St Bertram of Ilam

It took 100 years for Christianity to establish itself in England after Augustine landed in Kent in 597. It seems that missionaries mixed pragmatically piety with an ability to “schmooze” the local rulers as they fanned out around the country. Bishop Wilfrid of York, in one example ,held a three day drunken revelry with many of the nobility of Northumbria and Mercia to celebrate the dedication of Ripon Cathedral in the 660s. Proselytising in those days came with a hangover it would seem. It was a crucial time for the establishment of the Church and it was around this time that Christianity arrived in Staffordshire. It is difficult however to disentangle the myth and reality in the lives of the local Saints. I was pondering on this whilst visiting the shrine to St Bertram or Bertellinus at Ilam Church.

Bertram, so the story goes, was of royal blood and having fallen out with his father fled to Ireland where he fell in love with a princess. She became pregnant and they escaped to England sheltering in the dense forests that surrounded Ilam in the 7^th century. Alexander a monk writing in the 13^th century takes up the story.

“They were in hiding in a dense forest when lo ! the time

of her childbirth came upon them suddenly ; born of pain and

river of sorrow ! A pitiful child bed indeed ! While Bertellinus

went out to get the necessary help of a midwife the woman and

her child breathed their last amid the fangs of wolves. Bertellinus

on his return imagined that this calamity had befallen because

of his own sin, and spent three days in mourning rites”.

That was the turning point in his life, he retired from the world and became a hermit. Bertram is linked with Stafford where he preached converting the heathen. Then he returned living in one of the caves beside the river Dove. After his death his remains were buried at Ilam,

The shrine itself is in the Lady Chapel. It is in the form of an altar tomb made about 1386 when a blind Ilam man, named Wilmot prayed to Bertram and recovered his sight. People still leave requests for prayers on the shrine. When I was there prayers of intercession among them people who had lost their faith, a sick relative and for a woman who had committed suicide from Birmingham were placed on the shrine.

Having a crack at the Mick in 1798

FROM THE STAFFORDSHIRE ADVERTISER

26^TH SEPTEMBER 1798

　
On Saturday 21^st September a division of the South Lincs Militia commanded by Col Sibthorp arrived in this town on their route to Ireland.

Several of the principle residents of the town being apprized of their coming raised a very handsome subscription to furnish them with refreshments in the Swan Inn. On their arrival the whole town was illuminated, the whole town was illuminated, the bells rung and every mark of their attention was paid to the accommodation of these brave fellows. Colonel Sibthorp expressed his thanks to the inhabitants in the following note

Colonel Sibthorp in passing through Leek to Congleton, made acquaintance of the great kindness prepared to the division of the regiment in their route by many inhabitants of the town begs that they ever believe that he feels most grateful for the obligation and accepts his sincerest thanks for the honoured conferred on himself in the favour bestowed on his soldiers.　NB: In 1798 a rebellion broke out in County Wexford, Ireland. England was also fearful of an invasion from Revolutionary France using Ireland as a base to launch an invasion.

Colonel Sibthorp MP was a man of uncompromising principles who confounded Queen Victoria, opposed all progress and took xenophobia to new heights.

Born in 1777 into an ancient and wealthy family of landowners, Sibthorp never really became known to the wider public until 1826, when he stood as a candidate in the Parliamentary elections for the constituency of Lincoln. Although a well-known figure locally, no-one had ever heard him offer an opinion on politics. At the first hustings, a large crowd were drawn to hear exactly what this flamboyant character had to say.
Unfortunately when his turn to speak came, Sibthorp was busy being unconscious, having been felled by a missile thrown from the crowd as he stood from his chair.