Category: Uncategorized

Thursday 2nd February, 1961

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Leonard to the family:

Dear Alec June Susan & Carol

Many thanks for another long letter and more drawings by Susan & Carol received on Tuesday morning. Post was very late owing to so many off with the flu. Well we have had our dose of it and we don’t want any more of that particular brand as it was most devastating. I’ve had it at times over many years but nothing to touch this lot and it has left us both as weak as kittens. Any question of gardening or other work outside is out for the time being and only a few chores performed such as fetching potatoes and greens and chopping a bit of firewood. Went to library in car Tuesday but was only out for about an hour. We hope none of you get it but if you do go to bed and send for Dr. and be careful later when you think you are beginning to recover for that apparently is another dangerous phase of the illness. There seems such a lot of it about in Clevedon and it is affecting different people in different ways.

So you were not able to get much out of Carol regarding her walk home from the party? Glad she did not appear to suffer from being out without hat and coat. She evidently had had enough of it and wanted to come home. Another time she will be older and probably more interested in the other girls and boys.

Note June has been to school about Susan – it will be nice if she can get in after Easter to enjoy the Summer time there*. Will have got used to it by the time winter comes – how far away is it? query about half a mile.

The weather you described in your letter was practically identical to that experienced here over the same period. It is nice this morning but unfortunately there is a bitter cold wind blowing and best place is indoors. Whilst i was in bed last week could hear some galvanised sheeting being lifted in the gale and this turned out to be some on our neighbour’s ground not properly secured – makes an awful clatter in the night.

So you hope soon to get down to some serious work in your new department. Nice for McDonald to get away to Switzerland for a week – winter sports presumably.

Yes as far as can be seen at the moment we would like to come up to Ruislip on the Wednesday before Easter – which incidentally is eight weeks from yesterday Wednesday 1st February – have had my dose of flu I hope for this winter and we both hope to be fully fit for the journey. The weather cannot get worse surely and must improve sometime. In the meantime must press on with the garden and greenhouse work. The expert has finished pruning the old trees but I’ve now to gather up the prunings and bring them to site near garage for cutting up. Apple wood as you know is quite nice for burning in the fireplace and gives off a pleasant aroma.

Had another 10 cwt of coal tipped in Tuesday but account not yet to hand – seems quite a good lot.

Norman called up last Monday evening and said his friend in staff office had shewn him the type written list of applicants for the Class 2 Work Study jobs and his name (Norman’s) was half way down the third foolscap sheet. So much for only anticipating a few applicants.** He had been along to Work Study Section and made acquaintance of Stevens but when he spoke to me your letter had not arrived indicating that you had spoken to Stevens about him. Anyhow I think he must work out his own passage now.

Electricity people not yet arrived to renew the wiring but we are ready for them now. Last Saturday all power and lighting was cut off in the area from about midday until 4.40 p.m. It did not affect us for meals as neither of us was feeling hungry but it must have annoyed thousands. It was again off from about midnight Saturday until 4.20 a.m. Sunday morning so it looks as if they had a major repair operation on their hands. Noted your remarks about renewal of faulty wire next door but I should not like to leave things in that state knowing full well a similar fault could occur at any time on any of the other wires.

Surprised to hear Welch has now got a Special A in Work Study – must make a few of the locals think. By the way is there any name comparable to Transom House for your set of offices? And where exactly are they?

Yes Webber Saunders are now the only iron mongers in Tiverton whereas several years ago there were one or two other firms – these latter have dropped out for various reasons but Webber Saunders have expanded with the years. We do not know but imagine John has had to find a nice sum of money to put down as a partner’s share but in due course it should prove a good investment – almost equivalent to buying a house over a period of years.

We like your comment re: covering lamp at night as though it is a parrot cage – obviously it has not received attention this week but will gets its share next. When you are out on one of your shop window gazing expeditions you must look at the lamp shades and get some idea of what you want so that we can get it whilst at Ruislip and finish the job off. Those shops near the Eastcote Arms are some way off from your place but it makes another point of call I expect when out in car.

Very sorry to hear of turn of events regarding property at West Drayton – back to where you started by the sound of it. Mr & Mrs Baker must both be very upset and wondering what to do next or even if anything can be done at all.

Your Saturday mornings seem fated – one week car not starting and another oversleeping – hope Susan better by now – the children – like us – miss the nice weather for getting about outdoors. Looking back I think one of the best weeks we had last year was when you were at Clevedon and we had those three nice trips to Burnham-on-Sea. Fancy paddling now. Even our trip in October to Exmouth was disastrous because of the floods and since then conditions overall have been bad.

Not much local news this week as we have not been out and about. Roy Hewett tried to look in last Monday but we quietly eased him off as we were not feeling so good then. Bill Aston looked in this morning for half an hour but he is not too good himself. Have not seen any of our neighbours for over a week but can hear them moving about.

Note all being well you are going over to Headstone Lane on Sunday – Carol can just about stand this short journey I expect without being upset. We shall be thinking of you Sunday afternoon.

George Hunt’s address – before I forget it again – is 62 Strode Road, Clevedon.

No more now – hope you are all keeping as fit as possible.

All our love to you both and lots of kisses for Susan & Carol.

Dad & Mum

[*Ugh. This is where the nastiness starts to creep in – and really never leaves until June’s death at the end of 2016. She had decided that two children in the house together were ‘too much of a handful’ and she wanted to get one of us out of the way, so sending me to school early was the obvious solution. When she was denied, she went on a rant (back at home) about the headmistress of the school – a lovely lady called Miss Dix (or maybe Dicks or Dickes) – whom she referred to as a dried-up old spinster in elastic-sided boots (!?) who clearly had no idea how difficult it was to bring up children. She took the refusal personally – she’d had her heart set on getting rid of me – and for years afterwards mocked poor Miss Dix’s assertion that “Oh no, my dear, this is such a precious time for you and your children it would be a pity to cut it short; you should enjoy them while they’re still young.” But the unfortunate fact was that we got in the way of the housework, to which June was so dedicated at every stage of her life that even in mid-dementia all she ever wanted to do was clean things, wash up, wash the paintwork etc. etc. She made her priorities very clear even at this early age, and being untidy or messy was absolutely the worst crime she could possibly imagine. On top of that, add the fact that she decided she was raising us to be ‘good little housewives’, and that Alec didn’t give a toss as long as we didn’t bother him, and you have the seeds of an increasingly happy childhood and some very poor relationships in later life. June was a great one for casting blame on anyone who thwarted her, and Miss Dix was just the first in a very long line of scapegoats she blamed for her utter inability to love or even like her children. They were, in her words, ‘an imposition’; children in the abstract were a fine idea, but the reality of them never really matched up to her imagination.]

[**A nifty bit of arithmetic here might suggest anything between 100 and 200 applicants, and Norman’s name would have been in the last quarter of the list.]

Eva to the family, on the remaining half-sheet of Leonard’s writing paper:

Dear Alec June Susan & Carol

Many thanks for the nice drawings. Plenty of trousers about I fancy. Glad to say we are feeling better now although a bit groggy. We have had some rough weather again, not fit to get on the garden which is just as well.

We had a letter from Arthur yesterday. Where he lives they have had 50 days of 42 degrees cold [i.e. 42 Fahrenheit or 5.5 Centigrade] unheard of for 84 years & now they have had rain which they hadn’t had for three or four years.* I should not like that so perhaps our weather is best after all. I have some nice hyacinths out in bulb bowl also some scillas.

It is not far to school is it where Susan has to go just down over the dip & will she stay to lunch. June will have a busy time.

Mr Dugdale has moved out so Mrs Marshall will soon have some prospective buyers. It is the house next to Elford’s yard, where Reggie Hoy lived at one time.

What about the extra health service charges & insurance. I reckon Dad will have to pay another 8d [75p in 2021 money] a week until next March twelvemonths.*** Since Dad wrote his letter we have had a call from Norman to say he has an interview on Monday next at 4.30 p.m. & thanks Alec very much for what he has done.

I think this is the lot for now. Love from Mum & Dad.

[*From this description I would have guessed Australia, but a later letter actually mentions the USA.]

[**Apparently prescription charges were doubled to two shillings in 1961, which would be the equivalent of roughly £2.30 in 2021 currency. The current charge is £9.15.]

[***Leonard turned 65 in March 1962.]

QSL cards part 2: the collection

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As we discussed previously, some time in the 1960s Alec developed an interest in the hobby of amateur (‘ham’) radio. It is not known how or where this started, but I have a distinct recollection of him borrowing a reel-to-reel rape recorder – possibly from Eric Benn, the next-door neighbour – and using it to study Morse code for the first stage of the competency test in order to gain a license.

QSL cards were part of the process from the very beginning, used to record communications between hams wherever they might be in the world – and at first, of course, the distances were limited by the available equipment; for example, Alec’s earliest conversations were via the medium of Morse and it was only much later that he was able to graduate to using voice – which, as far as I recall, probably also needed an additional test and license.

Using their contemporaneous call logs (which have also survived, in Alec’s case,) operators would write up cards to send to their counterparts; these were collected in by the local radio club and sent off to RSGB headquarters where something like a Sorting Office must have been in operation. Returning QSL cards would be received by the local clubs and distributed to members at their meetings, and this presumably was a large part of the service provided by the RSGB.

At any rate, having found a large box of radio logs and QSL cards – collected by Alec and one of his friends – in the loft of the house Alec and June shared before his death, we turned these over to his grandson Robin. Robin, we should add, is very much a ‘chip off the old block’; in later life Alec’s ham radio hobby morphed into a love for computers, which Robin also inherited. He has therefore plotted all the cards in the collection onto this map, and would like to make the following point:

[A]ll the locations are approximate – sometimes the QSL cards gave the exact address, in which case I have tried to find the right street, but other times they just give the town or city name, so I have used a bit of artistic license!

He also points out that the collection tails off in the mid-1980s and should therefore be considered to represent roughly a twenty year sample. The 1980s were the time that Alec became infatuated with computers, so that could mark the swansong of his interest in ham radio – but there could also be other factors at play, and lacking better information we do not care to speculate any further.

Meanwhile, we will also add – with some sadness – that Alec never did succeed in achieving the Holy Grail of radio contact, a sought-after encounter with King Hussein of Jordan who was at the top of every ham’s wish-list. Nevertheless he made a pretty good collection of contacts around the world, some of whom subsequently turned into lifelong friends.

Robin has ambitions of analysing the log books as well, at some future date, but as he is currently working all hours trying to maintain his teaching commitments under less than ideal conditions we suggest that nobody should hold their breath. ‘Too much data, too little time’ is one of the heart-cries of the amateur family historian; there will never be an end to the subject matter, only a limit to the amount that any human being can process in a given lifetime. We’re doing our best, of course, but it can never possibly be enough.

The mystery of the missing brother; Part 2

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Back in September I promised an update including any further information that might be obtained from Teddy’s death certificate. It was a little disappointing, but such as it is I include it here.

Teddy died on 27 February 2001 in Hillingdon Hospital, Middlesex. The informant on his death certificate was a lady who gave an address in Hillingdon which turned out to be a community centre; as Teddy would have been just a month short of his 80th birthday at the time of his death, it seems reasonable to assume he was attending a day centre or a pensioners’ lunch when he was taken ill – and that either the manager of the centre or a member of staff went with him in the ambulance and was either present at the time of death or was listed in his paperwork as next of kin.

I have tried writing to this lady at the address given but – unsurprisingly – have had no reply so far.

The only further information yielded by the death certificate relates to Teddy’s address (a ground floor flat, probably Council-owned), his occupation – given as ‘Railwayman (retired)’, which is interesting – and the cause of death, which was ‘metastatic sarcoma’. It should be possible in due course to ferret out the details of Teddy’s employment as a railwayman, but other than that – unless/until his RAF service records become available – it seems as if we have reached a dead end. The only other possibility might be reaching out to a local newspaper or radio station covering the Hillingdon area, and that is certainly something we are well prepared to do when the time comes.

Thursday 15th December, 1960

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Leonard to the family:

Dear Alec June Susan & Carol

Many thanks for letter received at 9.0 a.m. on Wednes. Am very sorry our last did not reach you until Monday & will try and improve this week by posting today. The Christmas post couple with the foggy weather is already affecting the transit of mails and I suppose one must make the best of it for a few weeks.

In spite of fact you had no letter to reply to you have managed to tell us quite a lot of news. So glad to hear you are all keeping well at the moment and hope you will manage to do so all through the Christmas period. It is surprising the amount of sickness about and no wonder with the weather that has prevailed for the past month or two.

You soon had news of Richings’ visit to us last Thursday then – presumably from Belcher who I understand has been on Work Study at Weston. Richings said he (Belcher) was shortly taking up a new appointment at Cardiff. Mr & Mrs Richings arrived about 3.30 p.m. and I drove them back to Clevedon station* to catch 9.19 p.m. home. The cork had already come out of the bottle before we reached station but was replaced and in position at actual departure from there. It was a bit new and had only been bottled on 1st Nov – still it will keep and improve as I told him.

Michael Richings now apparently is going to take up teaching after finishing at Reading University next year. Much the best vocation for him I should think, especially as his young lady (two years older than him) is already a teacher at a school about two miles out of Reading. Richings already knew of course (?Belcher) that you had had another lift and they both congratulate you. Incidentally they brought up a couple of items for Susan & Carol for Christmas.

Note you have been enjoying some of your two years old apricot wine. Have started one of my new bottles of elderberry but it tastes new so must let it mature for months.

So you had a ‘birthday’ with young Christopher and after that you consider Susan & Carol quite good. From what we have seen of them they certainly are good little girls but like all children they must wear you down at times. Why should Christopher be such an exception? Is it because he might be so lonely having no playmates? Query no one living near with children of his age.

How do Susan & Carol like the shops now they are dressed up for Christmas? Thank you very much Susan for the lovely drawing of the Christmas tree. We noticed it was planted in a box with earth and the tree was a good shape and had fairy lights and little parcels attached to the branches. Where did you see one like that?

So you have had a meeting in Taunton – expect you went via B and H line** via Athelney and not via Durston. You have seen snow before us by all accounts if vehicles were coming into Taunton from Exmoor covered with it. The nearest we have got to it is sleet. Rather seems as if we may have a spell of wintry weather before long.

Note your bit of concreting to keep rubbish out of garage – hope frost did not affect it.

The extension to January 31st is not going to help Baynton-Hughes much – only prolonging the agony as it were. How are you placed now? Still carrying on with special job with B. J. C. representatives or taking up appointment with Philips? What is Pattison doing about it now-a-days?

I had written your letter last week before going over to the funeral of the Rev. Soole.*** The church was more than three parts full and as the congregation were leaving we rang some half muffled touches on the bells. Of course we saw Soole and his wife among the mourners but did not speak to them.

On Monday this week (bell ringing practice night) we tried to ring a quarter peal for the 21st birthday of Victor James – elder son of the Capt. – but although we got through it (took 47 minutes) it could not be recognised because for some reason or another the work of the no. 2 and no. 5 bells got changed over accidentally during the peal and it was not discovered until we were finishing off. We shall probably have another go next Monday. The last time we rang a quarter peal was in 1947 when Princess (now Queen) Elizabeth got married. Anyhow it is good fun and exercise.

The horse has not yet arrived in the field – the weather was too bad last week for the fence to be put up but I expect Norman Baker will be along any day now.

Cornish has lost another fowl and the general opinion is that it was the work of one of the pole cats on the hill, especially as it occurred about mid-day when foxes would not normally be about.

The River Board people I understand are going to dredge the river – starting at the sea end – to a further depth of a couple of feet in order to facilitate drainage from the moors. This work will probably commence soon after Christmas.

Still very little work outdoors at present but I did manage to pull up remainder of runner bean sticks yesterday morning, but it was raw and cold and I got inside for remainder of day. Am progressing with the standard lamp but now temporarily held up pending some advice from Mr Palmer or Tinkling. Incidentally I’ve found a good job for keeping warm in the garage – keep sandpapering the shaft of the lamp. It’s surprising how the action of rubbing the sandpaper along the woodwork generates bodily warmth.

Had a line from Geoff earlier this week in which he also said you had all called round there on Saturday 3rd inst.

Since writing the above Mr Palmer has called and given me the advice I wanted for continuing with standard lamp and can now get on with it. The query was whether a stain and polish or polish only. He says the wood is so good that polishing only is necessary.

Had a letter from Stanley Godfrey yesterday – the usual one received about Christmas every year. Quite a newsy epistle and he asked after you and what you were doing now-a-days. Have already replied and given him up-to-date information. He said Woodward was now getting twice as much as he (Godfrey) received during the War years. How times have changed.

We shall be very pleased to see you when you can make journey to Clevedon – wondered whether you might try and get down before Christmas. If you can let me know in time I will meet you at station but bear in mind post very erratic at the moment.

Assume Mr & Mrs Baker have no further news of their housing problem – perhaps it is as well just along now. Note Pauline with you last weekend – hope she is keeping well.

Let’s hope the children enjoy their Sunday School party – should like to peep in on them when it is in full swing.

Well I think this is pretty much the lot once more – must leave some room for Mum to fill up when she gets back from Towns Women’s Guild.

All our love to you both and lots of kisses for Susan & Carol.

Mum & Dad

[*Closed, together with the whole branch line, in 1968.]

[**Berkshire and Hampshire line.]

[***The Rev. W. Bathurst Soole turns out to have been something of a local celebrity. Educated at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, where he gained his BA in 1902, he was ordained into the Church of England and later entered the First World War as ‘one of the only priest-gunners’. A book of his letters, found in the attic of his old school, is available on Amazon. In May 1960 he performed the wedding ceremony of his son G. H. Soole and Marjorie Richards at St. Andrew’s, Clevedon, (see this entry for Leonard’s attendance and conversations had there) and – sadly – seems to have died little more than six months later. This is a character – and a story – I will definitely be trying to follow up on at some stage.]

Letter from Eva to the children, occupying the remaining half-sheet of Leonard’s writing paper:

Dear Susan and Carol

Thank you for your nice drawing of a Christmas tree. I went to a party today but they did not have a tree so there were not any presents. We had a nice cup of tea and fancy cakes. I had a mince pie.

Christopher came to see you didn’t he. I expect like you he has grown a lot. I had a Xmas card from Auntie Eda today, I hope she is well. I saw some little girls on the TV today singing carols & one of them was like Susan and one like Carol.

You can run in the garden now the rain has stopped can’t you and Mummie can hang the clothes out to dry?

Cheerio with love from Grandma & Grandfy xxxxxx

Bill of Sale

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As Leonard’s letter to the family, written on Thursday 8 December 1960, seems not to have arrived until Monday 12 December (i.e. the day after Alec usually replied), and has apparently not survived*, here instead is a curious item that presumably dates from the time when Tom accepted the posting to Cross Keys. It’s terribly sad that he and Emily had to part with so many of their household possessions, but it was probably much simpler and cheaper to do so than to try and transport everything to their new home – and they may, of course, have been going into furnished accommodation anyway.

It’s entirely possible, however, that this was the event which produced the packrat tendency in later generations of the family – which is in turn the reason for this blog’s existence in the first place. When so much had to be discarded or disposed of, the desire to hold onto what could be held on to may have become more tenacious, which is the reason why my spare bedroom is full of storage boxes the contents of which I have barely scratched the surface of.

This is not going to be a small task, readers, and we aren’t even a tenth of the way through it yet.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

[*I don’t rule out the possibility of its having been misfiled into a different year, but if you could see the volume of these letters and the way they’re stored you’d probably forgive me for not hunting for it!]

[**As a lifelong editor, I want to go back and make that compositor add a comma after ‘neighbourhood’ – among other things!]

Sunday 20th November, 1960

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Alec to his parents:

Dear Mum and Dad

Thank you both for letters to us and children. Glad you liked Susan’s drawing, they show a little promise we think.* Both girls seem well enough now except that runny noses are well in evidence.

Still no news on the housing front. The facilities in the building are beginning to fail one by one to add to the troubles. This week the fridge went wrong also fire in shop. The latter the only thing that prevented them from becoming icicles. We have not been over this week but it is known that they are not too well and no wonder.

I used to sing the girls an old song about the “Oujah tree “, could only remember one verse but they seemed to like it. I suppose Carol connected the suspended dahlias ( something she had not seen before ) with the song. Now you remind me, I call to mind the occasion of the ‘Camp coffee’ but very dimly.

The interview last Monday was taken by Philips with McDonald and a staff rep. When I was ushered in he (Philips) said ‘good morning Mr Atkins, we have not met before’. I thought he might as well have it that way as any other so did not pass any comment. At the end of the interview when shaking hands he asked how you were keeping. I went in at 11-30 a.m. and had a very good interview. They fired a few questions but having thought out the possible answers the previous night, most of them dropped into my lap. As far as such events go, I would say it was one of the best I have ever had. This may or may not be significant, but Mann who followed had a rough passage. So far there has been no announcement, and I rate my chances no more or no less than at the beginning that is fifty-fifty.

I did not have a terrible lot to say to the man from Derby. The inventor of the system – Norman Shelley – was present and he gave him most of the griff. Went to Exeter on Tuesday as arranged and met Squires, Hartnell and a chap named Courtney. Also Stan Reed and a young rolling stock man named Court. Hartnell was as nervy as anything about his District being used as a guinea pig. He has trouble already in introducing his Taunton Concentration Scheme. We agreed to suspend operations for the time being until he could have further evidence now being prepared by the B.T.C. He won’t understand it when he gets it and so his reply will almost certainly be ‘no’.

Norman and I went on to Plymouth and presented ourselves at Millbay just before 11—00 a.m. and asked to see Dean. He had had the good sense to go to Cornwall a few minutes earlier so had a preliminary chat with Beer then went down to see Jack Ackford. ( Incidentally both he and Squires asked after you.) After examining the evidence offered by the Plymouth people we think it unlikely that we shall conduct the experiment there as the results will not be of such an extent to make a song about. They will have to come in line eventually, but it will cost too much for no local result. All the benefits will be national. We may yet have to “fire off ” Hollinsworth after all.

The meeting at Swindon is a waste of time. This could all have been cleared up by phone, but the accountant wants to know more than is good for him. All that is involved is a request for the services of one of the Regional Accountants Tabulators to process some punched cards. This would involve about forty hours in total. We have seen the man who will do the job, and there is no trouble there. All we want is a yes or no from his boss. I expect he wants to talk about C.P.C., and the merits or demerits of the system, but if so its not coming off because that is not the point at issue.

So Geoff has got himself a typewriter at last has he? They are very useful, but it is not necessary to get a new one as there are usually some good second-hand ones knocking about. Yes I am afraid that writing is getting a little out of date, Quality is not the thing now, but after all the end product was neatness, and this can be achieved with almost the same amount of difficulty with a typewriter. The thing to do is not to be the slave to the machine. If I make any mistakes, I either leave the nor type over them. No point in wasting paper, and in any case there is rarely any doubt as to the sense intended.

I bought some wood on Saturday to make my bench at end of garage. I got four pieces of 8x6xl flooring, lopped two inches off the long side and laid them on the angle iron support of the garage that runs lengthways down the sides at a height of 35″ from the floor. As it stands it it strong enough for shelving, but not sufficiently firm enough for a bench. I am making a frame 35″x25″ to support the middle out of some four by two that I bought for the old wooden shed. By sheer chance the mower fits Just under this bench and I have stowed away all the boxes and large bits and pieces that have been cluttering up the place. At the moment what is left of the Chrysants has found its way on to the bench but they will soon be over now and out of the way. I am afraid they did not get the best of chances as they had to be moved about from place to place rather a lot and they grew very straggly and unwieldy due to the rain and being in a shady corner. However I must look in the gardening book and see what I have to do to the shoots that are present at the base of each of the plants in order to get some more next year.

Don’t go to too much trouble with the standard lamp if the idea is a bit much. Can only think of one way to get wire down the middle, and that is to construct it of a number of short sections to be fitted together. My longest drill is about six inches so I suppose the longest section that it would be possible to bore would be about 12 inches by conven­tional methods. Of course a thin red hot poker would bore through equal to about twice its own length if you bore from both ends in turn.

I was able to see for myself the residue of the floods in the West. There is still a lot of it lying alongside the line air Athelney. Saw John Saunders at Newton Abbot. He asked after you, and said he had not seen you since you retired. He is complaining that the Work Study people have been to Newton Abbot and told his men that they are the best cleaners on the Western. He thinks we are likely to recommend that the standard of cleaning there should be reduced. Colin Lovemore has been on a Work Study course and showed a lot of promise but he has decided not to proceed in this line. Afraid of comment I suppose.

I read Mum’s letter to the girls and was instructed to tell you that we have some birds here too. Susan says that she helps Grandfy open the gate. To-day the prizes were dished out at the Sunday School and we were invited to attend. All the children who turned up fairly regularly had books, and Susan had one of course. Carol who had not been attending for very long did not qualify and wanted to know where her book was. Managed to stave that one off. Pauline came to stay with us for the week­end so we all went by car. It poured of course so had to wipe off the wet in semi-darkness after return. I must say the presence of the silicone polish I put on helped a lot as the water gathered in large drops and did not cling to the car. Everything clean, dry and polished again now.

Susan was a bit naughty at Sunday School, and I saw the teacher talk to her once or twice but Carol was as good as gold. (Perhaps she was still waiting for her book). Susan kept waving and calling from the other side of the room.

Had a letter from Budworth** who is now the Work Study Assistant to the Divisional Traffic Manager at Leeds. He covers the whole of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Have not been in London long enough to find out how Manning is getting on yet.

I am afraid the garden is not getting a look in these days. There is very little spoiling however as only the Westfield Flame Chrysants to attend to. Last year I left them in but this year I think I will try to find time to sort them out.

Had a drop of one of my Parsnip Wines to-day, I suppose it must be well over two years old by now. Quite strong. Maybe when I have had time to get some substantial shelves in the garage I may find time to tackle some more and let it mature out there. So far no mice in ours, but then they would have very little to eat if they came this way.

Would you say that Mrs Drewett got a reasonable price in the circumstances or not? There are two houses higher up this road with boards outside, I do not know if they are ‘To sell’ or ‘Sold’. I heard that one of the families living round there had moved to Pinner.

Well there it is for this week, Hope you are both keeping well although according to Mum’s note to the children I gather she has a cold, Hope that by now it has departed. Love from us all.

*Again, four and a half years old; what a patronising thing to say about a child’s drawing. As if it mattered whether a kid’s art showed promise or not; what’s important is that it’s done with love and enjoyed by all, not whether or not your child is a budding Michelangelo!

**Presumably this will be the letter Alec is responding to in the stray ‘Dear Bud‘ letter that turned up randomly in the file.

Thursday 17th November, 1960

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Leonard to the family:

Dear Alec June Susan & Carol

Thank you very much for another long letter duly received and for the lovely colour drawing from Susan – expect Grandma will have something to say about that when she writes in a few minutes. Sorry to hear both the girls have had colds again but the weather is enough to upset a lot of people – typical English climate. Anyhow we hope they are improving and that you both have escaped its effects.

No further news about the housing problem so presumably no development since your last comment.

Wherever did Carol get the idea of an ‘Oujah tree’*? Susan’s remark re Tide quite good and funny. There’s an idea for an advert here if could only think of a suitable one but the ‘Tide’ people perhaps would not agree.

Re: your school recollections Mum says you came home one day and announced that ‘Camp coffee is the best’ and when asked from where you got that idea replied ‘It is on the board down the road’. Obviously the billposters had been busy.

You seem to be fully occupied in railway matters now-a-days with meetings in South Wales and West of England but it all gives experience and builds up a good background for future applications for promotion. Even if you do not get the job for which you had an interview on Monday at least it is nice to be ‘in the frame’ as some folk put it.** Shall be very interested to know how you got on as I expect Philips himself would probably be present. Shall also be pleased to hear how you got on with the man from Derby and of your visit to Exeter where I expect you would meet Squires. It is about time he retired – cannot think what keeps him in office as he cannot expect any more promotion at his age.

What is meeting at Swindon all about? You are doing far more travelling than I ever did but as mentioned above it’s bound to be useful one day.

There is one controller at Cardiff I know name of Jenkins – he used to be in Swindon Control but moved to Cardiff two or three years ago.

What a pity about the Catherine wheel – we used to get a bit of trouble with them here although you preferred squibs – crackers – rockets and ‘bangers’. Coloured matches. Sparklers of course were in evidence but it was all soon over.

Note Peter and Brenda made a visit on Friday and that they are now officially engaged to be married – our very best wishes to them both.

Had a letter from Geoff on Monday – typewritten this time – says he has acquired a typewriter at last, so what with yours and the one Don uses at Lyng I’m now the only one left still driving a Biro across the writing paper – very much out of date.

Position with Iris and her mother & brother noted. It is very sad for them and requires a bit of working out for the arrangement to be achieved.

Have extended bench to make that side of garage more tidy. The motor mower fits underneath the extension lovely and of course there is more bench room. The opposite corner of garage i.e. behind wine cabinet (sic)*** can still be used for stacking long timbers etc. This week I’ve put up three shelves (wide ones) in the corner – where bench extended – and filled them up already. It’s surprising how stuff accumulates. Incidentally all the brackets for holding the shelves – eleven in all – I made out of odd pieces of wood. In fact I had all the wood on hand that was required for the complete job and only had to buy nails.

So you would like me to try and make a standard lamp. Have not aspired to anything so big so far but must think that one out before spoiling a lot of wood. Quite an idea though.

We found with car radio that when we came to Ruislip the West of England programme was too weak to be heard and I’m not surprised you have made some alterations. Down here we could more or less get some response from all six positions. You seem to have tuned in the more important ones and I hope they are clear enough for your purpose. It’s strange but we have not missed the radio in the new car.

We walked on sea wall for a short distance beyond the new river but not into Kingston Seymour. It was a glorious morning and quite different to what we have been having lately. The gardens are literally saturated and apart from picking some sprouts or other greens cannot get on it – hence the work being carried on in garage. Can always find something to do. The daglias are still in the ground and the beetroot, but it is hopeless to try and get them out yet. I did manage to pick remainder of runner beans which I have shelled for seed and these are in greenhouse drying off – plenty available if you want some.

I think Bill Raine would want a lot of salt to catch the pole cats – a gun is the only thing that will stop them. Have not seen squirrel this way since I last mentioned its presence in field.

Glad the paper reached you and that it was interesting. I hear the S/M at Brixham has got Yatton. Don knows him well and when he (Don) was on relief at Torquay he lodged at this man’s home.

We hear Mrs Drewett’s house sold for £19000 [£44,600 in 2020 money, probably about a tenth of its present-day value]. There is a ground rent on the place and as you know only a small garden. It will take £500 [nearly £12,000] to put the place in good condition and some real hard work to get garden productive again.

Going back to car radio again – position 2 was one of our best and gave the West of England programme if I remember rightly. I think the radio book (inside car manual) gives instructions for adjustments and the key to do this was in pocket under dashboard but I never interfered with it.

Am still catching the odd mouse in garage but the place is pretty clear again now. Fortunately they are not there long enough to do any damage to apples or potatoes.

Well I think this is the lot for this week. Hope you soon get rid of the catarrh and we shall look forward to your next budget of news.

All our love to you both and kisses for dear little Susan & Carol.

Mum & Dad

*After Googling, I suspect this is the one Alec was referring to. (Hear it sung by George Formby here.) It seems to have been recorded in 1938, which would make it absolutely the sort of thing Alec and his musical friends would have been sharing – and possibly also trying to play – during the war.

**I’ve heard an anecdotal origin story for this expression but can’t track down anything more definitive. Apparently in the early days of the CID (which was formed in 1878) there was a wooden frame which held name boards showing which senior officer/s was/were eligible to take the next major murder case, and this would be updated according to leave, seniority, workload etc. The idea was that when information came in about a new murder it could be referred immediately to the right man – they were all men in those days, of course – and that would save valuable time. Anyway ‘in the frame’ gradually expanded from there to mean ‘eligible’, or something very similar, in a wider context. /etymology geek

***Rather than ruining the text by adding another “(sic)” I’ll just point out that this is in Leonard’s original.

From Eva, on the remaining half-sheet of Leonard’s paper:

Dear Susan & carol

Thank you very much for Susan’s nice painting this week. The colours go very well together don’t they. I don’t expect you have been able to go out very much this week as it has been raining a lot. When I went out this morning in the rain, the water was running down the gutters & down the hills, when is it going to stop?

I hope your colds are better by now. I have got one and I keep losing my handkerchief.

Grandfy has been busy in the garage as he cannot do any gardening.

The birds are busy flying about, I caught one the other day in the porch & took it outside & it soon flew away.

Guess what this is supposed to be:

Love from Grandma & Granfy.****

****Eva is consistently inconsistent about spelling this word.

Dear Bud, Yours Sincerely Alec

On By Sue JenkinsIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

At this point in the file there is a letter missing, which Alec should have written to his parents on Sunday 31 October 1960. Rather than leave a gap to Leonard’s letter of 3 November, therefore, this would seem a good opportunity to incorporate a stray letter from Alec to Bud which has found its way into the file. It’s dated 15th November from Alec’s office address, but of course the typewriter was at home and that’s how the carbon got incorporated into the family collection. Most of it is couched in railway jargon which means little to me, but it would be nice to know the whole story about the bull.

Work Study Section, Room 24 Winsland St, No 3 General Offices, Paddington.

15th November ’60

Dear Bud

Thank you very much indeed for your letter of 10th inst., arrived this address together with Dans, and as we were both at Paddington they were conveniently interchanged on the spot. I note from your address and statement that you have again been elevated. Congratulations. I too had seen the Vac. List and had come to the conclusion that you had one of the W./.S. Jobs because your own job was advertised a short while after the W./.S. jobs were advertised. I remember what you told me about the N.E. set up, and that their school, although small by our standards, gave promise of being much better organised. It is very nice to hear from you again and hope you will be not overlong in popping in for a pint. Who you will see and where you will see them however will be a problem as confusion is utterly confounded at the moment particularly in my own case. More of that later, and no doubt a different slant from Dan when he replies. However to get to your requested information, I must tell you that Harold Hardy has retired and gone to Broadstairs to live. His successor, one Bateman, of whom you wot, was extremely cagey when I tackled him about the Standard Block Regulations. No definite information is forthcoming, but if I can quote my own impressions you can draw your own conclusions. Firstly I think the W.R., with some justification are probably being a little cussed. Remember the much vaunted accident free record, and you will readily appreciate that there could have been an attitude of “We’re all right Jack, this does not concern us, you put your house in order.” How they got away with it, to quote your phrase, can only have been through intensive lobbying in the right places. I gather that there are provisions for regulations 4a and 5, which do not come up to the high safety standards of the W.R. and this leads me to the conclusion that, because the W.R. safety standards are higher than those provided for in the Standard Block Regulations, no one wants to be the one to take the risk of enforcing lower standards. This could put somebody on the spot if an accident occurred which could be attributed to a lowering of the standards. Well there it is, I am sorry I can not be more definite but I hope it is something for you to work on.

With regard to the rest of your letter, I am delighted to learn that we are regarded as the “Other Half”, might I say that you could well change it to the “Better Half”. The closed shop you mention opened to admit to former L.M.R. Work Study Types to our midst recently, none other than Messrs. Manning and Welchman. These together with Dan and myself have taken the Section Leader Jobs in the four Divisions 1205 – 1320. We do not know who got the Assistants jobs as the interviews were only yesterday (London) to which Dan and I were summoned. We do not know of anyone else who attended this session. Rumour has it that Soole being redundant at Bristol will be worked into the Work Study Assts. job there and there is supposed to be a redundant Commercial bod floating about in the Cardiff Divn who has already got his handwriting on the job there.

Your Work Study Clubs etc. sound quite exciting. I have not heard of anything quite like it but Dan tells me he did hear of something down West.

You probably know that Albert has a temporary job up in the Midlands, sorting out the freight tangle?? He has been appointed Dieselisation Assistant (A.G.M. T. ) and Baynton has been made Freight and Parcels Services Assistant ( A.G.M. T ). I have been assisting Mr Pattisson since July as W.R. rep. on Joint B.T.C. Working Party which is developing Continuous Progress Control of wagons. Successful experiments in the Tondu Sub-Control are being followed by a large scale job for the whole of the Cardiff District. This latter scheme is home and dry all but the shouting, and there can be a lot of that. I am going to Exeter and Plymouth Districts to-morrow to iniate [sic] work on similar schemes there. Since July I have been dashing round the Cardiff Valleys like a mad thing, and it has come as a very welcome change believe me. Of course the S.E. Region have dabbled with this as well but unfortunately a much watered down form of C.P.C. was developed in Hull, and was adjudged a most inglorious failure. This thing, which originated from the brains of the B.T.C. has been subjected to considerable change from its original form to meet the hard test of practical requirements, and we have got it into a much more acceptable form now. We had a meeting with the Vice Principal of the Derby Railway College today to gen him up on this subject as he had several requests from his senior pupils. An early treatise on the subject has become a best seller and we are spreading the gospel to all quarters. If you should become involved with this in your Region, and it is only a question of time before its spread is universal, I shall be only too pleased to let you know what has gone before, and let you know of some of the techniques we have evolved to solve some of the problems. It is accepted that if it can work successfully at Cardiff it can work anywhere. Potential savings of say 1% of the wagons in the Cardiff District represent approx. £100,000 per annum [just under £2.4 million in 2020 money] in replacement and interest charges, and the saving for the whole of B.R. is estimated to amount to some £6,000,000 [roughly £141 million in 2020 money]. Work Study methods are ideal for this sort of investigation.* Well that is rather a lot about myself. Have had a lot to do with Bill Bryer in this connection, and also one meeting with Gerry Burt. They are both well, and Gus Williams asked to be remembered to you when I next made contact. He said something about sending a Bull by rail from Llantrisant, or was it Llanharan? Baynton is like the proverbial feline on the hot tin roof. We get a trainee at the rate of one per week these days. They are mostly apprentices, and he never makes any arrangements. He confuses all their names and we never seem to know who is coming until he arrives. The stock method is to despatch the innocent to Bert Crutch at Exeter, and wait for the next one. Well I am sorry to learn that all your shower are homeward bound just at opening time. You will have to think up an incentive for them. Perhaps a calendar of Old Oak Standard would do it. By the way, because I cannot be released from my present work- C.P.C. – Sid Manning has landed the Reading Re-appraisal and they have pinched Dans team to do it, ( Twas ever thus }. The happy thought has just struck me that I can make early contact with the Kingfish when in the Exeter Area. I must take your letter and tidings. Well cheerio for now, write again when you are able.

Yours sincerely

*Bearing in mind the oft-quoted line about the total computing power of Apollo 11 barely being enough to run a decent pocket calculator, it would probably be useful to think of these men and their work as being a sort of human spreadsheet; they’re trying to find a way of tracking goods wagons and making sure they’re returned to their home stations – a task which would now probably involve bar codes or QR codes and scanners, but which in these days needed some form of laborious manual record-keeping which at its most sophisticated probably involved a card index. No wonder B.R. was struggling for money when they employed so many highly-qualified men to solve a problem that half a century later could have been dealt with by relatively unsophisticated computing methods.

Why Broadchurch is – and isn’t – Clevedon

On By Sue JenkinsIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Like a large number of UK viewers*, and later on a considerable faction of the world’s population, we sat down one day in March 2013 to watch the first episode of ‘Broadchurch‘, which is a murder mystery set in a seaside town and centres on the death of 11 year old Danny Latimer. Like 99.9% of those viewers we had absolutely no idea what to expect, except that it looked like a genuine and effective British attempt at Scandi-noir. Unlike a lot of those people, however, we jumped out of our seats during the first establishing shot – a street at night – and yelped “Bloody hell, that’s Clevedon!” And so it was.

Or, rather, part of Clevedon was part of Broadchurch. IMDB, rather insultingly, says it’s Portishead, and there may indeed have been some scenes shot there – but Portishead and Clevedon are two distinct entities. The spectacular cliffs and the beaches are very definitely at West Bay in Dorset. The church, however, and the street with the hotel and the newspaper office, and the field which backs on to the Latimers’ house, are all in Clevedon – together with other incidental locations. The Latimer and Miller houses, too, are both in Clevedon. This trend continued with Broadchurch 2 and 3, but the first series is the only one we happen to have on DVD; we bought it solely for the location shots – because one day we may not be able to get to Clevedon, and this is as good a way as any to remember it.

The street in the opening sequence, down which Danny Latimer skateboards to his fate, is Hill Road in Clevedon. Detective Ellie Miller refers to it as ‘the high street’ so presumably it’s actually called ‘High Street’ for Broadchurch purposes. It features several notable businesses, the most prominent of which is The Traders Hotel B&B, in the building which was (in 2019 at any rate) occupied by J. Edward Sellars Financial Planning. The little street market which turns up in episode 1 is, as far as I can discover, an invention of the series, presumably to indicate the passing of time. The newspaper offices are also in Hill Road, Clevedon, but the newsagent’s shop run by the character Jack Marshall – although supposedly in the same road – is actually located at West Bay.

The Latimers and the Millers, as well as other characters (Nige, Rev. Coates etc.) all seem to live on streets that give easy access to a large field with a sea wall behind it and a good view of a church on a hill. This field is easily identifiable as Marshalls Field in Clevedon, and some scenes actually take place on the sea wall. Beth Latimer meets her stalker there, for example, in episode 3, although it’s difficult to imagine where she thought she was going as there is nothing whatsoever along the path but a couple of isolated farms and – eventually – Weston-super-Mare.

This view, across Marshalls Field to St Andrew’s Church, was taken from the sea wall in July 2014, and corresponds closely to camera angles seen in ‘Broadchurch’. Leonard and Eva’s house – as well as those inhabited by the fiction Miller and Latimer families – would be either in the picture or just off it to the right hand side.

The church itself, however, is the most important individual location from this blog’s point of view. St Andrew’s, Clevedon, makes its first appearance in episode 2, where it’s seen in the background for the first time at time reference 12:36, on the left hand side of the picture – and then in an establishing shot at 33:14. The angle there is not quite wide enough to show the family grave, where Leonard is buried and Eva and Alec are both commemorated on the stone**; that’s just off the right-hand side of the image, on a gentle rise close to the gate which leads out onto Poets’ Walk, the footpath around the headland. The hill from which this image was taken is called Church Hill and is in itself the subject of an interesting story which we’ll no doubt get to in a later post.

The family grave also has ‘narrow escapes’ at time reference 18:55 in episode 4 and 10.59 in episode 8; the bench which clearly features in both these scenes is the landmark by which the grave can most easily be located.

The interior of the church as shown is indeed the interior of St Andrew’s Church, and the font which can be seen behind Pauline Quirke at 33:36 in episode 2 is the font where Carol was baptised. Her name used to be on the Cradle Roll, which was up on the wall near the font, but doubtless this has been superseded by now. We have not been inside the church since Leonard’s funeral as it is generally kept locked these days.

The skate/BMX park where Joe Miller takes his son, Tom, in episode 3, is on the sea front at Clevedon, next to the northernmost corner of Salthouse Fields – the green area in front of the pub frequented by Alec in his World War 2 diary fragment, which can be found elsewhere on this blog.

If we hadn’t already been sure, after that establishing shot of Hill Road at night, that we were in Clevedon, the identification would have been confirmed for us by the distinctive sight at 28:23 in episode 1 of the two masts and the line of the sea wall. This is part of a scene which begins at 28:10 and takes place on the path which leads from the end of Old Church Road (St Andrew’s being the ‘old church’ of the name) down to a tiny ramp and boat yard***. From here there is a path to the right which runs up around Wains Hill and joins up with Poets’ Walk, and one to the left which – being part of the Somerset Coastal Path – eventually finds its way to Weston. Alec always said that the two masts were Clevedon’s defining characteristic (remember, he was a radio ham), but if he gave any further explanation I was unable to understand it then and certainly wouldn’t be able to do so now. Therefore I have located this comment by a user named Simon on a forum called UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration which may help:

These two masts are the aerial for the 50kw BBC R5L AM transmitter serving most of the West Country and South Wales. The radiating mast is the one nearest the coast the other mast is an earthed reflector to reduce co channel interference with Brookmans Park, near London, along the M4 corridor.

The Clevedon signal on 909Khz is very strong and clear at my address near Bristol which I use for my mid band test when checking the alignment of any medium wave radio. It’s also a good test of selectivity as nearby is a very strong signal from BBC R Wales on 882Khz from the Washford transmitter, just down the coast from Clevedon near Watchet, which some of the older and smaller transistor radios have problems separating.

Any other Clevedon locations which appear – and there are one or two – are usually the product of either turning the camera around and using the same place from a different angle, or simply following a character with a Steadicam. By cross referencing the DVD with Google Earth it’s relatively straightforward to work out where both the Millers and the Latimers live – and even to come up with a fairly good idea as to where the crew parked their vehicles while they were filming. I won’t give the exact addresses of the houses used for filming; it’s easy enough to do what I did and identify the locations, particularly as they don’t seem to have changed too much in the interim. It seems likely that the interiors as well as the exteriors were used, too; since there wasn’t going to be a lot of damage (nothing got blown up, for example), it was just a case of selecting a house with the right vibe to begin with.

Clevedon doesn’t get a lot of publicity on the whole, it’s a quintessentially genteel Edwardian seaside resort where band concerts and flower shows have always been more popular than ice cream and kiss-me-quick hats. The few ‘attractions’ are clustered around the Marine Lake and Salthouse Fields, with several excellent restaurants – and Hill Road – up at the further (northern) end of town near the pier. There are still occasional sailings-from and arrivals-to the pier in summer, and Alec and his parents are commemorated on a brass plaque there – although we couldn’t find it last time we looked. (We think they remove them after a certain period and re-sell the space.) At any rate it’s a quiet spot and has remained relatively unchanged.

We noticed an autographed photo of David Bradley in a shop window in Hill Road back in 2014, but that seems to be pretty much all the impact the place suffered for having three seasons of a popular crime drama filmed in and around it – and if that’s the case we can’t pretend we’re terribly unhappy with the result.

*Apparently 9.07 million viewers watched the first episode, either live or on time-delay. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadchurch_(series_1)#Reception

**Eva died in York, and due to a misunderstanding her ashes were scattered and no marker was ordered for her. Leonard died in Clevedon and his ashes are interred under the stone in St Andrew’s churchyard, to which Eva’s name was also added. Alec died in Exmouth; his ashes were interred at Exeter along with June’s and those of her sister, Pauline, and there is presumably a marker of some sort to commemorate them all. However his name has also been added to his parents’ gravestone at Clevedon. At the moment we manage to visit at least once a year to tidy the grave and leave flowers, but this is becoming increasingly difficult and we may need to pay someone to maintain it for us in future.

***This is also where a suspect is apprehended in episode 8 at time reference 04.48.