S. Reynolds Hole

Samuel Reynolds Hole (5 December 1819 – 27 August 1904), commonly referred to as S. Reynolds Hole, was an English Anglican priest, author and horticulturalist in the late 19th century and the early part of the 20th.

Life

Hole was born at Ardwick near Manchester the only son of Samuel Hole of Caunton Manor and his wife, Mary Cooke of Macclesfield.

He was raised in Newark and educated at Mrs Gilbey's Preparatory School then Magnus Grammar School in Newark. After a period of foreign travel through France, Germany and Italy he studied theology at Brasenose College, Oxford.

During his time at Oxford he took up fox hunting, but never on a Sunday. He came under the influence of the Oxford Movement, in particular the preaching of Drs Keble, Newman and Pusey. Although deeply moved by Newman, Hole remained loyal to the Church of England. He admired a devout and serious approach to religion and recognised it in the Wesleyan Methodists who were working amongst the poor at a time when the Church of England was not.

He was ordained deacon on 22 September 1844 at Lincoln Cathedral and ordained priest in 1845. He spent 43 years at his father's parish of St. Andrew's Church, Caunton, firstly as curate and from 1850 as its vicar. As well as the living of Caunton he was appointed to be rural Dean of Southwell, a Prebenary of Lincoln, in 1873. He had a short period as Select Preacher to Oxford University. He became honorary chaplain to Edward Benson, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, He was in great demand as a preacher across the whole country. Hole was deeply concerned about the working man drawing the parallel between Jesus' background as a carpenter and the honest toil of the poor.