The service that never was.

I love to find something unusual or a different angle on places on my tours.

Take St Paul’s Cathedral.

I often guide outside what has been voted as Britain’s greatest building, but didn’t have a special angle.

When I discovered that for only 4 times Maundy money had been distributed from St Paul’s, I thought that’s a perfect example to show people.

The giving of Maundy goods dates back to at least King John in 1210 – nowadays the Queen tours the country each year to hand out special “Maundy” coins to selected pensioners.

Very frequently it was handed out from Westminster Abbey – according to all the expert coin websites I looked at – except years when there was a Coronation, when instead St Paul’s Cathedral would be used.

In the last century, coronations took place in 1902, 1911, 1937 and 1953 – and the expert websites I looked at all confirmed that St Paul’s had been used in these years, even corroborated by Spink, the world famous coin auction house.

I corresponded with the owner of the site “maundymoney.info” who told me:

The “bible” for Maundy information is a book by Brian Robinson Silver Pennies & Linen Towels. This states that for 1902, 1911, 1937 and 1953 the service was held at St Paul’s Cathedral as Westminster Abbey was being prepared for the various coronations. Hence my website www.maundymoney.info also shows this.

So I bought this lovely example of a 3p Maundy coin from 1902, happy in the knowledge I could bring it out at St Paul’s and show it to my amazed and grateful visitors.

Imagine my horror when doing further research on another coin site I found a copy of the Maundy service from 1902 – at Westminster Abbey!

I followed up and eventually contacted the Archivist of St Paul’s Cathedral who sadly told me this:

Dear David,

Many thanks for your email. One of my colleagues has very helpfully found a Times article online (Friday, Mar 28, 1902; pg. 5; Issue 36727) https://www.gale.com/uk/c/the-times-digital-archive which indicates that the Royal Maundy were distributed at Westminster Abbey rather than St Paul’s that year.

Best wishes,

Sarah

Sarah Radford

Archivist and Records Manager

So the moral of the story is – always check your sources.

At least I can now show the Maundy money when I start guiding in Westminster by the Abbey itself – I can also show the coins when at St Paul’s too as an example of not believing everything I read!