1. If your close friends all seem to have gone prematurely hard of hearing. 2. If your first thought when looking at shoes in shop windows is that the buckles are too small. 3. If “polish my bell” doesn’t sound like an innuendo to you. 4. If you can order a pint on a Saturday…
Or, what can town criers of the past still teach us about marketing today? In days past (that’s a beautifully non-specific phrase) almost every town had a paid crier whose job was to let the people know about important news. The definition of ‘important’ being things they wanted to know as well as things other people…
“Chris, The Queen is on the phone!” I was astounded, then quickly a little disappointed to realise it was the Queen Charlotte Pub calling. However I quickly cheered up when I learned that John the Landlord wanted to know if I might be able to turn up for their launch night. I knew that John…
A year of making town crier proclamations has taught me to be a lot more careful of my vocal chords. Sore throats and the prospect of losing your voice are two fears all town criers face. Thankfully there is lots to do to ensure you don’t end up being struck dumb. The best advice I…
I found this extract from the 1828 printing of ‘City Scenes’ by William Darton Well, here is the Bellman and Crier, calling the attention of the people to a description of a child that has been lost. The number of children who have at times been stolen from their homes, has caused great alarm to…
We all know that Wm. Shakespeare wrote a play set in our borough, namely “The Merry Wives of Windsor”. What I find particularly good is that in act five, scene five of the play the following line appears. “Crier hobgoblin, makes the fairy oyes”. The line is spoken to some Windsor folk who have disguised…
Yesterday was St George’s day so as a patriotic town crier I thought it was time to try something new. I wrote my first rhyming proclamation and delivered it in Windsor a number of times. St George’s Day 2013 Oyez, Oyez, Oyez Citizens of Windsor and visitors from both far and near This day…
I was researching (alright procrastinating) yesterday and found a great nugget of information on a German website. It reported that in our twin town of Goslar, they definitely used to have town criers and one of their roles was to help ensure the purity of the beer the town brewed. To do this, the crier would…
I took a look at the web stats for this site and was astounded to see that visitors from across the whole world have come to the website in the last few weeks. Aside from expected visits from locals (Maidenhead, Windsor etc) there have been visits from as far away as: Calgary Sydney Belleville Toronto…
Here is a cruel but brilliant cartoon of a town crier. It was found on the back page of a copy of a children’s book, “The history of Old Mother Hubbard and her dog” by Sarah Catherine Martin 1768-1826. I like the pocket details. I a series of Max Fleischer cartoons from the late 30s and…