Clearwell (General)

by m p griffiths , Friday, September 10, 2010, 07:45 (5194 days ago) @ slowhands

From 'Portrait of Gloucestershire by T A Ryder'

Two men, noted in very different spheres, were born in Clearwell. One was John WHITSTON who became a Bristol merchant and alderman; in that city, at the end of the sixteenth century he founded the Red Maids School - girls' schools were a rarity at that time - whose scholars still occasionally wear their traditional uniform of red frocks and cloaks, like so many "little Red Ridings.

The second man was George WOODLEY. He became coachman to George III, and it was said of him that: his calf was a big round as a man's body, his shoulders as wide as the coach-box. He was a proper handsome man, so powerful he could pull a hogshead of cider off a dray, hold it on his knee and drink out of the bung-hole' - no mean feat that, considering that a hogsheads holds fifty-four gallons!

John WHITSON

http://www.davenapier.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/mayors/whitson.htm