Rev G W O ADDLESHAW
Priest-in-Charge 1936-1939

George William Outram Addleshaw, son of Canon Stanley Addleshaw, was born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, in 1906. After studying at Trinity College Oxford and at Cuddesdon Theological College, he became a deacon and began a curacy at Christchurch, Portiswood in Southampton (also known as Highfield Church) under Rev A W Chute. When Rev Chute became Parish Vicar of Basingstoke in 1936 after the resignation of Rev Boustead, Rev George Addleshaw followed Rev Chute to Basingstoke after the dismissal of the curates previously appointed by Rev Boustead.

As noted by John Pearce in his research on All Saints', in the January 1937 Parish Magazine, Rev Addleshaw wrote under "All Saints":

“Two things strike a newcomer to All Saints, the grace and lightness of its architecture and the beauty and dignity of the worship offered within its walls to Almighty God. It is indeed a privilege to have charge of such a church. I should like to take this opportunity of thanking the choir, servers, teachers and bell-ringers, as well as the general members of the congregation for the kind and warm welcome they have given me. It is not easy starting on new work, but the friendliness of the congregation makes me look forward to a very happy life in Basingstoke... As an experiment we are changing the time of the Friday celebration (of the Holy Eucharist) from 7 to 7.45 am.”

Also, in November 1937, a subject, which was to be periodically a source of concern in the future, raised its head for the first time. This was the heating of the church. The Priest-in-charge wrote “We do need in the winter some kind of heating for our weekday activities, we cannot afford to keep the furnace going the whole time, and the only feasible alternative is the installation of an electric stove and two heating points, one in the Children’s Corner and one in the Lady Chapel” This would cost about £10. He also mentioned for the first time the All Saints Committee “...which has recently been formed and consisted of the All Saints members of the PCC and the sidesmen. This had discussed the question and decided on an appeal to the congregation.” £5 had already been raised by December!

A Midnight Mass was held again on Christmas Eve that year. The 11 am service on Christmas Day incorporated all the congregation, including the children. The Sunday School was to provide some of the servers, and at the end, special prayers were said before the Crib. This was to be used as a focus for prayer during the Christmas season.

June 1938 saw the experiment of holding open-air services on Sundays after Evensong. “Many church people all over the country are now feeling that if we are going to fight the heathenism and indifference which is ruining our national life and win back England to the Christian Faith we must go out into the highways and byways and ourselves preach the Gospel.” After the third collect the congregation, choir and Priest-in-Charge headed by the crucifer and acolytes went out of the church to “some spot in the neighbourhood.” The first “spot” was Cumberland Avenue followed by a service in the Canteen at  Kelvin’s (later Smith’s Industries, now St Michael's Retail Park) on June 19th. This was followed on July 10th by a visit to a vacant plot on Winchester Road “...where all the new houses have been built“. (This refers to the houses just beyond Kings Furlong to the present-day Roundabout - in 1938, there was just a bridge carrying the disused Basingstoke & Alton Light Railway line across the two-lane Winchester Road.) There was a further visit to Cumberland Avenue on 17th July. The Priest-in-charge visited many of the houses and asked for volunteers from the congregation to also visit in order to make known details of the services. A subsequent report on these services in the July Magazine said they had proved eminently worthwhile. The one in Westfield Road (not previously mentioned) had brought an increase to the Sunday School, and the one in Kelvin’s canteen had made All Saints known in that part of the town. ,It is reported that the procession entered the canteen singing “Onward Christian Soldiers.”

On Wednesday, 14th September, there was a great fire at St Michael’s, and the church was closed for a fortnight while repairs were undertaken - during that period, St Michael’s congregation worshipped at All Saints and other churches in the Parish for about a fortnight until the parish church was restored to a usable state. [For more details about this concurrence, see the article at: https://www.allsaintsbasingstoke.net/places/parish-fire ]

Whilst Rev Addleshaw was at All Saints', he revised the presentation of the liturgy, and much of what he did has been carried down through some of the liturgical strands at All Saints' to the present (or at least to 2022...). 

Rev Addleshaw's appointment as Vice-Principal of St Chad's College, Durham, was announced in July 1939. This was a college which prepared men for the priesthood. On leaving All Saints', Rev Addleshaw wrote: “The three years I have spent here have been extremely happy ones and it has been a great joy to work in a church with such beautiful services and with such a friendly congregation.”  At a meeting before Evensong on 24th September, the Vicar (Rev A W Chute) spoke of the devoted service Rev Addleshaw had offered at All Saints during his time there. The Churchwarden (Mr Burnaby) expressed the deep gratitude of the All Saints' congregation for all that Rev Addleshaw had done for them - he had made them into a family. 

The newspaper article announcing his move to St Chad's commented on Rev Addleshaw's work with youth, which had begun at Highfield. “He has been associated with youth work in the Diocese, and has studied at first-hand the work being done in Belgium amongst the young people there.“ Also, beginning from his time at Highfield, Rev Addleshaw authored a number of scholarly articles, papers and books on various topics of church and theology.

After St Chad's, from 1946, Rev Addleshaw was Treasurer and Canon Residentiary at York Minster, during which period he was appointed as a Chaplain to HM Queen Elizabeth II in 1957. An article in The Observer at the time of his death in June 1982 (in Thames Ditton) provides background on his years at York and subsequently at Chester. During his time at York, he was heavily engaged in the restoration of Canon Law in the Church of England. He had a reputation for clear thinking and scholarship. He became Dean of Chester Cathedral in 1963, a post he held until his retirement in 1977. At Chester, he was active in organising restoration work on the cathedral. One of his special projects there was the building of a new bell tower. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquarians. He acquired considerable knowledge of ecclesiastical architecture and liturgy, and his best-known book was probably “The Architectural Setting of Anglican Worship.“