2.00pm Sunday, 28th June AFROCITY - Picnic on the Park

This year is the 170th anniversary of the People's Band which played on the racecourse (Victoria Park) in the summer of 1856 & 1857. This was in defiance of the alleged prohibition of secular music being played publicly on Sunday. There was no specific law to prohibit this, so the organisers of the band were eventually fined for trespass and there was no more public music in Leicester's parks until 1895. Afro City will provide South African Township Jazz. Please bring food and drink to share.   (Subject to the weather being OK)

Sunday Music and the Pharisees    In April 1856, the Commissioner of Works, Sir Benjamin Hall, had arranged for military bands to play in London parks on Sunday afternoon and they attracted huge crowds. This was immediately met with opposition from both the Sabbatarians and the Archbishop of Canterbury. It prompted the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, to intervene and reverse the decision.   In Leicester, Mr Henry Nicholson’s band usually played at the Leicester Racecourse (Victoria Park) on Saturdays, Mondays & Tuesdays during the summer. Saturday was the day when most workers had been paid and these concerts always had a good working class attendance. This was not the case on weekdays since the band only played from six thirty to eight o’clock, making it very difficult for working people to attend. The band usually played on a raised platform and the music was described as promoting temperance and ‘refined enjoyment.’ According to the Leicester Chronicle thousands were drawn there where: …..the free play of the breezes on so elevated a situation cannot fail to revive the pallid and toil-worn.    The music was organised under the Council’s Public Band Committee which was paid for by voluntary contributions. However in 1856, the lack of funds cast a shadow on the Saturday evening concerts. At a Market Place meeting, the former Chartist leaders George Buckby and Joseph Elliot proposed that there should be a Sunday band established in Leicester to play at the Racecourse. Thomas Coltman, later president of the Leicester Secular Society, became the main organiser.    The Leicester Mercury reported that on Sunday 30th July the ‘People’s Band’ with additional performers had attracted 15,000 people to the Racecourse. The band continued to play on Sundays until September. However, in 1857 Thomas Coltman and twelve others were sued in the County Court for playing on a Sunday. In court, there was considerable argument as to how the band could be prohibited since the public had free access to the ground on Sundays and there was no clause mentioning Sundays in the agreement with the Corporation about music. Nevertheless £1 damages was awarded against Coltman, on the grounds of trespass. It was argued that the Corporation had stipulated that there be three concerts a week and therefore a fourth unofficial one became an act of trespass. A squib written in Biblical language as an epistle from Tobias to Barnabas poked fun at Sabbatarians:  Now about that time, there arose a Sect who preached the doctrine that music on the Sabbath day was good, and might be allowed outside as well as inside their tabernacles. And at the sound thereof, in the open air, the fowls of the air flew and rejoiced greatly, and settled upon the trees, and joined the chorus of music. Now it came to pass, when the Pharisees heard of the sect of the Musicites, they assembled themselves together, and took sweet counsel with seven Levites. And debated amongst themselves saying, How can these men who listen to sounds in the open air be equal to ourselves? We worship Mammon day by day, without music; we pay tithes, we make long faces at the synagogues, we fast when we have nothing to eat. But music we have not in our souls, and therefore we eschew it. Furthermore, the sound of the drum, trumpet, fife, harp, lute, sackbot, dulcimer, and all kinds of music will draw people together away from the Synagogues. And if they come not to our Synagogues they will not pay us for our preaching. Wherefore, we will abhor the Musicites, and call them Desecrators of the Sabbath.And if John, surnamed Biggs, will not pledge himself to the same, he shall not have our votes at the Election. Yes, rather would we have one of the people's enemies to represent us, than support any of the sect of the Musicites. ¹  The "epistle" concludes with an appeal for toleration, freedom of opinion, and charity to all. Although anonymous, the squib was most likely the work of violinist, publisher, journalist, author, Secularist, and Biggs supporter, Thomas Emery. Biggs was duly elected.2    The Racecourse, as part of the old common fields, belonged to the Borough of Leicester and was administered by the Council's Estate committee. Although it was let out to the Race Committee for racing, the fields were also leased out separately. Mr Sibson the licensee of the Old Horse public house was one of the lessees who then let it out for grazing cattle and horses.    The Council’s position as far Sunday bands was that there was no prohibition and no permission given – it was up to the lessees of the racecourse. 3 Sibson had already sued Mr Billson, the chairman, of the Public Bands Committee, to recover damages allegedly caused through the bands playing on the racecourse which had ‘injured’ the grass and rendered the cattle ‘unquiet.’ 4    In summer of 1857, the People's Band, “providing Recreation for the Millions on the Sabbath” issued a handbill announced that, weather permitting, it will be playing popular airs on the Leicester Race Ground and all classes of society who wish to enjoy the treat are invited to attend. The Leicester Chronicle noted that:    The music is to be provided on Sunday evenings— that is, in the very hours when the chapels and churches are open for divine worship. …….. there can be no mistake about the antagonism between Sunday Music and Sunday Worship in Leicester.⁵    In August 1857, Thomas Coltman and twelve others of the "the People's Band," were sued in the County Court for publicly playing on the Racecourse, after due notice had been given them not to do so. Coltman had previously been an active in the Anti-Persecution League and later became president of the Secular Society. 6    In court, there was considerable argument as to how the band could be prohibited since the public had free access to the ground on Sundays and there was no clause mentioning Sundays in the agreement with the Corporation about music. Nevertheless £1 damages was awarded against Coltman, on the grounds of trespass. It was argued that the Corporation had stipulated that there be three concerts a week and therefore a fourth unofficial one became an act of trespass. No action was taken against the other members of the “People's Band for the Millions," 7    The Racecourse may have been declared off limits on Sunday, but later that month, the 'People's Band' performed to a large audience on a Sunday evening on an empty plot of ground in Upper Brunswick- street, that ran parallel to Wharf Street. 8 The following year John Biggs made an attempt to get the Council to allow bands to play on Sunday afternoons and evenings. He thought nine out of ten working people would vote for it. His amendment was lost - the Pharisees had won.9    Following their campaigns against frame charges and dear bread, the Chartists, Buckby and Elliott had provided working class for the campaign against the Sabbatarians. However, few from the working class would have described themselves as Secularists, although their overwhelming support for Biggs and Walmsley showed that religion’s hold over the working classes was uncertain.    1 Reproduced in the Leicester Chronicle, 21st June 1856  2 The bye-election had been caused by the death of Richard Gardner M.P.  3 Leicestershire Mercury, 21st February 1857  4 Leicester Journal, 20th March 1857.  5 Leicester Chronicle, 15th July 1857  6 Coltman was a hosiery machine manufacturer in partnership with the Gimson family. He was later bought shares in the Leicester Secular Hall.  7 Leicester Journal, 14th August 1857.  8 Leicester Journal, 21st August 1857  9 Leicestershire Mercury, 6th March 1858    Leicester Journal - Friday 08 August 1856 ‘THE SUNDAY BANDS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE LEICESTER JOURNAL.    Sir,—It is somewhat strange that in this, the nineteenth century of the Christian era, we should be called upon to defend the very foundations upon which that Christianity is built. On the one side, we have not only the avowed infidel, but the covert friend, assailing that most vital point, the inspiration and infallibility of God’s blessed word; and, on the other side, we have the latitudinarian —anythingarian endeavouring to set aside the command of God respecting that holy day, the observance of which we believe to have been the main cause of  England’s greatness and England’s glory. Such, however, is the ease, and the point to which we wish now to draw attention is the fearful Sabbath desecration caused by the band playing on the Race course in this town.    What, Sir, is the justification of these unhallowed proceedings? Oh, of course the old cry, the good of the people. The people, say their advocates, are too hard worked, and need more recreation. As one of the people we most heartily agree with them that the people do stand in need of less work and more holiday; but why should not those holidays be extracted from the six days devoted to the worship of Mammon? why trespass upon the one, the only one, devoted to the worship of the living God ? It reminds one very forcibly of a certain rich man who spared his own flocks and herds, and took the one lamb of the poor man to dress for the wayfaring man who came unto him. Away with such philanthropy. They pretend to pity the poor man who labours, and would give him a play day, and they take his own day, the day that God gave him for holy rest, and give him that as a play day. ‘The Sabbath was made for man; it is his inalienable birthright, and let him beware bow he barters away its rights for a polka or a quadrille—things of infinite less value than a mess of pottage. The command of God is imperative that the day should be kept holy - “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” We are bound, therefore, by the command of Him who knew what was best for us, and what was essential to our happiness and comfort. Let the working man beware how he sanctions that day being made a day of pleasure; if so, he may depend upon it it will not be long in being made a day of toil. At a future time, when Mammon, in the shape of stern toil, steps in and grasps the day as his own, he may recall the fair speeches and grand promises now made, and say, the day is ours, there it was made over to us, but, as has been well observed, he will receive for reply “Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you?    But we want to draw away the people from the public-house on the Sunday, they tell us. If they wanted to do that, the simplest way would be to shut up the public house; let this be done by all means. But to imagine that a band of music will draw away the poor besotted wretch whose Sunday is spent in a gin-shop, makes one smile at the amount of credulity men can display when it answers their purpose. We object to these Sabbath amusements, because, as we have already said, we believe that the social prosperity of the country has been upheld, and its internal tranquillity preserved, by the attachment of its people to the principles and observances of Christianity, and more especially by their reverence for the sanctity of the Lord’s day; because we believe they will tend greatly the number of those who live in habitual neglect of Divine worship; because they inflict a serious injustice upon a numerous body who are subject to Sabbath day labour while ministering to the amusement of the multitude; because the scheme is not only for, but has been indecently thrust upon us by a few restless, meddling Spirits in opposition to the all but unanimous voice of every right-feeling man; and lastly, because it is a violation. a desecration of that day on which the working man is free from the demands of labour, free to hold communion with God, and to train himself and his children for a glorious immortality.    Can nothing be done, sir, to stop this fearful desecration so revolting to every Christian mind? Will not our worthy Mayor interpose his authority, and exercise that power which our Town Clerk on a recent occasion said he possessed? Are our ministers of religion, of all denominations, upon the watch towers sounding an alarm? What a solemn sight did Manchester present the other day, when a procession of sixty-two Christian ministers, and upwards of one hundred and seventy Sunday School teachers, waited upon the Mayor of that city to present him with a protest against the introduction of a continental Sabbath there. All honour, say we, to our late Anglo-French alliance. Let the brave soldiers who have together climbed the bloody heights of Alma, and together struggled in Inkerman’s deadly valley, now that peace is proclaimed, together fraternise over the victories they have achieved and the laurels they have won; let our old English shout of “God Save the Queen,” be followed if you will by the more modern cry of Vive l'Empereur; let the strains of our fine old National Athem be mingled with the Partant pour la Syrie of our neighbours; but in the name of all we hold dear on earth, in the name of our common Protestantism, in the name of our common Christianity, in the name of our God, let there be no amalgamation, no alliance between the refreshing rest, the calm repose, the sacred peace, the holy joy of the Sabbath in England, with the of the Sabbath in France. irreligious téte, the unceasing toil, and the puerile frivolity of the Sabbath in France.  August 2, 1856. J.W.M.