The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Hugh Town, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly.
Built upon the receipt of £1,500 from William IV.
Church, Hugh Town, Isles of Scilly
The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Hugh Town, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly.
Built upon the receipt of £1,500 from William IV.
This signals the new future for The Islands, for before that time, from 1571, The Islands were leased to Francis Godolphin from The Crown.
Until the 17th century, the strip of land between Town Beach and Portcressa was sand dunes only,
and even then Hugh Town was a mere collection of houses, under the shadow of the east curtain wall of The Garrison on The Hugh.
It was handed down through the family until 1831, when it reverted to The Crown, after not having had the lease renewed.
Augustus Smith had a very strong 'agenda' in that he wanted to improve conditions for the working classes, a not widely held view of the time.
He drove his person to negotiate with The Duchy, that he should take on that lease; it began 29th November 1834.
He arrived in The Isles of Scilly in February of 1835.
As a condition of that lease, he began to work on the provision of a new church, to replace that in Old Town.
The church was designed by Augustus Smith, himself, and the arrangement of seating is similar to a college chapel.
The foundation Stone was laid 31st October 1836;
the building was completed in August of 1838.
This photograph is 1937, when the new west window was installed for the Coronation, designed by A C Ward.
Some of my Thompson family lived in the cottages to the left.
Raymond Forward
