Strange and Unusual Tales from the Isle of Dogs

By The Islander

Although not a born and bred ‘Islander’, it did not take me long to fall under its spell.
The Isle of Dogs is a place of great contrasts and contradictions but is home to thousands and the work destination of many thousands more.
My interest in local history led me into many of the nooks and crannies of the island and led to an idea of spreading its magic further afield. For even in London the ‘island’ is relatively unknown and understood.
When I began the Isle of Dogs Life blog in 2012, I had no idea it would become popular with people all around the world and introduce me to many fascinating people and places.
Over the years, many people have asked when I was going to write a book and finally I have succumbed to the idea. I have always enjoyed finding strange and unusual stories about the ‘Island’ and the surrounding area and I am delighted to bring them together and share them with you.
Happy reading
The Islander

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9780244675592

Book preview

Strange and Unusual Tales from the Isle of Dogs

Strange and Unusual Tales from the Isle of Dogs

Copyright

Copyright © 2018 by The Islander, London

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any

manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use

of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Printing: 2018

ISBN  978-0-244-67559-2

Isle of Dogs Life Publishing

[e-mail]

Introduction

Although not a born and bred ‘Islander’, it did not take me long to fall under its spell.

The Isle of Dogs is a place of great contrasts and contradictions but is home to thousands and the work destination of many thousands more.

My interest in local history led me into many of the nooks and crannies of the island and led to an idea of spreading its magic further afield. For even in London, the ‘island’ is relatively unknown and understood.

When I began the Isle of Dogs Life blog in 2012, I had no idea it would become popular with people all around the world and introduce me to many fascinating people and places.

Over the years, many people have asked when I was going to write a book and finally I have succumbed to the idea. I have always enjoyed finding strange and unusual stories about the ‘Island’ and the surrounding area and I am delighted to bring them together and share them with you.

Happy reading

The Islander

The Strange Visions of Anna Trapnell of Poplar

I am always looking out for those unusual stories of local people in history and the life of Anna (or Hannah) Trapnell is certainly unusual.

Anna Trapnell was born in Poplar in the 1630s, the only child of William Trapnell who was a shipwright. It is worth noting at this time that Poplar was a small hamlet which had a number of ship workers residents who worked in the shipyards at Blackwall. The East India Company based their operations in Blackwall when they bought a shipyard in 1614.

Little is known about Anna's mother except that she bought up Anna to be able to be literate and to believe in God. Anna later said that When a child, the Lord awed my spirit, and so for the least trespass, my heart was smitten. Anna believed that her relationship with God was a personal one, and around the time of her mother's death in 1645, she began to experience visions of a religious nature.

Her father had died sometime before, so Anna went to live with her aunt and visited a number of congregations especially around St Dunstan's in Stepney. In her pursuit for religious salvation she underwent fasting that led to trances and visions. Although Anna's religious experiences were extreme even for the time, they were no means unusual. However it is the next stage of her life that made her name and for a short time she became a 'famous celebrity'.

After a serious illness in 1647, Anna's visions became more like prophecies of future events.  The visions were published in a series of pamphlets which gave testament of Anna's ability to see the future. She said she foresaw the New Model Army's entry into London,  in 1650 she saw Cromwell's defeat of the Scots at Dunbar, In 1652 Anna predicted victory over the Dutch and 1653 Cromwell's dissolution of the Barebones Parliament and being declared Protector .

Whilst attending a trial at Whitehall, she went into a trance and was taken to a local inn where she lay on the bed with eyes shut and began to recite verses over the next twelve days not eating and drinking only a small sip of beer. One of the visions she related was that God would punish Cromwell for his corruptions. Anna may have thought she had divine guidance in heaven but she was making some dangerous enemies on earth.

England after the Civil war was in political and religious turmoil, Anna's attack on Cromwell would have normally resulted in her death. Her insistence that she was God's prophet led various religious institutions to accuse her of blasphemy or witchcraft. After her Whitehall visions, she decided to go to Cornwall and spread the word of God but was arrested and charged with witchcraft, madness, whoredom, vagrancy, and seditious intent.

However by quoting freely from the bible and insisting that she was a free single woman who had a  right to pray, publish, and travel according to common law and God's word, she remarkably managed to escape being convicted and possible death but was taken to Plymouth to be sent back to London and was taken to Bridewell Prison . Anna now was at the height of her fame and rather than make her a martyr, the government decided to release her.

In a time of great religious and political intolerance, Anna through a combination of religious zeal and a belief in her own rights had taken on the establishment and survived. It is important to recognise it was her skill to present her argument in a sensible and reasonable manner that prevented her being considered mad and being burnt as a witch.

For the next couple of years, she travelled around and published her trances until she mysteriously drops out of the public arena.  No-one knows what happened next or when she died, but in recent years the interest in the incredible exploits of the young girl from Poplar has steadily grown.

Limehouse and The Great Storm of 1703

Whilst recently researching about Limehouse Hole, I came across the fascinating story about The Great Storm of 1703 and the way that the ships in the Thames were destroyed on the Limehouse riverfront.

One of the great chroniclers of the Great Storm was Daniel Defoe who produced a book based of eyewitness reports which is now considered one of the first pieces of modern journalism.

Defoe had spent most of 1703 in trouble, one of his published pamphlets about Dissenters led to him being placed in a pillory for three days in July and then imprisoned in Newgate Prison.  He only obtained his release in November after agreeing to act as a spy.  Within a week of his release from prison, Defoe witnessed the Great Storm of 1703, on the 26th and 27th November. He was particularly interested in the shipping on the Thames and provided the following report.

The Storm

Nor can the damage suffered in the river of Thames be forgot. It was a strange sight to see all the ships in the river blown away, the pool was so clear, that as I remember, not above 4 ships were left between the upper part of Wapping, and Ratcliffe Cross, for the tide being up at the time when the storm blew with the greatest violence, no anchors or landfast, no cables or moorings would hold them, the chains which lay cross the river for the mooring of ships, all gave way.

The ships breaking loose thus, it must be a strange sight to see the hurry and confusion of it, and as some ships had nobody at all on board, and a great many had none but a man or boy left on board just to look after the vessel, there was nothing to be done, but to let every vessel drive whither and how she would.

Those who know the reaches of the river, and how they lie, know well enough, that the wind being at south-west westerly, the vessels would naturally drive into the bite or bay from Ratcliff Cross to Limehouse Hole, for that the river winding about again from thence towards the new dock at Deptford, runs almost due south-west, so that the wind blew down one reach, and up another, and the ships must of necessity drive into the bottom of the angle between both.

This was the case, and as the place is not large, and the number of ships very great, the force of the wind had driven them so into one another, and laid them so upon one another as it were in heaps, that I think a man may safely defy all the world to do the like.

The author of this collection had the curiosity the next day to view the place, and to observe the posture they lay in, which nevertheless it is impossible to describe; there lay, by the best account