The Statue of St. Gregory

In 1996 Margaret Brinkworth wrote:

The beautiful carved statue of St. Gregory has been very generously given to St. Michael’s as a leaving present from Fr.Keith and Carol Punshon.

Originally it was given to St. Gregory’s church, Small Heath, in memory of my husband Frank who had previously been a worshipper here at St. Michael’s for many years.

The statue was carved by Anton Wagner, a woodcarver living in Walsingham, Norfolk, who learned his craft at Oberammergau, the village in southern Germany made famous by the Passion Play performed there every ten years. The parts picked out in gold leaf were skilfully done by the late Enid Chadwick, an artist also living in Walsingham at that time.

As St. Gregory’s Church is now closed, and a number of people past and present at St. Michael’s have had connections there, I think it very fitting that the statue should come here and I shall be eternally grateful to Fr.Keith and Carol for obtaining it for us.

Margaret Brinkworth, Summer 1996.