The Vindication of Christmas: 375th Anniversary of Crayford and the 2nd Civil War

CRAY (Crayford Reminiscence and Youth) received a National Lottery Heritage Fund Grant of £77,801 for our project- The Vindication of Christmas: The 375th Anniversary of Crayford and the Second Civil War.  The project aims to mark key local anniversaries from the English Civil War between June 2022 and June 2023.

In 2020, the government was forced to cancel Christmas due to the pandemic, but this was not the first-time festivities were banned.  During the English Civil War, a Puritan parliament banned Christmas by ordering shops to open and churches close.  This ‘World turned Upside Down‘ sparked ‘The Plum Pudding Riots’ at Christmas 1647, a 2nd Civil War in 1648 and ultimately the execution of Charles I in 1649.  This Christmas marks the 375^th anniversary of the Plum Pudding Riots and, thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, CRAY will seek to tell the untold story of local involvement in these epoch-making events.

Thanks to the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF), made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, CRAY has been able to work with an elite group of partners that includes: The National Archives, The Parliamentary Archives, The National Army Museum, The National Civil War Museum, Canterbury Christchurch University and Bexley Local Studies and Archives. These partners have helped young people from CRAY raise awareness of a much- neglected story from our area’s past.

The project title, The Vindication of Christmas’ comes from a contemporary pamphlet that tried to defend Christmas traditions and celebrations from Puritan attack, and even introduced an early version of Father Christmas.  Its author, John Taylor, was a Thames waterman. In July 2022, CRAY worked with leading puppeteer Zoom Rockman at Bexley Local Studies and Archives to create a short, animated film about his defence of Christmas that will be screened at Waterman’s Hall in the City of London this Christmas (2022).

This latest section of the Crayford history website will be a platform for volunteer researched articles, a documentary film, animated recreations of key events, and a 3D VR reconstruction of the lost May Place House, Barnehurst.

Our Vindication of Christmas site will explain that Crayford experienced a mini–Civil War that mirrored the national one, with the division between Royalist rectors and local Puritans. One of these rectors of St Paulinus church, Dr Thomas Vane, was Charles I’s Chaplain Extraordinaire. Another, Edward May, was a published poet, who took up arms for the King in the 2^nd Civil War in 1648. Both men were opposed by the owner of May Place, William Draper, who was Crayford’s Puritan Lord of the Manor and a fierce supporter of Parliament.

During the Summer holidays of 2022, CRAY worked with film makers Digital works to train young people from Wilmington Grammar School to make a documentary film.  These CRAY volunteers interviewed leading Early Modern historians,  Bernard Capp Fiona McCall and Sophie Merrix to provide content for their film.  On the final day of filming the group travelled to the National Civil War Centre in Newark to learn about Sophie’s leading research on Black Stuarts and their roles in the English Civil War. The group also filmed on location in Canterbury and were able to work with academics Dr Doreen Rosman and Dr Lorriane Flisher to learn how the Plum Pudding Riots spread across Kent at Christmas, 1647.  Visits to the National Army Museum and National Civil War Museum helped our volunteers to understand how Sir Thomas Fairfax’s New Model Army crushed this rebellion in Kent.  With the assistance of Bexley Local Studies and Archives, The Parliamentary Archives and The National Archives, CRAY volunteers were able to film a documentary that looked at how the English Civil war impacted on our area.  We are hoping to post the final edit of this film here in December 2022.

For many years the story of  Crayford’s role in the English Civil War has been overlooked.  We hope that the efforts of CRAY volunteers can allow local people to learn about the events of 375 years ago.  By next June (2023) we hope many local people will have heard the story of the visit of the fearsome New Model Army to their corner of Kent.  They will know that the Civil War literally galloped through our town when the Roundhead New Model Army launched their attack from  their muster point at Puritan William Draper’s May Place home (on what was then called Crayford Heath) before defeating the Royalist rebels at the Battle of Maidstone on June 1^st 1648.

At Christmas 2022, CRAY worked with the MoD Theatre Company to bring a touring show to local schools in the Amadeus Trust (St Paulinus CE Primary; Old Bexley CE Primary; Holy Trinity CE Primary) and to River Mill Primary School, Dartford.  In addition to learning about local history pupils were able to see their first live Christmas show since 2019.  Pupils from Y5 at St Paulinus school were involved in telling the first part of the story, about the end of the Crayford Fayre in 1625, at their summer fete in 2022.  As Y6 pupils, the same pupils put on a special show at Hall Place Bexley to mark the 375^th anniversary of the Plum Pudding Riots on Thursday, 8^th December 2022. These same children will complete the third and final part of our project at their summer fete in June 2023 when they will restage the dramatic events of the 2nd Civil War on their school field by taking on the role of the Roundheads for a mock battle against the Cavaliers of Y5.

CRAY founder Julie Daniel explains her excitement about receiving the award from NLHF:

“Covid 19 brought not only Christmas, but CRAY’s work to a temporary close.  It seems fitting that we will celebrate a return to normality this Christmas with a story of how festivities were first banned 375 years ago.  Thanks to Lottery players we will be able to bring this historic story to local children and spread a little festive joy.”