Take a look at our latest Trading Stories, Working Lives occupational history – Samuel Taylor, the beadle of Loughborough.

Mention a ‘parish beadle’ and it conjures up images of Mr Bumble in Oliver Twist. Portly and bumptious, Bumble stands in the workhouse canteen overseeing the serving of slops of gruel to a seemingly endless queue of starving boys. “More?” he bellows, when little Oliver has the temerity to request a second helping.

Samuel Taylor would have cut a distinctive figure in the Loughborough streets – decked out in a dark blue coat trimmed with gold braid over a red waistcoat, sporting a bicorn hat worn ‘athwarts’ (side-to-side) and carrying his staff or mace. But what was involved in being the town beadle? Set aside images of serving gruel to Oliver Twist in the workhouse and instead click to download a more accurate depiction: Samuel Taylor, beadle of Loughborough

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