Lark and Linnet

Debris in still water.

The beautiful Abbott's Bridge spanning the Lark.

 I am unhappy to notice, when I walk through the Abbey Gardens most early mornings that the tiny stream which is the River Lark, is stationary, resembling stagnant water with, in parts, algae forming. I love the name of the river and the fact that it is one of few chalk streams, most of which in England are situated in Suffolk, but in Bury, it is looking in a distressed state. The Lark, a tributary of the River Ouse, rises in Bradfield Combust and crosses the border between Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with the Lark Valley Path following the meandering flow of the river as it winds its way from Bury St Edmunds to Mildenhall providing stunning views. But the state of the visible water in the Abbey Gardens does give pause for thought though there is a team of volunteers which does its best to improve the sluggish status quo.

Lark-cleaning volunteers in action.

Because of this observation, I looked up the St Edmundsbury Chronicle online to find, to my delight, a long and detailed history of the River Lark from 1600, astonishing in its detail. I have dipped and dived into it, quite quickly giving up the unequal struggle to summarise it, but unable to resist one or two or more, interesting historical markers of its history and noting, not for the first time, how much of the unfolding of everyday life can be found in the narrative of one important entity, like a river.

In Roman times, the Lark was an early canal from Isleham to Prickwillow. This was probably to ship out church, hardened chalk known as Tottenhoe Stone as a building material, from Clunch Pits at Isleham. An early name for the river was the Burne but the River Larke name seems to have been established by the early 17th century. The first serious known attempt since Roman times to improve the River Lark for navigation took place in 1621. Plans were prepared by John Gason of Finchley and authorisation sought through Parliament but the endeavour failed. In 1635 a Henry Lambe obtained permission to improve navigation of the river from Mildenhall to Bury St Edmunds in recognition of the need to reduce transportation costs incurred by road. Suspicion from mill owners, led by landowners, Sir Roger North and Thomas Steward, claiming that the

18th century Horstead Mill, Norfolk.
Mill owners were powerful people!

contractors were damaging their mills, succeeded in stopping Lambe’s work. Undeterred, Lambe persisted and eventually, in 1637 Charles 1 granted Lambe a license to proceed with his improvements, for an annual fee of £6.13.4 with permission for Lambe to charge a toll along the Lark from Bury to Mildenhall. As no further records exist of any subsequent developments, it is assumed that the Civil War stopped Lambe’s work and no further improvements happened for another 60 years.

In 1693 Henry Ashley, proprietor of the Great Ouse Navigation, turned his attention to the River Lark which had become silted up and was no longer suitable for barge traffic. He had plans to canalise the Lark and run barges up to Bury St Edmunds, thus restoring ancient trade links to Kings Lynn. Once 'his' canal was in place, between 1716 and 1855 the River Lark was a busy waterway linking Bury St Edmunds with Ely, Cambridge and Kings Lynn. There were certain weaknesses in the system however often involving uncooperative local landowners and their commercial interests, but even slow water transport was more efficient than roads at the time, although these shortcomings gradually reduced as road transport improved.

Daniel Defoe, in 1774, described the river at Bury as:

“a very small river, or rather a very small branch of a small river ….. which runs from Milden Hall on the edge of the fens…….They have made this river navigable to the said Milden Hall from which there is a navigable dyke which goes into the river Ouse and so to Lynn, so that all their [Bury’s] coal, wine, iron, lead and other goods are brought by water from Lynn, or from London by way of Lynn, to the ease of the tradesmen.”

First train into Bury, 1845

Between 1820-46 the Cullum family made improvements to the Lark until stopped by the impact of the coming of the railways. And around a century after Defoe, The Mildenhall Almanack of 1882 reported:

1996 More channel-straightening.
"The hapless Lark, which once meandered
gently through water meadows, neatly packaged
into an outsize concrete canyon. No water vole
would dream of venturing here, nor otter, purple
strife or figwort" Roger Deakin.

“The River Lark as a water highway …… is practically closed. Within a few years the traffic extended to Fornham, now above Mildenhall, a barge is never seen. The whole course of the river is choked with weeds, on which, during floods, heavy deposits of soil have accumulated, which renders navigation impossible.” In the same year [1882] the footbridge across the River Lark located in the Abbey Gardens, was built for the use of scholars at the new home of the King Edward V1 Grammar School which was being built at the time in the Vinefields. An interesting social footnote.

After 1905 the Lark slowly declined into a drainage river and, following disastrous floods in 1968 the flood relief scheme involving channel-straightening and concrete flood walls was instigated with more channel-straightening in 1996 when Tesco was built.

Barge on the River Lark, 1910.

 This somewhat potted version of the detailed history of the River Lark, is based on the more thorough historical account given on the St Edmundsbury Chronicle site which is well worth reading. It provides a fascinating glimpse of a community’s river-based history and it shows that the state of today’s sluggish Lark is an echo of aspects of former times; the Lark has struggled over the centuries against weeds, human obstacles, commercial contra-interests and social developments plus additional diminutions.

The River Linnet. Virtually no history of the Linnet was found, it,  presumably, being smaller and less important than the Lark with which it unites in the Abbey Gardens.
But, here it is, in its understated, tranquil beauty.

Baptisms in the River Lark in May 1917.
There was a minor fashion for river baptism in the
twentieth century until 1970.

Image taken from a watercolour painted in 1725; engraved
for printing by R.Godfrey in 1729. On the extreme left is the dovecote
still there today. Also shown is one arm of the River Linnet flowing
 immediately in front of the dovecote. In this period, 
the Lark and the Linnet ran parallel to each other, 
until they joined under the Abbot's Bridge.

Mid-July Blooms.

 

The cause of it all. Dear Boris who only yesterday skipped an
emergency Cobra meeting he should have chaired, 
to host a party at Chequers. 
Missing in action again Boris; a little bit demob-happy!

Rishi Sunak.

Despite the heat, the contest for the leadership of the Tory Party is hotting up!! We, i.e. the general population, are all interested in this strangely antiquated, faux-modern process. It is supposed to be democratic as the original list of eleven hopefuls is hastily whittled down [five people standing this weekend; three/four [or is it 2?] to be left on Monday 18 July] by Conservative M.P.s voting against an increasingly bitter background of smears, explosively-timed leaks and accusations of backroom stitch-ups. There are factional divisions in the Conservative Party, and rancour rides high. When two are left, the membership of the Conservative Party will vote for The One. That is, the final arbiters are the circa 165,000 mainly elderly members, chiefly living in the South East, who will choose the Prime Minister for the entire U.K. of approximately 60 million plus Brits!! It IS, after all the nationally-chosen method; we are organised as a Parliamentary system, not a Presidential one, but most of us cannot forbear but think that a General Election would be a little more democratic. This will not [though could] happen as Tory MPs are well aware of the dangers just now, of asking a battered electorate for more time in Government after a long and less-than-glorious period in office so far.

Liz Truss in determined pursuit of her role model.

Kemi Badenhoch.

Tom Tugendhat

 As the BBC News seems unrelenting in its devotion to broadcasting discussions, arguments, opinions, on the current political pageant, we are all pretty au fait with at least the basic names and details of the eager candidates. As the political climate in Bury St Edmunds is not, exactly, nurturing my political/spiritual needs, as it were, I can only suggest what I think I have observed elderly Conservative Party members want in a leader. Policies or proposed policies, are obviously important but these voters also warm to someone whom they think, thinks like them. And they perhaps judge the abilities of a candidate to be Prime Minister, based on what he/she says, especially if the professed opinions chime well with their opinions, possibly formed long ago. And I also suspect that patriotism proudly professed, goes a long way!! Plus the candidate choice of a modestly middle route vis-a-vis policies; nothing to frighten the horses. I would guess that the splendid Kemi Badenoch banging on about trans rights, though totally au courant, bewilders the important fraction of the electorate who wield the power in this particular election.

Penny Mordaunt

I have been side-tracked from my rant after
searching for a photo of Angela Lansbury.
I discover she was 95 last October and  send
felicitations! Splendid endurance. As a tribute,
she has been granted A Large Photo.

Now that nice-looking, middle class Penny Mordaunt, of whom I had not even heard a month ago, she really IS worth considering. AND she’s a Navy reservist, representing Portsmouth for about ten years. Her father was a paratrooper and she has interesting family connections. [e.g. actress Dame Angela Lansbury was her grandmother’s cousin; her mother was related to Philip Snowden, first Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer]. Her own career has been steady but not stellar. Briefly Boris’s first woman Defence Secretary before he quickly sacked her and Minister for International Trade since September 2021. She was also, again briefly, assistant to Lord Frost in the Brexit negotiations before he begged Boris to move her on as she was so ineffective. In her current leadership campaign, she has carefully followed the middle way; no immediate tax cuts but also rejecting Sunak’s ‘cuts must wait till inflation is controlled’. She has sensibly promised to halve VAT on fuel until, at least, April 2023 and to raise tax thresholds for basic and middle income earners, by the rate of inflation. All this is worthy, [she was a Communications Specialist, pre-politics, after all] ; but it is not obviously comprehensible to an outsider why she is currently Number Two in the voting results in a contest for Prime Minister. In fact, I am totally mystified as to why Penny [named after HMS Penelope] is there at all. The Telegraph [online] may have the answer: Penny has ‘relatable charisma and an upbeat vision of British patriotism.’ But she didn’t know, when interviewed, the likely cost of her middle-of-the-road policy proposals.

Angela Lansbury in her prime.

Of the presently-remaining candidates there are Liz Truss,[NO, perlease]; Kemi Badenoch [excellent potential; the woke candidate]; Tom Tugendhat [ex-army, hugely admired by his local electors; relevant, recent military admin experience in Afghanistan] and Rishi Sunak, clearly highly intelligent, hugely experienced and talented though, sadly, not a Socialist as suggested by Jacob Rees-Mogg, [Minister for the 18^th Century!] I would imagine if Keir Starmer could choose, it wouldn’t be Rishi; he certainly offers the greatest threat to the future election prospects of the Labour Party.

Perhaps young Conservatives are under-
represented in the process of choosing a new leader!?

The Chattering of The Sparrows.

Chinese characters for 
Mah Jong

Baltimore seniors at play.

 I wrote about Mah Jong several years ago in my Bruges blog but as I am now playing twice a week with two small groups which are, in fact, metamorphosing into one group playing twice weekly, it is on my mind. Virtually all these Bury members are beginners and I am frequently surprised at how fast some individuals have learned the basics and can also see that my own play is not quite so dashing as it once was!!

Mah Jong was banned by the government of the 
People's Republic of China in 1949.
Re-introduced after the Cultural Revolution.

The trigger for this blog, however, was a news item that caught my online eye! Last October police in Yushan, a small county in China’s south east Jiangxi province issued a statement announcing the closure of all Mahjong parlours in the region from 22 October. The move was bruited to “push forward the campaign against crimes and gangs to solve the gambling and noise problem and purify social conduct.” Although gambling is illegal in China with widespread problems from illegal gambling dens, those who engage in “win-lose entertainments such as Mahjong and poker involving small amounts of money ….. shall not be punished.”

Last year's backlash was swift and furious. Mahjong 

Police keeping an eye on suspects.

 parlours are legally licensed and as one commentator on social media site, Weibo, fumed, “ My grandparents play Mahjong as part of their daily entertainment.” Others opined that Mahjong itself was not the culprit as “people can gamble with anything.” The closure was seen as a lazy attempt by the government to curtail the real problem; illegal gambling dens, though one social media user saw the positive side of the ban, “Finally! I have been woken up numerous times by Mahjong players!” His joy was short-lived: the day after the imposition of the ban, Yushan authorities revised their statement after witnessing the furious protests, to make it clear that licensed Mahjong parlours were not included.

Mah Jong is a tile-based game originally called ‘maique’ in Chinese; this signifies’ the chattering of 

Mah Jong, 1920s, en plein air....

the sparrows’ which the clacking sound, as the tiles are initially shuffled, is said to resemble. There are 144 tiles, using Chinese characters and symbols, and each player receives 13 tiles to begin, except for the fourth player [the East Wind] who receives one extra to enable her to lead at the beginning of the game. Further explanation of procedures and rules at this point would only serve to mystify but it can be said that Mah Jong is a game of skill, strategy and luck! I should also add that playing the game offers unrivalled opportunities for socialising and relaxed mental exercise! There are many books explaining this mysterious game though my groups use the Australian players, Patricia A. Thompson & Betty Maloney’s “The Mah Jong Player’s Companion” published in 1997 and obtainable, second-hand, on various web sites like Amazon and Ebay. This illustrates over 120 different hands/combinations which players may attempt, is well-illustrated and comprehensively explained.

... et sur l'eau!

Mah Jong developed in China in the 19^th century and has spread throughout much of the world during the 20^th century. The game, and its regional variants, are widely played throughout Japan, Korea and South East Asia and have become increasingly popular in the West. An indication of the latter is its appearance in occasional mainstream pop culture. In the film, Crazy Rich Asians, two main characters meet for a showdown at a Mahjong parlour. And an American television show, Fresh Off The Boat which centres on an Asian-American family, dedicates one whole episode to Mahjong.

Probably not the championships but nonetheless of
daily importance to many. 
When I stayed for two months in Beijing, en route to the supermarket, I always passed groups
of scruffy, noisy, excited men, crouching at the edge of the kerb, engrossed
in their Mah Jong games, wholly involved and happy!
Gambling may have been involved!

An additional nod to the increasing respectability of Mah Jong as a sport, was given in September 1998 when Mah Jong rules were codified for international competitions and in June, 2007, the first official World Mah Jong Championship was held at Chengdu in Sichuan, China. And perhaps the interest of a luxury brand, Hermes, in promoting an expensive arpeggio, seals the deal! It has a luxury Mahjong set “in solid palissander wood” for sale on its website at 40,200 dollars.

Leather Mah Jong set by Hermes "for aunties who like
to play in style." Tiles of palissander wood and all is 
printed on calfskin, to emit 'a delicate sound.'
57,000 Singaporean dollars!
Clearly, Aunties who like to play in style, have good taste
and are not poor!




[N.B. Mahjong seems to be written thus in online descriptions; I always use Mah Jong as two words
which seems to be more common generally in English  language prose.]

Literary Bury

  

Folio edition of Defoe's A Tour Through The Whole Island of Great Britain, published in three part between  1724 and 1726.

I was idly glancing through a lovely Folio edition I have of Daniel Defoe’s A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain [1724-6] recently when a sudden thought drove me to look up Bury St. Edmunds. Charmingly, the town was then called St Edmundsbury, [as is Bury Cathedral now] which Defoe compares favourably, en passant, to Ipswich, a town where “there are not so many of the gentry here as at Bury.”

The Abbey in its heyday.

He visits St Edmunds Bury “famed for its pleasant situation and wholesome air, the Montpelier of Suffolk, and perhaps of England; this must be attributed to the skill of the monks of those times, who chose so beautiful a situation for the seat of their retirement and who built here the greatest, and in its time, the most flourishing monastery in all these parts of England, I mean the monastery of Edmund the Martyr.…. a house of pleasure in more ancient times; or …. a court of some of the Saxon or East Angle kings.” Defoe attributes the delightfulness of the town’s setting to the decision of the clergy to settle in Bury, “for they always chose the best places in the country to build in, either for richness of soil, or for health and pleasure in the situation of their religious houses.” Defoe believes it was once “a royal village, though it much better merits that name now; it being the town of all this part of England, in proportion to its bigness, most thronged with gentry; people of the best fashion and the most polite conversation.”

Angel Hill by J. Kendall. 1744.
This would be, more or less, Defoe's view. Produced 
before the Angel Hotel was built and when the 
Athenaeum, [far end] was one storey higher.

He describes a notorious murder in the town in 1722; comments on the lack of manufacturing in Bury save for spinning which was the “chief trade” arising from the needs of the local gentry “who cannot fail to cause trade enough by the expense of their families and equipages” and, without actually naming the River Lark, Defoe condescends to describe it as “a very small branch of a very small river” but comments that this stream, as it joins larger waters, has been engineered to be navigable for transport of heavy goods like coal, wine, and iron to the town “to the great ease of the tradesmen.”

The other famous literary name associated with Bury St Edmunds is, of course, Charles Dickens who loved the town and visited it on several occasions, staying at the Angel Hotel which is mentioned in The Pickwick Papers. 

 "Beg your pardon, sir,' said Sam, suddenly breaking off in his loquacious discourse. “Is this Bury St. Edmunds?” 'It is,” replied Mr. Pickwick.

The coach rattled through the well paved streets of a handsome little town, of thriving and cleanly appearance, and stopped before a large inn situated in a wide open street, nearly facing the old abbey.

“And this,” said Mr. Pickwick, looking up, “is the Angel! We alight here, Sam.”

Room 215.

Room 215 at the Angel still contains the four poster bed that Dickens slept in when he stayed over the years and, interestingly, the latest film version of David Copperfield was filmed in Bury St Edmunds while Ruth Rendell’s crime novel, The Brimstone Wedding is also set in Bury, a place she knew well. And my discovery of Suffolk Summer by John Tate Appleby, an American celestial navigator stationed near Lavenham for the last few months of WW2, which enchanted me, is probably the special book which sparked my interest in Bury’s literary touchstones. [See previous blog.] His huge love for Suffolk, especially Bury St Edmunds did, in fact, finance the Rose Garden in the Abbey Gardens through the royalties from his book, and thus made a generous, positive and lasting contribution to the beauty of the town.

"...the sun was just setting and the sky was full of gold and
orange and pink and ashes of roses and blue"
Suffolk Summer p. 99.

There are also writers currently living in, or near, Bury whose works are important and add to the reputation of the town for cultural excellence. Simon Edge, for instance, whose book, Anyone For Edmund is a delightful and inventive comedy based on the possible whereabouts of the Martyr. Martyn Taylor is a favourite writer on Bury St Edmunds itself and has produced a veritable library of books on the history of the town. I have a copy of his Secret Bury St Edmunds given to me by Secret Santa just before I came to live here in February 2022. It is incredibly informative, historically and fascinating to read.

Anyone For Edmund
Simon Edge.

Martyn Taylor, local historian,
Chair, the Bury Society
and author of many books on Bury.

A bench with inscribed quote from The Pickwick Papers sits outside
the Corn Exchange [now Wetherspoons]on Abbeygate Street.

                                                 Bury is awash with literary connections!

P.S.  Almost immediately after the Literary Bury blog was published, I was reminded, as I walked through the Abbey Gardens, of the plaque in part of the Great Churchyard, to Henry Cockton. I had forgotten all about it though had taken a photo of the memorial tablet intending to Google dear Henry of whom I had never heard. 

The memorial stone erected thirty one years after 
his death by "A few admirers of his genius."
Henry Cockton
Born in London 1807.
Died in Bury St Edmunds of consumption 1853.

Henry was indeed a literary gent and achieved quite a level of fame in his short life, sufficient to prompt memorial action by admirers long after his untimely demise. He was a humorous novelist remembered primarily for his Life of Valentine Vox the Ventriloquist, published in 1839/40, although he also wrote Sylvester Sound.  By way of apology to Henry for my ignorance, I am including no fewer than three images in his name!