Thomas Britton

Fiona's mother, Barbara, sent me a card through the post today, with a newspaper clipping inside about a former resident of Higham Ferrers called Thomas Britton. Higham Ferrers is the Northamptonshire town in which I grew up in. It was famously the home of writer H E Bates and the birthplace of Archbishop Chichele, but as school children we were never taught about Thomas Britton, which, in the light of things, seems rather a shame.

There are apparently three portraits of Britten in the National Portrait gallery, which perhaps goes to show what an important figure he was. We're told he was born of "humble parentage" in Higham in 1644, and moved to London as a teenaged apprentice in the coal industry.

Some years later, he set up a business delivering charcoal from a wheel barrow, and must have made a small fortune, because, by the 1670s, he had rented his own rather large stable in which to keep his coal.

Britton was a huge fan of music and above the stable was a very large room which was only accessible by a rickety old ladder. The room became the key to his fame, because within it, the very first public music concerts in the UK were held.

The concerts improved in quality, until they became THE place for society figures to be seen. The great and the good performed there. Royalty attended. Even Dear Old Mr Pepys braved the dangerous ladder.

Britten wanted his concerts to be free, but later started charging 10 shillings a year (which I'm told is the modern equivalent to 50p) and he served coffee at one penny a dish. He set up a five-stop organ in the corner of the room which Handel played on several occasions.

The next most extraordinary thing about Thomas Britton was his death. A "friend" decided to play a practical joke on him, and hired a ventriloquist to sit in the audience of one of his concerts and throw his voice, like the voice of some sort of spirit, warning Britton of his imminent death. Britton was so frightened that he suffered apoplexy and died two days later of shock!

And if that isn't the synopsis for a brilliant screenplay, I don't know what is! Get there as soon as you can before I set it to music!