RICARDIANS AT MIDDLEHAM: Sixty Years of Support Middleham and its environs have held a special fascination for the supporters of Richard III for well over a century. Richard's Victorian biographer, Caroline Halsted, went on to marry the rector of the church at Middleham. A list of the Richard III Society's accomplishments begins with a Middleham memorial--a stained glass window in the Church of St. Mary and St. Alkelda in the town of Middleham. In the left light is displayed St. Richard of Chichester, with his emblem of an ox; the right light shows St. Anne teaching the Virgin to read. At the base can be seen the kneeling figures of Prince Edward, King Richard, and Queen Anne. The background panes of diamond quarries bear numerous badges of York and Neville. The window was unveiled in 1934 by Marjorie Bowen, the first of many memorials dedicated to the King. The "Elder Fellowship," as the Society's first historian George Awdry describes the original group of organized Ricardians, also gave the church a replica of Richard's Great Seal. "This had now been stolen, to great local indignation," wrote Awdry about the "Reconstituted Fellowship's" activities in 1959, "and we set about replacing it." As most Ricardians know, the "Elder Fellowship" became inactive with the approach of World War II, enjoying a rebirth in the 1950s. Middleham became an early focus of the Society's attentions. In fact, the very first sentence of the very first issue of The Ricardian (October 1961) was about Middleham. Introducing the issue, the editors wrote, "When we roughed out this page, we were in the Windsor of the North, Middleham, Richard's home for so many years. It seemed peculiarly significant to us that we should be carrying out a part of this new idea just where Richard put so many of his into practice.... If you would like us to do so, we will devote a future issue to Yorkshire in general and Middleham in particular." This offer was apparently received with some enthusiasm, and the second issue of The Ricardian (January 1962 carried a three-article section on Yorkshire Ricardian sites, Middleham, and the church at Middleham, along with advice for Ricardian tourists to the region. Middleham was also very much on the minds of those who attended the 1961 AGM in London. George Awdry writes: "Clearly, we should be doing something to help a church in which Richard had taken such an interest. But the problem was, just what to do. We had replaced the stolen replica of Richard's Great Seal; we now thought of a box to contain it. Of a Visitor's Book, perhaps a guide, and Joyce Melhuish set about writing this, and had all but finished when we learned that the Rector was writing his own. He had installed the seal copy appropriately and saw no need for a Visitors' Book. But, like all incumbents, he had restoration problems.... [Ricardian editor Christal Cook] came back with a list of the church's needs, form which we could pick an item that seemed to us both suitable and within our reach in cost." The result was the Trinity Altar Frontal. "The tactical advantage of this," Awdry continues, "is that it hangs on the altar for more than half the year, particularly from just after Whitsunday to the beginning of Advent, throughout the traditional tourist season, in fact. So Isolde [Wigram] sketched a proposal for this, and we took it to the 1961 Annual General Meeting, which liked it too." The resulting design caused seven successive professional embroiderers and makers of church vestments to decline the commission or to offer astronomically high bids. "All pronounced that our design called for much gold thread; that this was expensive, slow and difficult to work with; that the charges on the two coats of arms were vastly complicated, in one case running into seven separate quarterings, which in their turn were sub-divided; and that they could not possibly do the work for anything approaching the sum our small society could raise from its members," explained Joyce Melhuish in the May 1963 issue of The Ricardian. Materials for the frontal proved difficult to locate--the green fabric is silk damask hand-woven with a "St. Nicholas" pattern of palmettes and arabesques. A trip to the firm that produces the Queen's Garter robes produced satin of the right colors but the wrong weight for the appliqués. The amount of gold in the final design was so considerable that embroidery was rejected in favor of appliqués of gold lamé. To make it work, Melhuish and the embroideress found themselves inventing an entirely new appliqué technique--"minor history in the embroidery world." Melhuish's description of the frontal follows: The super-frontal (the flap which runs across the top edge) is finished with heavy gold lurex braid and fringe. It carries the words "REX REGUM ET DOMINUS DOMINANTUM" ("King of Kings and Lord of Lords") which beyond their obvious meaning, refer to the royal connection with Middleham, and the patronage of its church by so many generations of Neville lords. Our frontal itself has a central cross treflé in gold. On a slightly lower plane, and flanking the cross on either side, are two coats of arms, surmounted by crowns of the type shown in the Rous Roll--on the right (facing outwards), the arms of England, and on the left the Neville coat of seven quarters for Newburgh, Beauchamp, Montague, Monthermer, Neville, Clare and Despencer. These are the arms borne by Warwick the King Maker; and placed above the figure of Queen Anne Nevill in the Rous Roll. They also appear, impaled with England, on her memorial, erected by the Society in Westminster Abbey. The Trinity Altar Frontal was installed in the Collegiate Church of St. Mary and St. Alkelda, Middleham, on Trinity Sunday, June 8, 1963. Editors Heather Bennett and Christal Cook wrote in the October 1963 Ricardian: "The frontal itself is very beautiful; we feel it is a gift after King Richard's heart, and we hope it will serve those who use this church as well as Richard served his people, both as Lord of the North and as King of England." The next Middleham project undertaken by the Society concerns the Swine Cross. This cross is thought to commemorate the grant obtained for Middleham in 1479 of a fair and market twice yearly, in Whitsun Week and at the feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, by Richard as Duke of Gloucester. The heraldic animal on the cross may be Richard's own cognizance of the White Boar, or the emblem of the Nevilles. As Awdry explains, "[In 1964] the Swine Cross at Middleham was in urgent need of restoration; local resources could not cover the cost. We agreed to help. We learned next that the Ministry of Public Building and Works...was meeting half the cost. With this backing, and what the Parish Council succeeded in getting from other concerned local authorities, the cost not covered was small enough for us to meet half of it." In his career as Lord of the North, Richard Duke of Gloucester showed his good lordship to the people and the church at Middleham. As Ricardians we can be proud of the Society's contributions at this important Ricardian site.