The Cutlers' Feast
Since 1682 on the first Thursday in September, a dinner is given in the Cutlers' Hall to the nobility, gentry and the principal inhabitants of Sheffield. In 1771 the Cutlers' Feast was observed as a great holiday, the gentlemen were entertained on the first day, the ladies on the second, and servants and workmen also had a treat on the third day. Bells were kept constantly ringing during the three days, booths were erected in the streets for the sale of spices, fruit, etc and all business was generally suspended.
In 1790 Master Cutler, Joseph Ward, invited 390 gentlemen to the Feast. As the capacity of the rooms could only accommodate 260 guests, a large margin was allowed for refusals, nevertheless “guests were seated at the table an hour or two before dinner was served, for fear they should not get a good seat. There was a lack of elbow room and one rejoiced if he could obtain an inferior piece of venison.” The guest list was headed by the Duke of Devonshire who according to tradition would send a gift of venison.
The following day “an entertainment equally hospitable and elegant” was given by the Mistress Cutler for the ladies (340 invited). Fourteen gentlemen (of whom etiquette decreed that eight must be unmarried – The Peculiar Favourites of Fortune) were given “the honour of carving on this delightful occasion, for the illustrious bevy of beauty, taste and fashion.” Twenty year old Samuel Broomhead Ward was among the lucky ones.
The invoices for Joseph Ward's Feast of 1790 show purchases of; lobsters, ham, legs of mutton, rump of beef, loin of veal, fowls, turkeys, geese and ducks. There were also such delicacies as calves head and feet, tongues and udders. Vegetables included cabbages, tatoes, turnips, carrots, peas, celery, horseradish and hartychoaks. Fruit was cherries, raspberries, currants and preserved apricots.
These lavish feasts costing between £200-300 per year, combined with a reduction of the Company's income depleted the coffers so that between 1809-1811 diners were charges 15 shillings to attend and the ladies' feast was not held, much to the despair of Sheffield milliners. The traditions of the feast underwent a revival with the admission of steel manufacturers to the Company in 1860. The formalities of the feast have evolved with the years, notably the admission of women as guests of the Master Cutler, speeches being restricted to four (political point-scoring being frowned upon), and the reduction in the number of courses served from nine to four but the impressive pageantry, ceremony and many of the quaint little customs of centuries past remain.
Sources
Leader R.E. The History of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire, 1909
Hunter J. Hunter's Hallamshire, 1819
The archives of the Cutlers' Company P8/I
Bell A.B. and Leader R.E. Peeps
into the Past -being the diary of Thomas Asline Ward
London; W.C. Leng, 1909.
Binfield C. and Hey D. (ed) Mesters
to Masters
Oxford University Press,
1997
The
Myers Family History -The Cutlers' Feast
Cathy Clarke, Whangarei, New Zealand
email; mel.clarke@clear.net.nz
Last updated 26 April 2003
