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| Guthrie Close |
Guthrie Close named for Rev. Canon John Guthrie and his wife Caroline. It is located in the same area as what used to be Guthrie school, which then amalgamated with St. Dunstan's Primary School in 2002, which was renamed Marden Vale in 2015 when the school became part of the Diocese of Salisbury Academy Trust.
John Guthrie (1795-1865) was a first-class English cricketer. His record for Cambridge University as a batsman (2 games) was 32 runs during the 1819-20 season with a high score of 22[1]. Upon graduating Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1817, he became a priest for the Church of England. He was the vicar of Calne from 1835 until his death, from heart disease, in 1865. He, reportedly, died in his sleep at his home in Clifton[2].
The Guthrie's were a generous couple, both with their time and their money. Canon Guthrie paid £2000, which was half the cost for the restoration of St. Mary's Church, Calne in 1864, at this time the church was lighted by standards, which were very effected, and paid from a lady's fund collected by Mrs. Guthrie[3]. Holy Trinity church, Quemerford, was built largely at his own expense in 1852-53 on land donated by Lord Lansdowne[4].
Guthrie and the Marquess of Lansdowne were good friends, a relationship which likely began when Guthrie became chaplain to Lansdowne in 1834 and it was he that recommended Guthrie for the post of Canon of Bristol in 1858. Guthrie's dedication to Lansdowne is recorded in the History of Calne Baptist Church, which describes how Guthrie left his own sick bed to pray with his friend and how on the day of Lansdowne's funeral, Guthrie had the church bells tolled. The Baptist Church schoolroom is memorial to Guthrie and his "devotion to the work of the Kingdom of God"[5].
Christ Church, Derry Hill, was built 1839-40 after Guthrie called for subscribers in 1838. The subscribers list is a long one[6] and includes £10 from Mrs. Guthrie and £100 from Canon Guthrie. Guthrie had a wide range of interests and founded the Calne District Friendly Society and the Litererary Institution. He also left money in his will to train girls as domestic servants, in 1898 training 2 Calne girls cost £22.
Along with assisting her husband, Mrs. Guthrie was independently active and known for her strenuous benevolence.
She created a school for the training of female servants, which was built in Wood Street in 1854. This developed into a school for infants and older children and became known at Guthrie juvenile school[7]. It was an instant success, the Inspector in 1858 reported "Every exertion has been made by the managers to render this school really efficient, and all promises well"[13].
This school outlived both Guthrie's, moved to William Street in 1964, and eventually taught 5-7 year olds, with 189 children on its roll in 1999. The school closed when it amalgamated, after a poor Ofsted inspection, with a St. Dunstan's school and created St. Dunstan Primary. The school had survived for 148 years[8].
Another of Mrs. Guthrie's projects was the establishment of a hospital for children, in Calne, which opened in 1858 at 61 The Pippin. To enable her to efficiently superintend the hospital, she attended a hospital in London and over the course of a few months aquianted herself with its management[9]. The hospital, a house belonging to the Marquis of Lansdowne, quickly increased from 4 beds to 12 with accomodation available for 4 more[10]. Unforuntately the school seems to have been closed by 1865, but was still being mentioned positively in lectures in 1864[11]. Perhaps her husband's death in 1865 is more than a coincidence?
After the death of Canon Guthrie, Mrs Guthrie gifted to Clifton College the Chapel, but sadly she had died before it was completed, however she is remembered each year on their commemoration day[12]. One final act of a life of benevolence saw a gift in Mrs. Guthries' will of the income of £1000 to the minister serving Holy Trinity[14].
One final note:
An interesting item of note is an 1843 letter from Canon Guthrie to his friend William Henry Fox Tablot, the inventor of calotype, in which he writes:
"Excuse my importunity in pressing on you the rightness of giving your name to your own invention. It is not too late – “Better late than never”"[15]
If Talbot had listened to his friends and family, the calotype would have been the Talbotype. It seems that Tablot was too humble to go down the same road as Louis Daguerre!
References:
[1] Cricket Archive. 2019. John Guthrie. [ONLINE] Available at: https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/36/36924/36924.html. [Accessed 20 September 2019].
[2] 'Death of the Rev. Canon Guthrie' Reading Mercury, Saturday 15 July 1865. Available at: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000369/18650715/055/0010 [Accessed on 20 September 2019]
[3] 'Calne' Dorset County Chronicle, Wednesday 30 November 1864. Available at: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000408/18641130/019/0008 [Accessed on 20 September 2019]
[4] About us - Calne: Holy Trinity - A Church Near You. 2019. About us - Calne: Holy Trinity - A Church Near You. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/9624/about-us/. [Accessed 20 September 2019].
[5] Dixon, G., 1995. The History of Calne Baptist Church. 1st ed. Avon: Calne Baptist Church.
[6] 'District Church'. Salisbury and Winchester Journal. Monday 17 December 1838. Available at: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000361/18381217/033/0003 [Accessed on 20 September 2019]
[7] Calne: Education | British History Online. 2019. Calne: Education | British History Online. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol17/pp111-114. [Accessed 20 September 2019].
[8] The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. 2019. End of an era as 148-year-old infants' school closes | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/7345224.end-of-an-era-as-148-year-old-infants-school-closes/. [Accessed 20 September 2019].
[9] 'The new Canon of Bristol Cathedral' Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, Thursday 21 January 1858. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000360/18580121/013/0003 [Accessed on 20 September 2019]
[10] 'Calne schools' Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, Thursday 27 November 1856 [ONLINE] Available at https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000360/18561127/016/0003 [Accessed 20 September 2019]
[11] 'Weston-Super-Mare and East Somerset Hospital' Somerset County Gazette, Saturday 31 December 1864 [ONLINE] Available from: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000314/18641231/063/0007 [Accessed 20 September 2019]
[12] Potentiality Online Communities. 2019. OCS Online Community. [ONLINE] Available at: https://oc-online.co.uk/ocd.aspx?action=printSnippet&menuItem=Clifton%27s%20First%20Buildings&snippet=15&printTemplate=on&code=. [Accessed 20 September 2019].
[13] Wiltshire Community History. 2019. Calne - Guthrie School, Calne. [ONLINE] Available at: https://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getschool.php?id=444. [Accessed 20 September 2019].
[14] Calne: Churches | British History Online. 2019. Calne: Churches | British History Online. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol17/pp101-109. [Accessed 20 September 2019].
[15] http://foxtalbot.dmu.ac.uk/letters/transcriptName.php?bcode=Guth-J&pageNumber=2&pageTotal=3&referringPage=0
