In 2018 Village Historian Frank Hartley compiled a series of articles for the Village Magazine to bring together stories from the Villages past relating to the current month. This is the December article.
Christmas is coming and, like Little Jack Horner, I shall “put my thumb” into the Christmas pie of Church Lawford’s and King’s Newnham’s yuletide past in the hope of pulling out a few plums and thereby acquiring “good boy” status.
Christmas is, of course, the time of parties and festivities for both children and “grown- ups” and the early post-war world of 1949 was enlivened by a slightly belated Christmas party, held in Church Lawford’s “gaily decorated” Reading Room, hosted by the St John’s Ambulance Brigade Nursing Cadets and attended by eighty children from both of our villages. After tea, the children were treated to a visit from Father Christmas who redeemed himself for his tardiness in being a few days late by distributing a gift for each child to general delight. Dancing and games followed for the older children. The party was organised by a Committee of helpers, which included:- Miss D Ingram, Mrs Paxton, Mrs Tom Gibbs, Mrs Heckford and Mrs Birch. On similar lines, the RAF camp at Church Lawford organised parties for children from local orphanages In December 1952. For example, twenty children from the Princess Alice Orphanages were entertained by the station’s own theatre group.
It is pleasing to note that the well -established practice of entertaining the bell-ringers at this time of year, in recognition of their dedicated and skilled ropepulling is evident in accounts of Christmas past. For instance, in 1904, the ringers were entertained to refreshments on New Year’s Eve at the Manor House at Church Lawford by Mr and Mrs Edward Riley. They were no doubt pleased to receive seasonal sustenance before commencing their ringing “as soon as the clock had struck the midnight hour” (instead of afterwards as had hitherto been the accepted practice). We are told that the ringers, well-fortified by their recent repast, rang out the bells “in a joyous peal”. The Riley hospitality was again “on offer” two years later on New Year’s Eve 1906. We are told that, “They [the bell-ringers] assembled at 10 o’clock when Mr and Mrs Riley were waiting to receive them. A few other friends had also been invited and the interval was very pleasantly spent till it was time to proceed to the church.” For a few minutes the bell was tolled for the passing of the old year before “a merry peal” rang out to usher in the new. The report is a veritable cameo of village life at its best.
The year which our village bellringers were ringing out is notable for the “landslide” General Election held in the January which returned a Liberal Government, led by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, with almost 400 seats and an absolute majority in the House – a feat that has yet to be repeated by the Liberal Party. “C-B”, as he was affectionately known, has, in a very formal sense, some claim to be regarded as Britain’s first “Prime Minister” as that term was first included in the Order of Precedence a few days after he became First Lord of the Treasury. He resigned through ill-health in April 1908 and was replaced by Asquith. Readers may be interested to learn that there is only one person in Britain alive today who was alive when the bell-ringers of Church Lawford rang out the year of 1906 but Grace Catherine Rich was far away in Liverpool and, one hopes, being midnight, fast asleep as a three month old baby would be expected to be.
Edward Riley’s generous and festive spirit was again on display in that Christmas of 1904 when he was named as one of the local farmers who gave each of his employees “a piece of beef”, along with Messrs. Brierley and Dunn of King’s Newnham and Messrs. Chalmers, Cullen and Wotherspoon of Church Lawford. Edward Riley, by all accounts, was something of an entertainer. In March 1894, he was one of the entertainers at the Church of England Temperance Society meeting in Church Lawford where he sang, “Daddy wouldn’t buy me a bow wow”, a recently written song made famous by Vesta Victoria, the music hall artiste, and was encored.
He appeared in a performance held at Brinklow Conservative Club on 17th February 1896 where he “delighted the crowded house with his humorous songs, “The usual” and “The Fatherland”, both of which were encored”. He seemed to “team up” well with Isabella Whiteman, the singing daughter of Church Lawford’s blacksmith who also appeared.
December 1899 was an eventful month for Edward. On Saturday the 9th, one of his labourers lost his footing while descending a rick and fell 12ft. Although shaken and badly bruised he luckily escaped serious injury. On the evening of the following Tuesday, Mr Riley, detecting a strong smell of burning, discovered a fire under the hearthstone of the schoolroom, which was upstairs. With the assistance of Messrs Cooke and Pincham, “a few buckets of water stopped what might have reduced this picturesque old house to ruins, as its inside structure is mainly composed of very old timbers”.
Edward Riley took a leading role in the village. On 24 March 1899 at the Annual Parish Meeting, Edward Riley was unanimously re-elected as chairman of the Parish Council. The process was conducted under the requirements of the Local Government Act of 1894 which established elected parish councils in rural areas. In 1903 Edward Riley continues to hold the position of Chairman. In addition he is an Overseer of the Poor, a nominated Assessor of Taxes and School Manager. He was also a Churchwarden for 12 years- a diligent servant of the village indeed. A little research indicates that Edward Riley was born in 1863 to Charles Turner Riley and his wife Mary. He was born in the rural village of Milton Keynes, which was transformed in the 1960s into a populous city, with numerous roundabouts, where even the cows are concrete. Charles Riley is described as a farmer and landowner holding 481 acres and employing 14 workers.
Edward is shown as living in Church Lawford in 1888 when he marries Ellen Beasley of Rugby, the daughter of a butcher. He is farming at the Manor in 1901. In 1911 Edward is still living at the Manor House along with Ellen and daughters, Evelyn Jane and Margaret Mary. In the Great War he was a member of the Rugby Food Production Company which worked to increase the supply of homegrown food. In later years he moved to Watchbury Farm at Barford along with his wife and unmarried daughter, Margaret Mary.
He died on 5th of May 1931 and is buried at Barford. Probate was granted to his widow and unmarried daughter. In his Obituary Notice he is described as, “well known and highly respected” “of a cheery disposition” and “had a wonderful gift for recalling dates with regard to the weather”.
Finally in our Yuletide miscellany and following on from last month’s article where I discussed the Church Lawford Peace Babies, I can present readers with a short list of village Christmas Babies which I gleaned at random from the Church Records. One caveat should be noted: I have had to be guided by the date of baptism as the date of birth is not usually recorded in our earlier baptismal records. I have applied a liberal interpretation of “Christmas” to cover Christmas- tide. Our earliest recorded Christmas baby is William Cox, son of Robert Cox, who was baptised on Christmas Day itself 1579. The date is interesting to me because in that year Archbishop Grindal’s visitation recorded that the living of Church Lawford was sequestered because the rector, William Bolton, was “suspected of simony”. This is quite a serious matter; simony being the sale of a spiritual office for temporal gain and I hope to write further about the issue in a subsequent article.
On Christmas Eve 1893, Alice Marion Cooke, daughter of Harry Mason Cooke, butcher, and his wife, Alice, was baptised. It seems likely to me that Harry Mason Cooke was the Mr Cooke cited above. In 1911 Alice is shown as being a milliner. Evelyn Jane Riley, the elder daughter of the Edward Riley noted above, was baptised on December 19th 1892. She married a George Vines in 1918. Rose Anna Frankton was baptised on Christmas Day 1866. Rose was the daughter of Henry Frankton, who was a Sawyer, and his wife Ann, nee Dumble- ton. In 1896, Rose married Albert Victor Brown in Southwark, London.
Happy Yuletide to all. Frank Hartley