SOCIETY OUTINGS 2010 Organised and Reported by Sylvia Ladyman et alii Clerkenwell four feet deep, so there was great opposition with John Garrod - 1 May from affected farmers and other land owners. The channel lead to New River Head in It was difficult to imagine that Clerkenwell Clerkenwell where there were four reservoirs had started as a small hamlet on the eastern 10 feet deep, ranging in area from one to two bank of the River Fleet surrounded by lush acres. In 1619 the Company was incorporated meadows and springs. Much of the land was by Royal Charter, half the shares being held owned by the Priory of the Knights of St by James I and one share to the Goldsmith’s John. To the north of Clerkenwell Green, Company for ‘needy brethren’. In 1946 the Augustinian nuns set up their nunnery, and last of the filter beds at the River Head was later in the 14th century, Charterhouse, a abandoned and the River ceased to flow. Carthusian monastery was established. The site is now a landscaped garden and the The roads were often full of cattle and sheep route of the River is shown on the footpath. on their way from the countryside to Unfortunately we were unable to visit the Smithfield Market to the south. main church, St James, near Clerkenwell Later, at the Dissolution of the Monasteries Green, as there was a wedding there. by Henry VIII, the properties of the religious This church was built on the site of St Mary’s communities were given to the nobility such nunnery and has a superb organ and as the Cavendishes, the Dukes of Newcastle excellent acoustics. As a result it is a popular and the Earl of Ailesbury. However at the place for recordings. There is a memorial to time of the Great Plague the aristocrats fled the Protestant Martyrs who were burnt at the and later waves of French Huguenots stake on the Green in the reign of Mary arrived, and Clerkenwell soon became a Tudor. We then made our way to Jerusalem centre for watch making, printing and Passage, just off Aylesbury Street where jewellery making. Later still, gin distillers Thomas Britton the ‘musical coalman’ held and brewers arrived, making use of the weekly concerts in the room above his plentiful supply of good water. warehouse. Handel often played the In 1683, in the grounds of Thomas Sadler’s harpsichord there. house, springs were discovered, which were The nearby Priory of St John of Jerusalem of course called Sadler’s Wells, a name which founded in the 12th century was the persists to this day. Other gardens also headquarters of the Knights Hospitallers. provided entertainment such as music and Their land covered five acres and included a dancing, and often refreshments such as tea, house of palatial size, three gardens, an coffee and cheesecake (a local speciality). orchard, a fish pond and a church. Today By the 19th century these gardens had only the gatehouse remains, which in the disappeared, giving way to alleys and small 18th century became the printing works for workshops. After much destruction during the Gentleman’s Magazine . Samuel Johnson the Blitz new buildings and modern factories was allocated a room there to give him have sprung up. peaceful surroundings for his writing. It later The growth of London’s population became a tavern and today houses the increased the demand for fresh drinking Museum of the British Order of St John water. So Hugh Myddleton, a goldsmith, which initiated the formation of St John financed a scheme to create a New River Ambulance. On the surface of St John’s from springs near Ware in Hertfordshire. Square was a circle of cobblestones marking As this was a commercial venture, customers the outline of the round Priory Church. had to pay 26 shillings per year, a Its 12th century crypt still survives. considerable sum at that time. The New River channel was 38 miles long, 10 feet wide and ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ruislip, Northwood & Eastcote 39 Journal 2010 Local History Society Our walk now took us to Clerkenwell Green, four chained libraries in England, this outing which has been an open space for 900 years. seemed an obvious choice. It has been the site of riots, radical politics, A monastery was founded on the site of the reform movements and public meetings for Minster in 705 by St Cuthburga, sister of the centuries. Famous people associated with the King of the West Saxons. Unfortunately it area include William Morris and G.B. Shaw – was destroyed by the Danes in the late 10th not forgetting Karl Marx whose Memorial century. Later a College of Canons was Library is housed in the oldest building here, founded by Edward the Confessor in 1043. In built in 1737. Nearby, the original clerk’s well 1497 Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of can be seen through the window of an office Henry VII founded a chantry here. Her block – the origin of the name of the area. parents are buried near the altar. Following the route of those of cattle and The church is the only twin towered example sheep we walked through Smithfield Market. in Dorset, the centre dating from the 12th The impressive facade of this Market was century, the west part from the 15th century. designed in 1878 by Horace Jones. After The latter has Quarter Jack on its outside wall noting the William Wallace memorial plaque which strikes two bells every quarter of an we came to the site of Greyfriars Monastery. hour. At first the figure was a monk, but Unfortunately its Christchurch built by Wren during the Napoleonic Wars he became a was destroyed in 1940, leaving only the tower Grenadier Guardsman. standing. Beside the tomb of the Bankes’s family in the Once again, John, our Blue Badge Guide had crypt is the tomb of Ethelred (c. 830-71), elder provided a most interesting and informative brother of Alfred the Great (c. 849-99). But the tour of an area of London which was little real attraction of the Minster is its chained known to many of us, and which ended with library, which is accessed by a narrow spiral a welcome rest and cup of tea at St Paul’s stone staircase. At the top is a small room Café before the journey home. over the choir vestry, where there are 400 Sylvia Ladyman leather bound volumes, all chained, of which more than half are over 300 years old. The Wimborne and Kingston Lacey – 5 June library was founded in 1686 by the Rev. Stone for the free use of the citizens of On the south side of the Chancel of St Wimborne, so it is one of the first public Martin’s Church in Ruislip there is a libraries in England. Many volumes are of memorial to Lady Mary Bankes who course religious (e.g. a Breeches Bible), but defended Corfe Castle against the others are by Plato and Pliny, and on law Parliamentarians during the Civil War. She medicine and music. The oldest is written on was the member of the Hawtrey family of lambskin and dates from 1343. Eastcote House who had married John In the North Transept are traces of murals Bankes, Lord Chief Justice and Attorney from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries which General to Charles I. While her husband was are not easy to differentiate. absent from Corfe Castle fighting for the King, she successfully defended the Castle After our guided tour of the Minster, some twice, but was betrayed in 1746. The wandered around this interesting town, Parliamentarians allowed her to escape, gave which included viewing handcuffs worn by her the keys of the Castle and then destroyed those waiting execution, still to be seen in the it. Bar of the ‘White Hart’. The Priests’ House The Bankes family estate is at Kingston Lacey Museum attracted others, perhaps because where she is remembered as ‘Brave Dame they could eat their sandwiches in the Mary’ – she is of course remembered in garden! The building dates from the 16th Ruislip in the name of ‘Lady Bankes Junior century and has been a stationery shop and School’. ironmongers in its time. Now it is a museum Having discovered, quite by chance, that the which traces the history of Wimborne. Bankes’s family Vault is at Wimborne Minster, and that this church held one of only ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Ruislip, Northwood & Eastcote 40 Journal 2010 Local History Society We were anxious to get to Kingston Lacy, so William Bankes’s ‘Golden Room’ (or Spanish time in the town was limited – indeed several Room) is the most lavish surviving example folk had to run to catch the coach! of his decorative taste. It was created between The Kingston Lacy estate, hoe of the Bankes’s 1835-55, as a setting for his Spanish pictures. family for over 300 years, covers 8500 acres There is a gilt and coffered ceiling and (3443 hectares). It was bought by John Bankes painted leather wall hangings from a in 1632-6, but the House was not built until Venetian palazzo. It is here that the paintings the 1660s by Ralph, son of John and Mary. by Velazquez are displayed. Elsewhere in the The first House was of red brick, built by House are paintings by Titian, Rubens, Roger Pratt, with hipped roof, balustrade and Murillo, Romney and Van Dyck. The Tent inside, a great parlour flanked by four corner Rooms on the attic floor were memorable, as apartments. In the 18th century the interior some of us had never heard of them before.