Director and co-founder of On Tap Plumbers, Anne Timpany, has received admission to the Freedom of the City of London in The Worshipful Company of Plumbers.
The Freedom of the City of London was originally set up hundreds of years ago for liverymen and associated tradespeople, who could only work if they had the all-important Freedom of the City of London. Anne attended a Freedom ceremony, which took place in the Chamberlain’s Court Room in the Guildhall. Anne was asked to read aloud the Declaration of a Freeman and sign the Register of Freemen – then receiving her framed Freedom certificate and a book of Rules associated with the position.
Freedom of the City of London is part of becoming a liveryman and although Anne is already a member of the Worshipful Company of Plumbers, her Freedom of the City Certificate will entitle her to progress to becoming a full liveryman.
Anne says: “This is very exciting for me. I know the Freedom of the City certificate is only symbolic but it’s keeping history and tradition alive and I feel really honoured that the Worshipful Company of Plumbers application for me has been successful.
“The Worshipful Company of Plumbers is one of the oldest liveries in existence and of course in the era in which it began the plumbing trade was highly respected, as people lived in such unhygienic and squalid conditions, especially if they were poor. My family back in New Zealand are delighted by this – and I’ll use my new status to pull rank with our plumbers and my husband, who co-owns the company!
The 110 livery companies of the City of London comprise London’s ancient and modern trade associations and guilds, almost all of which are styled the “Worshipful Company of…” their respective craft, trade or profession.
There are a number of rights traditionally but apocryphally associated with freemen – the right to drive sheep and cattle over London Bridge; a silken rope, if hanged; to carry a naked sword in public; or that if the City of London Police finds a freeman drunk and incapable, they will bundle him or her into a taxi and send them home rather than throw them into a cell. While sheep have occasionally been driven over London Bridge on special occasions, the rest of these “privileges” are now effectively symbolic.
