A lovely little limerick
- 19th May 2026
For National Limerick Day, we would like to highlight perhaps our tiniest archive.
It is National Limerick Day this month because it’s the 214th birthday of Edward Lear. He was the English artist, author and poet who popularised limericks in his 1846 Book of Nonsense published for children. With this in mind, we took a look in the archives for a limerick. This style of poem [Zv1.1]tend to involve naughty jokes, humous language and a smattering of clever wordplay. But most of all, they are short – usually just 5 lines long.
Do we have any limericks?
Our catalogue lists an item as a limerick with reference BA15835. This document was created in the same year as Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense was published. It is a very tiny deposit, just a single library card with a silly poem written on the back – it has been catalogued as a limerick although it is not of the usual 5-line variety.
“Wit at a Pinch” Printed in Coventry Herald and Free Press Friday 16 Jan 1846, thanks to Newspapers.com
The card on which the poem is written is a member’s ticket for Worcester City and County Library and Reading Institution issued to Mr Roberts for 1845-6 by Mr John Cox who was the librarian at that time.
Where was this library?
This was not the Old City Library (which became the county library), but the Worcester City and County Library and Reading Institution (or New City Library) established in 1836. It moved in 1839 from St Nicholas Street to Pierpoint Street, which mean it was then opposite the Old City Library.
From Berrows Worcester Journal 26 July 1838 thanks to Newspapers.com
This library was established ‘for the education and moral improvement of the poorer classes’, according to the 1855 Billings Directory. The building, which is no longer standing, included a library, newsroom and lecture room – which was let out for public meetings, sales, and dance classes, and was used for public lectures and concerts – in 1840 alone there were 18 public lectures on scientific and entertaining topics. In 1845-6, the year covered by this ticket, there was a teetotal tea party for people of both sexes, several concerts of the newly formed Worcester Instrumental Society and a model railway exhibition. The library was open from 7pm-10pm Monday to Friday, and from 12 noon until 10pm on Saturdays, closed on Sundays.
The library was run by an honorary committee of those who donated books or money or bought shares. Entry to the library was by subscription. In 1841 the newspaper advertised that members of the public could use the reading room for one week for just 2 shillings, and a subscription of 6 months allowed access to the library. At this time, Aris’s Birmingham Gazette and Worcester Herald claimed the library had about 600 members on its books.
The committee included MP’s Richard Spooner, F W Knight, and J A Taylor, along with the Earl of Coventry. While John Wheeley Lea, mayor, and co-founder of Lea & Perrins, was president from at least 1838 until 1874 when it closed and the property was sold.
Who wrote the poem?
BA15835 “Wit at a Pinch” the handwritten poem on the back of the library ticket
The library ticket belonged to Mr Roberts, who we assume was one of the ‘poorer classes’ looking for some education in 1845-6, and who paid his subscription to use the library. But this is quite a popular name on the 1841 and 1851 census so it is difficult to learn much more about who he was.
The earliest printing of this poem we could find online was from 16th January 1846 in the Coventry Herald. It was then reprinted in many other newspapers in that year. No writer is attributed in the newspapers. So, did Mr Roberts write the poem in the year 1845-46? Was it scribbled on his library card when he was inspired? The crossings-out and addings-in might suggest this. Or did Mr Roberts copy it from a newspaper, perhaps in the newspaper reading room at the library? It might have been published in a newspaper that was available there but which is not yet digitised.
List of Newspapers available, from Berrows Worcester Journal 16 Dec 1841, thanks to Newspapers.com
What we do know is that the poem appears to be contemporary with the library card. The poem is a funny one that is slightly naughty, even if it is not strictly what we would call a limerick. And this is a lovely little bit of working-class history from Worcester. We hope Mr Roberts enjoyed some of the lectures and entertainments provided during that year and perhaps for many years beyond. We wish you all a happy National Limerick Day and we hope you enjoy the poem.
Where do I find more information?
For more about Worcester libraries see our blog post here:
Worcestershire Libraries in the Archives – Worcestershire Archive & Archaeology Service
This library ticket can be found in the original archives at BA15835
We have other poems in our collections, which can searched via our online catalogue or in the slips indexes on site.
Worcester directories are available on level 2 of The Hive and Newspapers.com is free to access in The Hive.
Further items relating to the Worcester City and County Library and Reading Institution were discovered in trunks in the basement of the County Library at Foregate Street and can be viewed in the original archives with the reference BA8782 (this includes 6,850 documents so we recommend checking the printed catalogue)
Post a Comment