An extra large bulging PACKED LUNCH today as we had an extra hour to feast on the music. No ghosts to surprise us today but FRANCES CLAMP did pop by with the history of fairs and markets in Brentwood since 1227 and how the discovery of an ancient charter could spark a conflict with nearby Havering. But we’ll get back to that in a moment.

It was supposed to be sunny today but the sun seemed rather reluctant to fully show itself, nevertheless it was dry and reasonably warm and so a good excuse to indulge ourselves in some summery sounds like “VALERIE” by Steve Winwood, “DANCING IN THE STREET” from David Bowie and Mick Jagger and “HOLLYWOOD NIGHTS” by Bob Segar, to name just a few. On top of that we played 3 tracks from today’s featured band, Outset Ocarina, recorded live at the Creative Sessions held in April at the Brentwood Centre. The band members feature PHOENIX FM’s very own Alex Hoggett, Bob Simpson’s son Jamie on bass and drummer, Ben Heapy.

But back to Frances Clamp. Well as Frances explained, a charter granted to Brentwood, dating back to 1227 has just been re-discovered. The charter grants the town the right to a weekly market day as well as an annual fair which can be held close to Wilsons Corner. So why might this be a case for war? Well Havering council has suggested that they might challenge any plans by Brentwood to expand their market in the light of the old charter being recovered. It seems that Henry III granted a similar charter to Havering in 1245 which states that the minimum distance between markets must be no less than 6 and two thirds of a mile, an ancient ruling based on how far a sheep could be walked in a day!  Havering council used this charter to block other markets in the area, notably against Barking 20 years ago. However Havering could find Brentwood to be a more formidable opponent based on the fact that’s its charter pre-dates Havering’s by almost 20 years!

Watch this space but meantime you can listen again to what Frances had to say on this subject right here: – [audio:https://www.phoenixfm.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Bygones-4th-June2.mp3|titles=Bygones 4th June]

Well that’s it for me. Have a good weekend.

Scott