Interview: What does a town crier do?

Martin Wood: O Ye! O Ye! My Lords, ladies and gentlemen. May you enjoy reading all about me. May you enjoy your day and may God save the King!

Martin Wood, Shrewsbury’s town crierStadtausrufer(in)town crier of 40 years, recorded that very special greeting just for you, dear listener. A town crier is a person who makes official announcements by speaking loudly in public. Each announcement is preceded by the ringing of a bell to get people’s attention. While there are fewer town criers than there were in the past, this job can be a long-term career. This has been the case for Martin, who we will hear from shortly in the following interview with Business Spotlight ­writer and editorRedakteur(in)editor Rachel Preece. In this first extract, you’ll hear how Martin came to be Shrewsbury’s town crier. Listen carefully. 

Rachel: So, first of all, you have been Shrewsbury’s town crier since 1984. Can you tell me how you came to be a town crier?

Martin: I’ve been a historical guide in Shrewsbury for about 45 years, I suppose, something like that. And we had a new tourism officer. When we had a meeting with her, she said, “Oh, it’d be absolutely brilliantgroßartigbrilliant if Shrewsbury had a town crier.” A couple of weeks later, there was an advert in the local paper, in the Shropshire Star, asking for a town crier, which Sue, my wife then, spot sth.etw. entdeckenspotted, and she said: “Why don’t you apply for sth.sich für etw. bewerbenapply for it?” So, I did. It was for 18 hours a year. So, it’s basically one hour every Saturday during the main tourist season, just to stand at the top of Pride Hill and welcome people to Shrewsbury, and that was going to be it. Fortunately, I got it. The first year, it was very, very quiet. But then, after the second year, everything seemed to sort of just go into go into overdrivetüchtig in Bewegung geratenoverdrive. So, fairly rapidly, it turned out that, rather than doing 18 hours a year, I was sometimes doing 18 hours a day.

Rachel: Wow!

Martin: And I was opening shops, closing shops. You know, launch sth.etw. auf dem Markt einführen, präsentierenlaunching cars, doing all sorts of bits and piecesKleinigkeiten, dies und dasbits and pieces. 

Then, Rachel spoke to Martin about the history of this uniqueeinzigartigunique job in the UK.

Rachel: I wanted to ask if you could explain to our readers the history of town criers and why town criers exist.

Martin: Well, the history of town cryingöffentliches Ausrufentown crying for us in the UK goes back to 1066, when William the Conqueror came over, but it does actually go back a couple of thousand years BC — when they used to have them in Egypt. But William the Conqueror, he brought his own town crier over. And in those days, it used to be a husband-and-wife job. The wife used to ring the bell, and the husband used to do the shouting. If you look at the Bayeux tapestryWandteppichTapestry, I think it’s on the third ­panel of the tapestry, there is a town crier depict sb.jmdn. abbildendepicted on the front of one of the boats. 

And because they were going to change rules and regulations and stuff as they came up through the country, the Norman town criers would choose a servant from the lord of the manorGutsherrlord of the manor’s house, teach him the job of town crier. They would then move on to the next town. 

The first-known town crier that we had in Shrewsbury appeared in 1295. It was ­virtually sort of continuous, really, until the end of the 1700s. And then it sort of goes a little bit bitty ­after that. And then the last town crier in Shrewsbury died in 1947. And I came along in ’84 and started it all up again.

They would do all sorts of jobs. They would act as the bodyguards to the ­mayorBürgermeister(in)mayor. Whenever the high-court judgeRichter( in) am Obersten Gerichthigh-court judge came into the town, then it was the job of the town ­crier to escort him to the court. So, there’s all sorts of different jobs.  During the ­medievalmittelalterlichmedieval days, he was the deputyStellvertreter(in); hier: stellvertretenddeputy executionerScharfrichter(in)executioner.

Rachel: Oh!

Martin: So, if the town’s executioner had gone off to Skegness for a week and somebody ­needed, sort of, you know, sort sth. outetw. regelnsorting out, then it was the job of the town crier to do that.

Rachel: And I imagine that the town crier had to fimpart important news to the residents of the town...

Martin: Oh, yes. Yes. That was his main job. Because, I mean, obviously, back in medieval days, of course, most people couldn’t read or write. Although it was one of the things about the town crier; they had to be able to read and write. That was the one thing. In those days, of course, people wrote with a fquill. And the safest and easiest place to put a quill was in their hat, which meant that they could read and write.