MossValley Home
Extracts from
The Wrexham Trader
1916
The Trader or Wrexham Trader was a free weekly paper in which advertising was dominant. However there was other content in the form of articles of local or general interest, and brief items of news (local, national and of the war), which is being reproduced here from 1916 issues of The Trader, together with a selection of the adverts placed by local traders.
For a little more detail, see the index page where you will also find
a list of other issues available so far.
Issue of Thursday, 13th January, 1916
PLOUGH MONDAY
The first Monday after Twelfth Day (January 6th) is Plough Monday. Such was the name of the rustic festival heretofore of great account in England, bearing in its first aspect reference to the resumption of labour after the Xmas holidays. In Catholic times the ploughmen kept lights burning before certain images in churches, to obtain a blessing on their work; and they were accustomed on Plough Monday to go out in procession gathering money for the support of these plough lights as they were called. The Reformation put out the lights but it could not extinguish the festival which survived for many years. Nowadays like so many of the old English customs Plough Monday is almost forgotten. A century ago it was a very gay affair. Here is a contemporary account of the festival:-
The first Monday after Twelfth-day is called Plough Monday, and appears to have received that name because it was the first day after Christmas that husbandmen resumed the Plough.
In some parts of the country, and especially in the north, they draw the plough in procession to the doors of the villagers and townspeople. Long ropes are attached to it, and thirty or forty men, stripped to their clean white shirts, but protected from the weather by their waistcoats beneath, drag it along. Their arms and shoulders are decorated with gay-coloured ribbons, tied in large knots and bows, and their hats are smartened in the same way. They are usually accompanied by an old woman, or a boy dressed up to represent one; she is gaily bedizened, and called the Bessy. Sometimes the sport is assisted by a humorous countryman to represent a fool. He is covered with ribbons, and attired in skins, with a depending tail, and carries a box to collect money from the spectators. They are attended by music, and Morris-dancers when they can be got; but there is always a sportive dance with a few lasses in all their finery, and a super-abundance of ribbons.
When this merriment is well managed, it is very pleasing. The money collected is spent at night in conviviality. It must not be supposed, however, that in these times, the twelve days of Christmas are devoted to pastime, although the custom remains. Formerly, indeed, little was done in the field at this season, and according to "Tusser Redivivus," during the Christmas holidays, gentlemen feasted the farmers, and every farmer feasted his servants and taskmen. Then Plough Monday reminded them of their business, and on the morning of that day, the men and maids strove who should show their readiness to commence the labours of the year by rising the earliest. If the ploughman could get his whip, his lough-staff, his hatchet, or any field implement, by the fireside, before the maid could get her kettle on, she lost her Shrove-tide cock to the men. Thus did our forefathers strive to allure youth to their duty, and provided them innocent mirth as well as labour.
On Plough Monday night the farmer gave them a good supper and strong ale. In some places, where the Ploughman went to work on Plough Monday, if, on his return at night, he came with his whip to the kitchen hatch and cried "Cock in pot," before the maid could cry "Cock on the dunghill," he gained a cock for Shrove Tuesday.
- - - - - o0o - - - - -
OUR FUTURE
Mr. J. A. R. Marriott (one of the Oxford University Extension Lecturers who visited Wrexham a year or two ago), writing of the trial of British democracy, says:-
"The opposition of Trade Unionism to 'compulsory' service to-day is prompted by the same reasons that have led trade unionists to oppose 'compulsory' arbitration in the past. The leaders of political Trade Unionism are afraid that if 'compulsion' is applied in respect of military service, it will during wartime be applied also to industrial service, and they are apprehensive lest the whole of the complicated and elaborate machinery of trade unionism should, in the process, be seriously dislocated and perhaps permanently damaged.
"Those who, like the Swiss peasants or our own fellow-countrymen in Australia, believe that the duty of manhood service is the corollary of the right of manhood suffrage, may find it difficult to comprehend, and still more difficult to justify, the attitude of organised labour in this country.
"War necessarily involves the unquestioned supremacy of the State, and in War the State itself can survive only by committing the supreme direction of affairs to a very small number of individuals, preferably to one. For the time being these men or this man must be virtually autocratic. The problem is to find the man.
"Salvation would seem to depend upon two interdependent conditions: the existence of leaders who are not afraid to lead, and the ability of the mass of the nation to discern true leadership and its readiness to follow.
"According to the classical theory, it is the characteristic weakness of democracy to be unable to fulfil these conditions. It is apt to produce tyrants and it is not infertile in demagogues. Another peculiarity of democracy is the prevalence of a false conception of 'freedom' and 'equality' – the notion that 'freedom and equality mean the doing what a man likes.' But this, says Aristotle, is wrong: 'men should not think it slavery to live according to the rule of the constitution; for it is their salvation. Military service is the corollary of freedom. Democracy is too recent a phenomenon and of too great magnitude for anyone who now lives to comprehend its consequences. A few of its more immediate tendencies may be perceived or surmised; what other tendencies destined to overrule or to combine with them lie behind there are not grounds even to conjecture.
"We English folk, dispersed in distant homes, are attempting to administer not merely a City State like Athens, not merely a Nation-State of the ordinary modern type, but a World-Empire, the several parts of which are at different stages in political, economic and social development. And we are attempting to administer it under the ultimate sovereignty of a scarcely veiled democracy, and, for the most part, by means of democratic machinery. This experiment is new, and if we were able to take up a point of observation scientifically detached we should watch it with the interest and curiosity which similar experiments in politics have been wont to command. Such detachment is, however, impossible to an Englishman; nor, at a time like the present, will the required point of observation be easily found elsewhere.
"This World-Empire is in the pangs of a struggle for existence. In the battle of the nations there is, of course, much more at stake than any particular form of Government. But among other issues this, if not the most vital, is not the latest interesting. It is a testing time for many things; among them for democracy. A popular dictatorship secured us against the onslaught of Spanish despotism in the sixteenth century. In the eighteenth century a genuine aristocracy brought us triumphant out of the prolonged contest with France – with a France, monarchial, republican and imperialist in turn. In the twentieth century the English democracy, in close alliance with the peoples of France, Russia, Serbia, Italy and Japan, finds itself at death grips with a nation which has cheerfully confided its political fortunes to a military autocracy. In the first bout of the conquest that autocracy has enjoyed all the advantages which naturally accrue from many years of conscious, careful and sustained preparation; nor has it failed to make full and profitable use of them. Can the English democracy, in conjuction with its allies, make good the lost time and recover the lost ground? If it can, it will also have responded triumphantly to the severest test ever imposed upon a particular form of polity."
- - - - - o0o - - - - -
NEWS OF THE WEEK
Good rains have fallen recently in nearly all parts of South Africa, breaking the disastrous drought which has existed for some time.
While crossing the railway line at Micklefield, near Leeds, Annie Eliza Edgley (28), and her daughter Ruth (3), the wife and child of a signalman, were killed by an express. The husband was on duty in a box 40 yards distant, and was the first to find the bodies.
The death occurred at Llys Mynach, Dolgolley, on Wednesday, of Mrs. Anne Jones, aged 82, the widow of Dr. Edward Jones, first chairman of the Merioneth County Council, and the mother of Dr. John Jones, ex-High Sheriff of Merioneth; Dr. Hugh Jones, medical officer, Dolgelley; and Mr. R. Guthrie Jones, deputy-coroner for Merioneth.
The death took place at Rhyl, on Thursday night, at the age of 77, of a well-known commercial traveller in the person of Mr. Owen Robert Williams. The deceased was known in bardic circles as "Cymro Cybi," and he had represented a Dublin firm for fifty-six years, and was known throughout North Wales. He had been with the firm since the age of 13 years, and had been on duty to within a few weeks of his death.
Yesterday week an inquest was held at Barmouth touching the death of Edward Jones, a platelayer employed by the Cambrian Railways Company, who was killed on the railway at Barmouth on Saturday night whilst clearing sand which had been blown on the railway by a storm which was raging at the time to enable trains to pass over. A verdict of accidental death was returned. Jones left a widow and three young children.
A singular accident occurred at Newtown on Wednesday. Trooper Starkey, Welsh Horse, a native of Whitchurch, Salop, was taking a horse for exercise along Kerry Road, and when by the bridge over the Cambrian Railways the horse plunged to the side and pitched Starkey over the embankment on to the railway, 40 feet below. He was unconscious, and had sustained terrible injuries to the head and back. He was removed to the County Infirmary.
A letter has been received from the President of the Local Government Board in reference to the representation made by the Denbigh County Council in favour of the parish of Llysfaen being transferred from the county of Carnarvon to the county of Denbigh. The letter pointed out that two similar resolutions had been rejected, and the present time was inopportune for renewing the proposal, which was opposed by the county of Carnarvon. The President of the Local Government Board therefore considered that there were special reasons why it should not be entertained at the present time.
The Rev. Lester Victor Morton has been licensed by the Bishop of Hereford to the curacy of Church Stretton.
The Rev. J. Bennett Reed, vicar of Chirbury, left for London, on Monday, to take up duties as a chaplain with H.M. Forces.
The Rev. Ebenezer Evans, the new vicar of Holy Trinity, Oswestry, has entered upon his duties. He preached at Maesbury, on Sunday morning, and at Holy Trinity in the evening.
The Rev. J. Collins Lloyd, a former curate of Norfolk, entered on his new duties as curate of St. Mary's, Shrewsbury, on Sunday week, as also did the Rev. Charles Dearnley (a former curate of Hawarden) at All Saints', Shrewsbury.
The Bishop of St. Asaph has preferred the Rev. J. Rees Jones, rector of Gwytherin, Llanrwst, to the rectory of Llanfairtalhaiarn, in succession to the Rev. Ebenezer Evans, preferred to Oswestry. Ordained in 1896, Mr. Jones's first curacy was at Penycae, Ruabon.
The Rev. W. Alcuin Jones, formerly a curate at Holy Trinity Church, Oswestry, and second son of the late Rev. W. Jones, vicar of Llanfair Caereinion, has enlisted under Lord Derby's scheme, and has been given a second lieutenant's commission in the Durham Light Infantry.
A movement is on foot to perpetuate the memory of the late Canon Lloyd-Williams, rector of Newtown. Collections have been appointed, and the form of the memorial will be determined by the amount raised after consultation with the new Rector, the Rev. J. J. Latimer Jones of Llanfair.
The Rev. T. E. Williams, pastor of Newtown Baptist Church, has resigned owing to ill-health. Mr. Williams, who is in his 70th year, has ministered in Newtown for 23 years, and is one of the best known Baptist pastors in Wales. He has for many years been a member of the Council of the Union of Great Britain and Ireland, and in 1910 he succeeded Mr. Lloyd George as chairman of the Welsh Baptist Union, delivering his presidential address at Abertillery, where he had served as a pupil teacher. As representative of the Baptist Union he gave evidence before the Welsh Church Commission, and at the end Lord Justice Vaughan Williams complimented him by saying, "You have the necessary qualifications for making an efficient judge." He also represented his denomination at the Investiture of the Prince of Wales at Carnarvon, and he appears in the official painting of that scene.
- - - - - o0o - - - - -
SELECTED ADVERTS
Sale of Blouses commencing January 8.
All Blouses Reduced.
Must be Cleared.
FRANCES DAVIES, 'THE LOUVRE,' BRIDGE ST.
- - - - -
THE REGENT CYCLE STORES,
Henblas St., Wrexham.
:
Stock every known make of Cycle and Motor Accessories,
and can quote you prices which defy competition.
SEE WINDOWS. COMPARE PRICES. GET OUR 1915 ENCYCLOPAEDIA.
Regent for Value. Repairs a Speciality.
Regent, Raven and Fleet Cycles, absolutely the Best Value.
Up-to-date Models. Easy Payments, 7/6 per month. The Largest Stock.
"Ravens" from £5 10 0; "Regents" from £3 10 0;
"Fleets" from £5 19 6.
Every Cycle carries a Full Guarantee.
- - - - -
Defend your children against this climate.
Entrench behind
ROWLAND'S 'MARSH-MALLOWS'
and you will beat off all attacks of
Colds, Coughs, Croups and Whooping Cough.
See that our name and Registered trade mark
(the Marshmallow plant)
printed in green, is upon every label.
Many scores of testimonials.
No poisonous ingredient.
Can be given to the youngest infant.
In bottles 1/3 and 2/11 (including war stamp).
Prepared only by
L. ROWLAND & CO., Chemists,
WREXHAM.
Also at Ruabon, Chirk & Brymbo.
Est. 1810 "when George the Third was King."
Index of Trader transcripts
Home |
Wrexham area |
General |
Sheffield area |
Asia |
Military
|
