Our AGM

We held our fourth annual general meeting last Friday and despite the wintry conditions, it attracted a large gathering, alhough I would hazard a guess that this was due more to our guest speaker than a desire to attend the meeting! However, an AGM is a necessary requisite of a constituted organisation and we needed to consult our membership on an important development for the society. It has now been decided that we apply for charitable status and to this end we shall be working with PAVS (Pembrokeshire Association of Voluntary Services).

Having got the business over and done with, George Lewis (our president) provided the entertainment in a humorous talk about Edwardian Inventions. George was in good form and had the audience in stitches! It certainly rounded off the evening well and, with the additional treat of coffee and homemade bara brith, everyone went off happily into the night.

A very convenient Victorian invention

Talking about inventions, one of the most famous of the Victorian age has to be the flush toilet - where would we be without it? I was talking to Rose Blackburn the other day and she brought up the subject. "Some 15 years ago I won the Town Crier's competition in Llandrindod Wells thanks to Thomas Crapper," she told me. "I was introduced to the competition, part of Llandrindod's Victorian Week, by Yobbler (John Thomas), the then Town Crier of Tenby. You had to make up a piece about a Victorian inventor and then proclaim it throughout the town. I chose Thomas Crapper and it went like this."

Oyez, Oyez, Oyez,

My lords, ladies

and gentlemen

Introducing the greatest invention of the Victorian age

With Kings and Queens it will be the rage

People of city, town and spa

Will welcome it, whoever they are

First was to make water flow uphill

A ball valve, this need did fulfil

Crapper's water waste preventer

Did full credit to its inventor

Then to stop the ladies blush

He invented a silent flush

Hail to this Victorian, so dapper

Born in Thorn, Mr. Thomas Crapper

God save the Queen

This won Rose the Wales and Marches Championship (although it should be added that her delivery had a lot to do with it). She also told me that another Lady Crier borrowed it and went on to win the World Championships in Canada.

It is widely supposed that Thomas Crapper invented the flush toilet, but (according to Wikipedia), the first patent for a siphonic flush was taken out by Joseph Adamson in 1853, eight years before Crapper started his plumbing business. Poor Joseph Adamson, I don't think his name has quite the same pull.

A ripping yarn

Flushed with success, Rose returned the following year with her 'Cry', this time about a famous Victorian gentleman. However, she didn't hit quite the right note with her take on Jack the Ripper.

Oyez, Oyez, Oyez

Scotland Yard wants information

Regarding the East-End damnation

Ears on table, hand on chair

Bits and pieces everywhere

Martha Turner and Mary Ann

Butchered by this evil man

Annie Chapman, Lizzie Stride

Interrupted, didn't hide

Straightaway, poor old Kate

Met her truly awful fate

Laid her guts upon her belly

Did the same for Mary Kelly

Mary only asked for rent

From a tall distinguished gent

May the burning fires of Hell

Consume the dreadful monster well

Lord, Commoner, Peeler or Dipper

Dreads the name of Jack the Ripper.

God save the Queen

Perhaps it may have been a wee bit gruesome Rose?

Freshwater West wrecks

Last week I wrote about the wreck which had been uncovered by the gales and Mel Phillips contacted me about another Freshwater wreck, the Barbara with which she has a family connection.

"My aunt Susanne Green has been tracing our family history for some years. Last year she discovered that her great-grandfather and my great-great-grandfather was a coastguard at Freshwater West, Angle.

One very stormy night back in 1882, the coastguards saw that a ship had run aground at Freshwater West. They ran to the Rocket-Cart house where they raised the alarm. They then ran back to the beach where they set about saving the crew.The ship was The Barbara, a square rigged barque. She was carrying a cargo of rice from Rangoon and was bound for Liverpool. In those days, it was difficult to get a crew for rice ships because, were the vessel to ship water, the rice grains would become swollen and drag the ship down.

All the crew were saved except Captain Jones, who went down with his ship. Captain Jones was an inexperienced leader and had taken over the helm when the original Captain Richard Pritchard had died mysteriously on the journey and was buried at sea.

For their bravery on that stormy night, the coastguards were awarded the Sea Gallantry Medal, a very great honour, which was awarded by the Board of Trade.

My great-great-grandfather, John Stevens, appeared in The Herald newspaper and was pictured with Captain Richard Pritchard's widow who hailed from North Wales. His Sea Gallantry medal now belongs to a lady in Bridgend, a distant relation of mine.

The Captain's Watch

There is a sequel to this. In the year 2000, a diver called Richard Hughes, whilst diving off Freshwater West, found Captain Richard Pritchard's silver watch on the sea bed. His name and his address were on the casing. Captain Jones had taken possession of the watch with the intention of returning it to Pritchard's widow. The diver turned detective and traced Richard Pritchard's descendants to Pwllheli. It was handed over to his nearest relative, a dentist called Mr. Cowell, who has put it on display in Porthmadog village hall."

Next event

Tomorrow (Saturday) - St David's Day lunch at Monkton Church Hall, 11 am to 2 pm. Choice of homemade soups, crusty bread, cakes with teas and coffees for only £3.50. Accompanied by stalls and an exhibition. All proceeds will go to the upkeep of Monkton Priory Church.

Contact

If you have any stories, photographs or feedback for this column, please contact me, Linda Asman, on 01646 622428, email [email protected]">[email protected] & visit our website http://www.pembrokeandmonkonhistory.org.uk">www.pembrokeandmonkonhistory.org.uk