Ancient Corporation of Stroud Green - proposed charity

The_Beadle

As its Stroud Green Day - the 249th anniversary of the 1773 dinner at the Stapleton Tavern when Mayor Legge was elected - I give you a selfie today of the old Stroud Green Badge in the pub (modern lapel badge version).

Justice Truth and Friendship!

#stroudgreen @StapletonAntic

https://twitter.com/StroudGreen1773/status/1552004876166725633

The_Beadle

I know it's August, were all on holiday and everyone is bored with my constant harping on this theme but I'm going to put all my cards on the table for once. Here is my proposal - in a very straightforward manner - for a new local charity in Stroud Green based on the Ancient Corporation (1773). Given it's midsummer I don't expect to garner much interest now, but I live in hope. I'll shut up about it for the rest of the summer and come back to it in September.

Here is my proposal - reactions and comments both positive and negative welcome;

Next year, July 26th, 2023, will be the 250th anniversary of the dinner at the Stapleton Tavern in 1773 when 'Sir John Legge' was elected 'Mayor' by the Ancient Corporation of Stroud Green, apparently a Georgian drinking and dining club. His beautiful 'badge of office' survives and is held in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

If this was a 250 year old joke, I think it's worth repeating - with however a serious intent. My personal ambition is to see the 'Corporation' resurrected in its anniversary year, but with charitable intent to raise money for local causes, such as local food banks and Haringey Mind, in this ghastly modern era of the cost of living crisis.

The anniversary has been described as a significant event for all of Stroud Green, and I'd love to give it a go. There is a long way to go and along the way I'd expect to look for help and support from all kinds of sources, such as local historians, the Hornsey Historical Society, experts on the Georgian era, charity experts, comedians (!), the Stapleton Tavern pub itself (which still exists) - and of course, local people.

I've put out a few feelers (or 'reached out', as they say now) but been disappointed at the almost universal lack of response - so far - but then its early days and its August, when everyone is on holiday, so I'll get back to pursuing the idea in September. This is just to affirm that nobody should doubt my resolve, grit and determination in this matter, but I need to have help (particularlywith social media), interest and fellow-travellers to make it happen.

At this early stage I'd especially value help with social media - there are 65 friends of the Abcient Corporation on Facebook (since 2017), so I know there is interest out there. But no apparent way to engage with them. I'll give it a go but if nobody is interested, I'll sink the idea. I do not wish to live out my days as a promoter of lost causes!

So - whose in?

Mike Durham ('The Beadle'), Lorne Road

Ye Ancient Corporation on ye Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/corporationofstroudgreen/

Ye Ancient Corporation on Twitter;
Http://twitter.com/stroudgreen1773