A Retired Rector's Reflections

Preparing to lead worship at St Columba’s, Warcop in Cumbria, recently, I noticed in the church vestry a striking photograph of what appeared to be a significant lady. Mark Blackett-Ord, churchwarden, told me the lovely story behind it.

Eleanor (Nelly) Breeks was born in 1838 in Warcop. Her family was an interesting mix of local yeoman farmers and traders in the Far East. She never married. In the 1860s she lived comfortably in Regents Park, London with a widowed uncle.

In London she became very friendly with an Oxford Street grocer, and they hoped to marry. However, her proud family firmly told her it would be impossible for a woman of her status to marry a shopkeeper. He married another, and Nelly returned to the North West, dying, unmarried, in 1903 in Penrith.

The story does not end here. A few years after Nelly’s death a Rolls Royce (a rarity in Penrith) pulled up at Nelly’s former house, where family members were still living. A man got out, leaving a woman in the car. He told the family how much he had loved Nelly and wished to make an endowment to Warcop church in order that she may always be remembered there.

A large brass plaque next to the churchwardens’ pew in Warcop commemorates Nelly and records the gift given to the church, anonymously, “by one who loved her.” A condition of the endowment was that Nelly’s photograph, supplied by the benefactor, should hang in the Church, and there in the vestry it hangs today, large in size and magnificently framed.

So who was the Nelly’s anonymous lover? The Oxford Street grocer was to develop his business greatly and the business still bears his name – John Lewis.

And a small sequel. When Warcop Church was in need of funding for essential building work recently Mark (who is a descendent of Nelly’s family) reminded the John Lewis partnership of the connection and they gave a generous donation to the Church.

And so over 120 years later John Lewis’ wish that Nelly be always remembered is indeed being fulfilled at Warcop Parish Church. Long may her story continue to be told there.