The Revd William Hanbury was a parish priest, but also a botanist, market gardener and sponsor of the arts.   

He was a man of grand ideas.  It was his plan to create a vast minster and college complex in the south Leicestershire countryside. 

He established a Trust for this purpose which is still providing funds for the education of local children today.  

Above all, he is remembered as the man who arranged for the first performance of Handel's oratorio  `Messiah' to be performed in Leicestershire in the parish Church of Church Langton

William Hanbury was born in Warwickshire in 1725.  As a child he was fascinated with gardening, and later while studying at Oxford he would wander for hours in the Botanic Gardens near his college, extending his knowledge. 

He became the Rector of Church Langton in Leicestershire in 1750, and it was not long before he began to make use of his horticultural knowledge.  

In his diary he wrote:

“I began cultivating an acquaintance with most noted seedsmen, nurserymen, gardeners, etc. for the more easily obtaining such seeds as were necessary for the raising such plants and trees as are to be multiplied by layering, grafting, budding, etc.”

Hanbury began enticing gardeners in other countries, particularly North America, to send him seeds.  He soon created a very large collection of plants:

“All the time I was settling this correspondence, I was busy in the preparing the ground for the reception of the seeds of all sorts: together with a spot for the planting of such trees as were to be headed for what gardeners call stools, in order for their throwing out fresh shoots for layering..” 

However, his exuberant style created enemies in this previously quiet village. Several landowners objected to his plantations, concerned that they would infringe upon the common land.  Others suggested that Hanbury should divert more of his time and energies to his work as their parish priest.  

Nevertheless, by 1755, he had created a thriving nursery and large plantations in the neighbouring manors of Tur Langton and Gumley valued at over £10,000.  Dynamic and emphatic, he had very clear ideas as to how the profits from his horticulture would be spent: 

“The amusement of gardening is innocent and the profits arising from it are intended for the glory of God and the good of mankind..”

Hanbury next set up a trust and proposed that a new organ should be provided for the parish church with a resident organist.  He also suggested that a school should be built in the village and that funds would be available to help the poor.  Despite their concerns, the local people gradually fell under the power of his persuasive eloquence:

“I can see it in my power to use my talent in horticulture to raise funds enough to found a charity to restore the church ten-fold … there is nothing like planting to engage the mind of a gentleman..”

To publicise his efforts at benevolence, Hanbury planned a great music festival.  The major event – which would take place on his birthday – would be a performance of the great oratorio `Messiah’ by Handel, which had been drawing large crowds in London.  Hanbury took care of every detail of the event. He arranged for a special flag to be flown from the church tower that would remain unfurled even when there was no wind.  He dressed his gardeners in uniform and had them line the route from the main road to the centre of the village.  He wrote a special sermon and planned for large marquees where guests would be provided with lavish refreshment.

The ordinary villagers of sleepy Church Langton had grown accustomed to their rector’s odd ways, but they became increasingly alarmed by his grandiose scheme. When the new organ arrived, some decided that the pipes were really guns, and wondered whose homes would be blown apart when the great day came.

The music festival attracted vast crowds.  So many people came to the event that every lodging place for miles around was occupied.  The large number of horse-drawn vehicles making their way to Church Langton from the London Road caused what was probably the first traffic jam in Leicestershire.

The eventual performance of `Messiah’, the first in an English parish church, was a great success, but Hanbury was disappointed by the financial returns. Characteristically, he blamed the audience: 

“Some few indeed gave generously; others who came as spies only, and hated the scheme at heart, we may suppose gave nothing.”

He held two further festivals, using them to publicise his horticulture and the sale of forest trees, American plants, flowering shrubs and seeds.  They were not such a success, but Hanbury, still undaunted, decided on an even more adventurous project.  

He planned the building of a vast Minster church with a college, library, picture gallery and printing press.  In 1777, he paced out the boundaries of his glorious project in the fields near the parish church.  Marker stones still exist, indicating the proposed boundaries of this vast building.  It was to be his last dramatic gesture. He died a few months later at the age of 52.

His grandiose schemes died with him, but the money he raised continued to be used by the village.  Almost a century after his death, the Hanbury Schools were built. The buildings are still in use today. In 1925, the Hanbury Institute was opened with a hall, reading room and handicraft rooms.  Today, a Hanbury scholarship is still available to help local young people attend nearby schools.

The name of Revd William Hanbury survives today as the man who attempted to impose megalomaniacal projects upon a sleepy English village, but also as a talented nurseryman who cherished plants and trees, and who saw England as one grand garden for noblemen and common folk alike. 

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This page draws in part on research undertaken by the late Canon John Prophet

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