Kmflett's Blog

The King of Christmas riot, Norwich January 1443

In pre-industrial times the season of Christmas extended well beyond 25^th December and the 6^th January into February, concluding with Shrove Tuesday or Lent.

It was time with limited daylight and limited work that could be done on the land. Custom saw Lords of Misrule appointed- Toby Belch in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is the most well known fictional character.

It was a time for Carnival and sometimes revolt.

One such revolt took place in Norwich in early 1443. The precise date is not clear but it may well have been in late January. Certainly a Government inquiry was ordered into the events which reported in late February.

A local merchant John Gladman, was appointed King of Christmas- again the period not as closely defined as now- and rode around Norwich with an attendant crowd. The purpose was to highlight a dispute between the local population and authorities and the Church.

The most recent study notes:

The two sides in a long-running dispute over rights and resources between on the one hand the City of Norwich, as represented by the mayor, most of the council, and many common citizens, and on the other the powerful Cathedral Priory, seconded by neighbouring monastic institutions, regional magnates and a faction within the city oligarchy. It culminated on 25 January 1443 when a crowd of commoners initiated a siege of the Priory, trying in vain to break down its gates. When after a few days order was restored, the crown instigated the formal inquisition…..

See Tom Pettitt, Carnevale in Norwich 1643:

https://www.academia.edu/22260096/Carnevale_in_Norwich_1443_Gladman_s_Parade_and_its_Continental_Connections

The Ambridge Socialist

5th January 2020

Is the Archers biased against the Welsh?

The Ambridge Socialist has noted concerns that the Archers is biased against the Welsh.

Ambridge is set quite close to the Welsh border with England and occasional benign references are heard to Welsh hill farmers.

Yet two active characters Natasha, who is Tom’s partner, and a successful business woman, and Gavin, son of Kirsty’s partner are both identifiably Welsh and also rather unpleasant people.

Ambridge Socialist Editor Keith Flett said, this may be no more than coincidence but it is noticeable

Aldridge not purged from the BL Board

Brian Aldridge has not been purged from the BL Board for leaking confidential information to Phoebe about the recent greenwashing deal. As often clearly they prefer Brian in the tent urinating out.

Ten Years since Nigel Pargetter was murdered: No Justice! No Peace!

It is ten years today since Nigel Pargetter ‘fell off’ the roof of Lower Loxley while attempting to take down Christmas decorations and was killed instantly.

The BBC called it ‘Shaking Ambridge to the Core’.

Perhaps it did since Pargetter was one of the more engaging Archers characters and they don’t come along all that often..

However after cursory investigations nothing at all was done about Pargetter’s death.

There was a man on the roof with him that night and that man was David Archer.

Archer was never arrested over Pargetter’s death yet he had an obvious motive to see Pargetter dead. Pargetter was a rival to Archer’s plan, still very much in progress, to dominate South Borsetshire. Lower Loxley was a symbol of an alternative power base.

We say its time, ten years on, to re-open the case of the death of Nigel Pargetter and this time bring David Archer in for questioning.

Should David Archer face justice for the alleged murder of Nigel Pargetter?

Their Twelfth Night and ours. 5^th January, 6^th January or 25^th February?

British socialist historians have paid some attention to the importance of folk customs (see EP Thompson Customs in Common)primarily as a way of understanding the roots of non-marketised ways of grasping value and importance in society and seeing if the traditions have continued to have any impact in more recent times.

Britain was the world’s first industrialised country and already by 1850 more than half the population were industrial workers rather than being reliant on the land for a living, either as peasants or agricultural labourers. Something there may explain the popularity of the Archers one suspects as a sort of reminder of a lost arcadia.

However the focus on custom and tradition has been patchy and that is certainly true of twelfth night.

I can’t am afraid offer any definitive thought on whether you should take down the Xmas decorations on 5th January or 6th January. The Church of England thinks it should be the eve of Epiphany (hence the 5th) but then leaves the decorations up to celebrate Epiphany. That is the thing about customs. They might be in common but they are often disputed.

Twelfth Night is part of a season of festival, carnival and revolt that starts on All Hallows Eve (Oct 31) and can end as late as Shrove Tuesday.

The appointment of a Lord of Misrule is connected with Twelfth Night but can occur earlier.

The title Lord of Misrule sounds radical but there is no mention of it in Christopher Hill’s The World Turned Upside Down’ about the period of Parliamentary rule after 1649. Some commentary suggests that it was really more to do with poking fun at the established order the better to keep it in place, and in some cases- for example in New Orleans- it became firmly established with a celebration of the old- reactionary- order of things.

Whether it’s the fifth or the sixth it seems clear that in folk custom the tradition of misrule that begins on October 31^st does not end with Twelfth Night but continues at least until Shrove Tuesday which in 2020 is on 25^th February

Beard Liberation Front

Press Release 4^th January Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Call for support for Carrick McClean, school student barred from A-Levels due to having a beard

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has called for support for a Derry Sixth Form student Carrick McClean.

Mr McClean has been banned from sitting for his A Level at St Columbs in Derry because he has a beard.

The pogonophobic rules of the school do not allow students to have a beard

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, this is not the 1950s and we fully support Mr McClean. There is a petition that can be signed and we expect a change of mind by the school

https://www.change.org/p/principal-abolish-st-columb-s-college-clean-shaven-policy

Boris Johnson was Editor of the Spectator at the time of the 2003 Iraq War and hardly surprisingly for an organ of the Tory right the magazine supported the war. Not particularly surprisingly, given its often quirky take on matters, it was also critical of George W Bush.

A more personal and revealing perspective on Johnson’s actual view of the Iraq War can be found in his novel Seventy Two Virgins. The central figure in the book as his biographer Sonia Purnell notes is a middle aged Tory MP Roger Barlow. She also notes that ‘the similarities between Boris and Barlow are too numerous to dismiss’.

In a review of the book Douglas Hurd pointed out that ‘the book even mocks in turn ‘every possible attitude’ to the Iraq War.

17 years on this seems very much in line with Johnson’s later positions on the EU. It didnt really matter to him whether Britain should  remain (his earlier position) or leave (his current position). After all its all about him not principle or policy

Beard Liberation Front

Media Release

4th January

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

London behind in vote for Beard Friendly Pub of the Year 2020

The Beard Liberation Front has said that the vote for the annual Beard Friendly Pub of the Year is  open and will close at midday on Sunday 12th January.

For the first time ever pubs outside of London have taken a lead, with the Fell Brewery Tap in Kendal and the Bumble Inn micropub in Peterborough taking the early lead.

BLF Inspectors have been surveying pubs for beard friendliness for the past couple of months (criteria below) and have now finalised a list including several nominations from drinkers.

It is obviously not possible to visit every pub and every location and there is a write-in space on the poll. Any pub getting more than 1% of the overall vote will join the poll.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, the Beard Friendly Pub of the Year has run for some years in early January but this is the first time ever that pubs outside of London have taken the lead. It seems beard friendly drinking is blossoming all over the country in 2020.

The criteria for the Award include:

Beard Friendly Pub: a pub that welcomes the hirsute and often has a significant number of hirsute customers, including but certainly not confined to those with modern styles of beards.

Beard Friendly Ambience: a pub that may have fewer hirsute customers but is welcoming to the hirsute through some bearded bar staff and beard friendly beers, plus has a generally relaxed atmosphere for all.

The campaign group says it welcomes diversity in both appearance and drinking. The truly beard friendly pub will have a genuine mix of customers not just a load of old blokes grumbling about life.

The list includes a range of pubs, bars and tap rooms without attempting to classify into sections

The 2019 winner was the Cock Tavern in Hackney

The Beard Friendly Pub, Bar, Tap of the Year Short List 2020

Bundobust, Manchester/Leeds/Liverpool

Bubs, Cardiff

The Chesham Arms, Hackney

Cock Tavern, Hackney

Hanging Bat, Edinburgh

Mother Kelly’s (Bethnal Green)

Small Bar, Bristol

Stoneworks, Peterborough

Whitelocks/Turks Head, Leeds

Magic Rock Brewery Tap, Huddersfield

Wellington, Birmingham

Tom’s Tap & Brewhouse, Crewe

The Experiment, Hackney

Fell Brewery Taproom, Kendal

High Cross, Tottenham

Bumble Inn, Peterborough

Cloudwater Tap Manchester

Ship & Mitre, Liverpool

Kernel Tap, Bermondsey

Cross Keys, Herefordshire

With Brewdog claiming to open the world’s first alcohol free beer bar in Old St on 6th January Ive been looking back at the peak period of such brews, late Victorian Britain.

The template was fermented ginger beer which was marketed as an alternative to beer although it may well have been alcoholic.

One well known manufacturer of alternative fermented brews was Wheatley’s of Sheffield.

A brief summary of their production is here, with a link to some more details:

In the latter part of the 19th century they were large-scale producers of “hop bitters”, that is, refreshing, non-alcoholic drinks with a base of hops, dandelion etc. One of the firm’s most popular products a century ago was “Stym”, a form of hop bitters. They evidently produced 200 barrels per day of this “Highly successful non-intoxicating substitute for ordinary ale”, using water from their “own artesian wells”.

https://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/topic/417721-wheatley-amp-bates-mineral-water-manufacturers-etc/

Beard Liberation Front

3rd January

Media Release, contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that Government advisor Dominic Cummings has been barred from being a supporter of the Beard Liberation Front.

Such action is rare but is taken when the BLF believes that the association of someone with the organisation may risk bringing not just it but beard wearers into disrepute.

While Cummings is usually pictured as clean shaven the BLF has received photographic evidence that Cummings has been trying to grow a beard in the recent past.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, We dont bar supporters lightly but Cummings is not someone we feel we bring any positive associations to hirsuteness

Campaign for Real Conkers

Press Release January 3rd Contact Keith Flett, 07803 167266

England cricketers urged to play conkers not football for game warm-up after injury

E8CWGN Playing conkers in England, UK – close up

The Campaign for Real Conkers, the group that opposes bans on conker playing, has urged England cricketers to start playing conkers as a warm-up before Test matches after football was ruled out.

In the warm up for the current Newlands Test against South Africa England batsman Rory Burns was injured playing football during the warm-up and ruled out for the rest of the series

The campaigners say that while any sport carries some risk of injury these are rare during conker matches. The most damage a player is likely to incur is a slightly bruised knuckle and this can be mitigated by wearing gloves.

A cricket ball is sometimes referred to as a conker underlining that there is precedent in the game for the sport.

Campaign organiser Keith Flett said, conkers is the ideal game for a cricket warm-up. It tests hand to eye co-ordination and allows plenty of scope for movement of the arms and legs without any significant risk of injury

Guide on how to play real conkers 2020

1] Select your conker. Do this yourself. DO NOT use a conker provided by someone else who may give you a poor specimen.

2] There is no specific kind of conker that makes a good game winner. Large conkers may more easily splinter for example. Some prefer conkers with flat and sharp edges

3] You may use the conker ‘as is’ known as ‘organic’. Alternatively you may seek to harden it by baking it, soaking it in vinegar etc. There is no guarantee that an artificially enhanced conker will perform any better than an organic one.

4] Drill a small hole through the conker. A nail will often achieve this

5] Thread the conker through the hole you have drilled. A strong chord, perhaps a shoelace is best

6] You are now ready to play.

7] The stance taken is up to each individual player. Some may prefer a long swing, others a short swing.

8] Players take alternate turns to try and hit and destroy their opponent’s conker

9] Those with poor aim may hit the knuckles of their opponent more often than the conker so you may wish to wear gloves

10] The winner is the player who determines their opponent’s conker unusable in further rounds, usually by causing it to splinter into two or more pieces

Brewdog Alcohol free beer bar. Dry January meets Try January

Brewdog have latched on to Dry January (& being them Try January as well) by re-opening a Draft House in Old St (central London) as an alcohol-free beer bar.

https://blog.brewdog.com/blog/we-are-opening-the-worlds-first-alcohol-free-beer-bar

Brewdog of course are good at hype and the wording is deliberate. London and elsewhere have numbers of alcohol-free bars.

Here the claim is that it is a bar selling beers which are alcohol free.

It may be the first in the world for 2020 but such bars have a long history.

Part of the background can be found in a 2015 post from those tireless analysers of all things beer, Boak and Bailey:

https://boakandbailey.com/2015/02/temperance-spectrum/

Ginger beer and other variants were of course fermented and so not entirely alcohol free (and neither are the Brewdog beers of course)

Charles Booth noted in Life and Labour of the London People (1903):

temperance drinks too have now a recognized place. Ginger beer is sold everywhere, and not infrequently kept on draught* (*it is then called Brewed Ginger Beer’ – a sort of sheep in wolf’s clothing.)

It is perhaps surprising that Brewdog haven’t combined AF with vegan only food (which they sell at Dalston, but with the normal beer range) and the wider question is whether there is any history of a brewery also muscling in on what is traditionally the territory of temperance before now.

Heineken of course are at it in the US marketing a 0% beer for Dry January

I’m not sure that temperance ever made much if any money out of their efforts to promote alternatives to drink. Their aim was firmly ideological.

If you are looking for one or indeed any reason to celebrate 2020, the current Tory Government stands in the lineage of the party that supports brewers and beer and definitely not temperance (that was the LibDems).

Labour of course backed both…