From the Archives

Parish Register Transcription Project

After more than 2 years of ‘hard labour’ the project to transcribe the Fairford parish registers is now complete. The registers have survived intact from 1617 and all entries of baptisms, banns, marriages and burials have been entered onto several Excel spreadsheets.

Gloucestershire Archives has been supplied with a copy of all the spreadsheets and a copy is also available in the Archives Room of Fairford’s Community Centre for researchers to consult.

It is hoped that this project will provide a useful resource from which to answer family and local history enquiries and to assist research about Fairford and its residents in general.

The next step is to incorporate the information gleaned from the parish registers into a database that has been created to record all Fairford residents found in the censuses from 1841 to 1911. This project may take another 2 years – at least!

FROM THE NEWSPAPERS

A recent trawl through some ancient newspapers revealed a number of interesting items relating to Fairford.

From The London Evening Post, Tuesday, April 24, 1770

“Wednesday last being the day of Mr Wilkes’s enlargement, it was celebrated in the following manner at Fairford; 45 Shoemakers walked through the town in grand procession, the foreman carrying a flag with the following inscription, Wilkes and Liberty, Magna Charter, and the Bill of Rights, the rest following with each of them a firelock shooting off 45 times; after their spirited behaviour, they were entertained with an elegant dinner, which was a buttock of beef weighing 45lb, a pudding 45lb, 45 pigeons, 45 pyes, 45 cheesecakes, 45 couple of fowls, 45lb of bacon, 45lb of bread, and 45 pots of beer; after dinner they enjoyed themselves with 45 drams, 45 bottles of wine, and 45 bowls of punch, drinking many loyal toasts; in the evening there was a bonfire consisting of 45 faggots of wood; likewise 45 sky-rockets, beside other grand fireworks and illuminations, each window containing 45 candles. The whole concluded at twelve o’clock in the evening with 45 peals of bell, and loud acclamations of joy.”

John Wilkes was a very popular but highly controversial radical politician. He was the publisher of a political periodical called ‘The North Briton’, the ‘Private Eye’ of its day. In issue number 45 ( which became a rallying cry along with ‘Wilkes and liberty’) he criticized the government which responded by charging him with seditious libel, removing him from Parliament and, eventually, locking him up in the King’s Bench Prison. His release and rehabilitation in April 1770 prompted the celebrations in Fairford and elsewhere throughout the country.

From Jackson’s Oxford Journal, Saturday, August 25, 1810

“Lost from Fairford, on Wednesday night or Thursday morning last – Twelve spotted black and white STORE PIGS, very light in the ear, of a middle size; the property of Geo. Robbins. Whoever will give information so that the pigs may be restored to the owner, shall be handsomely rewarded, and be paid all reasonable expenses.”

It is not known if Mr Robbins ever found his missing pigs but he remained farming in Fairford until he retired in 1834.

From Jackson’s Oxford Journal, Saturday, April 9, 1814

J. Townsend (successor to Miss Green) takes this opportunity of returning his most grateful acknowledgments to the inhabitants of Fairford and its vicinity, for the very liberal encouragement he has hitherto experienced, and begs to inform them he is just returned from London with a new and fashionable assortment of Plain, Twilled, and Wellington Sarcenets, Satins, Silk and Cotton Shawls, Printed Cottons, a great variety of Fancy Muslins, Lace, Ribbands, Flowers, Feathers, Trimmings, Irish Cloths, Dowlases, and various other articles in the Linen Drapery and Fancy Trade.

From Bell’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, Saturday, January 5, 1867

“Wanted a Situation as Coachman; country preferred, no objection to hunters. Single, age 28. Can have a good character if required. Apply R B, Post Office, Arlington, Fairford”

And if a bad character is required…?

Jackson’s Oxford Journal for 6 October 1827:

“Death from swallowing a wasp – Lately, a fine young man, 22 years of age, while occupied in carrying apples from the orchard of his employer, Mr Vines of Whelford, near Fairford, hastily eat a ripe plum, containing a wasp, the immediate and distressing consequence of which admitted of no remedy. Surgical aid not being on the spot, pain at the upper part of the trachea, accompanied by the rapid symptoms of suffocation, followed, terminating the life of the sufferer in less than 15 minutes. In similar occurrences, a strong solution of common salt and water is recommended to be administered.”

This is not as bizarre as it sounds. In 2004 eight people died in Britain from wasp and bee stings – so be careful!