Mercuriosities

The Yeomanry was a voluntary cavalry force raised from men who held and cultivated small, landed estates. These county forces came into being in the 1790s to improve the Kingdom’s defences against the threat of Napoleon Bonaparte, after the French Revolution.

“History in these Flags

Two old Yeomanry colours have just made their way back into Rutland – with which county they have historical links – and now hang in Oakham Castle, where one of them is seen in this picture.

Their story is somewhat obscure but it is understood that they were originally in Normanton Hall, home of the Heathcotes, one member of which family was responsible for the formation of the Rutland Company of the Yeomanry.

When the hall was demolished about 30 years ago they passed to the late Earl of Ancaster and were hung in the hall at Grimsthorpe Castle, until recently they were handed by the present Lord Ancaster to Lieu.-Col. J. R. Hanbury of Burley-on-the-Hill, who arranged for their preservation at Oakham.”

The Stamford Mercury, 8th February, 1957.

The Stamford Floral Arrangement Society (now more informally known as Stamford Flower Club) was formed in October 1956 and is still thriving today. You may have seen some of their wonderful ‘flower bombs’ around the town and at the hospital roundabout.

“Floral displays in church.

Demonstration at Stamford.

Bunches of flowers about a room make it look bright and cheerful, but even better effects can be obtained if rather than bunching the flowers they are properly arranged. Masses of colourful blooms are not necessary if due consideration is paid to the style and background of the arrangement as a lot of women are learning.

Since its formation in OCtober, membership of the Stamford Floral Arrangement Society has grown steadily, and at Monday’s monthly meeting of the Society in the Darby and Joan-hall about 120 ladies and two gentlemen gathered for a demonstration of church decorations by Miss Alexander, of the Julia Clements’ School, Chelsea.

THE BACKGROUND

Miss Alexander told her audience that for festive occasions it helped to have a stone wall background, otherwise it meant creating a background of foliage.

Most churches being rather dark, it was better not to use colours like blue or mauve, yellow and white being preferable. Having decided on the outline, it should be worked in remembering to keep the biggest and predominant colours for the centre. It was important not to make a flat-fronted display, but to bring flowers out over the side.

As she talked the demonstrator was working on types of displays, emphasising her points.

She said that when decorating for a wedding, it was advisable to use a colour that the bridesmaids would be wearing, and also the colour of the altar cloth.

FIVE FLOWERS

In one vase display, Miss Alexander used only five flowers, with a background of green foliage. ‘Never have enormous displays which detract the eye from the cross, which is the centre of the alter,’ she said.

Miss Alexander offered a number of tips such as working with the vases only two-thirds full of water, and not using flowers which shed their pollen and leaves all over.

At the Society’s next meeting, on March 11, members are invited to take along vases and flowers, and make displays which Mrs. Woolstencroft of Peterborough will inspect. She will offer any advise she may have.”

The Stamford Mercury, 15th February, 1957.

Following last week’s pledge by Stamfordian vigilantes to stop the bull running, the Mercury was pleased to report that no recurrence of this practice was seen.

“Friday last. the anniversary of the ancient and disgraceful bull-running at Stamford, passed over without the introduction of any bull into the town, and with a full observance of the pledge given to the magistrates by a large number of respectable inhabitants, that they would perambulate the streets, and present any breach of order. Friday and Saturday passed over quietly. Thus a large expense for the usual provision of special constables and other arrangements was saved to the rate-payers; and all parties now congratulate themselves on the abolition of a nuisance, and the redemption of the town from the discredit of a savage and odious practice, which afforded no real ‘sport’ to any body, but was continued only from a spirit of opposition to civilisation. The few persons miscalled ‘respectable’ who have covertly abetted outrage, are now ashamed to be known as the isolated friends of barbarism, and will soon merge in the great mass of society in Stamford who have set their hands to the pledge of peace and order. A great triumph has been obtained; not through the coercion of authority, but through the good sense of the people, left to their own spontaneous means of vindicating the law; and most heartily to we congratulate the town on the happy result.”

The Stamford Mercury, 20th November, 1840.

The Mayor of Stamford and its Magistrates were very happy when a large number of inhabitants of the town pledged to put down this practice, which supposedly began in the reign of King John. However, it seems they were more worried about the cost of the hire of special constables being added to their rates than concerns about the bull or anyone who was injured in the pursuit.

“This day is the anniversary of this illegal and disgusting practice: it is with the greatest pleasure we find that the town is likely to be relieved from the reproach of permitting so silly and dangerous a custom to continue, and that the memorial of nearly 700 inhabitants presented to the Magistrates last week, pledging themselves to use their personal exertions to put it down, will prevent the heavy expense which for three years past has been incurred in the endeavour to vindicate the law. The Mayor received on Sunday the following letter from the Hon. Fox Maule, Under-Secretary of State:-

'Sir,                                                                  'Whitehall, 7th Nov., 1840.
'I have laid before the Marquess of Normanby your letter of the 6th inst, forwarding copies of Resolutions agreed to at a Meeting of the Inhabitants of Stamford, in which they pledge themselves to assist personally in suppressing any attempt to revive the practice of Bull-running, and I am to inform you, that, relying on the Faith of these Resolutions, and on the Determination of the Magistrates to suppress this Riotous Proceeding, Lord Normanby will not send any extraordinary Force to Stamford this year; and he trusts that, by proper exertions on the part of the Magistrates, it may never again be necessary to impose on the Inhabitants of Stamford an expense quite foreign to the Secretary of State's wishes.
                                                            I am, Sir, your obedient Servant,
                                                                                'F. Maule.'
  'The Mayor of Stamford.' 

This letter was printed on Monday for general information; and the Mayor and Magistrates communicated at the Town-hall on that day and Tuesday with many of the principal inhabitants of the borough 0 on whose renewed assurance that they and the other subscribers of the memorial will vigilantly watch against any violation of order, and mark for certain punishment all persons who shall attempt to run a bull in the town on Friday or Saturday, or otherwise to disturb the peace, the Magistrates have resolved not to put the inhabitants to any expense for special constables: they rely on the ordinary police force; and implicitly on the voluntary services of the numerous public-spirited individuals who have signified their determination to prevent the nuisance hitherto practised on the 13th of November; and we cannot entertain a doubt that this confidence will be justified by the result; that the town will be relieved at once from the disgrace of a barbarous custom, – from the heavy expense which has attended late endeavours to suppress it, – and from the apprehension that greatly increased charge will in future years attend a violation of the pledge given to the Government and the local authorities for the honest and honourable observance of the law.”

The Stamford Mercury, 13th November, 1840.

William Enderby lead a good, long life and fathered a huge family, whom he raised without the need for parochial relief. This was the aid given to poor people by the parish and sometime known as ‘out’ or outdoor’ relief (as opposed to ‘in’ relief which was given to those in the poor- or work-house).

“On the 22nd ult., at Binbrook, at the advanced age of 88, Wm. Enderby, labourer. His remains were followed to the grave by 13 of his children: he was grandfather to 101, great grandfather to 72, and his eldest son is grandfather to 38 children. This most respectable patriarchal labourer, during a residence of 70 years in Binbrook, brought up 20 children, (of whom 14 survive him.) by his own industry and frugality, without the aid of parochial relief. As a reward for his exemplary conduct in this respect, the Caistor Agricultural Association, at their annual meeting in 1799, awarded him a premium of five guineas. At another annual meeting, held at Lincoln, as late as the year 1823, a premium of 10l. 15s. was awarded to him, for having brought up the largest family unaided by parochial relief. The deceased was a native of Barnoldby-le-Beck. In his domestic relations, he justified the character of a good father and a kind and affectionate husband, and in his intercourse with the world he exemplified the virtues of sobriety, integrity, and industry, founded upon religious principle. Thirteen of his children are settled in this county, and one son and one granddaughter are resident abroad. The good example of this worthy old man finds a response in his children’s conduct, whose industry is very meritorious, and hitherto has not been unproductive of its reward.”

The Stamford Mercury, 7th April, 1837.

Stamford’s first fire brigade was a private one, owned and run by Gibson’s Foundry (at the east end of Broad St), from about 1852 to 1888. In 1887 the Borough Council decided to form a volunteer fire brigade and built a new engine house on East Street*.

The Town Council purchased the old Hayes carriage works showroom on Scotgate for use as a new fire station and the brigade moved there in May 1925. The brigade moved from there to their new fire station on Radcliffe Rd on 1 st April, 1965.

“The Fireman for December, publishes the following:-

Up to 1887 the fire brigade of Stamford was a very primitive one, and was under the superintendence of engineer T. C. Gibson, but most of the men as well as the engines (two manuals), had seen over 50 years’ service. In 1888 the brigade was reconstituted, and a steam fire engine, escape, and other appliances added to its plant, and put in charge of Mr. G. W. Johnson, who before taking office, went to the headquarters of the Metropolitan brigade for a month’s training in the drill class, and this, with six years’ previous of sea-faring life, enabled him to become an efficient fireman. Mr. G. W. Johnson is second surviving son of the late General Johnson, of Wytham on the Hill, Lincolnshire, was educated at Eton. and went into Green’s service where he served six years. By profession he is a land and estate agent; he is an hon. member of the Federation of French Firemen. In forming his fire brigade he was careful to select men of the same social standing, who are master men in their respective callings in life, and who all pull well together; he is a worker and no kid glove gentleman, and is usually first to a fire, and during the last five years all large fires have been stopped because the brigade has always been on the top of it before very serious damage has arisen. The fire station at Stamford is a very replete building, and is used by the brigade as a club and meeting-house. All uniform and plant is kept at the engine-house with the exception of the large escape, which is within 100 yards, and consists of one steam fire engine, two manuals, one hose track, two reels, and 2300 feet of hose. Two sons of the late T. C. Gibson now serve as engineer and sub-engineer in the present brigade.”

* the building still stands; it was the St John’s Ambulance Station, now refurbished offices. It was designed and built so that it could be converted to stables if the brigade didn’t take off!

The Stamford Mercury, 7th December, 1894.

Spiking people’s drinks is not a modern phenomenon: these accomplished swindlers used the ploy to successfully steal a farmer’s money.

“There was a full attendance of sharpers at the above fair*. One instance of the villainy is the following. About the middle of the day on Tuesday, Mr. Thompson, farmer, of Woolsthorpe, near Colsterworth, was accosted in the street by a man who had the appearance of a horse-dealer, and who, calling him by his name, asked him how he did. Mr. Thompson answered that the enquirer had the advantage of him; on which the fellow said, ‘oh, you must recollect me, I have seen you often at the Red Lion in Colsterworth,’ and her went on to ask about two of three persons in that town. Mr. Thompson, from the familiarity and seeming local knowledge of the man, suffered himself to be persuaded that he really must have met him at Colsterworth, and he accepted the man’s invitation to go to the Red Lion in Stamford, (near where the conversation passed,) to take a glass. Soon after they were seated in the parlour, a younger man joined them, and began to speak of his good fortune in having been left a handsome sum by an old uncle; in confirmation of which assertion, he pulled from his pockets a handful of bank notes and sovereigns (doubtless flash notes and base coin), and swore the he had more money about him than all the other persons in the house put together had; nay, he doubted whether there was another man who could show ten pounds. The fellow who had first accosted Mr. Thompson seemed for a while to take little notice of the young man, but at length modestly said that although he had no pretension that way, he dare say his ‘friend Thompson’ could show as much as the swaggerer. The accomplice said, he would ‘bet ten points that Thompson could not show ten pounds.’ The gammon was so well carried on, that at length Mr. Thompson was induced to go out to his own inn, (the Horns in the Beast-market,) and borrow 10l. of Mr. Roberts his landlord, with a view of accepting the bet at the Red Lion. Whilst he was gone, it is supposed, the swindlers infused some narcotic drug into his glass of liquor, the effect of which was so powerful, that on his drinking it when he returned, he because speedily affected with a stupor; during the time he continued in that state the thieves robbed him of his ten pounds, as well as of some silver which he had in his pockets, and decamped. When Mr. Thompson same a little to himself, he was so ill that it was snot without help that he could get up to his own inn, where he has continued ever since under medial care, seriously indisposed (from the effects of the poison). The swindlers have a present eluded justice.”

The Stamford Mercury, 9th February, 1827.

*Probably the Candlemas Fair – horses, beasts and sheep.

A house warming party ended in disaster in the middle of the Barnack Quarry one rainy November evening.

“A singular accident occurred on Saturday se’nnight at the ancient village of Barnack, near Stamford, the stone of which parish has furnished the material wherewith some of the finest religious edifices of the kingdom have been constructed, – as the abbey of Bury St. Edmund’s, and several others situated even more remotely from the quarry. – Mr. John Thompson, a mason of the village, conceived the strange notion of making the cone or mound formed by the rubbish thrown up in digging one of the pits in the now exhausted stratum of stone, serve as the centre upon which he could build a dwelling-house for himself; and he actually did in the way raise the wall of a circular tenement, having two doors, through which, when he had completed the dome of his house, he picked down and carried away the rubbish within, and thus left standing the wall of shell, of sufficient capacity to afford two good-sized apartments. Such a mode of building had a least the recommendation of novelty; and Mr. Thompson, on the afternoon of the day above-stated, had a large tea-drinking party in his new abode, as a ‘house-warming’. The weather unfortunately proved very bad; and as the materials used in the building were only rough stone and road mortar (without any timber whatever). the heavy rain penetrated through the arch in the course of the evening, and by disturbing the cement, occasioned the whole to fall in about 8 o’clock! Several of the tea-drinkers had taken alarm when the rain poured in, and opened the doors; through one of which the whole party of sixteen persons providentially escaped with their lives when the dome fell, but several of them were severely hurt, particularly the wife of a cottager named Leighton, who had her scalp so severely lacerated that it hung down over her eyes, and has since been a serious surgical case. Had it not been for the precaution of opening both doors, all the party would probably have been killed, for the immense weight of materials which fell completely blocked up on of the door-ways. – Mr. Thompson had intended within a few days to take his family into his extraordinary house; and it is perhaps a fortunate accident that had prevented their taking up their residence in it, as the downfall might have occurred at a time in the night when they would have been in bed, and away from the reach of assistance.”

The Stamford Mercury, 19th November, 1830.

Somebody thought this was an interesting piece about Stamford theatre, because they outlined the item in black ink on the original newspaper saved for the archive!

“The play at Stamford Theatre advertised for Monday last, ‘by desire of the gentlemen who compose the committee for conducting the late election of Lord Thos. Cecil and Col. Chaplin,’ produced an extraordinary scene. The notion had been entertained by some persons that it was possible to pack the whole audience at a public theatre; and that one-twentieth part of the population could prevent every soul of the other nineteen parts from obtaining admission to the house! Upon this opinion it was really attempted to act; and one of the Aldermen of the borough (Mr. Thos. Mills) actually gave into the custody of constables who were in attendance, the first individual (a young man named Buck) who, not being a partisan of the political interest to which the worthy Alderman belongs, had been unable to obtain a ticket of admittance, but who had paid his money at the door, and had passed into the theatre, where he was quietly seated when he was seized and dragged out. This circumstance occasioned a riot amongst an immense crowd of persons who were waiting at the entrance, and great agitation was produced within the theatre. The mob at length tore away the large folding doors at the principal entrance (leading to the boxes and the pit), and carrying them down to the town bridge, threw them into the river Welland. The gallery door of the theatre was also forced open, and many persons obtained admittance to that part of the house without making any payment. The manager (Mr. Manly), from the stage, stated his inability to preserve order, and even hinted at danger to the ladies in the house, – some of whom, on his suggestion, got over the boxes , and took seats on the stage for safety! This proved to be a very unnecessary alarm: no personal violence was offered by the intruders; though, from conflicting party cries, great part of the play and farce passed in dumb show, and the entertainment of the night was sadly disturbed.

At the close, the ladies who were in the house were safely escorted from it, and the popular excitement passed off in loud condemnation of the bad judgement and overweening notion which had suggested the possibility of an exclusive and invidious appropriation of a place of licensed public amusement. – An application to the Court of King’s Bench, it is stated, will be made on the subject of the extraordinary seizure and confinement which led to the irritation and tumult of the night.”

The Stamford Mercury, 17th September, 1830.

Following last week’s report of the demolition of a beautiful old arch, A sixth-former from Stamford School wrote to the Editor to express her anger. (Stamford was to become the first conservation area in 1967.)

“Sir – it was with great delight that I noticed the Gothic arch discovered on the Stamford School site where demolition is in progress, but I was horrified and disgusted to see the work of demolition continue and the arch razed to the ground.

There is little enough, indeed, in Stamford to remind us of the beauty of the old town and these reminders consist mainly of little brass plaques, informing one that ‘this was the site of so-and-so.’ Now this, the first discovery of note for many years in Stamford, has been shamefully pulled down within 48 hours of its being first uncovered.

RAVAGING ARMIES

We deplore the ignorance, the stupidity of ravaging armies who sacked some of the finest churches in the country, amongst which armies we find the Lancastrians who burnt down the Church of the Holy Trinity, the site of which is in St. Paul’s Street opposite Brazenose Lane.

In my opinion the arch was part of this church and my theory is substantiated by two main points. In the first place the church whose remainder now constitutes Stamford School chapel, was demolished (in peace) because its existence was not thought necessary. Surely no-one would have been careless enough to leave one large arch and wall standing? Then concerning the Church of the Holy Trinity, very seldom is it possible to burn completely a strong, stone building like a church. Generally something remains – if only an arch. This Gothic arch, then, as the last part of the Holy Trinity Church still left standing, was of even greater interest and value particularly when, for centuries, it was believed that the church had been entirely destroyed.

IGNORANT

In demolishing it, Stamford School – a seat of learning one should imagine – can only be classed with the ignorant pillagers who burnt down the rest of the church.

I believe plans had already been drawn up for the flats which I understand are to be built on the site, but surely the discovery of this arch was far more important? What do a couple of hundred pounds matter where a piece of ancient England is concerned? There must be many people who would willingly have contributed to this cost in order to save the arch. I, for one, would have given my last penny to save and restore it.

The arch could even have been preserved without spoiling Stamford School’s building plans. It would have been possible, surely, to move it to another place, perhaps onto council property or even a small corner of the school grounds?

BELONGED TO GOD

It cannot be denied, too, that this arch was part of a church and as such, it was not within the power of the school authority to order its demolition; it was the property of God equally as much as other Stamford churches.

I fully realise that it is now too late to save this particular relic of the old town but let it be a lesson to all in future. It is for the Borough Council to prevent a recurrence of this wilful destruction and Stamford School to preserve and not destroy such relics which may happen to be on their land.

BRENDA M. SMITH

Sixth Form, High School, Stamford.”

The Stamford Mercury, 21st November, 1958.