Episode 24. The Thaxted Tradition

SYNOPSIS

For over seventy years, running from 1910, when Conrad Noel arrived with his wife Miriam and daughter Barbara as vicar of Thaxted Parish Church, until 1984, when Peter Elers resigned through ill-health, this small rural town in Conservative Essex was associated with the Christian quest for social justice. Close enough to London to attract metropolitan creative artists and intellectuals and to Cambridge University to attract radical academics, Thaxted saw many drawn into the orbit of Noel’s sacramental socialism either in acts of pilgrimage or through relocation, settlement and participation. The composer and music teacher, Gustav Holst acted as the organist and choirmaster for several years, establishing with Noel a Whitsun Festival during the First World War. The distinguished Cambridge biologist and sinologist Joseph Needham, a friend of Noel’s successor and son-in-law Jack Putterill, regularly preached in the church in the 1970s,

Several of those associated with Thaxted during this period left memoirs or archives of their writings or activities. As a result, there is an unusually rich assortment of material that is suitable for academic assessment. Indeed, very few Anglican parishes offer such an opportunity to assess a continuing radical tradition and stress test it against major social upheavals, such as world wars, national politics and changes in social outlook. In this interview, Professor Arthur Burns, the acknowledged academic expert on Thaxted, places what happened at Thaxted in the context not only of those major social upheavals but also of recent scholarly advances in the understanding of English ecclesiastical history.  

GUEST

Professor Arthur Burns is Professor of Modern British History at King’s College London. Growing up in the historic market town of Ludlow, Shropshire sparked Arthur’s interest in the strong social networks that develop within Anglicanism in flourishing rural towns. His chief area of publication has been the institutional and cultural history of English religion since the mid eighteenth century, with a particular focus on the Church of England. Since 1999 Arthur Burns has been a director of The Clergy of the Church of England Database. He is currently academic director of the Georgian Papers Programme.

Arthur’s interview with Simon Machin was recorded online on 22 February 2023.