Yesterday's Stortford : an album of memories and curiosities

Barracuda Books Limited, Buckingham, 1981. First Edition. Hardcover (Original Cloth). Near Fine Condition/Good. b/w. map end-papers; Diarists and drinkers, rebels and revellers, painters and princes - all have known Stortford, and have left their impressions. These open the pages of this fascinating album of the past. Here sober men also preached temperance: men like Joseph 'Jesus' Crisp, who opposed ale for paupers; Avery Rolf, who proposed drink on prescription, and Alfred Slaps Barrett, whose son Ted played trombone abed. Fishmonger Billy Peck went shopping barefoot and bowler hatted, and Brother Xavier braved an inferno for the sake of a smoke. Sarah Death wore white stockings and her friend's dog wore black. Kathleen Hill rode to hounds - and to fires on a motorbike: she saved a suffering horse by driving its owner instead. Thunderstorms threatened builder-dowser Bacon, so he was tied to his own scaffolding, while Gerald Scott got 3s and four ginger beers for enticing the Duke of Wellington's birds to local guns. When the Jubber Thickings delivered winter milk, they donned hoary sacks; children sang: 'Do you like foxes? Do you like chickens? Do you like kissing Jubber Thickings?' TB was rife and one victim lived on an iron bed in Willett's Field. If the Misses Bawtree didn't like sermons, they walked out; coachman Charlie Clarke once whipped a would¬be robber andJack Matar vied with Daniel Sanders for the 'boardie' trade. Dodger Gray cooked hedgehogs while the Saracen's Head welcomed penny on the liners and dubious ladies; the Great Hall hosted the Bachelors' Ball and Emma Dup Pope gathered cress, smoked a pipe and invented a shopping trolley. Courting couples slithered across the Stort on the aptly named Roly Croke. Size: Octavo (standard book size). 144 pages. Binding is tight, covers and spine fully intact. Dust Jacket has chunk missing at base of spine, but is otherwise intact, with both flaps. Dust Jacket un-clipped. Previous owner's signature in ink to fep.. Gilt titles spine. green cloth; illustrated by b/w. drawings, maps & photo's.. Includes bibliography & indexes. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 500 grams. Category: Genealogy & Local History; Bishop's Stortford; Hertfordshire; Market Towns; England; History. ISBN: 0860231550. ISBN/EAN: 9780860231554. Inventory No: 4384. . 9780860231554