We all love a heroine…even if her exerts are in favour of her Lancastrian lover! 😲 The story of Blanche Heriot of Chertsey in Surrey is set in 1471, just after Edward IV has won back his throne. The lover in question, one Nicholas Audley, fought on the wrong side, was captured and sentenced to death at the first stroke of the curfew bell. A mutual friend of the lovers, Herrick Evenden, whose life had been saved by Nicholas, takes a ring to the king to beg for condemned man’s life, and the king grants a pardon.
But even though the pardon is carried to Chertsey as swiftly as possible, it still hasn’t arrived when the sentence is set to be carried out. In dread for her lover’s life, Blanche climbs to the curfew bell in the church of St Peter’s, and prevents it from being heard even though it rings. She is injured but still clings on for Nicholas’s sake. But then the pardon does arrive, and because the curfew bell hadn’t sounded, Nicholas is freed. The two are married and live happily ever after….
Oh, what a lovely story. But apparently that’s exactly what it might really be, a story. It could well date from only 1842 when writer Albert Smith, born in Chertsey, wrote his first play, called Blanche Heriot, or The Chertsey Curfew, which was staged at the Surrey Theatre. And so the Blanche Heriot legend was born!
aka Davidge’s Royal Surrey Theatre, the Royal Circus, the Royal Surrey Theatre, the Surrey Vaudeville Theatre and the Surrey Theatre of Varieties.
Oh, stop right there, viscountessw! It doesn’t do to make such sweeping statements without being sure of the facts. Or, as sure of them as possible.
Aha! It seems that Albert Smith declared that the play was based on old Chertsey lore. Oh, I do hope it was from the 15th century and that Blanche and Nicholas really did live happily ever after. Even if he was a Lancastrian! 😕 I suppose we can’t have everything…. 😄
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