The Victorian Rectors of Barningham and Coney Weston and their Rectory

On a terrible day in April 1769, a bakery fire spread across the adjoining properties and reduced Barningham’s ancient parsonage house to ashes. Afterwards, the elderly rector removed to his property twenty miles away, and was probably a rare visitor to the parishes from which he drew his income until his death in 1818. 170 years later, in the early days of the Second World War, “The Rectory” on Bardwell Road was occupied by an advertising executive and the rector was boarding in a cottage opposite the church. During the intervening period of a century and a half, five men held the title of rector of Barningham and Coney Weston: George Hunt, James Edwards, Arthur Edwards, Hamilton Brand, and Franklin Hutchinson. These men had similarities, including a commitment to social welfare, each becoming popular, even beloved local figures. And yet their varied backgrounds, hitherto little researched, include fascinating episodes and connections. One rector was the father of a Lord Chancellor; another the grandson of a Bury St Edmunds upholsterer who served as the Lord Mayor of London; another the subject of a missing persons investigation! Their stories are the story of a changing society told in vignettes. And their impact on the village, most significantly the story of the rectory house itself, reflects the changing relationship of the parish priest to his benefice during the nineteenth century.