HEREFORD AND WORCESTER

A gCOUNTY L IBRARi r

Vol 5 Issue 5Also available on Tape

Yes, its autumn again and time to remember those hop-picking days. These young women are picking into the cribat the Hawkins Farm, Withington in the 1940s when 5 bushels earned them a shilling. We don't know the lady on thefar left, but the others, f rom left to right, are Rosemary Armishaw, Elsie Heath, Mary Morris and Joyce Harper.

Looking ForwardThis edition of Age To Age coincides with the launch

of our third book, The Schoolchildren's Tale, at aCoffee Morning in the Town Hall, Hereford on

October 1st.We at Hereford Lore have been in operation since 1989and have enjoyed every minute of collecting your storiesand memories of the past. We are going forward in ourwork and hope t o produce lo ts more interestingnewsletters in the future. We made many new friends

Dennis Cooper, picturedon his tricycle manyyears ago, was never verykeen on school. "Theteachers used to pull theboys by their ears," hesays in The School-children's Tale. Publishedthis month at E2.50, TheSchoolchildren's Tale isavailable from HerefordTourist InformationCentre in King Street, theAge Concern shop inWidemarsh Street or fromHereford Lore, 26 QuarryRoad, Hereford HR1 1SS.

o A gHereford Lore Reminiscence Newsletter

October 1997Hereford Lore, 26 Quarry Road, Hereford HR1 1SS

Inside.

• •

Fire Fighters- 1940sBurton's DayTrip - 1949Concert Parties- 1920sGirls TrainingCorp - 1945

when we did one of our talks at the Green Dragon andran an exhibition stand in High Town as part of the ThreeChoirs Fringe Festival. We also sold yet more copies ofour last book, The Shopkeepers' Tale. We still have afew left at E2.50 if you would like one.I hope you enjoy your visit to the Coffee Morning. Keepyour memories and stories coming in and I give you mybest wishes for the future.

Tom Woo/away

Age To Age is published bi-monthly by Hereford Lore, agroup of people working to collect and remember our past.Our editorial team, Edith Gammage, Roy Kennett, BillMorris, Vi Thomas, Jim Thomas, Tom Woolaway and BillLaws, depend on grants, donations and book sales tokeer going.Age Co Age is available free from the Town Hall, CityLibrary, Belmont Library, Tourist Information Centre, AgeConcern and Garrick House reception. But you can ensureyour copy by taking out a E3 a year subscription fromHereford Lore. 26 Quarry Road, Hereford HR1 -I S S . N e x tissue will be published in December.

We are grateful for the support of:COMIC•RELIEF

C h a rity P ro je ct s UK

Looking Back

john Hancock of Tupsley has

written to say the photograph offiremen outside Painter Brothers

(published in last September's Age ToAge) was not Painter's fire service, butfiremen of the Hereford City AuxiliaryFire Service, North Division lat er tobecome par t o f t he Nat ional Fi reService"With t he except ion of two full t imefiremen whose sole responsibility wasto keep the fire pumps and vehicles ingood order all the rest were part timevolunteers," writes John"The company was div ided into fourcrews and each took it in turns to beon duty all night throughout the warand they were expected to turn up attheir employment the following dayregardless of whether they had anysleep the night before."ncluded i n t he pic t ure were Les

Powel M r A A Paint er M r Hi l(Hereford brewery) Mr Bond (Evans'Cider Works ) M r Horac e Sullivan(fruiterer), Bert Barton (the fairgroundboxing boo t h propriet or) Ch a r l i eSkyrme (greengrocer) and t he t woWoolaway brothers, Jack and RegReg being the father of Tom Woo!awayof Hereford Lore.

Fifty years ago staff and friends of Burton's Bakery prepare for a day trip. Can you imagine 30 people posing for theirpicture in West Street with today's traffic? The photograph comes from Esther Florence of The Shires.

Fire Fighters"One of the biggest fires that my crewNumber 8 e v e r a t t ended w a sGreenlands factory fire off Eign RoadAnother large fire was the St George'sGarage fire in Bewel Street."

Me s s e nge rA l l en T h o m a s o f Haverfordwestwas n t he Aux i iary Fi re Serv iceduring the last war"Living south of the river B South wasour fire station housed in Langford'sold c ider works in Wy e Street. Thewatchroom h a d a d o o r on t o t h eRiverside Walk next to the SaracensHead (now The Lancaster) O u r fulltime s ec t ion l e a d e r w a s No b b yClarke a resolute c harac t er wi t hhumour and well suited to the job Hewas ably assisted by Bert Jones, anex-bus driver We had f ive pumps ,mostly Dennis o r Beris ford Stork ,towed by any available veh,cle, oftenlarge private cars."My job was to run messages betweenpumps or for officers in the fire area.remember two Auxiliary Fire Officers,Senior Company Officer Len Playfordwho w a s ma n a g e r o f Here f o rdProduce and Company Officer Priorwho wo r k e d n t h e arc hi t ec t sdepartment a t t he Count y of f ices

Sometimes w o u d a c c o mp a n yofficers t o out ly ing v i lages M rPlayford had a Jaguar SS 16 with along bonnet and r e m e m b e r h imtouching 88 mph down Belmont Roadon an urgent return to Hereford'Every few days we had to s leep onenight on the station and if there was anair raid alert we would stand outsidethe watchroom on the riverside. Wecou d s omet imes s e e t h e r o u g houtline of the planes in the moonlight,droning overhead"Our c r e w inc luded Fred Caus onmanager o f Frederick Wrights, t heEign St reet tobacconis ts B e r n a r dFollett, a mill wright at the Bath Streetflour mills and Phil Eaton a MidlandsRed bus driver At the Central stationthere were probably Eric Floyd FredSmale T a r z a n M o r r i s G e o r g eWi iams, George Harper Thoms onknown as Long Tom Jack Kinsey andothers. Eventually l e f t to become afu t i m e Na t i ona l F i r e S e r v i c edespatch rider at the age of 17 beforejoin ng t h e Roy al Nav y SubmarineBranch"(Our apologies to Allen for having toreduce h i s interes t ing ar t ic le f o rreasons of space).

Mrs Jones of Clehonger loaned this old photograph of Monkley's whichused to stand by the old Wye Bridge. Sid Jones is on the left; let us know ifyou recognise the young fellow on the right.

Those Bishops Meadow Concert Parties

Bert Levers Concert Parties on

the Bishops Meadow recalledn our las t issue b y Donald

Austins, reminded St e l la Wi l l i ams(formerly Fewings) of her days on hischorus line. She and her sister Hazeljoined the troop in the 1930s, singingfavourites like Jessie Mathews' OverMy ShoulderLike Stella, Reg Rums ey who was aresident of Church Street, where BertLever lived recalled Bert's sons, Basiland Paul According to Stella, one ofthem h a d t h e mo s t wonder f ueyelashes and all the girls in the troopfel f or him B e r y l Reec e (formerlyClaytor) now lives in Cheltenham andshe tells us that her parents worked inthe shoe repair shop owned by W.& E.

Turner at 14, Church Street next doorto t h e Lev ers . Ano t her r e a d e rremembered Bert, whose stage namewas Padezzi as a small s ad man inbaggy trousers who always dressed inblack. Perhaps he never got over thetragic death of his son Basil killed webelieve, when his cycle hit a cow onthe steep pitch down to MordifordJ ac k Hi l l tells us that The PeerlessConcert Party also performed at thesame venue. One of the performerswas someone called Yarwood whoseparents kept the Lamb nn, St Owen'sStreet. The pianist may have beenRosa Yarwood organist at Kentchurchand silent film pianist at the Kinemaalso known as the Pavilion, now thelaunderette.

Eyes Right. Joan Turner, now Joan Hill, marches in the front row, left, asa member of the Girls Training Corp, Hereford 810 Co. on ThanksgivingSunday, May 13 1945.

MEI may be getting on in years, your voice may fal l upon deaf ears.

Your eyesight may be pretty poor, and you may think I'm an old bore.But i f you could stop and just listen a while, I'l l share my memories and make you smile,

and then you might just be able to see, that there is really more to me!

Pat Jones' poem sent in by Tom Beddow, a member of St Francis Diners

S n i p p e t sThe Hay-on-Wye Poisoner

T -T- he story o f t he Hay solic itor Ma jo rI Armstrong, executed in 1921 f o r themurder of his wife, seem t o have beenresurrected recent ly . Ed i t h Gammageremembers her eldest brother, Jim Cole whowas in the Herefordshire Police, having tobring t he t hree Armstrong children t oHereford. They were taken t o the privateschool, Wyeside, near Hereford RowingClub to wait for their relations to come andtake them away. J im went on to becomeAssistant Commissioner o f t he colonialpolice in Malaya, but was captured by theJapanese and interred in Changi gaol untilthe war was over

Black Herefordians?

B lack people of African and Asian descentwere rare i n Herefordshire unt il t hesecond world war when many readersremember meeting black American G I sstationed over here. But an organisationstudying t he cultural his tory o f AfricanCaribbeans and Asians in this country aretrying t o discover more about a blackHerefordshire family, the Soobroy or Subroyfamily. James Soobroy was probably abutler at The New Weir Kenchester in the1820s before he moved to Hereford. Doesanyone remember the family?

The Visitor

G randmother Joan Bevis, her daughterSally Haynes and grand daughterEmma Greenald prove there's something foreveryone in Hereford's community play, TheVisitor Joan, Sally and Emma are amongthose taking part in this play based on alocal event in the forties. But what was theevent? Well you won't find out if you don'tget involved: call Arts In Action on (01432)278118 to find out where the Wednesdayrehearsals are taking place. Jan Doran,meanwhile, is raising funds for the play witha Forties Flashback evening, In The Mood,on Saturday November 8. Hereford Lore willbe t here along wi t h fort ies hairstyles,cocktails, memorabilia and music: call Jan(01531 670729) for details.

Empire Day

D onald Austins wonders who remembersthe o l d Emp i re Day , t radit ionallycelebrated on May 24, Queen Victoria'sbirthday. After the last world war, thinksDonald, E m p i r e D a y b e c a m eCommonwealth Day. "All the schools withthe exception, I think, of the Cathedral andHigh Schools paraded in the Castle Greenwhere we sang our hearts out. Land of Hopeand Glory and the National Anthem were amust, but I believe other patriotic songswere sung and I suspect the band musthave been the Salvation Army. It could havebeen a military band." And, asks Donald,why was i t always sunny? "There weretimes when it did rain, but my memories arealways of sunshine."

Pub Crawl

F or those observant readers of A PublicAffair in our last issue, Millie Weeks'postcard listed 39 Herefordshire pubs.

tel112P c-PLEPLIPLPLPLPLPd-31L1-3d6 N oti ceboard

ci

Clem Tudge,Hereford City

Mayor is hosting acoffee morning atthe Town Hall on

WednesdayOctober 8 from

10.00 - 12.00 in aidof the Mayor's

charity, Launch

Old Hereford will featurein Basil Butcher's

slideshow at the FriendsMeeting House,

King Street on FridayOctober 17 at 7.30. ,E3 entry

in aid ofHereford Friends of

Samaritans.

Members o f Hereford's Gilbert and Sullivan Operat icSociety pose f or an out-of-costume port rait af ter theirproduct ion of Patience in 1968. Firs t formed fifty yearsago, t he Soc iety s taged t heir f irs t produc t ion a t t heGarrison Theatre, Bradbury Lines in April 1948. Since thenthey have performed the well known G. & S. operettas andsome of the lesser known light operas at old city theatresinc luding the Kemble, Regal, Belmont Abbey School andNell Gwynne. Perc y Arrowsmith who at 97 must rank asone o f its oldest members recalls the o ld Holy TrinityOperatic and Dramatic Society and their f irst product ionin 1937, Merrie England.The outbreak of war f inished the Society and it was the G.& S. Society which took over when hostilit ies ceased. TheSociety which recently returned from performing Trial ByJury a n d H.M.S.Pinafore a t Heref ord's t wi n t own,Dillenburg (earning themselves a s tanding ovat ion) iscelebrating their fiftieth anniversary with a Golden Jubileedinner and making plans for a product ion of Utopia Ltdwhen Hereford's new Courtyard Theatre opens.

LIOSOP c l E I

Hereford AmateurOperatic Society

PresentPickwick at the

Operatic TheatreWhitecross Road

f rom September 24 - 29Call Pat Smith

(265094) for details.

Hereford Gi lber t& Sul l i vanSociety' s

Golden Jubi l eeDinner

Fr iday October 10at the Three

Counties Hotel ,Bel m ont Road,

Hereford.Tickets fr om Mrs

Ann DawePad For Life (01432 351158)

"'Qui L l a r a P L I O P L P E S E EE I r c l i a lE P L E P L I a l aP L I E P L I E W E I l O P r . . . P L E JLE P L P L P L P L PL E P L P L P c l E r3E M P L PL I E l i

rlicA4DS Ur AGE TO AGEFREESTYLE

Fields Yard, Plough Lane •Hereford HR4 OELTel: 01432 343188 Fax: 01432 358513

ABBOTSFIELD FUNERAL DIRECTORSMonkmoor Street, Hereford HR1 2DX

COPYING & RESTORING OLD PHOTOGRAPHS,PHOTO GLAZING

Juergen and Janet Koenigsbeck, Telephone341608 Work 851560 Home

HEREFORD AMATEUR OPERATIC SOCIETY

ROCKFIELD DIYStation Approach, Hereford 01432 274146

Your Local Independent DIY Store

Imperial Restaurant and BarsWidemarsh Street, Hereford 01432 273646