page_title: Arthur Wagner
section_title: Community of the Blessed Virgin Mary
hierarchical_section_title: Arthur Wagner / Community of the Blessed Virgin Mary
caption_attribution_description: 1 to 12 Wykeham Terrace, Brighton, City of Brighton and Hove, England. A terrace of 12 houses in the Tudor-Gothic style, built in 1827 possibly by Amon Henry Wilds. Listed at Grade II by English Heritage (IoE Code 481458)
context_page_description: Arthur Douglas Wagner was a Church of England clergyman in Brighton, East Sussex, England. He served for more than 50 years at St Paul's Church in the town—first as a curate, then from 1873 as its vicar. As the only son of the Rev. Henry Michell Wagner and his wife Elizabeth Harriott, who died when he was a child, Arthur Wagner inherited considerable wealth. Following the pattern set by his father—who founded several churches in Brighton—he was able to pay for the construction and endowment of four churches in the town, three of which survive, and another in rural East Sussex where he owned a country estate. Like his father, he became embroiled in disputes and controversy: he held strongly Tractarian views and was often criticised for the advanced ritualism of the services he held at St Paul's, while his involvement in the Constance Kent affair caused national debate about priest–penitent privilege.
  Wagner's influence in Victorian Brighton was considerable. "Not just a very rich clergyman of advanced religious beliefs", he was also greatly interested in church architecture and decoration.
context_section_description: Wagner founded a religious order in Brighton in 1855.  Named the Community of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it was linked with St Paul's Church: the sisters helped to look after the building, visit parishioners and run the Sunday School.  At first they were based in two houses on nearby Queen's Square.  Around the same time, Wagner's cousin Rev. George Wagner—curate of St Stephen's Church—had established a "Home for Female Penitents" (prostitutes) on the Lewes Road.  George Wagner died in 1857, at which point Arthur Wagner moved the home to Wykeham Terrace (adjacent to Queen's Square) and put the sisters in charge of rehabilitating the former prostitutes and taking in others who had been referred to the home by police officers or doctors.  (Prostitution was a significant problem in mid-19th-century Brighton: more than 300 women and some children were known to work as prostitutes at that time, and there were nearly 100 brothels).  Moving the home to Wykeham Terrace, where it took up nine of the twelve houses, allowed more than 40 women to be looked after, whereas the capacity at Lewes Road had been 12.  Wagner and the sisters maintained a strict regime, with regular surveillance, hard work and punishments for misbehaviour, but the women were offered proper healthcare, education, training for domestic service, and charitable help.  At a time when such assistance was limited, and provided only by private means, it was "probably the most effective single unit in the town".
  By the late 19th century, St Mary's Home for Penitents had outgrown the Wykeham Terrace buildings.  Wagner's ill health meant no action could be taken to address this; but ten years after his death, a large new site was secured on the Falmer Road in Rottingdean and a much larger building designed by local architect F.T. Cawthorn was erected.  It remained in use until the late 20th century.  Short-lived stints as an old people's home, a school and a centre for the Church of Scientology ended in 1977, 1980 and 1984 respectively, at which point it was converted into flats called Rottingdean Place (opened in 1987).
caption: The Community was housed at Wykeham Terrace, Brighton.
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