Historical Writing Entries - 3rd October, 2016

It was like taking a roller-coaster ride in a time machine on 3^rd October, when members read out their entries for the group's last competition of the year: non-fictional historical writing. There were vivid childhood memories: of finding a bayonet at the end of World War I and the sweet sin of licking jam out of tarts during the 1953 coronation celebrations. There was an array of colourful ancestors: a camp conscientious objector who did time in Wormwood Scrubs, a star cricketer with an unusual name and a débutante who made a life-changing secret liaison with an African prince. There were portraits of two fascinating and feisty women: Mary 'Slasher' Richardson, the suffragette who sliced the Rokeby Venus, and Bluebell Klean, who stopped 'chasing musical dreams to chase fish'. Places also came under scrutiny: the history of Church in the Wood, founded in 1090 by a priest who wanted a church hidden from the devil, and the Bexhill celebrations of 1917, when the band played on and elegance was everywhere. On a darker note, we also learned about the 1948 Warlingham Murder, when a shotgun rang out from 76, Harrow Gardens, and the so called madness of Victorian women. It was a very entertaining evening, and judge, Alan Judd, has his work cut out.