Maurice Hill Ridgway
By Peter J Boughton BA FSA FRSA AMA
Originally published in Journal of the Chester Archaeological
Society, vol.77, 2002
Canon Maurice Ridgway, BA, FSA, the
paramount scholar of Chester
silver, died on 20 December
2002 at the age of eighty-four. His funeral took place ten days later in
Rhydycroesau.
Maurice Hill Ridgway was born
on 19 January 1918
at Stockport, where his father was the vicar
of St George’s
church. The family moved to Tarvin and
he attended the King’s School, Chester,
followed by St David’s College, Lampeter. He completed his training for the
Anglican ministry at Westcott House, Cambridge,
and served forty-two years in the diocese of Chester. After being ordained deacon in 1941 and priest
in 1942, he served as curate of Grappenhall from 1941 and of Hale from 1944. In 1949 he became vicar of Bunbury, where he
restored one of Cheshire’s
major Perpendicular churches following severe war damage, employing Marshall
Sisson to rebuild the nave and aisle roofs in 1950 and commissioning three
superb stained glass windows from Christopher Webb. He was vicar of Bowden from 1962 and became an
honorary canon of Chester Cathedral in 1966. His gifts as a pastor and preacher won the
admiration and respect of all who knew him, and he made a point of visiting
every home in his parishes at least once a year, irrespective of the faith of
their occupants. In 1983 he retired to
Rhydycroesau, near Oswestry, where he assisted in the local church.
Canon Ridgway’s antiquarian
interests began with his early association with Professor Robert Newstead,
honorary curator of the Grosvenor
Museum, Chester.
He joined the Chester Archaeological Society in 1936 and served on its
Council from 1949 until 1975. Together
with the noted Cheshire
craftsman Frederick H. Crossley he undertook a survey of screens and rood lofts
in Wales,
which in 1946 won the Clarke Prize of the Cambrian Archaeological Society for
the best published medieval subject over a period of years. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of
Antiquaries of London in 1952. He was
the editor of The Cheshire Sheaf and The Bunbury Papers, and his numerous
published guides, articles and reports include a survey of stained and painted
glass in Cheshire
and the history of Beeston
Castle. He had a strong belief in the importance of
protecting historic buildings, and for many years was involved in the
preservation of the shrine of St Melangell, a small chapel in a remote part of mid-Wales.
He became a member of the Chester
Diocesan Advisory Committee for the care of churches in 1945, retiring as
adviser on silver and metalwork in 2002. He was also chairman of the St Asaph Diocesan
Advisory Committee from 1986 to 1993 and president of the Cambrian Archaeology
Society in 1995/6.
Canon Ridgway’s study of Chester silver began when
Sir Leonard Stone, chairman of the Board of Trade’s Departmental Committee on
Hallmarking, asked him to do some of the background research on Chester for the 1959
report to Parliament which led to the closure of the Chester Assay Office in
1962. His Chester Goldsmiths from early times to 1726 (1968, published
simultaneously as Journal of the Chester
Archaeological Society, volume 53) and Chester
silver 1727-1837 (1985) chronicled the history of silver in the city, elucidated
all the marks, and presented the biography of each goldsmith along with a
descriptive catalogue of every known piece of his silver. He rewrote the chapter on Chester for the revised edition of Jackson’s silver and gold marks (1989), and his
Chester silver 1837-1962 (1996) included a
wealth of information from the Chester Plate Duty Books of 1784-1840, which had
been rediscovered by Philip Priestley. He
published the first two articles in a projected series cataloguing the church
plate of the diocese of Chester in the Journal
of the Chester Archaeological Society volumes 60 and 61, covering Acton to
Chelford: a book of this title remained
in manuscript at his death.1 His
article on the early plate of Chester Cathedral appeared in the same Journal, volume 63, and his fourth book,
Church plate in the St Asaph diocese
(1997), was published after more than fifty years of research. His forthcoming Compendium of marks on Chester silver and gold, compiled jointly
with Philip Priestley, will provide a triumphant conclusion to a lifetime of
meticulous and highly productive scholarship.2 Canon Ridgway’s name will remain indissolubly
associated with Chester silver, and his publications will be used as well as
admired for many generations to come.
Canon Ridgway enjoyed a very
long and fruitful association with the Grosvenor Museum.
His scholarship fundamentally informed
the development of the museum’s pre-eminent collection of silver, which now
forms a fitting celebration of one of the most distinctive features of Chester’s cultural
heritage. The collection is displayed in the Ridgway Gallery, named in his
honour and opened by HRH The Prince of Wales in 1992. In 1994 the museum commissioned his portrait
from Paul Brason: this oil painting is
on permanent display in the Art Gallery and is a brilliant likeness, capturing
perfectly his combination of alertness and sympathy.3 In 2000 he graciously accepted the dedication
of the Catalogue of silver in the
Grosvenor Museum, and in the year of his death he presented a collection of
topographical prints and contributed towards an important silver acquisition.
A devoted family man, Canon
Ridgway is survived by his wife Audrey, their five children and eight
grandchildren. Exemplary as both priest
and scholar, he will be remembered with deep gratitude and respect by all those
who were privileged to know him.
Notes:
1. Edited by Michael Sherratt, Church Plate of the Diocese of Chester (to 1837) was published in 2008.
2. The Compendium of Chester Gold & Silver Marks 1570 to 1962 From the Chester Assay Office Registers was published in 2004.
3. Illustrated at www.grosvenormuseum.co.uk / Grosvenor Museum Guide / Art Gallery / Canon Maurice Ridgway