Hertage Days in Nottinghamshire

The United Kingdom is renowned for its long history and heritage. In fact, the largest of those United Kingdom’s England, celebrates its 1100th anniversary next year.

Until 20th September the whole UK is celebrating its heritage with the latest annual Heritage Open Days. This is a short period when museums, galleries, stately homes, castles, parks, private gardens and places of historical interest open free to the public. Many of these, especially churches, are open every day, but there are hundreds of places that are private and not accessible to the public that have been encouraged to open their doors for a few days to showcase their heritage.

Where I live in Nottinghamshire I am lucky to be surrounded by many places of historical interest, whether it’s Nottingham Castle and Sherwood Forest, or the birth place of the founder of the Salvation Army and the first road in the world that was covered in tarmac.

Today I want to present a few sites of lgbt heritage. Some of them you may know, but some you may not. I won’t dwell too much on the city of Nottingham itself because I covered quite a bit of its heritage in this City Pride article.

Above is a map of the UK, and in green is the county of Nottinghamshire. Below is a map of Nottinghamshire with a selection of places relevant to lgbt history.

1) All Saint’s parish church, Misterton: This church is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 and is very familiar to me because Misterton is where I call “home” (I’ve lived in Nottingham since 1998 but don’t call it home). LGBT Link: (Apart from myself!) In 1910 the vicar of Misterton, Rev. Thomas Philips, was convicted of homosexual acts against choirboys and was jailed. Speaking as the village historian for over 45 years I don’t know of another clergyman in Misterton of any denomination who have been identified who was gay.

2) Windmill at North Leverton with Habblesthorpe: This village with the longest name in England (and the second longest village name in Europe) has a working windmill that was built in 1813. It is usually open every Saturday and you buy flour that was milled there. LGBT Link: This is one of hundreds of windmills around the country that was painted or drawn by Karl Wood. He began a project he called Mühlendämmerung (Twilight of the Mills) in the 1920s in which he endeavoured to paint very surviving windmill in the UK at the time. North Leverton mill was one of them. I included Karl’s military career here in 2014, and a brief account of his imprisonment for homosexuality.

3) Retford Town Hall: Built in 1868. This market town is another place I know well, and an ancestor of mine was Bailiff of Retford in the 1600s. LGBT Link: Ian Campbell was elected Mayor of Retford 2010-11. At 23 he was the youngest mayor in the UK at the time (despite claims on the internet, he was not the first openly gay UK mayor). Being Mayor of Retford is quite unusual, because there is no Retford town council. In 1974, local government in the UK was reorganised, and Retford borough was abolished and its councillors transferred to the larger district council. However, district councillors elected to former Retford borough wards, including those currently elected, become Charter Trustees of the borough. The Charter, granted in 1246, allows the Trustees to elect a ceremonial mayor from their number. Ian Campbell was a Charter Trustee 2010-14. He later became Chair of the district council 2012-14.

4) Worksop Priory Church and Gatehouse: The only surviving remains of the former Augustinian priory founded in 1103 by William de Lovetot (another ancestor). Like all monastic establishments it fell victim to the Dissolution of the Monasteries, a campaign begun in 1536 by King Henry VIII after he declared himself Head of the Church of England. LGBT Link: Before the Dissolution all monastic establishments were visited by Henry VIII’s agents to ascertain their wealth, and to paint the reputation of all the monks, friars, nuns and canons in as bad a light as possible to justify their dissolution. The canons of Worksop Priory were among hundreds who were accused of sodomy, incontinence, adultery, and unnatural sin. While the first three terms could be applied to sex with either a man or woman, the fourth was usually reserved for homosexual activity. Four of the 13 canons at Worksop were accused of unnatural sin. Their names were not recorded.

5) Clumber Park: Only the park, stables and church remains of this once magnificent estate of the Dukes of Newcastle. The stately home was demolished by the Duke in 1938. The park is now owned by the National Trust. LGBT Link: Lord Arthur Pelham-Clinton was the son of the Duke of Newcastle and was elected MP for Newark 1865-8. He has a relationship with a famous Victorian cross-dresser and drag act Ernest Boulton, who billed himself as Lady Stella Clinton. Sadly, Lord Edward was dragged into the trial of Boulton and his fellow cross-dressing act Frederick Park who were arrested for appearing in female clothes in public in 1870. Rather than testify against them, Lord Edward mysteriously disappeared. It is said he either fled abroad or committed suicide (covered up by his family).

6) Thoresby Hall: A grand 17th century mansion and park, the former estate of the Pierrepont family. It is now a hotel. LGBT Link: This is the birthplace of Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu (née Pierrepont). She has featured several times on this blog, especially in this Extraordinary Lives entry.

7) Holocaust Memorial Centre, Laxton: The only national centre dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust and other ethnic conflicts since World War II. LGBT Link: Thousands of lgbt victims of the Nazi regime are commemorated here. A memorial plaque to the lgbt victims was installed in 2005. The Holocaust is, of course, where the pink triangle was first used to signify gay men. The award-winning play “Bent” about the suffering of gay men under the Nazis, premiere in London in 1979 and starred Ian McKellen. The play was inspired by one written and produced by Nottingham’s Gay Sweatshop, as explained here.

8) Clipstone Castle, also called King John’s Palace: Once a fortified hunting lodge of the medieval kings of England, now reduced to a few crumbling walls. LGBT Link: The queer King Edward II was a frequent visitor to Nottinghamshire. When he wasn’t staying at Nottingham Castle he was here as Clipstone Castle, most often for a few weeks during the autumn and winter months.

9) Newstead Abbey: A former Augustinian priory that surrendered its property to King Henry VIII at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Unlike other monastic establishments in Nottinghamshire, no sexual activities were recorded by the Dissolution agents. It was bought by the Byron family. LGBT Link: It is therefore somewhat ironic that Newstead was the home of one of the UK’s most famous “sexual celebrities”, the poet Lord Byron. He inherited the estate at the age of 10 but spent little time there. His celebrity status was indicated by the thousands of local people who lined the route of his funeral cortege from Nottingham to the nearby parish church of Hucknall.

10) Flintham Hall: A mansion has been on this site since the 1600s. It has been the home of the Hildyard family since 1789. The present hall was remodelled in the 1850s. LGBT Link: Until his death in 2005 the Hall was owned by Myles Hildyard, a Captain in the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry. He served in Crete, Palestine and North Africa in World War II. He was taken a Prisoner of War in 1941 but managed to escape. He was even involved in the planning of the D-Day Landings. Throughout his army career he was not afraid to take his male partners to official military dinners and events. After the war he returned to Flintham where he became a champion of conservation and local history. At Flintham, Myles lived with two male companions.

11) Eastwood: a typical small Nottinghamshire town that went from being largely agricultural to a hub of coal mining and industry in the 19th century. LGBT Link: Eastwood is the birthplace of the novelist D. H. Lawrence. His home is now a museum dedicated to him. While some may question Lawrence’s place in the lgbt community, I gave my reasons for including him in this article about the connection between his famous (and infamous) novel “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” and Nottingham’s lgbt community. He once told a friends “I believe the nearest I’ve come to perfect love was with a coal-miner when I was about 16”.

12) Nottingham Castle: The castle made famous in the legends of Robin Hood, and about which I have written many times, having had the privilege of working there. While most of the original stone castle has gone, parts of the gatehouse, walls, tunnels and dry moat still survive. LGBT Link: Nottingham Castle has had three gay Constables (a sort of site manager appointed personally by the king). They are 1) Sir Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall; 2) Sir William Neville; and 3) Sir George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. All have been covered many times, so if you want to know more about one of them just type his name in the search box.

13) Granby: A small village that has expanded little since it was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.LGBT Link: It is the Domesday Book which links Granby to lgbt heritage. The lord of the manor in 1086 was Sir Robert d’Oilly, who is what we now call a Norman Baron. He may have fought with King William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. In many grants and documents of the time his name is partnered with Sir Roger d’Ivry, another Norman Baron and Constable of Leicester Castle as few miles away. Historians have recently begun to interpret them as being a same-sex couple.

14) Thrumpton Hall: A 17th Jacobean building. It was owned by the Byron family (but not by the famous poet, he had died beforehand) between 1832 and 1948. It was then inherited by the Seymour family. LGBT Link: Until his death in 1994 Thrumpton Hall was owned by George Seymour. He was a bit of a snob, always eager to point out that he was a descendant of King Charles II. Later in life he acquired a passion for motorbikes…. and young male bikers who were invited to live at Thrumpton, despite him being married with children.  For 14 years Seymour was in a relationship with one biker in particular who sadly committed suicide. Seymour died of a broken heart soon afterwards.

15) Bunny Hall: Yes, there really is a place called Bunny. The Hall was originally Elizabethan and rebuilt in 1720. LGBT Link: Bunny Hall was owned by the Parykns family who held the title of Baron Rancliffe. The estate descended through the male line, so the 1st Baron’s daughter was passed over for her brother. However, her brother died without legitimate children so she became a coheir to her late father, but not to Bunny Hall. She married a French prince and was the mother of Prince Edmond de Polignac, a flamboyant and openly gay social climber and mediocre composer. His marriage to lesbian sewing machine heiress Winnaretta Singer fooled nobody. Everyone knew it was only to provide Winnaretta with a title and Prince Edmond with money.

And there you have it. Just a few of the sites of lgbt heritage in Nottinghamshire. The UK is smothered with such history and it is no surprise that there is too much for anyone to know about.

City Pride - Sydney

Following on from the Venice carnival we arrive at the actual day of Mardi Gras. For those who are unfamiliar with the origin of Mardi Gras, perhaps a little information may help. In medieval times Christians put aside several weeks of fasting and abstinence before important Christian festivals like Easter and Christmas. The most common terms for these periods are Lent and Advent respectively. Lent begins tomorrow, the day after Mardi Gras. In preparation, Christians would eat up all the food that they were going to deprive themselves of all the way up to Easter, especially meat. They would also celebrate with carnivals. Actually, “carnival” comes from a 15th century Italian term meaning “remove meat”, which implies the word was created specifically for Christian Mardi Gras celebrations. Today people have generally dropped the fasting element.

Perhaps the most famous Mardi Gras carnivals take place in Brazil and New Orleans, but undoubtedly the most famous lgbt+ Mardi Gras is that held in Sydney, Australia. This year’s Sydney Mardi Gras finished this past weekend. So, as a belated celebration, here is the latest entry in my “City Pride” series about Sydney.

The area I’ve concentrated on is just south of Sydney Harbour Bridge. Because Sydney has so much lgbt+ history it has been difficult to narrow it down to just 12 locations. Most of them may be known to a lot of Sydney citizens, but I have, as always, tried to find some lesser known locations, people or events that show the diversity of the lgbt+ culture in Sydney.

First of all, the area covered is in the Sydney Electoral District (except for a tiny bit of the bottom left hand corner of the map). The current MP for the Sydney electoral district in the New South Wales parliament is Alex Greenwich (b. 1980, into a princely dynasty from Georgia – the country, not the US state), who has been the representative since 2012. He was the first openly gay elected member.

The locations are listed from north to south.

1) Speaker’s Corner, The Domain

John Webster (1913-2008) was a regular speaker at Speaker’s Corner for over 30 years. His distinctive voice is remembered by many older Sydney citizens of all political ideologies, genders and faiths. His opinion on all these issues evolved over the years. Briefly married twice, he is also known to have had gay relationships. His ashes were scattered around the Speaker’s podium.

2) St. James’s Church

In the summer of 1836 Rev. William Yate (1802-1877), a British missionary fresh from New Zealand, was appointed chaplain to this church. It was while he was here that reports were made to the authorities of his homosexual activity with sailors and Maori youths. Yate protested his innocence, and no evidence of actual sodomy was proven. Nevertheless, he was dismissed and was sent back to the UK by December. He took with him Edwin Denison, the Third Mate he “befriended” on the ship that brought him to Sydney. He died as chaplain of the Mariners Church in Dover.

3) Sydney Town Hall

One of the locations that were part of the demonstrations that took place in Gay Pride Week 1973. On 15 September activists marched to the hall. Among the banners they carried was what I consider to be the world’s first lgbt+ community flag – a black flag with a pink triangle in the centre. Previous flags had belonged to specific organisations, but in Sydney this flag was adopted by all sections of the community. I write in more detail about the use of this flag here.

Currently, there are a record four lgbt+ elected members on the city council, Zann Maxwell, Matthew Thompson, Mitch Wilson and Adam Worling, all elected last October. Zann Maxwell was appointed the city’s Deputy Mayor.

This year is the 25th anniversary of the Sydney Olympics. At the end of each day of the torch relay there was a ceremony involving the lighting of a “community cauldron”. On the night before the opening ceremony the final leg of the relay went from Sydney Harbour Bridge and down George Street to the Town Hall. The last torch bearer was the world’s top female golfer at the time, Australia’s Karrie Webb, who lit the community cauldron.

4) St. Andrew’s Cathedral

One of the few non-political Australian state funerals took place here in 1986. It was to honour the Australian ballet dancer and choreographer Sir Robert Helpmann (1909-1986). He is most famous for his role as the Child Catcher in the film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” (a character invented for the film). Helpmann was the first in a long line of openly lgbt+ performers to play this character in its many theatre productions. These include Stephen Gately, Wayne Sleep, Paul O’Grady, Richard O’Brien, and The Vivienne.

5) Junction of William Street and College Street, Australia Museum

During WorldPride 2023, hosted by Sydney, many artistic expressions of lgbt+ culture were on display. One of the most unusual, located outside the museum entrance, was the Progress Shark, a huge life-size model of a great white shark dressed in a Progress Flag-inspired lycra swimsuit. Created by Sydney-based artist George Buchanan, the shark quickly became a tourist attraction and icon of WorldPride. Like many artworks created for the occasion it was taken down afterwards.

6) 110 Bathurst Street

This is currently a modern multi-storey building home to various businesses, but back in the 1920s it was a residential area. This address was, for a couple of years, the art studio and salon of Australian sculptor and artist Dora Ohlfsen-Bagge (1869-1948) and her partner Baroness Helene von Kügelgen (d.1948). Although they lived in Rome most of the time, Dora revisited Sydney and produced many works for Australian clients. These included designing the ANZAC medal, and many sculptures that are now lost or destroyed.

7) 29 Pelican Street

In 1948 this address became the home of Iris Webber (1906-1953), described by local newspapers as “the most violent woman in Sydney”. She is a perfect subject for one of my “Extraordinary Lives” series. Condensing her life down to a few sentences has been difficult, but here goes. Iris was married twice and had at least two female partners. She shot three men (including her first husband, and killing another) but was acquitted each time. She was either arrested or convicted of assault at least 4 times (twice with a tomahawk). She was arrested many times for busking and begging, illegally selling alcohol, and robbery (with her then partner Vera). Iris’s last court appearance was for contempt of court in 1952.

8) National Art School, formerly Darlinghurst Gaol.

This old jail once housed several notable lgbt+ prisoners, the most well-known being the bushranger known as Captain Moonlite (Andrew Scott, 1842-1880). Born in Ireland, Scott can be said to have been a bit of an adventurer, travelling the world fighting as something of a mercenary before arriving in Australia in 1867. While living as a lay reader in a church in the gold fields, he was masquerading as Captain Moonlite, robbing a local bank agent. Caught and convicted, Scott met James Nesbit in jail and the two formed a relationship. After release he struggled to find work, and attacked a cattle station with his gang. Nesbit was killed, but Scott was captured and later hanged in the jail.

The current art school opened in 1921 has had many lgbt+ alumni and has hosted many exhibition by lgbt+ artists.

9) Green Park – LGBT Holocaust Memorial

This monument, designed by Jennifer Gamble and Russell Rodrigo, commemorates the many lgbt+ victims of the Nazis during the Holocaust. The pink triangle that gay prisoners were forced to wear has become an iconic symbol of gay rights in the 1970s. The Jewish Museum is located across the road to the north on Burton Street. In this year when we remember the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II it is essential we recognise diversity of opinion by people on all sides, without anger, hatred, or violence.

10) 301 Forbes Street – Qtopia

Sydney’s first permanent lgbt+ museum, said to be the world’s biggest, opened here in February 2024 in buildings that were originally Darlinghurst’s police station. As the police station it was where people arrested on homosexual charges were held in custody. This included a large number of participants in Sydney’s first Mardi Gras in 1978, people who proudly sport the name of The 78ers. Sadly, a sign of the times included police brutality against those in custody. The museum also has sections on AIDS, and a reconstructed AIDS ward from the neighbouring St. Vincent’s Hospital where many AIDS patients were treated.

11) Junction of Campbell Street and Little Bourke Street

On the night of 31 March 1962, the body of Frank McLean was discovered several metres south of this junction. He was one of several gay victims of William MacDonald, whom the media labelled as “The Mutilator”. MacDonald picked his victims up in gay venues, took them to a private location and murdered them, slashing their bodies and severing their genitals. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in 2015.

12) Taylor Square – The Rainbow Crossing

Sydney’s famous crossing was first established in 2013 for that year’s Mardi Gras. However, due to concerns that people standing on it to take selfies put them in danger of being run over, the city removed it. This sparked as spate of graffiti chalk rainbow crossing popping up across the city in protest. Thankfully, the city council realised the importance of such a statement of identity and repainted crossing in 2019.

William and John: Part 1) Childhood

The gatehouse of Nottingham Castle

Today is International Museum Day, and next month Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery will reopen after two years of redevelopment. I worked at Nottingham Castle for seven years as a tour guide and gallery attendant and the owners of the castle, the city council, never showed any understanding of heritage. They even banned Robin Hood for a few years because he “set a bad example”! So I have little hope that the castle will be “improved” in any way. From what they’ve already shown us I expect and that everything is dumbed down to their level of intelligence.

My links to Nottingham Castle merge with its lgbt heritage through Sir William Neville (c.1341-1391) who was appointed Constable of Nottingham Castle in 1381. I descend from his brother.

Sir William Neville and his partner, Sir John Clanvowe, has been mentioned on this blog several times over the years. To mark the 640th anniversary of Sir William’s appointment and the castle’s reopening I’d like to fill in some of the gaps in their story. Let’s start at the beginning and look at their childhood.

Sir William Neville was born in or around 1341 at Raby Castle, County Durham, into one of the most powerful, and ancient families in northern England. William was the fifth and youngest son of Sir Ralph Neville, 2nd Baron Neville of Raby (c.1291-1367), and his wife Alice (c.1300-1374).

The 2nd Baron, or Lord, Neville was an important courtier during the first years of the reign of King Edward III (the king who made St. George the patron saint of England). Several of Sir William's brothers also went on to become influential, and several of his six sisters married influential lords. William’s eldest brother John Neville (my ancestor), inherited the family title and was a soldier and ambassador. The next brother Alexander became Archbishop of York. William himself became a favoured courtier of King Richard II and received high appointments.

Sir William’s mother, Alice, was the widow of Lord Greystoke and a niece of the Mortimer family who had feudal links to Sir John Clanvowe’s family. Alice had a young son by Lord Greystoke who become 2nd Baron Greystoke when she became widowed in 1323, and he became stepson and ward to Lord Neville.

Our William Neville, being the youngest son of a large family, had little chance of inheriting much from his father's estates so Lord Neville, an ambitious man, came up with a plan.

By the 1340s it looked as if his ward Lord Greystoke, although married and in his 20s, would remain childless. Lord Neville seized the opportunity to ensure that the Greystoke estates would be inherited by one of his children. He entered into an agreement with Lord Greystoke whereby all of the Greystoke estates would be inherited by one of the younger Neville sons if Lord Greystoke died without children. William Neville was about 3 years old at the time and it’s likely that he was being considered as the Greystoke heir. Whichever of the sons inherited the Greystoke lands would be required to adopt the Greystoke name and coat of arms in place of Neville. This was common practice in a lot of aristocratic families. As it happened, Lord Greystoke eventually fathered a healthy son and heir in 1352, and Lord Neville's hopes of providing lands for his younger sons were dashed, and it looked as if young William Neville would be left penniless and landless.

That’s Sir William Neville’s family background. Now let’s look at Sir John Clanvowe’s.

There’s a great deal of uncertainty in establishing Sir John's parentage. His father may have been another John Clanvowe, a Knight of the Shire, a wealthy landowner elected by other landowners to represent Herefordshire in the English parliament of 1347-8.

I believe the family takes its names from Llanveau (or Llanedw), a hamlet near the Welsh coast just four miles east of Cardiff. To me the way the name Clanvowe is spelt obviously derives from the English pronunciation of Llanveau (the Welsh pronunciation of the double “L” sounds very much like “CL”). The first person to have used this English spelling seems to have been Sir Philip Clanvowe. I believe he was our Sir John's grandfather.

The Clanvowes had manorial ties with the most important family of the Welsh borders, the Mortimers. For several generations the Clanvowes had been hereditary bailiffs, the manorial estate managers, of the Mortimer's manor at Gladestry over the border in England, 22 miles from Hereford. Through this strong link to the manor I believe our Sir John Clanvowe may have been born in Gladestry in around 1341, making him the same age as William Neville.

It is not improbable that Sir William Neville and Sir John Clanvowe met when they were children. William's mother was the niece of the Mortimers, and the Clanvowes were bailiffs in one of their manors. During the 1340s and 1350s there would have been several gatherings and celebrations where the Mortimers, the Nevilles, and the Clanvowes would have been able to meet. It is known that tournaments were often held at Hereford Castle and they would be the ideal place for lords and their families to network and form alliances.

During their childhood William Neville and John Clanvowe were exposed to the Black Death, the biggest pandemic which ravaged Europe in the late 1340s. It is shown from medieval records that wealthy families had a better chance of survival than those from poorer backgrounds. But it appears that young William and John were also fortunate to survive because to their age. Analysis by Professor J. C. Russell in 1948 of a sample group of death records show that the young were actually the most likely to survive the plague. This has an echo in our present covid pandemic. Russell calculated that the highest mortality rate, unsurprisingly, was 46% among those over 56 years old. Children between the ages of 6 and 10, which included both John Clanvowe and William Neville, had the best chance of survival. The mortality rate for their age group was just 7%, the lowest of them all. The mortality rate for the 10 to 56 year old age group was 28%.

So, having survived childhood, next month I’ll look at the adult career of Sir John Clanvowe as he became a soldier and fought in the Hundred Years War. The month after that I’ll look at Sir William Neville’s career at the court of the English king.

The Godmother of Egyptology

Today is International Archaeology Day. Arguably the most influential archaeological subject is Egyptology. The names of ancient pharaohs and gods are household names. It has influenced everything from Napoleonic furniture to Hallowe’en costumes. Hundreds of films and books based on ancient Egypt are highly popular.

Last Hallowe’en I revealed how the curse of the Egyptian mummy was created by the most popular Victorian novelist, the bisexual Maria Correlli (1855-1924). The establishing of Egyptology as a separate science owes a great deal to another Victorian queer novelist, the openly lesbian Amelia Edwards (1831-1892).

Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards was the only child of Thomas and Alicia Edwards, a retired army officer and the daughter of an Irish barrister. Amelia was home-schooled by her mother and governesses and was a prodigious child, writing poetry and stories before she was 14 years old. She was also a very talented artist, a skill she would later utilise to illustrate her popular travel books.

Amelia’s popularity as a writer began long before her interest in Egyptology. Her fiction – novels and short stories – made her a celebrity to rival Maria Correlli (both outsold Charles Dickens). I’ll return to Amelia’s fiction writing in December, specifically her ghost stories, but for today let’s concentrate on her “Egyptian period”.

Amelia came from an era and social background in which well-educated, reasonably well-off ladies like herself would travel around Europe with a female companion. One year, 1873, she and a companion were in France during a particularly miserable wet summer, so they decided to head south to warmer climes and Egypt. Amelia was instantly entranced by the whole Egyptian culture. She sailed up the Nile with a group of fellow travellers to Abu Simbel (in its original location before being relocated block by block in the 1960s).

Amelia discovered a small chamber buried in the sand and proceeded to records its contents and draw the vivid wall paintings in her sketch book. Amelia wrote up her Egyptian experiences in published them in “A Thousands Miles Up the Nile” in 1877, containing many of her own drawings, including the one below of Abu Simbel. This book is probably the biggest best-seller she ever wrote.

As with the majority of European travellers to Egypt Amelia collected and bought many ancient artefacts, including several mummified hands. It wasn’t long, however, before she realised the danger of this popular “hobby”. In her book she wrote that many Egyptian site were being spoiled or destroyed by the actions of travellers and tourists and the neglect of local authorities.

At that time in Egypt’s history the country was in economic decline and couldn’t afford to pay for serious excavations and research. In 1882 Amelia banded together with Reginald Stewart Poole, the Curator of Coins and Medals at the British Museum, to found the Egypt Exploration Fund. Both were elected honorary joint secretaries. Donations trickled in and by January 1883 the fund was able to send its first expedition to Egypt.

One of the archaeologists to benefit from the Fund was Flinders Petrie, who would go on to become Britain’s greatest Egyptologist and founder of modern archaeological methods. He and Amelia became firm friends and in her will Amelia ensured that Petrie would be the first person to be appointed the first ever Professor of Egyptology.

The appointment has a very interesting back story. Amelia, being a woman in Victorian England, found it difficult to get support from the male-dominated academic and scientific establishment. She got no help from the British Museum other than the voluntary assistance from Reginald Poole. At the time of her death University College London was the only institution which offered and gave the same degrees to woman as it did to men. Amelia laid down in her will that £2,500 should go towards setting up a chair in Egyptology there – as long as it wasn’t held by anyone from the British Museum. Shortly before her death, when she became seriously ill, she added a clause stipulating that the post should not go to anyone over the age of 40. Flinders Petrie was 39 and the only experienced archaeologist who fit the criteria.

Apart from being hugely popular for her Egyptology, travel writing and ghost stories Amelia also enjoyed an equally hugely successful lecture tour of the USA in 1889-90. This raised a lot of money for the Egypt Exploration Fund.

Amelia spent her last years in a little village called Westbury-on-Trym with her partner and companion Ellen Drew Braysher (1804-1892). They were buried together in Henbury near Bristol, their graves later being designated Grade II listed status. Historic England, the country’s leading heritage organisation, placed the grave on their Pride of Place list of significant lgbt sites in 2016.

As well as leaving £2,500 to University College London for the chair in Egyptology Amelia also left them her personal collection of artefacts and library. They formed the basis of what is now called the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. Obviously, it is named after Flinders Petrie, or Sir Flinders Petrie as he became, but the museum would not exist at all if Amelia Edwards hadn’t given her collection to found it. It annoys me that the museum isn’t named after her.

The Petrie Museum has long been a place I have wanted to visit. Back in 2010 it produced a special museum trail called “Beyond Isis and Osiris: Alternate Sexualities in Ancient Egypt”. Although comparatively small in area the museum has thousands of items on display and the trail picked out 14 of them that illustrate the variety of sexual and gender attitudes among the Egyptians, from their ancient gods to Alexander the Great.

The trail originated in a series of talks given in February 2008 for LGBT History Month UK by John J. Johnston, who was a teaching assistant at University College London while studying there for a PhD in Egyptology. The talks proved so popular that Johnston formed them into the “Beyond Isis and Osiris” trail. Below is a video of Johnston talking about his trai. Johnston became Vice-Chair of the Egypt Exploration Society (to which the Egypt Exploration Fund had been renamed in 1919) shortly afterwards and held the position until 2015.

Perhaps when covid restrictions are lifted and we can move around freely once more I’ll finally make it down to London and visit the museum founded by Amelia Edwards, the woman known as the Godmother of Egyptology.

Heritage Spotlight: Flower Power To The Rescue

 Prospect Cottage and Derek Jarman’s Garden.

Six months ago it would have been inconceivable to visit any heritage site. With the pandemic lockdown heritage and leisure venues were among the first to be closed. Many people thought that the pandemic would be over by the end of summer and that everything would be back to normal.

Things may never get back to “normal” but one of the steps towards achieving this, taken to help the heritage and leisure industry survive, is the gradual reopening of many sites. Last week the UK held its annual Heritage Open Days. In previous years most heritage sites and museums have been free to enter, and many private heritage sites opened their doors for a couple of days. This year, of course, things are different. There were still celebrations for the Heritage Open Days but many places, including my old place of work, Gainsborough Old Hall, won’t reopen until next year.

The sites that have reopened have implemented social distancing precautions, though with parks and gardens this has not been so much of a problem. Back in January, even before the lockdown, it looked as if one garden in particular was going to be lost, and when the lockdown came into effect its future looked ever gloomier. This garden is of special importance to the lgbt community. It is Derek Jarman’s Garden at Dungeness in Kent.

Derek Jarman (1942-1994) was more well-known in the lgbt community in his lifetime in the UK than he is now. Many people of my generation will know his name and work, though younger generations probably don’t. He was always challenging cinematic norms when it came to depictions of sexuality and gender, leading to him being described as avant garde or the “enfant terrible” of British cinema. Today his films seem tame and harmless. Some of his most famous films are “Sebastiane” (1976) and “Edward II” (1991, based on a play by gay Elizabethan spy Christopher Marlowe).

It isn’t only the fact that the garden was designed and made by Derek Jarman that makes it notable but also the fact that it’s not your typical garden of lush greenery and vivid flowers. It is very much a product of its location, and in his lifetime it attracted a lot of media coverage, as well as being featured in a couple of Derek’s own films.

Derek Jarman’s Garden, and the old fisherman’s collage called Prospect Cottage where Derek lived for the last 17 years of his life, is located on a piece of vast shingle beach not far from an imposing nuclear power station. It is open to the elements, and wind gusts off the English Channel almost continuously. No tree can grow there.

Derek fell in love with the place as soon as he saw it in 1986, alerted by the “For Sale” sign. He made an offer to buy the property almost immediately and very soon moved in and began renovations – not a total modern make-over but a sympathetic restoration to bring more stability to the century-old structure. He once told a journalist that he bought it as a joke, but it is apparent that this quickly turned to a love of the place.

The surrounding shingle garden was virtually a natural wasteland. In fact, the National Trust lists it as a desert. Derek also set about livening up the surrounding beach with a garden. He had always had an interest in flowers and gardening, ever since his parents gave him a gardening book when he was 4.

Derek’s first choice of plants for his new garden were roses. However, the shingle and sandy soil were not a suitable ground for the roses he chose to grow and they withered. Inspired by the surrounding landscape Derek selected roses which could survive in the soil as well as sea kale, red hot pokers, elder, poppies and rare orchids. Because the area is a conservation zone all the plants had to be grown from seed, not transplanted from another location, and no fences are allowed. In among the plants and pathways Derek set up small sculptures and erected pieces of driftwood. At first the locals thought he was building some sort of pagan shrine.

Derek and his partner Keith Collins tended the garden through Derek’s illness. Keith continued after Derek’s death and even after his own diagnosis of a brain tumour in 2018. This was when he decided to put Prospect Cottage and the garden into a trust to preserve it for the nation. Keith died before that trust was completed.

By the end on 2019 the cottage and garden needed to raise £3.5 million to ensure both were saved for the nation or it would go up for private sale in March. A fundraising campaign was formed by the Art Fund, the Tate, and Creative Folkestone. Many of Derek Jarman’s friends and celebrity fans urged the public to help.

When the lockdown came into effect there were fears that the target would not be reached in time. Thankfully, as the deadline approached the target was reached, and Prospect Cottage and Derek Jarman’s Garden were saved. Both will remain pretty much as they were in 2018 when Keith Collins died.

After Keith’s death the Garden Museum in Lambeth, Greater London, decided to mount an exhibition about the garden. Part of the interior of Prospect Cottage was reproduced and actual items from the cottage were loaned to the museum. The opening of the exhibition was delayed by the lockdown. The museum said that the delay actually worked in their favour because the exhibition was expanded to accommodate the new social distancing rules which meant that more items could be included.

The exhibition opened on 4th July and a relatively small number of visitors had the opportunity to see it. The exhibition closed yesterday. Thankfully, more people will be able to see the real thing down at Dungeness when it eventually opens to the public officially – a unique garden created by a unique film-maker.

80 More Gays Around the World: Part 15) A Price For Art

Last time on “80 More Gays”: Japanese shogun 39) Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646-1709) introduced a festival that originated in an ancient harvest celebration, while over in colonial America the similar Thanksgiving festival was being celebrated by Puritan colonists, including 40) William Plaine (d.1646), a colonist executed for sodomy and an ancestor of 41) Vincent Price (1911-1993).

It is very rare for any white American to be only descended from one Puritan colonist of the early 17th century. 41) Vincent Price, the star of many films who became a horror icon, is no exception. Not only is he descended from 40) William Plaine and several of the other New Haven colonial families but he is also a Mayflower descendant.

This year we commemorate the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower and the Pilgrims to America. I’ll write more about the Mayflower Pilgrims and some of their lgbt descendants in September. Much research into Mayflower ancestry has been done by many genealogists over the years. In some respect discovering one of your ancestors was a Mayflower passenger is as much of a bonus for American family historians as finding a descent from royalty is for some of us Brits. Some American have both. But caution must be taken when going online to look for Mayflower ancestry. A lot of research is not based on actual sources and quite often even top professional genealogists have had different opinions.

At this moment in time the only Mayflower passengers that we can prove are direct descendants of Vincent Price are James Chilton (c.1556-1620), his wife (name unknown) who died with her husband in that first winter, and their daughter Mary (1607-1679). Legend says that Mary was the first person to set foot on Plymouth Rock. She married John Winslow, the brother of Mayflower passenger Edward Winslow, later the Governor of Plymouth Colony who approved of the death sentence of William Plaine.

Vincent Price

Vincent Price was one of quite a significant group of male and female Hollywood actors who were lesbian, gay or bisexual, a fact often known to the film studios and hidden from public knowledge behind “lavender” marriages. These marriages were usually arranged by the film studios with the full knowledge of the couple that one, or even both, of them was lgb. Many lavender marriages were arranged specifically to stop rumours in the press about an actor’s sexuality.

In Vincent Price’s case his bisexuality was easier to hide with a marriage. His first two marriages were not lavender marriages, though his last to actor Coral Browne in 1974, effectively, was. This is not to suggest that there was no genuine love between them.

It was Vincent’s daughter 42) Victoria Price (b.1962), herself openly lesbian, who ended speculation on his sexuality in 2014 when her 1999 book “Vincent Price: A Daughter’s Biography” was reprinted. After her father’s death Victoria was asked about his sexuality. Her biography referenced these rumours without really answering them. In an interview with “Boom” magazine while promoting her reprinted book Victoria gave the following remark: “I am as close to certain as I can be that my dad had physically intimate relationships with man. I know for 100% fact that my dad was completely loving and supportive of lgbt people.”

While Vincent Price’s acting career is what made him famous another side to him is less well-known. He was an art collector and historian. At Yale University he studied art history, after which he became an art teacher for a year. Then he travelled to England to study at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.

In London he became attracted to the stage and began his acting career when he returned to the USA. In 1935 he made his first stage performance playing Prince Albert, Prince Consort in “Victoria Regina”. Acting became his profession but he continued to study art and amassing a huge art collection.

His love of art inspired him to write “The Vincent Price Treasury of American Art” (1972) as well as a couple of other art books. He also gave lectures on art, and was a committee member on several art organisations. In 1947 he co-founded the Modern Institute of Art in Beverley Hills with fellow actors Edward G. Robinson and Fanny Bryce. Sadly, the venture only lasted two years. One other passion was food. Vincent wrote a series of cook books and often demonstrated his recipes on American television.

Vincent and his second wife Mary were frequent visitors to the East Los Angeles College. With his keen desire to see better access to art given to marginalised sections of the community he donated 90 works of art from his own collection to the college in 1957. This formed the basis of a teaching collection and was the start of the Vincent Price Art Museum (VPAM) which now has collected over 9,000 works.

Victoria Price is currently a board member of the VPAM. She continues to support the museum’s aim to foster under-represented artists, often of ethnic or disadvantaged backgrounds, as well as established artist and old masters. One of the artists showcased at the VPAM was a former student of the East Los Angeles College, 43) Laura Aguilar (1949-2018). Laura took a photography course there in the early 1970s.

Laura was a photographer who was an example of the under-represented artists the VPAM championed. She was an open lesbian from a poor background, came from a Mexican-American-Irish family, was dyslexic and diabetic. Her dyslexia affected her learning abilities as a child. With her grandmother Laura would go out into the California countryside and the landscapes influenced her art.

While at the East Los Angeles College Laura was told by a teacher that she was wasting her time trying to be an artist when she couldn’t even read properly. Because of this attitude Laura transferred to the Pasadena City College. This has a more inclusive and progressive programme of teaching.

Laura’s interest in photography was sparked by her brother who taught her how to develop photographs. She became a pioneer in the genres of Latina and chicana lesbian imagery, often using herself as a nude model. Her focus was on the ordinary lives of Los Angeles lesbians. A series of portraits called “Latina Lesbians” (1986-1990) is one of her most significant works.

During her lifetime Laura’s works were exhibited in many international galleries and museums. She died from complications arising from her diabetes at the age of 58. The VPAM was the first gallery to mount a retrospective of her work the following year.

Let’s go back to the Pasadena City College where Laura studied in the 1980s. There’s several other former alumni worth mentioning. First is Fred Phelps (1929-2014), the vehemently homophobic pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church. Two other alumni are more welcome, and linked - George Reeves (1914-1959), who became famous as television’s Superman in the 1950s, and his co-star 44) Jack Larson (1928-2015).

Next time on “80 More Gays”: We dive into superhero comics and films, and take a philosophical look at a lost continent.

My Ancestor Was A Mermaid

That’s an extraordinary statement to make, but according to medieval legend I’m descended from a mermaid, and so are millions of Europeans and North Americans. More of that later. A couple of weeks ago I wrote “Queer Cryptids”, an article about legendary beasts. I mentioned mermaids briefly, and today we’ll look at some of the numerous lgbt connections of these citizens of the sea.

Mermaid is a term that encompasses many half-human, half-fish beings from just about every culture in the world. Whether it’s called a mermaid, naiad, merrow, siren or rusalka the common link is the traditional representation as seen in the Disney version of “The Little Mermaid”.

“The Little Mermaid” was a story written by Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) in 1837. Recent research has uncovered the circumstances behind the story. Hans was bisexual. For several years he had harboured a crush on Edvard Collin, and when he found out that Edvard was going to get married he incorporated his own loss into the ending of “The Little Mermaid”. In the original story the mermaid does not marry the prince but leaves him.

Disney’s “The Little Mermaid”, Ariel, has a desire to live in the human world. She sings a song entitled “Part of Your World”. In the lgbt community most of us have felt the same feeling, whether it is the right to marry or just the desire to be accepted and not persecuted for being different. The lyrics were written by Howard Ashman (1950-1991), whose first big success was “Little Shop of Horrors”. With song-writing partner Alan Menken he wrote songs for “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast”. Sadly Howard died from AIDS-related causes in 1991 before he could finish his songs for “Aladdin”. If you watch “Beauty and the Beast” you’ll see a dedication to him at the end of the film. The title song from that film won the 1992 Oscar for Best Original Song. His partner Bill Lauch accepted the Oscar at the ceremony.

Unlike the Andersen and Disney mermaids traditional mermaids didn’t trade their voice for legs. When they went onto dry land their tail turned into legs automatically, and changed back again when they came into contact with water. One legend which illustrates this comes in the folk legends of medieval France. There are many variations but all centre around the same mermaid called Melusine.

A French nobleman called Raymond was wandering alone in a forest when he came to a magic fountain. Standing beside it was the beautiful Melusine, the water spirit who guarded it. She promised Raymond if he married her they would become the founders of a royal dynasty. She gave one condition however. Under no circumstances was Raymond allowed to see her on Saturdays. Raymond agreed, they got married and went to live in Lusignan Castle. They had ten sons.

After many years Raymond’s suspicious brother persuaded him to look into Melusine’s chamber on a Saturday. The sight he saw horrified him. Melusine was in her bath in her natural form – each human leg had changed into water-serpent’s tail. Melusine shrieked in surprise when she saw Raymond and leapt out of the window, never to be seen again.

Even if that’s just romantic fiction the Lusignan family were very real. They were an influential French dynasty who rose to become Crusader Kings of Jerusalem. They have left many millions of descendants, including myself. My nearest ancestor is Countess Jeanne de Lusignan (d.1232).

You may have seen a picture of Melusine without realising it. In 1971 a company in Seattle, USA, was looking for a logo which symbolised the sea routes that early traders used when transporting their product around the globe. They chose a depiction of Melusine, with her two tails, as a representative of the sea trade, from a 15th-century printed version of the legend. They still use a modified version of that picture today. The company is called Starbucks.

The stories of Melusine and Ariel both show the importance of physical change to the characters. As such the mermaid became a symbol of some transgender groups. One of these is Mermaids UK, a transgender and gender-nonconforming youth network formed in 1995.

As well as on coffee cups pictures of mermaids appear in many places. One gay man who works for the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, Greater London, has built a career out of looking for them. Sacha Coward is the museum’s Community Participation Producer and is responsible for getting the public interested in maritime history. He’s been collecting images and depictions of mermaids, and mermen, from different cultures and has produced exhibitions at Greenwich in celebration of them.

To end with I’ll ask you a question. Do you remember the series “Man From Atlantis”? Would you class this character as a mermaid/merman? It made a star out of Patrick Duffy, but did you know that most of his underwater swimming scenes were done by a body double called Tom Reudy?

Tom Reudy went on to become a multi-medal-winning swimming champion at four Gay Games from 1986. In some of the relay races a team member was a man I’ll mention in my next “Around the World in Another 80 Gays” article, Michael Mealiffe. Today Tom Reudy is Head Coach at San Mateo Masters Swimming club.

So, from cryptids to coffee, and from Denmark to Atlantis, mermaids have a multitude of connections in the lgbt community.