#550, Maurice PARKIN

Maurice Parkin was ordained Deacon in 1883. After working in London and elsewhere he became Vicar of The Church of our Lord St Mary and St Germain, SELBY ABBEY.

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.

Anthony Cobbold

3rd June 2009