John Carrington (1726 - 1810) and Bramfield Church, September 2006

 

Keith Morby & Stuart Wright

Gill Cordingley

 

Grandison Arms, Bramfield

Miss Bertha Kilby

 

Grandison Arms, Bramfield

Miss Bertha Kilby

Early in 2006, Jean Riddell and I were contacted by Miss Dorothy Abel Smith. She knew that we were both very interested in Carrington’s diary and she wondered if we would be willing to arrange a presentation about him. The presentation would be arranged to coincide with the celebration of the fact that the church would, (by late summer) have a splendid new roof. No doubt, the spirit of John Carrington would be right behind the renovation project. He had been a regular member of the congregation of the church, he had worked as a parish official and he had always been on good terms with the rectors who had served the church.

We were enthusiastic about the project. While the builders put up scaffolding etc. and got on with tiling the church, Jean and I met and made plans. I started to write a script. Mary Gregg of the Tewin society took us on experimental ”Carrington Walks” through Tewin and Bramfield.

At the beginning of September, I began to worry: ”Would it be all right on the night?” After all, people were going to pay money to see us! It seemed that we had become the frenzied drama section of our normally staid history society.

However, on September 16th’ ”The Carrington Event” took place in the plain but beautiful village church.

Keith Morbey of HDOS and Stuart Wright of HWLHS wore C18th costume, and appeared as Carrington and his son Jack. They brought to life events that had happened to John in the course of 1806. (Incidentally, the year in which. He celebrated his 80th birthday.) Frances Luck narrated relevant background information. We then had an interval for wine etc. Afterwards, Alan spoke about the remarkable quantities of food and drink that John, and members of his circle, used to consume at one sitting. Finally, Jean showed some slides of pubs and other buildings of today that are mentioned in the diary.

The capacity audience were warmly enthusiastic; the instructions for the guided Carrington Walks were a sell out and, later in October, the Hertford Mercury featured an article about the event and a coloured photo of John and Jack (alias Keith and Stuart).

Everyone enjoyed taking part in the project and Miss Dorothy Abel Smith was pleased with HWLHS, the presentation, and the £500 which our efforts had raised. What was the money spent on? It went towards the cost of tl1e roof of course! Interesting to think that nearly 200 years after his death John Carrington had raised money for his local church!