Machonachie, Paxton, Tickler....

[Fred van Woerkom]

Came across these words in a discussion of Ivor Gurney's poems:

 

Machonachie, Paxton, Tickler, and Gloucester Spheres, 

Fray Bentos, Spiller and Baker, odds and evens,

Of trench food.

What is the meaning and the origin of the words in italics? 

 

I have seen 'Fray bentos' explained as deriving from the name of the port in Urugay, famous for meat packing. Is that true?

 

Cheers,

Fred

[Fattyowls]

19 minutes ago, Fred van Woerkom said:

I have seen 'Fray bentos' explained as deriving from the name of the port in Urugay, famous for meat packing. Is that true?

Hi Fred, that is true; it is also a brand of tinned meat products which still exists in the UK. It was also the ironic name of a very famous WW1 tank. Spiller and Bakers were a firm of flour millers.

Pete.

 

[Fred van Woerkom]

Thanks, Pete!

[pierssc]

It is tricky without the context, but the only hit for "Gloucester spheres" which comes up on a Google search is your post above!

I wonder whether it is a reference to his poem "Day-Boys and Choristers" which contains the lines "Golf balls, tennis balls, cricket and footballs,
Balls of all sizes and sorts were sent....."   the balls being spheres, of course.

 

[pierssc]

18 minutes ago, Fattyowls said:

Hi Fred, that is true; it is also a brand of tinned meat products which still exists in the UK. It was also the ironic name of a very famous WW1 tank. Spiller and Bakers were a firm of flour millers.

Pete.

 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7389417/Fray-Bentos-corned-beef-kept-British-soldiers-fed-two-World-Wars-disappears-shelves.html

[Fred van Woerkom]

Hi Pierce,

 

(Gloucester Spheres) Sweets in the form of balls? Bread buns? 

Strangely enough I found my quotation also out of context, just the three lines that I quoted.

 

Fred

[seaJane]

31 minutes ago, Fred van Woerkom said:

Gloucester Spheres

Gloucester cheeses? Although they are wheels or rounds, not spheres; but they are, famously, rolled: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper's_Hill_Cheese-Rolling_and_Wake

 

 

 

[Fred van Woerkom]

Thank you, seaJane. This makes sense.

Cheers,

Fred

[pierssc]

2 hours ago, Fred van Woerkom said:

Hi Pierce,

 

(Gloucester Spheres) Sweets in the form of balls? Bread buns? 

Strangely enough I found my quotation also out of context, just the three lines that I quoted.

 

Fred

I have found it Fred - the lines come from the poem "Laventie" and it is actually "Gloucester's Stephens".   It is referred to in this article: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v21/n20/arnold-rattenbury/how-the-sanity-of-poets-can-be-edited-away.  The poem itself can be found at https://allpoetry.com/Laventie  and someone asked the same question as you 9 months or so ago at https://literature.stackexchange.com/questions/17839/what-do-these-lines-mean-in-ivor-gurneys-laventie.

So what, then, was or were Gloucester's Stephens?  I'm afraid I have no idea!

EDIT I can only think that there was a manufacturer of army food called Stephens who hailed from Gloucester (Gurney's home) but my searches so far have drawn a blank.

 

 

Edited 2 December , 2021 by pierssc

[pierssc]

Possibly it was this company: 

"In 1870 John Stephens opened a vinegar & pickle factory in St Catherine’s Street [Gloucester] on the site of the old parchment works. By 1881, it employed 30 men and 80 women but by 1901, over 400 were being employed.  Around 1887, the site was rebuilt to plans designed by architects Moore & Maberly of Gloucester – this image shows the office block that was built for the firm.  In 1901 the company was described as "purveyors, manufacturers, packers, bottlers, and manufacturers of or dealers in pickles, jams, marmalade, fruits, sauces, soup, jellies, food stuffs, provisions, confectionery etc”.  Stephens died in 1911 and in 1919, the company was to be voluntarily wound up to allow a reconstruction, although it actually continued trading until at least 1935."

 

From https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/archives/learning-for-all/online-exhibitions/centurions-kings-captains-exploring-the-history-of-kingsholm/centurions-kings-captains-exploring-the-history-of-kingsholm-display-18-of-27/

More about the company here: https://www.pressreader.com/uk/gloucestershire-echo/20210128/281569473396802

Edited 2 December , 2021 by pierssc

[Fred van Woerkom]

Hi Piers,

 

Now that you mention 'Laventie' I remember it as well, but only the three lines quoted outside the context of the poem in its entirety. Perhaps 'Spheres/Stephens is either what the poet rewrote of what someone else misquoted. Laventie was Gurney's first posting according to Kate Kennedy's wonderful biography, 'Dweller in Shadows'.

 

Thanks for the other posts on Gurney. What a fascinating man he was!

 

If my memory serves me right, was there ever a radio play 'The Fine-Tuning of Ivor Gurney' some dozen years ago? I didn't record it. More's the pity.

[pierssc]

I suspect it's a misquote.  "Stephens" seems to be the universal version.  I'm sure with a bit more digging around you could find other references to J. Stephens as being a supplier of food to the army, even if they weren't as big as Machonachies or Fray Bentos.  In the context of the poem, a reference to a maker of pickles, jams, and other preserved foods, who was an employer of significance in the author's home town, seems to make perfect sense; as a Gloucester man it might have meant more to Gurney than to others.  But as for "Gloucester spheres", well, when one searches online for two words in quotation marks, and comes up with nothing relevant, one has to question whether they have been used together  I'm afraid I'm not familiar with Gurney (though more so that I was yesterday!) and don't know about any radio play.

 

Cheers

Piers

Edited 3 December , 2021 by pierssc