30 January 2025: Joint Clubs Dinner
Today it was our Club’s turn to host a joint dinner for Rotary Clubs in our area. Forty-seven people attended, including the speaker and his wife and the guests of Rotarians. Five Clubs were represented, four from our city plus the one from a large neighbouring village. The dinner was held at a former golf club, which provided superb food.
The after dinner speaker was one of our local historians, who spoke about the history of our city starting in the years BCE. Since it stands on a river crossing on the way from London to their local capital, the Romans built a mansio in what is now one of the suburbs.
In Anglo-Saxon times the ford was controlled by the local chieftain, from whom the city gets its name. The Old English form of the name even appears on some of the old maps Alan showed us.
In Norman times the cotu was granted a charter to hold a market. The market area was at the top of the high street. It was a roughly triangular shape, with stalls on both side and down the middle. Eventually the stalls in the middle were replaced by buildings, giving the top of the High Street its now familiar shape.
The original of the city’s famous Stone Bridge replaced an earlier wooden structure. It has seen some changes over the years, the original having three arches instead of the current one. During the building of a new road through the outskirts in the last century it was discovered that the Stone Bridge had no foundations!
In the eighteenth century a local doctor was noted for his service to midwifery, inventing large forceps for use during a difficult birth and introducing the resuscitation of babies who did not start breathing after birth. He was also a strong advocate of vaccinating against smallpox. His house in the High Street still stands, although only the first and second floors have been left unchanged.
Another prominent local family had an association with the city that goes back to the sixteenth century when an ancestor acquired and old manor south of the river. The family owned a lot of land in the area, including some in the city centre. When the railway was built in the 19th century the station was built on the family’s land. It’s thanks to that that it is in the centre of town rather than on the outskirts.
One person who actively disliked the place was Charles Dickens. As a young reporter he stayed at the long-disappeared Black Boy Inn not far from the Stone Bridge. He wrote a letter to a friend that was most disparaging about the town.
Early in the 20th century the city changed from an agricultural town to an industrial one. Two large manufacturers both had their factories here. Following their closure towards the end of the last century, it has become more of a commuter town.