WHITELACKINGTON. (The Blessed Virgin Mary.)
[Communicated by Mr. H. St. George Gray, F.S.A.]
1. Close helmet, circa 1565-75 (Fig. 1730a).
2. Close helmet, circa 1565-75 (Fig. 1730b).
3. Sword, wheel pommel and quillons circa 1475-80, blade late XVIth century (Fig. 1730d).
4. Sword, made for a funeral (Fig. 1730c).
Tradition. The helmets and swords are associated with the tomb of Sir George Speke, ob. 1637, son of Sir Thomas Speke, who is buried in St. Dunstan's, London. Sir George Speke in his will dated 25 February 1582/3, expressed a desire to be buried in the "Ile of White Lackington Church in the tomb I have prepared for that purpose."
Cf. "Proc. Somerset Arch. Soc.," xxxvii (1891), pt. i, pp. 39-40.
STAFFORDSHIRE
BIDDULPH. (St. Lawrence.)
[Communicated by Mr. Bateman and Miss E. B. Miller (William Salt Library).]
1. Helmet, on a perch.
2. Two spurs.
3. Gauntlets (now missing).
Tradition. The above were suspended formerly over the family pew of the Biddulphs, and erroneously associated with the Bowyer tomb moved to the north transept in 1873. "Biddulph" is the name of the family formerly called "Bowyer."
Crest. A tower arg. issuant from the top a demi-dragon gu. (Bowyer.)
Cf. A drawing in the William Salt Library dated 1837, where the helmet, gauntlets, and spurs are seen hanging over the altar tomb of Bowyer of Knydersley Hall, ob. 1640.
BLITHFIELD. (St. Leonard.)
[Communicated by Mr. S. A. H. Burne.]
Helmet, crested, a goat's head. There is also a lambrequin.
Tradition. Associated with the monument to Richard (effigy in armour) and Mary Bagot (ob. 1596).
Crest. Out of a ducal coronet or a goat's head arg. armed of the first. (Bagot.)
Cf. "Hist. Collections of Staffs," xi (N.S.), p. 82, where the helmet is illustrated.
LICHFIELD.
In Lichfield there are preserved in the museum (1) a composite suit of engraved German burgonet, breastplate, and gorget of 1590, tassets and legs of 1580, pauldrons and gauntlets circa Charles I, arms circa James I. The burgonet is in two parts and that of a common trooper; (2) Landsknecht Nuremberg armour consisting of burgonet, gorget, breastplate and taceplate, gauntlets temp. Charles I, with modern tassets and legs; (3) composite suit of Elizabethan helmet, gorget, breastplate, tassets, cuisses, and knee-cops, with XVIIth century pauldrons and brassards. The jambs and sollerets are forgeries; (4) the fourth suit, engraved, is all modern; (5) some chain mail, probably XIXth century, Eastern; (6) some good halberds. It is not known when this armour came into the possession of the city, but these suits and the halberds have been used since the middle of the XIXth century, at all events when the "Bower" was revived after a short period of disuse in the XIXth century. There was a short period in the XVIIIth century when the "Bower" was not held. On Whit Monday of each year there is a city ceremony which combines (1) the "Bower" and (2) the Court of Arraye, which latter has been held uninterruptedly since the first statutory enactments ordering the "view of arms."
This ceremony commences with the attendance of the Mayor and Sheriff in the Guild Hall, when the Town Clerk reads a proclamation calling upon the citizens to be ready to "combat the common enemy." The Dozeners of each ward attend, each carrying a halberd. A procession is then formed preceded by citizens wearing armour, some wearing the museum suits; this procession is the "Bower" and proceeds round the city and close to the Bower on Greenhill, an open space in the city near St. Michael's Church, where tradition has it that the halberds were once kept. It is said that the "Bower" comes from the people's games of mediaeval
