The legendary d.c. space

When I read in Slate and the Washington Post about Riot Grrrl bands playing in the "legendary d.c. space" my mind was cast back to a road trip from LA to NJ in 1986 in a 'Drive-Away' car with the writer Steve Morrow and photographer Alice Arnold. Somehow our setting off got delayed and our tight five day delivery window became three so our 2888 mile trek along I-40 couldn't allow any stops; a driver and navigator sat up front and one person slept in the back in shifts.

somewhere in Texas

After 24 hours of continuous driving we stopped exhausted in Memphis to pay our respects to the two kings: The King and Martin Luther King Jr. The Lorraine was still a motel then. We then encountered the proprietor of 'Decadence Mansion' and some of his friends which lead to dancing on the tables at Zinnies and a close escape from getting hauled into jail. I was pulled over and fined on the spot for a broken tail light so I'll never forgive Nashville. These detours demanded another long blast compressing Appalachia into a flashing series of Circle K's and 7-11's until this British, Australian and American joint enterprise wound up in D.C., mentally and physically discombobulated with our relationship as fractured as the tectonic plates beneath us. We asked the first non button-down person we could find where did the bands play and we were pointed here.

I don't recall who we saw or who any of these bands are but collectors of such trivia may be interested in this. Like Marty DiBergi said; "don't go looking for it, it's not there anymore".

There's a potted history of the club and its founder and a large archive of photos taken inside the club too. A documentary on the Washington DC Punk scene is looking for funds on Kickstarter.

As far as I can tell, only Brad Allen appearing on the 29th October is still working though I'm not certain it's the same one. It could be him if, like us, he was only in his twenties then.

Alice split the party in D.C. and I dropped Steve in NYC to attend his interview at Columbia U and I went onto a small town in rural New Jersey to drop the car, an ex-Hertz rental, in a field with thousands of others. Waiting at a train station for an Amtrak to begin the journey back to LA with only $20 in my pocket and a cold wind biting and the intense fall colours burning my eyes was to be a Simon and Garfunkel moment about who I was and what I wanted to do with my life.

A polite message to every customer

It's Thanksgiving this weekend and that means for the USA 'Black Friday' the kick off of the Christmas shopping season.

Here's a message to all the people everywhere that visit shops to decide what they want to buy then go home and buy it on Amazon or other online retailers or even use apps on their smartphones to buy it online right there and then. It's called 'showrooming' and it's killing both small and big businesses and the high street. 4 in 10 smartphone owners admit they've used their device in stores to compare prices on a product. Of those, 97% said they bought the product for less online.

Jeez Louise, you spent all that time and money on parking, petrol or bus fares to get to the shop. Why don't you consider the convenience value of the £2 difference on that DVD for Aunt Mabel to be satisfied that the job's done? If you need to take it back it's probably a lot easier to take it to where you got it from and exchange it instantly then schlep to the post office and pay the postage. When the last of the independent retailers has gone bust and tumbleweeds blow down your high street, those bargains won't be online anymore.

Without a thriving retail sector, your town won't be such a nice place to live, your home's value will have fallen and local investment will have dried up along with any well paid local jobs. Bricks and mortar shopping, such as it will be by then, will involve driving even further distances to out-of-town centres, costing you a fortune in fuel, along with increasing the commute to any employment people can find in the retail sector. That will probably drive more customers to do more shopping online so the vicious circle will increase to become a whirlwind of retail destruction.

Small retailers can do and should do more things to provide services and offer features that online retailers can't but the big boys online have much deeper pockets and are in for the long haul to crush any competition. Naturally you can't find everything you want in your local shops, the rot in the high streets started a while back so there's a smaller range of goods available in the average market town than a decade ago, but if you go into a independent toy shop or even a boo hiss big-box retailer to check out a product's features and then abuse their hospitality to go buy it online, I think you deserve every karmic retribution.

Plus we've learned recently some of those online retailers, unburdened by local business rates, are avoiding paying their corporation taxes too. Unless the public recognise the fact that buying online will cost them more in the long run than buying in a shop, it will be game over for many small businesses and small towns and much of the economy as a whole. There's very little legislation we can produce to protect the small independent retailer that won't stifle competition or reward failure but, just as most of us decide not to steal even when given a the opportunity, we should consider the morality of our conduct as it's the only protection they have.

So this holiday season, have a heart and please support your local independent retailers who depend on this season to see them through. Or there won't be much to celebrate in their homes while you share the joy of getting the lowest price in yours.

--

If you've ever wondered, the people in the iconic 1936 'Migrant Mother' photographs are Florence Thompson then aged 32, Ruby Sprague then age 5, and the baby Norma Rydlewski.

Event Spaces in Halesworth

In previous posts I have highlighted the range of coffee shops in Halesworth, Suffolk and suggested that the town council and business association should market the town's meeting and event venues.

I don't have the time or all the data to produce a comprehensive list but here is a basic stab at it below.

View Halesworth Event Spaces in a larger map

As far as I can tell there are 19 20 different venues in which regular meetings, indoor markets, activities (such as exercise classes), and performances are held around the town.

Some venues such as the Rifle Hall and Old Print Works are quite basic but are flexible and affordable so they get used by events like the High Tide Festival as temporary performance and exhibition spaces. The recently closed Middle School awaits redevelopment meanwhile the classrooms, gym, assembly hall, kitchens and cafeteria have huge potential for imaginative temporary use. Some venues such as the golf club and the New Cut Arts Centre are already fully equipped to hold performances, weddings, activities, meetings or conferences which can be arranged with a phone call.

If you represent any of these venues or want to list another I would like to compile a full list but I think this information is something that should be available on the town's existing websites, regardless if that venue is an advertiser or member or not. At the moment only the golf club and the Swan show up on a Google search for "meeting room Halesworth" but searches in other towns brings up far more comprehensive listings.

I hope this basic information is enough to give you a lead on finding the place you need on Google etc. as Halesworth has many advantages for holding an event of any size. 

There is ample free parking in the town, lots of nice places to shop and eat and some good art galleries too. There are good bus connections and an hourly train service (from December 10th 2012) from Lowestoft and Ipswich. All of the locations on the map except the golf course are served by the 511 'Hoppa' bus which can also be hired to provide a shuttle service.

For more information you could try the clerk to the town council as well.

venue	postode	web/email	phone	suitable for
Angel Hotel	IP19 8AH	hotel@angel-halesworth.co.uk	01986 873365	meetings, meals
Cadet Hut, Market Place	IP19 8BA			activities
Edgar Sewter Primary School	IP19 8BU			activities
Halesworth Day Centre	IP19 8LW			meetings, dinners
Halesworth Golf Club	IP19 9XA	www.halesworthgc.co.uk	01986 875567	meetings, dinners, weddings, cap 150
Halesworth Middle School	IP19 8PY	www.halesworthcampus.org		disused gym, kitchen, cafeteria: activities, exhibitions
Halesworth Public Library	IP19 8AD			meetings, talks
Holton Village Hall	IP19 8PL			meetings, activities, markets, performance, badmington
Methodist Church, Back Room	IP19 8LR		07932 165351	meetings
New Cut Arts Centre	IP19 8BY		01986 873285	meetings, exhibits, conference, activity, concerts
North Suffolk Skills Centre	IP19 8PY			meetings
Old Print Works	IP19 8AP			markets, exhibits, raw space
Patrick Stead Garden Room	IP19 8HP			meetings, activity
Rifle Hall	IP19 8LW			markets, exhibits, raw space
Scout Hall, Chediston Street	IP19 8BE	brian.howard@suffolkscouts.org.uk	01986 875551	meetings, activity
St Mary's Church	IP19 8LW	admin.bvtm@btconnect.com	01986 872602	meetings, performances
St Mary's Church Hall	IP19 8AW	jasonbusby@yahoo.co.uk	01986 873336	meetings, activity, market
United Reform Church	IP19 8BY	juliamarie.howell@gmail.com	01986 875917	meetings, activity, performance
WDC Council Chamber	IP19 8LW			meetings

Postscript

White Swan Pub                        IP19 8LH  tompkinssteven@aol.com                   01986872273            function room with capacity for 100, licensed. 

The Thoroughfare

A few reference and history notes on the pedestrianised street The Thoroughfare in Halesworth.

I found this logo on a few documents but nowhere on line. Where can you get a eps or jpeg of it? What is the point of spending money on logo design and branding if no one is able to use them and they're not used consistently.

The town was unsuccessful at getting £100,000 of the Portas Towns Project money in June 2012 but a smaller grant of £10,000 was awarded in the second round though accounts of what it was or will be spent on are not known. A video for the bid was produced.

Zombies took over the Throughfare on Saturday October 27th 2012 to raise funds for the Rifle Hall

Plaque above Focus Organics George Lansbury was born on Feb. 21 1859 in a toll keepers cottage on the Bramfield Road at the Mells crossing to George Lansbury and Mary Ann Ferris. His father was the timekeeper of a gang of navvies building the East Suffolk Railway. The railway workers moved camp as the line progressed. The toll keeper Robert Clarke took pity on Mrs Lansbury's condition and provided his cottage for her confinement.

George was baptised in Halesworth church on March 13 and his parents registered their abode as 'The Thoroughfare'. Their purported temporary lodgings are marked by a plaque. Shortly after his birth his family moved onto his father's next contract at Sydenham, near Penge. After many years of this nomadic life, the family settled in East London when George was nine.

Saddler's shop circa 1945 between what is now the stationers and Edwards Restaurant 

Halesworth's fire engine - date unknown

date unknown 

Now occupied by the Bay Tree Bistro, number 6 is known as 'Ancient House' and was a gentleman’s outfitters and school uniform emporium in the 1950-60's. It was thought to once be the home of Margaret De Argentein. The shield would have had their coat of arms. The unusual carving at first floor level is called bressumer. It rests on the joists of the first floor. The left hand figures are almost certainly Ganymede, holding a cup or glass, being seized by Jupiter, in the form of an eagle, to be cup bearer to the Gods. This neatly parallels the role of cup bearer at Royal coronations held by the Argenteins until 1424 and by the Allingtons until 1706. The figures on the right are less obvious but probably depict a scene from the Reynard the Fox stories which were popular in the Middle Ages.

Thoroughfare looking south to Bridge Street.



The Thoroughfare was pedestrianised in  1989. Until that time all traffic used to pass through this street and often lorries would get stuck under overhangs.

Thoroughfare looking north about 1905

Looking south during Scout parade - around 1916-1920

1950's

Another scion of Halesworth was Benjamin William Botham who was born in 1824. He came from a family of local tailors and drapers and by the early 1850s he was living in Bridge Street, a married man with children and employed as linen and woollen draper.

Around 1856, Benjamin Botham decided to give up the drapery trade to become a travelling photographer. By 1857, he and his wife and children had reached Derbyshire and established a photographic business.

By the end of 1859, Benjamin Botham had returned to Halesworth where another child was born. The family then moved to the Sussex coast where he hoped to continue his photographic career. He was successful and by 1868 he had sold his photography business to become the proprietor of The New Oxford Theatre of Varieties in New Road, Brighton.

A detailed biography of him is on the Sussex Photo History website.

In The Economic & Social History of Halesworth 720 AD - 1902 AD by Michael Fordham there is a section on Halesworth in the Report of the Commission into the Working of the Factory and Workshop Acts (1876):

There are textile factories winding and weaving silk, and manufacturing drabbett cloth from cotton and linen; there are several clothing factories, a number of iron foundries, and factories building coaches or making agricultural implements. Dressmaking and millinery form a large proportion of the workshops. (A workshop is a manufacturing establishment that employs less than 50 hands.) Inspectors have the power to enforce regulations in dwelling houses where the occupier carries on a business and employs protected persons - children under 13, young persons 13-18 and women, in a handicraft.

In the principal occupations of the Halesworth area the hours of work are less than 60 a week, and not more than 10 hours a day. Since the passing of the Workshops Regulation Act of 1867, a prosperous time has elapsed.

Many servants have become masters, competition is at its keenest, while machinery supplements hand labour; machines are improved on every year. In clothing and boots and shoes workshops the hours are 8 am to 6 pm, or 8am to 7 pm, with Saturday to 1 or 2 pm. In the workshops of dressmakers, milliners and tailors some have asked for permission to work overtime. If children are employed they cannot work for more than 6 ½ hours a day. No children under 8 are to be employed.

There are generally to be found in towns three classes of trades men in each business. (1) The first class enjoys the favours of first class families, opens later and closes earlier than the others. The first class shops are more spacious and better ventilated. (2) Seeks for ready money customers among the class who can afford to purchase a good article. He keeps open to give customers the opportunity of shopping after 6. (3) Catches the multitude who from habit will not shop till late in the evening.

The hours of labour in shops engaged in drapery, millinery, haberdashery, fancy goods, ready made clothing and grocery are 7.30 am to 8 pm; 8 am to 8 pm and 8 am to 7 pm with a short day once a week. On Saturdays the shops keep open till 9, 10 or 11pm and on market days the same. Breakfast time is generally 30 minutes, dinner 20 minutes and tea the same. On market days during the season there is no time for dinner. In agricultural town the farm labourers and cottagers come in about 2 or 3 pm; they wander up and down for hours visiting houses for refreshment and drink, and begin shopping about 8 or 9 pm. More money is taken in the third class businesses on a market day or Saturday from 8 pm to 11 pm than during the day.Drapers employ 3 women for every man. Great improvement has been effected in the employment and treatment of females in shops. Children are generally employed as errand boys, they begin first and leave off last and are put to all sorts of work and receive little education.

According to Halesworth - An Ecological Society by Denis Bellamy & Ruth Downing 2006:

In the 70s and 80s many market towns suffered a process of ‘rape-by-bypass’ to achieve a smooth flow of traffic through narrow streets. Halesworth was transformed during this period, first by the construction of Saxons Way, and then by the Angel Link to join it to the southern end of The Thoroughfare. Saxon Way was driven through a network of old closes and gardens over a new river crossing. The Angel Link involved laying a wide carriageway along a lane that ran from Angel Corner to George’s Old Maltings. In 2006, the consultant to Waveney District Council reported on the adverse impact of the Angel Link development on the town’s built heritage as follows: 
The Angel Link follows the line of the former Angel Yard and Angel Lane. It required the demolition of the Corn Hall (originally a maltings and finally a dairy) and the loss of a bowling green to the carriageway and car parks. Its construction has had a substantial impact on the historic urban grain of the area, opening up the rear yards and gardens at the southern end of The Thoroughfare with views of the sides of buildings and leaving others isolated. In particular this massive development involved the demolition of cottages and commercial premises on Angel Corner thrusting a massive plain gable end into the view of people walking up The Thoroughfare to the Market Place. 

The major justification for the The Angel Link was to take traffic from the west smoothly through the town. In this respect, it can be argued that this objective has now been met more effectively by Roman Way, the ‘Chediston St bypass’ constructed at the start of the millennium.

Lowestoft Witch Trial

By Frances Collingwood 

FEW people were able to think straight about witches in the Middle Ages. Any wretched woman who behaved oddly could be persecuted to such an extent by her neighbours that sheer terror would make her more peculiar until before she knew where she was the hue and cry would be on. And once a witch was up for trial she rarely saw her home again.

The Lowestoft witch trial took place at Bury St. Edmunds on March 10, 1664 and was mainly notable for an element of sanity introduced into the proceedings towards the end. 

INDEED with a less prejudiced judge the verdict might easily have been not guilty. 
The events which led to the charge were petty in the extreme and a very nice example of the revenging of personal spite. It all started with a quarrel about herrings which some fishermen at Lowestoft had refused to sell to Amy Denny and Rose Cullender; the supposed witches. One gathers that much spiteful backchat ensued and there is little doubt that the fishermen's families were united by their mutual dislike of these two unfortunate women. 

ONE of the fishermen. Samuel Pacey, declared that his two children Elizabeth aged eleven, and Deborah aged nine, were bewitched. They had in fact been seized by violent fits as soon as he had refused to supply the accused with herrings. These two children kept crying out that the witches were in the room with them or else that they had sent their imps to torment them. On occasions they were unable to move their limbs and found they had lost the power of speech.

OTHER signs of bewitchment was the vomiting of pins and nails and this they were constantly doing. Mr. Pacey felt obliged to send them to stay with their aunt. Margaret Arnold in Yarmrouth where he hoped they might be out of reach of the witches’ powers. But this had been of no avail, for the children continued to vomit pins and their aunt declared that as many as thirty had been brought up in one vomit, this in spite of the fact that she had hidden all the pins in the house. Once, apparently, Deborah had brought up a twopenny nail with a broad head, which she insisted had been forced down her throat by a thing like a bee.” She also said she had actually seen Amy Denny in Yarmouth, and that the witch had tried to persuade her to kill herself by cutting her throat or by drowning. Elizabeth, it seemed, caught a mouse under the table one day, and when she threw it on the fire it exploded with a blinding flash like gunpowder. Her aunt was forced to admit, however, that she had not seen anything in the child’s hand. Both children insisted that they saw mice running about all over the house, although they were not visible to anyone else.  Elizabeth and Deborah were not the only Lowestoft children affected. Ann, the daughter of another fisherman who had refused to sell herrings to Rose Cullenden, also had fits, pains and visions. So did little Jane Bocking, and eighteen-year-old Susan Chandler.

AS was the case in so many witch trials, there was no lack of evidence. Horses were said to have been bewitched, and a certain John Soam swore that a spell had been cast upon his carts so that his men were unable to move or unload them. When he had called in other helpers their noses had bled so copiously that they had been powerless to do anything. Yet the following day the carts had been quite easy to move.  

ELIZABETH, Ann and Susan were taken to Bury to give evidence at the trial, and although apparently in good health at the outset they were assailed by fits the moment they entered the court-house, so that they were unable to speak properly. Elizabeth, it seems, lost all power of movement, and lay for some time semi-conscious on a table. One of the accused, Amy Denny, was ordered to touch Elizabeth while she remained in her apparent trance, and the child sprang up and scratched the witch’s face with such vigour that she had to be removed by force. Susan also threw a fit at the sight of Rose Cullenden in court, and when asked if she had anything to say against the prisoners she screamed Burn her! Burn her! at the top of her voice.The accused were persistent in denying all the charges against them, and could not be shaken from their attitude even after Susan’s mother and five other women swore that with their own eyes they had seen the two tell-tale prick marks known as the Devil’s mark upon the witches’ wrists.

ONE interesting feature of the trial was the testimony of the celebrated Sir Thomas Browne, whose wisdom was consulted. He seems to have adopted a rather cautious attitude, for after admitting that the fits thrown by the children were probably due to hysteria he went on to remark that they could “be heightened to a great excess by the subtlety of the Devil co-operating with the malice of those which we term witches, at whose instance he doth these villainies.”  The view of so learned a man naturally carried weight, but there happened to be present in the court a certain Mr. Sergeant Keeling, who apparently was not impressed by the great man's reactions. He roundly declared that no one would be safe from charges of witchery if such views were accepted. It was his considered opinion that the children had been encouraged to act a part by their vindictive parents, and he obtained permission to prepare a test. In this he was joined by Lord Cornwallis and Sir Edmund Bacon.

IT was a generally accepted principle that bewitched persons reacted instantly to the touch or presence of a witch, It was therefore arranged to closet Amy Denny in a room into which one of the children was taken blindfold. Other persons were also present, and the child was made aware of these circumstances. Expecting to be touched by the witch, the child fell into a violent fit on feeling a hand on her arm, thus proving Mr Keeling’s suspicions, for the witch had not moved from the corner in which she was sitting. As a result of this disclosure the three men made a declaration before the judge in the following words: We do believe the whole transaction of this business was a mere imposture.” And they were probably right.


ALL the same a verdict of guilty was returned and the luckless women were hanged. In his summing-up, Sir Matthew Hale did not refer to the test imposed by Keeling, but solemnly told the jury that he had no doubt in the existence of witches, for not only did Scripture affirm it; but every nation had laws against them. With the possibility of fraud so clearly evident it is surprising to find the judge not instigating a fuller inquiry into the honesty of the plaintiffs. But perhaps it would be truer to say that the most surprising element produced by this case was the clear thinking shown by the three men who were courageous enough to suggest that there might be something to be said after all for those poor unfortunates whom the majority believed to be in the pay of the Devil.

Scanned with OCR from the 1965 East Anglian and Essex Annual

I have posted this because of its relevance to current witch trials ongoing although I first noticed it because it mentions the Bocking family. There is a detailed website on the witch trials authored by Ivan Bunn which according to him:

The Bocking family is one about which very little is known. (Well, we're still living locally!) 

Diana Bocking, the mother of the bewitched Jane was not born in Lowestoft so her maiden name is not known, although records show that she did live there after her marriage. She was married to Henry Bocking the son of William and Jeane Bocking who was born in Lowestoft in 1616.  Only one child is recorded from this union and that is Jane who was born at Lowestoft in August 1647 making her 15 years old at the time she was "bewitched". 

Diana appears to have been a widow by 1653 (although there is no record of her husband's burial at Lowestoft) for in that year she purchased in her own right  a copyhold house and land at the north end of High Street.  However her time as a property owner was short-lived because four years later she sold all the land and the following year she sold the house as well.  Obviously her "fortunes" were failing because in 1656 the records show that Widow Bocking received a payment from the town Poor Rate .Eight years after the trial she can be found living in a small rented tenement in town. 

She died at Lowestoft at Lowestoft in October 1680 and is described in the burial register as "an ancient woman". All the parish records remain mute concerning the fate of her daughter the bewitched Jane Bocking.

Contemporary parish records in Norwich are filled with the Bocking name. The name is thought to originate in the Essex village founded by a Viking called Bocca, thus Boc-inge translates as 'Bocca's people'. There are contemporary Bocking families scattered all across Derbyshire, notably recorded in the plague quarantined village of Eyam. The Hawley Collection holds a knife with the mark of Robert Bocking registered with the Cutlers' Company of Sheffield in 1689.

The Essex village was a 'peculiar' to the Archbishop of Canterbury and another interesting Bocking was the archbishop's treasurer  Dr. Edward Bocking, who was instrumental in the the affair of Elizabeth Barton, the 'Holy Maid of Kent'. 

There are remains of a chapel at Court-Le-Street overlooking the Romney marshes where this young servant girl was miraculously cured of an epileptiform illness in front of numerous witnesses in the Spring of 1526, bringing her to the attention of the Archbishop of Canterbury who sent his aide  to examine her. Dr Bocking declared her genuine and as her confessor, he stage-managed her to build a reputation as a visionary in an attempt to prevent the divorce of Henry VIII. She (and he) proved to be such a formidable opponent of the king's will that in 1533 Cromwell took steps against her and after examination by Cranmer, Barton and her associates were committed to the Tower. Bocking, Barton and the priests Richard Master, Hugh Rich, John Dering, Henry Gold and Richard Risby were executed at Tyburn on 20 April, 1534.