Saffron Walden and Long Melford: Reading the Riot Act

Where do common phrases and terms in the English language come from?  I asked myself this question recently whilst I’ve been researching my two new books Sudbury, Lavenham, and Long Melford Through Time and Saffron Walden and Around Through Time (both books due out from Amberley Publishing in the next few months).

During the writing of my books, I have been avidly scouring newspaper archives for reports and articles about all the towns I am researching.  I came across the newspaper report below of a riot in Saffron Walden.

Reading of the Riot Act in Saffron Walden 1740

5 July 1740 – Ipswich Journal,
© Copyright the British Library Board

The “Proclamation being read” and “timely Notice” are both referring to the fact that the Riot Act had to be read out to the crowds in Walden. This was a 1714 Act of Parliament which stopped a group of 12 or more people from being assembled. When the Riot Act was (literally) read out (normally by a local big-wig from the town), the crowd HAD to disperse otherwise face being forcibly dispersed and/or arrested. If the crowd didn’t disperse within an hour of the Act being read, then the authorities could take further action such as calling for troops and militia to be sent in. From the newspaper account, it would appear that Walden’s crowd dispersed once the Act was read to them (but still managed to carry away a trophy!).

Later on in history, the reading of the Riot Act caused the infamous Peterloo Massacre (Manchester) of 1819. One of the last times the act was used in East Anglia was in 1885 when it was read in the village of Long Melford. In this case, the reading of the Riot Act did not work and the people of Long Melford and nearby Glemsford continued to riot throughout the village of Long Melford. So the troops from nearby Bury St Edmunds came into Long Melford via the train and dispersed the rioters using brute force with fixed bayonets.  (My new book Sudbury, Lavenham and Long Melford Through Time looks at Long Melford’s riot of 1885 in more detail.)

As the Act was only repealed in 1967, the term is still used today. It is where we get the phrase “I will read you the riot act” – still used today by many to control unruly children!



 

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My book
My local history book on the historic East Hertfordshire town of Bishop’s Stortford is still available.  Please do click on the image below to buy my book.Bishop's Stortford Through Time by Kate Cole

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You may also be interested in
– Bishop’s Stortford Through Time
– Saffron Walden and Around Through Time
– Sudbury, Lavenham, Long Melford Through Time

© Essex Voices Past 2015.

Just an ordinary miracle

Just over a year ago, on her wedding day in January 2014, I told the story of my precious first born and the ordinary miracle of her birth.  Harrison Fisher’s charming Edwardian and art deco vintage postcards, along with Laurie Lee’s words about his own precious First Born, beautifully illustrated her and her beloved’s engagement and wedding.  At the time, I didn’t want to tempt fate by publishing on my post the very last postcard in Harrison Fisher’s series.

Today, I can show you that final postcard.

Harrison Fisher - Their new love

Welcome to the world to my first grandchild, a darling little boy, A.J.D., who arrived into the world yesterday morning at 3:08am (GMT) 9 February 2015 weighing in at a whooping 8lb 15oz.

Congratulations to my beautiful girl and her lovely husband – a precious couple’s new life as a family about to start with their own ordinary miracle: their First Born.

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Book writing and blog posting is firmly on hold for a few days but I will be continuing to write “Saffron Walden Through Time” and “Sudbury, Lavenham and Long Melford Through Time” very soon.

You may also be interested in
– My first born: An ordinary miracle

© Essex Voices Past 2015

Kursaal Amusement Park, Southend and Al Capone’s Car

Today is my regular writing slot on Worldwide Genealogy Blog – a global collaboration of genealogists and historians.   My post on that blog today is the story of how my American great-uncle, Harry Elmo LaBreque, brought the bullet proof car of Chicago gangster and America’s “public enemy number 1”, Al Capone, to the seaside amusement park of the Kursaal, Southend in 1933.

Click on Al Capone’s car below to read the story of my great-uncle and Capone’s car.
Al Capone's Car at the Kursaal in 1933

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If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe either by using the Subscribe via Email button top right of my blog, or the button at the very bottom.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the Facebook button and/or leave a comment below. Thank you for reading this post.

© Essex Voices Past 2015.

 

 

Happy 3rd Blogiversary to me!

This week is the third anniversary of me starting my blog, Essex Voices Past.  Reflecting back on the previous year, it has been an exciting and emotional year, both personally and professionally. Please indulge me by letting me reminisce back on my 2014.

Personally, I welcomed into our family my new son-in-law when my precious first born married her love almost exactly a year ago. I am delighted to say that they are expecting the imminent arrival of their own first-born anytime within the next few weeks. My second born, my beautiful wildchild (shhh don’t tell her I said that!) has also flown the nest to live in Bishop’s Stortford with her love. Ironically, whilst I was researching my first local history book, Bishop’s Stortford Through Time and coming home recounting tales of what a great place it is, my daughter also fell in love with the town. She and her young man now live in the historic centre of Bishop’s Stortford town. My youngest, my last born, who I had to home educate for a year (and wrote about on this blog in a series called School Trip Friday for the Academically Challenged), is now thriving at a specialist dyslexia school in the heart of rural Suffolk. My fight to get him an education he could access was worth the almighty fight I had with my local authority.

I am very proud of my family: my daughters, son and son-in-laws. With all the horrors currently going on in the world, it is fantastic to see the next generation steaming through and making something good of their lives.

Bishop's Stortford Through Time by Kate ColeMy family – posing for a photograph for my first local history book

On the same note (my children), much of what happened when I was fighting for my son’s education should never have happened because of the laws and regulations in England, which are supposed to protect our vulnerable children. With that in mind, I complained to Local Government Ombudsman about my local authority’s behaviour during my struggle. In spring 2014, my complaint was upheld by the Ombudsman with the result that top bods at the Council had to apologise to me both in person and in writing for their behaviour, and give the Ombudsman assurances that they would change their processes. Justice for the little guy.

Professionally, I made the move from my career as a full-time technical business consultant, to concentrating on being a full-time historian and author (but still doing the very ad-hoc piece of IT work!). The move has been fantastic – I commuted for nearly 3 hours each working day from Essex into London for over thirty years. My commute is now 10 seconds: I rise from my bed to put the kettle on for the first cup of tea of the day before settling down at the kitchen table with a cuppa and opening my laptop ready to start work.

Medieval Scribe

I have expanded my writing and now spend all my working time researching and writing either blog posts or books.  My first book Bishop’s Stortford Through Time was published in September and appears to be selling well. In October, to promote my book, I went on a virtual tour around the internet, talking about “all things history”.

Bishop's Stortford Through Time by Kate Cole

In January 2014 I started writing a regular slot on Julie Goucher’s Worldwide Genealogy – an international collaboration of genealogists, family historians and historians. It is a fantastic blog, I do recommend you to take a look. My December post was about the famous Christmas Truce 1914.

Christmas Truce 1914Daily Mirror – Friday 08 January 1915,
© Copyright the British Library Board

Shortly before Christmas 2014, the British Newspaper Archive (a department of the British Library) printed a condensed version of my blog on the Christmas Truce 1914 on their own blog: The story of the 1914 Christmas Truce, as reported by WW1 newspapers. This led to an editor from the BBC World Service contacting me and requesting that I give two radio interviews to the BBC world service about my research into the Christmas Truce. It was very exciting to give the radio interviews and it was from this point that I finally felt that I had arrived as a bona fide historian.

My 2015 is also shaping up well with the highlight being the imminent arrival of my first grandchild.  I am also in the process of moving houses and will shortly be leaving Great Dunmow to live in one the most beautiful and wildest parts of Essex, on the Blackwater Estuary in between Heybridge and Goldhanger.  My current bannerhead on my blog is an aerial view of the Blackwater Estuary (photographed by my son’s drone) – my new house is “somewhere” on the photograph.  I will continue to write about the history of Great Dunmow and the beautiful district of Uttlesford, but will also be writing about Maldon and Heybridge.

Fred Roe's Map of Essex 1929X marks the spot of EssexVoicesPast’s favourite
place in the whole of England.

I also have four books – all commissioned by Amberley Publishing – in the pipeline. The first two on the list are shaping up well and are due to be published this summer.

  • Saffron Walden Through Time
  • Sudbury, Lavenham and Long Melford Through Time
  • Billericay Through Time
  • Postcards from the front: 1914-1919

My 10 most viewed posts over the last 3 years were as follows:-
School trip Friday: Of cabbages and kings
A pinch and a punch for the first of the month and no returns
Queen Elizabeth I’s visit to Great Dunmow
Images of medieval cats
Interpreting primary sources – the 6 ‘w’s
Thomas Bowyer, weaver and martyr of Great Dunmow d.1556
The medieval spinsters
Primary sources – ‘Unwitting Testimony’
Elizabeth of York
Witchcraft and bewitchment: the Tudor witches of Great Dunmow

I will be continuing to write on this blog, but perhaps not as frequent as before, until after my next two books have been completed.

Thank you for indulging me and allowing me to reflect.

Kate Cole – The Narrator
Essex Voices Past
January 2015

© Essex Voices Post 2012-2015

Happy New Year 2015

Today’s post is a postcard sent home just before New Year of 1915.  It’s poignant messages states: “O.A.S Dear Madam, I have the pleasure of writing to you and thanking you for the parcel which I received. Hoping you have a Happy Xmas and a bright New Year. From One In Belguim“.

Postcards from the Front - Happy New Year

Wishing all my readers a very Happy New Year.

 

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in
– Christmas Advent Calendar 2014
– Christmas Greetings from the Trenches 1914-1918
– Louis Wain: Happy Christmas Greetings 2013
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Plough Monday
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 1
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 2
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 3
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Massacre of the Innocents
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Feast of St Stephen
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Nativity of Christ
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Shepherds
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Magi
– Medieval Christmas Stories: St Nicholas Eve

© Essex Voices Past 2015.

Weblinks for Christmas 2014 Advent Calendar: Part 4

I hope you have had a peaceful and enjoyable Christmas 2014.  If you are in the middle of trying to decide whether or not to brave the Christmas Sales, instead, spend some time to surfing the ‘net and looking at some of my Advent Calendar 2014 websites.

Over the next 4 days, I will be recapping the sites and books which were in my 2014 Advent Calendar.  Happy hunting and reading!

 

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in the following posts
– Weblinks for Christmas 2014: Part 1
– Weblinks for Christmas 2014: Part 2
– Weblinks for Christmas 2014: Part 3
– Christmas Advent Calendar 2014
– Christmas Greetings from the Trenches 1914-1918
– Louis Wain: Happy Christmas Greetings 2013
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Plough Monday
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 1
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 2
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 3
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Massacre of the Innocents
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Feast of St Stephen
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Nativity of Christ
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Shepherds
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Magi
– Medieval Christmas Stories: St Nicholas Eve

© Essex Voices Past 2014.

Weblinks for Christmas 2014 Advent Calendar: Part 3

I hope you have had a peaceful and enjoyable Christmas 2014.  If you are in the middle of trying to decide whether or not to brave the Christmas Sales, instead, spend some time to surfing the ‘net and looking at some of my Advent Calendar 2014 websites.

Over the next 4 days, I will be recapping the sites and books which were in my 2014 Advent Calendar.  Happy hunting and reading!

 

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in the following posts
– Weblinks for Christmas 2014: Part 1
– Weblinks for Christmas 2014: Part 2
– Christmas Advent Calendar 2014
– Christmas Greetings from the Trenches 1914-1918
– Louis Wain: Happy Christmas Greetings 2013
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Plough Monday
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 1
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 2
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 3
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Massacre of the Innocents
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Feast of St Stephen
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Nativity of Christ
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Shepherds
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Magi
– Medieval Christmas Stories: St Nicholas Eve

© Essex Voices Past 2014.

Weblinks for Christmas 2014 Advent Calendar: Part 2

I hope you have had a peaceful and enjoyable Christmas 2014.  If you are in the middle of trying to decide whether or not to brave the Christmas Sales, instead, spend some time to surfing the ‘net and looking at some of my Advent Calendar 2014 websites.

Over the next 4 days, I will be recapping the sites and books which were in my 2014 Advent Calendar.  Happy hunting and reading!

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in the following posts
– Weblinks for Christmas 2014: Part 1
– Christmas Advent Calendar 2014
– Christmas Greetings from the Trenches 1914-1918
– Louis Wain: Happy Christmas Greetings 2013
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Plough Monday
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 1
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 2
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 3
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Massacre of the Innocents
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Feast of St Stephen
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Nativity of Christ
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Shepherds
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Magi
– Medieval Christmas Stories: St Nicholas Eve

© Essex Voices Past 2014.

Weblinks for Christmas 2014 Advent Calendar: Part 1

I hope you have had a peaceful and enjoyable Christmas 2014.  If you are in the middle of trying to decide whether or not to brave the Christmas Sales, instead, spend some time to surfing the ‘net and looking at some of my Advent Calendar 2014 websites.

Over the next 4 days, I will be recapping the sites and books which were in my 2014 Advent Calendar.  Happy hunting and reading!

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This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in
– Christmas Advent Calendar 2014
– Christmas Greetings from the Trenches 1914-1918
– Louis Wain: Happy Christmas Greetings 2013
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Plough Monday
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 1
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 2
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 3
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Massacre of the Innocents
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Feast of St Stephen
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Nativity of Christ
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Shepherds
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Magi
– Medieval Christmas Stories: St Nicholas Eve

© Essex Voices Past 2014.

Christmas Truce 1914 and a game of football

This year, my run up to Christmas has been very hectic with some very last minute excitement as a historian and blogger.

On the 18 December 2014, just over a week ago, I published on my regular monthly slot on the Worldwide Genealogy Blog, a post about the First World War’s Christmas Truce of 1914.  You can read my post here – Christmas Day Truce 1914.  It is the full story of the famous Truce between the British and the Germans as it was reported day-by-day throughout the length and breadth of Britain in local and national newspapers.

My story was picked up by the British Library – whose The British Newspaper Archive own the digital archives for these newspapers – and a shortened version was printed on their website on the 19th December: The story of the 1914 Christmas Truce, as reported by WW1 newspapers.  From this, one of the producers of the BBC World Service read my story and asked me to do an interview for the radio station about the Christmas Day Truce.  So I did two audio interviews (from my kitchen!) – one very late on Monday 22nd December, and another early in the morning on Tuesday 23rd December – the latter being a live broadcast so was very nerve-wracking.

You can hear my interviews below:-
BBC World Service Newsday – my interview starts at 54:22 minutes
BBC World Service Newsday – my interview starts at 51:49 minutes

One of the main points asked in my interview was, did the Germans and the British play a game of football in no-man’s land? My answer is: There’s a lot of hearsay that several “kick-abouts” either happened or were proposed to take place.  But I could find no evidence or eye-witness accounts in the local newspaper within the British Newspaper Archive that a formal match had taken place.  Below are extracts from reports in newspapers dated December 1914 to January 1915 where a game of football (or a kick-about) was mentioned.

From the evidence below, you decide.  Did one (or more) football matches take place between Britain and Germany along the Front Line on the Western Front at the Christmas Truce of 1914?  All are eyewitness accounts, mainly written down in letters sent home by soldiers in the Front Line and reprinted in local newspapers.

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“The Germans left some of their trenches and came over to talk with our men, and I hear a football match has been arranged for New Year’s Day. I cannot swear to this statement, but seeing that they did visit us on Christmas Day, the event is possible.”

Hull Daily Mail, Wednesday 30 December 1914

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The day after Christmas, they cried across if we would play them at a game of football, but as no football was forthcoming, there was no match.”

Aberdeen Journal, Friday 1 January 1915

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On Christmas Day we agreed to a play a football match, and we got a football but their colonel would not let them play, so we had a bit of a game on our own.”

Liverpool Echo, Saturday 2 January 1915

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Higher up the line – you could scarcely believe it – but they were kicking a football about between the trenches.”

Gloucester Journal Saturday 2 January 1915

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Elsewhere along the line I hear our fellows played Germans at football on Christmas Day. Our own pet enemies remarked that they would like a game, but as the ground in our part is all root crops and much cut up by ditches, and as, moreover, we have not got a football, we had to call it off.”

Western Daily Press Wednesday 6 January 1915

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Did a football match take place between Germany and Britain?
You decide!

Christmas Truce 1914Nottingham Evening Post – Saturday 02 January 1915

Christmas Truce 1914Daily Mirror – Friday 08 January 1915

All extracts and images above appear by kind permission of The British Newspaper Archive / The British Library Board.

This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.

Thank you for reading this post.

You may also be interested in
– Christmas Advent Calendar 2014
– Christmas Greetings from the Trenches 1914-1918
– Louis Wain: Happy Christmas Greetings 2013
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Plough Monday
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 1
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 2
– Christmas in a Tudor Town: Part 3
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Massacre of the Innocents
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Feast of St Stephen
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Nativity of Christ
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Shepherds
– Medieval Christmas Stories: The Magi
– Medieval Christmas Stories: St Nicholas Eve

© Essex Voices Past 2014.