Community memories on display at Holy Trinity Church
On March 18, 1867, Hamilton Parish constable William Thomas Burrows Brown was helping another officer transport a man to the “lunatic asylum” when he was stabbed in the lung.
The 47-year-old never saw it coming. When his attacker appeared in court, a few days later, Mr Brown was said to be recovering nicely.
“Brown is an exceedingly useful man,” the Magistrate said. “His loss would be much felt.”
A few days later, Mr Brown died from an infection caused by his wounds. He was the first local police officer to die in the line of duty. He left behind a wife and five children.
His story is one of many from Hamilton Parish included in A Celebration of Family Heritage.
The exhibition on now at Holy Trinity Church, 25 Trinity Church Road, Hamilton Parish is meant to be a community scrapbook, of sorts.
The Reverend Canon John Stow organised it to mark Holy Trinity Church’s 400th anniversary. It is done in partnership with the National Museum of Bermuda and the Lyceum Trust.
In 1623 a charter was granted for a church to be built on Hamilton Parish glebe (church) lands. Today, it is thought that just two inner walls of the church date back to the time when it was originally built. Its tower and porches were erected much later.
“All along I planned this to be quite low key,” he said. It is meant to be a celebration of families associated with the church.
“Weddings, baptisms, funerals and countless other moments have been woven into the fabric of this historic landmark,” he said.
However, he was determined not to exclude anyone.
“I was interested in everyone in the parish,” he said. “If people said I don’t come to church any more, I did not say ‘tut, tut, I’ll talk to you when you come back’. I wanted people in the community to feel linked.”
He said in the post-pandemic world, isolation has become a real concern.
“When people feel isolated, they do not look after their health,” he said.
A Celebration of Family Heritage has brought in people who lost touch with Holy Trinity Church, or moved to other churches or never attended at all.
To get the word out there, Mr Stow had flyers delivered to people in the area. He also sent letters to leaseholders of the graves at Holy Trinity.
He heard later that some people were alarmed to see a letter from the church.
“Some of them said ‘I already paid the maintenance fee for my grave’,” Mr Stow said.
The exhibition includes written recollections of the church.
Andrea McKey, for example, remembered walking or cycling to Sunday school, as a child, with brother Stephen and sister Chloe.
“We would race each other to church, or slow down and enjoy the views of Harrington Sound,” she said. “We went to Sunday school in what we called the hearse house. It was a little building that is still on the property. There were quite a lot of us crammed in there.”
Today, as the church sexton and verger, she helps prepare the church for Sunday services, weddings and funerals. She especially loves doing the flowers.
“I make sure that everything is running smoothly when the canon comes in,” she said.
One of her contributions is a painting of a horse.
“It was a racehorse called Figaro that belonged to my great-grandfather, Dudley Hollis,” she explained.
In the early 1880s, Figaro won many races at the Shelly Bay Race Course in Hamilton Parish.
However, the painting is mildly contentious in Ms McKey’s family.
“My sister hates it because the horse’s head is so small compared to the rest of its body,” Ms McKey said. “She says it is not presentable. I said horse heads were smaller in the 1800s. Just like dogs, horse breeds have changed over the years.”
Also in the exhibition are photos of a nine-foot shark caught by Ross Cooper, Elyston Haycock, Morris Cooper, and Percy Outerbridge. In June 1933, they were swimming when it passed within three feet of them, and tried to bite.
“It was caught in Harrington Sound, not far from the church,” Mr Stow said.
About 20 members of the congregation compiled the photographs, letters, paintings and funeral programmes in just a week.
When people brought in photographs they photocopied them, then handed back the originals.
Photographs of Joan Hollis, a top tenpin bowler in the 1980s, are also included.
“I think the exhibition is wonderful,” she said. “Our rector has done a wonderful job.”
Vivian Yearwood contributed photographs of her parents, Neil Richards and Olga Hall’s wedding at Holy Trinity Church in 1957. “They were very fashionable,” she said looking at the pictures.
• The show is open weekdays until November 11 from 10am to noon and 5pm to 7pm
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