Great hospitality from Ron - aged 91

It has been a good weekend for me and my book, Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury.

On Saturday I had an email from John Driscoll from Australia, who said: “I received the book today. It reminds me of a vey enjoyable stay at the Lion Hotel and Shrewsbury in general. I hope that I can visit Shrewsbury again when I next visit your shores.

“I think Shrewsbury is one of the best places in the UK to visit. So far I have been there three  times and hope that is not the last. I am looking forward to my next visit.”

Then on Sunday Jan and I had a great day yesterday representing the European Christian Mission at Hagley Free Church, near Kidderminster, pictured below.

Eighteen months ago I wrote to church treasurer Martin Heathcock introducing myself as the new Midlands volunteer for ECM.

He invited me to preach at both their morning and evening service for their World Mission Day.

There was a good congregation for the morning service where the children enjoyed taking part in learning about Albania and many of the adults returned in the evening to hear more about the Balkans country.

In between Jan and I were entertained by the amazing Rev Ron Tucker. He is living on his own and made us beef bourguignon for lunch and had baked a cake for tea – and he is 91 years old. I hope I can be as equally hospitable when I am that age.

He had worked as a missionary with his wife Betty for the Baptist Union in Assam, North East India, for many years before going to Botswana and finally Malawi.

To get to Assam Ron and his wife set off on a marathon passage to India straight after their marriage complete with possessions and wedding presents.

They caught the boat from Liverpool to Mumbai via the Suez Canal which took three weeks before travelling on three separate overnight trains across India and then two days in a canoe and finally four days walking before arriving at their destination.

He added that as the nearest shop was a week’s walk away they had to do a whole year’s shopping in one visit.

Ron said they had to work there for five years at a time before returning home for a year where there was a busy diary full of deputation work.

Getting home the first time was no easy matter as Ron and Betty and their four-week-old daughter had a precarious canoe trip crossing a river which had risen by 30ft in the floods.

Perhaps missionaries with their direct flights from London Heathrow have a slightly easier time today with their travel plans.

It was a very enjoyable and interesting day and also successful as I sold copies of both God’s Secret Listener, published by Lion, Hudson, Monarch, and Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel.

Darwin evolution row blew up after steeple collapse

A huge row over Charles Darwin and his evolution theory blew up in Shrewsbury 118 years ago today after a church steeple collapsed.

When a gale sent the top 50ft of St Mary’s Church spire crashing to the ground on Sunday, February 11, 1894, the day before the anniversary of Darwin’s birth, and while the council were debating putting up a controversial statue of Darwin in the town, the vicar said it was divine retribution.

Scaffolding at St Mary's, pictured below, which had been put up by workmen who were due to return to work on the Monday, fell down, along with part of the spire into the nave which had been full with more than 300 worshippers only an hour or so previously.

Preaching in the wrecked sanctuary on the following Sunday, the vicar, the Rev Newdegate Poyntz, told the congregation: “Could anyone in the future doubt the providence of God. Not one soul was lost. Could they, therefore, doubt that God’s hand was present throughout all and that He was guiding and ruling all.”

Referring to the councillors and their debate he continued: “The fall of the spire should stop for ever, in their mouths at least, the jargon about natural laws, natural forces and the like, so common in this present day.

“One day this month a certain event occurred in Shrewsbury and a few days afterwards the spire was blown down by an Act of God. Was there any connection between the two events?

“If he was right, it was at least possible many had received a warning. Let them act upon it. If they pondered well over his remarks, and digested them, they ought to bring in during the week, sufficient funds to restore the church twice over.”

The sermon caused 14 readers to write letters to the Shrewsbury Chronicle over the next two weeks, most of them agreeing with the vicar.

The paper in its opinion column tried to be more conciliatory. It said: “Where so many valuable opinions have been expressed, it is not for us to say who are right, nor are we sufficiently concerned to venture on the assertion that any particular opinion is erroneous.

“What we are anxious about is not the cause of the disaster, but the restoration of the structure. Instead of theory let us have practice. Now is the time, not for talk, but for benevolence.”

Funds for the £6,000 repair bill for St Mary’s were eventually found and a statue, pictured below, of  Charles Darwin, who died on April 19, 1882, and was buried a week later at Westminster Abbey on April 26, was placed outside what was the old Shrewsbury School and is now Shrewsbury Library. It can still be seen today.

There is more of the Darwin story in my book Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel.

To buy a signed copy at the special price of £6 including postage within the UK or £7 anywhere in the world email John@jbutterworth.plus.com 

Dickens celebrations - even in Albania

It is staggering that celebrations to mark today’s 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens's birth have been going on all around the world.

An international readathon began in Australia with a reading of Dombey and Son and included Zimbabwe before ending with an excerpt from The Mystery of Edwin Drood in the United Arab Emirates.

Susie Nicklin, director of literature at the British Council which organised the event, said: “We are responding to the huge global demand from audiences in 66 countries with whom Dickens, pictured below, has struck a chord as his themes and characters seem as fresh to them today as they did to British readers in the Victorian era.”

For me one of the most surprising countries celebrating the Dickens anniversary was Albania.

Less than 40 years ago any Albanian caught reading the English author would have been in serious trouble as the dictator Enver Hoxha had banned his people from reading any “Western propaganda”.

It was fascinating to hear an Albanian girl, who was reading some of Martin Chuzzlewit as part of the international readathon , say how much she had enjoyed her grandmother regularly reading stories to her when she was a youngster, with her two favourites being Peter Pan and A Christmas Carol.

Since then she had read most of Dickens’s works including Martin Chuzzlewit.

In London the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall led the celebrations today with Prince Charles laying a wreath at the author’s grave in Poets’ Corner as part of a service at Westminster Abbey before the Royal couple went on to visit the Charles Dickens Museum in Doughty Street, where the author lived from 1837-39.

Dickens died on June 9, 1870, aged 58.

The Westminster Abbey service was attended by a large gathering of the author's descendants including great-great-grandson, Gerald Dickens, pictured below, who had been at The Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury, last weekend for a special festival to celebrate his great, great grandfather’s work.

Gerald, who wrote the foreword to my book, Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel, where Charles had stayed on a number of occasions, gave special Dickens readings on the Friday and Saturday night to a packed house in the ballroom.

At the Abbey service today the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, said: “Dickens’s humanity and compassion made an extraordinary impact on Victorian England through his writings, which remain immensely popular.

“This bicentenary should help renew our commitment to improving the lot of the disadvantaged of our own day.”

After the service Gerald was due to attend a bi-centenary dinner at London’s Mansion House on Tuesday night, where Sir Patrick Stewart was due to deliver a reading, as well as the launch of a Dickens newspaper and iPad app using his work as content.

Meanwhile, all members of the Cabinet were presented with copies of Dickens's works by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt to mark the author's bicentennial - Prime Minister David Cameron was given Hard Times and Great Expectations.

Finally, the Royal Mail revealed today two new stamps featuring The Pickwick Papers, pictured below, and Nicholas Nickleby to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens which will go on sale from June 19.

If you would like to read more about Charles Dickens’s visits to Shrewsbury email John@jbutterworth.plus.com to buy a signed copy of Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel  for the special price of £6 including postage anywhere within the UK or £7 including postage anywhere in the world.

Dickens weekend exceeded our greatest expectations

It is fair to say last weekend’s celebrations at The Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury, to mark the 200^th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens exceeded our greatest expectations.

It started on Friday when we had coverage of the event on every BBC Midlands Today news bulletin during the day and then they sent a camera crew and reporter Ben Sidwell to interview me, organiser Chris Eldon-Lee, hotel owner Howard Astbury and Gerald Dickens.

Following the filming we had excellent publicity on prime time Midlands Today during their main Friday evening programme.

Tickets had already sold well but after the TV coverage the hotel reception was bombarded with calls from people trying to come to the event.

To try to satisfy some of the demand Chris, Howard and co-organiser Maggie Love managed to fit another around 20 seats each night in the hotel ballroom and all events easily sold out.

On Friday night, actor Gerald Dickens, the great, great grandson of Charles, performed Mr Dickens is Coming, a light-hearted and varied look at the life and character of his great, great grandfather.

Gerald, pictured in the middle with local extras in the A Christmas Carol which was filmed in Shrewsbury in 1984, used diary extracts and observations from those who knew and worked with him for the presentation.

With a full house, subtle lighting, plants brought in and the two fires lit for the first time it more than 50 years the ballroom atmosphere was superb.

After the interval Gerald read an excerpt from A Christmas Carol on the very stage Charles read from more than 150 years ago.

Charles Dickens is believed to have stayed at least three times at the hotel in the mid 19^th century, performed in the hotel ballroom and at the nearby Music Hall.

Gerald and his wife, Liz, who stayed in the same hotel bedroom for the weekend as Charles did more than 150 years earlier, said it was a very memorable occasion.

Liz said she wondered what Gerald was doing the first night when he saw him putting his hands up to try to touch the ceiling.

Then she recalled the famous letter Charles had written to one of his daughters on August 12, 1858, when he told her: “We have the strangest little rooms, the ceilings of which I can touch with my hand. The windows bulge out over the street as if they were little stern windows of a ship. And a door opens out of the sitting room on to a little open gallery with plants in it where one leans over a queer old rail.”

It was fascinating talking to the many guests in the audience who had so many fond memories of staying at the hotel and coming to the dances in the 1950s and 60s in the same ballroom.

Even Saturday’s snow could not deter people as there was another full house for Sikes and Nancy, which is Victorian theatre at its most dramatic.

When Dickens performed what he called The Murder, he judged the success of the evening by the number of ladies who had fainted with horror.

After the interval Gerald read a different excerpt from A Christmas Carol.

Then yesterday (Sunday) it was Christmas Carol Day, which recalls the celebrated George C. Scott’s film of A Christmas Carol which was shot in Shrewsbury in 1984 and many of the cast and crew stayed at The Lion.

Many of the 450 local people who were extras in the film came to reminisce about the film as local historian David Trumper gave a fascinating hour-long lecture in the morning with photographs of the making of the film.

He talked about how long landmarks such as the Elizabethan Market Hall, the town square, the Parade Shopping Centre, the Crescent, Tanner’s wine shop and local shops and houses which had all been transformed for the filming.

Then five tourist guides, including Town Crier Martin Wood, who was Edward Woodward’s stand-in and the double for Michael Carter who played the Spirit of Christmas Future, then took the audience for a detailed tour of all the town sites used in the film.

Martin is pictured at the front on Gerald’s right in the photograph.

After lunch when many of the extras swapped memories with each other Flicks in the Sticks put on a large screen showing of A Christmas Carol.

It was an excellent weekend for all, and the start of a busy time for Gerald Dickens, who is attending a special service tomorrow (Tuesday) at Westminster Abbey and then a lunch to celebrate the exact day 200 years when Charles Dickens was born.

Many visitors took the opportunity over the weekend to buy a signed copy of my book, Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel, which tells the inn’s fascinating history through its many famous guests including Charles Dickens.

They also persuaded Gerald Dickens, who wrote the foreword to the book, to sign it as well.

If you would like a signed copy of the book for the special price of £6 including postage within the UK, or £8 anywhere in the world, email me on John@jbutterworth.plus.com  

We are on Midlands Today tomorrow

I was delighted to receive a call from BBC Midlands Today reporter Ben Sidwell to say that they are filming in Shrewsbury tomorrow (Friday) as part of the weekend of celebrations at The Lion Hotel to mark the 200^th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens.

In the morning they are interviewing me about my book which has a chapter on Dickens, hotel owner Howard Astbury and event organiser Chris Eldon Lee.

In the evening they are planning to interview Gerald Dickens, the great, great grandson of Charles, live from Shrewsbury on the news programme.

Gerald is in Shrewsbury to perform two of his most popular one-man-shows about his great, great grandfather in the stunning hotel ballroom over the weekend.  

The author stayed at least twice, probably three times, at the hotel in the mid 19^th century, performed at the nearby Music Hall and most likely gave readings from his novels in The Lion ballroom.

The BBC is planning to film in the ballroom, in the Charles Dickens bedroom and hopefully in the Music Hall.

It will be a great boost for tourism in Shrewsbury, for The Lion Hotel and for the Dickens weekend which is nearly completely full.

On Friday at 8pm Mr Dickens is Coming, which is a light-hearted and varied look at the life and character of Charles Dickens is sold out.

However, there are still a few tickets left for Saturday night at 8pm when Gerald will perform Sikes and Nancy, which is Victorian theatre at its most dramatic. Charles judged the success of this evening by the number of ladies who had fainted with horror.

Tickets are £8.50 each for Saturday night and £10 for the Sunday.

On Sunday, February 5 it is Christmas Carol Day, which recalls the celebrated George C. Scott’s film of A Christmas Carol which was shot in Shrewsbury in 1984 and the cast and crew stayed at Tthe Lion.

The Sunday programme is:

10.30am: The Making of A Christmas Carol, which is an illustrated talk by historian David Trumper.

11.30am: A Guided Town Walk - Enjoy a walk around various local film locations.

2.30pm: A Christmas Carol - a large screen showing of the famous film.

Signed copies of Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel, will be on sale over the weekend for the special price of £5 each. Visitors may then be able to persuade Gerald Dickens to sign the book giving them a unique memento of the weekend.

For more details please ring The Lion Hotel on 01743 353107 or email info@thelionhotelshrewsbury.com