A Shirley Shadford Caistor armchair in unexpected places - the Busby Stoop chair

A Caistor chair ended up far from the workshop where it was made: 90 miles north at the Busby Stoop Inn on the A61 between Thirsk and Ripon.  The inn closed in 2012 and is now The Jaipur Spice Indian restaurant. As the writer led the Serious Fraud Office investigation into the affairs of The Ostrich Farming Corporation more than twenty years ago and has also cooked professionally, he is delighted on two grounds that The Jaipur Spice serve a fusion dish of Ostrich Jaflong (ostrich meat cooked with aromatic spice and herbs, garlic, ginger, spring onions, methi, fresh bullet chillies and served with mushroom pilau, since you ask).  Its Tripadvisor reviews are very good too.

In its last manifestation as a pub the Busby Stoop Inn had the rare, possibly unique, distinction of a Caistor chair painted on the sign. As may be seen from the pictures below the sign was rather fetching.

© Northern Echo

A comprehensive account of the myths surrounding the chair appeared in the Northern Echo on 29 October 2014.

"[...] Until 1978, the chair had remained at the Busby Stoop Inn, three miles west of the town, where the celebrated historian Ralph Thoresby noted in 1703 that he had passed "the doleful object of Thomas Busby hanging in chains for the murder of Daniel Auty". Accounts abound that Busby had fallen out with Auty, his father-in-law, who had sat in his chair after an argument about Auty's daughter, Elizabeth. It is said on his way to the gallows, Busby's last request was to stop at the pub and after finishing his ale, proclaimed "May sudden death come to anyone who dare sit in my chair". The remained in the pub for centuries, and people were dared to sit in it. [...]"

In 1978 the then landlord, apparently scared by its reputation, gave the chair to the Thirsk Museum where it remains to this day.

These chairs were made in William Shirley junior's and later John Shadford's workshop in Caistor between 1843 when William Shirley junior (1817 - 1889) moved from Grantham to Caistor and at the latest 1890. Shirley died in 1889 and Shadford (1828 - 1890) a year later.  William's younger brother Frederick (1836 - 1898), also a chair maker, in all likelihood also made these chairs - he is recorded as a chairmaker in the Caistor census in 1851 (apprentice), 1861 and 1871.  By 1881 Frederick was in Sculcoates, Hull where he remained until his death in 1898, making chairs. William Shirley junior had a son, Alfred (1845 - 1919) recorded as a chair maker in Caistor in 1871 and 1881 and later as a chair maker but variously in Crowle 1891, Manchester 1901 and Sculcoates 1911.  There is therefore a strong possibility that some of these Caistor chairs were later made north of the Humber by Frederick and Alfred Shirley, probably in Hull.  

The Busby Stoop Inn chair is the 4 bobbin cross stretcher model, a more rounded example of which appears below. 

However alluring the myth, the chair was made at least 140 years and possibly as many as 190 years after the events with which it has become indelibly associated.  The Busby Stoop chair features in many accounts written by fans of ghosts and the supernatural. The following picture is reasonably representative.

© Haunted History

The Busby Stoop chair's fame has spread rather further than you might think. The author is indebted to his friend John Boden of Caistor, an expert on Caistor and many other chairs, for pointing out the the Busby Stoop chair is even popular in Japan where it features in this manga cartoon, the gist of which can be grasped even by those whose Japanese is limited.

Otogi: Spirit Agents is a CCG (collectible card) RPG (role-playing game) where players are Spirit Agents charged with eliminating evil energy running rampant in the world. Collect spirits in the form of cards and put together a team of four to tackle enemies in fully voice-acted stories and quests.  You know what's coming next, don't you?  Yup, there's a Spirit Agent, and she's called Busby Stoop.  Here she is an all her Caistor-inspired glory.

It would be harsh to point out they've not quite got the cross-stretcher right, wouldn't it?

It would be fitting to finish with this charming picture from Japanese webcomic Axis Powers Hetalia which I tracked down from a blog that no longer exists called Prussiane on one of Willow Smith's Pinterest boards bearing the comment "I swear England is insane". 

Quite possibly so. 

© Julian Parker 2020