Forthcoming events
London
Fabian Autumn Walk 2007
Devised and Presented by Maire
McQueeney
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Event: SLAVE TRADE – the end of the
affair?
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Event type: Guided walk with church visit
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Date: Tuesday 9 October 2007
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Time: 6:00 – 7:30pm
Tickets: £6.50 Fabians/£7.50 guests (payable
to the Fabian Society; please send to:
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Deborah Stoate, Fabian Society, 11
Dartmouth Street, London SW1H 9BN
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Meeting Place: Meet at Clapham Common
Underground Station
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Location Map of Clapham Tube Station
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Transport Info: Northern Line (Zone 2)
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Buses 35 & 37 connect to Clapham Junction
Station
A
two-mile level walk stopping to visit Holy Trinity Church . Devised and
presented by Maire McQueeney, Fabian Society Local Society Representative,
to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the
Slave Trade Act.
Safety
London traffic is dangerous. Please pay
great attention to traffic at all times
Use pedestrian crossings where possible, even if this means going a few
metres out of your way. And watch out for uneven pavements and obstacles
like bollards or parked bicycles.
Security
It is a good idea to carry as little
with you as possible when doing walks. It is safer not to carry valuables
when exploring cities.
The colonial history of Sierra Leone links
the west coast of Africa to Lambeth’s Clapham Common with its fine
eighteenth century church set in broad open space surrounded by the homes of
abolitionists, writers, philanthropists and the Macaulay relations of
‘Radical Dick’ Potter’s granddaughter Beatrice Webb.
In 1935 young novelist Graham Greene was
invited to speak to the Anti-Slavery Society following his journalistic
visit to West Africa . By co-incidence he had recently moved to Clapham
Common where the roots of that society were planted in 1823 by a coterie of
evangelical Anglican reformers, including William Wilberforce MP and Thomas
Clarkson, known to history as The Clapham Sect.
This influential group who met in their
homes on Clapham Common ensured that humanitarian reform became the stuff of
government concern between 1787 and 1833. On a fine summer’s evening the
beautiful eighteenth and nineteenth century houses are a fine backdrop to
Maire McQueeney’s story of men and women who worked to end the iniquitous
slave trade in Britain and founded a colony for freed slaves in Africa .
The Clapham Sect included Henry Thornton,
uncle of novelist E. M. Forster, and Sir James Stephen, grandfather of
writer Virginia Woolf. Both are remembered at Holy Trinity Church where the
rector, Canon David Isherwood, will introduce us to how the parish is
commemorating the 200th anniversary of its special associations
with the
Abolition of the Slave Trade Act.
Maire McQueeney
Tel:
01273-607910 Email:
mairemcqueeney@waitrose.com
