The Choir Stalls (1928)
Take a seat, if you like, on these choir stalls made of Austrian oak. They were blessed by Bishop Thomas Birley of Zanzibar in October 1928, and donated by Mr Edgar Rutter in memory of his wife, Nellie.
You can find out more our Mr Rutter at the statue of St Francis. Bishop Birley had once been a curate at St Saviour’s from the year it opened in 1888. After nine years of ministry here, he left in 1897 to become vicar of St Thomas the Martyr in Oxford.
In 1908 he moved to the University Mission to Central Africa until 1911. He became Archdeacon and was then appointed Bishop of Zanzibar in 1925, a post he held until for eighteen years.
When he blessed these choir stalls, he had already revisited St Saviour’s on another occasion in 1925 to conduct his first ever Confirmation as a newly consecrated Bishop. He died on 31 March 1949.
South Cardiff Ministry Area 