Coach Trip to Historic Harwich

For our third outing this year we pushed the boat out, hiring a large coach from Felix so that many history lovers could arrive in Harwich for 10.00. We had arranged to be guided around the historic centre, with its more than 200 listed buildings, by David Whittle, a member of the Harwich Society, whose knowledge of the buildings and of historic events in Harwich was simply incredible. The tour then returned us to the Ha’penny pier for lunch, followed by afternoon visits to Beacon Hill Fort and the Harwich Redoubt. The tour was organised by LWHS member Ian Davidson, to whom we are very grateful, whilst our driver, who it turned out was son in law of village resident Mick Pease, did a superb job ferrying us around.

There is an incredible amount to see in the historic centre, as the map of the heritage trail clearly indicates, see below, whilst next year Harwich celebrates 400 years since the sailing of the Mayflower, the ship that transported the first English Puritans (now known as Pilgrims) to the new world. In truth we really just scratched the surface, so another visit next year, which is the 400th anniversary year of the sailing, could well be on the cards, particularly as the Harwich home of the ship’s Captain, Christopher Jones, will by then be open to the public as a museum.

The Harwich Maritime Trail

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Ha’penny Pier was opened on the 2nd of July 1853, getting its name from the ½d toll charged. Originally the pier was twice as long as the present one but sadly one half burnt down in 1927. It was a popular departure point for paddle steamers until after the First World War. The ticket office now houses the Ha’penny Pier Visitor Centre (run by the Harwich Society) and open daily from May 1st until the 2nd weekend in September. We also had an ‘official welcome’ by the Harwich Town Crier, James Cole, which set things off very nicely.

A small museum on the pier houses an exhibition on Harwich and The New World, featuring Christopher Jones and the Mayflower in 1620. Models of the ship, which was around 100 foot long with a maximum beam of 25 feet, showed just how small she was, particularly as she set sail with around 130 people on board, 102 passengers and between 25 and 30 officers and crew.

Conditions on board were extremely cramped and uncomfortable during the more than two month long passage (from 6th September to 9th November); huge waves constantly crashed against the ship’s topside deck, fracturing a key structural support timber. Passengers had already suffered agonizing delays, shortages of food, and other shortages, and were now called upon to provide assistance to the ship’s carpenter to repair a fractured main support beam. Repairs were made using a jackscrew, essentially a very big car screw jack, which was on board to help with construction of settler homes.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The tour began in earnest when we left the pier, with our first stop at the ‘Navyard Wharf’, now operated by the Harwich Dock Company with Roll on/Roll off ships sailing to ports in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Belgium. Previously this was the site of a naval shipyard and before that of a small 12th Century castle.

A large number of warships were built in Harwich between 1660 and 1827, see photo below, with perhaps the most famous being HMS Conqueror which was built in 1801, the fourth ship to bear this illustrious name. She was a 74 gun 3rd rate ship of the line with two gun decks, which from experience were found to embody the best compromise of sailing ability, firepower and cost – possibly the optimal configuration. She fought at Trafalgar under the command of Captain Israel Pellew, whose captain of marines took the surrender of the overall commander of the combined French and Spanish fleet, Admiral Villeneuve, aboard the French ship Bucentaure (80 guns). The old shipyard bell was cast by John Darby, bell founder of Ipswich in 1666; this was originally housed in a tower in the middle of the Old Yard, being rung daily to summon people to work.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Next we came to the site of the first Harwich School, founded in 1724 by Sir Humphrey Parsons, Alderman of London and MP for Harwich, for 32 boys aged 8 to 14, with its inscription above the door – for those that read Latin, the inscription reads as follows:

‘IVVENTVTI HERVICENSIS
Boni moribus & litters
Et Religions Sanctiffimae rudimentis
Secunduni instituta ECCLESIAE ANGLICANAE
Imbuendae
Has AEdes Sacrari voluit
Sumptibusq; fuis extrui curavit
HUMPHRIDVS PARSONS ARMR.
Civic & Aldermannus Londinensis
Et
Ad Comitia Palrliamentaria ab hoc Burgo delegatus
A.D. 1724.
Te DEUS OPTIME MAXIME
Patrons vult Fundator
Tu largitoris eximij munifi entiae
Felices des eventus
Te Favente Honori Succedant Tuo
Et Juventus & AEdes
Nullo peritura die.’

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We then passed the headquarters of The Harwich Society at 5 Church Street – a house known as Foresters, and perhaps the oldest house in Harwich; previously it was the Foresters Arms, though known locally as the Drum and Monkey until the Luftwaffe effectively closed the pub in 1941.

The reasons behind the nickname are uncertain, but definitely involved both a monkey and a drum. One story says a monkey was trained to bang a drum to warn the licensee when a customer came in, and another has the monkey taking the drum around to collect fines for bad language; as our guide David said, both stories could easily be true.

Foresters was subsequently purchased by Winifred Cooper, who lovingly restored it and lived in it for 46 years, bequeathing the building to The Harwich Society, of which she had been President.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A little further on we came to St Nicholas, a large brick church dedicated on 20th July 1822, built on the site of an earlier church occupying the site since 1177.  For centuries Harwich has been a port and ship building town, with St Nicholas the Patron Saint of sailors. Christopher Jones was married in the former church.

The gallery is surmounted by the organ designed for it and built in 1822 by Flight & Robson of London; at either side are additional galleries against the south and north walls, and at very high level, two additional galleries known locally as ‘the cages’, which were originally used by schoolchildren. It is not known whether these were Charity Children, but it is recorded that they sat under the eagle eye of the Beadle, who kept order.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We then passed the Hanover Inn, which has incorporated into its rear wall, viewable from the churchyard, part of the ancient Harwich town wall, of which very little now remains.

Back entrance to the Hanover Inn

On the way to view Government House, we were shown one of the narrowest houses ever, built on the entrance to the stables of the house next door. A series of lovely looking houses then continue the delightful street, with its views over a small green to the water beyond, to the dwelling of the Harwich Recorder, in Government House, which is now converted into flats.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We were now off to see the famous Harwich Treadwheel crane, built in 1667 on the site of the Naval Yard and moved to Harwich Green around 1932. It was operated by men walking inside the two tread-wheels, which together produced a balanced action. Each wheel is 16ft diameter, 3ft 10 ins wide, made of oak and spaced 4ft apart on a common axle 13½ ins diameter; the jib has a projection of 17ft 10ins. Described as a House Crane in official records, to distinguish it from the unenclosed type, it originally had a boarded roof, with pantiles.

A conspicuous omission was any form of brake, making this type of crane somewhat dangerous, so a spar was kept handy for levering against the outer edge of the wheel in case of accident; that said, were the load to take command, the men in the wheels would be revolved backwards with disastrous results.

The earliest known reference to this type of crane was by the Romans in 25 B.C. and by the Middle Ages they were common in Britain; by the end of the C17th / beginning of the C18th such cranes had just one drum, with power supplied by a donkey. As far as is known, Harwich has the only British example of a two-wheel man operated tread-wheel crane.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We were now on Harwich Green, with good views of both the High and the Low lighthouses, to hear their story. The two lighthouses are 150 yards apart and worked as a pair – they were leading lights, so when one light was positioned directly above the other, as seen from the sea, the vessel was on the correct course to enter the harbor through the navigable deep-water channel.

They were built in 1818 under the supervision of John Rennie Senior, to replace earlier wooden ones, and belonged to General Rebow, who became very rich by charging 1d per ton light duties on all cargoes coming into the port. In 1836 Trinity House acquired the Lights from General Rebow, for £31,730 (about £3.5 million today), there being 12 years and 5 days remaining of his lease. It is suspected that Rebow was aware of the changing course of the channel, and the lighthouses became redundant in 1863 for just that reason; two new cast iron lighthouses were erected at Dovercourt, operating in the same way to guide vessels through the new channel into Harwich.

The High Lighthouse was sold for £75, without restriction, and was used as a private residence; it is now managed by The Harwich Society, as a museum of local interest.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

On our way to the Guildhall, we saw a private residence that used to be the Three Cups public house. Occupying a prominent position next to the church, the Three Cups was an ancient hostelry with a rich history opened in the C16th. The building was frequently called an Elizabethan mansion in the C17th, and was regularly used as an interim council chamber during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

It is a late medieval house of some quality, with C17th and C18th improvements, including a Georgian facade and an archway at the rear, and was remodeled again in 1949 when the top story and archway were removed. There has long been a claim that Lord Nelson came to the pub, to meet his lover Lady Hamilton, though there is no documentary evidence. After his famous visit to Harwich by sea in 1801, the room where he allegedly stayed with Emma was turned into a museum, and the postcard, see image below, is one of five different known to feature The Nelson Room, distributed for sale throughout England.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The highlight of the tour had now arrived, with the Mayor of Harwich inviting us into his place of work, the beautiful grade I listed Harwich Guildhall. Originally the site of an inn called The Bear, it was purchased by the council in 1673 and rebuilt in 1769.

In 1974 The Guildhall became the home of Harwich Town Council, who restored it; this revealed a medieval wall painting and boarded walls covered with engravings of C18th ships and houses, carved into the woodwork and subsequently been plastered over. The engravings were most likely created by prisoners from the US war of independence, because this room was part of the lock-up when the Police Station was contained within the Guildhall. We were off to see the three most important rooms in the Guildhall.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Council Chamber

The Chamber is a beautiful, oak panelled room, with walls adorned with large portraits and a window including a stained glass depiction of the town crest. The chamber also houses the regalia showcase, containing the seventeenth century mace and the mayor’s chain of office.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Mayor’s Parlour

The parlour remains the personal domain of the mayor of the day, housing gifts to the town and many other items of great local significance. Amongst its treasures are the Imperial brass yard and a portrait of Charles II, painted in 1675.

The Mayor’s Parlour

The Carvings Room

A unique feature of the Guildhall is the Carvings Room, once used to hold prisoners waiting to be tried or sentenced. Etched into the bare wooden walls of the room are elaborate carvings of ships, gallows and symbols to ward off evil spirits, all of which date from the late C18th.  One carving is of a ship flying the Stars and Stripes, dating from the time of the American War of Independence, and another shows a hot air balloon dated at the time of the Montgolfier brothers.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

On the way out we were shown a number of interesting objects on various walls of the Guildhall, including a copy of their Royal Charter, awarded by King James I, and a ships bell from the TSS (twin screw steamship) Brussels, a Great Eastern passenger ferry on the Harwich to Hook of Holland route. During the First World War, in March 1915 on the high seas, Captain Fryatt evaded a German U-boat, for which he was awarded a gold watch. Later that month he was ordered to stop by U-33, but instead he attempted to ram the submarine, which was forced to crash dive, for which he was awarded another gold watch, as also were the First Officer and Chief Engineer.

Later that year, in June, the Brussels was captured by German torpedo boats G101 and G102 and interned at Zeebrugge, where Captain Fryatt was arrested, after engravings on his watches revealed his previous actions. Unbelievably he was tried and then executed, on 27th July 1916, and the Brussels was taken over by the Kaiserliche Marine and renamed Brugge, serving as a depot ship at Zeebrugge.

In 1919 Fryatt’s body was exhumed and returned to the UK for burial, his coffin being landed at Dover and then transported in the South Eastern and Chatham Railway PMV (Parcels and Miscellaneous Van) to London; his funeral was held at St Paul’s Cathedral on 8th July that year. He is therefore one of just three bodies returned home from the First World War, the others being the Unknown Warrior and the nurse Edith Cavell, both of whom were also transported in PMV 132.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Just down the road we came to the Stingray public house, which dates to 1921 when it was built as a replacement for the London Tavern public house; this was a pub owned by trustees of John Pattrick in 1870, but later purchased by the Co-operative Society – their first ever pub acquisition.

The Co-op thought the London Tavern was enough of a success to plan a new building, and in 1919 they closed the old London Tavern to convert it into a shop. Their new building was much more than a pub – it also featured a tea and reading room, and accommodation – it was named the Wheatsheaf, though people called it the Co-op Tavern or the New London Tavern.

The pub was built in the mock-Tudor style and was very well-appointed with beer served from beer engines with beautiful Wedgewood pump handles; customers also got their divvy, which many local people saved up to buy their bottles at Christmas. In 1976 the Co-op sold the pub and it was renamed the Stingray.

The Stingray public house

Our guide David mentioned that Harwich used to have over 50 public houses, and was keen to point out dead pubs as he took us around the historic centre. In its heyday Harwich was an important port, dockyard and garrison town, so was well supplied with Inns and Public Houses.

The number of pubs grew because of the presence of so many varied occupations and visitors to the town. Harwich was a famous and important sea-crossing and rich people would come with a retinue of servants looking for a place to stay, so nearly every public house or the house next door had accommodation.  Also present in the town were Coastguards, the Royal Navy, Merchant Seamen, Fishermen and Army Regiments, as well as local folk, all of whom wanted beer.

Many of the old pubs have disappeared, and of those that remain most have been changed beyond recognition, often becoming private houses or shops. To recognise this important passage of their history, Harwich have created a Historic Pub Trail to guide you round the town.

Harwich historic pub trail

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Christopher Jones, who captained the Mayflower when it took the pilgrims to America in 1620, lived with his mother and father at the King’s Head Street home; his first wife, Sara Twitt, lived in the house opposite, which is now the Alma Inn. She and their only child died within ten years of their marriage, and Jones went on to marry Josian Gray, herself a widow, and had eight children, four of which were born while they lived in Harwich.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

That concluded our comprehensive and most interesting morning guided wander around the old centre of Harwich, so it was now back to the Ha’penny Pier for lunch.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After lunch Beacon Hill Fort was our next port of call; sometimes called the Beacon Hill Battery, it is a ruined military fort built to defend Harwich, and now a scheduled ancient monument.

The first fortification built was a blockhouse, constructed in 1534 during the reign of Henry VIII, though abandoned within ten years. After Henry’s death the site was rearmed, but by 1625 it had again fallen into disrepair, with Harwich considered defenceless.

The site accommodated most of the Harwich army and militia during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars era, as well as a naval signal station. In the C19th, prior to the building of the Breakwater, sea erosion had swept away much of the site, so by the 1880s the fort was considered out-dated; in 1889 work began on a totally new fort, completed in 1892.

After World War I the fort was disarmed and sold, but in 1940 it was brought back into service with a twin 6 Pounder gun position and director tower built. It was now known as the Cornwallis Battery and included the two 6 inch guns of Beacon Hill Battery, both being manned by men of the 515th Coast Regiment, Royal Artillery.

The hexagonal brick radar tower adjacent to the site dates from 1941; together with the electrical firing stations at the breakwater corner and at Landguard Point, this controlled defensive mines in the harbour entrance. It didn’t control the fire of the gun as new radar at Landguard arrived for this purpose in 1944. The site also housed anti-aircraft guns and torpedo tubes from time to time. It was finally decommissioned in 1956 on the dissolution of coast artillery in the United Kingdom.

The site now belongs to Paul Valentine and Barry Sharp, who with the help of volunteers have dug out huge volumes of earth and debris to uncover what is visible today, though a large amount of further such work remains to be done.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Not originally on our itinerary, we managed to squeeze in a quick visit to the Harwich Redoubt, which was built between 1808 and 1810 to protect Harwich against the threat of Napoleonic invasion. It was part of the scheme that included construction of 29 Martello Towers on the East Anglian coast.

It is of circular shape, approximately 200 ft in diameter, with a central parade ground of 85 ft diameter. Hoists lifted shells from the lower level to the gun emplacements above, similar in design to earlier redoubts at Dymchurch and Eastbourne.

When built the Redoubt was on a hilltop with free views in all directions, though it is now surrounded by houses and allotments. Originally armed with ten 24-pounder cannon, the Redoubt was remodelled to accommodate increasingly heavy guns, as technology and perceived threats changed.

In 1861/2, work was carried out to accommodate 68-pounder cannon, and the emplacements were strengthened by adding granite facing, to withstand improved enemy artillery; a decade later three of the emplacements were altered to take the enormous 12 ton rifled muzzle loading (RML) guns. In 1903, three emplacements received 12 pounder quick firing (QF) guns.

The Redoubt never fired a shot in anger, though it was briefly taken back into military service during World War II, when it served as a detention centre for British troops awaiting trial. Following the war it was used by the British Civil Defence organisation, until they were disbanded.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Thus ended a most enjoyable and action packed day we will all remember for a very long time, and the Harwich Society are to be much congratulated. Much was said about a return visit next year, when the Christopher Jones house and museum will be open, as part of the 400th anniversary celebrations, and trustees will consider this over the coming months. Combined with a longer visit to the Redoubt this would make for a great visit.

Postscript: The name Samuel Pepys, Chief Secretary to the Admiralty and one time MP for Harwich, frequently cropped up during our visit but I could not really find a place here to detail what he did for the town; perhaps this could be rectified with another visit.

Our next History Society talks will be at 19.30 in the Parish Room, on Wednesday:

18th September: St Audry’s Workhouse and Mental Hospital – Victorian attitudes Examined

It was believed that people were born to be poor or simply fell onto hard times through their own neglect, so whole families entered the workhouse or faced starvation – this is their story.

16th October: Goldingham Hall Archaeology and Manorial Records

Ashley Cooper will tell us all about Goldingham Hall and the Anglo Saxon community discovered in the grounds In his own inimitable way – not to be missed.

Both events are going to be great, and we very much look forward to welcoming guests both new and old to the Parish Room.

Member Outing to Long Melford

For our second outing this year we visited the northern part of Long Melford and the delightful Heritage Centre, all the while guided by members of the Long Melford Historical & Archaeological Society (LMHAS), which considerably pre-dates LWHS as it was formed in 1969 and celebrates its 50th birthday this year.

Assembling in the car park of the village hall, which also houses the heritage centre, we were met by Julie Thomson, who gave a brief talk before we set off on our tour of just a small part of the Long Melford (whose name derives from Mill and Ford). Time did not permit seeing other than a small part of this large village because, as Julie said, the main street is some two miles from end to end (others claim 2.5 miles), the longest in East Anglia (others claim in England). The through road has five different names as it passes through the village, and seven in total: High St, Hall St, Little St Mary’s, Southgate St, Station Rd, Rodbridge Hill and Sudbury Rd – all of which presumably helps delivery and postmen.

Assembling in the car park

The Heritage Centre

Turning left out of the car park, we passed one of Long Melford’s finest, the magnificent Grade II* listed Brook House; a former coach house built in 1495 when it was known as The White Hart. It seems the inn closed around 1757 to become a private residence owned by the Plamplin family. In 1843 it was sold for £600 to John Churchyard, who owned a horse-hair factory, and by this time it had been renamed Brook House, from Chad Brook which borders the end of the garden. In 1860 it was sold for £975 to Sir William (Hyde) Parker, who lived in the house before taking residence in Melford Hall a few years later, and was recently sold for something over a £1million.

Brook House

We carried on up to the village green, with its magnificent views of Holy Trinity Church and Melford Hall, both great places to visit, crossing over Chad Brook and passing the Old Primary School, now a community centre with frequent events. Next we passed a rather lovely detached building, Pound Hall, following which Julie gave us some background to the two stately homes in the village, Kentwell Hall and Melford Hall, virtually opposite one another and both attracting large numbers of visitors throughout the year. Julie then told us that one of the great British pre-war grand prix drivers, Richard Seaman, lived at Kentwell as a child, something I was unaware of despite being a GP enthusiast. We were also told that the rather odd looking small building on the green near the entrance to Melford Hall was part of the its water system.

Long Melford Old School with grinding stone in front

Carefully crossing the busy road, we made our way past the grounds of Melford Hall to the Mill, which is now an upmarket B&B and not obviously an old mill; this was the last home of Edmund Blunden, our longest serving First World War poet, who died there and is buried in Holy Trinity.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Following the footpath behind the mill, we again crossed Chad Brook, this time with views of it in a completely natural and lovely setting, before re-entering the village where we came upon the Old Courthouse / Police Station, now converted into flats.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Julie advised that during the 1880s wage cuts in the coconut industry in the village caused widespread anger and strike action, culminating in a riot breaking out on polling day in December 1885, during which considerable damage was caused throughout the village from stone throwing and arson, particularly to the Crown public house. Troops were summoned from Bury St Edmunds to restore order, arriving by train, then marching the whole length of the village from Melford station to read the Riot Act from the steps of the Police Station (the Crown Inn website indicates the riot act was read outside there, so perhaps it was read twice). With the troops on hand this stopped the violence, which interestingly affected every shop except one – Ruse the butchers; Julie told us that old man Ruse stayed outside his shop with his shotgun throughout the rioting, threatening to shoot anyone who damaged his property, which clearly did the trick. It is believed that this was the last time the Riot Act was used in Suffolk.

A few doors down we came to a property called Bridge View, with its unusual Trompe-l’oeil above the front door – where bricks have been painted to look like a real window, and quite effectively too.

Bridge View and its Trompe-l’oeil

Next we came to the Bull Hotel, built in 1450 and now a well-known landmark in the village. The original timber-work is unusually well preserved, both inside and out, where the timber was only re-discovered in 1935 when the 100 year old brick work was pulled down. Julie also took us into the hotel to view a beam in the lounge carved with the image of a ‘Wildman’ or ‘Woodwose’, a mysterious being included in the decoration throughout the middle ages to ward off evil spirits. The Drew family were landlords for 200 years, leaving their mark carved onto the posts each side of the front door. We were then told that the building was extensively enlarged in the C20th, but as this was done to match the existing, it is not at all obvious – in the picture below everything to the right of the chimney with the large S (a structural tie beam) is essentially brand new.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Before crossing the road again Julie showed us a fairly normal house called Belmont, which is now famous as a location for the TV comedy drama mystery series Lovejoy, which was based on the novels of John Grant (pen name Jonathan Gash) and featured Ian McShane as a ‘rougish antiques dealer’; having never seen a single episode and being a fan of the actor, I feel I must put this omission to rights sometime. A little further down the road was the butcher shop Ruse and Son (still carrying on after many years – refer

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

above), looking rather splendid. A little further on is a splendid three-storey terrace of houses, all of which have boot scrapers built into the brickwork near their doors, all manufactured in the village by Ward and Silver.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Across the road was the Crown Inn, another historic coaching inn built in 1610; this occupies an imposing position near the Mill Ford crossing nearer the centre of the village, and was probably quite a good place to read the Riot Act if that indeed happened here.

The Crown Inn

Then we came to a series of individual buildings of various styles which add so much to the character of the village; the Ex Service & Social Club, a very nice art gallery with two wonderful busts either side of the door beneath the bay fronts, and then Red House / Cocoanut House (the name deriving from the historic manufacture of coconut matting in the village.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It was a most interesting and enjoyable tour but there was more to come because next we were split into two groups, one for tea and refreshments and the other to look round the Heritage Centre. This was opened in 2011 following filming of ‘The Great British Story’, a BBC People’s History with presenters Michael Wood and Dr Carenza Lewis. The accompanying community Big Dig of Long Melford revealed many artefacts from its Roman and Medieval past, which inspired amateur archaeologists John Nunn and Rob Simpson to set up the Heritage Centre, maintained by volunteers ever since and well worth a visit next time you visit Long Melford, particularly as it is free admission, though donations in support are always welcome.

There is way too much for me to cover the Heritage Centre contents in any detail, but things of particular interest to me included:

• A couple of large and very well preserved Roman oil / wine amphorae;
• A well stocked glass display cabinet containing various items from the world wars, covering the Royal Flying Corps, the role of women during the war and a mint collection of medals from a resident, interestingly with both the Military Medal, awarded to non commissioned ranks and the Military Cross, which was awarded to officers – presumably he received a significant promotion at some point.
• A number of display boards covering all manner of interesting topics: The great Long Melford gun fiasco, Scapa Flow, Peace celebrations, Flu (Spanish) & Funerals, and the Russian Campaign, all covering the year 1919. Question: did you know that a British Mark V tank from the First World War, used in support of the White Russians, was captured by the Red Army in Arkhangelsk, where it remains on display – I didn’t and its simply fascinating.

• This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Both groups thoroughly enjoyed the little museum, as well as the tea/coffee, cakes and other nice things; everyone had a brilliant time and I would like to extend the grateful thanks of LWHS to Julie Thomson and all from LMHAS who assisted her for their efforts – it was a really good visit and we hope there maybe could be a follow-up in future years.

 

Our next History Society talks will be at 19.30 in the Parish Room, on Wednesday:

18th September: St Audry’s Workhouse and Mental Hospital – Victorian attitudes Examined

It was believed that people were born to be poor or simply fell onto hard times through their own neglect, so whole families entered the workhouse or faced starvation – this is their story.

16th October: Goldingham Hall Archaeology and Manorial Records

Ashley Cooper will tell us all about Goldingham Hall and the Anglo Saxon community discovered in the grounds In his own inimitable way – not to be missed.

 

Both events are going to be great, and we very much look forward to welcoming guests both new and old to the Parish Room.

 

Outing to Nethergate Brewery

For our first outing of the year we visited another local hidden gem we had been pondering for some time, but because we thought it might not interest the ladies as much, it had been placed on the back burner. Happily, following discussions with members it became clear there was a demand, and what a great experience it was, being expertly guided through a very modern reincarnation of a very old trade – some 7,000 years (*) according to our excellent guide.

(*) On checking, it seems that beer dates back to at least the 5th century BC in Iran.

Nethergate Brewery in Long Melford

On arrival a large jug of Suffolk County traditional best bitter 4% abv was brought for the group to taste; even though I am a lager drinker, I thought it was good, as did everyone else. Whilst consuming the contents of the surprisingly large jug, we were given a potted history of the brewery.

Our first beer jug on its way

Two school friends, former Head Brewer Ian Hornsey and Dick Burge, began the brewery in 1986 in Clare, just one year after agreeing to undertake the venture. They established themselves in premises in the High Street, behind the main street through the centre; Nethergate Street was round the corner and became the name, as they believed this was more appropriate than High Street Brewery.

They stayed in Clare for some 20 years, being very popular with locals who could just drop by whenever the fancy took them, but expansion over time increased the number of large lorries coming and going, so the partners decided to move across the border to a more isolated site in Pentlow, Essex, before they became a nuisance to Clare residents. In 2010 they sold the brewery to anonymous buyers, and in 2017 it returned to Suffolk, on the edge of Long Melford.

At this point our group was split into two, with half being guided round the brew house and the other continuing to enjoy the Suffolk County. On arrival back in the tap room, the second group were taken round the brew house with the first group getting to enjoy the second beer on offer – Stour Valley Gold, Hoppy Golden 4.2% abv – another great beer which some preferred because of its hoppy and more fruity taste.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The brew house itself seemed surprisingly compact, but on questioning, we discovered it has capacity for three more fermenters – the current bottleneck in capacity – so production can be increased a fair bit, enabling them to brew every day if the demand is there – fingers crossed. We then learned of the various stages of beer making, which I have paraphrased by making use of information freely supplied by SAB Miller, though of course Nethergate are a craft beer making operation, continually experimenting in their quest to bring us better beers for different tastes.

1. Milling the grain
   Different types of malt (barley or other grain which has been steeped, germinated, and dried) are crushed together to break up the grain kernels to extract fermentable sugars, producing a milled product called grist.
2. Mash Conversion
   The grist is then transferred into a mash tun, where it is mixed with heated water in a process called mash conversion, which uses natural enzymes in the malt to break the starch down into long chain sugars.
3. Lautering
   The mash is then pumped into the lauter tun, where a sweet liquid known as wort is separated from the grain husks.
4. The Boil
   The wort is then collected in a vessel called a kettle, where it is brought to a controlled boil before hops (*) are added. This also breaks down the sugar from long chains into short chains, which enables better fermentation.
   (*) We were told that hops may be added at three stages of the beer making process:
   1. Bittering hops are added once the wort has been collected in the kettle and a rolling boil has been achieved. They are usually boiled for 60 minutes, although some recipes may call for as little as 30 minutes.
   2. Flavoring hops are generally added with between 15 and 30 minutes remaining in the boil; very little bitterness will be extracted from the hops but a crisp hoppy flavour will be imparted.
   3. Hop oils, which are responsible for aroma, are extremely volatile and will be driven off almost immediately in the steam of a boil. So-called Dry Hopping is the adding of aroma hops after the kettle has been removed from heat.
5. Wort Separation and Cooling
   After boiling, the wort is transferred into a whirlpool for wort separation stage. During this stage, any malt or hop particles are removed to leave a liquid that is ready to be cooled and fermented.
6. Fermentation
   To start fermentation, yeast is added during the filling of the vessel, which converts the sugary wort into beer by producing alcohol, a wide range of flavors, and carbon dioxide.
7. Maturation
   After fermentation, the young beer needs to be matured in order to allow both a full development of flavors and a smooth finish.

Our guide was happy to take us all round the brew house, including climbing up to see into and smell the contents of various tuns and fermenters etc., whilst explaining the work of the brew masters in considerable detail, sadly not reproduced here as I wasn’t taking notes. There was plenty of time for our questions, which were many and varied, and all carefully explained by our patient guide who was clearly a huge fan of their product.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

On returning to the tap room to join the other group, we then got to taste the Stour Valley Gold before the final beer of the day was brought out – the one that is the most popular, and for good reason – Old Growler Porter 5% abv. This is a very dark beer, which I personally thought I would not like, but happily I was wrong – it had a delicious taste and was really smooth.

The group then got to talking around the benches outside in the sun, our guide stopping by when her time permitted, when someone enquired whether Nethergate brewed any lager. On hearing yes, my ears picked up, and on enquiring whether we could also taste this product, two lucky punters received a good measure in Nethergate lager glasses. Despite enjoying the ‘proper’ beers above, I personally have to say that the Nethergate lager was simply wonderful and one that I highly recommend.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

To conclude, the brewery staff made us all most welcome, with everyone more than happy to answer any questions, whilst the tour itself was leisurely, informative and really enjoyable. Nethergate staff are clearly all in jobs they thoroughly enjoy, and if this means talking about their products to members of the public, then so much the better. I personally recommend the tour to anyone interested in the brew making process, or perhaps just in beer, and heartily recommend their products; these are so many and various that there are bound to be some that will just hit the right spot for you.

 

Our next History Society talks will be at 19.30 in the Parish Room, on:

Wednesday 19th June:

Sudden Deaths in Early Nineteenth Century Suffolk, by Geoffrey Robinson

Fireside hearths, pantries, village ponds & brewing rooms were dangerous places when death was never far away – sudden deaths & their inquests were the lifeblood of columnists, whose reports fascinated readers with tales of misery and misfortune.

18th September:

St Audry’s Workhouse and Mental Hospital – Victorian attitudes Examined – by David Phelan

It was believed that people were born to be poor or simply fell onto hard times through their own neglect, so whole families entered the workhouse or faced starvation – this is their story.

 

Both events are going to be great, and we very much look forward to welcoming guests both new and old to the Parish Room.

 

Andy Sheppard                                                                                                        26th June 2019

 

Appleton Descendants Visit Little Waldingfield

It was a real pleasure welcoming Phil Appleton and his daughter Andrea to Little Waldingfield for afternoon tea at the School House, along with fellow LWHS trustees, followed by a semi guided tour of St Lawrence, which was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Phil has just moved to a small 6,000 population town in Nevada, famous as the home of Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Red Rock Canyon National Park and Death Valley National Park, though as Phil advised: where he now lives is quiet, has a comfortable temperature year round and the beauty that deserts often possess – he clearly loves it there.

Phil descends from a long line of Appleton’s, which as a family date back to at least 1326, when William de Appleton of Suffolk died, though there are earlier records. The US history really commences with Samuel Appleton, who was born in the village in 1625 and emigrated to Ipswich New England in 1636 – see photo of the St Lawrence Appleton plaque. The impressive list of Appleton descendants unearthed by Phil via Ancestry reads as follows:

Thomas Appleton
Samuel J. Appleton
Lt. Oliver Appleton
Samuel Appleton
Thomas Appleton
Henry K. Appleton
Henry K. D. Appleton
Thomas L. Appleton
Harry L. Appleton
Ralph L. Appleton
Fred H. Appleton
Phil R. Appleton
Andrea M. Appleton (Phil’s daughter)

We hope to see them again in the future, along with further Appleton’s as yet unknown to us.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

LMHAS Visit to Little Waldingfield

Last night society trustees were delighted to welcome 21 members of the Long Melford Historical and Archaeological Society (LMHAS) for a walking tour of the village, followed by light refreshments in the Parish Room. Happily the weather did its bit as the evening was glorious and the village looked a treat.

The tour began in the church, the building LMHAS members were most interested in following a recent talk by their president, Clive Paine, in which he made copious reference to our very own St Lawrence. We think we did justice to the church building, with brasses revealed, the listed organ viewed and discussed, the Frank Francis carved cross talked about, as also were the numerous wall plaques, the font and the pulpit etc, and a number of visitors bought church guides for some additional reading.

The tour proper then started with a walk down Church Road to Pink Cottage, with stops to talk about Priory Farm and the School House, then back up towards The Street with stops for The Priory, Churchside and the Parish Room. Our guests had by this time separated into smaller groups, each with a trustee; all had been given a leaflet detailing the main features of the buildings of interest, and this elicited many questions which (hopefully) all trustees were able to answer.

Turning left we meandered down to The Grange and back, with stop offs at The Old White Horse, Greengates (the old Wesleyan Chapel), Park House and The Swan, which in its current state elicited many questions from visitors. Carrying on, we stopped at Enniskillen, Pitt Cottage / The Stores and Wood Hall, for one of the highlights of the evening. Lauren had very kindly allowed nearly 30 people to wander down her drive to view the rear of this very lovely 16th/17th century hall, which was basking in the setting sun with all its wonderful wooden beams on show.

Carrying on we then stopped by Malting Farm before taking the footpath down to the church, giving us a chance to advise of the Commonwealth war grave in the Open Churchyard and the grave of Robert Branford in the closed churchyard. The latter rose to the rank of Superintendent in the Metropolitan Police, something highly unusual in the 1850’s for a black man with limited education. He had clearly impressed his superiors and judges by ascending to this senior rank, so much so that in 2017, 200 years after his birth, a memorial service was held by his grave, with senior members of the current Metropolitan Police Force present, reinforcing the importance of Robert’s achievements and acting as a continuing role model for the future.

After about 90 minutes, trustees and guests gratefully retired to the Parish Room for some well deserved refreshments and discussion of any further questions. We even sold a couple of the village histories and some more of Clive Paine’s church guide, all proceeds from which benefit the church renovation fund.

Hopefully our guests had a great time, we certainly did, and even better, LMHAS are reciprocating with members of LWHS invited to tour selected parts of Long Melford, along with a visit to their Heritage Cente. To see what LMHAS do, please visit their website: https://www.lmhas.co.uk/

The guided tour of LM will be on Wednesday 3rd July, commencing at 19.00 at the Heritage Centre, and is for members only; please let myself or Sue Sheppard know in advance, so that we can keep track and not lose anyone on the night.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Our next talk is on Wednesday 22nd May, at 7.30 in the LW Parish Room, when David Wood will tell us the history of Felixstowe’s Landguard Fort, and a fascinating story it will be; having visited, I can highly recommend it, and this talk should really whet the appetite of those who have yet to visit.

Lastly, here are reminders of two further trips organised by trustees, who have recently been exceptionally busy:

• Nethergate Brewery on Wednesday 5th June at 1.00 pm; and
• Harwich Historical Tour on Saturday 6th July
  This is going to be a fantastic tour of the heart of the old town, guided by members of The Harwich Society with visits to the museums they operate, lunch on the Ha’penny Pier and a visit to Beacon Hill Fort in the afternoon. Pick up by dedicated coach will be from the The Swan car park at 09.00, with departure from Harwich at 16.00. With a subsidy from your society, we have set the incredibly low prices of only £15.00 for members and just £20.00 for non-members.
  Please contact Sue Sheppard on 01787 247980 or email sheppard.susanm@gmail.com to confirm your booking, because numbers are limited.

 

 

 

 

Day Trip to Harwich – 6th July

Last night at our AGM, trustees announced that a proposed day trip to Harwich had been confirmed, for 6th July, leaving Little Waldingfield (by The Swan pub) at 09.00 sharp.

This will easily be our grandest adventure, open to both members and non members, and we are very grateful to Ian Davidson for kindly arranging the details, as follows:

• Arrive Harwich 10.00
• Walking tour of the pier and historic town centre from 10.00 to 11.30.
  Guided by experts the walk starts at the Harwich Society Ha’penny Pier Visitor Centre taking in the New World Exhibition therein. The walk then takes in the Pier and Harbour area before proceeding to the Electric Palace. Unfortunately currently closed for roof renovations. From there we proceed through the Churchyard to Harwich Green to visit the Ancient Treadwheel Crane (1667). The High and Low Lighthouses are next and we proceed along Church Street, which includes “Foresters” Harwich’s oldest house. The Guildhall is next followed by Christopher Jones house and the circular walk ends back at the Ha’penny Pier.

  There are over 200 listed buildings within the small area we visit.

• A special visit to the Guildhall, from 11.30 to 12.00.
  Usually closed at the weekend, we will be greeted by the Mayor in full regalia, complete with his historic 700 year old chain of office. Inside we will see the Council Chamber, the Mayor’s Parlour and The Carvings Room, where prisoners were kept awaiting trial. Etched into the bare wooden walls of the room are elaborate carvings of ships, gallows and symbols to ward off evil spirits, all of which date from the late 18^th century.  One carving is of a ship flying the Stars and Stripes dating from the time of the American War of Independence, whilst another is of a hot air balloon dated at the time of the Montgolfier brothers.

We will break for lunch from 12.00 till 14.00, with options being fish and chips on the Ha’penny pier or eating at one of many restaurants nearby. There will be time for private visits to the lightship LV18, the last surviving example of a manned light vessel in British waters, preserved in its original configuration and restored to a high standard of authenticity, moored on the quay.

From 14.00 to 15.00 there will be a guided visit to Beacon Hill Fort, where many of the C20th buildings survive, retaining important military information on the architecture of gun installations, ammunition storage, communications, observation and radar posts. There are also great vistas across the water to view Harwich docks, Felixstowe docks, Shotley peninsular and Landguard Fort / Landguard Point.

Before the coach leaves on its return journey, there will be time for trippers to walk the coastal paths near the fort or check out in more detail some of the sites viewed in the morning guided tour, for example the Maritime, Lifeboat or Lightship museums, or to wander round some of the other historic streets in Old Harwich. Its going to be a brilliant day out.

Prices, which include the return coach fare and gratuities to the Harwich Society and Beacon Hill Fort, have been set incredibly low as our thank you to members, and are also open top non members who may wish to accompany members:

Members: Just £15.00

Non members: Only £20.00

The coach has already been booked so we are ready to go – don’t delay. To sign up please contact:

Susan Sheppard: on (01787) 247980 or email  Sheppard.susanm@gmail.com or

Andy Sheppard: email  sheppard-andy@sky.com

 

The Story of East Anglian Almshouses – A Talk by Sarah Doig

Little Waldingfield History Society was delighted to welcome Sarah back to the Parish Room, to tell us the fascinating story of the history of Almshouses in East Anglia; the subject arose from her love of quirky history and early years historical research when she kept coming across the same type of building, namely the Almshouse.

The History of Almshouses

Sarah began by giving us the Chambers Dictionary definitions of Alms and Almshouse:

Alms: Plural noun, historical charity donations of money, food, etc to the poor.

Alms House: Noun, Brit, historical a place where the aged, poor, etc were supported by charity.

The giving of alms started with the medieval monasteries, where Christianity demanded the poor should be cared for, beginning with provision of shelter and food for travelling pilgrims and then onto the most needy, and in particular to lepers.

During the medieval period, leprosy’s disabling consequences became visible in all communities across England – rural and urban, rich and poor – and its impact changed both the landscape of the country and the mind-set of the people. Reaction to the disease was complicated; some believed it was a punishment for sin whilst others saw the suffering of lepers as similar to the suffering of Christ. Because lepers were enduring purgatory on earth, they would go directly to heaven when they died, so were therefore closer to God than other people. Those who cared for them or made charitable donations believed that such good works would reduce their own time in purgatory and accelerate their journey to heaven.

Leper houses and hospitals were built on the edge of towns and cities, or in rural areas near crossroads or major travel routes. Lepers needed to stay in contact with society to beg alms, trade items and offer services such as praying for the souls of benefactors. There was high demand for places in leper hospitals, and ‘leprous brothers and sisters’ were often accepted fully into the religious order of the house. Many of these buildings were subsequently destroyed during Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s, though some remain, including St Mary Magdalene in Stourbridge – the Cambridge Leper Chapel.

Cambridge Leper Chapel by Andrew Dunn http://www.andrewdunnphoto.com/

The derivation of the word Hospital is from Hospice, a place where care, health and wellbeing was provided for the spirit, soul and body of the inmates; they provided hospitality and a place to rest and recuperate. Care in religious leper houses and monastic hospitals centred as much on a person’s spiritual needs as on their physical problems, and most hospitals consisted of a group of cottages built around a detached chapel, where praying and singing continued throughout the day.

Most hospitals were actually almshouses for the elderly and infirm, which provided basic nursing, but no medical treatment. An almshouse (also known as a bede-house or poorhouse) is charitable housing provided to people in a particular community. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain forms of previous employment (or their widows), and at elderly people who could no longer pay rent, and are generally maintained by a charity or the trustees of a bequest.

By the time of the Dissolution, religious orders had set up as many as 1,000 hospitals, almhouses, leper hospices and hostels for travellers across the country – vital to the social fabric of the period. These included the six hospitals of Bury St Edmunds, which were run independently of the abbey. Most were extensively endowed with lands and in the 1295 rental the Wardens of St Nicholas and St Saviour hospitals were second only to the church in their holdings of property. Along with St Peter’s and St Petranilla’s they were among the largest landholders in the suburbs as well, and were exempt from municipal tithes. Because of the presence of these hospitals, located on the major routes, Bury itself became an important centre of medicine. For more information please visit: http://www.stedmundsburychronicle.co.uk/Rel-hospitals.htm

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sarah told us that St Saviour’s was the richest and best known, founded by Abbot Samson around 1184 according to Yates. In 1190 the Bishop of Norwich confirmed to it two thirds of the tithings from the same manor. Its endowments were enlarged throughout the 13th century and its complex became one of the most impressive collections of buildings in the Banleuca (*), which area was used as the boundary of the Borough of Bury St Edmunds until 1934. At this time St Saviour’s had a Warden, 12 chaplains and 6 clerks, with 12 poor men and 12 poor women in residence.

(*)        In 945 the monastery was granted a large area of land from the crown, known as the Banleuca.

The Great Hospital of St Giles in Norwich was founded in 1249 by Bishop Walter de Suffield, the original beneficiaries being aged priests, poor scholars and sick and hungry paupers. Clerics remained unmarried at this time, so had no family to support them in old age. Thirty beds were earmarked in the west end of the church for the sick poor, and thirteen paupers were to be fed at the hospital gates each day. Four chaplains, a deacon and sub-deacon, as well as a master of St. Giles were appointed. The hospital was modelled on the Augustinian rule, which discouraged excessive liturgical ritual and permitted more time for charitable works; despite this, the master and chaplains were bound to sing three masses a day, including one for Bishop Suffield’s soul, as well as a weekly mass in honour of St Giles.

The hospital avoided the dissolution of the monasteries, but on the death of Henry VIII it was surrendered to his son, Edward VI, who subsequently passed its guardianship to the city corporation. From then on the religious functions of the hospital were suppressed, allowing it to return to its original raison d’être of caring for the elderly sick and poor, and for the first time it provided medical care to its residents. It is now a sheltered housing and care village.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Role of Private Individuals

We were told that private individuals also established Hospitals (or Almshouses), which in the Middle Ages were broadly of four types; for lepers, for poor (and sick) pilgrims, for the poor and infirm, and almshouses or bedehouses. The last often included explicit instruction that the brothers and sisters resident there long-term should pray daily for the souls of the house’s founders and benefactors – the term ‘bede’ meaning prayer. Poor pilgrims often just stayed overnight at a hospital, and while some medieval hospitals took in the sick, others seem to have cared only for the old and infirm.

Typically we know more about the founders of the 850-plus medieval hospitals and almshouses in England than about those who resided there long-term – the brothers and sisters – and we know almost nothing about the people who were cared for in hospitals. Some leper hospitals housing those believed to have leprosy also took in those suffering from general infirmity, and by the later Middles Ages many of these leper hospitals no longer housed any lepers at all, instead taking in the old and infirm. Additionally, most hospitals accommodated no more than 20 brothers and sisters, 12 being the most common, along with a priest.

In leper hospitals an emphasis was on cleanliness and wholesome food, with clothes washed twice a week and, if possible, a varied diet supplied, often from the house’s own fields and livestock. The therapeutic effect of horticultural work and the beauty of nature were recognised; many houses had fragrant gardens of flowers and healing herbs residents took part in up-keeping. Many lepers also stayed in touch with family and friends, being allowed to make visits home and to receive visitors.

Sarah then introduced us to some of the more notable private individuals and the institutions they created:

Thomas Seckford: In 1587, Queen Elizabeth I granted Seckford a royal licence to build and endow almshouses in Woodbridge. Those interested in becoming almsmen were selected by Seckford and the local vicar, just needing to show they had lived honestly in Woodbridge for at least three years. The original Almshouses consisted of seven, two storey flats, constructed of brick and stone and set within two acres, close to the land the almsmen cultivated. Within them lived twelve men and a principal almsman. The Woodbridge almshouses received £112 13s 4d a year (more than £200,000 today) from Seckford’s business interests in Clerkenwell.

The Woodbridge almsmen were mostly skilled or semi-skilled workers around the age of 60. There was no provision for poor women, although three widows were employed as nurses for the sick almsmen, for which they received accommodation and £2 13 4d a year. In return for their £5 annual pension, the Almsmen lived by strict rules, wearing uniforms and silver badges bearing Thomas Seckford’s coat of arms, following regimes to keep them from ‘idleness’, abstaining from alcohol, attending church three days a week and unable to leave the Almshouses without permission. If they failed their responsibilities, they were made to pay fines or risked being expelled from the Almshouses altogether. In 1977 a day centre and residential home were added and in 2005 the old almshouse buildings were converted into 28 self-contained very sheltered flats.

The Seckford Foundation has, over the past 150 years, continuously developed the activities of the Foundation and its facilities. Since the turn of the century it has entirely remodelled the Almshouses, providing exceptional accommodation for its residents; constructed a 350 seat theatre for the benefit of the School and local community; substantially upgraded teaching facilities at Woodbridge School, to include a new classroom block, sixth form centre and technology centre; opened three new Free Schools, in Beccles, Ixworth and Saxmundham; launched Seckford Springboard to help young people under 25 to access education, employment and training; and led an initiative called ‘Flourish’, to help tackle rural poverty within Suffolk.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sir William Cordell: The Hospital of the Holy Blessed Trinity was founded by Cordell, then lord of the manor of Melford and resident of Melford Hall, in 1573. He was a man of national prominence, holding such high office as Master of the Rolls, High Steward of Ipswich and, in 1558, Speaker of the House of Commons. Born and raised in Melford, it was to the poor residents of the town that he gave the almshouses, specifically for 12 aged men and a warden.

The Hospital housed twelve ‘brethren’, and was built in a quadrangle with an inner courtyard garden and an outer walled garden. When first constructed, the garden was enclosed by a wooden pale fence, but in 1632 the brethren requested the garden be enlarged slightly and enclosed in a high brick wall. This was prompted because fruit trees inside were planted so close to the boundary that much of the fruit was stolen before the brethren could pick it. Four or five feet was taken from the adjacent village green and the brick wall completed in 1633.

In 1731 the garden was used for supplementing the diet of residents by growing fruit and vegetables, as revealed by the Warden’s accounts that year. The property was largely restored in 1847 and continues to be administered by the Trustees of the Hospital, providing Almshouse accommodation for poor aged persons of good character who were born or reside in the ancient parishes of Long Melford, Glemsford, Stanstead, Shimpling, Alpheton, Lavenham, Acton, Chilton or Sudbury. Free accommodation, heating and hot water are provided for the almspersons, with each flat connected to a community alarm system to ensure 24 hour assistance is available if required.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Henry Tooley: Founded Tooley’s almshouses in 1550, with additional endowments in 1591 by William Smart. Rebuilt in 1846 with some C20 additions on the east side. The present buildings are on 3 sides of a garden court, with an entrance gatehouse on the west side. People still reside in the court, which is not open to unauthorised visitors. During Heritage Open Weekend, the main gate is opened so people can wander the grounds, privileged to be able to get a closer look at the iconic architecture of the place.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sarah then told us that not all almshouses were as grand as the above, and that philanthropic groups and charities also founded almshouses, including the Corporation of Great Yarmouth, who founded the Fisherman’s Hospital in 1702 for 20 old and “decayed” fishermen and their wives. The Charity now provides almshouses for retired fishermen and their wives or widows: not less than 60 years of age and who have served on vessels fishing out of Great Yarmouth.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Arthur Winsley: Winsley left much of his property (Brickhouse Farm in St. Botolph’s Colchester) to the Charity in his will of 28th March 1726. The farm was converted into twelve almshouses and a Chapel for twelve ancient men ‘that had lived well and fallen into decay’. Winsley’s benefaction had included a weekly stipend of 2s 6d for each almsmen and 36 buckets of coal a year; on New Year’s Day a sermon in the almshouse chapel was followed by a dinner.

Over the years, the Almshouses have been added to as a result of a number of bequests and endowments. Although there were once 88, there are now 80, as a result of improvements which merged some properties, to provide a better standard of accommodation. Wives were originally evicted on the death of their husband, but happily this is not the case today.

Arthur Winsley Almshouse in Colchester

Sarah now told us of the Charity Commission, which was set up in 1853 to improve the oversight of charities, and which required the formalisation of all charities and charity trustees.

Margaret Ogilvey: Ogilvie Charities were founded in 1887 and now run four sheltered housing schemes, two in Suffolk and two in Essex, to create a caring and supportive atmosphere for residents living independently in self contained accommodation.  The confusingly separate Ogilvie almshouses, comprising 12 self-contained cottages, were erected in 1926, originally for workmen, by Margaret’s son Glencairn Stuart Ogilvie as part of his Thorpeness fantasy holiday village (which includes his famous ‘House in the clouds’ water tower).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sir Robert Gardener: Gardener founded a set of almshouses at Elmswell in 1620, entrusting their government entirely to six villagers and increasing the endowment in his will to keep pace with inflation. Over the central doorway a square limestone panel is inscribed: “Sir Robert Gardener KT. Sometime Lord of these Manors of Elmswell and Woolpit founded this almshouse in ye time of his life AN 1614 and gave unto it sufficient maintenance for six poore women widows to continue forever”.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Life in an Almshouse

Generally residents were treated well as they had a safe place to eat and sleep, but they often had to meet many rules and regulations regarding: their suitability for admission; continuing conduct; and ongoing obligations to attend religious services, including also sometimes restrictions on what they wore. For example:

Robert Cocks: A music publisher and local benefactor who erected ten almshouses in Old Buckenham in 1860, for the reception of aged and deserving persons born in the parish. Like many founders, he oversaw the creation of the rules and regulations governing behaviour and use of the almshouses; these could be quite arbitrary and very strict:

Rules and Regulations

for the government of the ten Alms Houses

at Old Buckenham, Near Attleboro’, Norfolk.

Founded by Robert Cocks, AD 1860l.- The intention of the-Founder is that these Alms Houses should be the home for those persons, of the age of Fifty-five years and upwards, who have seen better days, whose habits are known to be temperate and cleanly and who have kept themselves independent of parochial relief.
II.- The Pensioners, who shall from time to time partake of the benefits of this Institution, shall be ten poor persons or families, natives of the above-named parish of Old Buckenham; and be Unmarried Men, Widowers, Spinsters, or Widows; such Families to consist of Husband and Wife only (one of whom, at least, shall be a native of the said parish); or of a Widow born in the said parish and one infirm daughter; and if either be removed by the “will of God” then the Survivor shall enjoy every privilege as tenant during his or her life, in the same manner as if both were living, unless such Survivor shall marry again, in which case he or she shall thereupon immediately quit the Alms House, and shall lose all the privileges of a Pensioner. Each Pensioner, besides living Rent Free, shall receive, every Quarter, Two Pounds, and One Ton of Coals every Year.
III.- No Lodger to be admitted.
IV.- No Relatives or Survivors of a deceased Pensioner are to have any part of the current Quarters payment.
V.- The Pensioners to visit and assist each other in lameness or sickness.
VI.- The Men not to swear or quarrel, and the Women not to brawl or scold.
VII.- No nails to be driven in the walls without the consent of one of the Trustees.
VIII.- No Shrubs, Plants, Flowers, or Trees, to be nailed against any of the external or fence walls of the Alms Houses.
IX.– The Ground in front of the Alms Houses to be kept as a Flower Garden.
X.– No Pensioner to keep Pigs, Poultry, nor Animals of any kind, except Birds, or a Cat.
XI.- No Pensioner to build, or cause to be erected, any Shed or Building of any kind on the uncovered ground attached to the Alms Houses.
XII.- No Alms House to be used as a Shop, and no Sale of Furniture or other things to take place, either by Auction or otherwise, on the Premises.
XIII.- It is required that all Pensioners will have the Chimneys of their Rooms swept three times in each year, namely, on the first Friday in January; the first Friday in April; and the first Friday in October; and will keep their Rooms clean, and preserve the same from ill-usage.
XIV.- It is imperative that the Pensioners should be regular attendants at a place of worship on the Lord’s Day, unless prevented by illness.
XV.- Any Pensioner who shall wilfully Damage the Property, papering of the walls, painted wood, or any part thereof, shall, at his or her own cost, make good such damage to the satisfaction of the Trustees.
XVI.- All broken Windows, caused by negligence of a Pensioner, to be repaired by, and at his or her expense.
XVII.- The Trustees shall have power to remove any Pensioner known to be in the habit of tippling or frequenting the public houses, or not strictly conforming to the above Rules.
By Order of  ROBERT COCKS, the founder
And the Trustees, The Rev Thos Fulcher, Mr Richard Bird and Mr Stroud Lincoln Cocks
21 August 1876

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Henry Howard: Founded the Hospital of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in Castle Rising, between 1609 and 1614. Howard’s will established a charity to provide sheltered accommodation for 12 women from the Parish, with rooms for the Sisters arranged around a central courtyard.

Sisters had to attend chapel every day, attend St Lawrence Church every Sunday and Holy Day dressed in their distinctive black hats and blue (later red) livery gowns, and say prayers for the founder whose badge they wore. In the early seventeenth century each Sister was given eight shillings (40p) per month, eight pence (3p) on festival days, an annual ‘chauldron (*) of coal’ and a gown ‘of kersey’ (brown woollen cloth) for everyday wear. There’s no dress code now, yet the residents take great pride in dressing in the “uniform” provided by Henry Howard for special occasions such as Founder’s Day.

(*)        A chaldron (also chauldron or chalder) was an English measure of dry volume, mostly used for coal, the word being an obsolete spelling of cauldron. It was used from the 13th century until the end of 1835 when the Weights and Measures Act that year specified coal could then only be sold by weight. It was not standardized and there were many different regional chaldrons, the two most important being Newcastle and London.

Many attempts have been made to calculate the weight of a Newcastle chaldron. Historian John Nef estimates it weighed 2,000 lb (907 kg) in 1421, and that its weight was gradually increased by coal traders due to taxes on coal which were charged per chaldron until 1678, when its weight was fixed by law at 52 ¹⁄₂ long hundredweight (5,880 lb or 2,670 kg). It was later increased in 1694 to 53 long hundredweight (5,940 lb or 2,690 kg).

A London chaldron was defined as 36 bushels (8 dry gallons) heaped up, each bushel to contain a Winchester bushel and 1 imperial quart (1.14 L), and to be 19 ¹⁄₂ inches (495 mm) in diameter, roughly a weight in coal of around 28 long hundredweight (3,140 lb or 1,420 kg).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Generally pensioners (residents were sometimes called this) had to keep premises clean and in good repair, were often prohibited from keeping any animal that could damage the property or upset neighbours, and had to attend church regularly. Chimneys usually had to be swept once or twice a year, and commonly men could not swear or quarrel; women were not to brawl or scold. If people broke the sometimes arbitrary rules, trustees had the power to reprimand, formally give warning or even to eject transgressors, when their only course of action was probably the dreaded workhouse.

Almsmhouse Buildings

From her researches, Sarah advised that almshouses came in all shapes and sizes. Originally they were a bit like modern day hospital ward where pensioners resided in cubicles down each long side. Many almshouses were arranged around a courtyard, and many comprised a terrace of varying length. There were also some of completely different shapes, presumably reflecting the venefactor’s personal wishes.

The Rest, in Reydon, near Southwold, opened in 1908 and consists of a group of individual houses behind an unusual gatehouse. It was a charitable housing development for eight people established by Andrew Matthews, a successful art dealer. Residents had to be natives of Southwold, have lived there for more than twenty years, have limited income, be over 65 years of age and be of good physical and mental health. One unusual rule was that any resident displaying a certain photograph of Matthew’s wife, Ellen, on her birthday, was given a 5 shilling reward (approx. £30 today).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Hospital of the Holy Blessed Trinity: Founded in 1573 by Sir William Cordell, then lord of the manor of Melford living across the road in Melford Hall. Born and raised in Melford, he gave the almshouses to poor residents of the town, endowing them with land and property in the surrounding area to ensure a regular source of income. The Hospital housed twelve ‘brethren’ and was built in a quadrangle with an inner courtyard garden and an outer walled garden.

When first constructed the garden was enclosed by a wooden pale fence, but in 1632 the brethren requested the garden ‘be enlarged slightly and enclosed within a high brick wall to prevent fruit from being stolen’ – 4 or 5 feet was duly taken from the adjacent village green and the wall completed in 1633. The garden was used to supplement the diet of residents by growing fruit and vegetables, as revealed by Warden accounts for the year 1731. Major building renovations were undertaken In 1847, with further modernisation of the interior completed in 1964. In 1981 the south and east faces of the garden wall were rebuilt, and the property continues to be administered by the Trustees of the Hospital for the benefit of the poor of Long Melford.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Hyde Park Corner Cottages, Cavendish: These much restored 16th century cottages on the village green below St. Mary’s Church became known as ‘Hyde Park Corner’ because of the practice of rectory visitors engaging in outdoor preaching on this area of the village green. They were rescued from the threat of demolition by the Cavendish Preservation Society and renovated, after which the George Savage Trust accepted responsibility in November 1957. It was thought that provision of ‘almshouse’ accommodation was within the spirit of the original bequest and they are now administered for the benefit of people connected with Cavendish, and form an outstanding group of renovated buildings of international interest. There are five separate dwellings, some with two bedrooms, and new residents must be over the age of 60 and have some connection with Cavendish through family or residence. Maintenance charges are kept at reasonable levels and seven village residents serve as trustees.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Stuart Court Norwich: Built in 1915 in memory of James Stuart, privy councillor and sometime resident of Norwich. Comprises 14 bedsits, three one-bedroom flats and five two-bedroom flats, the latter allocated to couples who can show a health or similar need for the additional bedroom. The lovely gardens were renovated in 2015 as part of the celebrations for the centenary Stuart Court, and they are currently managed by the Norwich Housing Society.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Present Day

Many almshouses continue today, looked after by trustees of charities overseen by the Charity Commission. The Almshouse Association, virtually unknown outside the sector, sets best practice guidelines and also has a small fund to allow almshouses to modernise.

Some 2,600 almshouses continue to exist, operating some 30,000 dwellings and support around 36,000 people, mainly of retirement age, of limited means and who live locally to the almshouse.

Sarah then showed us a final gallery of some other almshouses images before concluding her fascinating talk on our local history and heritage, something she believes has been largely ignored by historians to date. The twenty plus audience were warmly appreciative of her efforts.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Our next events will be at 7.30 in The Parish Room on:

17th April: The Amazing Story of Rev’d. John Heigham Steggall, the Suffolk Gypsy, by Pip Wright

Around 1800 this son of a parson ran away to live with gypsies. In a remarkable life, he was a surgeon, sailor, soldier and parish priest at Great Ashfield.

22nd May: The History of Landguard Fort, Felixstowe by David Wood

First built nearly 400 years ago, the fort guards the Orwell navigable channel because Harwich Harbour was the best haven for large ships between the Thames & Humber.

Both events are going to be great, and we very much look forward to welcoming guests both new and old to the Parish Room in Little Waldingfield.

Discovering the Green Man – A Talk by Roger Green

Little Waldingfield History Society was delighted to welcome Roger back to the Parish Room, to share his extensive knowledge of the enigma of the Green Man with the more than 30 members at our annual member only event. Roger also showed us a large number of the countless green man images he has taken / collected over the years, and everyone went home delighted because it was a quite superb talk from a man passionate about his subject.

He began his talk by telling us that discovering the green man could be considered an alternative view of eternity – seeking the before and the hereafter – which all in all was quite a startling opening. Mystical meanings associated with the green man seem to be very old, dating back to pre-Christian Pagan times, and now there are many varied meanings of the word green, something Roger proved by asking his audience what ‘green’ meant to them. From the answers from the floor, and with some additional from Roger, it was apparent that green stands for much of life, death and rebirth, as we probably all subconsciously knew:

• (Mother) Nature
• New / growing / flourishing / fertility
• Mould (this one got a few laughs)
• Eco friendly / environmental
• Politics (Green party)
• The beginning of planetary life (green algae)
• A restful colour
• Inexperienced in matters (or life itself)
• Green with envy
• The island of Ireland
• The colour of Islam
• The colour of spring
• The colour of hope
• A colour associated with fairies
• A colour associated with bad luck (unknown to most)
• A popular pub name
• A tattoo subject

Roger then mentioned Brian Stone, a reader in English Literature at the Open University, who defined the importance of the colour green by reference to the Green Knight, a character from the 14th century Arthurian poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (*).

It surprises me that no critic has picked up one very important medieval theological reference to green as the colour of truth …. evergreen is the colour assigned to ever living and eternal truth

(*) In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Green Knight (a symbol of the old religion) appears before Arthur’s court during a Christmas feast, holding a bough of holly in one hand and a battle-axe in the other, and issuing a challenge – he will allow one man to strike him once with his axe, on condition that he returns the blow the next year. Arthur accepts the challenge but Gawain (a symbol of the new religion) takes his place and decapitates the Green Knight, who retrieves his head, reattaches it and tells Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel at the stipulated time. The Knight next features as Bercilak de Hautedesert, lord of a large castle and Gawain’s host before his arrival at the Green Chapel. At Bercilak’s castle, Gawain is submitted to tests of his loyalty and chastity. On New Year’s Day Gawain departs to the Green Chapel and bends to receive his blow, only to have the Green Knight barely nick him; he then reveals that he is Bercilak, and that Morgan le Fay had given him the double identity to test Gawain and Arthur.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

We were told that a Green Man is any kind of a carving, drawing, painting or representation showing a head or face surrounded by, or made from, leaves. The face is almost always male, although a few Green Women do exist; Green Beasts, particularly cats and lions (and sometimes demons), are reasonably commonplace, and occasionally gravestones have skulls sprouting foliage. The face of the green man is generally taken to be dead, with the foliage being new growth coming from the old.

Carved stone green man images

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The name Green Man is also modern, stemming from Lady Raglan’s 1939 article ‘The green man in church architecture’ for the March edition of the Folklore Journal; prior to this time reference was simply made to foliate heads. Roger also said that most green men are carved in stone, with some in wood and, just in the last century, some painted. He also referenced Giuseppe Arcimboldo, a 16th century Italian artist now best known for creating imaginative harvest festival style portrait heads made entirely from objects such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish and books.

Four seasons in one head by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Carved wooden green man images

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Painted green man images

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Green women images

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It is not certain how far back in time a religious significance may be assigned to green man symbols as none can apparently be proved, but its certainly back to the time of Celtic gods, with life affirming, rebirth, death and nature, as today – seeking the before and the hereafter. In time past forests covered far more of the earth than now and pagan man had to venture there at night in order to catch nocturnal animals for food; these were frightening places and the coming of new green growth in spring would have been more than welcome.

There are four main types of Green Man image:

• A head where the whole face may be composed of a leaf or leaves; perhaps the oldest variant, dating back to the leaf masks of Roman times.
• A face with leaves, vines or branches sprouting from the mouth, nose, ears or even eyes (sometimes called a disgorging or uttering head). The oldest example dates from 5th Century France, but this became the most popular style in the 12th to 15th centuries, especially in Britain.
• A head where the hair, eyebrows, moustache and/or beard may be made up of leaves, often bearing flowers or fruit.
• A head surrounded by foliage but where the leaves are not actually part of the face. At its simplest and most naturalistic this may just be an image of a man peering out from among dense foliage,

Variations are almost infinite as there appears to be no standard representation of a Green Man and there are examples of:

• Two-headed and even three-headed green men;
• Whole series of heads linked together by foliate stems;
• Foliage issuing from a Green Man forming a Tree of Life image;
• Beasts, snakes or horns (rather than vegetation) issuing from a green man’s mouth;
• The nose of a face forming the trunk of a tree; and
• A whole body sprouting, wearing or being composed of leaves and vegetation.

Other green man images

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Most Green Men are found in Christian churches, the vast majority in Britain, France and Germany, and mainly dating from the medieval period between the 11th and 16th centuries. Sometimes they are hidden away behind rood screens / choir stalls, or high in the ceiling structure, but often in plain view on columns or above main doorways. In terms of size, they may range from life-sized to tiny images on roof bosses. They can also be found, though less commonly, on other buildings, both ecclesiastical and secular, and as decorations on tombs and memorial monuments.

Roger then told us of other related figures:

• Pan, the Greek God of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds, rustic music and impromptus, and companion of the nymphs.
• Jack-in-the-Green, a trickster character in traditional English May Day celebrations from the mid-18th Century onwards, represented by a man covered in a cone-shaped mass of foliage and vegetation. This fell out of popularity in the 19th Century, when largely replaced by the May Queen, but it has seen a resurgence in recent years in many towns in southern England, including Hastings, Knutsford, Rochester, Bristol, Oxford, Ilfracombe, etc.
• John Barleycorn, a character in an old English folksong personifying the cereal crop barley as a man whose life story corresponds to the various stages of barley cultivation, down to his death and re-birth each spring.
• Robin Hood. Though best known as the heroic, bow-wielding outlaw of English folklore since the 14th Century, with his green-garbed band of Merry Men and beautiful virtuous Maid Marian, Robin Hood (originally Robin of the Wood) was also traditionally seen as a protector of the old ways and of the woods and forests; he was particularly popular in medieval May Day games and plays from the 16th to 17th Century.
• Herne the Hunter, a shadowy, wild, stag-antlered folklore figure dating back to Celtic or Saxon times, but only definitively recorded since the 15th Century. His ghost is said to haunt Windsor Forest but his origins in prehistory may be connected with male fertility, similar to the horned Celtic deity Cernunnos, the Celtic god of fertility, life, animals, wealth and the underworld.
• Peter Pan, a fictional character created by Scottish novelist J. M. Barrie, a free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythical island of Neverland, as the leader of the Lost Boys, interacting with fairies, pirates, mermaids, Native Americans and occasionally ordinary children from the world outside Neverland.
• Puck (Robin Goodfellow), a lusty and mischievous sprite or fairy, often used to personify the spirit of the land and often represented as a Pan-like cloven-hoofed figure with small horns. Robin Goodfellow was the name of one such sprite, immortalized in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Roger also reminded us that many Christian ideas and concepts were taken or incorporated from pre-existing Pagan ideas and concepts, including the Winter Solstice, Easter, Harvest, All Souls / Saints, fancy bread and candles. Many Christian churches were built on the sites of pre-Christian buildings and, when later renovated, a green man was often incorporated somewhere, either inside or outside. The act of baptism itself is also essentially the meaning of the green man: temporary death under water followed by a re-birth. A symbol of death and re-birth, life within us, our relationship with the transcendent (God) and life itself (life force): all flesh is as the grass, oneness with the earth, with nature and eternity – the deeper one digs, the more one finds!

Lastly, we were treated to a poem by Paul Giovanni, as sung when the children were dancing round the May Pole in the film ‘The Wicker Man’ – click the YouTube link below to see the clip.

In the woods there grew a tree
And a fine, fine tree was he
And on that tree there was a limb
And on that limb there was a branch
And on that branch there was a nest,
And in that nest there was an egg
And in that egg there was a bird
And from that bird a feather came
And of that feather was a bed

And on that bed there was a girl
And on that girl there was a man
And from that man there was a seed
And from that seed there was a boy
And from that boy there was a man
And for that man there was a grave
And from that grave there grew a tree

In Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle

And on that bed there was a girl (Sumerisle, Sumerisle)
And on that girl there was a man (Sumerisle, Sumerisle)
And from that man there was a seed (Sumerisle, Sumerisle)
And from that seed there was a boy (Sumerisle, Sumerisle)
And from that boy there was a man (Sumerisle, Sumerisle)
And for that man there was a grave
And from that grave there grew a tree

In Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle

And on that tree there was a limb
And on that limb there was a branch
And on that branch there was a nest
And in that nest there was an egg
And in that egg there was a bird
And from that bird a feather came
And of that feather was a bed

In Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle, Sumerisle

Roger then suggested that green men were haunting images, watching our lives through their gaze, eternally watching, the face in the leaves and the laughter in the wood, before and the hear-after, always until the end, a badge of irrepressible life.

To conclude this review, Roger brought incredible passion, humour and warmth to a subject which most people have little knowledge of, and his brilliant talk was a riotous passage through numerous green man images to give an understanding of what lay behind, much enjoyed by everyone present.

 

Our next events will be at 7.30 in The Parish Room on:

20th February: Simply Suffolk by John Goodhand

Inn signs are part of our history but which is the commonest, where can you find a gallows, which is the oldest and what is Elvis doing in Botesdale? John has been photographing Suffolk inns and their signs for over fifty years and will tell us all.

20th March: To relieve need and distress by Sarah Doig
The fascinating story of East Anglian almshouses.

 

Both events are going to be great, and we very much look forward to welcoming guests both new and old to the Parish Room in Little Waldingfield.

 

Silk – Our Next Event

The next LWHS event is on Wednesday 21st November, at 7.30 in the Parish Room, Church Road LW, when Richard Humphries, with 50 years experience in the local silk trade, will tell us:

• Why Sudbury today is the UK Silk capital;
• How the wool trade gave way to silk in East Anglia; and
• Why it remains the choice of fabric for our Kings and Queens.

Humphries Weaving Company was set up in 1972 by Richard and specialises in exclusive, high quality furnishing fabrics destined for Royal Palaces and National Trust properties, along with specially commissioned design work.

With the three existing local silk weaving companies, this makes Sudbury the silk capital of the UK, with an estimated 110 metric tons of Chinese silk coming into the town annually. To put this in context:

• Each silk worm cocoon is made of a single continuous thread of raw silk around 1 kilometer long.
• Between 2,000 and 3,000 cocoons are required to make one pound of silk.
• One pound of silk unbelievably represents about 1,000 miles of filament.
• It takes silk from more than 2,000 cocoons to produce a single kimono.

LWHS events are open to all, young or old, members or not, and if you like history, whether recent, ancient or somewhere in between, then you will enjoy our talks. Just £4.00 (or £2.00 if a member), gives access to presentations lasting about an hour, which are followed by tea/coffee, plus biscuits, in the company of like minded individuals.

For tickets please contact one of the following, or simply turn up on the night:

• Sue Sheppard on 01787 247980, or
• Diana Langford on 01787 248298

I can’t wait, and look forward to seeing many blog followers in the Parish Room, at 7.30 p.m. on Wednesday 21st November for what is sure to be a most fascinating and interesting presentation.

Richard in his design studio for a 1985 project

Frauds of the 19th Century – Our Next Event

Martin Hedges, well known to members from his talk last year on ‘The Miser and the Murderess’, will talk to us about Frauds of the 19th Century; this sounds absolutely fascinating, and as he says:

Panics, failures and frauds have always been with us. From Tulipmania and the South Sea Bubble to dotcoms, there are always con merchants to spin a yarn; so cheer the days when bankers were hanged for playing fast & loose with our money.

Martin’s book ‘The day they hanged a banker’ also sounds a tremendous read from the following summary:

A miscellany of tales of fraud from the 19th century onwards, which show that whatever we just lived through during the crisis of 2008, our forebears got shafted just the same. There have been Black Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays — there isn’t a day of the week that does not have a shadow over it, as greedy bankers, money magicians and downy-faced chancers seek to fleece investors. From the man that invented a country in Central America just so that he could lure pioneers to buy plots in a swamp, to the humble clerk — by day — who was a millionaire in the evenings and the weekends, to the man who was Ponzi before Ponzi. British crooks, American crooks, French crooks — they’re all here. Many of the stories are amusing, some are poignant. One at least is tragic, when a society banker caught robbing his clients had the dubious honour of being the last banker hanged in England.

I can’t wait, and look forward to seeing many of you in the Parish Room, at 7.30 p.m. on Wednesday 19th September, when we kick off our new events programme; its going to be great.

Martin Hedges