Lady Crabtree
St. Wilfrid’s Hall, Pevensey Bay
Sunday afternoon, April 8th. Admission from 3:30pm
Popular and welcome return of Lady Crabtree
After Easter we will enjoy a popular and welcome return visit from the priceless local ‘dignatary’ Lady Crabtree. She will host another elegant tea party in St. Wilfrid;’s Hall on Sunday afternoon April 8th. Admission from 3:30pm. Tickets (available from Tina 01323 351674) £12 each includes full afternoon and a glass of fizz. Ladies please wear your Easter bonnets! Bonnet parade and judging will conclude the entertainment.
Churchwardens Simon and Abigail
—text source, The Parish Pump, 50th Anniversary issue, Spring 2018
Bay Life says, seeing her Grace again, in our view, is a must for the community. Lady Crabtree is our visiting light and our mission. In our view she should be given an honorary role of some description in our community, perhaps as our honorary lady mayor or Lady Lieutenant of our parish. Long may she reign over us. The feedback from her last visit to the Bay was, we understand, accompanied by shrieks of delight that lasted for weeks as people talked about her visitation. Bay Life says, such fun, not to be missed, can we have some more please.
Perhaps Kingston WI summed up her royal progress best in 2014 with this comment.
“There were hoots of laughter as we listened to her often outrageous slant on life and stories of her experiences and advice. Her talk ended with a rousing round of applause; everyone commenting on their enjoyment of such a wonderful speaker. After more than 36 years Lady Crabtree is still wowing audiences . What a wonderful ending to 2014, with smiles all round.” KINGSTON WI
THE DOWAGER LADY CRABTREE is a comedy character performed by author & broadcaster PAUL JAMES since 1978
You can find out more about the biography of Lady C here. Her biography begins with these words.
CONSTANCE MAY ROSE BATTERSBY was born in Warrior Square Gardens, St Leonard’s-on-Sea, East Sussex, on 1st May 1948; her twin sister Millicent was delivered shortly afterwards. This was not only a shock to their mother – who hadn’t realised that she was pregnant – but even more of a surprise to people taking a stroll through Warrior Square Gardens.
With parents in the theatre (performing as the variety double-act ‘The Gay Goslings’), the girls travelled widely throughout childhood, and Constance completed her education at Madame Bernice’s Academy of Refinement and Beauty in London. She met her husband-to-be, the Hon Claude Crabtree, at the Assembly Rooms in York during her twenty-first birthday ball. After a whirlwind romance, they were married on 1st July 1969 in the gloomy church of King Herod the Great on the Crabtree family estate, at Cleghorn St Percy, North Yorkshire. The couple later had twin sons, Giles (disinherited, 1983) and Miles (the present Lord Crabtree, 10th Baron, 1984).
When Claude’s father (Montfort, 8th Baron Crabtree) died on 7th June 1977, Claude inherited the Barony and Constance became Lady Crabtree. It still rankles with her that, if he had died just a day earlier, she would not have been deprived of her seat in St Paul’s Cathedral for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Service. She is convinced that he lingered deliberately, just to spite her.
Now residing in Eastbourne, dividing her time between a sea front hotel and a Home for Gentlewomen Living in Reduced Circumstances, Lady Crabtree continues to fulfill an active public life.
—text source, Lady Crabtree website
IMAGE CREDIT: Lady Crabtree
