Freemen Home Page

Stafford Burgesses

You have reached
the web site of

The Stafford
Freemen's Guild

This is the place to learn about the past and present activities of holders of this ancient office.

The Web site for the Coton Fields Allotments - the major asset of Stafford Burgesses is http://www.cotonfieldsallotments.co.uk

Stafford Burgesses now have a Facebook presence at https://www.facebook.com/groups/660332934085392/

This Company of Freemen or Burgesses is a historic and ancient body committed to the County Town of Staffordshire:
The Borough of Stafford

The Annual Meeting of Burgesses, to review the actions of the Trustees,
is to be held in the Walton Room of Stafford Borough Council on Monday 19th January 2015 at 7.30 p.m.

For further information contact the Trust Scribe on 01785 832O67 or e-mail john@staffordfreemen.org.uk

Any Trustee nominations should be sent to the Scribe before12th January 2015. Nomination papers are available from the above contact or click here.

Click here for Agenda and Previous Minutes

The Christmas Lunch was held on Sunday 14th December 2014 at the Stafford Constitutional Club . It was well attended and a very pleasant occasion.

Particulars were sent to Burgesses who have given us e-mail addresses, or requested postal information, but if you know of anyone who was missed please contact our Social Secretary Ray Spurway, or our Membership Secretary Terry Griffin.

We have been invited to the Civic Carol Service at St Mary's Church on Sunday 21st December at 6 p.m. Places cannot be reserved so early attendance is required.

The Guild annual Dinner is to be held at the Post House, Stafford on Friday 30the January 2015.

Further information has been sent to burgesses by e-mail or post.

The Burgesses Tree in St Mary's Church

This year the Guild participated in the St Mary's Christmas Tree Festival

There was considerable interest in our tree and our organisation by many of the 5,000 + visitors to the event.

The tree showed various items of our regalia together with information about the Burgesses and a copy of the Charter that King John gave to the burgesses.

The master was rather surprised to be complimented on the tree as engineers are seldom able to produce artistic creations!

The tree was kindly sponsored by our Pontycymer Burgess Merlin Maddock, of "Magic Workshop" fame.

The Burgesses joined the Mayor and a large number of Stafford folk to walk the perimeter of the town, as it was 400 years ago when the Mayoralty was established,
The Mayor's Sergeant enlightened the company about many historic aspects of the route.

It was an interesting experience, if a little overwhelmed by all the other activities in the town, prior to the switch-on of the Christmas lights.

At various points the walkers encountered Stafford Morris Men dancing to entertain them, accompanied by the Guild Master in another of his roles as the Hobby-Horse, which certainly pre-dates the Mayoralty and probably even the burgesses.

After the Boundary Walk

Another Honour for Merlin.

John Edwards, Master of the Stafford Burgesses, travelled to Pontycymer, near Bridgend, to present Merlin Maddock, MBE, with the Gold Badge of the Stafford Freemen's Guild.

Merlin, was one of Stafford's best known characters in the 50s, 60s and 70s, with his charity work and stunts raising money and support for needy people in the town, often assisted by the late Lord Lichfield.

He went back to his home village to continue harp making and other enterprises, but maintained his interest in our county town. He was sworn in as a Stafford Burgess in 2005 by Mayor Frank Findlay and has been a keen supporter ever since, despite more than his fair share of ill health.

His "Magic Workshop" is an amazing place and his current project is to build a replica of the plane designed by a former resident of Pontycymer in 1904. That challenge saw him on 'The One Show' last year and John was surprised to find an almost complete aircraft squeezed into the workshop. He aims to tow the plane to establish if it would have flown, but says he does not propose to kill himself by trying to fly it down the mountain, as his predecessor could have done!

Merlin's earlier ventures into manpowered flight in Stafford did not meet with great success, but gave everyone a lot of pleasure,

Although he has Parkinson's and mobility problems Merlin remains as upbeat as ever and it was a pleasure to acknowledge his ongoing contribution to Stafford and the Guild.

Pictures:
Merlin receiving the badge and certificate from John Edwards.

Merlin with the plane scheduled to fly in 2015

Stafford Guild hosted this year's
AGM Weekend for the Freemen of England and Wales
from 19th to 21st September 2014 at Yarnfield Conference Centre

Click here for a report

The Freemen and their guests outside St Mary's Church, Stafford

If you want to try the quiz that the delegates were given click here

For Paul Milgate's pictures of the Sunday morning click here If using them for anything other than personal use please acknowledge the photographer.

For better quality versions contact Paul on paul.l.milgate@gmail.com

For a quick summary of the Burgesses' organisation, activities and responsibilities click here

To learn more about Stafford Burgesses click the links below.

Constitution	E-mail Contact	Event Reports	Reminder Letter to Members	Notices	The Book
Civic & Social Programme	Officers	The Allotments	The Banner	Coton Fielder	Potential Burgesses
The Oath of a Burgess	Obituaries	800th Anniversary	Letters to Burgesses	Changes to rules of admission	Freemen's Courts
A Transcription of the Charter Granted by King John to The Burgesses of Stafford

Guild Representatives after the Battle of Britain Commemoration 2014

Guild members at St Mary's awaiting the Civic Party for Battle of Britain 2014

There was a Swearing-in Ceremony for new burgesses on Thursday 31st July 2014 in the County Council Chamber, Martin Street, Stafford
Fourteen burgesses were sworn in at this ancient ceremony, (pictures later).

The Guild was well represented at Mayor-making on May 10th 2014. Despite the traditional rain it was a splendid occasion marking 400 years since the installation of Mathew Craddock, the first Mayor of Stafford.

Stafford Guild is in the North Midlands Area of the Freemen of England and Wales. Click here for details

The Master and Deputy attended the FEW Court Meeting on Saturday 15th March 2014 at the Freemen's Holt in Leicester

The Courts are where the business of FEW is conducted and reports received from Officers and Wardens.
Sadly they are not well attended, but the picture below shows some of those at the latest meeting.

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