Lives in Cricket No 46 - George Raikes

107 working parishioners made their living in agriculture, the most common occupations being: 63 agricultural labourers or ‘other farm workers’ (mainly males) 28 domestic servants (mainly females) 14 farmers 8 market gardeners 6 carpenters. Although Bergh Apton might appear to have been something of a rural backwater, it was host to some ‘old money’ in the shape of the Denny Cooke family, who could trace their ancestors back to the 1600s – originally two separate families, they were the major landowners in the parish; the Dennys brought Bergh Apton Manor to the ‘merger’ whilst the Cookes owned Washingford House. Bergh Apton also had a recent tradition of being served by rectors of note. The first was the Hon John Thomas Pelham, a highly regarded cleric who was vicar between 1837 and 1852; he helped to fund a thorough ‘makeover’ of the church and was appointed Chaplain to Queen Victoria in 1847 and Bishop of Norwich in 1857. Pelham was succeeded by the Rev Wyndham Carlyon Madden (1852-1864), who was most notable for having served throughout the Peninsular War, enlisting in the 43 rd Regiment of Foot when just 14. He was followed by the Rev William Ford Thursby, L.I.B.Cantab, who was rector between 1864 and 1893 and who paid for repairs and improvements to the church in 1881. It was during William Ford Thursby’s period in office that ownership of the living of Bergh Apton passed into his family. In August 1873, the 5th Earl of Abergavenny made over the finances of the parish to William Ford The Rector of Bergh Apton - The End of a Muscular Christian Bergh Apton Church, where George Raikes served as vicar from 1920 until his retirement due to ill health in 1936.