Eye - 29 August 2014

From facilities for the feathered to dramatised dilemmas

Facilities for the feathered

An account of a historic bird bath has fluttered into Eye’s mailbag.

Judith Niechcial, clerk of South East London Area Meeting, got in touch to tell all. She writes: ‘Petts Wood Local Meeting was sadly laid down in April this year. Among the items from the beautiful Meeting house and its garden that have been distributed amongst other Local Meetings in South East London Area Meeting is a large stone bird bath, which now graces the garden at Forest Hill Meeting.

‘The inscription on the side of the basin reads: Presented by Bryant & May Ltd whose founders were Southwark Friends.

‘Moira Lindsay of Petts Wood Meeting has found an article which appeared some time ago in Petts Wood Meeting’s newsletter, The Twig. It is by George Edwards, late of Blackheath Meeting: “William Bryant and Francis May were both Quakers. They were partners in a business at Plymouth which sold blacking, India rubber, oil and articles of a similar nature to which they added the sale of Swedish matches. In 1841 they transferred the business to Tooley Street, Southwark, near London Bridge. Bryant lived at Kingston and May at Peckham, where he attended Meeting… The partnership between Bryant and May did not last long. May objected to Bryant’s method of advertising and resigned, but the joint names continued.

“In 1933 when Friends were making the old burial ground, at the rear of Peckham Meeting House, into a garden, Bryant & May presented the bird bath in memory of Francis May’s connection with the firm. The verse on the base [To the glory of God and in thankfulness for the lives of those who rest here] comes from a memorial in Peterborough Cathedral and the words seem appropriate to commemorate all those who are buried there. When Friends sold the Meeting house to the adjoining post office as an extension to the sorting office, the old burial ground was dug over and any remains moved to the Friends’ portion of Honor Oak Cemetery, and Petts Wood asked to have the bird bath.”’

Judith writes: ‘Bryant and May were questionable employers, not only for their advertising style. They gained notoriety for the poor working conditions and “phlossy jaw” suffered by the “Matchgirls”, whose strike of 1888 was one of the first industrial actions by unskilled labour, and led to improvements in working conditions.

‘Forest Hill Friends are interested to learn of this history, and we hope the birds of Forest Hill garden will enjoy their new bathing facility for many years to come.’

Dramatised dilemmas

The issues facing young people in 1913 were brought to life in a recent production.

A play written by Ackworth School head of drama Richard Vergette portrayed the real-life fortunes of the Quaker school’s 1913 graduating class.

‘Who We Are’, performed by twenty-five students and nine teachers, was inspired by a photograph of eleven school leavers and the impact that the decisions they made in that year had on their lives.

The leavers included absolutist pacifists such as Philip Radley, who not only refused to fight in world war one, but would not do any war work that might release another man to serve at the front.

His classmates Edward Dell Brown and John Stanley Coy, however, fought and died. Edward Brady joined the Friends Ambulance Unit and ended up as a unit chief. A number of Ackworth girls worked in the hospitals in France.

‘The angle of the play is really to show that Ackworth School students acted on their consciences and did what they believed was right,’ said Richard Vergette.

‘A number of old scholars looked to Frederick Andrews, the headmaster at the time, to give a lead on whether people should fight or not. He refused to do so, observing that he wanted his former scholars to do whatever they believed to be right.’

A 200-strong audience watched the play, including parents, former students, friends of Ackworth and some people from the local community.

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