The United Patriots Benefit Society was a national charity organisation, with a substantial branch in Bishampton in the late 1800s.

For some unknown reason, although presumably being in the village at the time a special artefact was not made available when Peter Averis was compiling and writing Bishampton Remembered.  That artefact was only produced a year or so ago, and turned out to be the poster advertising a day-long social event in the village organised by the United Patriots Society which was held on Whit Monday 25 May 1896.  Although fortunately at some stage that poster had been framed, it was in a very fragile and deteriorating sate with several parts of it being held together with adhesive tape (which in some places had ‘leeched’ through the paper), as seen in the first photograph..

Very generously, the Parish Council provided the funds for that original to high-quality scanned, and those scans sent to a photographic restorer to refurbish the image.  The end result is that we now have a pristine copy that looks as though it has just been printed, as shown in the second photo.  With that poster detailing the day’s events, and the newspaper report of the event being found, it now is thought that the various photographs that the History Society have on file as displayed here do in fact showcase that day’s festivities.

The refurbished poster has been placed in the original frame, with the original poster secured behind it, and with the co-operation of Gina and Marc is on prominently on display at The Dolphin in the village (as shown in the last two photographs below), together with a combined copy of the two-part photographs of the Patriots Society (and the village Band) posed at the rear of The Dolphin.

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