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Summer 2002
Maggoty - A Sense of The Sinister... | |
|   | | Maggoty Johnson - quite a character |
| | Gawsforth Primary School, near Macclesfield in Cheshire, came first in a BBC project for their children's fascinating project on the sinister local character, Maggoty Johnson. |
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| | Sense of Place Education is a BBC radio project which asked schoolchildren to celebrate the distinctive qualities of their communities - including ones in Staffordshire & Cheshire.
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So good were many of the projects that BBC Radio Stoke Local-Radio decided to exhibit many of them, and to run a competition to see which was the most innovative.
Step forward... Gawsworth!
And .....in first place..... came Gawsforth Primary, near Macclesfield in Cheshire, for their children's fascinating project on the sinister local character, Maggoty Johnson.
Below are just some extracts from their project....
The story of MaggotyJohnson
No one knows why Maggoty quarrelled with Hannah Bailey nearly three centuries ago, so Emma tried her best to imagine what the cause of it might have been...
Samuel Johnson (more commonly known as Maggoty Johnson) lived in Gawsworth. He was an ugly, pot-marked big-head, who thought the world of himself. He fell out with an old lady named Hannah Bailey who also lived in Gawsworth. She had grey hair, was rather short and wasn’t all that pretty herself. Many people wonder how the argument started. This is what I think.......
| | The subject of Gawsworth's project |
In 1752 Maggoty Johnson was the last jester in England, and a very good one too!
Most people thought he was fantastic and he thought he was fantastic too, for he was such a big-headed-person! But there was one lady whom he hated and she hated him. She was called Hannah Bailey. Hannah loathed him because when Maggoty entertained, he would pick someone out of the crowd and make fun them. Everyone laughed hysterically when he picked on someone else, but dreaded the thought of him picking on them.
One time he chose Hannah. He yelled, "Look at the fat on that!" pointing at Hannah. (I forgot to mention that she was very chubby). "And look at those wrinkles, she must be ancient!" That really wound Hannah up. Scrambling onto the stage, she shouted, "Just look at pot-marked face of his" (sic).
Everyone burst out laughing. "Not forgetting the massive nose, it’s bigger than everything on his face except hi mouth!" She added. Hannah kept on and on about Maggoty. People thought she was so funny that she got hired for three parties and a wedding!
This nearly cost Maggoty his job, but, soon enough people began to get bored with Hannah Bailey telling the same old jokes about Maggoty Johnson.
More of them went back to Maggoty, but he never forgave Hannah Bailey!
Emma Ferguson |
The children also collected some of the local legends about Maggoty...
| | Alexandra's picture of Maggoty |
If you called Maggoty Johnson’s name 13 times on Hallow E’en he will rise from the grave and perform for you.
If you run round his grave 12 times backwards, at midnight, he will rise from his grave and take you back in to it.
Maggoty Johnson is buried in the wood in Gawsworth; it is now called Maggoty Wood, where he had built a vault for himself and his horse. The reason why he is buried in the wood is because he did not want to be near any ladies in the after-life. Also, he did not want his bones mixed up with any ladies’s bones.
Chloe Massey |
OK... over to you. The children of Gawsworth have started the ball rolling... any more local characters that you know of and can tell us of? - Click here to add your thoughts | | | |
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