Age To AgeHereford Lore Reminiscence Newsletter Also available on tape

Vol 6 Is s ue 3 H e r e f o r d Lore, 26 Quarry Road, Hereford HR1 1SS J u n e 1998

Welcome to the 30th edition of Age To Age. The past

five years have been very eventful and coveredmany memories of the past. It is important that we

.,eep records of years gone by. Hereford Lore often visitsschools to give talks from Age To Age and we are always

Public TransportBetty Reinoid from Shaftesbury, Dorset, noticed

an advertisement in a 1926 edition o f ' APictorial and Descriptive Guide to Hereford and

The Wye Valley' in which the Hereford Motor Co., StGeorge's Garage, Eign Street offered all day tours ofSymond's Yat, Tintern, Chepstow, Madley, GoldenValley, Kilpeck, Abbey Dore, Hay, Builth, Rhayaderand Kington " A s i f th is wasn 't enough, eve rySaturday you could go to Aberystwyth. Obviously itwas easier to get to these lovely places by publictransport over 70 years ago!" Betty also noted anentry from The Residence Private Hotel which usedto stand on the corner of Broad Street and KingStreet. "A single room was 6/6d, a double 14/-, lunch3/6d and dinner 5/- "

GreenlandGirlsGreenlands Girls Off ice s taf ff rom G r e e n lands s t o r e ,Hereford, pose for a snap shotduring t h e i r p i c n i c o nBackbury Hi l l i n t h e ear ly1920s. Florence Williams (nowMrs St inton of Whitecross) isstanding i n t he f ron t row,second f r o m le f t . F o r aglimpse of the staff a decadelater, see inside.

Hereford Lore(Age To Age)

Will be holding aCoffee Morning

Wednesday 7th October 1998in Hereford Town Hall

10.00am 12 .30Admission Free A l l welcome

Tell The Grandchildrenencouraged b y t h e children's interest . I f y o u h a v egrandchildren or even great grandchildren, why not tell them astory or two and get them to send it to us at Age To Age, 26Quarry Road, Hereford HR1

Roy Kennett (Chairman)

Age To Age is published bi-monthly by Hereford Lore,a group of people working to collect and rememberour past. Our editorial team, Edith Gammage, RoyKennett, Bill Morris, Vi Thomas, J im Thomas, TomWoolaway and Bill Laws, depend on grants, donationsand book sales to keep going.Age To Age is available free from the Town Hall, CityLibrary, Belmont Library, Tourist Information Centre,Age Concern and Garrick House reception. But youcan ensure your copy by taking out a E3 a yearsubscription f rom Hereford Lore, 26 Quarry Road,Hereford HR1 1SS. Next issue will be published inAugust 1998.We are grateful for the support of

I 04 "[ C h a r i t y Projec ts UK

COM I CRELIEF HEREFORDSHIRE

COUNCIL

mok

May Fair MenReg Robins shared his

memories o f t he Ma y Fa i rwith Tom Woo'away. "When

we wrink lies compare the modernFair with that of the 1920s it 's sodifferent. There was the Cake-walk,the magnif icent dragons, t he s ideshows like the Boxing Booth where,if you fancied your chances and youcould stay three rounds with their

Dennis Cooper of Greenways, Ross loaned us thispicture of Robinson the butchers in Ledbury wherehe and his parents used to work. Dennis sometimesfetched the butcher's horse J immy from the field andprepared it f or the ' t ub' or cart. Sadly J immy gotstuck in a pond one day, caught pneumonia and hadto be shot. After that, Mr Robinson bought a van.

blokes, you could get three pounds.There were t he Hawaiin Danc ingGirls (f rom Liverpool!) who had agood pit c h oppos ite t he 'Bapt is tChurch' L i k e many others, Re gused to wait on Holmer Road for thearrival o f t he great polished andpainted engines like King Georgeand Queen Elizabeth. "The regularfair owner was Mr Jacob Studt and

his caravan homewas a lway s s pot -less." C. Ri char dShaw f rom Duns -table r e me mb e r swith some pleasurehow " f o r o n eglorious we e k a l lthe n o r t h - s o u t htraffic was ignomin-iously s h u n t e daside as t he t owncentre filled with theFair"

Fat ladiesd six-legged0 0 w

A n i g,

f e a r s o m erides i n p l u s h 'seated contraptionswhich were swirledaround a t d i z z yspeed while youngd a r e d e v i lattendants s t rollednonchalantly abouton t h e b u c k i n gplatforms. Ho r s e sand peacocks rose

in stately fashion a s mums anddads, u n c l e s a n d a u n t s r o d esedately r o u n d O n e p o p u l a rattraction was the shooting gallerieswhere y o u n g ma r k s me n w e r echallenged to prizes such as hugeteddy bears and dolls, sets of chinaand pint glasses. For 6d or 1/- onereceived a target c ard and wa sinvited to put five out of six roundsthrough t he bull. As mos t of t hecountry lads could bring down arunning rabbit wit h a gun, s omewere soon strolling round with morethan o n e o f t hes e prizes . "Andoutside L loy ds B a n k w a s t h eloudest attraction of all, a mightysteam organ, the ghetto-blaster toend all ghetto - blasters. Every nightmy father come home complainingbitterly about the noise.

Flea Circus

The May Fair was so exciting

and over far too soon for me,"writes P a me l a P i t t , o n c e

Pamela Upt on when she lived inGreyfriars Avenue. "I would comeinto King Street and start off withthe perf orming f leas . Ha v e y ouseen a flea walk a tight rope? Well Ihave. Then on to the Wall of Death.'How brave the motorcyclists wereand what a deafening noise. Nex tthe Box ing Booth. I wa s rat herfrightened of this, as a great manymen seemed rather the worse forwear There was always a gatheringof strong farm workers there to takeup the challenge. "Into Broad Streetand the small roundabouts for the

tiny tots and- if you werebe yours. Awin a shillingamblers l&Then my f agallery. I wastook home ryiyou nearedgot loudermagical ridesboats which Iand, o p p o lwonderfully fiwith an ironclunf- *•-) asanu m t uplpace " O n(half day docame) f rom 2went to the Gmy father yvaEdwards f lremembersafternoon's rGeneral " Nthose days"reason to rer"Several o fdodgems ancmy head f rcupright p o l erecalls t he f iworried my fthem, "she wlthe( sation

blow,,y and tlspot at the en,opposite t hefather wiselybefore the ricbecame High

S n i p p e t sWhere Was It?

M y son Ken worked out the locations in the photos in your lastissue," writes Mrs Morgan from Aconbury Avenue. "The firstwas the cross roads between Victoria Street and Edgar Street, andWhitecross Road and Eign Street . Th e second was t heCommercial Ro a d roundabout b y Frank lyn Hous e. M r sFishbourne from Bladon Avenue also got the right answers. But,she added, "I don't know the names of the people on the island!"

Ices, Icesloan Law from Three Elms Road identified ot)r ice cream lady

0(bac k page, last issue) as Ivy Lewis of Weobley who recentlycelebrated her 80th birthday. The photograph was taken by heraunt, when Ivy was selling ice cream on the banks of the RiverThames at Kingston.

On The Railwaysn wen Coles of Abbey Grange, Venns Lane shared herL A memories of her father Hereford Station Inspector SidneyColes, when Hereford Lore's Vi Thomas visited Eignbrook ChurchLuncheon Club recently. Sidney, who died at the age of 71, startedwork as a railway porter in Shropshire and became stationinspector at Hereford in the 1920s. Gwen proudly remembers he

lodeshen the coconut shieslucky a goldfish could)II-a-penny, hoping t o3 - this is where t heare, mos t l y f ema leiourite, t he shoot ingrather good at this andany a fluffy animal. Asiigh Town, the musicand t here we r e t h e- bumper cars, swinglovered high in the airite G r e e n lands astride in a car for four)ar across which youie ca —h i z z ed r o un d

and 6, a t a terrific-hursday afternoons

;ing, s o more peopleto 4.30 all the moneymem: Hospital, wherethe Secretary. Margoom E x mo u t h a l s o

that T h u r s d a yroceeds went t o t he

County Hospital in- but s he has good'ember the dodgems:is would g o o n t heI still have a lump onm contac t wi t h t he" Margaret Colley•t Chair-a-planes. "Iither to take me onites," but I didn't enjoyas a ( ) r wind wasey wel i n a draughtyI of Widemarsh StreetMidland Bank . M yremoved a denture

e started! Wh e n weSchool girls, we were

discouraged f rom attending, so weremoved o u r hat s s o a s t o b einconspicuous.

"After theFair departed

Herefordseemed dull"

As school girls we were made

to take our coats off outsidethe house so that no confetti

would b e scat tered around t heliving room," Margaret also recalls,"all the noise and merriment, threeevenings of action accompanied byorgan mus ic , sc reams f rom girlsand shouts from showmen; napthalights shining ov er hoop-la s tallsand s hov e ' ha'penny , s hoot inggalleries and coconut shies andboys chas ing gir ls t ry ing t o pu tconfetti down their necks. Peoplebought brandy-snaps or had theirfortune told or their weight guessed.Men we r e inv it ed t o t es t t he i rstrength striking a bell or punchinga leather bag, or sometimes eachother O n a Wednesday, when theFair was swollen by country visitors,there might be a fight or two. "Shopowners did not much care for thedisturbance and many blocked uptheir windows for fear of breakages.Most peop le wen t in t o t own t owatch t he Fair being erected, butafter t he Fa i r departed Herefordseemed dull and quiet."

Greeniands GirlsJoan Burrow sent these snapshots of the Greenlands float(top) and the 'ladies' portrait (bottom) taken at the ThreeCounties Show on the Hereford race course in 1931 or 1932.Above, from left to right, are Doris, Roy Brown, Joan herself,Bill, Jack Chapman and Griff.

was six feet tall with a handsome moustache and always wore abutton hole.

Cold Walk

D ouglas Hughes f rom Wye Street remembers walking thefrozen river Wye in 1928 with his father and brother Jack,"from the old Wye Bridge to the Railway Bridge." He also recalls'"Jordan's boat house. "I t was purchased by Rupert Dutton-Thompson who also owned Bastion Mews. But he neglected tomove the boats with the onset of autumn and the whole lot wereswept to destruction in one of those floods so characteristic of theWye. He was the son of a parson who married a Belgian refugeeat the onset of the 1914 war and was one of Hereford's realcharacters. Other names which spring to mind are Jack Nolan,

D.C. Frank Hall, Anthony Hall, Cyril Franklin and Bill Pigott.Rupert's passing is commemorated on a plaque fixed to a tree inCommercial Square.

Anyone seen BBC's Ann?" h e r e is Ann Griffiths whose father owned a Hereford

butcher's shop in the 50s,?" ask Vera, Gladys and Derek.They all worked at the BBC's Transcription Service in Maida Vale,London. And Ivor Williams of Whitecross wonders what happenedto the eight policemen who joined him in the call-up in 1939. Theyincluded Tom Stevens, Reg Kendle, Dal Strong, George Matthews(who died of his war wounds). Drop us a line at Age To Age, 26Quarry Road, Hereford HR1 1SS if you can help.

C O N C E R THereford Gilbert

& Sullivan Societywith

Gluck auf ChoirDillenburg. GermanyRNIB College, FridayJune 12 1998 at 7.30

Tickets E5.00

LeominsterFestival

5 to 14 JuneAn exc i ting range ofmusic and celebri ty

eventsTelephone

01568 613477

' NoticeboardNightlife Guide

A listing of pubs, clubs andrestaurants in Hereford.

For your free copy contactHereford Tourism Information

Centre on 01432 268430

BromyardGala

4 and 5 JulyThe Great

Herefordshi reCountry s how

steam ral ly for thefamily

The 33rd Madley Festivall l t h to 19th July Concerts from highly acclaimed musicians

Contact 01981 250 309

Another Mystery

YOU MUSTREMEMBER

This is a fascinating video of40 years of entertainment in

Hereford.Produced by Herefordshire

Council and at a special priceof E5 to Age To Age

subscribersE6 to anyone else!

Call Kate Parker at theHerefordshi re Counc i l

01432 260000

You Are My SunbeamMr Samuel Prosser, owner of Burtons the bakery,

poses in his 1906 Sunbeam with his chauffeur MrPrice. Mr s St inton, o f Whitecross, s ent i n t he

photograph. A conf irmed bachelor, Mr Prosser lived inBodenham Road where Mrs St inton's father, ThomasWilliams, worked as head gardener Burtons bakery andgrocery shop stood in High Town on the site now occupiedby Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society.

What's happened? And where is i t? Answers pleaseto Age To Age, Quarry Road, Hereford HR1 1SS.

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FREESTYLE Fields Yard, Plough Lane, Hereford HR4 DEL Tel: 01432 343188 Fax: 01432 358513ABBOTSFIELD FUNERAL DIRECTORS Monkmoor Street, Hereford HR1 2DX

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