Restoring the forgotten preacher

Jul 16 2007 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

The lost prophet of Liverpool, who preached to thousands, now lies on his back in a yard, but there is a campaign to return him to glory. David Charters reports

DRIZZLE darkened the noble brow of the forgotten preacher and then a cool wind trembled the weeds around him. The swollen, grey sacks of cloud parted.

For those seconds, we stood like extras in one of those biblical epics made by the gods of Hollywood, waiting for the sun to come again.

Suddenly it appeared, shining into the man’s old eyes and in them you could see again the fervour of a prophet. That had made this still man one of the greatest orators in Victorian Liverpool.

You could almost hear his voice, a hint of Irish in his Manx tones, thundering above the hubbub of an open-air gathering.

Colin Lane, the photographer, raised a hand to us and said “wait”, just before he stepped forward with his camera to capture the moment when shadows spread from the man’s head.

“That was lucky,” he said. “The sun brought out all his features, so you could see what he actually looked like.”

It wasn’t really luck at all. It was Colin’s perfect judgment of light and shade.

But in so doing, he almost pulled off the miracle of making Hugh Stowell Brown really live again.

Who?

Well, it’s not a bad question these days. Yet he must have been a very important fellow once – after all, they erected a statue of him.

Of course, they do that for prime ministers, pop stars, footballers, war heroes, comedians and businessmen.

But only three clergymen have been so honoured in Liverpool. The other two are Monsignor James Nugent (1822-1905), worker among the poor and founder of the Boys’ Refuge on St Anne Street, and Canon T Major Lester (1829-1903), honorary canon of Liverpool and founder and superintendent of Kirkdale Industrial Ragged Schools.

Both are in St John’s Gardens.

Now Brown lies uncerem-oniously by the stables in Croxteth Country Park. His face has been scarred by wind, rain and neglect.

However, a two-pronged campaign has begun to celebrate both the statue and the reputation of the man.

A biography of his life is being written and experts are examining the statue to see if it can be restored.

Brown was born in 1823 in Douglas on the Isle of Man, where his father, Robert, was vicar of St Matthew’s, a church in the “low” Anglican tradition. His names were chosen in tribute to the Reverend Hugh Stowell, rector at the nearby parish of Ballaugh.

Although young Brown’s upbringing was one of gentility and learning, Douglas at the time was a poor port, awaiting the prosperity the holiday trade would bring.

His father’s stipend fell short of £100 a year and that included the rent they received for letting out part of their house, on the misleadingly grand-sounding New Bond Street, to a grocer for a wines and spirits store.

In an effort to keep up appearances, the Rev Brown and his wife, who had four other children, employed two servants.

In 1832, the family moved to Kirk Braddan.

That was the year of the dreadful cholera epidemic. Stinking, stagnant water rose in the narrow, squat streets of Douglas and Ramsay, as their harbours remained undredged and unflushed, greatly assisting the progress of the disease. About 120 years later, a clergyman writing a brief account of those days, noted; “Discarding science and common sense as things profane, the survivors developed a superstition, a characteristic of the manx character; and instead of white-washing their homes, cleansing their streets and drinking less rum, they went to their prayers.”

DEDICATED opposition to the demon drink would feature prominently in Hugh’s character.

But his first ambition was to be a land surveyor and, in 1839, he took up work as an apprentice, working in Harborne and Smethwick, near Birmingham, and then for the London and Birmingham railway’s engine shop at Wolverton.

During this time, Brown’s sense of vocation grew stronger and he began lecturing in Sunday schools.

And he decided to return to the Isle of Man in 1843, entering King William’s College, Douglas, to study with a mind to following his father into the Church of England.