"Literary Links" - Mr Scrooge

 "Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

St Mary de Crypt, Gloucester

The Church of St Mary de Crypt in Gloucester is the burial spot for James “Jemmy” Wood (1756-1836) - one of four ‘misers’ claimed as the inspiration for Charles Dickens’ well known character Ebenezeer Scrooge.  The four skinflints are:

• Contestant number one was Gabriel de Graaf a cruel19th century gravedigger from the Netherlands who disappeared one Christmas Eve and resurfaced years later a reformed man.
• Our second contestant is the Londoner John Elwes (1714-1789) who was orphaned at an early age, and inherited around £100,000 from his father's estate.  Years later his rich uncle bequeathed £350,000 to him (1763) and he acquired over 100 London properties.  Despite his huge wealth he was frugal to the extreme looking more like a poverty stricken debtor than a man of means. 
• The next contestant is a generous Edinburgh merchant called Ebenezer Lennox Scroggie (1792-1836).   Their story goes that in 1841 Dickens was lecturing in the city and visited the Canongate Kirk graveyard where he saw Ebenezer's tomb describing him as a - "meal man" referring to his trade as a corn merchant.  Dickens mistakenly read it as "mean man". Two years later (1843) Ebenezer Scroggie a "mean man" was resurrected by Dickens as Ebenezer Scrooge.  This version is disputed as no more than an urban legend. 
• And finally, Gloucester’s contestant was our very own James “Jemmy” Wood (1756-1836), owner of the Gloucester Old Bank and possibly Britain’s very first millionaire.  He is buried here in St Mary de Crypt.   He was nationally renowned for his stinginess, and Dickens actually mentions “Jemmy Wood of Gloucester” in Our Mutual Friend.  

  

  James 'Jemmy' Wood

Maybe Dickens did a bit of cut and paste editing from all of these contestants to create his  wonderful character:

“Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. ….External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he…”

St Mary de Crypt

However, our James Wood from Gloucester is also claimed to influence another of Dickens’ novels – Bleak House.

Wood’s will was very obscure which resulted in years of legal wrangling over who was entitled to his remaining £900,000.  The court case dragged on for so long that most of the funds disappeared in legal fees.   In the preface to Bleak House Charles Dickens explained “At the present moment there is a suit before the Court which was commenced nearly twenty years ago…”     In Bleak House the very first chapter introduces us to the court case of Jarndyce vs Jarndyce which,  

“…drones on. This scarecrow of a suit has, in course of time, become so complicated that no man alive knows what it means. …. Innumerable children have been born into the cause; innumerable young people have married into it; innumerable old people have died out of it. Scores of persons have deliriously found themselves made parties in Jarndyce and Jarndyce without knowing how or why; whole families have inherited legendary hatreds with the suit. The little plaintiff or defendant who was promised a new rocking-horse when Jarndyce and Jarndyce should be settled has grown up, possessed himself of a real horse, and trotted away into the other world. Fair wards of court have faded into mothers and grandmothers; a long procession of Chancellors has come in and gone out; the legion of bills in the suit have been transformed into mere bills of mortality; …but Jarndyce and Jarndyce still drags its dreary length before the court, perennially hopeless.”

This is an excerpt from the tour Gloucester City Tour - Part Two which explores the streets around the Cathedral.  The full tour is found on  www.obelisktours.co.uk

"Literary Links" - Samuel Johnson in Oxford

"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

·         Samuel Johnson’s (1709-1784) student days at Pembroke College in Oxford were cut short due to a shortage of funds.  He said, “Ah, Sir, I was mad and violent… I was miserably poor and I thought to fight my way by my literature and my wit: so I disregarded all power and authority.”   He was devastated at having to leave, but found his life’s calling as a writer.  His most notable work was A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) - a massive undertaking which took him nine years.  It would be another 150 years before the Oxford English Dictionary was introduced to take its place. 

This is an excerpt from the tour Oxford’s Noble and Great Ones - Part 1  which explores around the southern part of Oxford.  The full tour is found on www.obelisktours.co.uk

"Literary Links" - London is hell !!

"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

The southern bank of the River Thames became a real den of vice and dissent.  The outcasts from the city gravitated to this area – some by choice to rub shoulders with other criminals and religious dissenters and others by force to spend time in squalid prisons like the Clink.

The Welsh Poet Tomas Prys (1564-1634) wrote a charming little poem called ‘London is Hell’ in which he compares Wales to Heaven and London as hell.   In his description he mentions these foul Southwark prisons by name and talks of the destitute inmates whose souls have been sucked out of them.

“there was no fear of hell but one: it is London”

A similar comparison was made by the poet Percy Shelley (1792-1822) who begins his poem Peter Bell the Third with the lines:

“Hell is a city much like London -  

A populous and a smoky city”

In another poem Shelley repeats this hell like theme with: 

“You are nowIn London, that great sea, whose ebb and flowAt once is deaf and loud, and on the shoreVomits its wrecks, and still howls on for more.”

This is an excerpt from the tour London River Walks - South Bank which explores the southern bank of the River Thames.  The full tour is found on  www.obelisktours.co.uk

"Literary Links" - John Ruskin in Oxford

"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

John Ruskin (1819-1900) attended Christ Church College, Oxford as an undergraduate and like many of his fellow students came from a privileged background.  He showed early signs of talent even before he arrived here.

Christ Church College, Oxford

His influence was enormous.  He became an accomplished poet, writer, artist and critic and an invaluable patron to the arts.   His thoughts on social issues were often ahead of their time and continue to inspire today. For instance, his book Unto This Last (1860) inspired Mahatma Gandhi who said, “I determined to change my life in the light of this book.  My belief is that I discovered some of my deepest convictions reflected in this great book of Ruskin’s…”

Ruskin was a generous benefactor to Oxford and founded The Ruskin School of Drawing in 1871 using the rooms and art in the Ashmolean Museum.  It continued there for a century where it was renamed The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in 1945.  In 1975 it found its new home here on the corner of the High Street and Merton Street.  In 2014 it became known as the Ruskin School of Art.  

This is an excerpt from the tour Oxford’s Noble and Great Ones - Part 1  which explores around the southern part of Oxford.  The full tour is found on www.obelisktours.co.uk

"Literary Links" - John Betjeman in Oxford

"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

John Betjeman

·John Betjeman (1906-1984) came from a middle class family selling furniture.  As a boy he was taught briefly by T. S. Eliot and gained a love for words.  In Oxford his tutor was C.S. Lewis which sounds like a match made in heaven – but neither thought highly of the other.  But… supported by his travelling companion – a teddy bear called Archibald Ormsby-Gore – and armed with his love of the English language he acquired a growing appreciation of architecture and fell in love with Oxford.  Academically he failed, but his subsequent career was a delight.  He wrote guidebooks, co-founded the Victorian Society, composed poems, campaigned to save buildings, and became a television personality. 

This is an excerpt from the tour Oxford’s Noble and Great Ones - Part 1  which explores around the southern part of Oxford.  The full tour is found on www.obelisktours.co.uk

"On the Road" - Lest We Forget

"On the road..." is a series of posts about our Discovery of Britain's highways and byways.  Whether it be some family fun, a surprising connection or just a beautiful spot we want to share our love for this country with you.  

Today we visit Ledbury's War Memorial

This Sunday is Remembrance Sunday and around the country thousands will pay their respects to those who died protecting our freedom.   Today we visit just one such memorial to conduct an exercise of more detailed remembrance.

Opposite the gateway to the alms houses is a war memorial commemorating Ledbury’s dead from both World Wars.  On the lower First World War section are some charming mosaics of an angel, a seaman, and a soldier.   The upper Second World War section adds an airman. 

It is easy to walk on by our country’s war memorials without considering what they represent.  Let me give you a small sampling of what I mean.  On the World War One Section you will find:

Thomas Andrews – a 42 year old bricklayer.    Frank Davies: a 21 year old footman.  Leonard Hathaway: 21. Baker.    Victor Henley:  19. Grocer’s assistant.   William Ranford: 25. Fruit farmer.  And John Watts 23. Bank clerk. 

It is easy to just see names and forget that they all had simple lives in a small, English market town.  

The youngest was 18 years old.  The oldest 55, with an average age of 26. 

It is easy to forget they were husbands, fathers and sons.  21 were married, 58 were single -a generation of young men wiped out. 

For instance:  David Evan Owens aged 34 was a monumental mason and had a six year old daughter.

Walter Bradley was just 19 - unmarried with his whole life ahead of him.   His step-brother Thomas Pritchard aged 26, was married and died two years later. 

Benjamin Chadd aged 33 and Robert Chadd aged 19 were the oldest and youngest sons of James and Emma Chadd.  Both sons were killed at sea - one in 1914 and the other in 1918.   A third son, Walter Clifford Chad aged 27, died in Egypt. 

These men are all buried near to where they fell – scattered around the world in Turkey, France, Italy, Israel, in Flanders fields and some, like James Theakstone, aged 20, are lost at sea – he was aboard a ship mined off the coast of Ireland killing 350.

Only three of these World War One names made it home, but even they did not survive long.  Ledbury cemetery contains the graves of Frank Walters (19) who died of his wounds in England along with Harold Wilks (27) and Archibald Chadd. 

A similar exercise could be done with the World War Two names, but the message would be the same:  these are not just names engraved on a pretty plaque.  These were very Real people who made a very real sacrifice.   In the words of Laurence Binyon (1914):

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

This is an excerpt from the tour Ledbury which explores this medieval market town.  The full tour is found on www.obelisktours.co.uk

"Literary Links" - Herefordshire Poets

"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

Ledbury is rightly proud of their homegrown poet Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, but she is not the only poet to emerge from Herefordshire's influence.

·         William Langland (1332-1386) was born in Ledbury and wrote the famous medieval poem Piers Plowman (1379), which relates the tale of a man falling asleep on Malvern Hills and dreaming of the true Christian life.   The poem was influential in its day, and was often connected with the 1381 Peasant’s Revolt - though the text seeks reform of the church and society it was not advocating rebellion. 

Robert Frost

·         The American poet Robert Frost (1874-1963) lived in England during 1912 to 1915.  He often went walking around Ledbury with Edward Thomas (1878-1917) who was consistently indecisive about which route they should take.  That inspired Frost to write the poem “The Road Not Taken”…

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

The poem was meant to be playful, but Thomas took it seriously and decided to enlist to fight in World War One.   That road certainly made a difference for two years later he was killed in action leaving a widow and three children.  

John Masefield

  

·         John Masefield (1878-1967) was born in Ledbury where, as a young man, he became acutely aware of the beauty around him and the power of using his imagination to create stories in minute detail.   After the early loss of his parents he joined the navy at age 13, enjoyed living in the "dazzling, beautiful exciting city" of New York at age 17, and returned to live in England at age 19.  After marriage (1903) and fathering two children (1904 & 1910) he rekindled his creative voice and finally found success in 1911 with the release of the narrative poem "Everlasting Mercy".  He had a prolific creative career writing poems, novels, plays and non-fiction.  Some of his poems drew heavily on his childhood such as "Reynard the Fox" describing fox hunting around Ledbury, and "The Widow of Bye Street" - Bye Street being a major street in the town.   In 1930 he was made Poet Laureate.

This poetical tradition along with the nearby Dymock Poets influenced the founding of the annual Ledbury Poetry Festival in 1997 which is held over ten days each July.  It is claimed to be Britain’s largest Poetry Festival.

This is an excerpt from the tour Ledbury which explores this medieval market town.  The full tour is found on www.obelisktours.co.uk

"Literary Links" - Winchester Geese

"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

Brothels were all part of Southwark’s entertainment facilities and surprisingly they were under the stewardship of the Bishops of Winchester whose palace once stood here.  

Remains of  Winchester Palace

The Bishop collected rents or a licensing fee from the pimps or stewhouses.  In 1161 you would have found 22 licensed brothels – Bankside was notorious as a den of vice – and the prostitutes became known as the Winchester Geese.   

Rose Window, Winchester Palace

Shakespeare refers to this unusual alliance in the play Henry VI.  The Duke of Gloucester confronts the Bishop of Winchester about the morality of the church profiting from prostitution. 

Gloucester:  “Thou that givest whores indulgences to sin,I’ll canvas thee in thy broad Cardinal’s Hat,If thou proceed in this, thy insolence…Under my feet I’ll stamp thy Cardinal’s Hat,In spite of Pope or dignities of Church,Here by thy cheeks I’ll drag thee up and down.”
Winchester:  “Gloucester thou wilt answer this before the Pope.”
Gloucester:   “Winchester goose  I cry, a rope! a rope!’…Thee I’ll chase hence, thou wolf in sheep’s array.Out, tawny coats! Out, scarlet hypocrite!

If you caught syphilis or other sexual diseases it would often be referred to as being “bit by a Winchester Goose” or “getting goose bumps”.   Shakespeare makes use of this threat of infection in his play Troilus and Cressida.  The following use of the word “galled” refers to a sore on the skin made very sore or uncomfortable by constant rubbing.

“… but that my fear is this, some galled goose of Winchester would hiss,Till then I’ll sweat and seek about for eases,And at that time, bequeath you my diseases.” 

To Shakespeare’s contemporary audience this reference would have made perfect sense.  

This is an excerpt from the tour London River Walks - South Bank which explores the southern bank of the River Thames.  The full tour is found on  www.obelisktours.co.uk

"Literary Links" - Oscar Wilde in Oxford

"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

·         Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wils Wilde  (1854-1900) found a confidence in Oxford that ignited him.  He was a brilliant student but craved an audience to perform to.  Oxford’s ancient walls had served their preparatory purpose, but now he yearned to break out and please the world.  He became a playwright, novelist, essayist, poet and wit.  Some of his more well known works include The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).  He was prone to shock, and was imprisoned for being homosexual (1895).  He said, “The two great turning points of my life were when my father sent me to Oxford, and when society sent me to prison.”   He continued to love Oxford:

“I envy you going to Oxford: it is the most flower-like time of one’s life.  One sees the shadow of things in silver mirrors.”

 “In spite of the roaring of the young lions at the Union, and the screaming of the rabbits in the home of the vivisect, in spite of Keble College, and the tramways, and the sporting prints, Oxford still remains the most beautiful thing in England, and nowhere else are life and art so exquisitely blended, so perfectly made one.”

This is an excerpt from the tour Oxford’s Noble and Great Ones - Part 1  which explores around the southern part of Oxford.  The full tour is found on www.obelisktours.co.uk

"Literary Links" - London - 'How Green was my... Love Bug'

"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

Quaintly snuggled between the Tate Modern and the Globe Theatre is a surprising row of 18^th Century homes - surprising in that they have even survived on this busy waterfront. 

The ornate plaque on number 49 declares that Christopher Wren (1632-1723) stayed here while working on St Paul’s Cathedral opposite (between 1675-1710), but this is a dubious claim.  We do know that as the head of the Office of Works he had a house in New Scotland Yard near Trafalgar Square.  We also know he went on to have a home near Hampton Court, leased to him by Queen Anne, and a London home in St James’s Street where he died.  The assertion that he lived here at number 49 is not supported, particularly since this building was not built until 1710 – the same year St Paul’s was finished!

However, there is a claim that the plaque once stood on a home east of here which was demolished, and the ceramic plaque was saved and put here.  

Despite debunking the claim for one famous resident number 49 can still lay claim to be the home for five years (1934-1939) of the English Actor and film director Robert Stevenson (1905-1986) and his wife the actress Anna Lee (1913-2004).

Robert Stevenson

  Robert’s name may not be as recognisable as Wrens, but you will instantly know his work.  He directed over 50 movies including King Solmon’s Mines (1937), Mary Poppins (1964), The Love Bug (1968), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), and Herbie Rides Again (1974).  

Anna Lee

Anna Lee was in over 60 films including How Green Was My Valley (1941), The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), The Sound of Music (1965) and in the American soap opera General Hospital.  

This is an excerpt from the tour London River Walks - South Bank which explores the southern bank of the River Thames.  The full tour is found on  www.obelisktours.co.uk

"Literary Links" - Elizabeth Barrett-Browning

"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

Ledbury's Clock Tower and old Library building were constructed in 1892 and are named The Barrett- Browning Institute in honour of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861). 

Mr Edward Moulton Barrett (1785-1857) lived just outside of Ledbury near the village of Colwall.   He was the wealthy owner of Jamaican sugar plantations run by slave labour.   His oldest daughter Elizabeth was cursed with poor health, but found great solace in reading and composing her own poems from an early age – poems which were good enough to be published and acclaimed.    Some of her poems actively opposed slavery – which was an awkward position to be in to advocate the end of your own father’s business. 

In 1844, now 38 years old, she published a volume simply called ‘Poems’.  It caught the eye of a fellow poet Robert Browning (1812-1889) who started corresponding.  Letters turned to love and love turned to marriage.   Her father was horrified at such a match.  He never forgave Elizabeth when she secretly married, and he disinherited her.   His embittered soul was finally laid to rest in Ledbury parish church where a memorial depicts him ascending into the heavens.   It is such a pity that he did not put aside his anger, and forgive and move on. 

Elizabeth’s words influenced other poets like Edgar Allan Poe, and Emily Dickinson.  One of Elizabeth’s most oft quoted poems is:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.

This is an excerpt from the tour Ledbury which explores this medieval market town.  The full tour is found on www.obelisktours.co.uk

"Literary Links" - Wordsworth's Ledbury Bells

"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

Our visit today is the site of St Katherine’s Hospital in Ledbury.  A plan of how the hospital complex would have looked is engraved in the pavement and shows an assortment of hospital and farm buildings including the remaining Chapel, Hall, and almshouses.

St Katherine's Chapel & Hall, Ledbury
The Master's House stands behind this building

The hospital was named after Katherine Audley (1272-1322) the cousin of King Edward II (1284-1327).   Her husband had died and local legend claims she heard the bells of Ledbury ringing without any bell ringers and took it as a sign that she and her attendant Mabel should settle here and establish a hospital for the poor.  William Wordsworth (1770-1850) captured her experience in his poem St. Catherine of Ledbury (1835)   ....

Ledbury bells Broke forth in concert flung adown the dells,
And upward, high as Malvern’s cloudy crest;
Sweet tones, and caught by a noble Lady blest
To rapture! Mabel listened at the side
Of her loved mistress: soon the music died,

And Catherine said, “Here I set up my rest.”
Warned in a dream, the Wanderer long had sought
A home that by such miracle of sound
Must be revealed: --she heard it now, or felt
The deep, deep joy of a confiding thought;
And there, a saintly Anchoress, she dwelt
Till she exchanged for heaven that happy ground.

In fact the hospital was founded in 1232 - some 80 years before Katherine's arrival - by Bishop Hugh Foliot (1155-1234), Bishop of Hereford, but Katherine’s will of 1313 helped it to expand and, quite fittingly, was named after her. 

Master's House during renovation

The Masters House is looking very fresh after its modern refurbishment.  The original timber framed open hall house was erected around 1487 and had additions added in the 16^th, 17^th, 18^th and 19^th centuries.  In recent years (2011-2015) the whole building was protected and hidden away under a huge umbrella of scaffolding and tarpaulin.   Underneath this watertight cocoon the whole place was gutted – over 450 skips of waste were removed!  The roof was stripped of its tiles and the long process of carefully restoring the ancient roof timbers began.   The stripping back to the bare medieval structure revealed some great original features the best of which has to be the fabulous roof which has to be seen from inside to be appreciated. 

 The building now houses Ledbury's public library so is open most days for you to enjoy these timber delights. 

This is an excerpt from the tour Ledbury  which explores this delightful medieval market town.  The full tour is found on www.obelisktours.co.uk

"Literary Links" - Christ Church Authors

"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

Christ Church College in Oxford has its fair share of famous alumni including three notable wordsmiths: Dorothy Sayers, W.H.Auden and Richard Curtis.

·         Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) was born at Christ Church!  Her father, Reverend Henry Sayers was the chaplain and headmaster of the Choir School.  Dorothy returned as a young woman to be educated at Somerville College, and was one of the first women to receive a degree from Oxford.    Dorothy was an avid writer, but is best remembered for her murder mysteries featuring the amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey.

·         Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973), more commonly known as W.H.,  arrived to study biology, but soon switched to English Literature.  A wise move for that is where his future was heading.   With his monocle and cane he wandered Oxford’s streets lapping up the student life, enjoying good food, music, sports and conversation.  He published hundreds of poems, essays and reviews.  Although he eventually settled in America he returned for three weeks each year between 1956-1961 to lecture as Professor of Poetry at Oxford University.

·         Richard Curtis (1956-  ) studied English Language and Literature, and his love of words has entertained us ever since.   Richard met Rowan Atkinson in Oxford drama clubs and they created Blackadder and Mr. Bean.  His pen went on to write or adapt numerous films and TV series including  the Vicar of Dibley,  Spitting Image, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Love Actually and War Horse. 

This is an excerpt from the tour Oxford’s Noble and Great Ones - Part 1  which explores around the southern part of Oxford.  The full tour is found on www.obelisktours.co.uk

"On the Road..." St Oswald's Priory

"On the road..." is a series of posts about our Discovery of Britain's highways and byways.  Whether it be some family fun, a surprising connection or just a beautiful spot we want to share our love for this country with you.  

Today we visit Gloucester

The remains of Saint Oswald's Priory

A small Anglo-Saxon church was built here around 900 AD by Aethelred  (d.911) the Earl of Mercia and his wife, Aethelflaed (d.918)- the daughter of Alfred the Great (849-899).  They dedicated the church to St. Peter. 

Nine years later it was rededicated to Oswald (604-642AD) the King of Northumbria who, during his eight year reign, became the most powerful king in England.  His kingdom stretched down the East of the country through what is now East Yorkshire, Northumberland, Durham, Berwickshire, and East Lothian.  He is credited with helping Christianity spread in the north of England by granting the Holy Island of Lindisfarne for the Bishop to govern and minister.  So, why did Aethelred and Aethelflaed change the church’s name from Peter to Oswald?

Oswald was killed in battle in 642 AD.  He was dismembered, but it took 267 years for all of his body parts to find a peaceful resting place.  One arm went to Bamburgh near Lindisfarne only to be stolen by Peterborough monks, 250 miles south, who took a fancy to this arm joining their fine display of ‘sacred’ relics.  Relics meant pilgrims, and pilgrims meant money.  Peterborough also claimed to have pieces of the Saviour’s swaddling clothes and manger, remains from the five loaves and fishes, remnants of Mary’s cloak,  and bones of Peter, Paul, Andrew and Thomas the Becket.  They guarded Oswald’s precious arm in a specially made tower in case anyone else got the idea of stealing it from them - a classic example of holy relics getting out of hand. 

Oswald’s head and a rib went to Durham Cathedral.  Although a number of other European monasteries wanted to cash in on the action, so there are four other contenders for the keepers of the holy head - Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Netherlands  and Germany. 

Meanwhile, back on the field of battle, a raven is supposed to have carried Oswald’s other arm to a nearby tree.  Thereafter miracles began around that tree and the spring of water nearby and it became known as ‘Oswald’s Tree’.   The area where the rest of him was buried is known today as Oswestry in Shropshire.

Thirty Seven years later these remains were moved 150 miles east of Oswestry to Bardney Abbey (679) where his niece wanted the saintly and miraculous bones of her Uncle Oswald near to her.   His reputation for miracles accompanied him and for the next 230 years he continued to be revered at this Lincolnshire spot. 

But…Lincolnshire was repeatedly under threat from Viking invasions and in 909 AD the much loved remains of Oswald were removed for safety 150 miles south west here to Gloucester.   Although it seems he may have been dispersed a bit further afield as monasteries at Bath, Glastonbury, Hexham, Reading, St. Albans, Christchurch, Tynemouth and York all claimed to have parts of him as well!    This five headed, three armed man is starting to sound more like a mutant than a saintly king.  But here, in Gloucester, most of him was finally laid to rest and both Aethelred and Aethelflaed were buried near him.   

This royal burial spot became overshadowed and side-lined as the new Norman Cathedral began to rise (1089) and St Oswald’s became a humble monastic house for Augustinian canons (1152).  They added a cloister which is marked today by the hedges between the ruin and Archdeacon Street. 

In 1536/37 the priory was one of 5 monastic houses closed in Gloucester and one of 56 in the whole of Gloucestershire during Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries.  It served for a century as a parish church but met its end when it was destroyed during a Civil War siege (1643).  The remains became part of people’s homes until it was finally left just as an ancient monument – a reminder of over 1115 years of history.    

This is an excerpt from the tour Gloucester City Tour - Part One which explores the streets around the Cathedral.  The full tour is found on  www.obelisktours.co.uk

"Literary Links" - Dickens and Fagin

"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.

Charles Dickens

The current Southwark Bridge was opened in 1921 and replaced a Georgian bridge from 1819.  When Charles Dickens was still a boy he regularly crossed this first bridge on his way to visit his father in Marshalsea Prison – a debtor’s prison located half a mile south of this point.  Young Charles was put to work in a blacking factory near to where Charing Cross station is.  One day a work colleague started walking home with him.  Dickens recalled:

“I was too proud to let him know about the prison; and after making several efforts to get rid of him, to all of which Bob Fagin in his goodness was deaf, shook hands with him on the steps of a house near Southwark Bridge on the Surrey side, making believe that I lived there.  As a finishing piece of reality in case of his looking back, I knocked at the door, I recollect, and asked, when the woman opened it, if that was Mr Robert Fagin’s house.”

His colleague is forever immortalised as the lovable rogue of Fagin in Oliver Twist.

This is an excerpt from the tour London River Walks - South Bank which explores the southern bank of the River Thames.  The full tour is found on  www.obelisktours.co.uk

"On the Road..." - Coaching Inns

"On the road..." is a series of posts about our Discovery of Britain's highways and byways.  Whether it be some family fun, a surprising connection or just a beautiful spot we want to share our love for this country with you.  

Today we visit New Inn, Gloucester

 When you arrived in town these coaching inns wanted to attend to your every need – a one stop service station:  bootblacks to clean your shoes, scullions and cooks to take care of your clothes and meals, rooms for you to lay your weary head.  Stables and blacksmiths for your horses, and at posting inns you could hire a post-chaise – a closed, four-wheeled, horse-drawn carriage - in which to continue your journey.  These were the car hire depots or taxi service of their day.   One Gloucester Inn, the Black Spread-Eagle, boasted “Stabling for above an hundred horses...very fine Hay in the stables…and fine grazing grounds.”

Inns were vital hubs in the whole transport network and Gloucester was in a great spot to be sending and receiving coaches from all directions - from London, Cheltenham and Oxford in the east, Wales and Hereford to the west, Bath and Bristol to the south, and Birmingham and Liverpool to the north. 

The inn network provided the ability to change horses at regular intervals allowing you to travel at a fair speed.  Goods wagons would slowly trundle along taking a good four days to reach London – some 105 miles away.  A coach from Gloucester at a gentle pace would reach London in a couple of days.    At a quicker pace in the lighter coaches and a changing of horses every six or so miles you could leave at six in the morning and be in London by eight that evening – a 14 hour trip.    A certain Mr Jones, for a bet of 650 guineas, left The Bell Inn at Gloucester at four in the morning and raced to London in nine hours having changed his horses eight times on route (1802).

The Post Office made arrangements with coaching inns to carry mail along certain routes.  The Post Office provided a coach and an armed guard.  The inns provided the driver and horses.  The fares for the four passengers were an extra bonus in the pocket of the inn keeper. 

Inns like this were important social centres.  They were the best place to get the latest news and gossip as mail coaches and travellers from afar arrived with tall tales, loose tongues and eager ears to soak it all in.  Balls, cockfights, plays, lectures, political debates all found a home in or around these community centres. 

An Innkeeper just outside of the City was proud to declare that she had been “dipping man and beast… in the salt-water” for the past 30 years (1754-1784).  Such dipping revitalized the skin and relaxed those aches and pains and provided another reason to stay in her inn. 

With all of these streams of revenue Landlords were often some of the wealthiest citizens in town. 

By 1455 there were at least 10 inns on the main streets of Gloucester, and by the 1820s around 100 coaches would pass through Gloucester every day. 

In 1854 the final mail coach passed through Gloucester signalling the displacement of these ancient coaching inns to the almighty railways.  This shifted the whole status of these inns from an essential service to an optional place to stay should you fancy lingering in town.   Their heyday was gone.   Most disappeared, but New Inn survived as a wonderful reminder of a time when the horse drawn coach was king of the road. 

This is an excerpt from the tour Gloucester City Tour - Part Two which explores the streets around the Cathedral.  The full tour is found on  www.obelisktours.co.uk