Ken Knowles: Lichfield's Town Crier

Photograph © Ken Knowles

Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! With a resounding voice and ringing his bell Ken Knowles, the Lichfield Town Crier, made a dramatic entrance and announced himself as our guest speaker.

Ken was a teacher for 37 years and, after retirement in 2009, he applied for the post and was appointed town crier. He looked resplendent in his uniform with his black tricorn hat, red embroidered jacket and black leggings with silver buttons each side from knee to ankle. His wife, Marilyn, who accompanied him, helped to design and make his costume.

Repeatedly ringing his bell, he made us want to listen to his proclamation...

We learnt that town criers seem to have originated in around 1066, when people would gather in town squares to hear news and proclamations. The word Oyez dates back to Norman times and means listen to this. Ken also told us of the history of Lichfield, which is regarded as a city of philosophers and has the motto Hail Great Mother. Lichfieldians are proud of their most famous resident Dr Samuel Johnson (born in 1709) and the magnificent St Chad's cathedral and the city's many other listed buildings.

Ken acts as sword bearer and Master of Ceremonies at official events and has travelled the world entering, and sometimes winning, town crier competitions. He usually has to compose verses for these events and he concluded his talk with one of his winning entries...it is obviously something he enjoys.

Amongst other stories, he made us laugh when he related the time he posed in full regalia for a local art group. We couldn’t imagine him sitting still for hours without telling stories and entertaining his audience. He is such a character, dedicated to his duties but full of fun, and we much enjoyed his informative, yet light hearted, talk.

Christine Robinson: The Housekeeper's Tale

Photograph © Christine Robinson

Christine Robinson is a very good storyteller. From the start, she had us listening to every word about her forty years as the housekeeper at Chatsworth House, home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. While she was a student, she lived locally and had a Saturday job helping in the estate shop and became intrigued by the house and its occupants. This lead to a permanent post, learning from Dorothy Dean the housekeeper at that time.

Christine told us that Chatsworth House has been the Devonshire family home for 500 years and the archives hold details of many historical events. The 11^th Duke and Duchess loved to entertain and there is a warm atmosphere in this very grand house with the staff working as a team to ensure it is so. She described how everything is vacuumed and dusted every day with half a mile of corridors to be kept tidy. Books, of which there are more than 17,500, ceramics, sculptures, ornaments and carpets are all deep cleaned regularly. The chandeliers are taken down piece by piece and then carefully reassembled after cleaning with one containing a staggering 2763 pieces!

Sometime after the death of the Dowager Duchess (the former 11^th Duchess), Christine was surprised to be bequeathed a beautiful Delft pot and which contained a small box. On opening this, she found a ring with the initials “DD” which she recognised as one worn by her predecessor Dorothy Dean. Apparently this had been left to the Duchess because her initials were the same. In turn, the Duchess had thought that Christine might like it by which to remember her.

After the talk, Val McMinn proposed a vote of thanks to Christine and her dutiful husband, so called by Christine, who works quietly behind the scenes as all good husbands should! This was followed by a prize draw. There was a small jar of preserve from Chatsworth on each table and under it was a raffle ticket. Each guest had been allotted a ticket under their individual cup and saucer and there was therefore a winner on each table.

Keith Cattell: 1000 years of Stained Glass:

 Chartres cathedral

On one of the coldest days of winter with a temperature of -2°C, 63 hardy members braved the weather to attend our February lunch. Unfortunately, our scheduled speaker was prevented from attending due to the adverse travelling conditions and local architect and historian, Keith Cattell, stepped in at short notice, to save the day.

In his illustrated talk entitled 1000 years of stained glass, he explained that there is evidence of stained glass in Britain dating from 675AD. This was installed in churches and monasteries and came mainly from France because the glass was of a superior quality. The windows were mainly paid for by rich benefactors who were often depicted in the art work as were picture narratives from the Bible, of historic events and from literature.

It took great skill to produce the required colours of glass and the pigments were very expensive. This was achieved by adding metallic salts to the glass and then heating in it kilns to fuse the colour. After cooling, the coloured glass was cut into shaped pieces which were then held in place by strips of lead and secured by a rigid frame.

One unusual window was of Saint Apollonia who is regarded as the patron saint of dentistry and is shown holding a pair of pincers in her hand; this window can be seen in the parish church of Kingskerswell in Devon. Most of us had no idea that there was such a saint and the mere thought of tooth extraction made us shudder!

We learnt that Chartres cathedral has magnificent windows including some of the earliest examples of cobalt blue and Coventry Cathedral houses fine examples of modern stained glass artwork. One modern artist Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) was prolific in producing stained glass and a fine example was installed in a chapel St Blaise des Simples at Milly la Foret near to Fontainebleau in France where he lived and is interred. It is a very modern, mainly blue, design named Seen and not seen which when viewed upside down, reveals a hidden face.

Keith was thanked for attending at such short notice and for his very interesting talk.