Cuckoo, Curate, Cuckoo.

Sand Pit Ponies, Sir Alfred Munnings

Stuck at home? Listening for the sound of the spring's first cuckoo?

In April 1876, local newspapers across England would be sure to alert readers when the first call of a cuckoo was heard in their area. The sound of the cuckoo was a welcome first sign of spring. But for the Rev. William Gilmour Minor, the constant cries of "Cuckoo, Cuckoo" had unhinged him.

Ordained at St. Aidan's in Birkenhead in 1868, Minor was one of those itinerant curates of Victorian England. In 1876, he was in his 30's, unmarried and living in South London. He held the position of "Sub-Clergyman" at Lambeth Cemetery in Tooting, presiding at funerals and burials. In his spare time, he worked for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA.) 

Minor's walk to the cemetery each day brought him past a large sandpit on Smallwood Road. One day, he complained to Joseph Martin, the owner of the pit, that one of the pit ponies was lame and plainly unfit for duty. He was told to mind his own business. Minor became quite upset and there was a brief scuffle. Martin demanded the clergyman leave the property and Minor took his exit to the cry of the pit workmen, "Cuckoo. Cuckoo." After that, every day the Rev. Mr. Minor appeared in Smallwood Road, the workmen, soon aided by their families who resided nearby, serenaded the gentleman with cries of "Cuckoo, Cuckoo." Minor went into Wandsworth Police Court seeking "protection from the annoyance of being called cuckoo.” He was advised to walk some other way to the cemetery.

Mr. Minor declined to take that counsel; he was a litigious man, he had been sued and brought suit on more than one occasion. He won £200 from Pickford's, the movers. The situation in Tooting got no better. One day, a small child taunted him with the cuckoo cry. Seeing the child's mother laughing nearby, Minor grabbed the woman by the arm. The next day in Wandsworth, Mrs. Livermore of Smallwood Rd charged the Rev. Minor with assault. He answered that he had been provoked by a woman so wicked that she would encourage her child to use "abusive & insulting language" to a clergyman. Mr. Bridges, the magistrate, dismissed both charges but pleaded with Minor to ignore them, don't make too much out of this. The more you do, the longer the harassment will go on. Bridges said, "It was convenient at times to be a little deaf."

The case of the cuckoo clergyman had now become the talk of London and large crowds of new hecklers waited for their opportunity. At his rooms, dozens of postcards arrived for Minor with a single word message: of course, Cuckoo. Minor was beside himself, "my mind has become affected." He claimed that the respectable residents of Tooting were with him. It's interesting that he does not seem to have gotten any public support from the SPCA. Magistrate Bridges finally announced that if Minor could get the names of any of his tormentors, they would be fined or jailed. Three young men were identified by Minor but the magistrate simply lectured them to knock it off. The pit-owner eventually sued Minor for charges related to that first scuffle and won a mere shilling for his pain and suffering.

Even the jollity of shouting cuckoo at a passing clergyman will wane in London's summer heat and the story soon faded. The police and the courts were well tired of it. Couldn't the Bishop of London find employment for Mr. Minor elsewhere? A new job was found, in fact, this time with a living congregation. Rev. Minor became curate at St. Michael's in Withyham, Sussex. Hopefully, he found peace there. On the bright side, in Sussex dialect, apparently, cuckoos are called gowks.