An Announcement

Within the January vicar's letter, the Rev. Cannon Hibbert makes an announcement that would subsequently totally dominate the magazine pages and explain the fact that there are no bound copies after April;

"By the time you receive the Magazine you will have heard that I am leaving Enderby after a little over 27 years as Vicar of the Parish. It has been a big decision to make after so long a time. I have accepted the living of Tugby with Skeffington, two small parishes on the main road between Leicester and Uppingham, but I shall not be leaving before the end of March next. After so long a stay here, and I have passed my 60th birthday, I feel that I cannot adequately keep in touch with a large and growing parish such as Enderby is now. There would have come a time when parishioners generally were of the opinion that a younger man was required to do the work of a parish priest in this large village. I have endeavoured to visit the sick in their homes and at the hospital, as most of you know, but for parochial visiting I find it difficult to carry this out with the other duties that I have to fulfill. Again, a younger Vicar could do more for the youth of the parish than I feel able to do now. I reached the stage over two years ago when I found myself baptizing the grandchildren of the grandparents at whose wedding I officiated, and that gives some impression as to the length of my stay amongst you.
When the time comes for me to say goodbye, it will be with very mixed feelings. Mrs. Hibbert and I will for ever remember the happy time we have spent living and working amongst you all, and I do thank you for your help and co-operation in so many different ways. During the war years we shared together much anxiety about our loved ones, especially those serving in different parts of the world. It seemed to bring us closer together. And our personal association with Enderby will ever remain with us, for our two younger children were born here, two of them were married here, and all three grandchildren have been baptized in our Church.
You and I have worked together for so many objects in connection with our Church. And with the envelope system for Church Finance having been adopted and working so well, I feel that I shall leave the financial side of our Church life in good order.
I hope I shall not leave any debts behind when I go, but I shall take with me a debt that I can never repay, that of your help, loyalty and affection which you have so readily given to me and my dear wife, who has been a tower of strength to me all along the way."

Farewells

The Rev. Cannon Hibbert finished his ministry in Enderby at the end of March and the bound copies of the magazine end in the following month. The last magazine we have begins with his last 'letter';

"This will be the last letter that I shall write in the Parish Magazine as your Vicar. By the time you receive your copy of this Magazine I shall have left Enderby, but you will often be in my thoughts for I cannot easily forget my former friends and parishioners. My long stay at Enderby has been a very happy one. We have all had our ups and downs, and we went through anxious times together during the last war. However, I look back with pleasant memories upon my ministry amongst you all.
I do want to thank you for the very kind and generous parting present you gave to me on March 28th in the Co-operative Hall. It was an evening of very mixed feelings for both my wife and myself. Happiness to have been with you and for the kind words expressed at the presentation by Captain Drummond, Mr. Pote and Mr. West, but sadness at the thought of leaving Enderby after so long a time with you. It is a very sincere "thank you" for the exceedingly generous gift of a cheque for £67 8s. 6d.
We all enjoyed the items by the "Nightlarks" and it was good of them to give such an excellent show. To all those responsible for the gathering on March 28th, the Churchwardens, the members of the Church Council, and the ladies in the matter of the refreshments, I do most sincerely thank them and, in fact, you all, my dear friends. How kind and thoughtful of Inspector Poole and Mr. W. Salt, Jnr., to wish to ring a peal on the bells on March 29th before I left Enderby!
I would most sincerely like to thank Mrs. Jesson, Mr. Pugh, the teachers and the scholars of the Sunday School for the very nice gift of an oak Prayer Desk. It was presented to me by Mr. Pugh on Easter Day at the Children's Service. I did really appreciate this beautiful present and I can promise that it will be continually used in a little room at Tugby vicarage. The secretary (Mr. Painter), Matron and residents of Enderby House gave me a parting gift a delightful traveling clock. I was much touched by this presentation, for I have truly loved my work at Enderby House. Mr. Holmes, chairman of the visiting committee, presented me with a very nice fountain pen at a recent committee meeting.

Mrs. Hibbert and I were so pleased to see the Rev. L. and Mrs. French and several of our free church friends present. It was indeed a surprise to receive a present from our congregational friends, and the electric percolator presented by Mr. French is most acceptable. We do thank them for their so kind and generous thought for us.

I much regret that as a result of there being so much to see to during the last few weeks, both here and Tugby, I have not been able to visit many of you in your homes to pay a farewell visit and I hope you will forgive me. I will look forward to seeing you at Tugby on April 7th at my institution there, and I know some of you will be paying me a visit in the summer months."

New Advertising

"You will notice some new local advertise-ments in the Magazine. I am grateful to all our advertisers, and it is only fair to them to ask you to patronise them whenever you can."

A Successor

There was to be no gap between vicars as we see in March's vicar's letter; "Since writing my last letter the appointment of my successor has been announced. I expect you all saw the announcement in the local papers, or at any rate heard about it. The new Vicar is to be the Rev. G. F. Gill, M.A., Curate of S. John Baptist, Knighton, Leicester. From Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he took his degree, he proceeded to Lincoln Theological College and was ordained in 1941. He served his first Curacy at All Saints', Wellingborough, in the Diocese of Peterborough, and having been there for five years he moved to S. John Baptist, Knighton, in 1946. Curiously enough, there are a number of facts so similar to us both. Mr. Gill is about the same age (just a few months older) as I was when I came to Enderby, he has a child aged three years, as I had, we both started our ministry in the Peterborough Diocese, and the first and third of his three initials are the same, as mine are the same.
I feel sure that you will like Mr. Gill and his wife and will give them a very warm welcome to Enderby when they come in May. The Bishop has fixed Mr. Gill's Institution and Induction for Friday evening, May 25th. The Churchwardens will give you all particulars about this in the May Magazine.
Captain Drummond has been very wise in appointing a young man to succeed me for this large and growing Parish of Enderby needs a much younger man than myself. Do give Mr. and Mrs. Gill every help and support that you can and then, I am sure, the Church and Parish life of Enderby will be greatly strengthened.
I am making things a little easier for the new Vicar to get to know you in your homes than I found it when I came. I have prepared a list of the streets in the Parish with the numbers of the houses and names of parishioners. No such list was handed to me and I found it very hard at first to find out where people lived, especially as the houses were not numbered then. You can imagine my difficulty in streets like John Street, or West Street, where there are a number of families with the same surname. The third entry on the right-hand side of the road and the second house on the left was more difficult to find than Just No. 25, or whatever it is."

Editor's Note

The bound copies of the parish magazine came to the end with the departure of the Rev. Cannon Hibbert to Tugby after over a quarter of a century's service to Enderby. The magazine may have been continued but we have no copies to bring light on the next vicar's, The Rev. Gill, time at Enderby.

As I have compiled these reviews of the parish magazine, from 1925 through to 1951, I have been impressed by the church, people and vicar that came out from the magazine pages. The times were not easy; the 1930s were blighted by economic depression and the 1940s saw world war, but the church (and Enderby) achieved a lot in this time.

Most of all I have been impressed by the way in which the torch of the Christian church has been passed on through the generations. Cannon Hibbert, and those who stood with him, worked for the church and held the light of God and his son, Jesus, out to the village. They worked hard; just think of the improvements to the church (the bells, the organ, the churchyard, e.t.c.)and did their part. Now the 'torch' has been passed on to us, my generation in Enderby, and it is a great responsibility! I hope that in 50 years, if someone looks back to this time, they will say the same things of us.

Through the magazine we can see Enderby changing; the inexorable growth of a rural village which has eventually become little more than a suburb of Leicester. The 'church school', the blessing of the crops, the whist drives and flag days are now part of a past that many will never know or understand. Maybe, we will be able to look further back in time, and be able to read one of the bound copies of the parish magazines from the 1890s mentioned by the vicar in 1941. What were the challenges that faced Enderby and its church over 100 years ago? If anyone has a copy of those magazines, please, please contact us.

Above all this has been a small tribute to the Christians of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s of Enderby Parish Church, and especially to the Rev. Hibbert, and his wife, whose words are so often quoted in the review columns. Though decades separate us, I have come to like and respect these two people who cared and loved the village God had given them to serve.

So many years latter, the Rev. Hibbert is remembered in Enderby as a good man of God. What better reputation can any man have than that?

Mark Brown

Enderby Parish Church Webmaster - 24 May 2002

Editor's P.S.

It was with great joy that I was able to look at the Enderby Church Parish Magazines of 1892 to 1897 for a week. (my personal thanks to those who gave the Church the magazines are attached to the relevant new review pages). I have added additional review pages for those magazines, accessable from the history page.

Interestingly, the magazine of 1898 mentioned above was a little after this collection of magazines, so our great hope is that even more magazines are 'out there' that could shed more light on Enderby's past. If, God willing, some kind soul can provide us with more, you can be sure that extracts from them wil be included on this site as soon afterwards as possible.

Mark Brown

Enderby Parish Church Webmaster - 6 March 2004