Page 9 - L&T Rev Fessey

Rev. G. F. Fessey Redditch Heritage

The new vicar was a native of Redditch and the bearer of a name which had been closely
connected with the church since the eighteenth century, the Rev. H. C. Milward, who was
inducted on September 12th, 1884. He valued continuity in the conducting of services
and in the administration of a parish and made few alterations. Later on he was to assure
his congregation that his successor, Canon Newton, had given a promise that, "whatever
has been usual in this church in the past, he will study to keep it up in the same manner
in the future. Nothing would give him greater sorrow than that there should be any break
or interruption in our church life here".
One of Mr Milward's important innovations was a Holy Communion service every Sunday
at 8 a.m. Another is a smaller matter, but an innovation which must endear him to the
historian, the annual report on the work of the church which he printed in each January
copy of the magazine. This gives very detailed information. In the 1887 magazine we are
told that there were 3,035 communicants in the year, that £17 was collected on Christmas
Day for the sick and needy, and £20 on another day for the Birmingham Hospital; that
five new choir stalls had been added, making the choir accommodation sufficient for
sixteen men and twenty boys. The August copy of the magazine prints the report of H.M.
Inspectors on the schools, with the comment, "It should be understood that the languid
condition of the infants, of which complaint is made, was due entirely to the fact that they
were examined in the afternoon, instead of (as is usual) in the morning, of a very hot
day."

Mr Milward drew attention to the unsatisfactory state of the chancel, and began a fund
for its decoration, which he hoped to have done by 1888. In this he was disappoint- ed
but the fund he started was the nucleus of the much larger fund used to renovate the
whole church.

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