The Media Archive for Central England is the public screen archive for the East and West Midlands. An independent charity and company based at the University of Lincoln, MACE acquires, catalogues, preserves and makes widely available moving image materials that inform our understanding of the diverse cultures and histories of communities between the Lincolnshire coast and the Welsh border.
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Dick Whittington
A medieval Lord Mayor of London and his famous cat are remembered in rural Gloucestershire.
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Overview
The story of povery stricken Dick Whittington travelling to London with a cat and finding fame and fortune has, like so many myths, some basis in truth. Richard Whittington was born at Pauntley in Gloucestershire in the 1350s and became Lord Mayor of London four times. His importance to the city was marked in 1959, approximately 600 years after his birth, when Harold Gillett, the Lord Mayor of London at the time, unveiled a plaque at Pauntley .
The editor of ATV's magazine programme Midland Montage must have thought that the plaque unveiling was not visually exciting enough, so played up the pantomime tradition by incorporating a member of the production team in a cat costume. The cat had been part of the legend of Dick Whittington since the early 1600s, as had his more humble origin (Richard was from a well-to-do Gloucestershire family). Both embellishments were added to the Dick W. story nearly two hundred years after his actual death.
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