Bell,” St. Petrock's History Group, accessed May 17, 2024, https://stpetrockshistorygroup.omeka.net/items/show/3484.
Comments