Regulars now know that 'roony cannot avoid a good cafe. The cafe in St. Mary's church Putney is excellent. I don't know what Cromwell's puritan, parliamentarian cavalry soldiers would have thought about it, but today it is a most welcoming place offering a perfect service and good food.
It is now 360 years since the Debates, but they are so important that an exhibition will mark the 360th anniversary this coming October 2007.
History goes through phases. First: chaos - the "What on earth is going on?" phase. Second: - the Party Line when winners tell us what was really going on. Third: the Revisionist phase -when counter revolutionaries deny it all and tear down myths, only to erect their own, usually wrong myths. Finally: chaos again - the "I still haven't a clue what happened" phase, when we just give all the records to the kids, let them draw their own conclusions, and we end up with 1,000 crazy views based on personal foibles.
The Putney Debates were all written down, and kept. We have it word for word; the whole discussion. It's a unique insight - fully recorded 17th Century political debate with important implications that still impact on modern Britain.
Here is the modern, restored interior of the church. Imagine Cromwell slugging it out verbally with his radical commanders, and a couple of diligent scribes scribbling furiously, catching the whole thing for posterity. Suddenly Cromwell finds the debate going in directions that he never expected. His men are more radical than he is. "Can somebody please tell me what's happening?"
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