AU10/102/2/2

Typewritten letter

4 November 1965

From: 1965 To: 1965

"Kingsgate Castle, Broadstairs, Kent. Dear Andrew, I was very interested to hear from you that the Ampthill Parish Magazine will be celebrating its 75th. birthday next January. When I arrived in Ampthill in 1933, I remember there were bound volumes of the magazine from its beginning in 1891 up to the end of Mr.May's incumbency. There were many loose copies of the magazine after that date, but no consecutive issues. I set to work to repair the omissions by appealing for old copies, and eventually I was able to attain a complete continuity and get them all bound. I am glad to know the good work has been carried on. A Parish Magazine can be a very interesting historical record. How wonderful it would be if we had the comments and counsels of the Rectors of Ampthill during the Napoleonic Wars, and even earlier! I remember how interested I was in reading Mr.Nichol's accounts of church affairs in the 1890s and early years of the present century. It was he who gave me the idea, during the 1939-45 War, of referring ever and anon to national events as the war went on. I thought perhaps in a hundred years' time, future Rectors would find these comments interesting, and wonder what kind of man the Reverend John Hillam was! I imagine they will think I had a lot in common with the Reverend J.G.Nichol, my predecessor, apart from the fact that we were both called John George, and both, I believe, Yorkshiremen! We certainly shared the characteristic of bluntness. All best wishes for the future. You can do what you like with the above, omitting anything you think unncessary. I could have gone on to say what a great advantage is was when I persuaded the late Sir Albert Richardson to design a new cover. He first did the one of the tower from the Rectory Lane, but it did not meet with general approval; so he then did the one of the procession coming out of the South porch. I had introduced the apparreled albs shortly before. Incense followed later! I am waiting to hear when my ship sails from Amsterdam for the three to four month voyage around Africa. I expect to be back sometime in April for a few weeks. Then I am spending the whole of next summer, all being well, in Italy, with friends in Perugia, Florence and Portofino. I don't intend to settle down in an armchair and carpet slippers for a long time yet! Yours sincerely, J.G.Hillam"

item

Hillam, John George,
Underwood, Andrew,
May, Walter Dunstan,
Nichol, John George Scrymsour,
Richardson, Albert Edward

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