VALLEY DAYS OUT ning a


Pubs Clubs Restauran


Moorcock (nn


Slaidburn Land, Waddington Clitheroe Lancs BB7 3JB


Telephone. 01200 422333 www.moorcockinn.co.uk


MmoN Hall Country House Hotel


Mittoii Road, Mitton Whalley Blackburn, Lancs BB7 9PA


Td: 01254 826544 www.mittonhallhotel.co.uk


Cocktails Sc Canapes every Friday 6-8pm followed by Live music in the Great Hall


The Spread


Eagle Hotel Sawley, Clitheroe Lancs,


BB7 4NH Tel: 01200 441202 www.spreadeaglesawIey.co.uk T he Dog Inn


55 King Street Whalley Lancs BB7 9SP


Tel: 01254 823009 Calfs Head T h e


Worston Clitheroe BB7 IQA .


01200 441 218 www.calfshead.co.uk


Downham . La Taverna Italian Restaurant


23/25 Old Row. Barrow, Clitheroe BB7 9AZ Tel: 01254 822250 24hrs 07708 814479


Midweek special offers available ::


Opc-n


; ^lon -Tlmrs 6pm • 9.30pm | Fri - Sai 6pm • lO.OOpni : Qosed week commencing 23rd of August


01200 441227


Nr Clitherbe, Lands BB7 4BJ


Seafood specialities always available


To Advertise hei'e contact Serena Bergin


on 01282 47812S by Gerald Searle


- the tinned variety of course - is particularly attractive, namely when he has to cook


I \ ■ \ \


• visitors. staged at the Hark to Bounty since


S


1981, this year's event raised some £3,500 for Slaidburn Young Farmers' Club. Exhibits included steam engines,


vintage tractors and cars. Visitors also enjoyed a craft fair, sheep shearing demonstrations and country dancing, while other attractions included clog and walking slick making. Organiser David McNamee said: "The


atmosphere was electric and everyone was having such a good time. It was just magic, with everyone wanting to come back next year."


LAIDBURN'S Steam and Vintage Vehicle Display at­ tracted more than a thousand


. for himself! Faced with this situation


recently, I made a bee-line for the


soup shelves and filled my basket accordingly. Nothing I could not


spell of course - well, who knows what might be in it! However I did wonder how the oxen were deal­ ing with flies if I was consuming their tails. Then I came across a tin of


mock turtle. According to Lewis Carroll in "Alice in Wonderland", it is a melancholy creature with the body of a turtle and the head,


. hooves and tail of a calf, though I felt that there could not be many loose in the wilds, just waiting to be culled and canned! Apparently it was invented in


the 18th Century as a cheaper version of green turtle soup and used all the extremities of calves to duplicate the texture and taste of the original. A green meat soup sounds unlikely, but, according to an old recipe, providing you can procure "'a fine, lively, fat turtle, weighing about 120 pounds" then have a spare couple of days to collect and prepare countless other ingredients - taking special care with the turtle's green fat - there is no problem. And should anything go wrong, the copious amounts of sherry and Madeira regularly added would ensure that the assiduous cook, tasting at every stage, would neither notice nor care! At least it is easy to under­


stand why a "mock" version was invented, but the very word makes me dubious. Therefore, when I read that Cheshire used to be in Clitheroe, I was highly sceptical. However, it is true - honest - even though it was "the mock corpora­ tion of the Royal Borough of Cheshire", with its town hall in the Bridge Inn at Shawbridge! In the North West especially,


nnock corporations have a fine tra­ dition that survived for centuries. Rather like mock turtle soup, they emerged as a cheaper alternative in the 18th Century, partly as a political protest, mainly by Tories and Jacobites, against the Whig domination of real councils, which were seen as "self-recruiting cliques" and therefore unrepre­ sentative of the local people. Initially, a group of well-to-


do gentlemen would meet in a local tavern to discuss politics and news - and drink! However they quickly developed a strict hierarchy that mirrored the real councils, with a mayor, recorder and town clerk, though their original purpose, to burlesque


Worston's Calf's Head today (s)


the real thing, was retained in Walton-le-dale for example, with the appointment of officers like house gropers, custard eaters and slut kissers! In Childwall, as well as taking an oath to the monarch, a prospective member also had to swear to be "a free drinker, a true joker, a free payer, a thorough smoker, a jolly fox hunter and above all a dear lover of the female sex." By the end of the 19th Century


few of the originals had survived, yet around Clitheroe they were growing in popularity. Worston, though little more than a hamlet, elected a mock mayor, with his parlour in the Calf's Head, for a century before the tradition died in the 1990s. By 1904 the "ancient borough of Worston" was so famous that it was reviewed in the Maori version of the Evening Post in New Zealand! , "At the Coronation this mock


borough had its civic rejoicings, and forwarded an address to the King, who acknowledged . it as courteously as he did the congratulations of London and Edinburgh." Certainly it was a major occa­


sion, though "turtle soup is not to be found at this banquet, its place being taken by Lancashire hot pot, which forms the piece de resistance." The other crucial ele­ ment was, of course, alcohol and in 1894, four huge bowls of punch were required before business could be completed. After many successful years John Finch suddenly fell out of


favour and John Barnes was proposed. A former Pendleton mayor, he had made his name by solving the problem of the vil­ lage's river being "almost blocked


with ducks and rubbish". Now he was elected unopposed on prom­ ises to drill through Crow Hill to drain the sewage into Chatburn's main sewer, to run an electric tramway to Whalley and to light the borough with electricity. Considerable punch later, he even suggested that the brook could be made navigable from Preston so that the farmers could "swim their pigs right into the borough from Carlisle, thus saving the expense of railway carriage". Considering the corporation's


motto, "Brains will tell", his dignity was hardly enhanced by his solo rendition of "A nutting we will go", before the evening concluded ' with his application of blacking and lard to both his own face and those of his supporters. Not sur­ prisingly, "His Worship proceeded, in perhaps a somewhat devious fashion, to his residence." Controversy was never far from


these elections and in 1901, in spite of promising both gas and electricity, brought from Mearley "by a worm", William Bulcock was outvoted, 13 to 10. However, Coun­ cillor Driver's celebrations were cut short when his nomination paper was declared invalid and he was promptly disqualified. In 1902 the mayoral election ■


was as unpredictable as ever. The Right Hon. Sir William Bullock was this time offering to build in the village a technical school, art gallery and playground, but unexpected opposition came from Councillor Holgate, who insisted on being identified as "Coil Tom". So inspiring was his speech that he comfortably won a three-way vote, also involving Councillor Driver, and was dressed in all the mayoral finery, though the


pendant looked remarkably like a saucepan lid! Unfortunately, in his triumph he then abused Sir William, offered all his supporters a free delivery of coal and was promptly accused of bribery! A fresh vote was demanded, the


former mayor was re-elected and Coil Tom's term of office was the shortest in Worston's history! However, the mood at the Calf's


Head was totally different only 30 months later when the Clitheroe Times carried a story headed "A Worston Tragedy!'. William Bullock and Thomas


Driver had spent much of the Saturday afternoon and evening drinking in the Calf's Head and at "turning out" time Driver had become involved in a scuffle with a group of youths from Clitheroe. It was alleged that Bulcock had rushed out to save his friend and had been struck a blow by Tho­ mas Walsh, from which he never regained consciousness. Then another witness gave


a different version - Bulcock was had rushed out with a stick, thrown off his jacket and set about the group but Joseph Star­ ling struck back, causing his head to hit the pavement. By the follow­ ing morning the mock mayor had died from a fractured skull and the two men were charged. During a four-hour trial there


was so much conflicting evidence that the culprit could not be iden­ tified conclusively and the jury, returned a verdict of manslaugh­ ter against some person unknown. It was a tragic and inglorious end for a Worston working man,


who had played a major role in establishing a "mock corporation"- which was destined to become famous worldwide.


advertiser.co.uk Valley page 19


II I " 1 "sLlI


■ THIS crossword is just for fun - no prizes are given. The solution will be in next month's issue of The Valley.


ACROSS


5. Well-disciplined hospital attendant (7) 7. To prohibit a learner is commonplace (5) 9 & 19 Across. Simon's acquaintance sounds a


sanctimonious chap (6) 10. Analogies for lines of latitude (9) 12. In favour of calling for incitement'OI) 15. They hope to get the verdict or pure costs,


maybe (11) 17. Chemical to bar at once! (9) 19. See 9 Across 21. Like a fast plane for the landing-plane! (5) 22. Boxes reserved for those who are late (7)


1. School transport (5) 2. See 20 Down


DOWN 3. Some of the people advocate what is put


before the court (4) 4. Just the weather for greeting "The Tem­


pest" (4-5) 5. Everybody in favour of this kind of barrage


(7)


8. Mother's going to bed - that's charming! (6) 11. A nip that goes to extremes (5-4) 13. Empty vessel filled with tin (6) 14. Give more scope to one drab arrangement


16. Gives notice of conflicts round the north (5)


18. Weight of Asia Minor (4) 20 & 2 Down. Compensated for being re­ moved from the film studios? (3,3)


SOLUTION TO JULY'S CROSSWORD Across: 7 Brace: 8 Abashed; 9 Ordered; 10


Erect; 12 Stand aside; 15 Improbable; 18 Notes; 19 Raffish: 21 Sheared; 22 Actor. Down: 1 Absolution; 2 Hardy; 3 Gear; 4


Warden; 5 Baseball; 6 Cheerio; 11 There there; 13 Trousers; 14 Spotted; 16 Abrade; 17 Kitty; 20 Flat.


Tmayjustbeme, bull think that there are times in a chap's life when soup


Fun crossword


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