OLDEST TOWN CRIER

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 29 September 1933, Page 7

OLDEST TOWN CRIER

GOING- STRONG AT NINETY. AT IT FOll SEVENTY YEiAIIS. “Yes,” recently remarked Mr. Sain Smy, or Orford, near Ipswieli, tlie oldest town crier in England, “J. am 90 now. I have been Orford \s crier for t(J years. My. bell is 50 years old : i broke niv first. “My voice is as strong as ever' it was, and people say—l mean big people —that J am the best crier ever. Well,, 1 am willing to cry against any other crier and back myself for a trifle to win.”

A “News of the World” correspondent was in Mr. Shiv’s cottage at Orford, which is a romantic old-world place. Mr. Sam Smy, in addition to being the official crier, is also the oldest inhabitant.

Orford is rather topsy-turvy. It is not really a town any longer, but a village. • instead of progressing in importance and size, it has slipped back in both respects of late years. Not so long ago it was a flourishing small port and had a mayor and corporation. Now the port is derelict, mayor and corporation are no more, and Mr. Smy, as he himself ‘ put it, has been left monarch of all he surveys. Mr Smy deserves the position. He is the grandfather or great-grandfather of nearly all the inhabitants. He had 12 children and has 200 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He has many grand and great-grand nephews and nieces as well.

-‘Of course,’’ Mr Smy liemarked, “all my relatives do not live in Orford. It wouldn’t hold them. There are some in London and '.some in other parts. “I had no schooling,” the old crier went on. “I was ‘clubbed’ when 1 was eight.” (“Clubbed” is an East Coast expression for being apprecentieed to a captain of the Merchant Service). “My ship was the Urban Gear, a beautiful creature with a great sweep of sails-, of South Shields. The I Crimean War was being fought slflbrtly afterward, and our job was to take food, powder and shot to the soldiers. I remember it all as though it happened yesterday. “Our ship,” of course, carried a few guns, and we often had to fight hard and run for it. I was powder-boy and had to bring the. powder and shot to the gunners. Our caotain and several of the crew were killed, and the ship was much knocked about. But -lie survived until the end of the war.” At the age of 20 —away hack in 1863 —Mr Sniv gave up the sea, and from that day to this he has been Orford’s official crier. There is no fire brigade, and one of his duties, when a. fire occurs is to call his fellow-villagers to it with his bell. There are stocks in the so-called market place, and he remembers when they were last- used. One Sunday 70 years ago a drunken man was detained in them until after the church service.

“T. lyad no money when T left +he sea,” Mr Smy remarked. “As T saved a round I was .robbed of it. A terrible place was tlie sea in those days. T was lent a £5 note, and 1 set up business as a “master’ rag-and-bone man. That and ihe crying have been Air work ever since.’’