The Rat and Sparrow Club

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) has reported a steep decline in sparrow populations within the UK over the last thirty-five years. Other wildlife and environmental groups and organisations agree the current status of the sparrow raises increasing alarm. Both the House Sparrow and the Tree Sparrow have declined over this period. Much research and many conservation methods have been applied in seeking to reverse this trend.

Alas, sad to report, the parishes of Stanford Rivers and Greensted played a leading role in the organised reduction of sparrow numbers locally. The blame could be placed at the door of the Rat and Sparrow Club, the rules of which are recorded below. The evidence for the club is just one typewritten sheet of paper listing the Committee together with the rules. There is no evidence that has come to light to suggest that the club was ever active, but the intent is quite clear.

The names of the Committee Members, headed by the Chairman, suggest that several recognisable families who farmed within the parish are the “founders”. The date of the club is not stated but it is thought that it operated sometime in the 1940s. Little concern for the sparrow and its population is implied - in fact there is no concern shown for the sparrow whatsoever! Perhaps the vendetta against the rat is more easily understood.

STANFORD RIVERS, GREENSTED & DISTRICT

RAT & SPARROW CLUB

Chairman . . . . . . Mr. G. Wilson

Committee; Messrs. W. Hinman, J. H. Millbank, G. T. Pledge,
B. Muglestone

Hon. Secretary & Treasurer . . . . Mr. W. Powell, Jnr.

RULES

All rats and sparrows must be caught in above districts and members are asked to take steps to see that this is carried out.

The following are the rates at which the Club will pay members for sparrows and rats handed in:
Sparrow heads 2s. per hundred to be paid at end of season (October 1st.).
Over half-grown rat tail counts 5 sparrow heads,
Under half-grown 1 rat tail = 1 sparrow’s head,
Two sparrows eggs or two fledglings = 1 sparrow head.

All heads and tails to be taken to the nearest member of the above Committee when a receipt will be given.

Membership fee 2s. 6p., payable to the Secretary.

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N.B. It is hoped, if possible, to give prizes at the end of the season.

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The membership fee then was 12½ p. in decimal currency - probably equivalent to about £5 today. The payment for one hundred sparrow heads would have been about £4 today. The equivalence of two eggs or two fledglings to one sparrow implies barbarity that would be quite unacceptable today within the standards associated with the British bird watcher. Clearly any member had to work for any return, paid in arrears incidentally. There is no clear definition of a half-grown rat but presumably there was an understanding on the length of a tail as guidance. Twenty full-grown rats tails for four pounds seems hard won, and a member would not yet have covered his subscription at this rate.

Sparrow populations of the era must have been very much larger than they were in 1975, and considerably more so than today. Both the sparrow and the rat must have been regarded significant pests in order to generate such a response. Was such a club the result of a reaction to food rationing and the need to preserve food stocks in “austerity Britain” following the Second World War? Is there any other reference to the club? Or was the club just an excuse for a good evening’s meal and a glass of something?

The local Rat and Sparrow Club was one part of a national movement to reduce pest levels. Clubs with similar aims (and similar bounties, although Stanford Rivers and Greensted did not appear to be the most generous) appeared over England. A search through Internet references identifies, for example; Rickling (Essex), Wadhurst (Kent) and “The Bowl Inn” at Hastingleigh (Kent) as being the home of other such clubs.