The participants in our special Tudor walk gathered at the Amersham Museum on a dry and pleasant morning. Three guides dressed in Tudor costume were ready to lead us.
We crossed over the road to stand by the Kings Arms and receive an introduction to our tour. To our surprise, one of our guides addressed us in fluent Welsh. Though born and raised locally, Kat was of Welsh descent and had learnt the language with the help of her family from North Wales. To the relief of many, Peter Borrows then repeated the introduction in English.
Peter was our lead guide, dressed all in woollen clothing with a cap on his head, britches over his legs, and the ensemble finished off by a codpiece, an essential item of male Tudor garb.
The tour took us past the Market to St Mary’s church, then across the stream to the entrance of the town cemetery, then along the riverside and up to the meadow overlooking the town. Finally we moved across to the Martyr’s memorial, before returning to the old town. Most of the group then went to the Elephant & Castle for a rest and to refuel.
The tour was very informative and full of surprising insights into life in Amersham during Tudor times. We also discovered the origins of many everyday expressions that originated in that period.
The first surprise was to discover that so many of the buildings we could see dated from Tudor times. The Kings Arms with its timber beams was one fine example of a building from the Tudor period, but others were less obvious as they had been updated with more modern (Georgian) facades. We were told to look down the alleys and passageways at the side walls of the buildings. These views revealed their Tudor origins.
We learned about the market established by Charter. It had strict start and end times for stall-holders to trade. Rather than wait for the market to open, some sellers and London buyers of wool would agree a transaction privately, hence the verb to “forestall”.
As we approached the church we met three more women dressed in Tudor costume. These ladies all had their heads covered, a necessity to protect from itchy debris and lice when living under thatched rooves. Their bodices were laced up – some were “straight laced” but crossed lacing indicated different standards of behaviour!
Inside St Mary’s, we discovered the origin of more everyday expressions. As church attendance was compulsory it would have been standing room only inside, with no pews to sit on. The aged and infirm however could find support around the sides, hence the saying “the weak go to the wall”. Services were in Latin and for Communion services the priest would repeatedly pop out from behind a screen, say a few words of Latin, then pop back out of sight again. The locals of course knew little if any Latin so the priest’s unintelligible incantations were referred to as Hocus Pocus a parody of the Latin phrase “hoc est enim corpus meum” (this is my body). Therefore the priest was doing the Hokey Cokey!
We met again with the three other women. One was the Wise Woman, who sold herbs and potions for medicinal purposes. She trod a fine line between providing a health service and being accused of witchcraft. Life was hard for most people and meat was a luxury. A family meal might be a pot of vegetables with a very small portion of meat. It was “pot luck” for whoever pulled out a ladleful with the piece of meat in it.
The Martyr’s Memorial was a poignant reminder of harsher times. Their crime was to read the Bible in English, an act seen as a challenge to the authority of the Church and its bishops. They were burned at the stake, with the daughter of the first victim made to light the fire. Ironically, within less than a century English language bibles were to be found in all Anglican churches. A play about those events is held every four or so years in Amersham, and for those that haven’t seen it, preparations have already begun for the next performance in 2027. Well worth seeing.
Having thanked Peter and his team for leading such an informative walk for us, our party dispersed with a number of us retiring to the Elephant & Castle for a welcome lunch.
Gwyndaf John
His Chairman’s Report ran through the events that we had organised over the previous year, starting with the Summer Lunch (where more help is needed in setting up the gazebos) which was hosted by our President, Ann Evans.
Membership of the society has remained constant at 121.
That concluded the formal part of the meeting, and we broke for a meal provided by Ann Tennant and her daughter-in-law, Jagger. This was up to their usual standard – delicious – with a choice of chicken or salmon and lots of different deserts.
Being new to the location, we did have some tense minutes trying to set up the overhead projector, but then Wendy was able to start her talk.
The evening finished at about 10pm with Gwyndaf thanking Wendy for such an interesting and informative talk.
David Hancox made it in time, which was a surprise as he had to drop his children off, then get changed and rush all the way from Kingston Bagpuize, which is the other side of Abingdon, and a good hour away.
Gwyndaf had prepared a table plan so that we knew where we were sitting. We had 62 in total spread across 7 tables, so it was a good turn-out.
Ann Evans had arranged for the golf club to be decorated with lots of Welsh flags and, with the help of the ladies and wives of the committee, there were bouquets of daffodils on each table.
A baritone, Gwion was born in Gorseinon, South Wales. He gave up a career in banking to study singing at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, where he graduated with Distinction, winning many prizes. He has been a wide-ranging opera and concert soloist, taking leading solo operatic roles with the Welsh National Opera, the Scottish Opera, and many other companies.
Gwion and Chloe sang a variety of solos and duets starting with a piece from Handel and covering Mozart, Welsh songs and pieces by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
We were told of tragic stories in which magicians had met their end on stage through various accidents, including that of Chung Ling Soo, who died when a member of the audience tried to see whether the magician could catch a real bullet between his teeth.
Sooty is the only non-human member of the circle, and demonstrated his skills by cutting a lady (Barbie) in half live on TV.
We all met at Milton’s Cottage at 10am on Friday 10th October. Most of us arrived early and, as the weather was good gathered in the garden.
Milton took refuge from the plague in London by escaping to this cottage in 1665, and, although he lived here for less than two years, wrote his most famous work Paradise Lost and began Paradise Regained, whilst living here with his third wife.
We then walked down the hill to the parish church of Chalfont St Giles. Here we met our guide Tony Ferguson, who is not only an author and speaker, but also a member of the St Giles watch, which helps to ensure that the church remains open to visitors.
One of the most striking features of the church is a set of 14th century wall paintings depicting scenes from the bible. These were discovered and revealed by the Victorians, but about 20 years ago suffered damage as a result of thieves taking lead from the roof.
The advance party arrived at 9:30am to put up the gazebos in Ann Evans’ lovely garden, and as there were only 4 of us and we were dealing with a new gazebo, it took a bit longer than expected.
It was lovely to meet with old friends again. In total there were 33 of us, and, after mingling and greeting everyone, we chose which of the four tables to sit at.
provided us with a choice of chicken or salmon salads (or a combination of the two), and a wide array of desserts.
After the meal Kay Day thanked Ann Tennant for the lovely food and Ann Evans for coming to the rescue at the last moment with the offer to host the event.