A past Vicar of Brighton will be commemorated with a blue plaque at the weekend.
A plaque in the memory of the Rev Henry Wagner is due to be unveiled at the Old Vicarage in Temple Gardens, Brighton, at 3.45pm tomorrow (Saturday 10 July).
It will also commemorate Wagner’s son, the Rev Arthur Wagner, curate and then vicar of St Paul’s in Brighton, from 1850 until his death in 1902.
Henry Wagner was born in 1792 and held the post of Vicar of Brighton from 1824 until he died in 1870.
He built six churches in the area to make it easier for the poor to attend.
The six include
- The Church of All Souls in Eastern Road, which was demolished in 1968
- The Church of All Saints in Montpelier Road, demolished in 1982
- The Church of St John the Evangelist in Carlton Hill, which was closed in 1980 and became the Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity in 1986.
- The Church of St Paul in West Street.
Only two of Wagner’s churches survive – St Paul’s and St John the Evangelist – and St John the Evangelist, now the Greek Orthodox Church, was damaged in a fire last weekend. Our report and picture can be found here.
Wagner was a controversial figure – a Tory in a Whig-dominated vestry – and became embroiled in a dispute over who should pay for the clock to be wound at St Peter’s Church.
He was accused of stopping the clock, which led to being heckled and having children throw stones at him in the street.
Wagner appeared in court for beating a boy who shouted at him: “Who stopped the clock?”
The blue plaque will be unveiled by the commemorative plaque committee of Brighton and Hove City Council, the council’s tourism arm, Visit Brighton, and the Montpelier and Clifton Hill Association.
