EXTRAORDINARY SCENES AT BLISWORTH

EXTRAORDINARY SCENES AT BLISWORTH - KETTLING DEMONSTRATIONS

The practice of drumming (or kettling, lowbelling &c.) was a traditional one laid on for a pair of consenting individuals who “went outside the realms of decency” (this was Walter Alexander’s phrase in his memoirs, unpublished but archived at the N.R.O.) whereby for three days, in the evening, the villagers would gather and rattle tins and any pots from the kitchen outside the offender’s house. Going by the reported preparations in the first incident mentioned below, on the third night an effigy would be set alight. The process usually induced a return to decent morals or the person(s) leaving the village. There are two such incidents that are documented for Blisworth - no doubt, in the early times there were many more.

It is just as well the practice of drumming died out for, if pursued diligently, no one would get any sleep, ever, in Blisworth by the 1960’s and 1970’s. That drumming has died out is a clear illustration of our society’s drift away from the formality of the Victorians - and that is an understatement! Perhaps in the second of the two incidents, events were fuelled by "b-minded" crowd mischief or by a dislike of the individuals concerned. Not all in the crowd, far from it, were motivated by their moral indignation.

An event reported in the Northampton Mercury 24 May 1895

A Mob Dispersed by the Police: On account of numerous rumours circulating in Blisworth and the neighbourhood with regard to certain alleged misconduct on the part of a prominent official with a married woman of the village, a representative of the "Northampton Mercury" visited Blisworth on Thursday evening and reports to the following effect:-

The inhabitants, from one end of the village to the other, were in an unusual state of excitement and evidently waiting in anticipation for something unusual to happen. Feeling ran high in the village in regard to what was supposed to be the misdemeanour of the pair mentioned above and it had been decided to make public this feeling by a three day kettle demonstration. This course of action was speedily decided upon, and it was agreed to amalgamate forces, collect all the available tin cans, trays, bells and other like utensils capable of emitting sounds more or less melodious and serenade the man in question in font of his house at the top end of the village. Two evenings during this week had been devoted to this interesting pastime and for a while - between the hours of seven and nine - Blisworth rang with hoots and yells to the accompaniment of the most extraordinary din. But it was left to Thursday evening for the serenaders to make their crowning move. In some mysterious part of the village, busy hands had been at work constructing effigies out of rags and straw and it was understood that these were meant to represent the alleged culprits; effigies to be burnt outside the houses of the prototypes.

Crowds from both Gayton, evidently the home of the woman, and Blisworth had joined and were preparing the demonstration. They were halted by Constable Norman and Inspector Andrews who rather suddenly appeared upon the scene and who were able to explain that the allegations had been trumped up. They had interviewed witnesses to the supposed scandal in Gayton and by other information they were able to satisfy themselves there was nothing to be so excited about. The police prevailed upon the crowds which dispersed and allowed the village to revert to a calm state.

In the opinion of one of Geo. Freeston's interviewees - W Alexander, the prominent official was in fact the village bobby. On the Alexander tape he cited three, not two, village events (as listed here) but gave insufficient details to be able to include the third here.

An event in 1936 recalled in "Blisworth, the Development of a Village" (now out of print)

The police would try to disperse the gathering, as they did so on the last occasion of this sort in 1936, but the noise makers outside the man's house simply reconvened on private land nearby, being a farmer's field near enough for the noise to continue to have some effect. The police tried to get the farmer to move them off but he declined to become involved - the police could then only watch. Anyway, the police managed to dissuade those with the effigy to not set it alight. One or two people recall the 1936 incident and remember the use of all the old lard tins that had been previously discarded on a plot adjacent to the bacon factory. For legal reasons (unfortunately . . .) the apparent veracity of the story cannot be enhanced by the crude device of naming the poor man or the house, or the field!