Anniversary as Darwin sets sail

It was 180 years ago this week that Charles Darwin set out on the start of his epic five-year trip, which would end with him writing his book on evolution, On The Origin of Species.

Twenty-two-year-old Charles Darwin had left The Lion Hotel in haste on Monday, September 5, 1831, by stagecoach to London on his way to join HMS Beagle.

The reason Darwin, pictured below, left the town in such a rush was that a second person had been offered the job as naturalist on the ship, which was due to set sail later that month, and the young Shrewsbury scientist feared he might miss his opportunity.

Darwin had been offered the job a week earlier for what had planned to be a two-year survey of South America and he had accepted it.

However, his father, Robert, supported by Charles’ sisters, refused to let him go saying the trip would get in the way of him becoming a clergyman.

After what must have been a heated family discussion his father relented and said he could go, if he could find a man with common sense who thought it would be a good idea.

Darwin wrote to his Cambridge professor of botany, the Rev John Stevens Henslow, while his father wrote to his brother, Josiah Wedgwood II.

The next afternoon Charles rode over to his uncle’s home at Maer Hall, just over the border in Staffordshire, near Market Drayton and Newcastle-under-Lyme, for the start of the hunting season, where he wanted to put his case to the member of the famous Wedgwood pottery family.

The plan worked. His uncle wrote to Darwin’s father answering all the objections and Robert agreed to support his son financially.

Since the Whitehall Admiralty hadn’t heard from Darwin for a few days, they presumed he had changed his mind and offered the job to someone else.

Darwin hurried off to London on the first available stagecoach to see Captain Robert FitzRoy who asked him if he was still interested in the job, as the other person had turned it down.

Charles again accepted the job, and was told to report to Plymouth in time for the new sailing date of October 10, although the ship didn’t eventually leave until 11am on Tuesday, December 27.

There’s more on Darwin’s trip in Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury.

To buy an autographed copy for £6 including postage within the UK email John@jbutterworth.plus.com   

Bad weather was bad news for Shrewsbury

So far this winter has been very mild and is nothing compared to the bad weather of 1836/37.

That year there were exceptionally heavy snowdrifts on the evening of Christmas Day and by December 27, 14 mail coaches were abandoned throughout the country.

The bad weather was bad news for Shrewsbury, The Lion Hotel and the stagecoach industry which brought so much trade and income to the town.

The stagecoaches could not compete with the new railway transport which provided a cheaper, faster and more comfortable journey and the snow focussed everyone’s attention on the disadvantages of the coaches, pictured below.

By 1838 the railways were beginning to expand all over the country, even though the first trains did not reach Shrewsbury until 1848.

A Salopian referred to the town before 1837 as “a little metropolis to which resorted all the County families for public functions of all kind” but “the advent of the railway killed all this gay provincial life.”

And another wrote to a friend in Halifax in January 1838: “Shrewsbury seems to be a declining town.

“There is very little Sociality left… The Manchester and Liverpool Railway to Birmingham has had a very great and disadvantageous effect upon this town, which has almost ceased to be a thoroughfare and it was a great one; consequently many of the coaches have been given up.”

This even caused the population of Shrewsbury to fall, as people moved elsewhere for work with the cutbacks in the coaching industry.

By 1841, there were 18,285 in Shrewsbury compared to 21,297 in 1831.

There’s more about the stagecoaches in Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury.

Signed copies can be obtained for £6 including postage within the UK by emailing John@jbutterworth.plus.com 

Fascinating glimpse into life in 18th century Shrewsbury

A fascinating glimpse into society life at the end of the 18^th century in Shropshire is given in a letter an Irish boy boarding at Shrewsbury School wrote to his mother 224 years ago today.

The unknown pupil at the old school building which is now the town library, pictured below, told in a letter dated December 27, 1787, how he had dined with his aunt in Shrewsbury on Christmas Day.

As reported in Shropshire Notes and Queries, he continued: “I saw the Earl of Portarlington on Monday with his lady go from the Lion in their own coach, which was so heavy that four horses were scarcely able to stir out of the Lion yard.

“But yesterday I saw more than this; it was Miss Pultney’s birthday, and she was of age yesterday, so there was great rejoicing.

“The British ensign was displayed from the mount before the Castle, where he lives, and the Jack from the top of the Castle, a flag was displayed from the battlement of St Mary’s tower.

“An ox was roasted whole in the meadow behind our house, a sheep in the Raven Street, and another before the Town Hall (Papa knows all these places) and as much drink (strong beer) given out from the Castle as they asked for, which (were) open for anyone to drink what they pleased, with flags displayed from the tops of them.

“At night the Raven Street and mount at the Castle were illuminated and some houses here and there in other parts of the town.

“Mr Pultney also gave a ball and supper at the Lion to which he gave a general invitation in the newspaper. I got to the door of the Assembly Room just in time to see Mr and Miss P get out of their coach.

“He looked very well last night and like a gentleman. I saw her for the first time; she is not very handsome, but I think she is a pretty-looking girl; she was dressed in a kind of a chocolate-coloured satin, trimmed with ermine, she seemed to me to have no hoop.

“They say she is to have £16,000 a year in her own possession now that she is at age.

“Last week (was) the hunt week, too, when there were fine dinners at the Lion every day, a concert on Tuesday evening, and a ball on Thursday, when I went also to the door of the Assembly Room to see the company go in, unknown to Mr J, but Mrs J gave us leave.

“Well, I have told you enough of all this I believe.”

He then sends various messages to different members of the family and signs off W.L.B.

There’s more about life in Shrewsbury in the 18^th century in Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel.

To buy a signed copy of the book for £6 including postage within the UK email John@jbutterworth.plus.com

Couple's golden surprise for hotel

The Lion was given a golden surprise when a couple who had spent their honeymoon night at the hotel 50 years ago returned to celebrate their wedding milestone.

Owner Howard Astbury told Richard and Betty Underwood, pictured below on their wedding day,  that he would knock the amount from the original bill off the cost of the present stay – if they could produce the receipt.

Much to his amazement the Underwoods, who now live in Ormskirk, Lancashire, still had their hotel bill from December 2, 1961, for £4 and 5 shillings and sixpence (£4 27.5p in today’s money).

It was made up of £2 15 shillings for the room, 2/6d for drinks, dinner at 10 shillings each and gratuities of 8 shillings.

“When we got married we put everything connected with that event into a scrapbook.  So it wasn’t difficult to find the receipt and make a copy, which we took with us to the hotel,” said Richard, pictured below with Betty today.

“Now we are on scrapbook number 89 as we have kept mementos of all our family events and holidays throughout our life,” he added.

The couple, who were both doctors, were married at Rainhill, near Liverpool, before leaving for a honeymoon along the south coast of England.

The bridegroom’s father lent them his car and the couple travelled to Shrewsbury for their first night of the honeymoon. 

On arrival at The Lion, the hotel manager was very apologetic, as the central heating system had broken down and the hotel was cold.

Owner Howard Astbury said: “I was amazed when the couple produced the receipt, so I was delighted to keep my promise.”

The couple, who have both retired now, said: “It was lovely going back to the hotel after 50 years. 

“This time the central heating was working so we were very warm and comfortable.  It brought back many happy memories and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay.”

Day a famous Shrewsbury hotel closed

Fifty-two years ago today it was the end of an era for Shrewsbury as the town’s top hotel closed.

For years the Raven, pictured below, had been the number one place to stay.

But with the shopping boom in the 1950s the F W Woolworth store empire wanted to move into Shropshire’s county town and they put in a big offer for the site which the hotel owners couldn’t refuse.

It shut down on December 23, 1959, and an auction of its contents was held in February 1960.

Many Shrewsbury people were sad to see the Raven shut down but they were horrified when, with the much more relaxed planning laws in those days, the majestic building was demolished in June 1960 and a modern Woolworth store was built in its place, opening its doors on October 30, 1964.

Today the site is occupied by F & M stores, next to Marks and Spencer.

During the Second World War and the 1950s The Lion and the Raven had jostled for Shrewsbury’s top hotel spot.

The Raven had the Americans and more than 100 servicemen accommodated there. By April 1943, it was made into an American Red Cross Leave Club whose motto was “to give the boys a real good time” and they did that with cabarets and dances.

If the Raven had the Americans, The Lion had the British as their top events attracted the local gentry and VIPs.

With its rival gone, The Lion enjoyed its unsurpassed position as the town’s number one place to stay as the austerity of the war years had worn off by the 1960s as the hotel stepped into another golden age.

What were your memories of the Raven? Did you visit it or stay there? Send your memories to John@jbutterworth.plus.com

If you would like to find out more order a signed copy of Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury, for £6 including postage within the UK by emailing John@jbutterworth.plus.com

From the Antarctic to solar panels to teaching subbing

It has been a very entertaining and enjoyable final week of work before Christmas.

Last Thursday I was in Shrewsbury where I wrote a couple of press releases for The Lion Hotel and the stories will be on my blog in the next few days.

I was quite saddened to hear the owner, Howard Astbury, who was a great supporter of my book project, is retiring and has put the hotel up for sale at £2.95 million.

One press release is about a couple who spent their honeymoon night at The Lion and returned there 50 years later to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary.

Howard said he would knock the original amount off the present bill if they could produce their 1961 receipt – and they did.

The second story was about a group who had worked in the 1970s for the British Antarctic Survey at Halley, the most southerly British base.

Amazingly, they held a reunion at The Lion, Shrewsbury, because one of their leaders lives nearby.

They enjoyed their weekend so much they have already booked another one at the hotel – in 2013.

Then on Friday I was talking Steve Legg, publisher editor of the only men’s Christian magazine, Sorted, whom I met at the Gorsley Festival, near Ross-on-Wye, over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

He told me they were running a big feature on God’s Secret Listener, published by Lion/Hudson/Monarch, in their latest edition.

The magazine arrived today and I was delighted to see they had done a brilliant job with three pages on Berti Dosti, a 2,000-word article and pictures.

On Monday I learned that a press release I had written for the Solorvox solar panel company had appeared in seven different newspapers throughout the Midlands and a delighted director, Ron Fox, said within 24 hours they had already received three inquiries from interested customers.

Then on Tuesday I had a fascinating day in Manchester where I was invited to give a 90-minute lecture to journalism students at the News Associates training centre just by Piccadilly Railway Station.

It was my third visit there and this time I was teaching subbing and then helping the 24 students design their first page from scratch.

The students, who were on a 26-week intensive training course, were eager to learn and did excellently.

It was no surprise to learn that News Associates, was ranked the best course overall by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) in their 2009/2010 annual report

They do two journalism courses at their London and Manchester offices.

The NCTJ 20-week Fast Track course has two intakes a year – in March and September.

Trainees attend full time Monday to Thursday and are expected to work Fridays at a work placement on a newspaper or news outlet.

Then there is the NCTJ-accredited 40-week Earn While you Learn course which has two intakes a year in London in January and September and a September intake at Manchester.

This course allows trainees to work part-time and study on Monday evenings and all-day Saturday plus a two-week work placement.

The Lion for sale at £2.95m

It’s the end of an era at The Lion Hotel which is up for sale at £2.95m after the present owner, 67-year-old Howard Astbury, has decided to retire.

Howard bought the Shrewsbury business five years ago in 1996 after running hotels in Wiltshire and Devon.

Birmingham-based Christie & Co are selling the historic hotel in Wyle Cop, which the Shropshire Star reported has a turnover of £1.3 million a year and employs about 40 people. Staff have been assured that no jobs will be lost.

The 59-bedroom hotel, which has three stars from the AA, has an 18th century ballroom which is licensed for civil marriage ceremonies and seats up to 140.

Gavin Wright, from Christie & Co, told the Star: “The hotel represents an excellent opportunity to either become part of a larger hotel group or remain in private hands with the new owners building on its long-standing reputation.”

The Lion Hotel, pictured below, has had a long list of famous guests who have stayed there over the years including Charles Dickens, King William IV, Benjamin Disraeli, Charles Darwin, Niccolo Paganini and in more modern times the Beatles, Morecambe and Wise and Cliff Richard.

It is believed that Darwin left from The Lion Hotel on a stagecoach having applied for the job as naturalist on board HMS Beagle, which led to his epic round the world trip and the publication of On the Origin of Species.

When he arrived back in England he caught the first stagecoach from Cornwall to Shrewsbury, where having arrived late in the evening he again stayed at The Lion before going home to his family for breakfast.

For me it is the end of the era because Howard invited me to write the book on the hotel’s history, encouraged me over the project and was very patient as I asked many, many questions.

He is a real gentleman, a great ambassador for Shrewsbury and I wish him a long, happy and restful retirement.

Incidentally, anyone with £3m to spend on buying The Lion would do well to read its fascinating history first.

Email John@jbutterworth.plus.com to buy a copy at the special buyer’s price of £6 including postage to anywhere in the UK.

Recalling Dickens classic filmed in town

It was good to see BBC Midlands Today this week recalling when A Christmas Carol was filmed Shrewsbury.

The 100-minute film, which starred George C Scott, Frank Finlay, Susannah York and Edward Woodward, plus six-year-old Tony Walters, of Plaish Park Farm, near Church Stretton, as Tiny Tim, and 450 people from the town as extras, is considered by many to be the best version of Dickens’ ghost classic.

This month 27 years ago it had a world premiere before the Queen at London’s Classic Haymarket and a gala charity premiere in Shrewsbury followed by a week-long run at the town’s Empire Cinema in December 1984.

On the TV programme this week Alf Horton, Robert Elliott, Heather Game and Martin Wood talked about their part in the film and their memories of the six weeks when the town’s Market Square was turned into Victorian London, pictured below, with the help of 60 tons of snow, 75 tons of salt and 400 gallons of foam.

Many of the other 18 town centre locations are easily recognisable, including the Parade Shopping Centre and Tanners wine shop.

This weekend there are special walking tours round the town, organised by Shrewsbury Tourism, to remember the film, see the various locations and visit the ‘gravestone’ of Ebenezer Scrooge, one of the props left in St Chad’s Churchyard.

Also The Lion Hotel is putting on a special Christmas Carol day on Sunday, February 5 as part of the 200^th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens.

At 10.30am local historian David Trumper is giving an illustrated talk on The Making of A Christmas Carol, while at 11.30 there is A Guided Town Walk around the local film locations, followed at 3pm by a large screen showing of the famous film by Flicks in the Sticks.

For more details contact The Lion Hotel on 01743 353197 or email info@thelionhotelshrewsbury.com

There’s more about the filming in Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel, signed copies are available at the special Christmas price of £6 including postage anywhere within the UK. Email me at John@jbutterworth.plus.com 

Bald Explorer's new DVD on hotel

I had great news today from freelance journalist Richard Vobes who emailed me to say that he has done another DVD on The Lion Hotel, this time about the stagecoach era.

Following his Shrewsbury video as part of a web series called The Bald Explorer the film-maker is launching the coaching DVD in the New Year to the American market and pitching the idea to the BBC and Channel 4 this week.

In an earlier blog I mentioned that the film-maker has already produced a video about Lewes in East Sussex and then one about Shrewsbury.

He interviewed me about my book, Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel, and owner, Howard Astbury, about the famous guests who have stayed there including Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, ‘Mad Jack’ Mytton, Benjamin Disraeli, Niccolo Paganini and in modern times The Beatles, Morecambe and Wise and Cliff Richard.

Now Richard Vobes, (pictured below filming in Shrewsbury), who is an entertainer, actor, independent film maker and Internet broadcaster, has taken the Shrewsbury stagecoach story out of the original interview with me and turned it into a separate DVD.

Of his visit to Shrewsbury he said: “The town is such a fascinating place and steeped in history. One particular focal point is naturally the busy coaching inn, The Lion Hotel, at the top of the curiously named street, Wyle Cop.

“Luckily for me some one has already done all the necessary research I could ever want and more.

“John Butterworth, ex-editor of the Shrewsbury Chronicle (12 years), has published a wonderful account of the life of the county town's premier hotel, formerly known as the Red Lion, but now renamed simply as The Lion.”

To see Richard’s film on Shrewsbury go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWf2K55Igfc  and for the coaching DVD press play above.

You can also see his blog at http://vobes.com/blog.php

Was Dickens meeting a hoax?

Did one of Britain’s greatest novelists, Charles Dickens, meet one of Russia’s top writers, Fyodor Dostoevsky, pictured below, in London?

Only days after I wrote a blog about literary biographer Claire Tomalin’s latest book, Charles Dickens: A Life, she now says that the historic meeting might never have taken place.

Dickens scholars have based the event on a story in The Dickensian journal following the discovery of a letter sent by Dostoevsky to a friend in 1878.

The letter was originally published in a Russian journal called Vedomosti but no one has found any proof that the publication ever existed.

Tomalin described the meeting in her latest book but said she would remove the passage from future editions as she may have been the victim of a hoax.

“It was of course irresistible,” she told the Sunday Times, “but everyone has probably been fooled actually.”

The story was queried by The New York Times, so Tomalin asked her husband, the writer and Russian expert Michael Frayn, to look into it but he couldn’t find any proof of the meeting.

Fortunately, no one has queried the story in my book, Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel, that Dickens visited Shrewsbury on at least three occasions – unless, of course, you know differently.

Royal Mail parcel was a dead weight

The arrival of the Royal Mail stagecoach, pictured below, at The Lion Hotel always caused great excitement.

But 187 years ago today a delivery caused unexpected hustle and bustle at the inn.

On December 7, 1824, two boxes from Dublin arrived on the Holyhead coach bound for London.

When the boxes were taken down to be weighed at the Lion coach office, the cord round the box broke and the box fell to the floor.

As the startled staff looked down there was the head of a dead man.

A crowd gathered and the coach office owner ordered the boxes to be taken to the Guild Hall where the body of an elderly thin man was found in one box and the body of an elderly thin woman in another box. 

A surgeon was called who confirmed that the two had died of natural causes and a jury later agreed with him.

It is believed that the boxes were allowed to continue to London for dissection.

But as The Salopian Journal commented: “We trust the parties will think it is necessary, for the sake of decency, to pack their treasures a little more carefully.”

The paper continued: “In the present incidence no blame can be attached to the coach proprietors for conveying such luggage as there was not the slightest smell, nor from the appearance of the boxes could anyone have supposed that they contained such articles as were found on them.”

There’s more about the stagecoach service in Shrewsbury in Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel.

Autographed copies can be bought at the special Christmas price of £6 including postage in the UK by emailing John@jbutterworth.plus.com 

Rare find goes on display in Stone

I have always been interested in history and I was delighted last week to be invited to a private viewing at St Michael’s Church of the Augustinian Stone Priory seal, pictured below.

In October Surrey County Council said that a metal detector in Cobham had dug up an artefact of cast copper alloy, which experts have dated as 13^th century.

Now the seal matrix, which measures 7cm long and 5cm, has been loaned to the town.

Mystery surrounds how the archaeological find, which had its origins at Stone Priory, ended up 170 miles away in Surrey.

The ancient building, which once stood on the present site of St Michael’s and St Wulfad’s Church, was founded between 1138 and 1147 by Robert de Stafford, an ancestor of the present Lord Stafford.

The link was made with Stone after the seal, which bears the image of the Virgin and child, was deciphered.

It reads: “S’ecce Sce Marie et Sci W(v)lfadi Martiris de Stanis” – which is “seal of the church of Saint Mary and Saint Wulfad, Martyr of Stone.”

The seal would have been used by the Prior to leave an impression on wax to seal important documents to prove that they were secure and authentic.

One theory is that when Stone Priory was one of the first to be dissolved by King Henry VIII in 1537 canons from Stone took it to the Augustinian Priory at Newark in Surrey, which is not far from Cobham, for safe keeping.

Stone Priory was founded around 1138-47 as a daughter house of Kenilworth Priory in Warwickshire.

The Priory continued to be used as a parish church until it was demolished and replaced by the current church of St Michael and St Wulfad, pictured below, in 1758.

The finder of the seal, Tony Burke, is keen that the artefact, believed to be worth around £7,000 is returned to Stone on a permanent and secure basis.

To find out more about the seal contact St Michael and St Wulfad's church on http://www.achurchnearyou.com/stone-st-michael/on

Enjoyable Rotary meeting

It was good going back to Shrewsbury last Wednesday to speak to the Rotary Club of Shrewsbury and to see some old friends.

I had a great welcome, the lunch at the Lord Hill Hotel was excellent and I sold some copies of both Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel and God’s Secret Listener.

All in all it was an enjoyable and successful trip.

I am pictured below with the Rotary club president, Paul Pascoe.

If you would like to buy a copy of Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel or God’s Secret Listener, published by Lion/Hudson/Monarch, for the special Christmas price of £6 each including postage to anywhere in the UK email John@jbutterworth.plus.com

To see my other blog go to http://godssecretlistener.blogspot.com

Dickens link with a Trans Siberian Express train

I have set myself a challenge over the next few months – to find the most unusual setting where Charles Dickens is mentioned after researching about him for Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel.

I reported yesterday about Dickens mania with the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great author in a couple of months' time and how he was even referred to recently on Ian Hislop’s BBC One programme When Bankers were Good.

I thought that link was obscure. But last night I beat that when my wife, Jan, and I went to an evening about the Trans Siberian Express in the imposing ballroom of the Crown Hotel in Stone High Street.

We saw a presentation by GW Travel about Voyages of a Lifetime by Private Train with superb trips all around the world.

The room was full of about 30 invited guests by Regent Travel of Stone who were all interested in the Moscow to Vladivostok trip on board the Golden Eagle Trans Siberian Express train.

We were enthralled to see photographs of Kazan, Listvyanka, Mongolia, Lake Baikal in Siberia, pictured below, Irkutsk, Novosibrsk, Yekaterinburg, and many more exotic places.

The presenter, John, told us that Tim Littler, the President and Founder of GW Travel Limited, had been fascinated all his life by train travel.

As an eight-year-old school boy, he and his friends would visit Altrincham railway station in 1958 to watch the procession of steam hauled express trains which at that time were being diverted through Altrincham on their journeys to and from London and the south.

In January 1963, aged 12, Tim took over the operation of Altrincham Grammar School’s Railway Society and in February ran his first bus tour to Crewe locomotive works.

Combining his knowledge and passion of rail with his enthusiasm for travel he successfully operated his first rail tour, aged 16, carrying 350 passengers from Manchester to Edinburgh on April 23, 1966.

Three other tours followed in quick succession – Manchester to Holyhead, Kings Cross to Newcastle and St Pancras to Altrincham. The latter two included using The Flying Scotsman.

On leaving school Tim joined the family wine business, Whitwhams, becoming Managing Director in 1975.

During this time the company established a world wide export business, purchased a fine wine negociant business in Bordeaux, and also broke the world record sale price for a single bottle of wine - £125,000, which remains a world record to this day.

With rail and travel still close to his heart, in 1989 Tim formed GW Travel. The name retains a link with the family firm as GW stands for Gerald Whitwham – who founded the company in 1788.

Wine and travel operated in tandem for the next few years, GW Travel concentrated on providing specialist steam tours in Eastern Europe, and when Russia finally opened its doors to foreigners in 1992, Tim began running rail tours through the Caucasus and Crimea.

Tim needed someone in Russia, who could speak fluent English and knew about the railways over there, not an easy task in 1992.

He met Marina Linke, who was working for the North Caucasus Railway, and was impressed by her standard of English.

He asked her how she had learnt English during the Communist era, a time when it would be frowned upon to learn such a Western language.

She told Tim she had learned English by reading Charles Dickens books.

Today Marine is Operations Director of GW Travel Limited.

Great Expectations of Dickens mania

If you didn’t know much about Charles Dickens you certainly will over the next couple of months with the build-up to the 200^th anniversary of the author’s birth in February 2012.

I must admit I have learnt a lot about the great author since researching his visits to The Lion Hotel in Shrewsbury in the 1830s, 1840s and 1850s.

Now there is the chance to find out more with the BBC leading the way.

Over Christmas on BBC One there is a bold adaptation of Great Expectations, featuring an array of talent including Ray Winstone, Gillian Anderson, David Suchet, pictured below, and Douglas Booth.

Then there is Dickens on the BBC, which includes the award-winning documentary strand Arena on BBC Four, which opens the door on the vast Dickens onscreen archive that has been generated over a century across the globe.

On BBC Two, Sue Perkins exposes the lesser-known reality of the Dickens family Christmas, looking at the marriage of Charles Dickens through the eyes of his wife, Catherine, in Mrs Dickens’s Family Christmas.

Also Armando Iannucci uses Dickens’s masterpiece David Copperfield to unpick the language and analyse the characters to explore the revolutionary development of Dickens as a storyteller.

George Entwistle, director of BBC Vision, said: “At the heart of our 2011 Christmas offering, we have a number of programmes inspired by the work and life of one of Britain’s greatest writers, Charles Dickens. 

“From a bold adaptation of Great Expectations to a brilliant new comedy The Bleak Old Shop Of Stuff, and high-quality documentaries from Armando Iannucci and Sue Perkins, we have something to keep every member of the family entertained over the festive period.”

And Dickens mania has already started. Even when I was watching Ian Hislop’s excellent programme the other week, When Bankers were Good, there was a reference to Dickens.

Apparently when Angela Burdett-Coutts inherited from her grandfather, the founder of Coutts Bank, the amount was so big that if it was laid out in crowns it would stretch for 113 miles.

She was very generous to charities including co-founding a home for fallen women - with Dickens.

If you want to switch off the TV and read a good book, there are plenty of new ones being published about the great man.

I read in a brochure sent to me by A Great Read that Claire Tomalin, author of the Whitbread Book of the Year Samuel Pepys, has written Charles Dickens A Life, pictured below, which is claimed to capture brilliantly the complex character of this great genius.

If after all this you still want to find out more about Dickens don’t forget that actor Gerald Dickens, the great, great grandson of Charles, will headline a weekend of celebrations in Shrewsbury’s famous coaching inn on Friday, February 3, Saturday, February 4 and Sunday, February 5, 2012.

He will perform two of his most popular one-man-shows about his great, great grandfather in The Ballroom of The Lion Hotel over the weekend, just two days before the great man’s big day. 

For details, tickets and package deals please ring The Lion Hotel on 01743 353107 or email info@thelionhotelshrewsbury.com

There are Great Expectations of Dickens mania over the next couple of months.

Don’t say that you weren’t warned.

Catching up with Shrewsbury successes

As I mentioned a few weeks ago I was delighted to be asked to speak at the Shrewsbury Business Chamber monthly meeting where I met up with some old friends, including their PR Philip Davies who took this picture below.

I was pleased to receive this week their four-page glossy Newsletter for December and read many of the stories and hear of their successes.

Salop Leisure, whose chairman Tony Bywater has been a great supporter when I was editor at the Shrewsbury Chronicle and when I launched the Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel book, has been named Caravan Dealer of the Year. The company has been in business for 46 years and employs 140 people.

Also council staff at Shrewsbury Market Hall have been crowned Market Tenant of the Year (Local Authorities Category) by the National Association of British Market Authorities (NABMA).

It was good to see that the competition to find Shrewsbury’s Best Dressed Window, which we launched in the Chronicle, is still going strong. The winners this year were Ocacia, Juliet Chilton and Relate.

With the launch of the Shrewsbury Christmas Cracker night last month, chairman’s chat, diary dates, a welcome to new members and news from Destination Shrewsbury and Lanyon Bowdler, it is a good read.

Finally, I was delighted to see on the back page a good write-up and photograph about my talk to the Chamber last month.

Talking of meeting up with old friends, I am off to Shrewsbury again today where I am speaking to the Rotary Club at the Lord Hill, where I am sure I shall agaian recognise some familiar faces.

Inocuous paragraph helped historians

On this day 234 years ago an innocuous paragraph appeared in the Shrewsbury Chronicle.

The report was only a few lines but it proved vital to local historians tracing the story of The Lion Hotel.

Tucked away on page three in the middle of a column underneath the imaginative headline, Shrewsbury, Nov 29, the paper reported in its 1777 edition: “Last week was erected, over the new and elegant Assembly Room, at the Lion Inn in this town, on a beautiful pedestal, decorated with the arms of John Ashby Esq., a highly finished statue of a lion, larger than life, executed by Mr John Nelson, statuary carver, of this place.

“This statue, and another of the same size and elegance, do great credit we think to the artist, as well as to the generous and public-spirited employer.”

That is the entire Chronicle story. But it helps local historians to credit John Nelson as the craftsman responsible for the statues and to show the owner of the hotel at that time was the Shrewsbury solicitor John Ashby (1722-1779), who was Mayor of Shrewsbury and town clerk from 1767 until his death 12 years later.

Incidentally, both the lions can still be seen today, although the rear lion only re-emerged in 1962 after a hotel extension was built.

Pictured below is William Braddock, a local decorator, putting the new gold leaf on the lion over the hotel front door on April 29, 1953.

Shrewsbury carpenter and joiner William Haycock, who rebuilt the Lion, said that Ashby bought the premises, described in the deeds as the ‘Red Lion’, at auction in August 1775 from Sir Thomas Jones, of Stanley Hall, near Bridgnorth. And it was Ashby who renamed it the Lion.

However, the history of the hotel, or the Lion site, goes back much further.

Historian Bill Champion says the first recorded owner of the Red Lion was Richard Mytton Esq. (c. 1500-1591) who sold it in May 1553 to the sitting tenant Richard Owen, alias Barber, for £20 and a fixed fee-farm rent of 12 shillings (60p) per year.

Selling in fee-farm was an old type of conveyance whereby the vendor would sell the freehold, but retain a fixed annual rent called a ‘fee-farm’.

However, there is a conversation recorded ‘at the sign of the Lion’ in 1537 between Nicholas Holte; John Barber, Richard Owen’s father; and Thomas Cowper, for many years the town clerk of the borough.

They were discussing rumours that that the King (Henry VIII) was planning to halve the number of churches, as part of the English Reformation, and to have only one chalice in each church. 

Mr Champion says that, although the reference is only to the Lion, there is no doubt that the Red Lion is meant.

He further believes the present hotel site had belonged since 1460, and probably earlier, to the Myttons, one of the most famous Shropshire families who made their fortunes in the 14^th century in the wool trade.

There are more details about the story of the hotel in Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel.

To buy a signed copy for the special Christmas price of £6, including postage within the UK, email John@jbutterworth.plus.com 

Darwin brought into Bible debate again

I was very interested in the debate in the newspapers over the weekend of Education Secretary Michael Gove’s plan to send a copy of the King James Version of the Bible to every school in Britain.

Mr Gove, pictured below, who has written a foreword to the Bible gift, said it was the most important book in the English language and had major cultural significance.

The Department of Education said the Bibles would be sent to more than 20,000 schools to mark the 400^th anniversary of the translation.

Supporters say the book would help supporters of all faiths to take pride in the history and culture of Britain.

But non-religious groups have condemned it as an unacceptable waste of public money and former deputy Prime Minister John Prescott described it as Mr Gove’s ‘vanity project’.

Mr Prescott said on Twitter: “And Gove gave unto 20,000 schools a Bible that cost £10 a piece and the taxpayer wasted £200,000 on a vanity project.”

The National Secular Society suggested the Department of Education could put a message on its website and save tens of thousands of pounds.

Its president, Terry Sanderson, added: “Will he also please ensure that a copy of On the Origin of Species is sent out on Darwin day (February 12)?

“This book is murder to find in schools and would be in line with his policy of promoting science and evidence based education.”

The story of Charles Darwin, who was born in Shrewsbury and who stayed at The Lion Hotel just before and immediately after his epic journey, is told in Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel.

Richy Thompson, campaigns officer at the British Humanist Association, said: “Either the Government is funding this initiative itself at a time when it is making severe cuts elsewhere, or the Church is funding it but using the Government as a vehicle through which to promote Christianity – both are unacceptable.”

The story raised a number of questions in my mind.

1. Surely schools in Britain already have a copy of the Bible?

2. With all the economic cutbacks going on at the moment, isn’t this the wrong time to suggest this gift?

3. I am all for pupils studying the facts and reading the evidence for themselves. But if the schools were given a Bible and a copy of the On the Origin of Species, what other books would the Government be asked to provide for free?

4. Each of these Bibles for schools would include a foreword by Michael Gove. Why? Surely he is not trying to make any political capital out of this, is he?

5. The third official translation of the Bible into English was commissioned by the Protestant King James I in 1604 so the ordinary people could read it in their everyday language. If pupils today are to get a Bible, shouldn’t it be a modern version in today’s everyday language, not in the English of 400 years ago?

What do you think? I would be interested in your views?

Blog brings Christmas bonus for hotel

My blog has brought a Christmas bonus for The Lion Hotel.

Charles Spriggs, from Lincoln, was looking for a present for his daughter and son-in-law and wondered about a weekend away in a historic hotel in the UK when he stumbled across my blog.

He was so interested in reading about The Lion, pictured below by Richard Bishop, that he decided to order a copy of my book at the same time buying a weekend hotel voucher.

“My daughter and son-in-law like visiting new places and Shrewsbury seemed a good choice,” Charles told me.

“I am now going to give them the book and the hotel voucher as a Christmas present so they can read up about the place before they go there next year.”

If you would like to buy someone a Christmas present of a weekend at The Lion Hotel go to www.thelionhotelshrewsbury.com/

If you would like to order a signed copy of the book as a festive gift for £6 including postage within the UK email John@jbutterworth.plus.com