page_title: Sydney Robert Elliston
section_title: St Thomas the Apostle, Killinghall
hierarchical_section_title: Sydney Robert Elliston / Work / St Thomas the Apostle, Killinghall
caption_attribution_description: Church of St Thomas the Apostle, Anglican parish church at Killinghall, North Yorkshire, England. Designed by William Swinden Barber in 1879. South-west corner.
context_page_description: Canon Sydney Robert Elliston MA was a journalist, vicar, and canon of Ripon Cathedral. Two of his brothers were William Rowley Elliston and George Elliston MP. He was involved with the formation of the Ripon Diocesan Board of Finance in 1913, and was its secretary from 1914 to 1935. At his funeral it was said of him that, "The diocese of Ripon owed a great debt to the work of Canon Elliston in laying down sound principles of Church finance." While looking after the finances of Ripon diocese, he was at the same time vicar of one of north-east England's Barber churches: the Church of St Thomas the Apostle, Killinghall, designed by William Swinden Barber.
context_section_description: As Vicar at St Thomas from 1904 to 1935, he covered the hard years of the Great War and the Great Depression. He was installed as vicar of Killinghall in 1904. His patron was Sir Henry Day Ingilby. His gross income was £325 per annum, net £300 plus vicarage. The parish population was 809 by 1904.
  From 1905 to 1908 Elliston undertook a major re-ordering of the chancel.  Using the designs of C. Hodgson Fowler, he raised the floor, replaced the chancel steps, and extended the choir stalls. Using oak and the same architect, he added a chancel screen, panelling, a retable and a new altar.
  Elliston "was involved in many aspects of village life [and] was responsible for plans to improve and alter the chancel of the church in 1905." His churchwardens were John Hirst and George Lewis. He established the Killinghall parish magazine which ran for many years from 1904. In 1922 the West Riding Education Authority suggested that the village church school and board school should be amalgamated to save £300 per year, but Canon Elliston's objections on the grounds of religion's precedence over economy were respected. By 1937 the issue had been raised again, and the board school became the village hall. However the school continued to require space in the village hall for many years, showing Canon Elliston's objection to be valid for other reasons. In 1915, he was involved in the setting up of a Church Tent for assistance in the nearby encampment of 5,000 soldiers at Penny Pot. In 1916 as a trustee of the Parish Room he was involved in its temporary conversion into a Soldiers' Club for the same men. On Fridays in the 1920s, the village school children were marched into the church for a service, and since headgear was mandatory in church, the girls had to wear knotted handkerchiefs on their heads. Sometimes Elliston would visit the school to teach the catechism.
  It was Elliston who proposed in 1919 that a village war memorial of stone should be erected, and this was designed by architect W.H. Wood, and unveiled in 1921. He also proposed an inscribed brass war memorial tablet within the church, and this was also designed by Wood and unveiled on the same day.
  In June 1927, Elliston had a spat in The Yorkshire Post with D'Arcy S. Rudd, vicar of St John's church, Leeds, about attendance rates at Sunday schools. Elliston disputed Rudd's figures, and Rudd accused Elliston of complacency.
caption: St Thomas Killinghall
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