AUDLEY & DISTRICT FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
WILLIAM ARTHUR WICKHAM
In the August 2005 Newsletter I wrote a review of THE WORLD OF WILLIAM WHICKHAM The Biography and the Photography of a Remarkable Victorian by Kenneth Ward.
At that time I thought of him as a man marking time as a curate at Talke awaiting his appointment as a vicar elsewhere. Nothing could be further from the truth.
William Arthur Wickham was born in Wiltshire in 1849. His father died when he was sixteen, and to help maintain the family, William worked as a tutor to wealthy families. He became interested in both photography and church architecture at an early age and used his years of tutoring to travel to many parts of the country to see churches, abbeys and various ecclesiastical remains, making notes and taking photographs.
Eventually, he went to Lichfield Theological College and in January 1875 he was ordained at Talke. He was immediately thrown into the issue of lack of capacity of the churches in the growing hamlet. In the autumn of 1876 preliminary meetings were held and the announcement and appeal for funds to build a new church was undertaken by the Revd. W. A. Wickham who was, at that time, assistant Curate of the Parish.
The opening months of 1876 were occupied very largely in removing doubts about the project, laying plans for the collection of the necessary funds and in deciding on the architect to be employed. In this important issue friends who had had experience in church building advised Mr Wickham.
A public appeal for funds was issued in July 1877 by which time subscriptions from the immediate neighbourhood and funds from societies to the amount of £2000 had been received. The signatures appended to the appeal were the W.A, Wickham, J.T. Shepherd, Assistant Curate, R.N. Wood and James Gater Church Wardens and the former warden was named at the Treasurer of the fund.
As a result of all these efforts the foundation stone of the Saint Saviours was laid on Tuesday 16th July 1878.
It should be said that although Mr Wickham worked tirelessly from the very outset for the provision of St. Saviours Church, he had made it clear that he was not working with the idea of having a new church for himself; not did he intend to find himself remaining in the parish at all if a call came to him to be else where. He resigned his post and left at the beginning of November 1878.
His
affinity with mining community life resulted in him being offered ministership
of St Andrews Parish Church, Wigan in 1878.
Among the collieries, iron foundries, cotton mills and other industry, church services were held in a schoolroom, with the Rev. Wickham playing a double bass and the schoolmaster a fiddle, to provide the music for services. There were plans for a church, but the first appeal brought in just £72 of the £5,400 needed. Nothing daunted and no doubt with the valuable experience gained at Talke, Mr Wickham pressed on, appealing to sources all over the country, and eventually the church was built.
Close by
his new vicarage was Douglas Bank Colliery and, due to the colliery manager
being a member of his congregation, he very soon obtained access to the pit in
order to make a photographic record of the miners and the conditions in which
they worked.
At this time, few photographers had attempted to portray life underground and
because of this fact, the Wickham archives (totalling over 1000 prints and
negatives) are considered to be of national importance.
In this industrial community he developed his passion for photography. Try and picture Wigan in the last two decades of the nineteenth century seen through the lens of a pioneer photographer and above we see the Rev William Arthur Wickham, 'the building vicar', of St Andrew's and assistant in Woodhouse Lane area soup kitchen.
It is probable that his early photography was done with one of the 'View' cameras of the time; we do not know. From his daughters' recollections, he probably bought one of the new bellows-type cameras on a wooden tripod (around 1882 to judge from the earliest of the glass plates that can be dated). It would also fit in with the introduction of 'dry-plate' photography, which made life a lot easier for the photographer.
He conducted lanternslide shows on the church hall wall to boost school fund everyday struggle against poverty, hunger and virulent disease.
In 1916, aged 68, waning health took him to the hamlet of Ampton, in Suffolk, as Rector. There, he continued his devoted ministry, renewed his interests and stamped his personality and principles upon the diocese. He died in 1929, aged 80, leaving behind an inspiring story and many visible contributions to posterity of his remarkable and fruitful life.
St Saviours Church in Butt Lane was closed in 1972.