Lives in Cricket No 46 - George Raikes

109 William Ford Thursby made use of curates as he found much to occupy himself away from Bergh Apton; one such was the Rev Thomas Fraser Lloyd. Having been appointed curate in 1884, he was ‘promoted’ to the rectorship in 1893. He did not stay long though, being appointed rector of Bramerton in 1897. Lloyd was replaced by the Rev Harvey William Gustavus Thursby, M.A.Oxon (Pembroke), J.P., who was a nephew of the Rev William Ford Thursby. He was a keen supporter of Bergh Apton School, and ‘stumped up’ for repairs to the roof of the church. The long tenure of the Thursbys ended when Raikes was appointed in 1920, although the ownership of the living remained in the family, being described as: “in the gift of the Rev H.Wm.G.Thursby MA”. No evidence survives as to why Raikes was chosen to be the new vicar but he duly took up residence in the rectory with his wife, Maud. In his volume on Bergh Apton rectory, Geoffrey I Kelly has little to say about Raikes and he doesn’t say much more in his general history of the village, which is otherwise quite detailed. It is hard to think that Kelly and his local contacts in Bergh Apton were completely unaware of the sporting status of Raikes and I confirmed this with local historian, John Ling. He stated that the decision not to include information on the sporting activities of their one- time vicar was due to the need to limit the length of the book and not due to Raikes having a ‘skeleton in the closet’, as first feared by the author. Although there were no ‘skeletons’ the Raikes family were not fondly remembered by all of their parishioners. One of the last villagers to remember the reverend and his wife was a certain Joyce Burgess, known as Josie, who died in 2003 at the age of 83. When she left school she took a job as a housemaid with George and Maud Raikes and took up residence in the Rectory, where she was somewhat homesick. She had a day off on Sunday but was expected to attend church in the morning – her only chance to visit her family was in the afternoon and even that was sometimes lost for, if the Raikes had guests for lunch, it was back to the grindstone. Josie described that as a ‘bitter disappointment’. Maud Raikes in particular was remembered as ‘very stern’ and, on one occasion when Josie accidently damaged a chamber pot, she was absolutely petrified at the thought of her mistress’ reaction to the bad news. Maud’s draconian rule was not uninterrupted however and Josie also recalled an occasion when the Raikes went out, leaving the servants a chance to play their employers’ gramophone and enjoy a proper knees-up. The only cloud on the horizon was the possibility of the Raikes returning mid-dance and exacting severe punishments. Raikes did not share his predecessor’s interest in farming and, in 1921, the church commissioners agreed to sell the outlying glebe; it was purchased by Jonathan Wilfred Westrup and the £637.10s raised was invested in 3.5% War Stock. On 28 April 1930, Raikes reported to the Parochial Church Council that he had been left £100 by Canon John Alfred Lawrence of Dilham, who had been curate of Bergh Apton (1860-1872); the money was to be spent on “useful parish work” and it was proposed that it be employed in meeting the urgent need to re-hang the church’s ring of six The Rector of Bergh Apton - The End of a Muscular Christian