TOWN CRIER By the Dart INTERVIEW
Dartmouth Town Crier Les ellis with his wife Liz.
proclamations have always been given by people, even before Christ’ he said. ‘Town criers are found all over the world in Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, France, Germany, Canada, USA and China. ‘In Scotland they use a horn and a
‘N
drum to summon people but down here we use the traditional bell’. A detective with the Metropolitan
Police for 30 years, it’s perhaps no surprise Les became a town crier after he retired from Scotland Yard. He explained: ‘The Metropolitan
Police formed in 1892 but prior to that, part of the town crier’s job was to go around and make sure fires were out in bakeries and other businesses. ‘He would announce that all was
well, night and day. He would go around with a lantern at night and apprehend people that were pilfering – burglars and robbers. ‘Town criers were feared and protected by the monarch of the day, who appointed them. ‘They would make proclamations and nail them to the doors of local taverns so they could be read by people who could read’. With his burly frame Les also looks
the part of a town crier, which is how he fell into the role seven years ago. Les, originally from Plymouth, and
his wife Liz moved to Galmpton in 2002 after falling in love with the area many years earlier while holidaying in the village.
o-one really knows how town crying started but
He said: ‘When we moved to Galmpton we wanted to get involved in village life so we joined the local Gooseberry Pie committee. ‘I went into the post office one day and the post master told me they didn’t have a town crier that year as he wasn’t very well. He asked me if I knew anything about town crying and although I didn’t I told him I had heard them cry out ‘Oyez, Oyez, Oyez’.
‘The post master said that’s
all a town crier had to do, so I volunteered and became the town crier for the Gooseberry Pie Fair for four years.
‘I love being Dartmouth’s town crier because I meet and greet people and get to go places,’
‘I think he recognised, as I am a retired policeman and being a biggish fella, that I was probably capable of doing the job. To be honest with you it did come a little bit naturally to me because town criers were the police- men of their day’. Six years ago Les successfully applied to become Dartmouth’s Town Crier after hearing the town needed one from local builder Brian Woodgate over a pint or two in Dittisham’s Ferry Boat Inn. He bought the uniform of Dart-
mouth’s popular late town crier Peter Randall, who had held the position for 21 years. The uniform is in the
WITH HIS JANGLING BELL AND BOOMING VOICE DARTMOUTH’S TOWN CRIER LES ELLIS IS KEEPING AN ANCIENT TRADITION ALIVE.
LES ELLIS
traditional Dartmouth town colours of red, blue and gold. Like many town criers, Les’ uniform is based on 18th century clothing consisting of a tricorn, ostrich feath- ers, tunic and waistcoat plus breeches, white stockings and buckled shoes. He said: ‘No-one seems to know
why the 18th century is the most popular era but I think that’s when whoever the monarch was decided they were going to have these town criers in every town because they needed people to know what they were doing and thinking. ‘In those days there was no other
way of communicating to the people other than through town criers’. Les has now decided to donate his
uniform to the Dartmouth Museum where it will be displayed on a mannequin alongside information Les is in the process of gathering about past town criers in Dartmouth. As well as using the internet for his research Les also gleaned some useful information from his pal, local solicitor Owen Hill, who alerted Les to a gravestone at St Saviour’s Church of William Drake, who died aged 73 in 1824 who was, according to his inscription, town crier and town sergeant for 40 years. Les also managed to speak
to former Dartmouth resident 90-year-old Cyril King, who now lives in Falmouth. Cyril told him he remembered a local fish merchant, Mr Sanders, who used to ring his bell in the town in the 1930s. When the bell chimed everyone would stop
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