I Never Knew That About the English

by Desconhecido

  ENGLAND’S FIRST POLICE FORCE, THE BOW STREET RUNNERS, formed in 1754, were the brainchild of Henry Fielding and his brother John, when they were both sitting as magistrates at Bow Street in London.

  John Locke

  1632–1704

  THE FATHER OF ENGLISH PHILOSOPHY, JOHN LOCKE, the first English empiricist and libertarian philosopher, who believed that human nature is governed by actual experience rather then theoretical laws, was born in a tiny cottage by the church at WRINGTON, in North Somerset. His ideas on the liberty of the individual, and belief in government by consent rather than by the divine right of either the Church or the aristocracy, greatly influenced Thomas Jefferson and the Founding Fathers of America, and helped to create the framework for the American Constitution.

  It was Locke’s philosophy that ‘the ruling body, if it offends against natural law, must be deposed’, that legitimised the American Revolution.

  ‘All mankind . . . being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.’

  John Locke

  Born in Somerset

  RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH (1744–1817), writer, road-making pioneer and inventor of the caterpillar track, was born in BATH.

  SIR WILLIAM EDWARD PARRY (1790–1855), rear admiral and explorer whose voyages first located the entrance to the elusive Northwest Passage, was born in BATH.

  JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR (1791–1844), founder of the Guardian newspaper, was born in ILMINSTER.

  SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS (1821–1905), founder of the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association), was born in DULVERTON.

  JOHN HANNING SPEKE (1827–64), explorer who discovered and named Lake Victoria, was born in ILMINSTER.

  SIR BENJAMIN BAKER (1840–1907), civil engineer and designer of the Forth Railway Bridge, was born in FROME.

  SIR CYRIL PEARSON (1866–1921), founder of the Daily Express, was born in WOOKEY.

  MARGARET BONDFIELD (1873–1953) one of the first three female Labour MPs and the first female Cabinet member, was born in CHARD.

  SIR ARTHUR C. CLARKE, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, was born in MINEHEAD in 1917.

  JOHN CLEESE, comic writer and actor best known for Monty Python and Fawlty Towers, was born in WESTON-SUPER-MARE in 1939.

  Staffordshire

  HORN DANCE ∗ CROOKED HOUSE ∗ ANCHORS AWEIGH ∗ BRANSTON PICKLE ∗ HIGH HOUSE ∗ BULL TERRIER

  High House in Stafford, the largest remaining timber-framed town house in England.

  STAFFORDSHIRE FOLK

  Sir Stanley Matthews ∗ Cardinal Pole ∗ Phillip Astley ∗ James Wyatt

  ∗ Peter de Wint ∗ Robbie Williams

  Abbots Bromley Horn Dance

  THE HORN DANCE was first performed in the pretty, black-and-white and Georgian village of ABBOTS BROMLEY, at the St Bartholomew’s Day Fair in August 1226. It is THE OLDEST SURVIVING FOLK FESTIVAL IN ENGLAND. Based on an ancient pagan ceremony, in medieval times it marked certain rights and privileges of the townsfolk for hunting, trapping and clearing in Needwood Forest, which belonged to the King and was governed by the strictest rules.

  Today the Horn Dance takes place each year on Wakes Monday, the Monday following the first Sunday after 4 September. The company, which consists of Robin Hood on a hobby horse, Maid Marian, a boy with a bow and arrow, a jester, two musicians and six men wearing reindeer antlers, meets on the village green beside the 14th-century wooden butter cross, and then sets off to dance at various points around the village, finishing up on the lawns of nearby Blithfield Hall, ancestral home of the Bagots.

  When not in use, the antlers, which have been dated to Norman times, are hung on the wall of Abbots Bromley church.

  The Crooked House

  Cum in an av sum hum brewd erl Stop as lung as yom erbul

  At a public called the Siden House Weer the beer runs up the terbul.

  Not far from Dudley, on the road heading west to Wales, as it runs by the Himley Hall estate, there stands a most precarious and remarkable hostelry, surely the only pub in England where you feel tipsy before you even enter. One end of THE CROOKED HOUSE, or Siden House in the local vernacular, has sunk by several feet as a result of subsidence due to mining operations by landowner Sir Stephen Glynne, who removed too much coal from underneath.

  The whole building now leans at an amazing 15-degree angle, the windows and the doors are all haphazard, and visitors find themselves staggering across the sloping floor when making their way to the bar, as if at sea in a bad storm. Inside, the furniture doesn’t match up to the floors or windows, there is a grandfather clock that tilts alarmingly, and if you roll a bottle down one of the tables it turns around and rolls back up again – and that is nothing to do with a pint of mine host’s finest ale.

  Anchors Aweigh

  The hilltop church at NETHERTON, gazing down across the Black Country near Dudley, was witness a century ago to an early chapter in one of England’s most tragic tales. NOAH HINGLEY & SONS of Netherton were the world’s premier makers of anchors, and would later equip the British Grand Fleet with anchors during the First World War.

  On this day, however, the church watched proudly as the firm’s latest and most prestigious project was carefully loaded on to a wagon drawn by 14 horses, and taken away to Dudley. It was the biggest anchor in the world, weighing an astounding 16 tons, and was destined for the biggest ship in the world, the mighty and ‘unsinkable’ TITANIC, pride of the White Star Line. From Dudley the anchor was taken by train to Holyhead and then shipped across to Belfast, where the Titanic was being built. The anchor from Netherton now lies at the bottom of the ocean for, the following year, the Titanic hit an iceberg in mid-Atlantic and sank with the loss of 1,500 lives.

  One of those who died was a son of Staffordshire, the Captain of the ill-fated vessel, EDWARD SMITH, who was born in HANLEY, Stoke-on-Trent, in 1850. Smith remained on the bridge of the Titanic as she sank, leaping into the sea only after the waves had washed her decks clear, but was drawn down into the depths along with his command. The Titanic’s maiden voyage was due to be his final command before retirement.

  Branston Pickle

  Branston Pickle takes its name from the village of Branston, near Burton-on-Trent, where it was first produced by Crosse and Blackwell in 1922.

  Stafford

  The magnificent High House in the county town of Stafford, built in 1595 for the Dorrington family, is THE LARGEST REMAINING TIMBER-FRAMED TOWN HOUSE IN ENGLAND. Charles I stayed here in 1642 on his way to Shrewsbury.

  Staffordshire Bull Terrier

  Bull terriers were Wrst bred in the 17th century by crossing English white terriers with fighting bulldogs. Dog fighting was a popular sport in those days, particularly with the miners and colliers of the Staffordshire Black Country, and the owner of a good fighter could make a lot of money. After dogfighting was made unlawful by the Humane Act of 1835, some breeders started to crossbreed their bull terriers with Dalmatians for showing in the ring. These dogs became known as English bull terriers, and in order to avoid confusion the original bull terriers had the name Staffordshire added, since dogfighting had been so closely associated with the origins of the bull terrier.

  The Staffordshire bull terrier suffers mightily from being mistaken for the American pit bull terrier, which is bred to be more vicious. In fact the ‘Staffy’ is one of the safest and most affectionate breeds of dog – it is the only breed to have the words ‘totally reliable’ in its breed standard, and one of only two breeds, from almost 200 recognised by the UK Kennel Club, to have a specific mention for suitability with children.

  Well, I never knew this

  about

  STAFFORDSHIRE FOLK

  Sir Stanley Matthews

  1915–2000

  STANLEY MATTHEWS was born in HANLEY, Stoke-on-Trent, and grew up to become one of the most renowned English footballers of the 20th century. At the age of 14 he joined his home town football team, Stoke City, straight from school. He stayed with the
Potters for nearly 20 years, interrupted only by his service with the RAF during the Second World War.

  In 1947 he controversially joined Blackpool, where he stayed for another 14 years. In 1953 he gave his most memorable performance in the final of the FA Cup, which has become known as the Matthews Final, when he inspired Blackpool to a last-minute win over Bolton.

  In 1948 he became THE FIRST PLAYER TO WIN THE NEWLY INTRODUCED PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARD, and he was also THE FIRST TO WIN THE INAUGURAL EUROPEAN PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARD in 1956. The following year he became THE OLDEST PLAYER EVER TO PLAY FOR ENGLAND when he played against Denmark in a World Cup qualifier at the age of 42.

  He rejoined Stoke City in 1961 and played his last game in 1965, five days after his 50th birthday, ending a professional career that spanned 33 years and included 84 England caps.

  Stanley Matthews was a brilliant outside-right, known as the ‘Wizard of Dribble’, and his precision passing created goal-scoring opportunities almost out of nothing. He was also known for his fair play, earning another nickname, ‘the First Gentleman of Soccer’, and he did not receive a single booking throughout his long career. In 1964 he was THE FIRST PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLER TO BE KNIGHTED.

  His ashes are buried at the Britannia Stadium, home of Stoke City Football Club.

  Cardinal Pole

  1500–58

  REGINALD POLE was born at STOURTON CASTLE, near Stourbridge. His mother’s father was George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV and Richard III and, as such Pole was the last of the Plantagenet line.

  Pole studied theology at Oxford and travelled widely in Italy. As an important figure in the Church he was approached by Henry VIII, who offered to appoint him as Archbishop of York if Pole would support Henry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Pole refused and went into self-imposed exile in France. Henry took revenge on Pole’s family, throwing his mother, brothers and other relatives into the Tower of London and executing them one by one – a handy way of ridding himself of the remaining Plantagenets, potential rivals for the throne.

  When the Catholic Queen Mary I came to the throne in 1551 Pole, by now a Cardinal, returned to England and was made Archbishop of Canterbury. Over the next two years he presided over Mary’s brutal persecution of the Protestants, which turned England violently against the Roman Catholic Church.

  Cardinal Pole, THE LAST ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, died just hours after his Queen and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral. As part of his legacy he planted what is now ENGLAND’S OLDEST FIG TREE in the courtyard of Lambeth Palace in London.

  Born in Staffordshire

  PHILIP ASTLEY (1742–1814), inventor of the modern circus, was born in NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME.

  JAMES WYATT (1746–1813), architect known for the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, for his neo-Gothic work (Ashridge House, Belvoir Castle, Goodwood House) and for his cathedral restoration work, was born in BURTON CONSTABLE.

  PETER DE WINT, (1784–1849), landscape artist known for his watercolours, was born in STONE.

  ROBBIE WILLIAMS, pop singer, was born in STOKE-ON-TRENT in 1974.

  Suffolk

  ROYAL SAXON TREASURE ∗ BENJAMIN BRITTEN

  ∗ ALDEBURGH FESTIVAL ∗ SUFFOLK PUNCH

  ∗ AUTHOR OF EMPIRE ∗ OLD ENGLISH ORGAN

  King’s Helmet found at Sutton Hoo that tells us much about our earliest kings.

  SUFFOLK FOLK

  Thomas Gainsborough ∗ Cardinal Wolsey ∗ V.S. Pritchett ∗ Sir Trevor Nunn ∗ Ralph Fiennes ∗ Humphrey Repton ∗ Sir Peter Hall

  ∗ Bob Hoskins

  Sutton Hoo

  In 1939 a startling discovery was made near the Suffolk coast that lit up the Dark Ages and gave us a glimpse into the lives of some of the earliest Englishmen.

  During the 1930s Mrs Edith Pretty began to have strange dreams about the mysterious grassy mounds beside the River Deben on her SUTTON HOO estate near Woodbridge. She saw a warrior standing on the largest mound, she saw a funeral procession, and she saw mountains of treasure. So she asked Basil Brown, the archaeologist from Ipswich museum, to have a look.

  What he found was one of the most spectacular and important discoveries in the history of English archaeology, the burial place of King Raedwald of the East Angles, ruler of much of England south of the Humber. Brown uncovered a huge ship of the early 7th century, 90 ft (27 m) long and 15 ft (4.6 m) wide, with room for 20 rowers on each side, the first of its type ever to be found in Europe. There were brooches, coins from Gaul dated around 625, gold and silver plate, and a jewelled sword, battle-axe and ornamental helmet that clearly belonged to a powerful king.

  There were also some everyday items that the king would need beyond the grave: cauldrons, bowls and, interestingly, two christening spoons. This was a time of transition in England between paganism and Christianity, and this burial would seem to have combined elements of both. To bury a king with his treasure was certainly a pagan custom, but the christening spoons indicate that the Angles were perhaps at least hedging their bets. Sutton Hoo was one of the last barrows raised in England, and has been described by some as the final burial-place of paganism in England.

  The finds at Sutton Hoo reveal a huge amount about our earliest English ancestors. We can study the boats they travelled across the sea in, we can work out what they ate and how they hunted and farmed, we can even guess at what they looked like and how they ordered their society.

  Raedwald was only the third King of the East Angles, and yet the Sutton Hoo burial site shows that the kingdom was already wealthy and powerful and had well-established trading links with Scandinavia and the Continent. Here, in the quiet pastures of Suffolk, we have been given perhaps the clearest snapshot of life in Angles Land.

  Benjamin Britten

  1913–76

  One of the greatest English composers of the 20th century, BENJAMIN BRITTEN was born in Lowestoft on 22 November – the feast-day of St Cecilia, the patron saint of music. He studied at the Royal College of Music and for some of his early works collaborated with the poet W.H. Auden. In 1936 he met the tenor PETER PEARS, who became his life partner and the inspiration for much of his work. After some time in America, Britten and Pears returned to England in 1942 to live in Aldeburgh, and Britten began work on the series of English operas for which he is best known, beginning with Peter Grimes, based on the poems of George Crabbe, an Aldeburgh poet.

  Although Britten’s operas such as Albert Herring, Billy Budd and Turn of the Screw were well received by audiences, Britten’s politics and his unconventional lifestyle and approach to music were frowned upon by the musical establishment, and he withdrew from the London scene for the more tolerant climes of rural Suffolk.

  In 1947 he established the English Opera Group, with a small company of musicians, to present his own operas as well as the new works of other English composers, such as Lennox Berkeley. The cost of touring proved prohibitive and so in 1948 they founded the Aldeburgh Festival, which premiered with Albert Herring in the Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall, just yards away from Britten’s home in Crabbe Street.

  The Aldeburgh Festival has since expanded to other venues in Suffolk such as Orford and Framlingham, and now includes not just classical music and opera but drama, poetry, art exhibitions and lectures. Today it is one of the most popular and influential festivals in the world, while still uniquely English, in part thanks to its location at the Suffolk seaside.

  In the mid-1960s the festival was able to make use of a new concert hall at SNAPE, a collection of old malting houses, imaginatively converted into an arts complex, which has now become the festival’s main venue. The Snape Maltings burnt down on the opening night of the 1969 festival but were restored in time for the opening of the 1970 festival.

  In 1962 Britten introduced what is considered his masterpiece, the War Requiem, based on the poems of Wilfred Owen and written for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral.

  Benjamin Britten and Sir Peter Pears are buried in the c
hurchyard of St Peter and St Paul in Aldeburgh. Nearby lies IMOGEN HOLST (1907–84), daughter of the composer Gustav Holst, and a composer in her own right, as well as a good friend of Britten. She lived most of her life in Aldeburgh, was director of the festival from 1956 until 1977 and contributed many of her father’s papers to the Holst Library, based in Snape Maltings.

  Set up on the beach at Aldeburgh is a shell-shaped sculpture by Maggi Hambling called The Scallop, dedicated to Benjamin Britten and edged with words from Peter Grimes: ‘I hear those voices that will not be drowned.’

  The Horse Before the Cart

  The chestnut-coloured SUFFOLK PUNCH is THE OLDEST BREED OF HEAVY HORSE IN ENGLAND and until the 1930s was bred exclusively in Suffolk. All Suffolk Punches descend from ‘Crisp’s Horse of Ufford’, who was foaled in 1768. Today the Suffolk Punch is an endangered species, as there are only 300 pure Suffolk Punches left in the world, and the Suffolk Punch Trust has been set up to try and preserve and restore the breed.

  Richard Hakluyt

  1522–1616

  WETHERINGSETT is a picture-book Suffolk village hiding amid trees, with pink-and-cream thatched cottages approached by tiny stone bridges that cross a rippling brook. It probably looks much the same as when RICHARD HAKLUYT came to take over the large 14th-century church here, as Rector in 1590.

  He stayed in Wetheringsett for the remaining 26 years of his life, and it was there that he wrote his extraordinary masterpiece The Principal Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation (1598–1600). Throughout the Elizabethan era, English explorers and adventurers sailed the oceans of the world extending the English horizon across the globe by discovering new lands and civilisations. Gilbert and Frobisher sailed west to look for the Northwest Passage, Grenville explored the South Seas, and Drake had become the first Englishman to sail around the world. But until Hakluyt came along no one had thought to record these voyages, so that others might learn from them.