The Vicar Of Wellsworth

## Reverend Charles Laxey

**The Reverend Charles Laxey**, sometimes simply known as **The Vicar**, is the **Vicar of Wellsworth**. He is also the owner of Trevor the traction engine and lives in the Vicarage at Wellsworth.

## Biography

### RWS

Charles Laxey was born in 1920 and is a cousin of the late Reverend Peter Dreswick, Vicar of Arlesburgh. In 1954, Edward first approached the Vicar to save Trevor from scrap. The Reverend agreed and, following a demonstration, purchased Trevor for cheap, letting the traction engine live in the Vicarage Orchard. At the time, he was a youngish man of 34 with sons of 8 and 6. After the purchase, he hired the services of Jem Cole whenever a driver was required.

By 1989, the now old Reverend could not afford to repair Trevor's boiler. The Reverend then loaned Trevor to a farmer who asked for his help. After the traction engine warned Edward when his trucks derailed, the Fat Controller, in gratitude, paid for Trevor to be repaired at Crovan's Gate. Shortly after this, he retired with his wife to a cottage on the outskirts of Brendam. It stands near the railway, so he is able to maintain his acquaintanceship with Edward and his crew.

His eldest son, also named Charles, had followed his father into the Holy Orders and was lucky enough to be offered the living of Wellsworth on Charles' retirement, so Trevor still lives at the Vicarage. Thanks to earlier tuition by Jem Cole, Trevor's current owner has become an able driver and mechanic in his own right. The younger son, after obtaining a First in English at Oxford, joined the publishing firm of Chatter & Windows in Suddery and has worked his way up to the post of Editorial Manager.

### T&F

In the third series, the Vicar held a party at the Vicarage when his parish could not pay for a seaside trip for the children. The Vicar asked Edward to carry some posters for the party on his boiler, cab and coaches. He later came to tell Edward about the party's success.

On Laxey's Vicarage, Laxey has a lot of beehives. In the third series episode Buzz, Buzz, the Vicar sent one of his beehives to be carried on the express but a porter dropped it, thus disturbing the bees. The bees eventually settled on James' boiler and only flew off when James passed the Vicarage orchard. The Vicar later came to thank James for rescuing his bees, and nicknamed him "James the Red-Nosed Engine". Laxey also has a Sunday School class at Tidmouth Hault, as shown in the episode Percy's Promise.

## Attire

The Vicar wears the typical clothing of an Anglican priest, with a grey shirt with a clerical collar and a Saturno hat (Cappello romano).

## Trivia

* According to the magazine story Trevor's Nest, the Vicar is a bird enthusiast.
* His surname is likely taken from the Manx village of Laxey. The name derives from the Old Norse word Laxa meaning 'Salmon River'. The village is noted for having three vintage railways.
* His appearance in the television series changed several times, he had really small eyes in Saved from Scrap, then he had much bigger eyes in Edward, Trevor and the Really Useful Party, then he had a face mask similar to Jem Cole's in Buzz, Buzz, and finally, in Harold and the Flying Horse, he was balding.
* The Vicar’s model from Harold and the Flying Horse was reused to portray The Mayor of Sodor in the ninth series episode, Percy and the Oil Painting.

* [[wikipedia:|]]