Roy Bellamy Tim Boatswain John Morwood Ant Steel
Photos: ©Snjezana Boatswain
On 26th March at 2 pm, an information panel explaining the mural depiction of the 1851 Election Scandal was officially installed in Sovereign Way.
Professor Tim Boatswain, Chair of the voluntary group Conservation 50, welcomed everyone to the installation and pointed out what cooperative effort it had been, thanking the artist Ant Steel, Dr John Morewood, the President of St Albans & Hertfordshire Architectural & Archaeological Society (SAHAAS), who wrote the text, Roy Bellamy, who designed the information panel, Christopher Place, who sponsored the mural, as well as the owners of the building, who had given permission for the painting.
Attendees were informed by Dr Morewood about the extensive bribing of the electorate that led to a Parliamentary Inquiry sitting in the Court Room (in what is now the St Albans Museum+Gallery) and to the British Parliament passing an Act which deprived St Albans of a Member of Parliament for over 30 years.
Tim Boatswain was to add that this mural, which was designed to commemorate a notorious episode of St Albans' heritage, was part of a bigger project that aimed to revive the city centre's historic alleyways, which have so many interesting tales to tell.
On the same day at 7 pm, SAHAAS organised in the Court Room in the Museum+Gallery an entertaining re-enactment of parts of the Parliamentary Inquiry at St Albans and Parliamentary debates at Westminster. The evening was closed by the present Mayor of St Albans, Cllr Anthony Rowlands, mulling over the implications of the scandal for the future of British democracy through the eradication of corruption (if not wholly achieved just yet!).
The Prime Minister, Lord Derby addresses their Lordships., "I hope you will agree with me in thinking that the borough of St Albans ought to be disenfranchised..."
There is still, clearly, a great interest in this shameful period of St Albans' history as the event was a sell-out and such has been the demand that a reprise of the re-enactment is on the books - watch this space!
Footnote: if you would like to hear Tim Boatswain being interviewed on BBC 3 Counties Radio, about the Scandal, click here: