Page 8 - L&T William Avery

Redditch Heritage William Avery

The following extract was from Official Catalogue of the British Section at the Paris
Universal Exhibition of 1878. 10

His Family
William married Maria Proctor Dingley on 18th September, 1855 at the Wesleyan Chapel
in Sherborne, Dorset. In 1856 their daughter, Helen Grace, was born in Headless Cross.
She died in Sherborne on 23 June 1860 aged 4 years, after much suffering. The eldest son
of William and Maria Avery was William John who was born in 1859 in Headless Cross. He
died in Sherborne on 12 September 1869, aged 10 years. Maria Avery died on 14 June,
1895.

Wesleyan Methodist

William Avery was a staunch Wesleyan, but Dr. Page added that William Avery was ‘not a
bigot’. For more than 40 years Avery was superintendent of the Sunday Schools at
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Headless Cross , his classes being large (500) and very popular. He became the oldest
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local preacher in the circuit, and acted as circuit steward for 30 years. A bound ornate
address was presented to William Avery by the officers and teachers of the Headless Cross
Wesleyan Sunday School on his retirement as superintendant on 24 October, 1891. 14

Presumably it was William Avery who told Dr. Page about his musical achievements. In
1837, when he was only four years old, he became leader in the choir of first Wesleyan
chapel in Headless Cross. In 1843 he played the organ erected in the then new Methodist
chapel at Bates Hill, Redditch. In 1844 he was appointed organist at the ‘Old Chapel
[Anglican] on the Green’, Redditch. He was the first to have a regular salary (£30 per
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annum) allocated to him, but ‘he never received’ the money. This was why in 1899 some
local newspapers referred to Avery as a musical prodigy. 16

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