The Meynell Church Trustees were established in 1903 by the Hon. Emily Charlotte Meynell Ingram (1840-1904), daughter of the first Viscount Halifax.

The Hon. Emily Charlotte Meynell Ingram (1840-1904) was the daughter of Sir Charles Wood, sometime Chancellor of the Exchequer, and subsequently first Viscount Halifax. She shared the religious convictions of her elder brother Charles Lindley Wood, later second Viscount Halifax, who was for many years the President of the English Church Union.

In 1863 she married Hugo Francis Meynell Ingram. He was elected as Conservative MP for West Staffordshire in 1868 and in 1869 inherited Temple Newsam House in Yorkshire and Hoar Cross Hall in Staffordshire from his father. Tragically, he died in a riding accident in 1871, leaving Mrs Meynell Ingram widowed and childless at the age of 31. She built the church of the Holy Angels, Hoar Cross, designed by G. F. Bodley and Thomas Garner, as a memorial to him.

By a deed dated 3 February 1903 Mrs Meynell Ingram transferred the advowson of Holy Angels, Hoar Cross, and several other livings to Trustees. In 2017 the Meynell Church Trustees, in turn, resolved to transfer the administration of these advowsons (with the exception of that of Hoar Cross), to the Society for the Maintenance of the Faith.

The Benefices concerned were:

  • Fleetwood St Peter and St David (Diocese of Blackburn): sole patronage.

  • Fleetwood St Nicholas (Diocese of Blackburn): joint patronage with the Bishop of Blackburn. Built in 1960 as a chapel of ease to St Peter’s, it became a parish church in 1987.

  • Altofts (Diocese of Leeds): sole patronage. St Mary Magdalene Church was built by G. F. Bodley at Emily Meynell Ingram’s expense.

  • Holbeck (Diocese of Leeds): joint patronage with the Vicar of Leeds and the Bishop of Leeds. St Edward’s Church, Holbeck, was built by G. F. Bodley at Emily Meynell Ingram’s expense. It was demolished in 1984. In 2018 the Society transferred this advowson to the Bishop of Leeds in exchange for the patronage of Grimethorpe with Brierley.

  • Whitkirk, St Mary (Diocese of Leeds): sole patronage. The oldest medieval church in Leeds, and parish church to Temple Newsam, seat of the Ingram family since 1622.

  • Ashley, Mucklestone, Broughton, and Croxton (Diocese of Lichfield): joint patronage with the Bishop of Lichfield and others. The Meynell family held land at Ashley.

  • The Trentcliffe Group benefice (Diocese of Lincoln): joint patronage with the Bishop of Lincoln and the Church Society. The Ingrams were Lords of the Manor of Laughton. All Saints, Laughton, was restored by G. F. Bodley at Emily Meynell Ingram’s expense and houses an effigy of her husband.

  • Bolton upon-Dearne, St Andrew (Diocese of Sheffield): sole patronage. Nearby Hickleton Hall was Emily Meynell Ingram’s childhood home and the seat of the Wood family until 1947.

  • St Michael the Archangel, West Retford (Diocese of Southwell & Nottingham). 

  • Appleton-le-Street with Amotherby, Barton-le-Street, Hovingham and Slingsby (Diocese of York): joint patronage with the Archbishop and Sir William Worsley Bt of Hovingham Hall. St Michael, Barton-le-Street, is described by Pevsner as ‘a sumptuous small Norman church, rebuilt without any restraint’. A memorial tablet records that Hugo Meynell Ingram, as Lord of the Manor, paid for the rebuilding in 1871.

The Hon. Emily Charlotte Meynell Ingram (1840-1904)