Five More historic things you never thought you needed to know, and maybe don't. #12

 Five More historic things you never thought you needed to know, and maybe don't.  #12

  • The Cricketing Nymph


The Derby Mercury [27th June 1793] reported a cricket match, played on Bury Common, Sussex, between Married women and maidens.  The Paper reported ‘..it was won by the married women, who had 80 notches more than the nymphs.’



Cricket Match Played by the Countess of Derby and Other Ladies, 1779 anon.

  • Dart Arts on the Loose in London - 1798.


The Staffordshire Advertiser [11th August 1798] reported the prosecution of John Powell, ‘a professor of the Black Arts’.  He was arrested by a Bow-street Runner, after fraudulently taking 1s 6d from a woman on the grounds he could give news of her missing husband.  Powell’s ‘books of magic, calculations etc’ were seized.


When not predicting the future Powell arranged several marriages and performed the ceremonies, which he said were more binding than those of churches.



  • Julius Richard Petri invented the Petri dish.


Petri was born in Baren, nr Wuppertal, in May 1852.  Having got a medical degree and done his military service he became curator of the German Hygiene Museum and ended up working for the great microbiologist, Robert Koch. He invented the dish in 1887. He died in 1921.



  • Basques and the Sabine men 


Parents can be cruel when naming children and Edward and Sophia Baring-Gould looked at their boy child and said ‘Sabine’, that’s the right name for the job.  There’s was not a piece of totally unattached whimsey. Granny Diana was Diana Amelia Sabine.


Despite the name, this did not hold young Sabby from a career which involved writing hymns, such as ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’. Translating the carols ‘Gabriel’s Message’ and ‘Sing Lullaby’ from Basque to English, collecting folk songs and writing novels, hagiography and antiquarian interest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabine_Baring-Gould  He had quite an diverse life and is worth a read.




  • Rugeley has a Progressive Working Men's Club,


In May 1911 a group of working men got together in Arch Street, Rugeley and felt a club was needed. Properties were sought, John Davenport & Sons, brewers, were approached to finance the venture and 3rd June 1911.












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