Chapel Next the Green (the history of Twickenham Congregational Church) index page
After several unsettled years the Church was to benefit from stable leadership from its fourth minister, George Ingram. He was born in Aberdeen in 1815 and had trained under Dr Ralph Wardlaw, one of the most eminent theologians of the time. Two years ministry in Alloa were followed by nine in Glasgow.
Owing to family health problems he was led to seek a pastorate in southern England, and in 1854 he accepted a call to Twickenham where he stayed for ten years.
Two snapshots of church life during the pastorate are given in surviving editions of the “Annual Report of the Independent Church, Twickenham” dated January 1859 and March 1860. The first in particular gives us a comprehensive picture of Church life at that time.
The Committee, set up in 1858 comprised Henry Wright, Charles Allison, Andrew Bowring, Archibald Brown and Francis Kemp (Secretary and Treasurer). The stipend of £158.1.9 was almost entirely met by quarterly subscriptions though the Committee was most desirous of reaching a fixed minimum stipend. Other expenses, totalling £86.1.11 were met by special collections. Let these extracts from the report for 1858 tell their own story :
MEMBERS ROLL
“During the year (i.e.1853) there have been fourteen admissions to the Clutch membership, of which six were persons from other Churches The only erasure from the Roll, has been the name of Mrs Ingram who died on June 27th. A tablet to her memory has been placed if the Chapel by the church and congregation.
The total is now forty, exclusive of twenty persons who are regular communicants, although remaining members of other denominations. About fifty sittings have been allocated to newcomers in the course of the year. The attendance of casual worshippers has been large, especially on the evening services”.
PUBLIC SERVICES
The principal subjects of Sabbath morning discourse, have been thirteen lectures on the Gospel by John (concluding a course of one hundred and thirty-one); and the first twenty eight of a course of lectures on the book of the Acts of the Apostles . . . The subjects of evening sermons have in general been miscellaneously selected from both Testaments. On July 4th Rev David Russell of Glasgow preached with particular reference to the recent death of Mrs Ingram.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
The Sunday School has prospered greatly during the Year. The average weekly attendance of scholars has been one hundred and thirty (or fifty percent above last year) and of teachers eleven. The library has recently been rearranged and now contains two hundred volumes.
… The children, with teachers, made a pleasant excursion to Virginia Water in August … The teachers acknowledge the help received from the week Evening School for working lads, held in our school twice weekly during winter, which although unsectarian in its constitution and management, yet contributes materially to the extent of the ground operated on by the Sunday School, It is notable that the teachers, five in number, are all in connexion with this congregation. The attendance at the week Evening school is forty-five.
The appearance of the Annual Report for 1859 was delayed by the death on January 11th 1860 of Lady Shaw at her Kensington home. This second the report, very similar to the report for 1858, was published in March 1860. Charles Allison had become Secretary and Treasurer, the stipend was still well short of the £200 target, and a Dorcas and Maternal Society had been formed by the church ladies. There were now only fourteen sittings unlet notwithstanding the loss of “a few friends consequent on the opening of chapels at New Hampton (now Hampton Hill URC) and Teddington (Methodist)“.
The Committee had considered extending the chapel to provide additional sittings “but the death of Lady Shaw having thrown the terms of tenure upon which the Chapel is held into uncertainty it was decided to suspend further operations until the position became clearer.”
Uncertainty indeed! Lady Shaw was childless and had died intestate, with no surviving close relatives. Her estate was valued at just under £10,000 (approx. £1.5m 2025). On January 28th 1861 letters of Administration were granted to Edward Payson, an American farmer who was the sole executor of the will of Lady Shaw’s late cousin. The church trustees found themselves called on to repay the debt incurred on the construction of the chapel to Lady Shaw’s estate.
Meanwhile church life went on: “I have been resolved of late to go where I can obtain what my soul requires. And Bless God I have got much good under the Rev Geo. Ingram of the Independent Church. But I am no sectarian. I love all that love our Lord…“.
So wrote Abraham Slade in December 1859. Born in Upton Noble, Somerset in 1817, he had come to Twickenham 1848. Methodism had claimed him in 1851 but he had become unsettled there. From 1856 until his death in 1903, he kept a journal of his life in Twickenham. Much of it is of a personal nature but several entries relate to the history of the church:
- Feb 25th 1860 : “Some Friends are about commencing a course of revival & social prayer meetings to be held at Zion Row School Room, the Wesleyan Chapel, Baptist School and Independent ditto. I trust the Lord may make it a blessing to the whole village.”
- March 4th 1860 : “The Revival prayer meeting on Tuesday at the School in Zion Row was well attended and so was the meeting on Friday evening at the Baptist Chapel.”
- April 15th 1860 : “We have had united prayer meetings for this last two months, but the people do not seem to take any interest in them. Twickenham, of all the places I have seen is the most dark and degraded.”
- Feb 24th 1861 : “Having herd(sic) Mr Ingram on the last sabbath and having met him on the following Monday evening I rejoiced at again hearing his voice and the sensible remarks and Christian advice he then received.“
- One further entry reminds us of the principal change that was taking place in the neighbourhood:
March 2nd 1861 : “the party that now has the shop that I was nigh taking is obliged to turn out with a short notice for the railway is going through it.“
The railway had first come to Twickenham in 1848, and its extension to Kingston, almost within view of the chapel opened in 1863. During the next fifty years the area south of the chapel was to see enormous changes, especially after the opening of Strawberry Hill station in December 1873.
In 1864 Mr Ingram accepted a call to our near neighbour, Vineyard Church, Richmond where he ministered until failing health forced him to retire in early 1888. He died the following year.
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