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Whilst searching through the Muniment Room at Forde Abbey, a member of the
Abbey staff found the script of a radio programme entitled 'Forde Abbey
in Dorset. A programme of memories'. According to the script the programme
was broadcast on BBC Radio West and Wales Region on Sunday 4 April 1937 from
5.40 to 6.30 pm. In what would probably be called now a drama documentary,
the author, Norah Richardson, used Bentham's time at the Abbey (1814-18)
as a framing device through which to explore the life of the Abbey from its
foundation. The programme begins with Samuel Romilly recommending to Bentham
that he spend some of the money he received in compensation from the government
for the failure to build a panopticon prison, to rent a house in the country,
and Romilly conveniently finds an advert in The Times announcing that Forde
Abbey is to let. With Bentham in residence, the history of the Abbey unfolds
through the gardener's stories told in response to the questions of Bentham
and James Mill's two eldest children John Stuart and Wilhelmina Mill.
As the gardener begins to talk about the Abbey the dialogue fades into scenes
from Abbey life, some real and some apocryphal: the Cistercian monks are given
land on which to build the Abbey by Lady Adelicia of Thorncombe; the monks
are expelled from the Abbey on the orders of Henry VIII; Edmund Prideaux, Cromwell's
Attorney General, discusses with Inigo Jones his work on the saloon, in which
the Raphael tapestries, a gift from Queen Anne, would later hang; Count Orloff
tries to buy the tapestries for Empress Catherine the Great of Russia for the
sum of £30,000; Bentham hides from Elizabeth Fry when she visits; Mill
works on the History of British India, Bentham works on Church-of-Englandism,
and Sir Samuel and Lady Romilly come to visit.
Engraving of Forde Abbey from the Radio Times page advertising the play
Information obtained from the BBC Archives reveals that Norah Richardson herself played Lady Adelicia and Lady Romilly. The music which accompanied the programme included 'To a Wild Rose' by Edward MacDowell, 'Pictures at an Exhibition' by Mussorgsky, and Vaughan William's 'Linden Lea'. The actors were paid between 3 and 5 guineas, and the boy and girl playing presumably John Stuart and Wilhelmina Mill shared, £1 10s between them.
Norah Richardson was a historian, who lived near Forde Abbey at Red House, Wilton, and Salisbury. She contributed to publications such as The Times, Notes and Queries, Salisbury and Wiltshire Journal, and Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine. There is a record of other radio pieces with local associations by Richardson written between 1937 and 1947: 'The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia', 'The Demon of Tamworth', 'The Dead Drummer of Salisbury Plain', 'Tom Boulder', 'Stour head'. Not all her sources for the piece on Forde Abbey have been traced, and some of her information may well have come from local contacts and be unattributable anecdotes. For instance, no trace has as yet been found to confirm the visit by Elizabeth Fry, or Count Orloff. However from the text it is evident that Richardson made use of the following: The Works of Jeremy Bentham, ed. J. Bowring, Edinburgh, 1843, Vol. X; A. Bain, John Stuart Mill. A criticism, with personal recollections, London, 1882; A. Bain, James Mill. A Biography, London, 1882; Romilly-Edgeworth Letters 1813-18, ed. S.H. Romilly, London, 1936.
'FORDE ABBEY IN DORSET' A Programme of Memories- compiled by Norah Richardson and produced by Cyril WoodAmong the people and things remembered are:- The period covered by the programme will range from the early days of the Abbots to those of the tenancy of Jeremy Bentham |
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Extract from the Radio Times for the play to be broadcast at 5.40pm 4 April 1937
Click on the image above to see the full page of the Radio Times
Catherine Fuller July 2007