Part 1
Transcribed from the 1905 Geo. C. Caster edition by David Price, email [email protected]
[Picture: Andrew Percival (Taken in the year 1901)]
May be had bound in Cloth, Price 1/6.
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Notes on Old Peterborough,
BY ANDREW PERCIVAL, S.S.C.,
With Eight Illustrations,
INCLUDING
Portrait of the Author.
Arranged, Published, and Sold by Special Permission of the Author,
BY The PETERBOROUGH ARCHÆOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
[Picture: Decorative graphic]
ONE SHILLING.
[Picture: Decorative graphic]
PETERBOROUGH: GEO. C. CASTER, MARKET PLACE. 1905.
[_Reprinted from type of the_ “_Peterborough Advertiser_.”]
PREFACE.
The Reminiscences of a Citizen whose memory goes back in detail for over Seventy Years, as in the case of the Contributor of these Notes, cannot fail to be of paramount interest and of antiquarian value. Especially in this case, where the distinguished Narrator has held a very foremost place in the Professional life and Voluntary Public Service of the City. Additionally interesting must they prove in the case of a City which has developed from a comparatively small parish into a populous industrial, commercial and residential Centre. The Peterborough Archæological Society has in these circumstances undertaken the duty of preserving and circulating in compact form the very valuable personal Recollections of Mr. Andrew Percival. In doing so the Society acknowledges its indebtedness to that gentleman for his ready permission to entrust them to its charge. The writer of this Preface was present at the old Wentworth Rooms, at Peterborough, in the years 1883–4, when the addresses which formed the basis of this chronicle were delivered. He thus felt a continuity of interest when the manuscript was recently committed to him to prepare, with illustrations, for advance publication in the “Peterborough Advertiser,” in September, 1905, and in bringing up to date, during the indisposition of the Author, several of the chronological and statistical references. Otherwise the Notes remain exactly as set down and corrected by Mr. Percival. The Society expresses its thanks to Mr. A. C. Taylor for the use of the very excellent photo of Mr. Percival which forms the frontispiece; to Mr. T. N. Green (Ball & Co.) for the Photo of the Old Bridge; and to Mr. Geo. C. Caster for the use of “Whittlesey Mere” block, from “Fenland Notes & Queries”; most of the others having been specially taken and engraved for this Publication.
F. L.
_Peterborough_, _Oct._, _1905_.
INDEX.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. {5}
Portrait of Mr. Andrew Percival Title Page Peterborough Market Place in 1836 9 Sedan Chair 19 Cottages in Paston 20 The Old Bridge over the Nene 27 Sexton Barns 29 Peterborough Market Place in 1795 36 Map of Whittlesey Mere 47
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PAGE. Advertisement, A peculiar 40 An Alibi 43
Balls 19 Barns 29, 31 Beacon, A lighted 22 Beadle, The City 16 Breweries 10 Bridge, The old wooden 27 Buckle’s Brewery 10, 11 Burglaries 43 Burial at Cross Roads 32 Burial Ground, The Old 34 Butcher’s Piece, The 41
Cabbage Row 31 Calculating Boy 10 Castor, Old system of farming at 22 Cattle Market 33 Cemetery, The 34 Coaches, Mail 11, 12, 13 Constables, Parish 17 Contrast, A 13 Cost of Travelling 12
Distemper, The 40 Draining the Great Level 23
Epitaphs 35 Executions 41 Extraordinary Medley 34
Fairs 19 Fen around Peterborough 23 Fen Drainage 23, 25 Fen Taxes 27 Franking Letters 16 Frisby’s Feat 12 Frog Hall 32
Gaols 17, 30 Gas Works started 32 Gates, Toll 9 God’s Acre 34 Guildhall, The 41
Hangings 41 Hostelry, The Thorpe Road 30
Infirmary, The 10 Intelligent Fenmen 27
Jaunt through the City 29
Ladies and the Cattle 33 Land, Improvement in value of 27 Level, The Great 23 Level, Draining the Great 23 Lock-up Story 43
Mail Coaches 11 Market, Cattle 33 ,, The old 33 „ Wednesday 34 Mere, Whittlesey 19 Mill, The Old 14, 27, 29 Mill system of Draining 25 Mud Case, The 44
Nene Outfall, The 25 Newspapers 38, 39, 40 Newtown 31 Notorious Family, A 17
Oasis in the Desert 21
Packets, River 15 Parish Constables 17 Paston 22 Ponds 31 Poor House 31 Poor Law 30 Post Office 37 Postal Charges 15
Railways 11, 14, 44 Railways and Earl Fitzwilliam 14 Retrospective 45 River Packets 15 Robbery at the Vicarage 43
Sedan Chairs 19 Sexton Barns 29 Smothering the Cathedral 14 Snatched from the Sea 25
Tales of the Coaching days 12 Theatre 17 Toll Gates 9 Tombstone Rhymes 35 Tythe Barn, Boroughbury 31
Value of land improved 27
Whalley, Mr. G. H. 15 Whittlesey Mere 19
PART THE FIRST.
CITY TOLL GATES.—HOW TOLL WAS LEVIED.—THE INFIRMARY.—OLD CITY BREWERIES.—THE CALCULATING BOY.—STARTING THE RAILWAYS.—FRISBY’S FEAT.—TALES OF THE COACHING DAYS.—TALLY-HO COACH.—A CONTRAST.—A STORY OF LORD FITZWILLIAM.—SMOTHERING THE CATHEDRAL.—THE OLD MILL.—SIMPSON’S PACKET.—MR. WHALLEY’S JOKE.—POSTAL CHARGES.—FRANKING LETTERS.—THE CITY BEADLE.—PARISH CONSTABLES AND GAOL.—A NOTORIOUS FAMILY.—FAIRS.—CITY BELLS.—SEDAN CHAIRS.—WHITTLESEY MERE.
WHEN I came to Peterboro’ in Oct., 1833, I think our population was five or six thousand. In the month of August I came down to make arrangements for my being articled to the late Mr. Gates. I was taken charge of by my father, and protected by my sister, and we drove from Northampton, where my father was a medical man having an extensive practice, and could only spare one day. During the night a most extraordinary storm sprang up. We had to go back during that storm. There was an enormous destruction of timber on the road between here and Northampton, and in many other parts of the country. It was a storm such as very seldom rages in these latitudes in the summer months. In one part of the journey was a great avenue of trees, a considerable portion of which was destroyed. It was the property of a worthy squire, and I remember hearing it remarked, “How much Mr. So-and-So will feel the destruction of his avenue.” “Oh dear no,” said the person spoken to, “don’t you know that that property is settled property, and he has no power of cutting timber, and he will be highly delighted. He thinks the avenue is much improved, as it puts a very good sum of money into his pocket, which is very welcome to him.” You see it is an ill wind that blows nobody good.
[Picture: Peterborough Market Place in the Coaching Days. (From a Print, 1836). “Peterborough has much altered since those days.”—Andrew Percival]
When I got here, the first thing I saw when I looked round the town was that it was confined by toll bars. There was a toll bar just over the bridge, where the little house since converted into shops then was. At the other end of the town, on the Lincoln Road, was another toll bar; on the Thorney Road was another, and at the back of Westgate another. Our town had four gates drawn across the four entrances; on the road now known as Lincoln Road East, then Crawthorne Lane, there was a side bar to prevent anyone getting out of the town without paying contributions. One enquired what these meant, because within a mile or two on each of the main roads you would find another toll bar, at which they duly took toll, and the only villages that could get into Peterborough without paying toll were Yaxley, Farcet, and Stanground, as the turnpike road toll on that road, the old London Road, was near Norman Cross. Otherwise, our system was so ingeniously contrived that you could not get into or out of Peterborough without paying town toll at the end of the street, which were tolls for the pavement. This was rather a peculiar system. I do not wish to quote Scripture, but you will recollect the enquiry, “Of whom do the Kings of the earth take tribute? Of their own children or of strangers, and they said ‘of strangers.’ Then the comment was ‘Then are the children free!’”
The system that our forefathers adopted for encouraging communication and traffic was this: They put a toll on for their pavements, from the payment of which they exempted themselves, and took it from the strangers that came into the place. The only exceptions were when the inhabitants of the place travelled on Sundays. Toll collectors were then authorised to take toll from them, and also from those who hired vehicles in the place, the result being if you were an inhabitant of the place, and had the luck to keep your carriage or gig or wagon, or whatever it was, you might use the pavement as much as you pleased, and pay nothing. But if you were a poor person, or could only treat yourself occasionally with the luxury of a gig, or were obliged to hire a trap for business, yon were immediately taken toll of.
The present Hospital or Infirmary was then a private dwelling-house. The Dispensary which existed then was a small house opposite the Old Burial Ground, the one now occupied by Mr. Payling, the dentist. After some years, it was removed from this place to what is now the Police Station in Newtown. Soon after this, the Earl Fitzwilliam purchased the present building and presented it to the City, a monument of his appreciation of the good that had been done in a small way by the existing buildings, and which, I think, in the present arrangements, fully carried out his Lordship’s benevolent wishes.
There were two considerable features of Peterborough which have entirely disappeared. Where Queen Street and North Street now stand were two large breweries, known as Buckle’s Brewery and Squires’s Brewery. They were quite institutions of the place, and it always strikes me as a very strange thing that they should have entirely disappeared, as one of them would have been larger than all the breweries now in Peterborough. Buckles’ Brewery was certainly a very remarkable one, and carried on with great energy and spirit. There was one peculiarity they had—that some friends of the partners could assemble on Easter Monday and spend the afternoon in playing at marbles. I have spent pleasant afternoons there on Easter Mondays. There were two large tuns or barrels in which the beer was kept, one of which was called Mrs. Clarke, and the other the Duke of York, to perpetuate a scandal at the time when they were constructed. A very hospitable time always followed the game at marbles.
Buckles’ Brewery was the cause of another peculiar circumstance. On one occasion there visited the town for the amusement of the people, a calculating boy. He went through, his entertainment with great success, and at last one of our worthy inhabitants got up and asked the question “How many gallons does Mr. Buckles’ great copper hold?” The boy said he could not tell. “No; I thought you could not,” was the reply. Our worthy citizen had forgotten to give the dimensions of the copper, and went away rejoicing over the fact that he had puzzled the calculating boy!
He reminds me very much of a story one has heard in connection with our own professional experience. A witness was called to prove an assault, which consisted in a man having been knocked down by a stone thrown at him. The counsel was anxious to ascertain the size of the stone. The witness said “do you want to know how big it was?” “Yes,” said the counsel. “The size do you mean?” “Yes.” “Well, it was biggish.” “Well, I want you to tell me how big it was”! “Well, sir, if you want me to tell you how big it was, I should think it was as big as a lump o’ chalk.” Now, I think the gentleman who put the question about the copper, and the witness, must have been very nearly related.
When I arrived in the City, it became very important to me to know how I could get away from it. I lived at Northampton. Between Peterborough and Northampton there are now eleven trains a day. When I came to Peterborough in 1833, and for some years afterwards, the only communication between the town of Northampton and the City of Peterborough was a one-horse carrier’s cart, which came twice a week, and I think the large proportion of its business consisted in carrying parcels from the Probate Office at Northampton to the Probate Office at Peterborough. For coaches we were pretty well off. Two mails ran through Peterborough, the Boston Coach, and the Coach to Hull. We used to go shares with the town of Stamford with a London Coach. One of our townsmen ran a coach to Stilton daily, where it joined the coach from Stamford. At one time that coach carried the letter bag, and on one occasion it started without the bag.
There was a man known as “Old John Frisby,” who was not quite “all there,” and this man went after the coach with the letter bag, and overtook it at Stilton. The poor man was under the impression that he had done the State a great service and thought he ought to receive a pension, and he daily expected it until his death.
The Mail Coaches were very comfortable for travelling in fine weather, and an eight or ten hours’ journey was very pleasant, providing you did not ride inside. A journey to London and Edinburgh occupied two whole days and nights. The expense of such a mode of travelling was very great, being five or six times as much as the ordinary first class railway fare. Every fifty or sixty miles the Coachman would touch his hat and say, “I leave you here, sir,” which meant that you were to give him a fee. The guard would do the same, and when your luggage was put up, the ostler came to you. If you travelled post or in “a yellow and two,” as it was called, you had to pay 1s. 6d. a mile, beside the toll bars, and 3d. a mile for the post boy, as well as something more that he always expected. The 3d. a mile for the post boy, as his regular fee, is about equal to the highest first class railway fare that is paid on any railway in the country.
Just conceive what a change there is in the communication and you do not wonder that the introduction of the railway system has made a stationary nation into a nation of travellers. After a time things did improve a little. The Birmingham Railway was made at considerable cost. When I wanted to go to Northampton, for many years I had to get up at six o’clock in the morning, hire a gig to go to Thrapston, where I caught the Cambridge coach, which ran in connection with the coach at Oxford. It cost about £4 to go home and come back again. When the Blisworth railway was opened, a coach was set up from Lynn to Blisworth six days in the week. This was a great convenience, and was very well supported. There were two coachmen. One was very grave and serious and the other light and frivolous. Everybody knew them very well indeed. It was very amusing to travel with them.
At last, the Northampton Railway was projected, and it was plain to those men that their reign was coming to an end; but they used to endeavour to convert you to the belief that it was far better for things to remain as they were. The light and frivolous one used to sing a song in praise of the “Tally Ho” Coach. I remember the chorus was:
Let the steam pot hiss Until it is hot. Give me the speed of The Tally-ho trot!
The other coachman used to appeal to your fears, and say how dreadful it was when a railway accident occurred—“when an accident occurred to the coach—there you are! Just fancy an accident at 20 or 30 miles an hour; when that happens, where are you?”
Well, we have survived it, and I am not sure that he was accurate in his per centage of those injured in coach and railway accidents. I have known some very fatal and distressing accidents bearing a very large proportion of injuries and deaths to those in the coach. I may mention that the Lynn coach of Messrs. Hill was very good to take you to the sea, it was very hard work to get to the beach in these days. I believe Skegness consisted of a single house. The nearest place was Yarmouth, and Messrs. Hill’s car took you to Lynn, where you could join the Birmingham and Yarmouth mail. I have never forgotten my first visit to Yarmouth when a boy. From the Norwich Road you caught the first view of the sea. As you enter Yarmouth now by rail you go in over the marshes, and the last two or three miles are by the side of muddy water, and you cannot see the sea until you get on the beach. The contrast between the way by the old coach and by the rail is very striking, indeed.
In the year 1842 or 1843 it was rumoured that the London and North-Western Company were about to feel their way eastward, and the project for making the Peterborough and Northampton Railway was put into shape. Our wildest dreams never expected a railway. We had a coach, and that was quite a novelty. The Bishop and Dean and Chapter had a good deal of property on the line, and strongly opposed the railway. When the Bill came into the House of Lords it was, to our great delight, passed by a majority of One. There is an anecdote of Lord Fitzwilliam, who was an opponent of the Bill. That one day his Lordship was coming down by train, and in the same carriage was one of those gentlemen who knew everything. This gentleman was giving to a friend a history of the line, and when passing Alwalton Lynch said: “That is the road to Milton Park, and do you know that Lord Fitzwilliam opposed the Bill because they would not make him a station there?” A little further on the train stopped at Overton Station, and his Lordship got out. Just as he was shutting the door he said to the gentleman: “That little anecdote which you just told your friend about that crossing is not true, and when you say anything more about it you may say that Lord Fitzwilliam told you so.”
The Northampton line was opened in 1845, and I remember being in the Cathedral when the first engine came down. It stopped at the end of the Fair Meadow, for the Dean and Chapter prevented the line being brought any nearer the town, as they would not have Bridge Fair interfered with. The engine was only about one-third the size of what they are now, but when it blew off steam people said they would never be able to hear anything in the Cathedral! Yet now no notice is taken of what was looked upon then as a deafening noise.
We had next the London and York Railway, which then crossed the Thorpe Road near where the old mill stood. Lord Fitzwilliam compelled the Company to put the line by the side of the Syston and Peterborough Railway, where it is now. There were some amusing incidents connected with the Syston Railway. It was strongly opposed by Lord Harborough, and there were riots and fights between his men and the surveyors of the line. I will say no more about the railway system.
The communications with Peterborough would be very incomplete if one forgot the river, because the river in those days was very necessary to the comfort of the town. I daresay now, if I were to quote Cowper’s lines:
Nen’s barge-laden waves,
people might say they did not think the load is very heavy. But before the construction of the railway, and for some year’s afterwards, barges were found in very great abundance. We derived our whole coal supply from the river, and it was our great channel for carrying corn and timber. The importance of the Nene to the counties through which it passed was very great. Amongst other things was a Packet called “Simpson’s Packet,” and another belonging to Messrs. James and Thomas Hill, which conveyed light goods and passengers between Peterborough and Wisbech. I recollect the old gentleman who commanded the packet held a very high rank in the Navy indeed. He was a wooden-legged old gentleman, very much respected, and known by the name of Admiral Russell. He was commander of the Packet for many years. I do not know who succeeded him, but someone who did not attain so high a rank.
There was a joke against Mr. Whalley, M.P., that he promised to make Peterborough a Seaport. If the projected scheme had been fairly carried out according to the original intention of the promoters, there would not have been a deal of money wasted. Some think even now it should not be given up altogether, if only for the purpose of preventing the railway companies from putting too high prices on the carriage of goods in cases where speed of transit is not essential. Goods used to be brought from Wisbech in lighters, and it was a serious thing in frosty weather, because all our coals were brought by the river, and when the frost lasted long there was danger of a coal famine.