DURING the latter half of the 19th century and into the early 20th century there took place in some towns and villages in the Pennines of West Yorkshire what was sometimes referred to as “the annual casting off of the apron strings”.
This was a yearly day of liberty from ‘household chores’ that was taken by married men.
The events were organised by Hen Pecked Clubs which met in ‘secret locations’ – usually the local inn but sometimes a chapel.
They were a working men’s parody on more formal and serious societies such as Freemasons and Friendly Societies and often mimicked their ceremonials and public appearances.
The Freemasons were said to have their origins in the Old Testament – to Hiram who built the first Temple in Jerusalem – and so the Hen Pecked Clubs also looked back to antiquity.
Some clubs claimed to go back to the Garden of Eden.
When the Sowerby club met at Boulder Clough in 1911 they recorded that it was their 5,891st meeting.
They later claimed to have been founded in 3897 BC.
Once a year these clubs processed through towns, and villages – generally from inn to inn.
On these occasions all members were required to display their badge of office which represented some aspect of their domestic duties. It usually took the form of carrying a sweeping brush, a mop, a posser or a fire shovel.
When, on one occasion, a wife saw her husband marching, she is said to have dragged him out and admonished him with the words: “I’ll learn tha to walk wi’t ’Enpeckers, when tha knaws tha’s not ’enpecked.”
The first Hen Pecked Club recorded was in Keighley at the Royal Oak Inn on March 10, 1863.
It had been convened to celebrate the marriage of the Prince of Wales, (later Edward VII) and Princess Alexandra of Denmark.
To mark the occasion, members marched through the town displaying their badges, which included their wife’s umbrella, a blacklead brush, a dish cloth and a bed warming pan.
At the end of the march members retired to the Royal Oak where they sat down to a meal of roast beef and a plum pudding that was said to weigh nearly a hundredweight.
The Keighley Hen Pecked Club was the creation of Henry Thompson, the landlord of the Royal Oak on Damside.
He was better known as Harry Tap and later owned the White Horse Brewery at Hermit Hole and the inn across the road.
The idea of forming a club may well have been sparked by a popular book of the period – The Hen-Pecked Husband by Harriet Ann Scott – which focused on the domestic struggles within the Victorian household.
Although now largely forgotten, it was said to rival Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights in popularity at the time.
The Keighley Hen Pecked Club produced a set of rules that followed the format of those of the Friendly Societies, with the exception that they were designed to be amusing and deliberately ridiculous.
The rule book also advertised the availability of a ‘patent wife taming cradle’.
The inventor was Harry Tap and it was described as ‘A New Method for Taming the Shrew.’
The 'peace box cradle' in Cliffe Castle Museum
(Image: Cliffe Castle Museum)
The cradle. which is on display at Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley, was six feet long and two feet wide on half-moon rockers. It had a sliding top to keep the occupant secure and prevent her from getting out.
Along the side was the inscription ‘Henpeck’d Club’s Peace Cradle Box No. 6. Patent Cure for a Cross Wife.’
It could be loaned by a member and once the cradle had been conveyed to his house, and wife, he was to “tuck her in nicely and rock her till she comes round”.
There is no evidence that it was ever used, however when it appeared at the Antiques Road Show filmed at Saltaire in 2011, the presenter, Fiona Bruce, couldn’t resist trying it for size.