Black History Month Past and Present

The purpose of Black History Month is to acknowledge the contribution that people of African descent have made to history, so that they can celebrate their ancestral heritage and it can be embraced by all people in British society. It was started in 1987 and continues to be celebrated in October every year with a range of events celebrating the African diaspora (people of African descent 'dispersed' around the world).

Family photograph from Claudia Rennie

It is commonly thought that people of African descent were absent from Britain until the arrival of the immigrant ship Empire Windrush from Jamaica in 1948. However, there are records of black people in the British Isles since at least the 3rd century AD, when an African division of Roman soldiers is believed to have been stationed at Hadrian’s Wall. References are made to black people living in Bedfordshire from 1661 in Parish Registers, which note both baptisms and funerals.

Extract of William Rudd's will leaving part of his estate and an annual stipend to his maid servant Sabina.
Courtesy of BLARS, Ref: abp-wl745-22

A connection existed between the Caribbean and Bedfordshire sometimes as a result of local ownership of plantations by wealthy land owners. For example, the Payne family had plantations in St Kitts from the beginning of the eighteenth century.  There were individuals locally that also fought for the abolition of slavery on plantations, including Henry Thornton of Moggerhanger Park. Occasionally plantation owners would bring their maid and man servants with them back to England when they visited. One of the few black maid servants mentioned in the Bedfordshire archive records, but who we know very little about how she came to Bedfordshire, is Sabina who was employed by William Rudd of Carlton. He specified in his will that ‘Sabina the black’ would live in a cottage as part of his estate with a stipend of £5 per annum. Sabina became the first black woman to be recorded to marry in Bedfordshire. She wed Robert Newton at St. Paul’s Church on the 23rd December 1745.

Moggerhanger Park, originally home to the Thornton family and supporters of the anti-slavery campaign.

Discrimination against black people is reported in the Bedford Bee local newspaper 19^th November 1879. A letter was written by American Harvard graduate, De Witter Dumas, who had been unable to find employment in Bedford despite his qualifications and references, leaving him starving and homeless. 

Jamaican born Joe Clough became a local celebrity in Bedford during the early 20^th Century. He was well known as a local bus, and later taxi, driver, having come to Bedford in 1912. Most notably he drove the Poppy Bus for the British Legion every year. Joe Clough was probably the first West Indian from the area to join the Army Service Corps at Kempston barracks in 1915 and drove an ambulance in France during the First World War. Many people from African Caribbean descent also served in the British Army during the Second World War, supporting their ‘mother country’, and to them we owe a great debt.

Joe Clough in front of the ' Poppy Bus', Eastern National Omnibus Company, who Joe worked for from 1919 until 1947.
Courtesy of BLARS Ref: Z1306/13uncat

Ten years ago Bedford Museum celebrated Black History Month with an exhibition called 'The Front Room' exploring the history of individuals from the Caribbean coming to Bedford during the 1950s and 60s. Following the war, due to a lack of employment opportunities in their homeland many people from the Caribbean came to England in search of an income to support their families. Some companies with labour shortages encouraged applications by immigrants, including the brickworks and Britannia Works. In 2001 some oral history recordings were carried out with local groups, such as the Cabana Club, to record local people’s experiences. Their photographs were also shared with visitors through the ‘Memory Bank’ computer in the gallery, some of which you can see below (press play).

Here is an extract from an interview with Josephine Corrion, who shared her story with us of coming to Bedford from Trinidad, during the 1960’s.

“I was born in Carriacou, sister island of Grenada. At the age of 19 I left home and went to Trinidad to get married, that was 1954 and in 1955 my first child was born.  I lived there for 7, 8 years.  I’ve got four children and 3 of my 4 children were born in Trinidad …My husband got a job; my brother got him a job at the Britannia steelworks, iron foundry …I took a job on a farm planting peas and beans and potato.  There were hundreds of us on that ship and my brother was waiting for me and we boarded a train. It took about a week and a half …when we arrived at Southampton the immigration …officers were nice.

I applied at Bromham Hospital, domestics and … I got a letter telling me that (I had) an interview … When I got there the Matron called me in and she … asked me all sorts of questions and I answered, to the best of my ability and in the end she said “I’m sorry Mrs Corrion, I haven’t got a job for you as a domestic”. I thought to myself “Oh no, you’ve kept me talking all this time and she hasn’t got a job for me”. She said “But I have got a vacancy for a nursing assistant.  Would you like that?” I said “Oh please.” … I was accepted and that was in 1963 and I worked there, in Bromham Hospital for 31 years.”

“I must tell you the Bedford Carnival started in my dining room!

My daughter Elma being born in Trinidad and always hav(ing) the sound of the steel band drum in her head.  She started it.  I explained how things should be done and what they should do and do it on the cheap and they did.  She had open(ed) up a workshop and the people bought their costume themselves. It went for three years and I don’t really know what happened.  Bedford Carnival is no more, but it was nice, it was nice.”

Before Bedford Museum closed for re-development an exhibition was hosted in 2010, as part of our Audience Development HLF funded work, in association with Utopia Mas, a Carnival Troupe run by Bedfordians David and Judith Brown. David and Judith run workshops for young people to encourage their appreciation of the Carnival tradition and to bring communities together. Below is a slide show of some of the carnivals Utopia Mas have taken part in (press play).

“I am very lucky that Mrs Brown works at my school St Gregory’s, so I was amongst the first to join Utopia Mas when she started it. I have always liked singing and dancing so this was a great way to meet new people, have fun and learn new dances. As part of the group, I have travelled to different carnivals all over the place from the local Luton carnival that is one of the biggest, all the way to the Isle of Wight. My favourite carnival was Notting Hill Gate because it was one of the largest carnivals I had been to. I had always wanted to go there from a young age and taking part in it was a very exciting time for me.

We’ve danced in the sunshine and also in the pouring rain but it was still fun being with all the friends I have made. Utopia Mas consists of many different schools with people from all ages. I am happy that I have been able to mix with people I never would have met if I hadn’t of joined the carnival band in the beginning of 2009.

I am now looking forward to 2010 and many more years of dancing and I hope they shall be bigger and better, and pray more people will join to make our dance group greater”. 
Claire Collins, age 12, Utopia Mas participant.

Our next venture at the Art Gallery and Museum is to expand both our oral history archive and our collections to better reflect the culturally diverse heritage of Bedfordshire. Through our Audience Development Project, funded by the HLF, we have plans to work in partnership with the Bedford African and Caribbean Forum. This partnership will help us to make our collections and displays more representative and inclusive of all Bedford’s diverse communities in the future.

The BACF are rounding up the Black History Month celebrations with their ‘We are Amazing Finale’. This is a culmination of events that have taken place during the month with a variety award show. It will be held at the Addison Centre, Kempston on Saturday 29^th October, from 6pm. All are welcome! See their Black History Month Diary for ticket prices and further details.

Lydia Saul,

Keeper of Social History

Acknowledgements:
Thanks to Bedfordshire and Luton Records and Archives Service (BLARS) for the information and image of William Rudd's Will and picture of Joe Clough.
Thanks to the participants of 'The Front Room' exhibition for their photographs.
Thanks to Utopia Mas for giving us permission to show their photographs.

Object of the Week : ‘La Mort Poursuivant le Troupeau des Humains’ by James Ensor

'La Mort Poursuivant le Troupeau des Humains' 1896, James Ensor, etching on paper

With Halloween fast approaching I thought I would share with you one of my favourite spooky images from the Cecil Higgins collection, ‘La Mort Poursuivant le Troupeau des Humains’ or ‘Death Pursuing the Herd of Humanity’ by the Belgian artist James Ensor (1860-1949).

Ensor's work contains carnival masks, puppetry and skeletons which were probably influenced by his family’s souvenir and curiosity shop in the seaside town of Ostend.
‘My childhood was filled with marvellous dreams and frequent visits to my grandmothers shop, with its iridescent glow from the reflections of the shells, sumptuous lace, strange stuffed animals and terrible savage weapons that terrified me’.


The flying web footed skeleton brandishing a bladed scythe, terrorising the hoard below is one of Ensor’s more gruesome images of skeletons. They could also be reminders of mortality in the same way as memento mori jewellery or the 17th century ‘Vanitas’ still life paintings of Northern Europe. He would even paint himself as a skeleton as seen in 'Skeleton Artist in his Studio', 1896.

James Ensor in his studio, Anonymous, 1896/1897 AMVC House of Literature, Antwerp

Skeleton Artist in his Studio, 1896 Koninklijk Museum Voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp

However, what is far scarier than Ensor’s print is the thought that the drawing that it is based on, in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, is still missing after being stolen from an exhibition in the The Hague in June. Now that's the stuff of curators nightmares!

The Triumph of the Death, 1887 Koninklijk Museum Voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp

If you want to find out more about Ensor and see other works by him there is a great online museum that you can visit.

Victoria Partridge
Keeper of Fine and Decorative Art

The Curious Mr Howard

When packing the library collections I noticed an extensive number of biographies produced over the centuries about Mr John Howard. He, aside from Bunyan, is the most familiar name within and outside of Bedford connected with its history, and there is still recognition for his valiant efforts as a prison reformer. As one of his biographers put it, Howard "was as eager to get into prisons as Bunyan was to get out".

John Howard, Lithograph by Antoine Maurin, 1820's - 30's, after artist Mather Brown 1789,
original in National Portait Gallery, reproduction from Lantern Slide, BEDFM 1974.27.1537

John Howard’s accurate birth date is not known, but it is generally acknowledged as 1726. His mother died when he was a boy and John’s father sent him to boarding school in Hertford around 1733. When John’s father died in 1742 he was an apprentice to Newnham and Shepley, grocers and sugar merchants near St. Paul’s in London. Following his father’s death, using the money he inherited, he set off on a Grand Tour of Europe, which was a popular thing to do during the age, and discovered an enthusiasm for travel abroad. John was taken ill with a ‘nervous fever’ and cut his travels short with a visit to Hotwells in Bristol. Around 1751 he lodged with Sarah Lardeau at Stoke Newington who cared for him during his illness and he married her a year later. She unfortunately died after three years of marriage.

Bristol Delftware Plate from Howard's dinner-service. BEDFM 2006.198

In 1757 Howard set off for Lisbon following a devastating earthquake there – curious to see the damage to the country and still recovering from the loss of his wife. The ship he travelled on, the Hanover, was captured by privateers and he was imprisoned firstly at Brest Castle, later some of the crew were held at Dinan. “In the castle at Brest I lay six nights upon the straw; and observing how cruelly my countrymen were used there … I had sufficient evidence of their being treated with such barbarity, that many hundreds perished; and that thirty-six were buried in a hole in Dinan in one day”.

Earthquake at Lisbon, 1755. BEDFM 1974.27.1570

Howard was fortunate that he was treated as if he was an English officer and was paroled to live as an almost-free man. He was eventually released and returned to England in exchange for a French Officer being released in his stead. When he returned he immediately complained about the abuses of the Englishmen he had witnessed to the Commisioners for the Care of Sick and Wounded Seamen, including Prisoners-of-war. This was the first attempt by Howard to reduce the suffering of prisoners. The event appears to be formative in his interest in seeing justice for those imprisoned inhumanely.

Henrietta Leeds, John Howard's second wife. BEDFM 1974.27.1542

After 1757 Howard moved to Cardington to his father’s estate and started making improvements to the cottages for the workers on the estate. On 25^th April 1758, he married Henrietta Leeds and moved to Watcombe Park in Hampshire for three years due to Henrietta’s poor health. In 1763 he made improvements to his own house at Cardington.

Howard's House at Cardington before improvements. BEDFM 1974.27.1544

On 25^th March 1765 Henrietta gave birth to their son, Jack. Sadly, a few days after the birth, Henrietta died suddenly. John struggled to come to terms with Henrietta’s death and decided on a period of travel abroad, which was again to be interrupted by restorative visits to Bath and Bristol for his health.

He returned to Cardington in 1770 as at this time he is recorded as contributing £50 toward a new Pulpit. He later split from Bunyan Meeting Church in 1772, after a disagreement with the then minister over disallowing child baptism and went on to form his own Congregational Church further along Mill Street in 1774.

Howard Congregational Church, Mill Street. BEDFM 1974.27.131

John was appointed High Sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1773, after being nominated by and with persuasion from Mr Samuel Howard Whitbread to take up the role.

His attendance at the Assizes Court was the first time since his own imprisonment as a Prisoner of War that he had come into contact with real prisoners. Afterwards he decided to investigate the conditions of prisons locally, with his first visit to Bedford and Cambridge jails in that same year. He then travelled up and down the country gathering evidence and statistics for his report, published in 1777, on the State of the Prisons. He highlighted that a great deal of reform was needed to relieve the suffering and in particular he pursued the issue of debtors being trapped in prison by the release fees, set and administered by the jailor and forced to languish in jail. His main suggestion was the abolition of the Jailors fees, and paying the governor a fair annual salary by way of compensation from the state. He raised the issues of disease, malnutrition and lack of adequate facilities for prisoners that equated not only to a harsh punishment, but in effect a death sentence for many.

John Howard visiting prisoners, thought to be by James Gillray,
reproduction from Lantern Slide BEDFM 1974.27.1528.

Howard became obsessed with providing the evidence, not just in England, but also for comparisons of prison conditions Europe wide. He extended his travels to France, Switzerland, Holland, Germany and the Netherlands. In 1781 he extended his visits to Russia and Poland. In 1785 he set off to explore the causes of the plague and in 1786 he became quarantined at a lazaretto (a quarantine camp) near Venice. Following his publication Lazarettos and Tuscan Law on his seventh foreign visit he arrived at Kherson in the Ukraine. In January 1790 he nursed a young woman at Kherson who was suffering from a fever and unfortunately he caught the disease himself. He died just 12 days later. He was given a grand funeral in the Ukraine, although this was against his wishes and a memorial was created in his honour, that survives in Kherson today. At John Howard's express wishes a modest memorial was placed at St. Mary's Church, Cardington above his wife Henrietta's inscription.

Photograph of the unveiling of John Howard's Statue in St. Paul's Square, 1894. BEDFM 1974.27.1554a

Over a hundred years later in 1894 Bedford commemorated John Howard by unveiling a statue in St. Paul’s Square. A ha'penny was also produced in commemoration of his work, with the inscription 'Remember the Debtors in Jail'.   

The Howard Penal Reform League was first formed in 1866 based on the principles John Howard had established through his international prison research, and to be a society for debate and reform in prisons for the future. You can find out more at The Howard Penal Reform League website .

Front cover of Tessa West's new biography The Curious Mr Howard, published 2011

The Curious Mr Howard by Tessa West is a newly published biography about the prison reformer. Tessa’s background of working both in education and within prisons gave her an insight and empathy with John Howard. In her introduction she states she was inquisitive to know what motivated Howard to travel as widely as he did and explore such horrendous conditions in prisons at considerable risk to his own health. She was interested in seeking a little more from known sources about his personality and character. Tessa endeavours to move away from the glorifying biographies to look more realistically at the man and his actions.

One aspect of John Howard that Tessa West explores in some detail in her biography is a scientific exploratory paper from 2001 by a psychiatrist looking at whether Howard may have suffered from Aspergers syndrome or something similar. His awkwardness with people, his strict religious beliefs and routines, his difficulty with numbers and writing, his insistent punctuality, his numerous re-visiting of prisons over and over are all suggestive factors. Many of his contemporaries noted his unusual or peculiar behaviour and at times even he referred to himself as ‘Mad Jack Howard’. The Gentleman’s magazine wrote the following obituary, when having received news of ‘the not unexpected, yet certainly untimely, death of the eccentric but truly worthy John Howard, Esq.”. Perhaps it was his eccentricities that made him well suited for the task he set himself of striving for prison reform, and gave him comfort from a life that had been less than ideal, but at least had proved worthwhile. 

Lydia Saul

Keeper of Social History

Acknowledgements:
Thanks to Tessa West author of The Curious Mr Howard from which most of the facts cited above were compiled. Thanks also to Waterside Press, the publishers for providing a complimentary copy for the Museum and Art Gallery Library.

Object of the Week: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Heritage Henredon Furniture

Bookcase and Chest of Drawers, Frank Lloyd Wright about 1955, Cecil Higgins Collection

In fifties America, if you couldn’t live in one of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses, the next best thing was to fill your existing house with his line of home furnishings.


Frank Lloyd Wright Heritage Henredon Fine Furniture advertisement, 1950s

The range, which was designed by Wright and produced in partnership with five different companies, included fabrics, wallpapers, a palette of 36 custom mixed paint colours, rugs and 75 pieces of furniture made by Heritage Henredon.

Wright had been designing furniture for his buildings since the 1890’s, writing in 1908 that ‘the most satisfactory apartments are those in which most or all of the furniture is built in as a part of the original scheme.’ So his decision in his late eighties to produce furniture commercially was seen by some as a compromise of his ideals.

Wright designed three separate lines for Heritage Henredon, ‘Burberry’ circular in form, ‘Honeycomb’ more triangular and ‘Four Square’ which was the most conservative of the designs. ‘Four Square was the only one chosen by the company to go into production, renamed ‘Taliesin’ after Wrights Wisconsin home.

‘Furniture by Frank Lloyd Wright’ Margery R. Phillips

The Seattle Times 25 December 1955

The furniture was designed to have ‘infinite adaptability to American living’. Desks could be used as dressing tables, small tables could double up as chairs and bookcases had moveable tops so that could be used as room dividers or on top of chests of drawers. Smaller pieces could fit together to form larger ensembles; the sofas had cushions with cut off corners to which smaller tables could be fitted. Decoration was limited to the edges so that ‘is of the piece, not on it’ and there were no handles only drawer pulls which could ‘catch light and shadow for interesting and changing patterns’.

Frank Lloyd Wright Heritage Henredon Fine Furniture advertisement, 1950’s

‘Furniture for the living-dining area has never been so thoughtfully designed. Mr Wright has been working with the combination area over 50 years, so it is no wonder that the low dining table and chairs keep their place and blend so beautifully for more comfortable, relaxed living.’

Unfortunately whilst the advertising at the time stated ‘We have been asked who will like this totally new-type of furniture and our answer is that everyone will because it is the next trend’, the furniture failed to be popular with the American public. Whilst the line wasn’t unprofitable, repeat orders from stockists were insufficient to justify its production and Wright ended his contract with the company in 1956.

Victoria Partridge
Keeper of Fine and Decorative Art

P.S. I could have written a whole other blog on Wright’s beautiful ‘Taliesin Ensemble’ fabric and wallpaper designs, but unfortunately we don’t have any in the collection. To see some online have a look at The Metropolitan Museum of Art website who have this amazing fabric (below) by F. Schumacher and Company.or the Victoria & Albert Museum who have some of Wright’s wallpaper.

Design 104 in wood brown Manufactured by F. Schumacher and Company, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Baillie Scott in Bedford

When you walk around Bedford, it wouldn't immediately strike you as the home of one of the leading lights of the Arts & Crafts movement. Whilst the unkind treatment of the town by the 1960s often detracts from the more interesting architectural features of the town, you haven't unwittingly walked past the evidence: Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott's (1865-1945) 12 years living and working in Bedford unfortunately left no obvious landmarks in the heart of the town. So, for the uninitiated, who was Baillie Scott, why did he come to Bedford, and what did he do while he was here?

Who was Baillie Scott?
Baillie Scott was an important figure in the Arts and Crafts movement, which was the most significant form of architecture from 1890 to the First World War. Scott was a designer of houses and furniture who had great success in this country and in Europe. Born in Ramsgate, Kent, in 1865 he grew up in a world already familiar with William Morris's ideals of good design. Despite an initial education in agriculture in Gloucestershire, his reading of Morris, Philip Webb and Norman Shaw led him to take up architecture. After first taking a position in Bath, he moved to the Isle of Man were he spent 12 years and where he came to maturity as a designer.  He developed an idea of the intergrated interior, where the furnishings should be in harmony with the structure of the space, and details such as the mantlepiece would be designed with the decoration to sit on it in mind. Stylistically, he moved from a medieval Morris-inspired style to a cleaner and simpler approach, following in Voysey's footsteps, eschewing elaborate decoration of  surfaces and creating furniture in simple, elegant forms. He clarified his ideas in the book Houses and Gardens, 1906.



Blackwell, Cumbria, photo from the Lakelands Trust.

One of his most famous houses is Blackwell, in Cumbria, run by the excellent Lakelands Arts Trust. The house is open for visitors, and you can even see some of our collection of W.A.S. Benson lighting on display in the stunning rooms. The German architect Hermann Muthesius described Blackwell as   "…one of the most attractive creations that the new movement in house-building has produced" and credited Baillie Scott with the "new idea of the interior as an autonomous work of art...each room is an individual creation."

Why did he come to Bedford?


Bedford had one very strong asset to a designer of interiors. John P. White's Pyghtle Works was renowned for the quality of its output and was patronised by important designers and architects, such as Sir Raymond Unwin, for its wood and metalwork. Positioned by the railway, the Pyghtle was well connected to the rest of the country and J. P. White had a showroom in London on Margaret Street to sell its products. In 1901, the year he moved to Bedford, Baillie Scott produced a catalogue of furniture for White and for one with such attention to detail, being able to visit the works on a regular basis must have very beneficial. Scott was also a family man with young children, and the strong reputation of the town's schools, which had been so important in the late 19th century growth of the town, would also have been an attraction.


Surely someone in Bedford would have commissioned him to design their house?

While Bedford wasn't completely devoid of artistic, forward thinking people in need of a house, the social make-up of ex-colonial types, who had come to Bedford to school their children, was overwhelmingly traditional in its outlook. Miss Susan Margaret Collie, appointed head of Bedford High School in 1899, was one exception to the rule: on her appointment she commissioned the young Scottish Architect Andrew N. Prentice to design the Norman Shaw inspired 56 De Parys Avenue, and, in fact, Baillie Scott's first contact with Bedford may have came from another artistically minded Bedfordian patron.

 56, De Parys Avenue, by A. N. Prentice.

Design for a house in Bedford for Carl St Amory.
Published in The Building News, August 30th 1895

Carl St Amory was an extravagant figure for Bedford at that time, a musician and a writer of operettas, he regularly held concerts at the Corn Exchange. In 1895 he commissioned Scott to design a house for him. The designs were exhibited at the Royal Academy and published in The Building News (pictured right) but for it may have been that the more rural setting of Bedford's surrounding villages suited his designs better. Scott designed two houses for clients in Biddenham, a Miss Steele and a Miss Street, and Mr A. A. Tealby commissioned a house in Sharnbrook. Scott himself set up home and office in a converted cottage on the site of Fenlake Manor, after initially setting up at 4 Windsor Place, on the corner of St. Cuthbert's Street and Goldington Road. It was at Fenlake that he wrote Houses and Gardens, but tragically the house burnt down in 1911 taking with it all of his records, and after a disrupted period in St. Johns Street and Elstow he eventually moved to London in 1913. See the interactive map below.

Kristian Purcell,
Curatorial Assistant

The core of the information in this blog came from two essays by Simon Houfe, 'The Villa Architecture of Bedford III - M. H. Baillie Scott', Bedfordshire Magazine Vol. XII (Luton, 1971) p141-146, and 'Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott - Craftsman Architect' the Foreword to: M. H. Baillie Scott, Houses and Gardens (Woodbridge, 1995)

A Google Map of Baillie Scott related locations:

View Bedford Architecture: M H Baillie Scott in a larger map



The Primrose League for Empire and Liberty!

Following the Conservative Party conference last week, this object of the week looks at the history of the Primrose League. I stumbled across a group of very attractive badges in the collection during the packing project that had been presented to members of the political organisation, the Primrose League. The Primrose League was set up by Lord Randolph Churchill (father of Winston Churchill) in the memory of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) in 1883.

Portrait of Benjamin Disraeli for the Primrose League, Item 158, 

© Bodleian Library 

  On the 19^th April every year Primrose Day was celebrated in remembrance of Disraeli, because Primroses were said to be his favourite flowers. Queen Victoria sent two wreaths of Primroses on the occasion of Disraeli’s funeral. There is also an oil painting titled  Primrose Day, 1885 by Frank Bramley in the Tate Collection.

The League's motto was ‘Imperium et Libertas’, Empire & Liberty, which features on many of the badges and insignia issued, as well as their PL monogram. Co-incidentally, Bedfordian Col. Frederick Burnaby was instrumental in the early establishment of the Primrose League and sat on the first Ruling Council. The first ‘Habitation’ was set up at the Strand on Primrose Day, 1884.
The League was important at this time as an agent of progress within the Tory party. It marked a split from the more traditional supporters within the landed classes, to encompass a more popular appeal. The new League became much more inclusive of women and younger members than previously encouraged by the Party.

Ladies Grand Council Member's Badge, this particular ribbon also contains several Special Service badges, a PL Champion badge and a badge 'For Recruiting'.

 The League was based on a friendly society style organisation, by subscription rather than eligibility to vote. The structure included a National Grand Council for which individuals could be elected. Each region also had its own Divisional Council and at grass-roots level individual ‘Habitations’ or lodges were set up locally for members to gather political support for the Conservative Party.  From 1885, a separate branch under the title of the Ladies Grand Council was set up specifically representing female members.

Primrose League Warrant for  the 'Harvey' Habitation being set up at Potton,
1st August 1894. BEDFM 1999.398

Typically each Habitation consisted of a Ruling Councillor, Honorary Secretary, Executive Council, and Wardens aside from the standard membership. The Wardens performed a number of tasks essential to the operation of the association including recruiting members, collecting subscriptions, circulating pamphlets, and assisting in the canvassing and registration efforts undertaken to assist political candidates. The general membership was divided into Dames for women and Knights for men, with other members being known as Associates. Habitations could also be served by Dame Presidents, who were at a similar level to the Ruling Councillor.



 Membership was graded one (the lowest) to five. Star medals were awarded to Knights and Dames who had made an outstanding contribution to furthering the principles of the League.

Primrose League Star Medal awarded for outstanding contribution

Also Special Service badges were awarded to members  in recognition of their efforts within the organisation. The Junior Primrose League members became known as Primrose Buds.

Primrose League Ribbon with many badges attached including Juvenile Branch Secretary, 1918 Special Service badge, Delegate badges for 1921, 1923 & 1924, and General Election Badge 1922.

The types of fundraising events attended included summer village fetes. This photograph shows one such fete at Bromham in 1912 when well-known aviator Claude Graham-White a previous Bedford School Pupil visited. Unfortunately he was running nearly an hour late and a vast crowd had gathered both within the fete boundary and outside it. The crowd went mad with excitement when Claude arrived, tore down the hessian fence you can see in the background  of this photograph and mobbed the plane. Claude was so alarmed at the lack of crowd control that he flew off, almost as soon as he had arrived. You can see Claude Graham-White on the right hand side shaking hands and facing the camera. You can also see the threat from the heads of the external crowd poking over the fence moments before it collapsed.

Aviator Claude Graham-White (far right facing camera) at Bromham Primrose League Summer Fete, 1912.
Courtesy of BLARS, Ref: Z1306-21-10

Poster for Primrose League Summer Fete at Melchbourne, 1908
Courtesy of BLARS, Ref: PK10-2-1

The Primrose League was incredibly successful in its early years, by 1891 having recruited over a million members. At this time the League was the largest and one of the most influential groups affiliated to any political party. After WW1 their activities and influence waned and towards the end of the 20th century the League’s role was superseded by the Conservative Central Office. The League finally came to an end quite recently, closing its membership in 2004.

Lydia Saul, Keeper of Social History

Acknowledgements:

Thanks to the Conservative Party Archive at the Bodleian Library.

Thanks to the Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service (BLARS) for the pictures relating to Primrose League Fetes. 

A Glimpse of Life from the Edge Or "Let’s get something out of the freezer for dinner"

Whilst trying to unravel the evidence for early human occupation of our area during the Ice Age I have been struck by not only the wealth of artefacts we have in our collections but also the depth of pioneering research carried out by some of our notable Victorian antiquarian collectors. Some of these names include James Wyatt (1816-1878) and Worthington G Smith (1835-1917).

Both of these collectors were amongst the first to realise that these roughly hewn flint shapes appearing deep down in the river gravels were not the result of natural rolling and bashing in the riverbed but were very deliberate, specialised, manmade tools.

They also realised that because the flint tools were appearing in the same deposits as those containing the bones and tusks from ice age mammals that early man had to be contemporary with many of the larger mammals. The concept that mankind have evolved over time did not always sit very happily with the official church doctrines or even with society in general at the time.

More recently an internationally renowned expert in the field for this period, Dr.John Wymer (1928-2006), wrote of the gravel pits at Biddenham as having “the distinction of being the first prolific Palaeolithic sites to have been discovered in Britain.”

The flint tools retrieved from these sites tend to be fairly large, roughly shaped hand axes and flakes. Today when we handle these items they seem smoothed and worn and this is precisely what has happened to them. These once razor sharp tools have been removed from their place of discard or last use and have been swept along by ancient rivers which became flooded and turbulent with the melt waters from ice sheets and glaciers melting and refreezing over a long period of time.

The sort of time period experts are talking about for the Palaeolithic period is 1,000,000 BC to 10,000 BC. Looking at this almost incomprehensible span of time we are doing well to find any evidence for large mammals let alone humans and even when we have found them, we have to be able to recognise them!

A selection of flakes and hand axes from Biddenham, Beds.

So what were our ancestors doing with these flint tools? Evidence for their use comes from two main sources, the objects themselves and a more recently evolved method of study, Experimental Archaeology.

Some finds of bones of Ice Age mammals have been found cracked and broken in a specific way and this has led archaeologists to believe that humans were using the heavy and sharp hand axes to deliberately open up the bones to remove the nutritious bone marrow from within. Other bones show cut marks and scrapes indicating that the sharp flint tools were used to cut flesh and sinews from the bone.

We are really fortunate to have in our collections from Kempston a bone which shows this very direct activity, which we still to this day have in common with our ancestors. At first sight the small rather tatty bone looks nothing special but closer inspection shows a series of parallel cut marks, evidence of the sharp edge from a flint blade cutting into the bone as the user was stripping the flesh from the bone

A bone from Kempston with visible cut marks.

The popular image of early man and their diet often starts with the premise that people hunted in bands killing large wild animals and supplementing their diet with berries and leaves. Whilst some of this may be the case it is more likely that early hunters were more scavengers of already dead or nearly dead game. The need to keep close to the animals that roamed around the landscape would lead them by necessity to have a nomadic life style. During the warmer periods throughout this vast expanse of time they could dine on elephant, deer, oxen, rhinoceros, hyena and maybe even hippopotamus. During the colder periods the choice of menu would change to mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, reindeer, bison and arctic hare.

Once you start to think more deeply and consider the evidence we have today of what conditions and life was probably like back in the Palaeolithic period it is just amazing that mankind has survived at all and that the whole of human history is a real testimony our resilience and adaptability as a species.


Liz Pieksma, Keeper of Archaeology

Cecil Higgins and the Philosophers Stone

Many years ago in a land called Prussia there lived a young man who, it was said, had discovered the legendary Philosophers Stone and with it could turn metal into gold. Word spread amongst the land of this extraordinary power until it reached the ear of the King who summoned the young man to his court. The night before the meeting, as the King dreamed of untold riches, the young man trembled with fear as he hadn’t really any powers at all. He had tricked his friends by slight of hand and though he had asked them to keep his alleged power a secret they had been so excited that they had not been able to keep it to themselves. He could not face the King with his lies, so he fled under cover of darkness to the neighbouring land of Saxony where he hid.

When the young man did not arrive at the Prussian King’s court he sent out soldiers to find him, and offered a huge reward of for his capture. Tales of the young man's powers had already spread beyond the borders of Prussia and it wasn’t long till Augustus the Strong, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, had heard of the young man hiding in his lands. Augustus wanted the young man's power for himself, so locked him away in a castle in the city of Dresden until he could make him piles of gold. If the young man told the truth he would surely face his death, so instead he continued his lie. For three long years he toiled in his castle prison trying to turn metal into gold, and every time the King asked if he had finished he would lie and say ‘not long now’.

Finally, the King had had enough and demanded that his prisoner set a definite date when the gold would be made. The young man promised that in sixteen weeks he would be able to produce gold and in the eight days following those weeks he would produce two tonnes of gold for the King. Sixteen weeks and eight days came and went and the King, realising that no gold could be made, planned to execute the young man for his lies. However, his wise advisors intervened and told the King that he would look a fool for all the money and time he had spent waiting, and instead suggested the young man be set another task.

As you read this you may be thinking what has this story to do with Cecil Higgins? Well, the young man's name was Johann Friedrich Böttger, and the second task that the King set him was not to produce gold but something far more delicate…. porcelain. There is some debate as to whether it was Böttger who can be fully credited with making porcelain, or the court official and scientist in charge of the project Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhausen. In 1707, a year after Böttger was spared death, the two men succeeded in producing a red stoneware with similar properties to porcelain.

On the strength of this discovery Augustus the Strong set up a factory in Meissen. Early shapes were made by moulding or casting from Chinese originals with either no decoration or simple reliefs of sprays of plum blossom.

Teapot made from red porcelain moulded with plum blossom, about 1710 - 1713, Meissen

The teapot above, bought by Cecil Higgins in 1934 from one of his favourite dealers Hyam & Co, is an example of these early wares. It is dated about 1710 and is very similar in design to Chinese originals, such as this one in the V&A collection. These red wares described by the factory as 'red porcelain' or where only produced until 1713 by which time Böttger's second invention, white porcelain, became the standard porcelain produced.

In 1715 Böttger was finally granted his freedom, but the years of imprisonment had taken its toll on his health and he died four years later at the age of 37. Despite the fact he had never managed to make gold from metal, his porcelain was the finest in Europe. The factory he ran went from strength to strength producing the most inventive and beautiful works in Europe for many years to come. As for Augustus the Strong, although he never got his magical gold, he made plenty of real money from Böttger’s invention and his name will forever be remembered as the owner of the first European porcelain factory.

Victoria Partridge
Keeper of Fine and Decorative Art