Penny readings

IN THOSE DAYS before television, the cinema and other forms of mass entertainment, people looked towards the more simple pleasures to while away their leisure hours and so penny readings became a fashionable draw in Victorian times.

Their original intention in the middle years of the 19th century was to attract people away from the public houses which were considered to be a bad influence and might even whet their appetites for further learning.

These meetings were primarily parochial entertainments consisting of readings of poetry and extracts from popular books of the day, dramatic sketches and monologues or perhaps music, held in village halls, schools and anywhere with sufficient space for a large crowd, for which one penny admission was charged.

The Corn Exchange was not built until 1870 and so the town’s main public halls were the Assembly Rooms at the Angel Hotel, the Victoria Hall in Spalding Road, demolished in 1967, the old National School in North Street, now the headquarters of the Grantham and Stamford Conservative Association, and the schoolroom adjoining the Wesleyan or Methodist Church in Star Lane, now Abbey Road.

Penny readings were the forerunners of the concerts that we know today and the performers were usually local people, often civic dignitaries and the daughters of leading citizens. These events were non-profit making and the proceeds were used for good causes in the town. Books were expensive and as only a few homes had musical instruments, readings and recitals were often combined and invariably drew large crowds and in many communities, this was a major factor in the building of our first public halls.

Fewer people could read, play a musical instrument or sing in those days and the performers invariably came from the middle and upper classes and figured prominently among those who appeared at these events. Members of the clergy were also in great demand and few performances were without the parson or his curate.

Two people appeared regularly at penny readings in the Bourne area during the mid-19th century, William Parker (1824-1909), of Hanthorpe House, landowner, leading churchman, chairman of the Bourne bench of magistrates and keen supporter of education for all, who gave dramatic readings, and his spinster sister, Miss Parker, a pianist and singer, and they became familiar faces at these events in the town and the surrounding villages.

In fact, Miss Parker was the first lady in the district to take to the stage at such public gatherings and a local newspaper reported on Friday 1st December 1865: "Other ladies are to follow Miss Parker's example in her praiseworthy endeavour to render agreeable and useful services to those by and with whom she is surrounded and connected."

Penny readings became so popular in Bourne that in September 1864, a committee was appointed to organise them on a regular basis and Henry Bott (1810-88), landlord of the Angel Hotel, provided the accommodation and gas lighting free of charge, he then being on the committee of the Bourne Gas Light and Coke Company which supplied the power. The first of the winter session was held on Friday 21st October and the readings continued fortnightly until well into the New Year.

Attendances were invariably crowded and a glance at the programme for the Christmas meeting on Friday 16th December that year tells us that it included poetry, monologues and readings with the intervals filled by choral and instrumental music. A magic lantern show was given the following month and for the last of the series, on Tuesday 7th March 1865, William Parker, who presided, presented a paper on penny readings which had been specially prepared for the occasion, describing their purpose. He expressed the hope that readings in the future would prove both useful to the readers and the listeners.

He went on: "The variety of the readings, interspersed with music, cannot fail to be interesting and as to their utility, I contend that much good will result from them and even if they do no more than provide an evening's recreation for a large number of people, they will do some good, the recreation being innocent and cheap. Those who are induced from what they hear at these readings to go home and read and think for themselves can scarcely fail to become wiser and better in consequence."

William Webber, who was headmaster of the town's grammar school, also gave an insight into the aims of the penny readings when he opened the first of the autumn series on Friday 27th October 1865. "It is the intention of the committee", he said, "to enliven the monotony of the winter months and at the same time to blend entertainment with instruction so that these gatherings may prove both agreeable and useful.”

The penny readings also helped finance various good causes, most notably the first public library for Bourne and the proceeds were also used to pay for a children's Christmas treat and in 1866 there was enough money to entertain 700 boys and girls at the Assembly Rooms, although the amount on this occasion was subsidised by donations from several of the town's leading citizens.

One of the most enthusiastic supporters of the penny readings was the Vicar of Bourne, the Rev Joseph Dodsworth (1797-1877), who arranged an entire series during the winter evenings of 1867-68 at the National School that he had helped to found in North Street while working as a curate in the parish some forty years before, the various programmes also including vocal and instrumental music and on each occasion the schoolroom was crowded with appreciative audiences.

Penny readings were also held in many of the outlying villages such as Billingborough, Castle Bytham, Northorpe, Folkingham, Edenham and Morton where the programme on Monday 24th February 1868 included music and hand-bell ringing, an event so popular that many people were turned away because the school hall was packed and consequently the entertainment was repeated in its entirety the following evening.