Mercuriosities

‘The old tunes are the best’, so they say, but some of these chimes rung from churches in Stafford and Stamford do not sound at all familiar. It’s a shame we don’t hear them so much nowadays.

“The Merry Church Bells, – In the Staffordshire Advertiser of last week, there is an account of the chimes newly fitted up in the venerable tower of St. Mary’s, Stafford, and a list is given of the tunes adapted to each day.  On Sunday, a psalm tune;  Monday, ‘Life let us cherish,’ Tuesday, ‘My lodging is on the cold ground;’ Wednesday, ‘There is nae luck about the house;’ Thursday, ‘The Harmonious Blacksmith;’ Friday, ‘We won’t go home till morning;’ and Saturday (being market-day), ‘Oh, dear, what can the matter be?’ – In the venerable church of St. Mary’s at Stamford, the chimes play two psalm tunes alternately on Sundays; on Monday, ‘General Toast;’ Tuesday, ‘Tight Little Island;’ Wednesday, ‘Grammachre  Molly;’ Thursday, ‘My lodging is on the cold ground;’ Friday, ‘God save the Queen;’ and Saturday, ‘Highland Laddie.’ – We have often heard it remarked that the Stamford chimes are not excelled by any in England.”

The Stamford Mercury, 27th October, 1848.

For passengers on the 14.10 from Birmingham to Norwich, via Stamford, it was not a very nice Saint Valentine’s day. The train came off the track just near the bridge over the A1.

“BRITISH Rail launched an enquiry on Wednesday to find out what casued a passenger train to veer off the track just outside Stamford.

Disk was falling on Tuesday evening as four carriages of the 14.25 Birmingham to Norwich service were derailed a mile west of Stamford station at the A1 rail bridge near the Ketton turn-off at Tinwell.

Shaken passengers reported ‘a horrible crash’ as the train made an emergency stop and the rear carriages of the six-copach train left the track.

It was said to have been doing 50 mph before it finished up at an angle.

Ambulances raced to the scene, and emergency lines were set up for anxious relatives of the passengers to telephone for news.

But miraculously non e of the travellers were hurt, and sub-officer Albert Exton, of the Stamford Fire Brigade said they kept their heads and didn’t panic.

Most of the passengers were walking along the line. ‘They were quite jovial,’ he said.

~Simon Crewe (17), of Winsover Road, Spalding, a junior apprentice in the Army on leave, said: ‘The engine cut and it just slid. It was grinding and shaking. It stopped quickly – the brakes were on straight away. I assumed it was ice on the track.

‘Bang’

Nicholas Sandford (19), of Knossington near Oakham, said: ‘There was a sharp bang. It was like if you go over a sleeping policeman on the road too fast.’

Adrian Gates (25), of Sudbourne, Suffolk, was in the last but one coaoch: ‘We saw some shingle being thrown up from the track, it shuddered a bit and it tilted and stopped. I thought the thing was going to go right over.’

Mrs Minifred Lissimore, of Norwich, in the first coach; ‘I have hurt mu arm a bit, it threw me forward on to the table. I’m just thankful no one else was hurt.’

‘Shocked’

Mrs Philippa Sykes (59), of Herefordshire, in one of the rear coaches: ‘It was a pretty terrifying experience.’

Miss Lesley Benstead (22), of Norwich: ‘I was sitting on one side and I ended up on the other side on top of a lady. I was thrown along the seat and across the gangway. I’m a bit shocked still.’

Some passengers walked to Stamford Station, but most waited in the two carriages still on the line for a train from Peterborough to pick them up.

They were given tea at Peterborough station before being put back on their way.

British Rail said later that a broken rail could have caused the accident, as could problems caused by the recent greezing conditions.

‘We are going to do a scientific study of the track as well as the coasssssches,’ said a BR spiokesman.

‘It would be wrong to speculate that it has been the weather, but that certinly has been taken into consideration.’

Three fire appliances from Stamford and one from Bourne attended and 13 firemen helped passengers out of the coaches.

By Wednesday morning all the coaches had been put back on the rails and were being removed from the site.

Single-line working was in operation and there were some delays.

Services were expected to [be] back to normal by Wednesday evening.”

The Stamford Mercury, 14th February 1986.

An exciting antiquity of archaeological interest was found by road-menders in St.Martin’s lane, Lincoln. It was part of a quern – a handmill used to grind corn as long ago as Saxon times.

“In reducing to a level the high-crowned road of St. Martin’s lane, the work men have discovered a portion of a domestic utensil of very high antiquity – the quern or handmill which in bygone ages was an indispensible requisite to the household gear. It is the upper stone of the primitive mill which has been found: unfortunately it is broken into five pieces, but all the pieces have been found. It is circular, and about a foot in diameter. At the edges are four square holes answering to the cardinal points (so to speak), so that two cross lines drawn from these points would form four right angles in the centre. In these holes perpendicular rods of iron were undoubtedly fastened, and these terminated in two cross wooden shafts, whose four arms formed the leverage of this simple adaptation of mechanical skill to the necessities of life. The centre shaft would of course be fixed in the bottom stone, and would terminate in the centre of the cross handles to keep the upper stone steady. This upper stone has a raised circular ridge on the upper surface, to keep the corn from sliding off; and from this ridge there is a fall to the centre, to let down the corn : the under surface is concave; consequently the upper surface of the under stone would be convex, and so the meal would gradually be forced outward, and would fall into a receiver beneath. The grit of the stone is very peculiar: its like is to be found in none of the Lincoln strata; and it had evidently been selected for the peculiar pupose to which is was devoted on account of its alternation of hard particles and cellular spaces, as a surface of the kind now obtained by chipping. That this simple relic of an age long preceding the age of steam-mills belongs to the Saxon period, there can be little hesitation in believing : St. Martin’s church, close by which it was found, is reported to occupy the site of one of the earliest temples of christianity. The Pembroke library once contained a curious medal, with an inscription purporting that it was struck by the prepositus ox chief magistrate of the Saxon city, in honour of the tutelar saint (Martin), to whom was dedicated one of the principal churches : this church remained in the Royal patronage till the Conqueror granted it to Remigius. St. Martini’s is still parcel of the cathedral. Upon the re-building of the Saxon church, the site would not be likely to be lowered, and therefore it is justifiable to assume that this ancient quern had been buried since the days of our Saxon forefathers.”

The Stamford Mercury, 17th September, 1847.

A fierce hurricane hit Stamford on 16th September, 1847 and the wind caused considerable damage. One casualty was an ancient oak tree.

“The wind blew a perfect hurricane yesterday (Thursday) between twelve at noon and two o’clock, and did considerable mischief to several windows in Stamford and the neighbourhood. In the early part of the morning, the roof of Hengler’s circus on St. Peter’s Hill was displaced; and shortly before one o’clock in the afternoon damage of a more serious character was occasioned. A gigantic walnut tree, believed to be more than two centuries old, which stood at the bottom of the Castle-hill, in a paddock adjoining the sheep-market occupied by messrs W. and J. Wright, ironmongers, was torn up by the roots, and fell with a tremendous crash across the street leading to the newly-made road (now the Great North Road) in the meadows. The lower part of the trunk burst down Messrs Wright’s wall, and the top part forced off a portion of the wall opposite and nearly destroyed a hovel on the premises of Mr. Wright Waterfield, sadler. A wagon drawn by three horses, belonging to Mr. Rt Simpson, of Little Casterton, was passing along the road at the time: the fore horse, as if by instinct, became restive at the moment the roots of the tree were parting from the soil, and dashed forward; the second horse likewise took the alarm, and both fortunately broke away from the shaft-horse: the last poor animal was crushed beneath the arms of the falling tree, and so dreadfully injured that it was necessary to kill it immediately that it could be reached. The driver escaped by running to the head of the fore horse when that animal became restive. Had the wind blown from the north, and thus forced the tree upon the adjoining house, it is probably there would have been a sacrifice of human life. The passage to St. Martin’s was totally obstructed; but by the activity of the police and some carpenters employed to saw off the branches of the tree, the stoppage of the thoroughfare was not for so long a time as to cause any serious inconvenience to travellers.”

The Stamford Mercury, 17th September, 1847.

The Great Exhibition, as it was commonly known, took place in Hyde Park from May to October, in 1851. It was the creation of Prince Albert and Henry Cole.

“Model of Building for the Exhibition of all nations in 1851. – Mr. Turner, the contractor for the elegant new iron roof of the Lime-street railway station at Liverpool, exhibited last week at that station to a number of gentlemen invited by note from Mr. Graham, secretary of the Liverpool committee of the above important exhibition, a large and beautiful model, from his works in Dublin, of his proposed plan of erections for the great exhibition of the arts, manufactures, and inventions of all nations, which is on its way to be submitted to Prince Albert, and represents iron in toto, is built of wood, and its exterior is carried out in the minutest details with great neatness and accuracy, one inch to represent 10 feet in the proposed real building being the scale adopted. It is proposed that the whole structure should be in the Green-park, and that the present marble arch, erected by George IV., and which cost 70,000l., should be appropriated, as it stands, as the ‘Royal Entrance Gate’ from Piccadilly. The area within the boundary line of the propsed works comprises 25 acres; in addition to which there are two flanking buildings, covering two acres more. These latter buildings (forming two parallel sides of the outer quadrangle), are each 1020 feet long, byt 40 feet wide, and two stories high – the upper parts for the fine arts, the lower parts for the committee rooms, &c. Midway in each of these flanks stands a circular building, dome roofed, and intended for refreshment-rooms. The diameter of each of these is 125- feet. The rooms are all of corrugated iron and glass. The main central building consists of several oblong ranges, disposed in nearly a square, and are peculiarised by segmatical roofs of corrugated iron and huge sheets of glass, forming continuous openings, and by four circular corner buildings rising to a great height, and one large building of the same form in the centre, all of them with cupola roofs. The centre one is (to the top of the dome) 200 feet in height, and, with a colossal statue of Atlas with the world on his back at the top, the whole elevation is 260 feet. The other four correspond, and being 220 feet, bear figures and flags, representing respectively Europe, Asia, Africa and America. The diameter of the centre dome is 200 feet; and (as are the others) it is outwardly surrounded at its base by a balustraded walk, from which extensive views may be obtained. The main central buildings are ranged in parallel, and across the frontage sides, with a wide space between them. The central range is 60 feet by 200 feet; and the other two lateral ranges are 160 feet by 175 feet. Each of these is 600 feet in length, and the surface of superficial glass in the roof of one of them will be three acres. The first range of building is proposed for engine work and machinery; the centre one (600 long and 200 feet wide, which is divided into two by the central circular building), for miscellaneous articles; and the further one for agricultural specimens, implements, &c. From the central dome a comprehensive view of all that is to be seen or done below may be obtained. In the rear of the quadrangle, there are two square object towers, for working steam engines, consuming or preventing the smoke from the buildings, supplying steam for working models &c. A temporary and very rude building for the exhibition would probably cost at least 50,000l., and a few yearly exhibitions would bring a succession of the same expenditure on each occasion: Mr. Turner, therefore, proposes a permanent establishment of art, and in the interregnums between national exhibitions might be profitably appropriated as botanical gardens, theatres, lecture-rooms, museums, &c.”

The Stamford Mercury, 18th January, 1850.

Russia said it needed some money to complete its railway from Petersburgh to Moscow, but people were suspicious that the Bear was building up funds in case of war.

“Russia is in the English Money Market, to negotiate a loan of five millions and a half, at the rate of four and a half per cent., to be liquidated by annual instalments in the course of fifty years! The Czar has sagaciously chosen his time for asking the aid of British capitalists. Money, just now, is ‘dirt cheap,’ and able to command scarcely half the interest which Russia offers. The security, too, for a foreign one, is generally looked upon as good. The temptation, therefore, is unusually strong to comply with the desire of the northern despot. On his part, there is a seeming deference to the commercial and pacific principles which have taken so tenacious a hold upon the British public. He is silent on the subject of war: he wishes to ‘complete a railroad between Petersburgh and Moscow.’ He thus appears to be engaged in developing the resources of his vast empire, and in forwarding the civilization of his semi-barbarous subjects. What philanthropist, what advocate of peace, can come between his and the capitalists of this country, to denounce the transaction, as favoring the objects of despotism? The bear has cunning as well as strength; and, we trust, public opinion, at the call of Mr. Cobden, will utter as loud a protest against the hypocrisy of Russia, as it did last autumn against the impudence of beggared Austria. The assertions of the member for the West Riding of Yorkshire, respecting the very limited pecuniary resources of the Russian empire, notwithstanding the exaggerated statements of its vast wealth which had found general credence, are now proved to have been well founded. Russia cannot complete her railroad to Moscow without obtaining a loan from foreigners for that purpose. Her treasury-chest, then, could never have been very abundantly supplied. And such cash as it contained had already been expended in the efforts made last year, and made successfully, to crush Hungarian independence. The overflowings of British industry and enterprise are now called for, to replenish the coffers which have been exhausted by a policy as odious to our sympathies as it was detrimental to our commercial interests. Russia squanders all her available wealth in trampling upon what we most revere, and in destroying what would have been highly beneficial to our trade, and then asks us to ward off from her the embarrassing consequences of her own wilful and wayward imperiousness.”

The Stamford Mercury, 18th January, 1850.

When a tramp appeared before the magistrates, his clothing was commented on by the local M.P.. The magistrate clearly knew his ‘Hamlet‘: the hero calls his Uncle ‘A King of Shreds and Patches, indicating that he is not a true king, having murdered Hamlet’s father and usurped the throne.

Had this story been about forty years earlier, he could have been referring to Nanki Poo in Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘The Mikado’ – the ‘Wand’ring Minstrel’ – a ‘thing of shreds and patches’.

“Robt. Miller, a tramp, who passed the night of Saturday the 5th inst. in the Sleaford Union workhouse, took him before the magistrates at Sleaford on the following Monday, when R. A. Christopher, Esq., M. P., adjudged him to be committed to Falkingham house of correction for 14 days’ hard labour, and directed that the fragments might be stitched on calico and put together, so that on his next appearance in public he will be very much like ‘a thing of shreds and patches’.”

The Stamford Mercury, 11th August, 1848.

The Duchess of Glouncester was obviously a keen country-woman, and clearly a safari in the wilds of Kenya held no fear for her.

“The vision of the Duchess of Gloucester, clad in slacks, khaki blouse and topi, perched in a shelter on tree-tops at night, watching big game come from the jungles in East Africa to drink in the pools, is in strange contrast to her dainty appearances in this country. Since she arrived in Kenya she has accompanied the Duke on two shooting expeditions and has spent several nights on safari. While the Duke has been shooting, especially in search of the rarer types of antelopes, the Duchess has been busy with her sletch-book, for she possesses artistic talents above the average. She has already held two exhibitions of her pictures of Kenya Colony and landscapes around her old Northamptonshire home, Boughton House, at a West End gallery. Some of her water-colours adorn the rooms at Boughton House and the homes of members of her family.

While the Duchess is away, Queen Mary is acting on her behalf in giving advice concerning the final touches to the re-decoration and furnishing of Barwell Castle, which the Duke purchased recently. The Duke and Duchess are expected to take up their resicdence there two months hence.

Contrary to expectation, the Duke will continue to hunt from Melton Mowbray, where his stud of hunters is still being kept, but with the easy transport facilities that exist to-day both the Duke and Duchess are likely also to be seen out with the Fitzwilliam and Lord Burghley’s Hounds, this season, as the Duchess shares her husband’s zest for the chase.”

The Stamford Mercury, 30th September, 1938.

This poor gorilla was clearly frightened and confused, but he was brave enough to pelt his would-be arresters with potatoes! We wonder if the marvellous Guy (late of London Zoo) would have done the same in that situation?

“According to the Paris letter of the Daily Telegraph a gorilla has been arrested in Paris. The animal appeared to be doing sentry duty in front of one particular house. He strode solemnly backwards and forwards, walking erect, and turning sharply when at the end of his beat. When a attempt was made to secure him he suddently lost his temper, tried to bite the bystanders, then pelted them with potatoes, which he seized from a neighbouring greengrocer’s shop. Two policemen came upon the scene, and inquired in the house for the owner of the gorilla, but no one claimed the animal. The representatives of authority then solemnly marched the anthropod, who walked erect between them like a man, off to the police-station, where they reported that they had found a prisoner causing an obstruction in a public thoroughfare. The constables, impressed by the half-human appearance of the animal had serious doubts whether he ought not to be duly charged with the offence; but the officer, overruling their objections, had the gorilla conveyed to the pound.”

The Stamford Post, 14th March, 1902.

After being requisitioned during the Second World War and having attracted huge death duties, the 7^th Earl Lonsdale sold every fixture and fitting of Lowther Castle and it became an empty shell. However, it has been restored and is now a popular tourist attraction.

“It has been said that Lord Lonsdale can never forget the happy years he and his wife spent in Lowther Castle, the ancestral home in Westmoreland which now stands deserted. Although he now has to live at Stud House, Oakham, with typical Lonsdale spirit he has thought of an original way to be reminded daily of the castle. He has a flower sent for his buttonhole from the Castle gardens every day. Even when he went to Paris recently during the Royal visit he had his flower sent to him daily by aeroplane.”

The Stamford Mercury, 30th September, 1938.