I have seen references to people known as pew-openers.
Who were they? When did they exist, and what did they do? Is it
just another name for a sidesman?
Recently discovered records of All Saints', Ennismore Gardens,
in London, include receipts for pew-openers (all women) in the
1850s and 1860s; they were paid £1 per quarter (comparable payments
were 5s. per quarter for the organ blower and £12 10s. for the
organist). One pew-opener was also "vestry-woman", and she received
£2 per quarter. The rate of pay did not increase between 1852 and
1868.
There is further information on pew-openers in an unpublished
Ph.D. thesis by John Charles Bennett, "The English Anglican
Practice of Pew Renting, 1800-1960", (University of Birmingham
2011), which can be found at http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/2864/.
This features anecdotal evidence of tipping that gave rise,
early in the 20th century, to the expression "pew-opener's muscle"
- a muscle in the palm of the hand - because it helps to contract
and hollow the palm for the reception of a gratuity (pages
190-191).
Pew-renting, as the title of the thesis indicates, had died out
by 1960; but a note in the parish magazine started by the new Vicar
of Holy Trinity, Prince Consort Road, Douglas Cleverly Ford, in the
mid-1950s, urges seat-holders to take their seats by 10.55, as
otherwise they would be given to all comers.
(The Revd) Peter Kettle (Hon. Curate of Holy Trinity
with All Saints', South Kensington)
London SW19
In Dombey & Son, Charles Dickens introduces his
readers to Mrs Miff, a wheezy little pew-opener.
"A vinegary face has Mrs Miff, and a mortified bonnet, and eke a
thirsty soul for sixpences and shillings. Beckoning to stray people
to come into pews has given Mrs Miff an air of mystery; and there
is reservation in the eye of Mrs Miff, as always knowing of a
softer seat, but having her suspicions of the fee. There is no such
fact as Mr Miff, nor has there been these twenty years, and Mrs
Miff would rather not allude to him. He held some opinions, it
would seem, about free seats; and though Mrs Miff hopes he may have
gone upwards, she couldn't positively undertake to say so."
St Martin-in-the-Fields still has a bench, at the rear of the
church, reserved for the use of the pew-opener. Perhaps the late
Mrs Miff once occupied it.
David Turner
Hitcham, Suffolk
According to the chapter on pew-openers in the thesis referred
to already (pages 190-195), in the days of pew-renting,
pew-openers, who were generally women and often elderly, had to
know who the pew-owners, -renters, and -holders were. They opened
the locking pews, and also often chose seats for worshippers who
had not been allocated pews. Some were assigned other duties such
as attending on the clergyman during services, cleaning the church
on Saturdays, letting visitors in during the week, and washing
surplices. Editor
Your questions
Did daily communion services survive the Reformation
anywhere in the Church of England? If not, when and where were they
first restored? Are they in decline, and, if so, why?
G. M.
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