| People, groups and events |
Miss Bridget MonahanI have been asked to say something about Bridget's life and will do my best to do justice to her. I'm sure many of you who have known Bridget for many years, will have stories of your own about this remarkable lady.Bridget was born in May 1910 in York Cottage, London Road, which at one time would have been in this parish. She was the youngest of the three daughters of Father William Beattie Monahan who was Rector of this parish for many years. We are fortunate that Bridget's sister Mary kept a diary which gives us a window into Bridget's childhood and the world in which she grew up. Bridget published some of Mary's diaries and they are well worth reading and very entertaining. It was a childhood in a world which has gone for ever and Bridget was a link with that world. They were living in St Antony's, a beautiful house in Stephenson Terrace overlooking Pitchcroft. Before they eventually went to Lawnside in Malvern they had a governess called Miss Mountford whom Bridget nicknamed Mountie. It appears from the diaries that the girls were lively and sometimes teased her though they were fond of her. Bridget was creative and imaginative and Mary says Bridget had pretend friends who were very real to her and she would gallop round the garden on an imaginary horse visiting and conversing with her pretend friends. The girls were encouraged to write poems and stories and Mary and Bridget decided to write and edit a magazine to sell for 2d. Bridget's contributions included riddles and gardening articles. Many of the congregation had poems written for them by Bridget, some amusing some sad. Bridget remained a keen gardener all her life and was very interested in wild life and nature. When she was 93 she requested a wheelbarrow as she was still doing all her own gardening. She was creative, learning to draw and paint, to sew, knit and crochet and she used these skills to make presents for people and to raise money for her favourite charities. Mary tells how, one Christmas, Bridget decorated her doll's pram to look like a camel from which she produced gifts such as egg cosies and notebooks which she had made and decorated. I have two calendars, one with an owl and one with a Labrador dog. She asked me to hang the latter in the bathroom and to say a prayer for animals which were badly treated whenever I went in there. Another pastime popular in the Monahan household was performing plays, sometimes based on well known stories or Shakespeare and some written by themselves. Everyone got dragged into these including the long suffering Mountie. Costumes appear to have been created imaginatively using a good deal of brown paper and seccotine. This must have given Bridget her love of public performance, organising pageants and producing plays. When Bridget was in her early twenties her father had St. Swithun's Institute built on land adjacent to St Martin's Church and School. This provided a social centre for people living in the area. Many were in the streets and courts around the church. This was quite a deprived area and most of these houses have been demolished. Many local boys attended the school, maybe there are some here today. Among them was Eddie Prior of whom more in a moment. Bridget was very busy with all the activities in the Institute. Mrs Monahan was musical, Mary tells us she was an excellent pianist. She encouraged her girls to be musical and Bridget showed a particular aptitude. Her niece Sheila says Bridget taught the violin, cello, viola and the recorder. One of her first pupils was Eddie Prior but she also taught many children from poor families, charging very little for the lessons and some of the instruments they played were given to them by Bridget. One of her pupils was John Stallard who went on to become the leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. She taught music at Sunnyside and Nunnery Wood Schools in Worcester and the Sacred Heart School in Droitwich. Bridget's talent and love of music led her to found her Salon Arts Orchestra and Choir which gave much pleasure to performers and audiences and was a passion for most of her life. She had many friends in the musical world, Margaret Elgar was one of her cello pupils and Carice Elgar was a friend and holiday companion. She organised visits to concerts and theatres, a favourite was the annual Kays Pantomime. The Orchestra and Choir raised money for a grand piano which is believed may be at Huntingdon Hall now. Sheila came to live at the Rectory for a few years and tells me of Bridget's needlework skills, making beautiful vestments which she cut out on the top of the grand piano. Bridget also made pretty and fashionable dresses and a coat for Sheila. No doubt these skills were employed when it came to costumes for plays and the pageants which she put on. Bridget was generous and derived pleasure from helping others. Everything she did was for charity including making cards. Pilgrims going to Walsingham would be given packets of cards and calendars to be sold in the Shrine Shop. She was a keen supporter of the Musicians' Benevolent Fund, one way in which she supported them was to cook lunch each Thursday for 8 to 10 people to give the profit to the fund. She also supported the Sisters of Mercy of the Oxford Mission to Bangladesh and Sheila tells me there always seemed to be people living in the Rectory who needed care and a home. Bridget was always active. In her youth she was Captain of the Worcester Ladies Hockey Team and Sheila recalls her in her uniform of green shirt, black pleated tunic and black stockings. Mary tells us Bridget used to play sometimes before she was old enough to join the club. She liked to cycle and she and her sisters used to cycle to Walsingham which is in North Norfolk. She continued to cycle till she was 92 and gave up after a couple of falls. The family had active holidays at a cottage near the Camp Pub at Grimley which they reached by boat. These seem to have been really happy times for all the family and the girls would row and sail on the Severn and bathe in it. More recently she would take groups of friends across the fields to visit this site and have a picnic. Bridget was a keen sports fan and could often be found in the drawing room watching sport on TV. It could be football, cricket, racing or anything which caught her fancy. The sound would be turned down and the radio would be on. She would usually have a cigarette and depending on the time, a cup of tea or coffee or a glass of sherry. She liked a little flutter on the horses occasionally. I have mentioned Walsingham and many of you will know that this is a shrine dedicated to Mary the Mother of Jesus, to whom Bridget was devoted all her life. She loved to be at Walsingham and visited it many times in her life, and introduced it to generations of people in this church. She was made a Dame of Walsingham and wore her sash and medal with pride. You can see these on the top of the coffin. She made many friends among the priests and nuns there as well as people in the shops and among the residents of the village. When the Shrine accommodation was full bed and breakfast was provided by the local people. Bridget was quite strict about observing a proper pilgrimage programme of Shrine Sprinkling, Stations of the Cross, Masses and processions and before the new Refectory was built, and when meals were a bit of a squash, she would make everyone mingle and introduce themselves to pilgrims from other parishes. However, Bridget when walking around the village, always had a large handbag in which reposed a bottle of sherry and some glasses. When she met someone she knew, out would come the sherry and a couple of glasses. Before supper in the Green Room, one of the sitting rooms, she would have a sherry and a cigarette. Now smoking is banned so she would not like that. She will be sadly missed at Walsingham. Bridget learned to drive when she was 17 and never passed a test. When I told people I was going to Walsingham with her, they looked at me as if I were mad. She said she hoped her eyes would hold out. We stopped for the Angelus and lunch, and of course, a sherry. At the big Kings Lynn roundabout she watched lorries thunder past for a while and then gripping the wheel firmly she said "My turn now I think" and off she went. After her mother died Bridget stayed on at the Rectory to care for her father. When he also died, the first person she sent for was her dear friend Eddie Prior. He arrived to find Fr. Monahan laid on the bed with his beautiful chasuble laid on his body. Elizabeth Prior tells me that Bridget would always send for Eddie when she needed any little jobs done, or a lift or some help. He played in her orchestra and sang in her choir and his recent death was a blow to her and affected her deeply. For some twenty years following Fr. Monahan's death Bridget followed accepted custom and, although staying in Worcester, she worshipped at St. Stephen's. She returned to Old St. Martins and continued to be active here, doing a stint as churchwarden and PCC member. Bridget was a stickler for proper observances and the appearance of the church. Her keen eye would travel round the church and note a crooked candle, an altar cloth not absolutely straight or a hymn board which had not been removed and she would direct the nearest person to attend to it. She kept us all up to scratch. Bridget had great respect for priests but would tell them if she did not agree with something. We used to have a prayer which began "As the grain once scattered on the fields" at the Offertory. One curate preferred not to use this prayer. Bridget had taken up the collection and stood waiting patiently for him to say this prayer. They stood and looked at each other, eventually Bridget said "Father, you haven't scattered the grain." "No," he said "I'm not going to." This did make everyone smile. Another time our priest experimented with arranging the chairs in the Lady Chapel in a circle rather than in rows. "Father," said Bridget "I am not going to Mass in a seance Priests had to be strong minded with Bridget, who did like to get her own way. Paul Westcott tells me Bridget asked him to design and have made a nave altar and two lecterns to the measurements of those at Walsingham. He did so and they were duly delivered and put in place. Paul then went away only to find on his return that she had had five inches taken off them because she said she could not see over them. When her funeral plans were being discussed some years ago she was asked "Would you like Father so-and-so to preside?" "Oh no" said Bridget, "I can never hear what he says." She continued organising performances in the Institute and in the church garden, inviting pupils of a local dance school to stage a production here. We also had garden fetes at her instigation and garden parties at St. Antony's where we played the old games she had in her shed, such as croquet and skittles. Bridget encouraged church hospitality providing afternoon tea after services like the May Devotions and Benediction and in the Institute she would cook shepherds pie and trifle. She also started coffee mornings on Saturdays there. We have tried to maintain that tradition of hospitality. Bridget had a strong and simple faith which guided her life. Her devotion to Our Lady meant that she recited the Angelus and the Rosary daily and if visitors called around noon, conversation stopped and they joined in the Angelus. If it had been possible to choose a date for Bridget to die, it would have been on the day she left us, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who she loved so much. I like to think that Mary wafted Bridget away in her arms that evening. Bridget was strong minded but great company and great fun. She became a legend in her lifetime. We shall all miss this remarkable, talented and redoubtable lady. A link has been broken in the history and life of this church and parish, and with a way of life which has gone forever. |
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