That’s how all the good stories start, isn’t it? So settle down and I shall tell you a tale.
Once upon a time, Poole wasn’t the placid well behaved place that welcomes visitors Once upon a time, we had licensed privateers, who were pirates who paid the King or Queen a percentage of their takings. Our hero was Harry Paye. The Spanish called him ‘ArriPaye’ and they didn’t like him very much. There was something about quite a fewSpanish galleons full of treasure that went missing, and a group of pilgrims that he took to Santiago, who came back with the Commandant’s wife, the treasure and the bell from the cathedral, which is still in the church of St James today. Our local Council offered to give it back a few years ago but they’d replaced it, oddly enough!
He wasn’t a pirate though. He was our Harry and he brought his treasure back to care for his people like a seagoing Robin Hood and so we got very cross when the Spanish came and took their revenge and set light to the town and killed his brother Robbie. He swore to get what some call Payeback and to quote from this blog https://www.oldharry.com/blogs/yarns/43814019-the-story-of-harry-paye
“ Certain that their bloody invasion would deter Harry from attacking their ships ever again, the French sailed a ship laiden with the finest wine along the English Channel. Their prediction was wrong. He was heartbroken at the loss of his brother, but Harry's sense of adventure was undimmed. Harry launched his ship, sailed it out to cut off the French ship, and swung aboard with his crew. Together, they captured the crew, raided their stores, and loaded 12,000 gallons of the finest wine any man had ever seen onto their ship. They left the empty French ship floating along the coast, and sailed their own vessel back home to Poole.
When they reached familiar Dorset soil, Harry made a declaration to the people of his hometown. As a small compensation for the tragedy they had suffered, the whole of Poole was invited to drink the wine, stolen from the invaders who had slain so many of Poole's men while Harry was adventuring on the open seas.
And drink it, they did. The whole town was drunk for a month straight, so it's said, and Harry's name became legend. That's why to this day, the people of Poole celebrate Paye day every year, when they toast the memory of the pirate and adventurer who foiled the French, and shared his wine.
Drink up, for Harry Paye.”
Obviously, we’re much, much more civilised these days (unless you look at how much we charge for parking and ice creams) so we welcomed the Spanish Galleon Andalucia to Poole this week and I went along to have a look. Isn’t she beautiful?
And then, on the way home, I stopped in my favourite spot to have a drink because it was VERY hot. Look closely at the black flag flying from the blue boat and you will see that we remember… There in the distance is Corfe Castle. The terms of Poole's charter said we had to build the town where it could keep an eye on us, and look, we did as we were told!
You can find out more about the history of Poole in my next Amy Hammond book, ‘Crazy for Death’ which is due out next month and in the next but one Lucy Williams book ‘I could not dig…’ which will be out next year. But what I can tell you right now is that I am so, so lucky to live here and share it with you so you can visit in your imagination.
Have a brilliant week, and see you on Tuesday!
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