It’s possible there might be the odd church mouse resident at Holy Trinity Church in Hereford today, but tortoises? Parrots? Goldfish even? Well, the church’s annual pet blessing, marking the feast day of St Francis of Assisi, was a pretty major event in its day, at its height seeing the congregation swell from hundreds to thousands – and that doesn’t include pets. It even caught the attention of Pathe News, who claimed the annual animal Sunday blessing started a world-wide movement, with similar services springing up across the world. It was the inspired idea of Holy Trinity’s Reverend Snell, who was also Chairman of the local RSPCA branch. He started the tradition in the late 1940s. It was a spectacle unlike anything we are likely to see in Hereford today. Reverend Snell set the tone arriving for the service on horseback. He was followed through the doors of the church by hundreds of pet owners, dragging dogs, sheep, goats, ponies, or carrying parrots, mice, hamsters, even gold fish bowls. In one memorable Derek Evans photo, one chorister is seen with a cat sitting happily in his pocket. With limited space in the church, hundreds more waited outside listening to a public-address system. For one Sunday of the year, Holy Trinity was the place to be. See more images linked to Relgious life in Hereford Cathedral as part of our upcoming exhibition.
The PHOTOS Exhibition Feb – April 2020
This multi-venue exhibition is the only retrospective of Derek Evans’ work ever to be held. Many of the images on display have not been exhibited for over 50 years, and some may have never been seen outside of the dark room. Until now. We are showing original exhibition prints and images have been digitised and then printed from negatives or test prints that are part of the huge Evans archive held at Hereford Archive and Records Centre (HARC). Each exhibition reveals a different facet of Derek’s work. So we encourage you to visit as many of the venues as you can. We also have two free events.
Incredibly these five exhibitions are barely the tip of the iceberg of what has now been made available through this project
I remember the services well and we took our dog Randy for several years. It was a lovely service and was so popular.
What era did you go John? sounded like sometimes there were thousands there! Julia – Catcher Media
Hi Julia.
It would have been mid to late 50s. It was always crowded – several hundred at least or so it seemed to me then!