Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, England 7th March 2015. Hercules Clay Penny Loaf Day, Stephen Morris the Rector of St Mary Magdalene Church with twelve 'Penny' loafs, cling-filmed on a silver platter. Hercules Clay was a wealthy cloth merchant who was a former Newark businessman and in 1644 Royalist Mayor of the town during the English Civil War. For three nights in a row he dreamt his house was burning down, he took this as an omen, moving out just before the house was indeed damaged by a...
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Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, England 7th March 2015. Hercules Clay Penny Loaf Day, Stephen Morris the Rector of St Mary Magdalene Church with twelve 'Penny' loafs, cling-filmed on a silver platter. Hercules Clay was a wealthy cloth merchant who was a former Newark businessman and in 1644 Royalist Mayor of the town during the English Civil War. For three nights in a row he dreamt his house was burning down, he took this as an omen, moving out just before the house was indeed damaged by a “grenado”, a mortar shell fired by the besieging Parliamentary forces. He died in 1645, and in his Will he left a legacy providing for an annual sermon in which the preacher was to ‘exhort the people not to set their affections on things of this world but by their good works to lay hold on eternal life’, and for bread to be distributed to the poor. Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, England 7th March 2015.
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