ANNIVERSARY OF TEDDINGTON’S MOST FAMOUS POET
It may not feature in your diary or Bushy Park calendar for significant events …..but next month marks the 350th anniversary of a man described as Teddington’s greatest poet, Thomas Traherne
He has emerged as as one of the greatest poets and spiritual writers of the 17th century and he was a resident of Teddington and a scholar, poet and priest.
He was buried beneath St Mary with St Alban’s Church in 1674.
His work was often optimistic, expressing a sometimes-childlike awe at the beauty of our world: “Natural things are glorious, and to know them is glorious”.
It’s only by chance that much of his work is even known about as in 1897 a collector, browsing booksellers’ stalls in London, found some Traherne poem manuscripts, initially thinking they were by another 17th century poet.
In 1964 a bookseller came across prose work later identified as Traherne’s and another volume was rescued from a burning rubbish heap in the 1960s, and in 1997 two more unpublished Traherne manuscripts were found.
Interest in the work and life of Thomas Traherne has increased significantly with students from around the world visiting St Mary with St Alban to see where he was laid to rest.
Much of Traherne’s work has now been published for the first time, and many hope to see more volumes unearthed and identified in the years to come.
The Requiem Eucharist on Thursday 10 October, in church at 7.30pm, is on the same day he was buried here, 350 years ago. On Saturday, October 12 there will be a free ticket only Celebration
and Commemoration Event in church at 5pm with an opportunity to enjoy Traherne’s poetry, both spoken and set to music, alongside a talk by Bishop Lord Richard Harries, the theologian,
writer and broadcaster over wine & nibbles.
This is a short poem by Traherne called Walking.
To walk abroad is, not with eyes,
But thoughts, the fields to see and prize;
Else may the silent feet,
Like logs of wood,
Move up and down, and see no good
Nor joy nor glory meet
Thursday 10: 7.30pm Requiem Eucharist to mark the 350th anniversary of Traherne’s burial
Saturday 12: 5.00pm Celebration & Commemoration Evening in church (a free, ticketed event):
-
- Opening short talk on Traherne’s life
- Readings of Traherne poetry and prose
- Performance of choral and instrumental works based on Traherne writings
- Talk by Bishop Lord Richard Harries
- Wine and nibbles
- Tickets are free – with bar available and donations requested.
- Click here for tickets
He died on 27 September 1674, and was buried “under the reading desk” in the Teddington church on 10 October 1674. He is pictured in the lower right-hand corner of the east window, and a memorial tablet for him is on the north wall of the chancel.
Thomas was born in Hereford in 1636 or 1637, was educated at Hereford Cathedral School, and studied at Brasenose College, Oxford, gaining successively a BA (1656), MA(1661) and Bachelor of Divinity(1669).
He entered church ministry in 1656, and was appointed rector of Credenhill, near Hereford, in 1657, though was not yet ordained. Under the Commonwealth regime he gained authority from the
Commissioners for the Approbation of Public Preachers.
Following the restoration of the monarchy and the return of Charles II, Thomas was ordained priest on 20 October 1660 by the Bishop of Oxford, Robert Skinner,at Launton near Bicester.
In 1667, Thomas became the private chaplain to Sir Orlando Bridgeman, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal to King Charles II (whose imposing memorial is on the south side of the chancel) and moved to Teddington. It was here that Thomas died and was buried in 1674.
Thomas was described by one of his contemporaries as “one of the most pious ingenious men that ever I was acquainted with”, and “a man of a cheerful and
sprightly temper … ready to do all good offices to his friends, and charitable to the poor almost beyond his ability.”
Another wrote: “He always led a simple and devout life; his will shows that he possessed little beyond his books”.
