Lyttelton's Britain (17 page)

The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins giving a recital

The romantic novelist Dame Barbara Cartland was born in Egbaston, but spent her working life on her country estate. The last time she visited Birmingham, on the occasion of her 80th birthday, there was an unfortunate incident when she was asked to smile for the camera and a large area of the city was destroyed in a chalk dust explosion.

The inventor Joseph Stannah worked in Birmingham on the prototype
of the stairlift which bears his name. He experimented by placing his elderly mother in an electrically propelled armchair which ran on rails attached to the staircase of their home. However, much to the annoyance of his mother, when Stannah first tested his machine, it malfunctioned badly. She went through the roof.

Another famous name associated with Birmingham is the rock musician Ozzy Osbourne, who was born in nearby Aston. He is famous as former lead singer and songwriter for the heavy metal band Black Sabbath. In 1979, Osbourne left the band to embark on a highly successful solo career, and now tours the world performing to sell out audiences. So Ozzy, if you’re reading this, that’s who you are.

The author J. R. R. Tolkien lived in Birmingham, and it’s where he wrote
The Hobbit
and
Lord of the Rings
, although some would say his greatest achievement was his work on fly fishing, written under the pen name J. R. R. Hartley.

For over 100 years, Birmingham was the home of HP Sauce, before production was moved to the Netherlands. Memories of the Centenary Celebrations in 1998 are still fresh, and particularly a celebratory address to the workers by the late Queen Mother. Her Majesty was a little frail and unable to get her words out, so they turned her upside down and smacked her on the bottom.

Advertising copy featuring Britain’s first Korean restaurant

T
HE FIRST RECORD
of a settlement in Wolverhampton dates from 985
AD
, when a grant of land was made to Lady Wulfruna by Ethelred the Unready, in recognition of her marrying his reluctant brother, Ethel the Unsure-about-Him.

Following Wulfruna’s reorganisation of Midlands’ boundaries, the only existing map of England was redrawn in Wolverhampton before being returned to the King. The process took a team of monks a total of 81 years – that was six months to redraw the map and the rest of the time trying to work out how to fold it back into its original shape.

During the Civil War, the young Prince Charles disguised himself and hid for two days in an oak tree outside the town. He was only discovered when a Roundhead soldier spotted a long-haired, 12-stone pigeon nesting above him.

The country’s longest ever serving MP, Sir Charles Villiers, represented Wolverhampton. Villiers sat permanently on the Westminster back benches for 63 years until he died in 1898, from an acute attack of piles.

The Wolverhampton of today is world famous for its fine football team, known universally as ‘Wolves’, because they go out at night and scavenge food from dustbins.

And probably the town’s most famous contemporary son is the lead singer of the pop group Slade, Noddy Holder, although
Noddy isn’t his real name. His parents in fact named him: ‘Hugh Pugh Barley McGrew Cuthbert Dibble Grub Holder’.

Wolverhampton’s most favourite son: Noddy Holder

In the Middle Ages it is recorded that William Shaw, the town dog-whipper, was paid six shillings a year to expel dogs from St John’s church by gripping them with wooden tongs and whipping them ferociously. He held the post for nearly 20 years, until his enthusiasm for the task got the better of him when he attacked a group of golden labradors, and was subsequently banned from conducting all future tours for the blind.

John ‘Iron-mad’ Wilkinson built the first iron furnace in Wolverhampton in 1767. So keen was he on iron, that he built bridges, railways, houses and ships from it. The parish records reveal that, at his funeral, Wilkinson was even laid to rest in a coffin made from six-inch thick iron-plate, and that it took nearly eight weeks to cremate him.

Another famous local name is that of one Button Gwinnett, who travelled to America, later adding his signature to the Declaration of Independence. As a result, he was thrown out of the Washington Museum and put on the first plane home.

L
EICESTER
is a fine city boasting a rich and varied history. A settlement is first recorded in the area during the Iron Age, when a Celtic tribe discovered ferrous ore deposits, learned how to extract iron and settled there to build their dwellings. Two centuries later the invading Romans named this tribe the ‘Coritani’, being the Latin word for ‘people whose houses have rusted away’.

Under Roman occupation, new roads were constructed, and Leicester became the crossroads of the Midlands, with supplies of troops and goods arriving along the Via Devana, ‘Via’ being the Latin word for ‘road’ and ‘Devana’ meaning ‘three mile tail-back’.

When the Romans left, Leicester fell under Danish occupation, and many of the city’s place names emanate from its 9th Century Danish occupiers, including ‘Dean Gate’, ‘Wyggeston Lane’ and ‘Unsmoked Rindless Street’.

With the Danes defeated, Christian rule returned to the city, with the Church acting as police, judge and jury. During this time, criminals were routinely rounded up by devout Christian priests, herded into the town square and summarily forgiven.

In 1485, Richard III stayed in Leicester on the eve of the Battle of Bosworth. He took lodgings at the White Boar Inn, where he famously insisted on taking his own bed. As the inn has since become a Travelodge, many guests today wisely choose to do the same.

Leicester’s prosperity grew rapidly with its commerce, but 1795 saw the outbreak of the Corn Riots, when a lack of proper chiropody caused protesters to hobble painfully onto the streets.

Leicester today is very much a city of variety, with ancient architecture nestling alongside the modern. A prime example is the ornate City Hall which is based on Italianate Renaissance designs: the city’s magnificent clock tower was taken from the Pallazzo Vecchio in Florence, where the city fathers are understandably keen to get it back.

The founder of the English parliament, Simon de Montfort, was born in Leicester, and one of the city’s concert halls was named in his honour, after he took the title ‘Third Baron de Bingo on Tuesdays’.

It was at one of de Montfort’s parliaments that the five-year-old King Henry VI was knighted. During the celebration banquet, Henry was sent to bed early as punishment for not asking his mother’s permission before having the Lord Chamberlain executed.

Over the following centuries, Leicester became known for the fine quality of its textile manufacture. Towards the end of the Civil War, Charles I came to Leicester and bought three items of clothing, including the two shirts he wore at his execution. Luckily, his wife had the foresight to keep the receipt for the hat.

Nearby places of interest include Melton Mowbray, home of the pork pie. The recipe for the original pie is a closely guarded secret, but is known to rely on using pork from a specific breed of pig that produces a copious amount of gelatinous fatty grease. Many breeders have successfully raised such pigs, but none has ever managed to catch hold of one.

The many well-known names associated with the town
include W. G. Grace, who, in partnership with his brother, founded the department store made famous by Mrs Slocombe and Captain Peacock.

Daniel Lambert, England’s fattest man, was born in Leicester in 1770. Reaching a weight in excess of 50 stone, he became something of a local celebrity, and was eventually honoured by the city, who awarded him his own postcode.

Leicester was also the birthplace of John Merrick, whose life was immortalised in the film
The Elephant Man
, featuring John Hurt in the lead role of
Dumbo
.

This ‘Spot the Ball’ competition featuring a Leicester City game is from an early edition of the
Daily Mail.
It was considered a little too difficult for their readership

T
HIS PART
of England’s West Midlands is commonly known as ‘The Potteries’. Famous for its manufacture of China products, buyers come to Stoke-on-Trent from the world over to obtain fine silk sarongs, chopsticks and rick-shaws.