- Blanche Heriot
Blanche Heriot is a fictional character in the short story "Blanche Heriot. A legend of old
Chertsey Church" which was published byAlbert Richard Smith in The Wassail-Bowl, Vol. II., in 1843 [ [http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&id=-Z4vAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22The+Wassail+Bowl%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=nXH6K68GTo&sig=ZBpqkT6S4ehemuXRXYNYNxHF--U&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result The Wassail-Bowl@Google Books] ] .Blanche Heriot is a young woman, living in
Chertsey during theWars of the Roses . The story is set in May 1471.Blanche has a lover known as Neville Audley who has been away in the wars, fighting for the Lancastrians. He returns to
Chertsey announcing that there is a price on his head and is intent on fleeing to the Continent. However, he is apprehended by Yorkist soldiers inChertsey - he kills one and a dog and flees toChertsey Abbey seeking sanctuary.He is however arrested and sentenced to die at curfew the next day. A mutual friend of Blanche and Neville, Herrick Evenden, agrees to take a token (a ring given to Neville by a nobleman from the Yorkist side for sparing his life) to London to call in the favour and spare Neville's life. However, with only five minutes to go before curfew bell would toll, Herrick was seen approaching
Laleham ferry, half a mile distant, on his return from London. Realising that Neville's life depended on her delaying the Curfew, Blanche ran to the bell tower and ascended the old stairs. She crouched down beneath the bell and clung onto the clapper. Despite being dashed against the bell and frame, she held on until the sexton (assisted by soldiers) decided to climb the tower to investigate. Just then, Herrick Evenden arrived with a pardon for Neville. As might be expected, following his release, a party ensues at the local hostelry, and Neville and Blanche are married shortly afterwards.Albert Smith completes the story with a reference to the motto written around the band of the Curfew Bell "Ora mente pia pro nobis, Virgo Maria". This refers to the bell which is now hung as the fifth bell in the ring of eight at the parish church, St. Peter's, in Chertsey and which was cast circa 1310 and re-cast circa 1380 for Chertsey Abbey by the Wokingham founders who were linked to the Abbey. On the Dissolution of
Chertsey Abbey in July 1537, it was moved to the parish church.A bronze statue of Blanche Heriot by Sheila Mitchell F.R.B.S stands in
Chertsey . [ [http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/934236 Statue of Blanche Heriot@Geograph] ]Lydia Sigourney wrote an article "Love and Loyalty" which appeared posthumously in Peterson's Magazine in September 1865 [ [http://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyctr/books/2001-2100/HDM2007.PDF THE STORY OF "CURFEW MUST NOT RING TONIGHT" - Duane V. Maxey] ] . This is highly likely to be based on the Blanche Heriot story. It was then picked up and formed the basis of the narrative poemCurfew Must Not Ring Tonight byRose Hartwick Thorpe in 1867.External links
* [http://www.stpeterschertsey.org.uk/bells/heriot.htm Chertsey's Curfew]
* [http://www.stpeterschertsey.org.uk/bells/bells.htm Chertsey's Historic Bells "(pictures of Curfew bell)"]References
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