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Beadle Bedel

Vivienne14

Vivienne14

Kentish Brummie Moderator
Staff member
Similar to a Verger but with a stick for poking ! I immediately imagined Mr Bumble in Dickens' Oliver Twist when I read the newspaper description.

An internet search turns up this description:

A beadle was a minor church-appointed official responsible for overseeing the workhouse and other parish affairs related to the poor.

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Source: British Newspaper Archive
 

Beadle​



A beadle, sometimes spelled bedel, is an official who may usher, keep order, make reports, and assist in religious functions; or a minor official who carries out various civil, educational or ceremonial duties on the manor. The term has pre-Conquest origins in Old English, deriving from the Old English bydel, itself deriving from beodan. In Old English it was a title given to an Anglo-Saxon officer who summoned householders to council.
 
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