WHO DO YOU THINK THEY WERE?

Stephen Wade tells the stories of some lesser-known people behind the commemorative blue plaques of England

Adam Stark of Gainsborough While Adam Stark (1784-1867) was a Scot, his fame rests firmly in the category of local historian of the Lincolnshire town of Gainsborough. Many of our blue plaques are clustered around the streets of the great cities, but with Stark we celebrate the importance of what is interesting on our own doorstep. Hence his plaque is in the heart of Gainsborough, a town perhaps most associated with transport on the Trent and engineering.

His great work, History and Antiquities of the Town of Gainsborough, came out at a time when England was exhausted from wars with both France and America, and folk looked towards the virtues and comforts of their home and the streets they knew best. It was a time when rural poets such as Bloomfield, Thomson and Clare flourished while celebrating the English village and the lives of labourers and hard-working wives. In fact, Stark married three women who all died, and for the last two decades of his life he was alone, dedicated to his work.

What Stark did was write a sound, scholarly history on the place he knew best. This was an achievement in itself, never mind that he was also the Gainsborough Postmaster, stationer and printer, newsagent and stocks and shares broker! He may not be a household name, but the plaque raises the question about why we honour certain people. In his case, we might argue that his life is a template for the virtues of hard work, education and the love of the England he knew and celebrated as he saw it in the story of Gainsborough.