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Email from Elizabeth Semper O’Keefe to Elizabeth Jenner, "Richard Phillips", 5 November 2024. (S3240)

Last Modified: 07 Nov 2024 06:16:16 (Administrator-No-Users-Yet)

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Actual Text:	<span style="font-family:Calibri,swiss;"><span style="font-size:11pt;">The Cathedral Constables and St Katherine's Hospital, Ledbury The tradition of Cathedral Constables can be traced back to the 13th century. Today few cathedrals have any, but Chester, Liverpool and Canterbury Cathedrals and York Minster still do. Salisbury also had Cathedral Constables until they were disbanded at the end of 2010, and Hereford too until 2014. Many such places now use private security services instead, to ensure the safety and security of their Cathedral Close. The Keeper or Custodian of the Cathedral Close would today be called the Cathedral Constable. "Apparitor" is a much older title, but involved the same sort of duties. The title Apparitor was used in ecclesiastical courts in the Middle Ages, and one such is mentioned in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, as an alternative name for The Summoner. This official had responsibility for finding and arresting accused individuals, and for bringing them before a Judge of either a civil court or the ecclesiastical court of the Bishop or Archdeacon. in the past each parish appointed constables to keep order in that parish. The Cathedral Close is an enclosed precinct which houses buildings associated with the Cathedral, and Is under the jurisdiction of the Dean and Chapter, who employed men specifically to police the precinct and keep law and order. Some parish constables were less than diligent, as records of the Corporation of Hereford show, even from as long ago as 1691. It seems that some two centuries later there was still a problem even in the Cathedral Close, as in November 1881 the Cathedral Chapter resolved that 'a special constable be engaged to attend in the Cathedral Close from dusk until midnight to prevent further nuisances there'. In 1885 the following list of duties was required of Cathedral Constables: "To attend in the Cathedral Close every evening from dusk to half past eleven o'clock throughout the year and keep order there and prevent prostitutes and other improper characters loitering in the Close. To assist in blowing the organ at the Cathedral morning and evening services throughout the year, except on Sunday evenings and on the evenings when special service are held in the Cathedral, when a substitute will be provided. When on duty in the Close his beat was from the Broad Street gates round the Cathedral through the College Cloisters by the school; then the Deanery and on the north side of the Close to Broad Street, giving an eye to Harley Court to prevent improper characters resorting there' Three such men, after years of faithful service to Hereford Cathedral, spent their final years living in St Katherine's Hospital Almshouses in Ledbury. Edward Bridges, Richard Phillips, and Richard Bodenham. Edward Bridges, in the 1841 census, was living in the Cathedral Close, his occupation was as an Apparitor, and he was responsible for keeping order in the Cathedral Close, the area of land surrounding the Cathedral in Hereford. He was living with his wife and daughter, both named Ann. He was born in Holmer in Herefordshire but his wife came from Trowbridge in Wiitshire and their daughter was not born in Herefordshire. The 1851 census found Edward and his wife living in Ledbury in St Katherine's, with Edward giving his former occupation as gardener, perhaps he had a dual role within the precincts of the Cathedral. They had moved to Ledbury some years before and their daughter Ann died in Ledbury on 27th September 1850, when only 29 years old. This census entry stated that Edward was blind. His wife Ann simply stated she had worked as a servant, although in the 1861 census, by which time she had been widowed, she stated she was a former nurse, probably a domestic nurse. Edward had died on 19th January 1857, aged 72 and his wife Ann on 31st March 1867, aged 83. Richard Phillips was a long-serving Cathedral Constable who was already living in the Close Constable's house in 1869. Richard was born in Norton, near Bromyard in 1846. He met a young Welsh woman, Elizabeth Williams, and they married in Ledbury on 1st September 1868. The 1871 census found Richard, now 25, as Keeper of the Cathedral Close, living in the Close, next door to the College, with his wife Elizabeth, 25, who came from Abergavenny, and baby Caroline who had been born in the Close on 3rd September 1869. Sadly this little one died on 24th February 1872, but not before Florence was born on 16th July 1871. Two more daughters followed, Amy Ethel was born on 13th May 1873 and Elizabeth Annie on 8th January 1877. These three girls were all born and grew up living in the Close, and all three were married in Hereford Cathedral. Richard's wife Elizabeth had died in the Cathedral Close on 4th June 1903, aged 58 before any of her grandchildren were born. Richard continued to serve as Keeper of the Close until 1905 and then moved to St Katherine's in Ledbury and was described as porter and attendant there at the 1911 census, he died there on 15t March 1924, aged 78, almost twenty years after retiring from the Close. Administration regarding his will was granted in Hereford on 3rd April 1924 to his daughter Florence, wife of John Morris of his effects valued at £179 3s 10d. Richard Phillips was replaced as constable by George Haines, who was paid sixteen shillings a week and an assistant Close keeper and constable, John Sheffield, was appointed about the same time. George Haines remained in post until 1928. Richard Bodenham was another Custodian of the Cathedral Close and on his appointment as special constable on 6 t February 1885 was given the list of duties already mentioned. Hewas engaged subject to one month'snotice on either side, and paid wages of seventeen shillings per week. He started work on 16th February 1885 and served as constable until 31stMarch 1900. Richard had been born in Kington on 22nd January 1839 to Edward and Susan Bodenham. The 1851 census shows the family living at Crooked Well, Old Kington, with Edward workingas a labourer and oldest son James 23 as a carpenter. Susan 52 was looking after the other children, Mildred 18, John 15, Richard 12, Jane 9, and Sarah 6. In 1861 the family were at the same address with Edward now working as a gardener and Richard 22, as a stoker. On 7th November 1867 Richard married Eliza Carpenter who had been born in Hereford in 1841. In the 1851 census Eliza, a boat owner's daughter, was living at the end of East Street, then e x t property along being the Grapes Tavern, at the start of West Street. A decade late Eliza was working as a kitchen maid in Maidstone, Kent. Eliza had an older brother Edward andtwo younger sisters, Olive and Matilda. By thetime of the 1871 census Richard and Eliza were living in Green Street, St Owen's in Hereford and their first child Susan Ellen was 18 months old, having been born on 14th September 1869, their first son William Edward would be born in a few months in July. At this time Richard w a s working at the forefront of Victorian technology a s a telegraph labourer. There would be another three daughters and three sons born by the Summer of 1886. In 1881 the Bodenham family were living in the first of a row of cottages beside Barton House in Barton Road, quite near the railway. Richard was now a Gaol Officer, which perhaps explains how he became a Cathedral constable in 1885. They then moved house backt o the St Owen's area to 26, Harold Street and in the 1891 census Richard gave his occupation as Custodian of the Cathedral Close, his son William now 19, was a gas fitter. Richard completed his service to the Cathedral in 1900 and briefly visited their daughter Louisa and family in Birmingham at thetime of the 1901 census. Richard and Eliza then moved to St Katherine's Almshouses and Richard died there on 12tOctober 1913. Eliza died in Birmingham towards the end of 1917, atthe home of herdaughter Louisa, who had married a widower in 1902, Thomas George Jones. The remaining Cathedral Constables now have their own website: <a href="http://www.cathedralconstables.co.uk">www.cathedralconstables.co.uk</a>, and other information can be found at <a href="http://www.british-police-">www.british-police-</a> history.uk, which gives details of earlier cathedral constables at Hereford. Dates are from the parish registers and census returns, via Ancestry, the Forest of Dean Forum, & Tilley's Almanack. Celia Kellet Extracted from Friends of Hfds Archives newsletter Winter 2021</span></span>
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