This is hidden behind the Trans_Atlantic paywall of the Plymouth, Massachusetts, newspaper owned by the Wicked Local chain. It’s one of a series relating to the Mayflower anniversary and to the book Voices of the Mayflower.
There’s no denying, the pews in St Wilfrid’s need a spruce up. So does the peeling paint on the walls of this ancient building in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire. Hardly surprising, it dates back to the 15th century.
Of course, for many Mayflower descendants and aficionados, Scrooby is where it all began; where the likes of William Bradford and William Brewster developed their Separatist beliefs and from where they resolved to flee England in the fall of 1607.
This month, we follow the footsteps of these ‘brainsick conspirators’, as the Archbishop of York damned them, as they set off on their way to escape from the port of Boston, 60 miles away.
But, first, back to those peeling walls. Last month, the vicar’s husband, a colorful figure sporting a battered bushwhacker hat and paint-spattered clothes was buffing up the pews with a brush and a can of varnish. Even the benches preserved since the 16th Century on which William Brewster himself might have prayed are in need of TLC.
No one’s fault; many churches in the UK - maybe most - are under-used and under-funded, but it is 2020, it is the 400th anniversary of the great voyage and St Wilfrid’s should be looking its best.
So, just a thought, if there are any descendants of Brewster and Bradford, indeed anyone with Mayflower connections they might want to rally round to cheer up this essential part of the story and contact the vicar by email - revjackiemckenna@yahoo.co.uk.
(An irrelevant aside; the previous vicar of Scrooby was also a woman and she won fame as one of the critics on the UK version of Gogglebox. She left the parish and starred in Celebrity Master Chef).
Before we leave Scrooby it is worth making a detour of a few miles to Bassetlaw Museum in the attractive market town of Retford, in north Nottinghamshire which has recently opened a small gallery devoted to the Mayflower. It is very informative, and nicely presented with co-curator and enthusiast, Isabelle Richards, in costume ready to explain all.
Back on the fugitives’ trail. From Scrooby the pilgrims set off by foot and boat along the River Ryton, which runs by Brewster’s manor, into the well-named River Idle and to the Trent.
They might have tramped across meadows filled with exotically named plants such as bird’s-foot-trefoil, devil’s-bit scabious and sneezewort wildflowers but most of these meadows are now long gone. Today the way is by car and the horizon is blurred by smoke belching power stations which like much of the old steel and mining industry will be closed to meet the demands of climate change restrictions.
The runaways made their way to Gainsborough where more fellow travelers were waiting to join them on the perilous adventure
Despite being 55 miles inland it was one of the busiest ports in the country with wharves bustling with shipping and warehouses full of wool waiting to be exported to Europe.
The town has a rich history. During the occupation of Britain by the Romans a canal was built in about AD 210 which flows, straight as die from the Trent at nearby Torksey to Lincoln - a route the fugitives must surely have followed.
Gainsborough was briefly the capital of England after it had been conquered in 1013 by a Danish king, one Sweyn Forkbeard. A ferocious figure he had spent at least 20 years pillaging and plundering England but he ruled only for five weeks from Christmas Day in 1013 until his death on February 3, 1014> He was succeeded by another figure for England’s past mythology, King Canute (Cnut the Great) who, according to legend, tried to command the waves from coming in with the tide. Some say his feet were soaked by a tidal bore which races upstream in spring and others believe that Gainsborough was the setting for George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss and it was this flood which swept away the hero Tom.
History came clattering up to Gainsborough’s gates again on the July, 28, 1643, during the English Civil War when the Royalists who supported Charles 1 were routed by the Parliamentarians, only for the Royalists to strike and drive off the smaller Parliamentary force.
For Bradford and his apprehensive band Gainsborough was something of a haven, a hotbed of dissenters who shared similar radical views as the Scrooby contingent. One of their leaders was Thomas Helwys who would meet with the sixty or seventy Separatists in secret in Gainsborough Old Hall which was owned by one Sir William Hickman, a sympathizer to the cause.
It was Helwys who helped organize the eventual escape to Amsterdam - as Separatist leader John Robinson wrote, ’If any brought oars, he brought sails’ - but his extreme views landed him in a London Prison and he died in 1616 aged 40.
It is fair to say, there is tremendous row between local historians over the involvement of Hickman and whether he did indeed support the Separatists but there can be no disagreement over the glories of the Old Hall, where perhaps the escapers huddled, waiting to continue their journey.
Hickman paid £5,200 in 1596 for the building which is more than 500 years old and one of the finest medieval manor houses in England. (In today’s prices about $ 907,000).
It is a fine sight with its worn brick and black and white timber frame and the main hall with its elaborate vaulted timber roof is redolent of councils of war and grand banquets. Historians suggest that Scrooby Manor, now a shadow of its former self, might well have looked like this - which would explain why Queen Elizabeth 1 coveted it as a royal residence and offered to pay £40 a year for 70 years for the privilege. She was dissuaded by the Archbishop of York who ‘pleaded and prayed with tears, protested and begged,’ for her not to sign the document.
The kitchen is suitably begrimed, as one might expect from one of the most complete medieval kitchens in England with its two open fireplaces, each large enough to roast an ox.
A little different to the fare in the two pubs nearby - the Sweyn Forkbeard and the Canute - though the Canute does compete with a four tier burger. With fries.
Best bet for travellers following the pilgrims’ progress check info@mayflower400tours.com. 1-800-303-5534 or contact local guide and historian Adrian Gray; mail@www.pilgrimsandprophets.co.uk
This month’s 17th century wicked word.
Noddy meacock. Noddy is a crude reference to anyone with a mental problem. Meacock is a cowardly or effeminate man.
Richard Holledge’s book, Voices of the Mayflower is out on February 28.
Next month; “A large number of them had to take passage from Boston in Lincolnshire ...” William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation.
Old Hall, Gainsborough