As we prepare to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee this year, let us look back at the only other Queen’s Golden Jubilee in British history, from the handwritten parish records of Stapleford Tawney [Essex Record Office D/P 141/8/4].
1887
“On Saturday June 18th a Service was held at Stapleford Tawney Church for that and Theydon Mount parishes in commemoration of the Jubilee of the Reign of Her Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria. The special service¹ was used and a sermon preached by the Rector². The lesson was read by Sir Charles Cunliffe-Smith Bt³, nearly all the parishioners being present. [This part of the sentence was vigorously underlined] Church crowded. Medals were presented to all the parishioners in the Churchyard and an adjournment made to Church Mead⁴ where a band enlivened the proceedings. A substantial meal was served in the Hoppet⁴. Sports, swings, donkies [sic], fire [or fine?] balloons etc. Beer, tobacco and ginger beer, a lovely warm afternoon.
Over the entrances to the Mead and Hoppet, arches with inscriptions and a number of large flags had been placed. About 40£⁵ was expended including presents to those who were absent through infirmity.”
NOTES
¹The special service was used: Evidently the Church of England had created a service specifically for Jubilee commemorations.
²The Rector: This was Rector Lewis Prance, who served from 1872 until his death in 1912. As a member of the Royal Horticultural Society, he was fascinated by plants and flowers, as indeed were the whole Prance family. They planted the blue anemones by the church path and probably the winter aconites and snowdrops, and there are many unusual and foreign plants in the Tawney Rectory garden. The Rector’s grandson Professor Ghillean Prance was an Amazonian jungle explorer and became Director of Kew Gardens in 1988.
³Sir Charles Cunliffe-Smith: He lived at Suttons Manor (now a private clinic) and was churchwarden and chief benefactor of the church. He was also quite autocratic, as were most of his class at the time. The Suttons estate spread into several parishes, and included the blacksmith’s at Cutlers Forge, the mill at Passingford Bridge, the village shop and the Talbot Inn, both near the bridge on the main road. On summer evenings, the local working men would sit in the distinctive wide porch of the Talbot, supping their ale. One day, it is said, Lady Cunliffe-Smith went past in her carriage and overheard a coarse remark. She reported it to Sir Charles, who immediately had the inn shut down, never to re-open, and it has been a private house ever since.
⁴Church Mead and the Hoppet: The area between Great Tawney Hall and the church was until the 1970s a moated site, where the old Stapleford Tawney Hall once stood. This was demolished in 1764 and replaced by the present farmhouse. The moat gradually dried up and became a wide shallow ditch. The eastern arm of the moat, with the area of grass next to the road, was known as Church Mead (Plot 131 on the 1873 Ordnance Survey map). The rest of the site (Plot 130) was the Hoppet - an Essex word for a small field or paddock, which is still its name today.
⁵40£: Does anybody know how much in 1887 £40 would be worth today?
[EDITOR - The answer is £2541.92]
Plans are currently being made for the 2002 Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount Jubilee celebrations on June 1st. They include - guess what? Sports, balloons, pony rides (rather than donkeys), flags, medals, a substantial meal, beer and a band to enliven the proceedings. Let’s hope for the ‘lovely warm afternoon’ of June 1887.