the word, old "Cheeky Ned"
Got up and knocked him down.

To fight they went like bull-dogs,
As it is very well known,
Till "Cheeky Ned" seized Billy's thumb,
And bit it to the bone.

At this the Wednesfield men begun
Their comrade's part to take,
And never was a fiercer fight
Fought at a village wake.

They beat the men from Will'n'all town
Back to their town again,
And long they will remember
This Wednesfield wake and main.

The site of the Willenhall Bull Ring, it may be added for the information
of future generations, was opposite the Baptist Chapel, Little London,
where Temple Bar joins the Wednesfield and Bloxwich Roads.

Among other Wake observances of the last century were the "Club Walkings"
or processioning of the Friendly Societies, whose members first attended
a brief service in the church, and then spent the rest of the day in
feasting at the Neptune Inn opposite. Tradition hath it that further
back, well into the Georgian era, and certainly before Mr. Fisher's time,
another Wake custom was that of "kissing the parson," a privilege of
which the women were said to be very jealous.

In the year 1857 the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers, Member of Parliament for
the Borough of Wolverhampton, of which this township was part,
inaugurated in Willenhall one of the first exhibitions of fine art and
industry ever held in the Black Country. It was opened on the Monday in
the Wake week, and Mr. Villiers alluded to the fact that "they met in the
midst of one of those old-fashioned wakes which it was the humour of
their ancestors to establish and be pleased with," and the right hon.
gentleman proceeded to contrast the present with the past conditions of
Willenhall Wake-time.

A flourishing Free Library--founded like many another in the face of
great local opposition and prejudice--is one of the legacies of that
exhibition, from the date of which may be traced the more rational
observance of Wake-time.

With the advance of science and art and the spread of popular education,
the future prosperity of an ingenious community, like that of the skilled
mechanics and deft craftsmen of this township, is assured. Impressed
with such certitude it is all but a work of supererogation to echo the
patriotic sentiment of the old-time townsfolk--

"LET WILLENHALL FLOURISH!"

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