The pew rents are now due. The tenant of Le Carrefour tenement pays just 6p a year to reserve this boxed pew in St Peter’s Church. (0881079)

CLOSE to 200 people attended the funeral at St Peter’s Church a week ago of Dr Stephen Henry, who died earlier that week.

In his address, Brian Garrard listed just some of Stephen’s many achievements and spoke also of his contributions to primary health care, both where he practised in Wiltshire and nationally, where he was chairman of the National Association of Primary Care and a ministerial adviser on the subject.

He was also very active in local politics as a councillor and in this context was elected as Mayor of Trowbridge.

As I said last week, that involvement in municipal affairs continued when he and his wife moved permanently to Sark.

I left the service – which had opened, most appropriately, to the theme music from Test Match Special – thinking what a huge loss Stephen’s death had been to his family. Additionally, when I consider how some people are honoured for doing little more than a job of work, how on earth his services to the community failed to be recognised is simply beyond me, although he would probably have laughed had I said that to him.

While on the subject of St Peter’s Church, I learned only last week that the rents for some of the pews are now due – yet another bit of Sark quirkiness that makes this place so pleasurably different.

I heard of it after being told to visit the church as there was something there that would merit inclusion in this column. Fortunately, my visit coincided with one by churchwarden Peter Carre and his wife June, and thanks to them I am a little wiser on the subject of the pews.

The church itself cost about £1,000 to build – a considerable sum in 1820 – and almost a third of that came from those tenants who subscribed for closed family pews, to be attached forever, it was stipulated at the time, to their tenements.

Additionally, the tenants with pews were also required to pay an annual rent and, according to the pamphlet Peter kindly gave me, this was intended to secure a permanent income for maintenance.

However, the sums involved cannot apparently be altered and now, almost 190 years later, are miniscule, being based on mere pennies per pew seat. They range from 6p a year – for a whole pew – to the £1 paid by the Seigneur, who has by far the largest pew in addition to being blessed with a front-row seat.

Apart from the switch in 1971 to decimal currency – an unexpected bonus which increased the total income by 2.4 times – the rents have remained unchanged and gross the princely sum of £3.70 annually. To that, thankfully, can be added the £600-plus that was raised for church funds last Saturday morning in just a couple of hours, ostensibly over coffee.

As an aside, part of the building costs were paid by the Society for Promoting the Enlargement and Building of Churches and Chapels but they insisted that at least half the 333 seats had to be open to the public and they are at the rear of St Peter’s – something that may explain the fact that on the rare occasions I attend a service there I have always noticed how it tends to fill up from the back.

For those tenants who have neglected to pay their pew rents, the tick list and honesty box are still in the church. However, not all tenements have pews. Some, like June’s, don’t because, as she explained, her land was owned in 1820 by a Methodist who was ‘also a bit mean’.

Sark Shipping has put on passenger vessels for its Tuesday and Thursday sailings for the remainder of this month. Hitherto the service has been limited to 12 passengers but demand has led to a rethink by the company.

It means that the 9.30am sailing from Guernsey and the 12.30pm return trip from Sark will accommodate almost 100 passengers. Sark Shipping will also review its services for these sailings in the first quarter of 2010 shortly.

• The email address for comment is fallesark@sark.net.