Ribchester History Society

Roy Skilbeck St. Wilfrid`s Church.

Roy Skilbeck, the Chairman of the Society, presented the last talk of the Society`s Summer Season to a substantial group of members in St Wilfrid`s Church on Monday evening, 22 August. He had set himself a challenging task - to try to provide detailed information about St Wilfrid`s Church to a group of mostly local people, many of whom have known the church and worshipped there all their lives. Before the talk started, Roger Forrest, a former Captain of the Bell-tower, had taken another group around the belfry, and related the history of the bells themselves - based on the inscriptions that are cast into the rim of each bell.

Roy had clearly put considerable effort into his research of the history of this ancient and beautiful building. He admitted that there was little evidence to show what had stood here before 1220, nor could he provide a direct link to St Wilfrid, the Bishop of Whitby and Archbishop of York, who had played a significant role in converting the North of England to Christianity, in the 6th Century. But he drew attention to a date, 1527, carved on a roof truss at the West end of the church as evidence of the alterations that must have been carried out then, and to the external evidence that the original roof-line had been more steeply pitched than the present roof-line. He confirmed that the beautiful small-paned dormer windows that now throw sunshine into the Nave had been inserted in the South roof between 1686 and 1712. [Long before the era of English Heritage, who would never have given permission for it to be carried out to a Grade 1-listed building nowadays!] The Tower had been built in the first half of the 15th Century and the Gallery had been added in 1736. The medieval timber screen that now encloses the East end of the South Aisle had originally enclosed the Dutton Chapel in the North Aisle, and Roy produced a copy of the extraordinary legal grant that transferred the ownership of this part of the church to a former Lord of the Manor. Finally he drew attention to the List of Rectors of the parish, starting from Drogo in 1264, and provided anecdotal stories about some of the most colourful of these [mostly] godly men who had served the village over the last 750 years.

Lt.Col.Jackman Cavalry in the Roman Army.

Last week, Colonel Jackman spoke to the Society about the role of the Cavalry in the Roman Army. This was entirely appropriate as Ribchester, Bremetanacum, from its inception in about AD 72/73. had been the garrison base for a Cavalry Company, the ala ll Asturam of about 300 soldiers and horses, the mounted component of the Legion ll Caerlion.

Colonel Jackman gave a very detailed account of how the cavalry contingent of the Army was organised, how it fought, and how it contributed to the battle tactics of a Roman Legion - which was, at that time, the most formidable fighting machine that the world had yet developed. He described, and illustrated with local sculptured headstones, the riders, horses, armour and weapons that gave it its formidable reputation. He made it clear that, then [as now] the Cavalry regarded itself as an elite force, for very good reasons.

This talk formally concluded the Society`s fourth season on a high note. The Society`s AGM will be held at the Ribchester Arms on 27 June at 7.30 pm and will be followed by another talk by Sid Calderbank on `Love and Romance in Victorian Lancashire`. Not to be missed! Other events will also be organised for the summer, during July and August. More details later.

Cliff Astin Ribble - Source to Sea.

On April 27, Cliff Astin came to the Ribchester Arms to give us an illustrated travelogue on `The Ribble - from Source to Sea`. We certainly saw the river from a number of new viewpoints, as we progressed downstream from its source above the Ribblehead Viaduct, to Stancliffe Falls where we saw salmon leaping, then on to its junction with the Calder. At that point, Cliff had to cut the talk in half - but we shall welcome him back next season to complete his journey to the Irish Sea.

Sid Calderbank The Lancashire Cotton Factory.

The monthly meeting of the society was held on 28 March at the Ribchester Arms. The speaker was Sid Calderbank and his subject the Lancashire Cotton famine or `How we survived the American civil war`.

Despite the privations suffered by the cotton workers there was widespread support for those against slavery. But this proud decision to side with Abraham Lincoln did not mean that Britain did not experience unrest and there were several riots around the region- mainly aimed at the mill owners.

It is ironic that it was the slavery of fellow men and the globalisation of trade and reliance on the stability of other nations that played a part in the downfall of the first industry in Britain.

Sid is renowned for his meticulous research. This coupled with a brilliant performance and humorous approach made for an entertaining and enjoyable evening. He left a lot of happy people behind him.

Derek Walkden Heraldry on the A59.

The monthly meeting of the Society was held last Wednesday, 23 February at The Ribchester Arms. The speaker was Derek Walkden and his subject was `Heraldry on the A.59`, an unlikely combination of topics. In fact, he used the road-corridor as a thread on which to hang visits to various houses and churches between Osbaldeston and East Marton to expound on the heraldic evidence they contained and to demonstrate who had owned them, and what their ancestry was.

At the end of an informative, but technically challenging, lecture, the large audience could all distinguish between a crest and the main elements of a coat of arms, even if we could not translate all the medieval French terms that were used, and we could identify from the Memorial Hatchments, which feature in many of our churches, who had died, and whether it was the man or his wife who had died first.

The talk was well-presented by a knowledgeable enthusiast, but was probably too specialised to be absorbed by a general audience who do not have armorial pretensions.

Dr Alan Crosby Preston Guild.

Dr Alan Crosby is an eminent historian and a most polished lecturer. Last Wednesday, he spoke to a capacity audience of the Society about the development of the Preston Guild, which will be celebrated once again in 2012, which has become, almost by accident, a unique public celebration of a medieval institution.

The earliest records of the Guild Merchant date from 1328, but probably it has been held from the late 12th Century when Henry II granted a Royal Charter to Preston. In those days, a Guild Merchant was far from unique. It was a public acknowledgement that there was a closed shop for traders operating in the Borough, open only to those who had earned, or bought, their way into this elite circle. Other Royal Boroughs had Guilds, but Preston seems to have be unique in organising an event that was based on heredity and held at twenty-year intervals, or just once in a generation. In 1802, Samuel Horrockes set up his cotton mills in Preston. He saw the Guild as an opportunity to publicise his firm and the industry, and Dr Crosby credits him with transforming the Guild into a public celebration rather than an elitist event. The ancestral rights to hold a Guild were extinguished by the controversial 1832 Reform Act, but Preston chose to `thumb its nose` at Westminster and to resurrect its ancient custom in 1842. With the sole exception of 1942, when the country was preoccupied with Hitler, the Guild has been celebrated, broadly in its present form, ever since. It will be interesting to see how the Guild is celebrated in 2012, in a time of austerity.

Another unique consequence of its founding hereditary principles is that the Freemen of the Guild can trace their genealogy back to the earliest existing Guild Rolls of 1397.