The Chester Town Criers have a long history, dating back to the days before written records began, and still have their place in our county town’s tradition today, more glamorous, albeit less functional. Kate Houghton went to meet them
Standing in Eastgate Street, close to the famous Eastgate Clock, isn’t usually an occasion that brings the crowds, however when in the company of Chester’s Town Criers, David and Julie Mitchell, I am provided with a small glimpse into the life of the famous and fabulous, as people queue, yes actually queue, to have their photo taken with the scarlet-robed duo. It seems we all love a little living history, and as David and Julie’s role dates to, well, we’re not sure precisely when, but a very long time ago, it seems appropriate that in this month of a royal coronation we meet the couple who will be proclaiming our new king.
‘Actually,’ David leaps to correct me, 'we shall only be making a proclamation if we are invited to by the Lord Mayor of Chester, or by the mayors of Knutsford or Frodsham. Historically, it would be royal heralds sent by the Crown who would make royal proclamations, never the town crier.’
There’s a lot to unravel in that sentence, so I invite David to start at the beginning, which he has done rather brilliantly in his book already, The Word on the Street, A History of the Town Crier and Bellman, but which I need condensing down into just a few sentences.
‘Well,’ he laughs, ‘the origin of the town crier is rather lost in the mists of time, but if you think of him as being an outside broadcaster, a talking newspaper sharing the local news with a town’s inhabitants and proclamations issued by the local authorities, you can imagine how far the role goes back.
‘The earliest reference to a town crier in Chester is in 1553, when the crier was paid 13d for “ridunge the banes” (reading the banns) for the Chester Mystery Plays, which I will be doing this June, for the 2023 plays.’
David became Chester Town Crier, with his wife Julie (a job share, you might say) in 1998. Prior to this David worked as a primary school teacher, and Julie was in teacher training. So how does one go from proclaiming before a classroom of seven-year-olds to donning robes and ringing a bell in Chester?
‘It actually started with our wedding,’ he explains. ‘I wanted an unusual start to the day, something historic as we had a historic theme to the celebrations, then I saw the town crier and thought I could ask him to wake the bride. I asked if I could book him to do that and he agreed. A week before the wedding he contacted me to say he could no longer do it, as he was off to a town crier competition. I gave it a bit of thought and called him back, asking if he had a spare outfit and bell I could hire and wake the bride myself.
‘So there I was, on our wedding morning standing beneath the bride’s window, in borrowed robes, shouting “arise fair maiden, cast off thy slumbers and clad thyself in fair raiment, etc, etc...”’
Julie takes up the tale: ‘I was stunned. I wasn’t expecting anything like that. He woke the entire neighbourhood and half of them were standing outside with him. A posse of neighbours and the bridesmaids, the master of ceremonies, and my mother and father were there. I absolutely bawled (Julie acknowledges that she probably said it like this in the interview, but asks if it could be reworded to say, ‘I cried with shock and laughter.’)
David adds: ‘It felt like a one-off at the time, but two or three years later, in 1992, I was looking for a career change, because I’d been teaching for 16 years, and saw that the Chester Town Crier was stepping down, and decided to apply for the job. I was offered the deputy town crier role, and then six years later became town crier.’
So this explains how David came to the role, but what brought Julie here?
‘I could see David was having a really good time with the job, meeting all sorts of different people and just having great fun, so decided perhaps I could do it too. We looked at various towns across Cheshire, with a more historic feel to them, and I chose Knutsford. I wrote to the town council, explained I was a would-be town crier and was looking for a council and a town that would be great to have a town crier. Knutsford, very wonderfully, asked me to come and see them. I made a proclamation for them; they quizzed me and then in 1996 made me Honorary Town Crier of Knutsford. I did my inaugural proclamation from the John Wesley Steps in front of Knutsford Methodist Church.’
Just two years later the position for Town Crier of Chester came up, and the couple decided to apply for this role together and have been engaged by the city ever since.
‘Chester is the only city in the world that offers a midday proclamation five days a week, for the three months of summer,’ David says.
When not proclaiming on behalf of Chester, Knutsford or Frodsham (where David is also the official town crier), this proactive couple lead very busy lives. Julie is a teacher training consultant specialising in teaching art within schools, and David is an in-demand after-dinner speaker, travelling across the UK, from Ayr to Guernsey, to share his wit and wisdom on the history of town criers with gatherings of every kind. He has also made an appearance on QI, when the Elves decided that after assisting them with their research it would be fun to have the panel answer the question: “Why does David Mitchell go into the middle of the town, in the middle of the day, and shout at complete strangers?”
‘I was placed in the audience,’ David says, ‘in my full town crier livery, and then stood to have a chat with Sandi Toksvig about town criers.’
David has also found himself rolling cheeses down Bridge Street, throwing himself from the top of St Peter’s Church on a zipwire, making a wedding proclamation from horseback (entertainingly, while the horse stood stock still while David rang his bell, he wasn’t so content when David began shouting the proclamation), walking the highwire at the Moscow State Circus when it visited Chester, making announcements in the Houses of Parliament, has appeared in films with Alex Kingston and Steve Coogan, and joined Carol Kirkwood presenting the weather forecast from Chester’s High Cross – and all in full livery.
David and Julie are now waiting to hear how the Coronation of King Charles III will be proclaimed in their town crying domains.
'We’ve been sent the official wording for the proclamation by both the Loyal Company of Town Criers and the Ancient and the Honourable Guild of Town Criers,’ Julie says. 'News will surely follow soon on where these words will be pronounced in public.'
chestertowncriers.com
Ancient and Honourable Guild of Town Criers' Coronation Cry, written by Peter White
Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!
On this day, Saturday May 6th two thousand and twenty three,
we announce, affirm and celebrate
the Coronation by rightful and ancient custom
of Charles Philip Arthur George,
our lawful and rightful Liege Lord Charles the Third,
by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland and of His other Realms and Territories,
King, Head of the Commonwealth, and Defender of the Faith.
We likewise celebrate the Coronation of the Queen Consort,
Her Majesty Queen Camilla.
We respectfully ask that all loyal subjects do reverently mark,
joyfully celebrate and commit to posterity this unique occasion;
wishing the Sovereigns a long, happy, healthy, inclusive and successful reign.
We join together in proclaiming:
“GOD SAVE THE KING!”
