workmen from Barkentin & Krall in their Sunday best, enjoying a day trip to Rottingdean in Sussex, mid 1890s (photo: G.W. West, Rottingdean)
The music hall song, ‘A Nice Quiet Day; or, The Postman’s Holiday,’ was first sung in 1901 by the Cockney comedian Gus Elen. It tells how he, with his missus and their half-a-dozen kids, enjoys a day off. Never mind that they traipse across London via Epping Forest to The Monument, where they lose a beefsteak pudding, and end up in Kent at St. Mary’s Cray, it was still a precious few hours at liberty.
By that last year of Queen Victoria’s reign, the British working man’s break or his ‘works outing’ had been enshrined in law since the Bank Holidays Act of 1871. Owners of factories and workshops large and small increasingly saw the wisdom of allowing their workforce this slice of freedom. In the silver, plated and jewellery industries, for instance, twelve hour days were usual. But the men (and women and children) of the trade were still expected to work extra hours in the busy time before Christmas. Even before 1871, however, annual holidays were allowed; at Elkington’s in 1862, 13 year old Eliza Smith spoke of her trip with other employees at the firm’s expense to Malvern for a ‘gipsy party,’ a kind of picnic with rustic entertainments.
The expanding railway network aided the working man’s mobility. Those in London, like the craftsmen at Barkentin & Krall, ecclesiastical silversmiths and metalworkers, were able to make seaside trips to Margate, Brighton or Rottingdean, the latter a village where Edward Burne-Jones and Rudyard Kipling had homes.
Gus Elen (1862-1940), the music hall comedian, celebrated for his songs of London life, including ‘If it Wasn’t for the ‘Ouses in Between,’ ‘The Golden Dustman’ and ‘A Nice Quiet Day’. (photo: Hana, London, circa 1900 / John Culme’s Footlight Notes Collection)
- The following items of ecclesiastical silver currently listed at myfamilysilver.com are of special interest: a George I silver communion cup, engraved with the crest of St. Christopher Wren, Isaac Liger, London, 1716; and two chalices, one John Hardman & Co, Birmingham, 1866, the other Omar Ramsden, London, 1925. Among the pieces of electroplate made by Elkington & Co, the following are noteworthy: a spoon warmer, a centrepiece and mirror plateau, a centrepiece, a pair of soup tureens, covers and stands and a pair of wine coolers.
John Culme, who for many years has been connected with Sotheby's Silver Department, is author of several books and articles, including The Directory of Gold and Silversmiths, 1838-1914, published in 1987, and co-author with Nicholas Rayner of The Jewels of the Duchess of Windsor. He is also a Liveryman of the Goldsmiths' Company, London.
