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In Our Age Issue 22 PAGE:Layout 1 26/10/11 12:44 Page 1
Welcome to IOA 22 and to Madeline Haines’ memories ofcounty runners (page 3), June Evans’ county dancers (page4), Joan Thomas’ Redhill Hostel, James Petrie’s lost Civil Warevacuees and all those recollections of Hereford’s SanitaryLaundry (page 7).
Herefordshire Lore, run by volunteers, has been publishingHerefordshire memories since 1989. Following on ourhistories of ROF Rotherwas (Women At War inHerefordshire) and Hereford Cattle Market (A Slap of theHand) we are planning to record the story of HerefordButter Market.
Next year will be 90 years since the old Market burnt down.Did you work there? Do you have any old photos? Let usknow - contact details below.
FundsIOA costs £6,000 a year and, since our Butter Market bidfailed to secure National Lottery cash, we’re looking forgrants, donations and sponsors. We’re also cutting back oncosts. This means fewer free copies of IOA. So subscribeif you can.
A year’s subscription still costs only £10. Or you can buy agroup subscription for your day centre or residentialsetting for only £25.
Fill out the form on the back page or go towww.herefordshirelore.org.uk.
(We are changing banks, so be patient if your cheque takestime to clear.)
Back issuesDid you know you can download IOA free atwww.herefordshirelore.org.uk And you can read all the oldcopies back to summer 2006. Old copies of Age To Age areavailable at the County Records Office, Harold Street,Hereford.
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In Our Age, Herefordshire Lore, PO Box 9, Hereford HR1 9BX
M: 07845 907891
W: www.herefordshirelore.org.uk
Editor: Bill Laws
Pictures: Bobbie Blackwell
Design: Lisa Marie Badham @pinksheepdesign.co.uk
Website: Chris Preece
Print: ABC Print
Herefordshire Lore: Eileen Klotz, Rosemary Lillico, MarshaO’Mahoney, Elizabeth Semper O’Keefe (County Records),Sandy Green, Harvey Payne, Liz Rouse, Chris and IreneTomlinson, Betty Webb, Mary Hilary and Julie Orton Davies.
WelcomeIn her final article on wartime Peterchurch, Eva Morganremembers the religious Italians.
The prisoners-of-war were based at a purpose-builtcamp on Wellbrook. There were several long hutscovered with corrugated tin and lined with tongue andgroove boarding. I can’t remember if any had an apexroof, but I remember the ones with a curved wall androof forming a half moon shape.
There was a superintendent who had separate brick builtquarters.
The Italian prisoners madea chapel for those whowished to worship, in one ofthe huts and this wasfurnished with the chairs,organ and, maybe, otherthings, from the disusedchurch at Urishay Castle.
This chapel was later usedas a church by the Roman Catholic congregation of thearea. There was a severe shortage of housing after thewar and most ex-service accommodation, including thatat Peterchurch, was utilised as housing for local people,mainly young married couples who eventually movedinto the new houses at Closure Place.
After the Italians, the Germans arrived and after themcame the Poles who helped with the haymaking. Theydidn’t live with us I have no recollection of their names,but several married local girls and made their homes onfarms in Herefordshire.
I recently discovered from a TV programme that these Polesmight have been the Polish Resettlement Corps, some ofwhom had escaped from Europe and fought with the Allies.They couldn’t go back to Poland, now in East Germany.Many had had been in the Russian gulags or slave camps.
Read Eddie Dzierza’s memories of a Polish fighter inIOA 6, 7 and 8 at www.herefordshirelore.org.uk
Catholic chapel for POWs
Family friend: One of theGerman POWs, Emil Franz, whoworked the Standard Fordson atPenlan, Peterchurch.
In Our Age at the Butter Market: right to left Rosemary Lillico, BettyWebb, Irene Tomlinson and (left) Chris Tomlinson with a new subscriber.We welcome new volunteers.
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Front page:Racing ahead. Jennifer Powell now in herseventies and living in America was a winner when shelived in Mostyn Street, Whitecross, Hereford. “Shewon everything,” says Madeline Haines.
She picked hops to pay for herrunning pumpsSprinter and sports-girl MadelineHaines went to ScudamoreSchool when she was twelve. “Itwas just for girls then.”
Her father, Herbert Jenkins, whohad worked at Evans cidermakers on Widemarsh Common,was a regular timekeeper atmany of the athletic events. Hepersuaded Madeline to pop onsome running shoes.
“We went hop picking to pay for my track suit and spiked running shoes. I bought my best, a hand-made pair, from JenningsSports in Eign Gate.” (She still has them today). Then she took to the racetrack.
At 16 Madeline was in Plymouth for the All England Amateur Athletics and she went on to win a gold medal with a relay teamfor a major sports event on Widemarsh Common.
“Funny thing was we were all Madelines that year: there was me, Madeline Palmer, Madeline Bufton and Madeline Jenkins.”But, says Madeline (now Haines), no one could beat Jennifer Powell. (Front page).
Runaway success
Year 5 at Scudamore School, Hereford and Madeline Jenkins (now Powell) is first on the left, middle row.
Dare leads to drowning
I was in my third year at the HighSchool for Boys in 1940, writes JohnSlatford, when Birmingham’s St Philip’sGrammar School brought 195 evacueeboys and 14 masters to Hereford. Ourschool day ran from 9.00am until1.00pm and the Birmingham boys werethere from 1.30 until 5.30pm.
January was said to be the coldestmonth ever recorded in Hereford andthe Wye was frozen over by the CastleGreen. Having a half day free was anovelty and many children played onthe river.
But on the afternoon of January 18,between 40 and 50 children were playing on the ice whenit gave way plunging eight or nine children into freezingwater over eight feet deep.
Some scrambled to safety, but four of the children, ElvaMudge, Jocelyn Whitlock, Heather Berryman (all 12and pupils at the High School for Girls) and DenisMason from St Philips, were drowned.
Survivors Decia Green, 10, was taken straight to hospitaland Iris Cotterell, 12, to the fire station in Wye Street.Another, Philip Thomas from Birmingham, told theinquest later that they had been tracing their schoolinitials on the farthest part of the ice and dared the HighSchool girls to do the same.
The coroner gave special tribute to four of the rescuers,Hereford Training College student Margaret James,Roma Dean from Bridge Street, Francis Collins ofStanhope Street and Henry Cairns of Baysham Street.
A little more than a term later St Philip’s returned home,influenced perhaps by the river tragedy.
(Our best wishes to Decia who also recalled thatdreadful day).
Disaster on the Wye
Floodwaters creep up Greyfriars Avenue, Hereford in 1998 as Gail Barrett heads forJune Evans’ home in a rescue boat. (Photo: June Evans)
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In Our Age Issue 22 PAGE:Layout 1 26/10/11 12:44 Page 3
FFromromMyMy Album:Album: JuneJune EvaEvansns andand MadelineMadeline HHa
Mice smile: A BBC camera man focuses in on ayoung Madeline Jenkins (now Haines) who hadbrought her two mice to the Holy Trinityanimal service at Whitecross in 1952. Theservices were run by the vicar, Rev David Snell(father of explorer John Blashford-Snell).
Dancing girls: June Evans was one of many child ballerinas who attended the Betty Butcher Dancing School held at theTown Hall between the wars.
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White Planes: Wormelow Park Ballroom in the early 1960s saw theSaunders Valve Christmas party featuring the White Planes band onthe famous revolving stage (see IOA 20, Dance Nights, page 7). Fromleft John Parry, Peter Cheshill and his wife, Madeline Jenkins, hersister Pamela and husband Bernard.
In Our Age Issue 22 PAGE:Layout 1 26/10/11 12:44 Page 4
ne HainesHaines opopenen thetheirir familyfamily albumsalbums forfor IIOAOA
Standing still: Madeline Haines with, from the left, back, TrevorWatts, Victor Tarrant (brother of the late John Tarrant, Hereford’sfamous Ghost Runner), Alan Marsh, Jennifer Powell, David Rees, BrianSnell, Derek Davies, Margaret Morris, Madeline, Bill Thomas (he ranthe Broadleaze pub and loaned the athletics group a room) and DonCousins.
Olympic hopefuls: In 1953 the Fire Brigade won the Hereford Carnival float competition with their pirate galleon, but it didn’t diminish thespirits of the Olympics team from Ediswan, Rotherwas, Hereford, says Bernard Haines.With Jock Rogers at the wheel, Bernard (left) and his cycling mate John Sockett on the right, they set off from Rotherwas with Ray Bishopand Randolph Vaughan (founder of Ascari’s Café) holding the torch aloft. Next to Randolph stands Monica Quinn and at the rear, DoreenTovey, Betty Quinn and a couple of others. (Do you know who they are?)
The apprentices at Ediswan, which later became AEI, were a creative lot: they also built river craft for the Hereford Regatta including aMississippi paddle steamer complete with revolving paddle, recalls Bernard.
Tile works party: Madeline Haines’ mum, Bunty, at the Thinns TilesWork Christmas party where her sister, left, worked in the late 1940s.The Works stood on Holmer Trading Estate, Hereford.
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The Timber Corps didn’t do ‘drained’
In 1942 Joan Thomas quit her job ina Market Drayton shoe shop, joinedthe Women’s Timber Corp andboarded the train to Hereford. Hernew home was to be the Billy Butlindesigned Redhill Hostel.
My life changed forever when, onthe 15 August 1942, I stepped fromthe train at Hereford.
My friend Phyllis Green joined theWomen’s Timber Core with me.“They cried when I left home thismorning,” she told me and looked asthough she was about to do the same.
A lorry manned by girls in dungareesand aertex shirts met us and, becausewe were new andwore skirts, we wereallowed to sit in the lorry cab. On theway to our new home, Redhill Hostel,we stopped for milk shakes at a milkbar in Commercial Street. By now thegirls had become Betty and Iris.
The Hostel was a new world with itsglassed-in reception area and a veryefficient man with the most attractivevoice dealt with us quickly (too quicklyfor me, as I liked the look of him). Isummed him up on the spot. Intelligent- the spectacles bore testimony to that.Below average height - oh, but I canwear my flatties. I had almost fixed ourwedding date. Hewas smartly dressed:but then I’ve brought my navy two-piece with the white trim - and my
flatties are navy too so it’ll be all right.He dispatched us with our keys and atyped list of do’s and don’ts withoutgiving me a second glance.
The Hostel had reading and writingrooms, a cute little library and aresidents’ lounge with a radio andluxurious armchairs grand enoughfor any hotel.
The large, maple-floored dance hallwith its stage and dressing rooms waskept cleaned by Eric Caton. He had astring of filthy stories. He’d worked ina circus looking after the lions. He wasproud of his affinity with his lions. Nodoubt they’d heard his stories first.
The social events were presided overby the portly social director EricNewall who looked every inch theWest End theatre manager. (He hadbeen a railway booking clerk beforethe war and his favourite readingwhen on a lavatory seat was rumouredto be Bradshaw’s Railway Timetable.)
The entertainment was fab. Therewere Entertainments National ServiceAssociation (ENSA or Every NightSomething Awful) and Council for theEncouragement of Music and the Arts(CEMA) shows while film and stagestars GoogieWithers and her husbandJohn McCullam played in a stage in aproduction of They Came to a City.
A Negro Ballet Company brought usa wonderful stage performance, and
we hadentertainers suchas Bernard Miles(“Best bit ofsharpin’ stone in‘ertfordshire”).
There were two500 seater dininghalls served by ahuge centralkitchen bustlingwith staff. The staffworked the wholeof the seven-dayweek in shifts. Afree weekend cameround every sixweeks, yet it was
accepted as quite normal by those itaffected. The pattern of operation forRedhill Hostel was, like the famousWindmill Theatre motto: We neverclose.
On the Timber Corps we workedfrom dawn to dusk in winter and inthe summer from dawn to earlyevening. One of our girls recalledhow she once helped to chop a treedown in her garden at home and was“drained” for the rest of the day. Shenever thought then that she would befelling massive trees as a job. TheTimber Corps “didn’t do drained” soshe just had to get on with it.
Next time J oan d e sc rib e s he r d ays asa Timber J ill.
Holiday FellowshipRedhill Hostel in south Hereford wasbuilt by the Ministry of Supply in1941 and managed by The HolidayFellowship. It was home to Women’sTimber Corps, Women’s Land Army,and munition workers from RoyalOrdnance Factory, Rotherwas.
It could accommodate up to 2,000residents, although numbers averaged1,250 with about 120 staff, most ofthem bedroom stewards in the twentysingle storied sleeping blocks.
We weren’t surprised to hear thatBilly Butlin had advised on its design:it looked like a cross between aBarracks and a Holiday Camp, thoughlater, when we returned to it at theend of our gruelling day’s work a littleof the holiday flavour was lost.
Still open for business: a1971 advert for Redhill Hostel
Footnote: Cameron Gray writes: “Mygrandparents, GeraldMoy and Jane Birchall wereliving at the Hostel in 1949 when they married.”
Lookouts: Fire watchers on the roof of Franklyn Barnes, BridgeStreet - from Anne Sandford’s Hereford in Old Photographs (1987)
Life at Redhill Hostel
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NEWS AND VIEWS
Spanish evacueesNineteen Spanish children wereevacuated from Spain during theCivil War to Hereford in July 1937,writes James Petrie. They werehoused in Berrington Street at StVincent´s Convent, now the BingoHall, I think.” James is from BasquesChildren of ´37, a group which keepsalive the memories of the 4,000children evacuated from Bilbao toBritain during the Spanish Civil War.“This is a plea for more information,”says James. Contact him [email protected] or callus on 07845 907 891.
Plans to place a plaque at Burghillmarking the crash of a B24 Liberator onAugust 4 1944 were revealed at a recentmeeting in the village, writes RosemaryLillico. “Jerome Corre and Neil Taylorgave an excellent presentation of thecrash that came down on the laundry ofwhat was then the asylum. Two crewsurvived the crash, but eight others died.The Mountain Rescue Team fromMadley attended the accident, butdetails remained secret for many years.It was heart warming to see so manyyounger people at the presentation.”
Burghill ‘plane crash
SkylonWith much talk about Skylon, builtby Painter Brothers for the Festivalof Britain, Malcolm Startin recallshis days at the company, set up byRalph Painter and his elder brotherin 1929. The company, which hadbeen making barns and garages,moved into electrical transmission inthe late 1920s. “I joined as a 16 year-old apprentice when I left HerefordHigh School for Boys in 1947.” Hehad become director and businessmanager when he finally finishedforty years later.
Several readers, Derek Blake, Reg South,Ken Griffiths, Michael Morris, Viv andMaureen Bilbao among them, called oremailed ([email protected])to remind us that the Sanitary Laundrystood next to the present day RoseGarden complex off Ledbury Road inHereford.
Derek Blake used to deliver the papersand recalls his grandfather’s pony andfloat, equipped with milk churn andladle, “not a posh Bartonsham one,” hesays. (See IOA 21, back page).
Reg South remembers the path thatpassed by the laundry from the end ofStonebow Road and onto Ledbury Roadwhile Maureen Bilbao used the UnionWalk footpath, which ran alongside thehospital, to meet her Mum after schoolso they could travel home together onthe bus.
“My mother and aunt both worked therein the late 1940s and early 1950s. Mymother was in the ironing departmentand had a special iron for the choirboys’ruffles on their cassocks. My aunt was inthe packing department where cleanwashing was wrapped in brown paperand tied up with brown string. I wasfascinated when she showed me how tobreak the string with a quick tug (noknives or scissors required).”
The Sanitary Laundry, she explains, wassituated where Highgrove Bank is now.Keith Morgan worked there from time totime.
“I was involved in the electricalinstallations and maintenance there asan apprentice electrical engineer withmy uncle, A.V.C. Morgan, from 1958 to1961.
“The Sanitary Laundry was a lovely placeto work. Washers and rotary ironerswere powered by belts and shaftingdriven by a lovely old steam enginefitted in a green and white tiledenclosure and the brass parts of theengine were lovingly kept polished bythe man who tended it.
The Sanitary Laundry“The steam engine and laundry boilersand ironers were heated from a coalfired boiler at the rear of the premises. Inthose days Rockfield Road came out onLedbury Road and the Sanitary Laundrystretched up Ledbury Road with LaundryCottages 1 and 2 next door. Oppositethe Laundry was Wilsons Nurseries thatfed Wilsons Seedsmans shop inCommercial Street and Rockfield Farm.”
Keith eventually left for the better payand the wider experience of Harding'sElectrical before joining Bulmers Ciderfor over 39 years.
Tudor’sDoug Emery discovered this 1886invoice in the attic of a house in StJames, Hereford. It records the receiptof £2.10 shillingbyM.E.GeorgeofCanalWharf, Hereford. “Today,” explainsDoug, “the business is Tudor’s, but itstarted out as George’s before becomingGeorge and Tudor and finally Tudor’s.”
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Sheila Payne’s recollections of life at theSanitary Laundry (IOA 20) sparked many ofyour memories
In Our Age Issue 22 PAGE:Layout 1 26/10/11 12:44 Page 7
Annie King used to take in washingfor the American GIs based at theHarold Street barracks in the 1940s,remembers her daughter, MarianEmery. “Our house backed onto thebarracks and one time, when theywere confined to barracks after sometrouble in town, the G.I.s were callingto her: ‘Can you get us some fries?’Dad had the potatoes from hisallotment and the G.I.s had plenty offrying oil (there was a big shortage ofcooking oil) and we were soonhanding bowls of fries over the fence.”
Marian is still in touch with one of theG.I.’s nieces in America. “TheAmericans must have been on a secretmission, because he never returnedfrom Europe,” she says.
Who were these G.I.s? It’s a mysteryto Martin and Fran Collins, authors ofthe forthcoming book on G.I.s, TheFriendly Invasion of Leominster. “Therewere armoured US units at Foxleypreparing for D-Day and the SAS-style 5th Rangers in Leominster, butwe knew of no Americans billeted atthe Barracks.” Can you help? Whowere the Americans in Hereford? Callus on 07845 907891 or email:[email protected]
Subscribe to IOA Now – “your fantastic magazine” James Petrie
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Chips for the G.I.s
Derek Blake was the only readerwho correctly identified thispuzzler (below) in the last issue ofIOA. It was the Newton Farm beforeits post-war transformation into ahousing estate. Doug Emery fromPark Street, Hereford has loaned aneven more difficult picture forreaders to identify. The side of theshop, which faced a busy Herefordstreet, still looks the same todaywhile the old mill name is a handyclue. The shopkeeper pictured wasWilliam George Jay,seen here with a ladon his lap at arelative’s wedding.
layout: pinksheep design print: ABC Print
Those Woolies girlsI was amazed to recognize myself and my friend Edith Palmer inthe photo of Woolworth’s staff, writes Pamela Wright. (IOA, 21,back page) Seventeen-year-old Pamela Bishop, as she was then,is in the spotted dress and Edith, with her hand on her chin, sitsnext to her. And Derek Blake from Pengrove Road thinks herecognizes Herefordshire councillor Glenda Powell, sitting next to Edith. (Photo: Mrs M. Spratt)
Puzzler
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