#550, Maurice PARKIN

In 1881 Maurice Parkin was living in Nether Hallam, Ecclesall Bierlow, Yorkshire. He was ordained in 1883 and appointed curate at Holy Trinity, Wicker, Sheffield where he is recorded conducting marriages in until December 1884.  In 1885 he is at Sheffield Parish Church (now Sheffield Cathedral) again as curate and conducting marriages until 1885.

From 19th April 1891 until 24th June 1893 he was curate at St Andrews, Sharrow, Sheffield. He married Laura at Rotherham Minster on 7th July 1896.

The following year saw the birth of Teresa Mary Le Breton, recalling his wife's Jersey heritage but to their abject grief she lived only two years.  Teresa was remembered warmly at least up to her younger sister's death in 2000.  Reginald (Rex) was born a year later.

The 1901 census shows Maurice as incumbent at Sculcoates All Saints in Hull and staying with them as visitors were Rev Walter Methven (#15511) and Lucy Pym.  Walter had been appointed Bishop of Mauritius in 1898 but had had to return in 1900 because his wife's mother was very ill.  Walter had been vicar of St Andrew, Sharrow from 6th July 1890 with Maurice as his curate and had gone on to be vicar of Rotherham from 1893 to 1898 so it is possible that he married then in 1896.  It is easy to understand the friendship.  Walter went on to be Bishop of Bombay.  Mary Selby Parkin used to talk about their friendship with the Pym family even though most of it was formed before she was born. 

Maurice is thought to have held one or more parishes in London before he became Vicar of The Church of our Lord St Mary and St Germain, SELBY ABBEY following Archibald George Tweedie in 1904.

In 1906, in the night of 19th October a fire started. It probably began in the organ, it spread to the roof, and the Abbey blazed from end to end. The central tower burned like a chimney and the bells fell to the floor. The next morning the Abbey appeared to be wrecked.

Maurice Parkin oversaw a restoration of astonishing vigour and success. Within a year the nave was re-dedicated and when his last child was born in 1908 she was fittingly baptised Mary Selby. By 1909 the choir had been restored and the upper stages of the tower also. Professor Pevsner says of these stages that "they could not be more successful if they were original". The impetus of restoration continued, and in 1912 the south transept, which had remained smashed since 1690, was rebuilt.

An historical account of Selby Abbey reads as follows:  But in the middle of the nineteenth century brighter days dawned.  The church was overhauled and repaired, and again it was used in its entirity.  Then in the Vicariate of the Reverend A.G.Tweedie there was a thorough restoration and once again the church was beautiful.  But, alas! 1906 came, with its awful fire; and at first it seemed as though Selby was to be another addition to Yorkshire's long catalogue of ruined abbeys.  But the optimism and zeal of the Reverend Maurice Parkin and his co-workers prevailed, and at the cost of over £40,000 the church was completely restored, the Nave being reopened on October 19th 1907, and the Choir on October 19th 1909.

Sadly the stress and exertion of re-building was more than Maurice's fragile frame could withstand and he died of exhaustion on 7th February 1912.  He is remembered on a tablet in the church and during Mattins on  7th February 2012, the centenary of his death prayers were offered at my suggestion.

Anthony Cobbold

3rd June 2009, updated August 2026