MURDER AND MINISTRATION IN BERKELEY

Members of Cowbridge U3A History Group recently visited Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, probably best known as the traditional location of the murder of King Edward II. The gruesome version of the deed involves a red-hot poker, although other accounts mention death by suffocation, through smothering with a mattress; less grisly, but still fatal. Schoolboys tend to remember the first method!

The stronghold has Norman origins and is probably the oldest continuously occupied castle in England, after the royal fortresses of the Tower of London and Windsor Castle. It has remained within the Berkeley family, except for a period of royal ownership by the Tudors, since they reconstructed the original motte and bailey in the 12th Century. After the English Civil War, the Royalist Berkeleys were allowed to retain ownership on condition that they never repaired the damage to the Keep and Outer Bailey.

The comprehensive 90 minute guided tour encompassed most areas of the castle; the private apartments occupy only 15% of the building. There is a steep flight of 24 stone steps to the Keep, deliberately designed with very different tread heights as a defensive measure, but these were tackled only by the brave (or foolhardy); most of the party took the easier route through the Castle.

Fortified by an excellent open-air lunch, some of the group were content to explore the extensive Castle gardens, but most opted to visit the nearby house of Dr Edward Jenner, the pioneer of vaccination. The advice Jenner was given as a young apprentice surgeon was: “Don’t think; try”, and he spent the rest of his life in the practical pursuit of scientific knowledge. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1788.

Jenner’s foremost contribution to medicine and the alleviation of human suffering was, of course, vaccination. Noting the common observation that milkmaids were generally immune to smallpox, a contagious, disfiguring and often deadly disease, Jenner postulated that the pus in the blisters that milkmaids received from contracting cowpox (a similar illness, but much less virulent) protected them from smallpox.

He scraped pus from cowpox blisters on the hands of Sarah Nelmes, a milkmaid, who had caught cowpox from a cow called Blossom, and tested his hypothesis by inoculating James Phipps, an eight-year-old boy, with the noisome material. When James was later deliberately exposed to the smallpox virus by Jenner, an act that would be considered highly unethical today, the boy did not develop the illness. Smallpox had been beaten and mankind has much to thank Dr Jenner for.

James was later rewarded with a cottage by Jenner for his contribution to medical advancement, but history does not record if Blossom received any extra fodder.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable and educational day out was had by all.

Steve Monaghan