Chatham Cuffay(1755-1815)Black dockyard worker in C18th Kent
The life of William Cuffay(1788-1870) the black leader of London Chartism in 1848 is becoming better known but there is now some detail on his father.
Chatham Cuffay (not his original first name which appears to be as yet undiscovered) came from a slave background and travelled to England on a navy ship possibly as a chef. He became one of a significant number of black workers in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century England. Many arrived as Cuffay had done and probably the largest cohort remained dock and ship related workers but over time they may well have had an increased presence in the wider working population. William Cuffay, a tailor, is one example of this. His father has until now remained very largely hidden from history.
Its a very Times story (1st October). The paper is often interested in the apparently inexorable rise of McDonalds outlets in France. However it has now reported on Kentucky Fried Chicken in Italy. A flagship KFC venue has just opened in Rome covering two floors and seating 200 people.
KFC sales had sales of 179m Euros in Italy in 2024 and expects 30% growth in 2025. It now has 14 locations in Rome.
Needless to say its presence has not been universally welcomed…
Boris Johnson was born in the US making him eligible to be a US President but 50 years ago he was a member of what some call the North London Metropolitan Elite
Crouch End in North London is not the kind of place where you’d expect to find a Tory in 2025. But that was rather different 60 years ago and the area elected Tory MPs until 1992.
While delving into the (unpleasant) undergrowth and background to the past Premier’s rise to No.10 I noticed a brief sojourn in Crouch End.
In July 1965 Johnson’s father Stanley and wife Charlotte left Oxford for Crouch End. They stayed only to October 1965 deciding to spend the winter with Boris, who was just over a year old at the time and newly born Rachel (September 1965) in an Exmoor cottage.
I haven’t (yet) been able to locate where they lived in Crouch End (a blue plaque surely beckons) but perhaps even then the Johnsons were able to detect that the area was not really the kind of place for Tories…
Donkey lover Starmer must sort a Joe Grundy Memorial Monument for Bartelby
Joe Grundy’s favourite donkey Bartleby is not more. There is a more important reality. A Starmer Government must act to ensure a decent memorial to Bartleby is constructed and place create a worker’s trust in memorial of the late Joe Grundy. Starmer has considerable familiarity with donkeys and so this is at least one thing he can accomplish immediately.
The autumn Wetherspoons beer festival started on 1st October. One beer in particular deserves a call out. I’m not sure a Spoons Fest has featured a dark mild before (I’m sure those keeping notes will advise) let alone a 6.5% Double Dark Mild.
The beer is a double version of Elgoods (Wisbech) mild. I’ve tried it and while the Spoons note liquorice and espresso notes I’d also had raisin.
I’ve certainly drunk double dark milds (and even the occasional triple) before but in the beard and beer bars of north-east London and almost entirely on keykeg. The arrival of a cask version suggests a dialectical meeting of beer minds between craft beer and CAMRA and a very welcome one.
A reminder btw that mild is a style of beer not a strength
The picture is of US armed forces leaders summoned to a meeting by US Defence (or War as he calls it) Secretary Hegseth. He used the occasion to announce a ban on ‘beardos’ and long hair, although this appears to have been existing policy.
Where this is going remains unclear, purges, war with someone or thing, or compulsory visits to the barbers….
Below is part of a social media exchange between former Beard of the Year Michael Rosen and myself (Beard Liberation Front Organiser). It focuses initially on well known stubble wearer Jose Mourinho and the dialectic of shaving, stubble and beards.
The discussion extended to a focus on Marx and Engels view of shaving. Marx recorded a shaving of his beard in Algiers in April 1882. Below is a letter from 17 year old Engels who at the time was on a manufacturing placement in Bremen. He went to work in the family factory in Manchester in 1842.
Its clear from the letter that Engels took the relationship between shaving and growing a beard very seriously
Hmmm but if its 1 Thesis, shaving 2 Antithesis not shaving 3 Synthesis, stubble I think synthesis is seriously underachieving here. I think Marx’s beard improved on Hegel here (Keith Flett)
I’m not sure that is historically correct, Fletty. Dialectically speaking, nothing is accidental. The act of not shaving, is the dialectic equivalent to shaving. Thus the synthesis: ‘the stubble’. Mourinho would have been acutely aware of Hegel on this matter. (Michael Rosen)
This morning a barber came round and Herr Pastor” wanted me to have a shave for he said I looked quite revolting. But I do not do so. Father said that I should leave my razors locked u p until I need them and he left a fortnight ago today and my beard certainly cannot have grown so much in that time. And now I shall not shave until I have a moustache as black as a raven. And you know, Mother told Father to give me a razor to take with me and Father answered that would be tempting me to start shaving, and he would buy me some himself in Manchester, but I don’t use them on principle.
