Hell's bells – the vicar's watered down my beer
Looking through her uncle's army papers from nearly 70 years ago, Paula Middleton came across a poem which tells how one of Knighton's bellringers knocked six bells out of the local vicar for watering down his beer.
The handwritten poem was sent to John Gwyther, who was away doing his National Service between 1948 and 1950.
"I did find it in a little wallet that I'm pretty sure was Uncle John’s. I am guessing that it was probably sent by a friend," said Paula, from Bishop's Castle, who wonders whether it was a local humorous sketch at the time, or something which was doing the rounds at the local pubs.
The poem, written in a young hand in pencil and with some dodgy spellings, is called The Cheated Ringer.
It goes: "The Bells of Knighton ring sweet & clear, For the ringers are drinking stout & Beer.
"They ring for the wedding with great cheer, Drinking Trouncers Ale & Basses Beer.
"But Oh My God they is some fear, When vicar watered the tenor's Beer.
"They tenors then between sob & tear, Through at the vicar his water Beer,
"Crying take that & a good thick ear, For watering my lovely Beer."
Paula does not know who wrote the poem, but does know it was not her father's writing.
"I’m a bit baffled. I wondered if it was doing the rounds in the pubs in Knighton at the time.
"My grandmother and her sister were members of the Merry Dots amateur dramatics group in Knighton, who used to perform humorous sketches and plays to keep up the morale during the war.
"Sometimes they performed in local village halls. Some of their members wrote the material, so they often had a local theme. It may be something that they performed in the 1950s."
After completing his National Service John ran Gwyther's first shop in Bishop's Castle, but tragically he was killed in a car accident a week before Christmas in 1951 when on his way back home to Knighton.
