Georgian Entertainment

12/07/1796

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A Peterborough Playbill give us another glimpse of life in Georgian Peterborough. It tells us that:

This present TUESDAY Evening JULY the 12th, 1796, will be presented a COMEDY called 'The SCHOOL for SCANDAL'. To which will be added a FARCE 'The ENCHANTED ISLAND' Or Free-born ENGLISHWOMAN. The whole concludes with an ELEGANT, GRAND, TRANSPARENT PAINTING of THE TEMPLE OF LOVE, Designed and Painted by an eminent Artist.

It tells interested parties that this week's schedule is for performances on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. I just wonder what was planned to happen on the Thursday. (Tebbs, H.F., Peterborough, Oleander Press, 1979)

Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.

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Misbehaving Monks

08/07/1515

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The abbacy of Robert Kirkton was a time of extremes for both the monastery and the town. His great building projects have left us the New Building on the church and the Great Gate that now leads to the dean's offices. However, beyond this gate, he had allowed thirty tenements to fall into utter decay before turning the ground into a park for his deer! Running side by side with his grand projects was lax management and slipping morals. Kirkton himself 'wriggled and squirmed' when it came to repaying a debt to Henry VIII. When William Atwater, Bishop of Lincoln, visited the monastery on this day, he found many things 'out of order'. He reported that monk, John Walpole, was being seditious amongst his brethren. He also reported that he had stolen certain jewels from St Oswald's shrine, and what he could lay his hands on elsewhere, and given them to women in the town. So much for his vow of celibacy! It was also reported that certain monks haunted a tavern near the monastery - probably in the Boongate area - and gave themselves up to singing and dancing in the dormitory until 10 or 11 p.m., to the consternation of the rest of their brethren. (Gunton, Symon, The History of the Church in Peterborough, ed. Symon Patrick, 1990)

Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.