Church and Patronage in 20th Century Britain: Walter Hussey and the Arts

263 Pages·2017·4.456 MB·English

by  Peter Webster (auth.)

HISTORIES OF THE SACRED AND SECULAR
Church and Patronage in
20 Century Britain
TH
Walter Hussey and the Arts
Peter Webster
Histories of the Sacred and Secular, 1700-2000
Series Editor
David Nash
Department of History
Oxford Brookes University
Oxford, UK
General Editor: Professor David Nash (Oxford Brookes University, UK)
Series Description:
This series reflects the awakened and expanding profile of the history of
religion within the academy in recent years. It intends publishing excit-
ing new and high quality work on the history of religion and belief since
1700 and will encourage the production of interdisciplinary proposals
and the use of innovative methodologies. The series will also welcome
book proposals on the history of Atheism, Secularism, Humanism and
unbelief/secularity and to encourage research agendas in this area along-
side those in religious belief. The series will be happy to reflect the work
of new scholars entering the field as well as the work of established schol-
ars. The series welcomes proposals covering subjects in Britain, Europe,
the United States and Oceania.
Editorial Board:
Professor Callum Brown (University of Glasgow, UK)
Professor William Gibson (Oxford Brookes University, UK)
Dr. Carole Cusack (University of Sydney, Australia)
Professor Beverley Clack (Oxford Brookes University, UK)
Dr. Bert Gasenbeek (Humanist University, Utrecht, Netherlands)
Professor Paul Harvey (University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, USA)
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14868
Peter Webster
Church and Patronage
in 20th Century
Britain
Walter Hussey and the Arts
Peter Webster
Independent Scholar
Chichester, West Sussex, UK
Histories of the Sacred and Secular, 1700-2000
ISBN 978-1-137-36909-3 ISBN 978-1-137-36910-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-36910-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017944569
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
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Cover image courtesy of West Sussex Record Office (on behalf of the Dean of Chichester)
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A
cknowledgements
This book has been made possible by the generous assistance of a great
many individuals and organisations, which it is a pleasure to acknowl-
edge.
The Walter Hussey Papers are here cited by courtesy of the Very
Reverend the Dean of Chichester and with acknowledgements to the
West Sussex Record Office and the County Archivist. The permission of
the WSRO and the County Archivist is also acknowledged in relation to
the capitular records of the cathedral, and the episcopal records of the
bishops of Chichester. In straitened times, the staff of the WSRO are a
credit to their profession.
The George Bell Papers are quoted by kind permission of the
Librarian of Lambeth Palace. Thanks are also due to the staffs of the
Church of England Record Centre, the Tate Gallery Archives and the
archives of Pallant House Gallery for allowing access to their collections.
My thanks are also due to those who generously gave of their time to
be interviewed about Walter Hussey. They were: Hilary Bryan-Brown,
David Burton Evans, James Simpson-Manser and Garth Turner.
Images from the Walter Hussey Papers are reproduced by courtesy
of the Very Reverend the Dean of Chichester and with acknowledge-
ments to the West Sussex Record Office and the County Archivist. The
staff of Chichester Cathedral permitted me to reproduce several of their
own images of the interior of the cathedral and the works of art therein,
which may be viewed still today. The cathedral is open daily with free
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
entry; further details may be found at www.chichestercathedral.org.uk.
The vicar of the church of St Matthew, Northampton likewise allowed
me to reproduce an image of Graham Sutherland’s Crucifixion, which
permission I gratefully acknowledge. I also acknowledge, with thanks,
the permission of David Stancliffe to quote from a letter of his to Hussey.
My thanks are due to conference and seminar audiences at the Anglo-
Catholic History Society, the Ecclesiastical History Society and the
Institute of Historical Research, to which portions of the work have been
presented. Andrew Chandler and Ian Jones read the draft; their com-
ments and questions improved the work a great deal, and thanks are also
due to the anonymous peer reviewer. Becky Sleven carried out invalu-
able editorial work at an important time, and the book was proofread
with customary thoroughness by Kathryn Price of Crosses and Dots.
The responsibility for errors and omissions remains, of course, that of
the author. Finally, I gratefully acknowledge the help of Molly Beck and
Oliver Dyer at Palgrave Macmillan, and the series editor, David Nash.
None of the work would have been possible without the support of
my wife Sarah, who was there at the very beginning, and of Benjamin,
Thomas and Daniel, to whom the book is dedicated.
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
2 The Formation of a Patron 17
3 The 1943 Jubilee festival at Northampton 49
4 Music, Art and Poetry: 1944–1955 85
5 The Religious Arts on a Rising Tide: People, Media,
Networks 119
6 New Visual Art for Chichester 147
7 Chichester Music 187
8 Cathedral, City and Diocese 213
9 Legacy 227
Bibliography 237
Index 249
vii
A
bbreviAtions
CEMA Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts
CERC Church of England Record Centre
CIO Church Information Office
DAC Diocesan Advisory Committee [for Faculties]
Grove N ew Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd edition, Grove
Music Online)
LPL Lambeth Palace Library
ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online edition)
OUP Oxford University Press
PCC Parochial Church Council
WSRO West Sussex Record Office
ix
l i
ist of mAges
Image 1.1 Hussey at some point in the late 1940s or early 1950s 3
Image 2.1 Hussey shortly after his ordination 23
Image 3.1 St Matthew’s Northampton, viewed from Collingwood Road 50
Image 3.2 The interior of St Matthew’s looking towards the high altar 53
Image 3.3 Hussey, Benjamin Britten (far right) and some of
Hussey’s neighbours and friends in Chichester, in the
Deanery garden, probably late 1950s 70
Image 3.4 Madonna and Child by Henry Moore, as viewed from
the seats in the nave 78
Image 3.5 The Madonna and Child by Henry Moore, probably 1944 82
Image 4.1 Hussey, Kirsten Flagstad and Harold Craxton outside
St Matthew’s, probably 1947 99
Image 4.2 Crucifixion by Graham Sutherland, in the church
of St Matthew, Northampton 115
Image 5.1 George Bell and Hussey welcoming guests to the Bishop’s
Palace in Chichester, mid-1950s 138
Image 5.2 Chichester Cathedral from the north-east 143
Image 6.1 Hussey and Kathleen Sutherland on holiday in Austria,
late 1950s 155
Image 6.2 The Mary Magdalene chapel, with Sutherland’s painting,
candlesticks by Geoffrey Clarke and the altar
by Robert Potter 158
Image 6.3 Noli me tangere by Graham Sutherland 160
Image 6.4 The pulpit by Geoffrey Clarke in the nave of Chichester
Cathedral, 1960s. The right-hand bay of the restored
Arundel screen is visible on the left 164
xi