Cottage Capers

On this day in history….1st June 1494

On this day in history : 1st June 1494 – The first known batch of Scotch whisky is recorded by Friar John Cor at Lindores Abbey, Fife….

“Eight bolls of malt to Friar John Cor wherewith to make aqua vitae”….is how a commission from King James IV is cited on the exchequer roll for 1494…. Now the King is known to have liked a drop of the hard stuff but this is an order for a huge volume, even by his measures….

Exchequer Rolls mentioning Aqua vitae and Lindores Abbey – Image credit : DehraSw – CC BY-SA 4.0

A ‘boll’ is an ancient unit equal to 64 ‘pecks’ – another ancient unit – but equalling to two ‘dry gallons’ of material (usually food based)…. So when we do the maths : 8 bolls = 1,024 gallons of malt – and that’s enough to produce around (gulp!) 800 gallons of whisky….or as they liked to call it back then ‘aqua vitae’…. Latin for ‘water of life’ if substituted for Gaelic it becomes ‘uisgue (pronounced ‘oos-key’) beatha’…. Say that after a few gallons and you can bet your bagpipes it would come out as ‘whisky’….

Whisky barrels – Image credit : High Contrast via Wikimedia

Brother John Cor was a Tironensian monk – the order of Tiron being a medieval monastic order named after its French mother abbey ‘Abbaye de la Saints-Trinity de Tiron’…. Lindores Abbey, on the outskirts of Newburgh, Fife and now a ruin on the banks of the River Tay, was an abbey of that order…. In 2018 a distillation vat was discovered within the ruins – giving evidence that at one time it is highly likely that whisky production played an important part in abbey life….

Ruins of Lindores Abbey – Image credit : Bubobubo2 – own work – CC BY-SA 3.0

Eastern entrance – Image credit : Bubobubo2 – own work – CC BY-SA 3.0

Abbey ruins – Image credit : DehraSw – CC BY-SA 4.0

On this day in history….31st May 1578

On this day in history : 31st May 1578 – Martin Frobisher sets sail from Harwich to Frobisher Bay, Canada….where he is to discover ‘gold’…. Over the following years he brings back over 1500 tons – before it is realised it’s worthless….

Frobisher was an English seaman and a privateer – in all he made three voyages to the New World with the original intention of looking for the ‘North-West Passage’…. It was on his second voyage that he found what he thought to be gold and using three ships he carried 200 tons of it back to England…. Indeed it seems he wasn’t the only one to believe he had the real thing – for his ‘gold’ was valued at £5.20 (nearly £225K in today’s terms) per ton…. It comes as no surprise that he was so excited by the prospect of all this wealth – that on his third trip to Canada he returned with a further 1,350 tons….

Only all that glitters is not necessarily gold…. After years of smelting it was realised that this was not the precious metal they had all thought it to be – but instead it was practically worthless Iron Pyrite – otherwise known as ‘Fool’s Gold’….

In the end Frobisher’s fool’s gold was used for road metalling – which is quite possibly where the saying ‘the streets of London are paved with gold’ comes from…. As for Frobisher – he managed to redeem himself…. He, in his capacity of privateer, took a fleet to Spain and plundered a whole load of Spanish ships – bringing so much wealth back to England that Queen Elizabeth I gave him a Knighthood….

Fool’s Gold – Image credit : Tudor Barker via Flickr

British History

On this day in history….30th May 1972

On this day in history : 30th May 1972 – The Angry Brigade goes on trial for a series of 25 bombings throughout the United Kingdom…. It is to be one of the longest criminal trials in English history….

The Angry Brigade, a far left, militant anarchist group, often referred to as urban guerrillas, were discontent with Tory cuts, high unemployment, the general state of the economy and just about every other political issue going-on at the time…. Their wish was to bring about an uprising and they decided to launch a campaign using small bombs…. The aim was to get as much media coverage as possible to expose their demands….

The campaign began in August 1970 and was to continue for a year before any arrests were made…. Their targets were varied – from the homes of Conservative MPs, banks, property speculators….to the embassies of far right regimes – they even targeted a BBC mobile broadcasting unit being used to broadcast the 1970 Miss World contest…. Bombs mostly caused damage to property and throughout the campaign only one person received minor injuries…. Each bombing was followed by a printed statement explaining the reason for the attack….whether it was for the government’s policies, the situation in Northern Ireland, the Vietnam War, sexism – or whatever other grievance they had at the time….

The arrests began in 1971 with Jake Prescott…. Although he was cleared of direct involvement in the bombings he admitted having addressed three envelopes for letter bombs…. Prescott was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment by Judge Milford Stevenson – this was later reduced to 10 years on appeal….

The 30th of May 1972 saw the trial begin at the Old Bailey of another eight members of the group….known as the ‘Stoke Newington Eight’ – after the area of London they came from…. The group were prosecuted for carrying out the bombings and the trial was to go on until the 6th of December 1972…. Four members, John Barker, Jim Greenfield, Hilary Creek and Anna Mendelssohn were sentenced to ten years each…. The other members were acquitted…. The explosions were to lead to the formation of the Bomb Squad – now the Antiterrorist Branch….

British History

On this day in history….29th May 1948

On this day in history : 29th May 1948 – The death of May Whitty, English stage and film actress – and one of the first women entertainers to be made a Dame for services to the Arts….

Born in Liverpool on the 19th of June 1865 she was christened Mary Louise Whitty but was to become known by her stage name of May Whitty…. Her father, William Alfred Whitty, was a newspaper proprietor and her grandfather was Michael James Whitty – who founded the police force and fire brigade in Liverpool and was founder of the Liverpool and Daily Post….

May made her stage debut in 1881 at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool – in the chorus of ‘Mountain Sylph’…. A year later she joined the Lyceum Company in London’s West End, which was then being managed by Henry Irving and Ellen Terry…. In 1895 she was to tour the USA for the first time, with Irving….

On the 3rd of August 1892 she married actor-manager Ben Webster and they had two children…. Their first, a son, sadly died at birth but their daughter, born in 1905, was also to become an actress – as well as a successful producer and director (Margaret Webster)….

For some 25 years May was known as one of the UK’s best leading stage actresses…. She made her first film appearance in 1914, a silent film ‘Enoch Arden’…. She did not care much for this form of acting and made only a few more of such films….

In 1918 May was made Dame Commander of the British Empire by King George for her service to the Arts and for entertaining the troops during World War One…. She was then to go on to have a run of successful hits on Broadway…. Back on home soil she was involved in the formation of Equity, when it was created in 1930 by a group of West End performers at her home in West London….

In 1937, at the age of 72, May made her Hollywood debut in the lead role of ‘Night Must Fall’ for which she received an Oscar nomination…. However, perhaps the highlight of her Hollywood career was as Miss Froy in Hitchcock’s 1938 film ‘The Lady Vanishes’….

Theatrical release poster, 1938 – Fair use

In 1939 May moved to the States permanently…. She was often cast in heart endearing roles – and sometimes as a cantankerous old lady…. 1942 saw her second Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress in ‘Mrs Miniver’…. When once asked about her late coming Hollywood career, she replied “I’ve got everything Betty Grable has – only I’ve had it longer”….

Theatrical release poster, 1942 – public domain

May died of cancer at the age of 82 in Beverly Hills – shortly after completing the 1948 film ‘the Sign of the Ram’….

British History

On this day in history….28th May 1911

On this day in history : 28th May 1911 – The birth of actress, comedienne, presenter and writer Dame Thora Hird – who with a career spanning more than 70 years was to become a British institution….

Dame Thora Hird, 1974 – Image : Allan Warren, own work CC BY-SA 3.0

Thora was born in Morecambe, Lancashire…. Her mother, Mary Mayor, had been an actress and her father Henry Hird, managed entertainment venues in Morecambe…. Thora’s first stage appearance was at just 2 months old, during a play at the Royalty Theatre, one of the venues her father managed….

On leaving school Thora worked in the local Co-op store and in 1937 she married James Scott…. The couple had a daughter in December 1938, Jeanette Scott, who was also to become a successful actress….

Thora joined the Morecambe Repertory Theatre and then made her West End debut in 1944 in the play ‘No Medals’…. She was to make several film appearances, alongside big names such as Laurence Olivier, before finding her niche in TV comedy…. We probably remember her best for sitcoms such as ‘Meet the Wife’, ‘In Loving Memory’, “Hallelujah!’ and of course as Edie Pegden in ‘Last of the Summer Wine’…. But whilst we may particularly remember her for comedy roles Thora was a versatile actress, winning a BAFTA for best actress in two of Alan Bennett’s ‘Talking Heads’ monologues – and she won another BAFTA for her role in the 1999 TV film ‘Lost for Words’…. She was awarded an OBE in 1983 and made Dame Commander in 1993….

She had a heart bypass operation in 1992 and was widowed in 1994…. Suffering from severe arthritis Thora became a wheelchair user in later life…. However, this was not going to stop her from acting…. In December 1998 she played the part of Dolly’s mother in Victoria Wood’s hit TV comedy’Dinner Ladies’…. Her final acting role was for radio, ‘The Last of the Sun’ – a monologue written for her by Alan Bennett…. Thora died on the 15th of March 2003, aged 91….