ARCHITECTURE
The Abbey Church of St Michael and All Angels, Belmont
Paul Waddington looks at one of Edward Pugin’s lesser known churches
B
elmont Abbey owes its existence to one Francis Wegg-Prosser, who was a mathematician and astronomer, as well as being a member of the English establishment. He was born Francis Richard Haggitt, the only son of the Rev. Prebendary Francis Haggitt, Rector of Nuneham Courtenay in Oxfordshire. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, he graduated in 1845 with a degree in
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mathematics. From 1847 to 1852 he served as the Member of Parliament for Herefordshire, during which time he inherited the extensive estates of his great-uncle, the Rev. Dr Richard Prosser, Archdeacon of Durham. In recognition of this inheritance, he changed his name to Wegg-Prosser. In 1852 he became a Catholic, being received into the Church by Bishop Grant of Southwark. Soon after his
conversion, he resolved to use his newly acquired wealth to promote the Catholic faith in the neighbourhood of Belmont House, his home three miles south west of Hereford. Hereford already had a Catholic Church, that of St Francis Xavier, which was served by Jesuits. So, there would have been little demand for another church in the small settlement of Belmont. Instead of a church, no doubt
SPRING 2020
