Baron editor admitted to Freedom of the City of London

The editor of The Baron is now licensed to drive sheep over London Bridge.

Liberty to drive sheep from one bank of the River Thames to the other is an ancient privilege that comes with Freedom of the City of London. Barry May was admitted to the Freedom in a ceremony in the Chamberlain’s Court at the Guildhall. It followed his admission in January as a freeman of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, formed by tradesmen in mediaeval London in 1403​ as one of the capital's craft guilds. It is now the City’s livery company for the communications and content industries.

The Freedom carries few privileges. Times past, Freemen could go about the City with a drawn sword, set up a market stall without permission, be married in St Paul’s Cathedral, be drunk and disorderly without fear of arrest, be free of being press-ganged into the navy, be hanged by a silken rope, and be buried within the City. “Some of these may be myths,” May said. “I’m told they no longer apply.”

PHOTO: Murray Craig (L), Clerk of the Chamberlain's Court of the City of London Corporation, with Barry May and his certificate of Freedom of the City of London. ■