WHILE today it’s the Strait of Hormuz hitting the headlines thanks to Donald Trump’s war with Iran, four centuries ago it was another relatively narrow stretch of water, the English Channel, in the news thanks to the activities of scurrilous French pirates.
Making efforts to avoid the nautical carnage, a merchant ship named Worcester and county-owned, bound for London from India, sailed up the west coast of England towards Scotland and into history.
Seeking refuge from a storm, it anchored at Edinburgh where its young captain Thomas Green, his first mate John Madder and gunner James Simpson were arrested and convicted on trumped-up charges and hanged.
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When the dust eventually settled, the diplomats got to work and the Union of England and Scotland resulted.
The year was 1705 when Worcester was owned by merchant and mariner Thomas Bowery, of Cleeve Prior, near Evesham.
Capt Green, who was only 21, and his crew had been blamed for killing the crew of another freighter, the Speedy Return, off the Malabar Coast in India, stealing its goods and selling the ship.
But the incident was obviously outside of Scottish waters and the veracity of the illegitimate trial was questioned.
In a sinister twist Green and his crew were forbidden to provide evidence of their innocence.
Green was originally due to be hanged on April 3 but this was postponed until the 11th and during this short timeframe the Speedy Return did indeed return.
It arrived back to England just fine with the crew willing to testify to Green’s innocence.
They maintained it was actually the pirate Captain John Bowen who had temporarily taken over the Speedy Return in 1702 and then ditched it in 1703.
They said Green and his crew had never been involved with the Speedy Return during its time at sea.
Thomas Green, the young captain of the merchant ship Worcester (Image: Newsquest)
However, the Crown’s Scottish representatives failed to stand up to the angry mob outside their door calling for execution.
So Green, Madder and Simpson were all instead found guilty and hanged for piracy.
It is assumed Worcester was seized as revenge against the East India Company, which Green had once worked for, since it had seized the Annandale, a ship of the Company of Scotland.
Worcester was last recorded as leaving Leith on August 9, 1707, carrying women convicts across the Atlantic to the Jamaica plantations.
Daniel Defoe, famed as the author of Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders, wrote in his History Of The Union Of Great Britain in 1709 that the hanging of Green and his shipmates was “the first” of “three things that happened” which made the 1707 Act of Union between England and Scotland “absolutely necessary”.
Thus “the greatest Good came out of the greatest designed Evil”.
So there’s a pub quiz question for you. Which April event connects Worcester with the Union of England and Scotland? And it’s not April 1.
Here are a few more events from Worcester Civic Society’s History and Heritage Calendar that have made waves around here over the centuries.
April 5, 2014: Pineau de Re, trained by Dr Richard Newland of Claines, won the 167th Grand National. The 11-year-old was retired two years later after a disappointing run at Uttoxeter with Dr Newland saying: “He was disappointing on Saturday but only recently he’d run a cracker in the Scottish National.
“So it’s time to draw stumps. The horse means a lot to me and now is the right time. He’s still in great shape and we’ll look to retrain him. My wife and daughters have plenty of experience of doing that sort of thing and I’m sure they’ll do a good job. Aintree was a great day, one we’ll never forget.”
Pineau de Re subsequently moved on to eventing ridden by Lizzie Doolittle of Stourport.
Dr Richard Newland with Grand National winner Pineau de Re at Claines (Image: Newsquest)
April 15, 1950: Worcestershire Regiment was granted the Freedom of the City of Worcester. The day was described in the regimental magazine FIRM as the ‘Greatest day in the history of the old regiment.’ Similar descriptions was made by councillors, veterans, citizens and the Berrow’s Journal too.
The regiment returned to Britain on March 29, 1950, after five years serving in Germany after the Second World War.
The council wanted to thank its county regiment for all its hard work in bringing about victory in 1945 and over 200 years of being linked to Worcester.
The mayor Alderman TS Bennett echoed the words: “Put on record forever, it’s thanks to those generations of men from city and county and beyond who have fought and often died for Britain.”
The new incoming colonel of the regiment Lieut-General RN Gale, who had initially joined the regiment in 1915 and served in both the 1st and 3rd Battalions, said: “We, on our part, have carried the county name with honour and in the field of arms contributed to its greatness.”
The Worcestershire Regiment’s Freedom of the City march past in 1950 (Image: Newsquest)
April 20, 1985: Councillor Ron Carrington, the man who had championed the cause most, hopped on a double decker bus with a load of other worthies and was driven along Worcester’s new Southern Link road, the first vehicle to make a journey today made by thousands.
The idea to create a southern by-pass for Worcester had been kicking about for decades until work was finally started in the early 1980s.
One of the problems had been the cost of creating a raised road across the flood meadows of two rivers, the Severn and Teme which included the site of the 1651 Battle of Worcester, and then there was the building of the bridge itself.
The project was completed in 1984 and then there was the matter of naming the new bridge, until then known simply as “the new bridge”. Eventually the decision was taken to name it after Cllr Carrington, the county councillor who had been its staunchest supporter.
Cllr Ron Carrington on the first vehicle along Worcester’s Southern Link Road in 1985 (Image: Newsquest)
April 23, 1975: A new grandstand was opened at Worcester Racecourse on Pitchcroft. Unfortunately, after all the hoopla that accompanied the redevelopment scheme, which brought a new grandstand complex and a river sports centre, it was discovered the finishing post could not be seen from all seats.
Rather than pick the building up and shift it through a few degrees, the far simpler idea of realigning the finishing straight was adopted.
The grandstand, costing £358,000, was finished slightly ahead of schedule because of a mild winter.
The pre-cast concrete structure had standing accommodation for 1,260 and seating for 162, divided between Members and Tattersalls.
It replaced the old Grandstand hotel and its accompanying grandstand which dated back to the mid-1800s.
The old Grandstand hotel and its accompanying grandstand on Pitchcroft (Image: Newsquest)
April 30, 1938: Australian legend cricket Don Bradman played his third match at New Road, Worcester. And what a match it was. The Don scored 258 out of the tourists’ total of 541, beating his 236 in 1930 and 206 in 1934.
The Aussies won by an innings and 77 runs, Worcestershire being dismissed for 268 and 196.
During the Australian innings Worcestershire fast bowler Reg Perks went for 147 runs in 34 overs although he did take four wickets.
Bradman’s final appearance at New Road was in April 28, 1948, when he led Australia’s famous Invincibles team.
He made 107 as the visitors won by an innings and 17 runs.
During the game The Don and several other Aussies visited Skan’s barbers’ shop in Broad Street for a haircut.
My late father, who gave Don a trim, always complained the notoriously parsimonious Bradman never left a tip, something almost unforgivable in those days. Keith Miller on the other hand…..
Don Bradman and his 1948 Australian team in Worcester with mayor Alderman JB Edwards (Image: Newsquest)