14th September 2024

St Clement's Church, York celebrates its 150th anniversary

The impact of George Marsham Argles

Anne Houson has written about a significant anniversary for one of our local churches

This year, 2024, marks the 150th anniversary of the opening of St Clement’s Church on Scarcroft Road. This church, and its newly appointed rector, George Marsham Argles made a big impact on our local area.

Argles had come to York in 1871, to take up post as rector for the parish of St Mary Bishophill Senior. There had been growing concerns for years within the Church of England about the decline in church attendances, in the face of new churches, for example in nearby Priory St, which had sprung up with other denominations. The population of the parish of Bishophill Senior had grown by over 30 per cent between 1851 and 1871, as people had come to the city for work. There were also fears that people were choosing to engage in too many secular activities in their spare time, in preference to attending church. The aim was to develop dynamic Christian activity in the community, based on a new church.

George Argles came from a background with a mixture of privilege and service. His family owned land in the Lake District and Northamptonshire, and his father had left an estate of £99,000, with George being one of the principal beneficiaries. His grandfather George Davys had lived at Kensington Palace as personal tutor to the young Princess Victoria, before he became Bishop of Peterborough. George Argles went to Harrow and graduated from Balliol College, Oxford. 

George could have led a much more leisurely life than the one he chose, but was probably influenced by his family’s commitment to serving the Church of England. He spent much of his childhood at his father’s rectory in Barnack, Northamptonshire, where he would have witnessed the pressures of trying to maintain family life while being at the beck and call of local parishioners. He became a curate at Christchurch, Doncaster for six years before coming to York. Like York, Doncaster was a city that was experiencing rapid growth and social change, with the railways as a major employer. When he took up his new post in York, George Argles was 30 years old, newly married and determined to make an impact on the rapidly increasing local population.  

Land for the new church was given by George Wilson, a director of the Fishergate glass manufacturers, Meek, Spence and Wilson, and the architects were John and William Atkinson. The Atkinson brothers were prolific and highly respected architects in the city, living nearby in Driffield Terrace. Among other local buildings, they designed St Paul’s Church on Holgate Road and the Dean Court Hotel. 

The new church (pictured here in 1880) was funded mostly by donations, with a small amount coming from church grants, and cost around £3,800. The tradespeople were mostly local: William Biscomb, a builder from Peckitt St was responsible for the beautiful red brickwork, and William Rookledge, a master joiner from Stonegate, worked on the joinery (he also did some work in the Minster). The foundation stone was laid on 16 October 1872.

The same year. George moved into a newly built rectory, off Bishopthorpe Road, on the site of Rectory Gardens today. 

St Clement's Church was opened on 28 August 1874 by the Archbishop of York. 

By then, George had made huge changes in the area. He had seen the need for a local school, and raised the money to build Cherry St School, drawing upon voluntary contributions, grants and a substantial amount from his own pocket. The school had opened in 1872, and from 1874 onwards parish activities centred around the church building and the Cherry St schoolrooms. By 1873, there was a parish temperance society, which aimed to eliminate alcohol consumption, holding musical (dry) entertainments at least twice a year. There were many reports of these entertainments in the local press, giving the impression of entertaining and accomplished musical events. His temperance campaigns delayed the opening of public houses in South Bank until the 1930s.

There was an annual parish flower show from 1874, and from 1878 adult parishioners were able to attend night school, giving them an opportunity to improve their education and their employment prospects. In 1894 Argles started a Girls Friendly Society, providing a friendly safe space for girls to enjoy their leisure (a national organisation still exists today). In 1906, he established a Church Lads Brigade, with leisure activities for boys, very similar to a scouting organisation.

By 1915, Cherry St School was running a parish library and a penny bank for local people, and there were over 1,000 children attending his Sunday School. There were also clothing clubs, sales of work, bazaars and parish teas. To run such a large range of activities must have required a huge number of volunteers, and it is a tribute to Argles that there seems to have been no shortage of these.  Some of the church’s outreach work needed paid employees, there were at least two curates employed at any one time. Tantalisingly, records refer to the appointment of four paid women workers for the church. but there is no indication of what they did or where they lived. They are: 

Nurse Blacklock, appointed in 1896 to work for Dringhouses and St Clements

Miss Yates, appointed 1916 as a Lady Worker

Miss MacVay, appointed 1918 as a Lady Worker

Miss Reynolds, appointed 1919 as a Lady Worker

George campaigned for affordable homes to be put up in the city after the parish lost 50-60 small houses when Skeldergate Bridge was built. Reflecting modern concerns, he wrote to the press in 1881, to criticize the fact that the newly built housing was unaffordable for many people. He eventually retired from St Clement's in the summer of 1919, after over 48 years in York. At his retirement presentation he revealed that his own motto was to 'get it done and let them howl'. But his retirement was short; in November 1919, he fell in York Minster and fractured his leg above the knee. He died in February 2020, aged 78.

Obituaries describe him variously as 'a man of independent mind', with a reputation for forceful preaching. In terms of the influence he had on the local area, he certainly ‘got it done’.

Sources

Addleshaw, G W O ; Architects, Sculptors, Painters, Craftsmen whose work is to be seen in York Minster; in Architectural History  24 1981 SAHGB publications limited referring to work of Rookledge.

Hull Daily Mail  18 November 1919, reporting GMA’s broken leg.

Jubilee Chronicle compiled from the Parish Magazine, a one off publication by St Clement’s Church to commemorate the Jubilee of the church being built, published 1924 and referring to parish activities and lady workers.

Leeds Mercury 20 November 1919,referring to GMA’s retirement

Royle, Edward, The Victorian Church in York ; 1983; Borthwick Paper 64; University of York.

Stamford Mercury, 26 August 1898, referring to George Davys as personal tutor to Princess Victoria.

Yorkshire Evening Post 23 February 1920, GMA obituary

Yorkshire Gazette 18 September 1881, referring to GMA’s campaign for affordable housing

York Herald 16 October 1872 ; referring to laying of foundation stone

York Herald 29 August 1874 referring to opening of church, benefactors and tradespeople.

Yorkshire Herald November 1913, referring to GMA’s accomplishments re Cherry St School