Issue HANLEY MATTERS No. 13 the newsletter of The Hanleys’ Village Society Spring 2007 OFFICERS WORCESTER PORCELAIN CIVIL WAR IN President WORCESTERSHIRE Nick Lechmere Tel: 07771 644927 In November we were treated to a “From the plundering of soldiers, Chair fascinating talk by John Pinnock on Ian Bowles the history of Royal Worcester their insolency, cruelty, atheism, Tel: 311931 porcelain from 1750 up to modern blasphemy and rule over us, God Treasurer times. As a tour guide at the factory deliver us.” With this quotation from John Boardman Tel: 311748 museum and a collector for 30 the diary of Henry Townshend, years, John showed a considerable complaining about the rule of the Secretary & Newsletter Editor knowledge of the subject. monarchy in 1646, county historian Malcolm Fare Malcolm Atkin opened a sweeping Tel: 311197 He began by asking the question: “Why Worcester?” Because raw and fact-filled account of the Programme Secretary tumultuous years 1642-1651, when David Thomas materials could be easily transported Tel: 310437 along the river Severn, clay up from Worcestershire families were torn FORTHCOMING Cornwall and coal down from apart by divided loyalties during the ACTIVITIES Coalport. Ground animal bones were civil wars. Relations between Charles I and 5 June 2007 also available to make bone china. Guided walk around In the 18th century Worcester was Parliament had deteriorated during Croome Park’s England’s tenth largest city, the 1630s and 40s, as the high ‘Capability’ Brown Birmingham and Manchester being church king, married to a Catholic, landscape. increasingly came into conflict with Croome Park car park, merely villages on minor roads. 6.45 pm. £6 per head. Chinese porcelain had been a Parliament dominated by puritans. found in tea clippers where it was Initially, Worcester offered to 23 June 2007 used as ballast in the bilges and raise a band of militia for Parliament Local History Open Day. would keep the tea dry. English tin- and in September 1642 a Village Hall, 10-5 pm. glazed pottery could not produce Parliamentary army under the Earl of Essex moved into the county. The 11 July 2007 the translucency of china and in Dowsing afternoon 1751, under the guidance of Dr Wall first major skirmish of the Civil War with Tony Hopwood. of Malvern, the Worcester porcelain occured at Powick Bridge when a Severn End, 2.30 pm. factory was established. Massive Royalist cavalry troop defeated a 13 July 2007 temperatures of 1100 degrees small Parliamentary force. In Summer Social and centigrade were needed to turn clay retaliation, Essex’s men marched Barbecue. into Worcester and, perhaps Village Hall, 7.30 pm. to porcelain and there were many £5 per head. firings for the various pigmentation suffering the effects of too much colours at lower temperatures. perry drinking, ransacked the city, 28 September 2007 AGM & Talk by William Worcester was the first to including the cathedral, before Scott on Conserving produce porcelain decorated with withdrawing into Warwickshire. Worcester’s Heritage. transfer prints and by 1780 it was Worcestershire became a county Village Hall, 7.30 pm. making porcelain of unmatched under military occupation, as the 30 November 2007 quality. A Royal Warrant was given Royalists took control with garrisions Talk by Dr John Payne in 1789 and royalty has been buying in Worcester and Evesham. Sir on Malvern’s Geology Worcester porcelain ever since. For William Russell of Strensham recruited and Landscape. 7000 men to the Royalist cause, but Village Hall, 7.30 pm. his coronation William IV bought a 48-piece set at £30 a plate. Each created resentment by seizing men 25 January 2008 piece had to be fired 40 times. in villages throughout the county. Talk by Ray Sturdy on The city was reinforced and its wall Malvern’s Marvellous We were able to handle several Memories. examples, seeing why our local city repaired, but a third of the housing Village Hall, 7.30 pm. is famous worldwide. stock was destroyed in the process. Both sides demanded taxes from villagers and confiscated PROGRAMME FOR horses and food. As soon as a man was recruited or conscripted THE YEAR to either side, he was regarded as an enemy of the local community for preying on the populace. The first event organised for In 1644, Nicholas Lechmere raised a regiment for Parliament the summer is a guided tour of and waited in Warwickshire to recapture the county. But the the Croome Park estate, people had had enough and the following year thousands joined which will take place on 5th a third force, the Clubmen, aiming both to preserve the June . The National Trust has privileges of Parliament and defend the king. Taking this as a been restoring ‘Capability ’ sign of revolt against the Royalists, Parliament sent the Brown ’s great landscape for Clubmen muskets and they reformed as a Parliamentary militia. the past 10 years and this The king was decisively defeated at the Battle of Naseby, but year plans to open new visitor the first English Civil War only came to an end in 1646 when facilities in the last remaining Worcester finally surrendered, receiving the title ‘faithful city ’. RAF hospital built during the Worcestershire played no part in the second war, which ended Second World War. The with the execution of Charles I in 1649. meeting point is Croome Park The third war began in 1650, when the future Charles II car park at 6.45 pm and the landed in Scotland. The following year, after being defeated by cost is £6 per head. Cromwell ’s forces, he moved south into England, hoping to On 23rd June , the Society attract Royalists along the way, and made for Worcester. will mount another local General Massey pushed on to Upton to defend the river history Open Day in Hanley crossing there against the Parliamentarians. The bridge, although Swan village hall. People are broken, was not well guarded and in the early hours of the invited to exhibit any historical morning a band of 16 roundheads made their way over a plank material of local interest – linking the broken arches and occupied the Pepperpot tower of photographs, albums, cards, the old church. Although the Royalists began a furious attack on prints, paintings, scrapbooks, the tower, they were held off. Meanwhile, the main Parliamentary letters, deeds and family trees. force had forded the river 100 yards away and caught the Then on 11th July Tony Royalists in the rear, forcing them to retreat to Worcester. Hopwood will run a dowsing Hanley occupied the middle ground between the two armies. afternoon at Severn End. He The Scottish Royalist forces billeted themselves at Severn End will come equipped with rods, and Nicholas Lechmere, a supporter of Parliament, was lucky tape and pegs to see what can not to be killed. be discovered in the walled Following his defeat at Worcester, Charles escaped into garden. The meeting point is exile, while his hated Scottish allies were attacked savagely by Severn End, 2.30 – 5 pm. the citizens of the once ‘faithful city ’. Two days later on 13th Malcolm Atkin pointed out the irony of history, which led July the Society will hold its Parliament 9 years later to invite Charles II back to be king, Summer Social and Barbecue, although by then it had the authority of government. 7.30pm at the village hall. Admission £5 for which you will get a glass of wine or juice, burger & sausage, pudding & coffee. Please advise Ian Bowles or Malcolm Fare of numbers. Volunteers wanted to make puddings. The AGM on 28th September will be followed by a talk on conserving Worcester ’s heritage by William Scott, a former county conservation officer. The last event of the year is a talk on 30th November by Dr John Payne on Malvern ’s Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester Geology and Landscape.