Cheadle Militia 1809

It being the 18^th June and the 199^th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo I came across a reference in a newspaper to the Napoleonic War version of the Home Guard, the militia regiments that were recruited during the years of the war with France and her allies. During the early 19^th century regiments were formed in local communities to defend the country from enemies, both external and internal. Militia largely comprised of the landed gentry or the middle classes, Catholics and some Nonconformists were excluded although restrictions were lifted later when the country faced an acute manpower shortage after 1812 when wars against the French and the Americans drained resources. Over 100,000 men joined the Militia and recruitment increased sharply when there was a possibility of French invasion during 1803-4. The number of men under arms was staggering with something like half of all men of military age donning uniform. The presence of the military in everyday life even finds itself described in the pages of “Pride and Prejudice” with the flighty Lydia drooling over the presence of the uniformed Mr Wickham and his soldier colleagues. The need for large numbers involved in the war caused strains on the manufacturing capacity of British factories and shortages of uniform and weapons were reported which reminded me of similar problems faced over 100 years later when the Home Guard was formed.

Their duties were varied and could include guarding prisoners of war. In 1799 the Staffordshire Militia were called out to guard Dutch prisoners, the task of standing watch over captured enemy combatants grew more onerous as the war progressed and more prisoners were landed in the country. By 1810 prisoner numbers stood at 52,000, some of the number finding their way to Leek which housed 300 French POWs.

The Militia were also called to suppress civil disorder in times of hardship. One example occurred at the “Battle” of Macclesfield in April 1812 when 300 rioters descended on the town demanding shop owners lower their prices.  It was an example of what the late Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm would have called “collective bargaining by riot” Order was eventually restored by the Stockport Militia who even brought up cannon to deal with the disturbances. (On one occasion the Militia sided with the rioters when soldiers in Portsmouth demanded that butchers reduce their prices). Staffordshire Militia were also ordered to Nottinghamshire during the Luddite uprising in the same yea.

There were also times of display when the Staffordshire Militia paraded before the Prince of Wales at Windsor in 1799 to celebrate his birthday.

Discipline could be lax and whimsical; the Dorset Volunteers fined soldiers 6p for laughing when the command of “attention” was given. Nearer home in Cheadle in April 1809 the local regiment “composed of well sized and muscular young men” who were well drilled, but lacked control as the following incident illustrates.  One of the recruits insulted the commanding officer Colonel Wilson. The man was condemned to be flogged, but Wilson revoked the order and addressed the company on the need to follow orders which had a “salutary effect of the corps”

Saving the Countryside

I came across a report from 1933 of the opening of the gateway at Hawksmoor nature reserve( near Cheadle) by the Poet Laureate to a kinsman John Richard Beech Masefield, a naturalist of Cheadle who had died the year before and who had created the area.

Masefield had become Poet Laureate 3 years before, he used his speech to attack modernity and its conflict with the countryside. He turned his fire initially on egg collectors- “a multitude of distorted mind”- and the destruction of species among the bird population. He then extended his attack to question the poor layout of zoos and their management of birds in captivity. “We see great and beautiful birds shut in forever, unable to use their wings, and damned never again to lift a 1,000 feet in the air”. He favoured a protection of birds’ legislation as several species were under attack and the main culprits, he believed, were the city dwellers who did not understand rural ways.  Actually, some of the perpetrators of the decline in wild bird numbers may have been in the audience in October 1933.

The 19^th century with its managed upland estates and changes to agricultural practices in lowland areas did much damage to the wild bird population. Moorland estate holders- the preserve for aristocratic shooting parties- sought to eliminate any threat to the game birds. Game keepers were often under instruction to destroy nests and the result was a near or actual extinction of some of the raptors such as Harriers, Red Kites, Goshawks and in Scotland, Golden and White Tailed Eagles. The Red Kite, a large hawk, often seen scavenging among rubbish tips in the 17^th century, suffered sustained persecution into the 20^th century by land owners until its recovery in the last 50 years. Less fortunate was one of the largest British birds the Great Bustard a dweller of the fenland which was hunted to extinction by the 1840s.

Masefield’s desire to see that the wildlife of Britain receive statutory protection was realised after the Second World War when Governments passed laws such as the Protection of Wild Birds in 1954, as well as one of the jewels in the crown of the Attlee Government, and the creation of National Parks, of which the Peak National Park was the first.

Years before Masefield posted a warning to the countryside believing the arrival of the motorcar, and urban day trippers would cause the destruction of the countryside.

It is an argument that is made now by the Countryside Alliance that the city dweller does not understand the countryman. The proportion of urban residents far out numbers the rural community, in fact 1851 census revealed, for the first time more British people living in cities than in the country. It should be said that urban dwellers willingly pay their taxes to help maintain areas of outstanding beauty as well as joining organisations such as the National Trust.

To conclude on a controversial note the Countryside Alliance’s single minded obsession that fox hunting should be restored is not shared by most of the people who live in the country whose major concerns such as jobs, housing and living standards are shared by the rest of the country. In my view, as a former member of the Peak National Park Authority, the preoccupations of the people of Longnor differ little from those of the people of Longton.

Battle of the Nile

The sad  news that the closure of the Portsmouth Dockyards will end 500 years of naval ship building coincides as  a major exhibition on Admiral Lord Nelson opens at the Royal Maritime Museum at Greenwich. The exhibition presents the legendary deeds of  Britain’s greatest and most charismatic  military leader.

Horatio Nelson achieved national prominence firstly with his daring exploits during the Battle of St Vincent in 1797 when the Royal Navy squadron was under the command of Admiral John Jervis of Meaford near Stone(  Given that the county is land locked, Staffordshire has produced great naval officers of the stature of Jervis, Anson and Gardner). But Nelson’s international fame was firmly cemented at the Battle of the Nile of August 1798 when he led the fleet against a larger French force supporting Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt. Showing audacious leadership his fleet annihilated the French culminating in the flagship, L’Orient   exploding killing the French commander Brueys and all but one hundred of the ship’s crew.

The immediate result of the battle was the collapse of Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt and the lifting of any threat to Britain’s control of India. Napoleon abandoned his army to its fate and returned to France.

 The battle cost Nelson 218 killed and 677 wounded, while the French suffered around 1,700 killed, 600 wounded, and 3,000 captured. During the battle, Nelson was wounded in the forehead, exposing his skull. Despite bleeding profusely, he refused preferential treatment and insisted on waiting his turn while other wounded sailors were treated before him.

News of the victory reached Staffordshire in November where the news was greeted euphorically in Cheadle.

The Staffordshire Advertiser reported of “the rising spirit and the glowing ardour of this little but loyal town, a procession of many hundreds of the inhabitants carrying lighted torches and emblematic devices of victory marched through Cheadle escorting the post”. The crowd enjoyed a roasted sheep washed down by large amounts of “stout old October” finishing the hilarity of this festive evening”.

Elsewhere the crushing victory was celebrated on the highest hills of the district. On top of Thorpe Cloud on the 29^th November 1798 a sheep was roasted and a large bonfire lit, “a considerable quantity of ale was given by Hugh Bateman of Ilam to above 100 persons assembled there from neighbouring villages terminating the thanksgiving of the day on the summit by repeated toasts to the health of Lord Nelson and to the continued success of His Majesty’s arms”.

Wonderfully, the “Advertiser” ended its report with the words “it is the transcendent glory of this island alone, to shine with the lustre of a superior planet amidst the dim horizon of political darkness”

Now, as then, the Royal Navy has a special place in the hearts of this island nation. 

Do you remember April 1962?

Leek's first ever road safety rally was held on the new Cattle Market site. It attracted 59 motorists who undertook rigorous tests  .Drivers who exceeded the speed level, for instance, were penalised. April 1962 also the first use of the panda crossing in the country although it was not accepted their flashing lights caused some confusion. Road  users had a reason to be worried as national road deaths were double they are now. Little consideration was given to safety in car design. The newest range of Ford   the Zodiac was being advertised. Its selling points were the style and the speed. It could cruise at 100 mph. The women motorist who might be interested in buying a Zodiac need not be intimidated as the motoring correspondent wrote reassuringly “Ladies will welcome the lightness  of the controls, feather like clutch and the rising ratio steering making manoeuvring finger tip easy”

A survey carried out by McKenzie Secondary School in Cheadle revealed the popularity of smoking amongst the pupils  with 79 students smoking regularly. A number routinely smoked at home with a boy of 11 and a girl of 12 the youngest smokers. This should not be a real surprise as smoking was a common activity with many participating in the habit.  However medical opinion was already at this time pointing out the health risks. In the 1950s a  study of some 40 thousand doctors over 20 years, confirmed the suggestion, based on which the government issued advice that smoking and lung cancer rates were related.  The teacher  who carried out the research in Cheadle felt that a combination of  a lack of decent role models and peer pressure was responsible for the high number of smokers. He was surprised by the pocket money many of the students were getting, some as much as £1 a week!

A good news story about the young people was coverage of the Scouts Show over a three day period held at Leek Town Hall. I was intrigued to read that the founder of the Gang Show Ralph Reader had strong connections with the town having contact with local scouts since 1939. In 1961 he  visited Leek and was made guest of honour . The Scout Show of 1962 had high production values with favourable notice of two numbers “ Wedding Group” and “Brighton”. It was indicated that in the production of the show the Leek Scouts had been helped by London.

There was comment in the editorial section of the paper on the disenchantment that the electorate had with the local Councils which showed itself in low turnouts at elections. Councils excluded the press from its meetings (a position that was  being rectified in law following the passage of a Private Members Bill by one Margaret Thatcher). The editor believed that confidence in councils could only be improved if the community was better informed of Council's plans. Some of the questions that were vexing the Councillors of the time were the growing menace of vandalism in Leek Town Centre. Outrage was expressed at the removal of 22 tulips from a flower bed outside the Nicholson Institute and the growing problem of old buses being parked on Ladydale and being used as weekend bungalows.

The  Fox Destruction Society held its annual dinner at the Hotel Rudyard with 190 supporters and guests attending. The guest of honour Mr PM Johnson the Council pest officer felt that the society were doing a really worthwhile job in keeping down such a large number of pests. Although the thought occurred to me on reading this that if the society were really committed to keeping down fox numbers then they should have had one on the menu.

Windsor Davies former Leek teacher was now seeking fame as a TV actor. He had a lucky break when the actor John Paul fell out with the TV company over his pay and left. The TV program in question was the “Probation Officer” Davies who was about to begin a distinguished career in TV was contracted to take Paul's role and was being paid £160.

Bare Knuckle fighters of the 19th century

They bred them tough in the old days. I came across an account from the  Staffordshire Advertiser from August 1813 of a local  boxing match

“A severe pugilistic contest took place near Cheadle between a blacksmith and a mason. It continued about 4 hours and 150 rounds were fought. The black smith was obliged to leave off fighting in order to go to work. About 1000 were present”.

I has always had an interest in boxing. An early memory is getting up  to listen to the first Liston- Ali fight in 1964 on the radio and was able, as a child, to recite all the names of the heavy weight champoins of the world in my childhood- Burns, Johnson, Willard, Dempsey, Tunney, etc

Bare knuckle bouts bore little relation to boxing today. Kicking, biting and gouging were not allowed, but wrestling was. The opponent could be thrown to the ground . It was not allowed to strike a man when he was down. A round ended when the boxer was felled. There was a 30 second break before the next round. Rounds could be any length. and the fight continued to the fighter was injured or exhausted. There were no referees as the spectators were the guardians of fair play

 There was nothing genteel about the sport. It was memorably described by  a 19th century writer as 'a vulgar and tumultuous rabble of vagrants, drunkards, ruffian brawlers, and gambling desperadoes'. The  argot of the  time is wonderfully conveyed  in a contemporary report in the Era newspaper  It is a description of a 90 round contest between Hugh McStavik a fighter from Liverpool and George Harrison from Manchester at Madeley in July 1845 which the Liverpudlian won.

 “Hughy Mc   as a cunning little general in the PR drawing his last battle prior to this with Allan McPhee who by proving to the world  that personal animosity does not exist in the boxing league actually trained Liverpool's pet . Hugh is 25  about 5 7 and well made, brown complexion and a downy customer. He is a good natured lad but like all the outer outers  he has indulged rather too  liberally in what the Buffaloes call the “ holy gatter. This lavish adoration to the jolly god  made the backers of Harrison  think that a few bustling rounds would soon set his bellows in active play and force him to yield”

WH Auden and a visit to Froghall 1925

“He would have liked the area. It would have had the sort of landscape that he enjoyed” a biographer of the poet Wystan Hugh Auden told me when I asked about a visit he made to the area as a young man of 18 in 1925. This year sees the 100th anniversary of his birth and certainly the anniversary has lead to an assessment of the man and his work. Auden is now considered to be one of the greatest poets of the 20th century and twice since his death in 1973 he has resonated posthumously in the public mind. Firstly, when in the 90s film “ Four Weddings and a Funeral” John Hanman reads “ Funeral Blues” “Stop all the clocks” over the coffin of Simon Callow. And again in 2001 he became the unofficial Poet Laureate of New York after the 9/11 attacks in his poem September 1st 1939 “ the unmentionable odour of death, offends the September night” and ending “ we must love each other or die” became a focus for communal grief.

 I have always been interested in his work. I found his work intellectual as well as accessible. An anthology of Auden was the first poetry book that I bought as a teenager. I was particularly impressed by the poem “Shield of Achilles” which details the powerlessness of an onlooker in a totalitarian regime I still have a copy of the book.  It has a picture of him as an old man staring out with the heavily wrinkled face that he described as looking like a “wedding cake left out in the rain”

 Although he was born in Yorkshire Auden had many links with the Midlands. He moved to Birmingham at the age of 2 when his father became the Director of Public Health in Schools. Auden’s unusual first name derives from a 9th century Shropshire born Prince who was later canonised. St Wystan’s empty tomb is in the Anglo Saxon crypt of Repton church in Derbyshire. His father went to the school in the town and his grandmother lived in the village of Horninglow on the Staffordshire/ Derbyshire border. Auden visited her regularly up to the time of her death in December 1925. He visited earlier in the year, which lead him to explore the rail system of the Moorlands.

At the age of 15 he decided to be a poet although his family were keen that he become an engineer and for the next 6 years he wrote 200 hundred. His style was often in imitation of poets that he admired such as TS Eliot, Thomas Hardy and the First World War poet Edward Thomas. The influence of Thomas is particularly marked in the poems that he wrote will visiting the area in the summer of 1925. The early poems“ The Canal, Froghall and “Flowers and the Stationmaster” were written while visiting the area. The later poem mentions Waterhouses.

He was drawn to a type of landscape especially mines and quarries. His vision of paradise was “ In my Eden we have a few beam engines, saddle tank locomotives, overshot waterwheels and other pieces of obsolete machinery to play with”. He was associated with the area around Alston in Cumbria- the abandoned lead mines in the area full of the archaic machinery that he craved. In fact the clue that Auden wrote poems about this area came from a book “ WH Auden, Pennine Poet by Alan Myers and Robert Forsythe published by North Pennine Heritage Trust.




The Froghall Wharf that he visited that summer would still have been busy but the truth was that it was entering into a period of decline. The limestone quarries had been in operation since the 18th century and a canal to take advantage the industry was opened in the 1777. The connection between the quarry and the canal was by a primitive rail system the first built in the 18th century. The limestone quarried was found to be particularly good in the smelting of iron ore and increasingly large amount were transported to the ironworks of the Black Country. The 15,000 tons of rock that was being shifted in the late 19th century had increased to 200,000 during the First World War. The stone was also used in agriculture and for the developing chemical industry especially after 1890. In 1885 there were over 100 men listed as working at the wharf. A photograph from 1905 portrays a very harsh environment with steam billowing and obscuring the landscape. It is bustling scene with men active and filling the view. Limestone is burnt and loaded on to the barges owned by Brunner Mold & Co.

 A newspaper account from 1936 reported that “ Some 50 years ago the basin was a scene of bustling activity with limestone being broken into ballast grades by large groups of men: limestone was burned into agricultural lime. On the other side of the canal brick making was practised and further into the valley coal was mined from galleries running into the valley sides”

 The company that quarried the stone Thorley and Bowers was owned and managed by the curiously named Primrose Thorley. He is in a photograph of 1912 tall and moustached with his boots caked with lime. His dog Sappho used to run alongside the carriage between Cheadle and Froghall. However, the peak of production at Froghall Wharf was brief. After the War the area went into decline following a landslip in the early 20s made access difficult to the quarries, which coupled with a decision, by the Cheshire based ICI which was created out of Brunner Mond to develop their own quarries effectively doomed the industry. The poem “The Canal, Froghall” begins:

“There are no roads except the towpath through the valley” and everyone who knows the area will recognise the remoteness. The canal follows through attractively quite countryside " winding in and out among the hill ribs and hollows”, There is a rich wildlife in this secluded spot but the peace is disturbed. A barge is pulled by an old horse and walking beside the animal walks an old man humming to himself and puffing on a clay pipe

“All unaware of what is scattered by their coming.
They go their way and ripples are the only traces
Until the calm returns which everything effaces
And images of trees resume their standing places”

In October 1925 Auden started his degree originally in Biology before changing to English. An interest in landscape and industrial heritage stayed with him throughout his life. In the 1930s he famously collaborated with the composer Benjamin Britten in the 1935 documentary film Night Mail and continued this fascination right to the publication of Lullaby the year before his death unlike many writers his reputation has not diminished since his death in 1973.

Mary Adela Blagg- Lunar scientist

Bill Cawley on a Cheadle woman who deserves wider recognition in International Women's Day.

The first week of March is the time of the year given over to celebrate the achievements of women on International Women’s Day. A local woman who, as far as I know, is the only woman to have a crater on the Moon named after her and deserves wider local recognition is described below.

Mary Adela Blagg was born in 1858 in Cheadle. She was the eldest of five daughters and four sons of a solicitor. Largely self-educated in mathematics, she was attracted to astronomy by attending the university extension lectures of J.A. Hardcastle the grandson of the Astronomer Herschel, who encouraged her to original work in selenography” study of moon”.

Blagg achieved international repute by her work on the Moon. In 1900 lunar maps were still based on measurements made at the beginning of the 19^th century, but by 1900 means of photographing the Moon had improved considerably. In 1905 Professor Saunder who has worked with Blagg proposed an international committee to remedy lunar nomenclature, and he called for an accurate map of the Moon surface. An untimely death led to Mary Blagg undertaking a crucial role in mapping the Moon . Blagg was already engaged in compiling a list of features. Saunder’s sudden death in 1912 forced her to work on the mapping project completed a year later -the Collated List of Lunar Formations.

In 1920, Blagg joined the Lunar Commission. She secured the best photographs from Paris, Mount Wilson, and other observatories. From these she had by 1922 drawn the maps for the 10 outer portions of the Moon. After 1928 she and Dr K. Muller of Vienna developed a definitive list naming nearly 6,000 features, published as Named Lunar Formations of which the second volume was the atlas, not surpassed in accuracy until the 1960s.

She undertook masses of tedious work for others in effect the number crunching. The originality of her contribution was that she first disentangled the errors of the selenographers who had relied on earlier inaccurate measurements, and then brought order to the chaos that had accumulated in naming features on the Moon.

Blagg was one of the first women to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in January 1916. She died at her home in High Bank in Cheadle in 1944, highly respected and following in the great tradition of the amateur scientist.

Victorians and Food

Barely a week goes by without items appearing on the adulteration of food. The current controversy over burgers and horse meat being a recent example and a local newsagent was prosecuted ,last year for selling vodka to which a toxic substance was added. Concerns over the quality of food and its impact on the populace first come to the fore during the 19^th century.

All through the Victorian era food was adulterated. It was, put simply, a fact of life. Almost anything you purchased was likely to have had something added. The main reason was economic diluting the product increased profit. Adding water to milk is probably the most common instance of this although adulteration was far more widely practised.

The list of poisonous additives reads like the stock list of some mad and malevolent chemist: strychnine, cocculus inculus (both are hallucinogens) and copperas in rum and beer; sulphate of copper in pickles, bottled fruit, wine, and preserves; lead chromate in mustard and snuff; sulphate of iron in tea and beer; ferric ferrocynanide, lime sulphate, and turmeric in Chinese tea; copper carbonate, lead sulphate, bi-sulphate of mercury, and Venetian lead in sugar confectionery and chocolate; lead in wine and cider; all were extensively used and were accumulative in effect, resulting, over a long period, in chronic gastritis, and, indeed, often fatal food poisoning. It is not surprising that purgatives were frequently used

It also explains the trust people had in the Cooperative Movement in securing quality in food . The Rochdale Pioneers opened their store in 1844 and within a few months they had become known for providing unadulterated goods and a movement was born.

By the 1870s legislation was enacted and from that date prosecutions start to come through the courts. In February 1879 a local butcher Enoch Clarkson was taken to court in Cheadle for selling discoloured beef unfit for human consumption. A grocer in Burslem was fined for adding alum to flour and in Kidsgrove another was found guilty for adding plaster of paris called “daft” to confectionery On that example sometimes the tendency could have fatal consequences . In 1858 a sweet shop owner in Bradford named Neal mistakenly added arsenic to his peppermint lozenges resulting in over 20 deaths. It was cases like this led to legislation on food quality

Miners

One piece of data that caught my eye in the report of the findings of the 2011 UK census was the state of the coal mining industry. The mining and quarrying industry as a whole employs 46,478 people, which is down 12,913 on 2001 figure.

The decline of the coal mining industry has been well documented but it comes as a shock to see the extent of the fall. The coal industry reached its peak in 1913, when 280 million tons were produced, of which 90 million were exported. The industry employed 1.3 million men and boys.

The Staffordshire Moorlands had worked coal seams in Cheadle, Biddulph and even at Quanford. Even the names of places speak of the  presence of mining in the area. I was driving toward Cheddleton and drove down Coalpit Lane, which followed down from Wetley Moor. Small coal pits existed around the moor.

Conditions were dreadful for much of the time until nationalisation in the late 1940s, but an insight into what people had to put up with can be gauged by an account of a local Miner writing during a strike in 1892

“I have been a miner for 30 years. At 12 I was sent down the pit and did not see the light from one weekend to another. My wages started at 7d a day. The mines were owed by Mr Bateman who was very kind but paid low wages. There was no union and everyone was frightened of Mr Bateman and no one dared to ask for more. Many a time I have come home from work scarcely able to put one leg in front of another and milk and meal was all my widowed mother could afford. My father was killed when I was very young working in the 8-foot seam at Williamson’s.

Times have changed since then but if it were not for the Combination we would be back in those “ good old days”. We are blamed for trying to protect our wages, but no one says a word against the masters protecting their capital. We have a good a right to look after ourselves as anyone else. Some people think that the colliers are getting a great deal of money, but those making such fuss would not like to exchange work and wages with them”

On two conflicting religious houses

t was a colourful sight that would live long in the mind of those who witnessed it that autumn day in 1846. The assembled clergy representing the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in England had arrived in the Staffordshire Moorlands to assist in the consecration of newly built St Giles Church in Cheadle the inspired creation of architect Augustine Pugin.

The Morning Post of September 3^rd 1846 commented on the clergy “All were habited in the full costume of their rank- exhibiting a solemn and imposing scene and it was impossible to witness it without the mind carried back to those ancient times”. Amongst the assembled bishops was Seraph Heliani the Armenian Bishop of Jerusalem with long flowing beard and dressed in oriental robes- an exotic sight for the people of Cheadle.

The newspaper did not hold back in the praise lavished on the newly opened Church.

“Bright and glittering colours, gorgeous decoration, beautiful paintings meet the eye on every side until the senses become dazzled”

I visited St Giles for the first time recently: it is a stupendous sight, undoubtedly one of the great British churches of the early 19^th century. Whilst I was there I took the opportunity to visit the Museum opened to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the birth of Pugin. I marvelled that this architectural jewel could be in the Staffordshire Moorlands. I noticed that the visitor book was full of reverential comments. I added an appropriate quote from Gerald Manley Hopkins.

Later my mind turned to another impromptu visit made in July to a place of worship diametrically opposite to Roman Catholic opulence .The Primitive Methodist chapel in Milldale was the place I thought of. It was built a decade before St Giles. It is unadorned, bare, but for me it was as much imbued with the spirit of God as the Cheadle Church. The visitor book was as full of positive comments as was St Giles. The chapel is set in wonderful countryside beside the Dove and I was alone. I sat in silence to hear the birdsong in the copse next to the chapel and the flow of the river. It was as much a glimpse of heaven as Pugin’s marvel

 

 

 

 

“