 SHIRLAND AND THE JUBILEE (April, 1887)[1].
The good people of Shirland parish,
Always so loyal and free,
Are anxious to get up a memorial
In honour of the Jubilee.
But from some cause or other,
Alas! they cannot agree,
As to what should constitute a memorial
In honour of the Jubilee.
The rector, worthy man,
A new clock would like to see
On the tower of the parish church.
In honour of the Jubilee.
T'would be all very well, said the lawyer,
A new clock on the tower to see ;
But I think of a more fitting memorial
In honour of the Jubilee.
There's the green in front of Comb villa,
I think t'would be nice, don't you see,
To have it all level and planted
In honour of the Jubilee.
But hold, says the schoolboard officer,
I really cannot agree
For Shirland to have all the benefit
And honour of the Jubilee.
We must have a ball at the Endowed School,
And the "Leg o' Mutton," a tea,
Let us roast a good fat bullock
In honour of the Jubilee.
Then thus spake the butcher, right boldly,
A fig for your clock and (green) tea,
Let us roast a good fat bullock
In honour of the Jubilee.
Let us also have a tent
Out in the fields so green,
We'll drink the health until morning
Of our most gracious Queen.
But, said Mr. B. the elder,
How are you going to see,
If fair lunar her light should hide
On the night of the Jubilee?
With gas let us lighten the darkness ;
I think it far better would be
To have lamps in Higham and Shirland,
In honour of the Jubilee.
Alas! that self interest should mar
Our loyalty and love for a Queen,
Whose reign has been one of the brightest
That ever old England has seen.
Let us all unite together,
And surely successful we'll be,
In doing some permanent good
In honour of the Jubilee.
Let us succour the widow and fatherless,
It is a divine command ;
Let us seek out the poor and help them—
What work more Noble and grand ?
Then god will bless our efforts,
And the Queen well pleased will be,
When she hears of Shirland's memorial
In honour of her Jubilee.
Higham. E.T.
The JUBILEE. (May, 1887)[2].
The day is near at hand, come join the festive band,
And celebrate the fiftieth year of reign ;
The glories of the time shall set the bells to chime—
Our days may never see the like again.
A peaceful reign she'd had, which makes a nation glad, —
Most other lands shall help to share the feast ;
And so from pole to pole the joyful news shall roll,
In honour of the Empress of the East.
Our soldiers shall parade, raise high the glittering blade
In honour of her Majesty the Queen ;
The Army bands will play that all may pass the day
And make it one that's very seldom seen.
Our Navy on the main will join the joyful strain
And hoist their colours waving on the sea ;
And this shall be their song "God save Victoria long"
To rule this noble land of liberty.
In villages or towns the memory of the crown
Shall be the only subject of the day ;
"Victoria!" they cry, shall echo to the sky,
While every sign of honour we display.
How long I cannot tell since this honour fell
For England to proclaim a jubilee :
But this is very plain few men shall see again
A day of pleasure as this shall be.
No other sway can boast of freedom on the coast,
As this which Queen Victoria holds to day ;
May she have long to reign over Britain's wide domain,
And die in peace when she must pass away.
Let rich and poor rejoice and raise their cheerful voice
And waft the strain across Great Britain's shore ;
Let all who hear the lay rejoice with us and say
"God bless our Queen Victoria evermore."
The flags of every sort, shall wave in every port,
All shall rejoice to keep the memory green ;
And when the day is o'er the cry from shore to shore
Shall be "Long live our noble British Queen."
Shirland. TREVIS HOLMES.
Shirland did celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, despite the indecision commented on in the first poem. On 21 June 1887
some 600 scholars and their teachers, headed by Hucknall Brass Band, walked around Shirland and Hallfield Gate, singing their Jubilee
hymns. The scholars had tea at 3p.m. and the old folks ate a meat tea at 4p.m. Afterwards they went into a field belonging to Mr. J.
Lamb, and listened to three short addresses before racing for prizes, dancing and other amusements took place which lasted until
10 p.m. when a bonfire was lit on Pit Hill by Mr. Rhodes to the singing of "God Save the Queen"[3].
SHIRLAND CHURCH BELLS (1902)[4].
Alfreton Journal, 24 December 1902.
Those bells that hang in yonder tower,
Have often pealed the sacred hour
To call us to the house of prayer,
To offer up our tributes there,
In supplication to impart
The deepest secrets of our hearts.
Those bells have often swell'd the air
With tidings of the bridal pair,
In unity to call them forth
To meekly bow and take the oath,
In grief or joy to live and love,
And constant to each other prove.
To rich and poor, to young and old,
Those bells have oft a message told,
Deep sorrow mingled with the sound
A lifeless form, friends weeping round
Their last and lov'd respects to pay
To friend or kindred passed away.
Though many they have pass'd and gone.
Those village bells will still ring on,
And many who those bells have toll'd,
Lie sleeping 'neath the grassy mound,
Music still hovering o'er the spot,
And murmuring, whisper—nor forgot.
The more we listen to those bells
The sound of a greater lesson tells,
The great, the small, however brave,
Those bells will call them to the grave,
And teach us all prepared to be
To meet our future destiny.
And at the merry Christmas time
Those bells have never ceased to chime
To spread glad tidings o'er the earth
In memory creature striven,
And rings for all the bells of Heaven.
New Higham. TREVIS HOLMES.
More poems about places in Derbyshire:
 Matlock & Matlock Bath: Inspiration of Poets is a large anthology about the former spa of
Matlock Bath and hydropathy centre of Matlock.
Poems about Ashbourne.
Poems about Bonsall.
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