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Tuesday, October 8, 2013
LIVE AND KICKING Bristol University’s iconic grey 1960s Students Union building is about to emerge from a major refurbishment and update programme. This will, of course, include improvements to the Anson Rooms. Here Tony Benjamin takes a look back in time at some of the legendary acts which played the Anson Rooms, and at some of the backstage shenanigans.
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n 1965, after years of using the venerable Victoria ‘Vic’ Rooms for its students union, Bristol University unveiled its brand new purpose-built students union premises on Queens Road, Clifton. A state-of-the-art building it boasted many impressive facilities including a swimming pool and, at the top of the stylish spiralling staircase in the lobby, The Anson Rooms, originally described as a ‘large meeting room’ that, with the adjoining Long Bar, was perfectly set up for becoming a live music venue. The mid-60s was the time of the British Blues Boom, Swinging London and Beatlemania but live pop music was still largely relegated to old ‘palais’ dancehalls or sit-down concert spaces like the Colston Hall. Famously, Bristol had mods and rockers hangout The Glen and the previous Students Union in the Victoria Rooms had featured musical gigs, but this brand new large scale venue played a major role in Bristol’s musical life from its very first days. Official records are few and far between but it is generally agreed that the first live band to play in the Anson Rooms was the Yardbirds, the blues-based rock band that would later spawn Led Zeppelin but at this time featured Jeff Beck as lead guitarist. They were the first of many great bands of that era to take to the rooms’ low-slung stage and many local musical veterans recall playing there with them. Al Read (who would later go on to turn Acker Bilk’s jazz club at The Granary into another premier rock venue) was guitarist in the Franklyn Big 6, a soul covers band regularly called on to warm things up and remembers supporting The Animals in 1965. “Whilst the gear was being set up
we went to the pub next to the Union and were joined by Alan Price who was rather boring and pretty miserable, too,” said Al. “He was fed up with the rest of the band and talked to us about leaving. Fairly soon afterwards he did call it a day with Animals.” The FB6’s vocalist Mike Tobin also recalls that they lent the band their bass amp only to find the speakers blown afterwards “and they never offered to pay for it!” Al’s memories of an Anson Rooms Cream gig in 1967 are similarly clouded by backstage shenanigans, but this time honour was satisfied: “I remember Ginger Baker was much impressed by Tony Fennel’s drumming. At the end of the night their roadie went off with some of our PA cables so I made off with an Orange mains reel of Eric’s that served me well for many years after.” Tony Byers was an economics student at Bristol University from 1967-70 but fairly soon became more involved in taking photos for the student magazine Nonesuch. He vividly recalls many of the gigs he attended with his clunky camera and a borrowed flashgun that used real bulbs. “(The Anson Rooms) really was a most amazing place in those days, always something happening. I remember Arthur Brown – couldn’t get any good pictures because of his flaming head! – Fleetwood Mac and The Nice. I think The Who gig [December 1968] stands out because they were already big stars and it was such a
spectacular show with Pete Townshend jumping about and Keith Moon kicking over his drum kit.” Tony’s excellent archive provided most of the pictures printed with this article and he thinks the image of a student handing over a pint to The Nice drummer Brian Davison gives a sense of the kind of easiness between stars and audience in those days. That intimacy was helped by the fact the removable stage was only about six inches high, of course. Close examination of the photo also reveals a ceremonial dagger plunged into the speaker cabinet – a gift to Keith Emerson from the band’s roadie Lemmy (later of Motorhead fame) with which the keyboard maverick regularly used to stab his Hammond organ while playing. As vocalist of emerging Bristolian rock band Stackridge Mike ‘Mutter’ Slater recalls taking a job decorating the Anson Rooms for a gig in 1969. “I was putting this reflective stuff – Mylar – all down the spiral staircase. They used to shine coloured lights on it. I had no money but they said I
● All pictures in this article were taken at the Anson Rooms by Tony Byers for Bristol University magazine Nonesuch in the late 1960s and early 70s. Here he is taking a ‘selfie’ in 1967.
● Above, Brian Davison, drummer of The Nice, gets a free pint from a fan, 1969. Left , Nice organist Keith Emerson in full flow at the same gig.
could come into the gig. There was only about 20 or 30 people there so I was right at the front and on came The Faces. I was in ecstasy – I’d seen Rod Stewart before in the Jeff Beck Group, but he’d just joined them and they hadn’t released anything yet. They were just stretching out their sound. They still had that mod thing, like the Small Faces, very stylish, but I remember it was quite cold in the room so I just kept on my greatcoat throughout.” Tony Byers also recalls that the room wasn’t just used for music – it was a ‘large meeting room’ after all – and that many famous people were invited to come and speak to the students including the Tory leader (and future Prime Minister) Ted Heath, the Archbishop of Canterbury, firebrand lefty Tariq Ali and childcare guru Dr Benjamin Spock, a prominent anti-Vietnam war speaker. “That was quite an important part of things – it was a real meeting place.” By the early 70s the Anson Rooms
had become an integral part of what became known as ‘the college circuit’ in musical circles. This was a national network of University gig venues, each usually programmed by an elected student ‘Entertainment Officer’, or ‘Ents’. With the rise of progressive (‘prog’) rock and growing sales of albums (as opposed to single records) it had become clear that the student population was a receptive audience for the more esoteric and sometimes pretentious acts, who would then tour the country from one higher education establishment to another. I arrived as a student in 1971 and remember many great gigs in the Anson Rooms both as a punter for bands like The Kinks (a great singalong night), Velvet Underground (after the key personnel had left the band, admittedly) and Fairport Convention (when Sandy Denny still sang with them) and also in various menial backstage capacities. One particularly surreal (in hindsight) occasion was the 1971 appear-
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● Left, singer Roger Daltrey and drummer Keith Moon at the Rooms in 1968; above, Keith kicks over his drums as bassist John Entwhistle looks on
Height of modernism with a built-in barbers – what more could a 60s student want?
● Childcare guru and antiVietnam War campaigner Dr Benjamin Spock at the Anson Rooms to speak, 1970 ance of Dutch instrumental band Focus who were riding high on the back of the unlikely mainstream success of their yodelling-bedecked prog tune Hocus Pocus. Even more unlikely was their support act –David Bowie, no less, whose career had already had two false starts with 1969’s Space Oddity and 1970’s The Man Who Sold The World. He was now touring the moody and stylish material for Hunky Dory, a marked contrast with the Dutch band’s flared-trousered bombastics that brought divided responses from the Anson audience on the night. Venues didn’t have their own sound equipment in those times so each band needed to bring their own PA system and it was a matter of macho pride to have a bigger ‘rig’ than the competition. When Status Quo headlined at the 1972 Rag Ball their massive bass speakers were too big for the capacious backstage lift and it was down to me and a few other foolishly helpful young men to carry the huge black boxes round to
the front of the building and up the spiral staircase. It was worth it for the powerful sound, but the Ghanain Afro-rock support band Osibisa upstaged the Quo with a full-on performance and big upbeat grooves. Keith Warmington, blues musician and (until recently) a long-serving Radio Bristol DJ, recalls playing in the Rooms in acoustic duo Strange Fruit in the 70s – usually set up in the bar. One visiting band that made an impression on him was sleazy country-and-western hippy collective Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, both for a fine performance and an impressive night’s drinking afterwards at the Alexander Club just up the road. Keith also recalled the time that Paul McCartney and Wings literally pulled up outside the building and arranged to play an unannounced gig that very night – something the ex-Beatle was doing at the time – though Keith missed the event himself.
As the 70s wore on, however, rambling hippy music was steadily displaced by the harder-edged revival of stripped down R’n’B based music that would ultimately pave the way for punk rock. This was reflected in the Anson programme with a memorable debut by Dr Feelgood wringing out the capacity crowd with hard and fast rockers. Keith Warmington was also there when veteran rock and roll stars The Pirates appeared as part of this ‘pub rock’ scene. Though their great singer Johnny Kidd had long been dead the band delivered a cracking old school set to an audience rammed out with Bristol Rovers fans, their team also known as The Pirates. All was well until the show ended and a massive fight broke out on the landing. “Pint glasses were flying down the staircase, it was complete mayhem.” In due course the Anson Rooms would continue to reflect the new wave of punk and beyond, with many great stars of the 80s, 90s and onwards adding to the impressive roster of musical greatness that has appeared at the top of the spiral staircase. With the passing of so many of Bristol’s other legendary venues – including The Glen, The Granary, The Dugout, The Bamboo – it’s gratifying that the Anson Rooms are being given a new lease of life with every sign of entering their 50th year as live and kicking as ever.
● If you have any memories of the Anson Rooms, whether musical or personal, Tony would love to hear from you. Please contact him via: ubu-events@bristol.ac.uk or use the Anson Rooms page on Facebook.
WHEN Bristol University commissioned the new Students Union building the squared off concrete starkness of the design was the height of modernism. It was of course received with mixed feelings by the Clifton community at the time, with many people appalled by its size and sheer greyness. It was a huge project offering a swimming pool, theatre, bakery and even a barber shop (the latter somewhat doomed by the imminent onset of long haired student hippiedom). Though some larger gigs continued to be held at the Victoria Rooms, the Students Union’s former home, it was inevitable that the Anson Rooms would end up as a venue for live music though few could have foreseen the impressive list of star
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names that would pass through. The large unadorned room was not ideal for its purpose, being cold in the winter and stuffy in the summer (the large windows couldn’t be opened because of the noise levels), the reflective walls frequently caused problems with the sound and many people recall an unsettling smell, probably due to the lack of natural ventilation. Access to the Long Bar (subsequently renamed the Mandela Bar in the 70s in honour of a then obscure political prisoner in apartheid South Africa) could be tricky during a crowded gig. Being of its time little, if any, thought was given to things like energy consumption so the Anson Rooms enormous expanse of windows was all single glazed with inefficient lighting and ventilation systems running up enormous fuel bills. After nearly 50 years the entire building is being renewed and refurbished to “completely transform a very large, tired 1960s building to prepare it for a long future”. Much of the work will be finished this Autumn, including a reworking of the Anson Rooms that includes opening the performance space through to the bar area, double glazing the windows and improving the use of natural light and ventilation. This new shape will permit a larger capacity of 1,200 standing, while improved backstage facilities (including washing machines and wifi) should keep musicians happy. If all goes to plan the first gigs in the new set-up will be on October 14 (folk-rockers Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit) and October 15 (the mysteriously misspelt electropoppers Chvrches).
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Tuesday, October 8, 2013
SURPRISING HISTORY OF CITY SUBURB
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A new book of photos of Westbury-on-Trym, Coombe Dingle, Shirehampton and Avonmouth by one of Bristol’s leading historians is a cut above the usual feast of nostalgic images. It contains a lot of surprising history as well. Eugene Byrne reports.
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OOKS of old photos of various of Britain’s cities, towns, villages and suburbs have been big business for a long time. Everyone likes to see what their neighbourhood used to look like before they lived there. So the publication of yet another book of old pictures, this time of Westbury-on-Trym, Coombe Dingle, King’s Weston, Lawrence Weston, Shirehampton and Avonmouth is not really big news in itself. However, Anthony Beeson’s Westbury-on-Trym to Avonmouth Through Time is better than most. It’s not just a cut’n’paste job by someone who’s just dug out a bunch of old prints. Beeson actually lives in the area, and has the sort of expert knowledge of local history which enables him to add the sort of stories to his picture captions which make it a fascinating read. The images come from various sources. “There’s my own collection but there’s also a lot from the Central Library. What a lot of people probably don’t realise is that the Central Library has a larger collection of pictures than the Bristol Record Office, both in photo and print form,” says Anthony. Mr Beeson, it will not surprise you to know, is one of the leading figures in the campaign to halt the controversial plans to house a primary school among the Library’s book stacks. For one thing, he says, it would make public access to this priceless local heritage more difficult. “This ill-considered scheme, that will exile much of the book stock to a remote store, will make everyday enquiry work and research almost impossible for both library staff and public .” When collecting pictures, serendipity also comes into it. “I found a
couple of things on eBay, and I was also put in touch with a lady whose family had lived in Coombe Lane for many years. She now lives in Sea Mills, but the Sargents (her ancestors) had lived in Coombe Dingle. “They lived very well; the father was a retired banker and bought a new house there in what was in those days the countryside. Fortunately he took photographs around the new house.” The book traces the suburbanisation of this stretch of North Bristol, often contrasting old photos of the area with views of the same places in the present day. It’s organised into five walks which the reader can follow. “I find it’s the easiest way of doing these books. “It cuts through the chronological problem, it gives people a better sense of where they’re placed.” His own favourite is, he says, probably the area around Coombe Dingle, a neighbourhood often overlooked in history/photo books which prefer to concentrate on Shirehampton or Henbury. “It’s nice to publicise the history of a non-area. I find that even a lot of people who live here know little about it.” It turns out that the Dingle has quite a surprising history. In the late 19th century and well into the 20th one of the biggest local industries was tea gardens. It must have employed quite a lot of people in everything from serving through to baking and even laundering the tablecloths. At one time there were a dozen tea shops and gardens in this immediate area. “There was a time when literally thousands of people would come out here on public holidays from Bristol. They would walk here along Parry’s Lane and Coombe Lane. “Once the trams were running to Westbury, some would take them as an easy option as well. People would
5 come on bicycles, of course. Some would even run. There were cross-country running clubs whose members would run out here, have tea, and then run home again.” The reason for Coombe Dingle’s popularity was simple; it was the nearest countryside for many Bristolians, attracted by the simple pleasures of a sunny day and the promise of tea and cake (or that great Victorian/Edwardian treat, bread and butter). “It all ended really when it stopped being countryside with the expansion of Bristol and the growing number of people who wanted to live there,” says Anthony. “If too many people want to live somewhere you inevitably lose the beauty that attracted them to it in the first place.” Westbury-on-Trym to Avonmouth Through Time is published by Amberley Publishing at £14.99
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Snake-charming and henpecking – a great saint
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1 Partridge’s Rustic Tea Gardens, pictured in the early 20th century, one of the many tea gardens which thrived in Coombe Dingle before Bristol’s creeping suburbanisation encroached. 2 The Savoy cinema, Station Road, Shirehampton. Opened in 1933, it had seating for 900. According to Anthony Beeson, it was known locally as “The Cabbage” (Savoy cabbage – get it?) Like many cinemas put out of business by TV in the 1960s, it enjoyed a new lease of life as a bingo hall. Demolished in 2003. 3 Avonmouth Road VE Day street party, 1945. The children are in fancy dress, and the comment on current affairs is the lad in the back row centre, who’s dressed as a ‘Bevin Boy’ coal miner. 4. Bananas had been coming into Avonmouth from the Caribbean since 1901. Here, the Fyffes group ship Tucurinca arrives in Avonmouth on February 15, 1976, to mark 75 years of the trade. 5 En garde! Red Maids schoolgirls at fencing practice in 1913. The school had only just moved to Burfield House in Westbury-on-Trym a couple of years previously. Until then it had been in Denmark Street. 6 It hasn’t changed at all! Mogford’s, Westbury’s legendary hardware store, pictured in 1960. The firm can trace its history back to the 1850s. 7 This one’s bound to stir a few memories. Anthony Beeson’s book features pictures of Westbury Wildlife Park then and now. Established as a wildlife education centre for children, it was officially opened by ornithologist and conservationist Sir Peter Scott in 1967. It closed 20 years later.
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I GANG! Happy St Keyne’s Day! Today, October 8, is the feast of St Keyne. I sent you a Happy St Keyne’s Day card, but I don’t seem to have had one from you. I expect it got lost in the post. Keyne is, of course, the patron saint of Keynsham, that fair town situated betwixt Bristol and that gentleman’s graveyard further along the A4. Keyne is a legendary figure. If she existed at all, it was sometime in the late 400s AD, after the Romans had left and Britain was a set of small kingdoms. She was supposedly the daughter of a Welsh king, and very beautiful. Many noblemen wanted her hand in marriage, but she was determined to remain a virgin and dedicate her life to God. So she left Wales and eventually wandered to a spot on the banks of the Avon in Somerset. She sought the permission of the local chieftain to live there. The gist of his reply was ‘stay here if you like, but the area is full of snakes’. Keyne sought the assistance of the Almighty, who coiled all the serpents up and turned them to stone, which can still be seen in abundance there to this day. Or so the legend has it. The less romantically or religiously inclined will tell you they’re the fossils of prehistoric ammonites. And that is how Keynsham was founded. Keyne also travelled to Cornwall
● Prehistoric shellfish or one of the snakes in Keynsham in the fifth century AD turned to stone by St Keyne? You decide. and founded St Keyne, near St Neots. This place has a much more famous legend. At St Keyne is a famous spring; people once believed that when a couple get married, the first of the pair to drink from its waters will wear the trousers in the marriage. The Bristol-born poet Robert Southey, who always told a good yarn, wrote a humorous poem about it. In this, a traveller – the stranger – stops by the well for a drink, and a local – a countryman – comes and tells him about its magical properties: “If the husband of this gifted well Shall drink before his wife, A happy man thenceforth is he, For he shall be master for life. “But if the wife should drink of it
Latimer’s Diary
first, God help the husband then!” The stranger stoop’d to the Well of St. Keyne, And drank of the waters again. “You drank of the well, I warrant, betimes?” He to the countryman said; But the countryman smiled as the stranger spake, And sheepishly shook his head. “I hastened as soon as the wedding was done, And left my wife in the porch, But i’ faith she had been wiser than me, For she took a bottle to church.” Which (for anyone who’s not so good at old-fashioned English) is to say the crafty young lady turned up at the church with a bottle, ready-filled with water from the well.
rary, would have approved of part of it being converted into a primary school. Charles Holden was asked to design a library, and that’s what he did, and in the process he designed the interior fittings and facilities, many of which are still in place. He did not design a half a library with a view to a school eventually being opened in a basement that he devised for the storage of books and other printed material. To claim that he would have been all in favour of this scheme is like saying Brunel would be delighted if half the Great Western Railway was turned into motorway, or that Leonardo would have approved of someone painting a more modern hairstyle on the Mona Lisa. Or that Casablanca should be digitised into colour and given a happier ending. Igor! You can take my soap-box away now. I have finished with it for today.
Information needed!
● The most distinctive house in Henleaze, possibly modelled on the ones at Blaise. Yours for £450k.
Location, Location (etc) It’s probably the most recognisable building in Henleaze, and it’s on the market (or was as we went to press). You can be the proud owner of this rather splendid little thatched cottage (actually one of the former gatehouse lodges for Henleaze Park House). It was built around 1811, at around the same time as the famous Blaise Hamlet cottages. It might even be that it was designed by John Nash, who also did the Blaise houses, though that’s not proven. It might just be that the Henleaze builder copied them. Anyway, two bedrooms, two receptions, compact and bijou, bags of character. I’d buy it myself if I had £450,000 to spare. If you’re interested contact CJ Hole’s Henleaze office on 0117 205 0185
Holden? Pleased? Don’t make I laugh! I have no intention of abusing the privilege of a local newspaper column to push my personal views on a certain burning local issue. However (dot, dot, dot) Certain individuals in the letters pages of this newspaper have stated that Charles Holden, the architect who designed Bristol’s Central Lib-
Finally, an appeal. Do you remember back in the 1970s there was a chart hit called Convoy by a bloke called CW McCall (his real name was the altogether less glamorous Bill Fries). Oh, you know the one: it was an American thing about truckers using Citizens’ Band radio to join together to avoid paying road tolls. It was full of CB-radio speak that hardly any Brits understood about tearing up swindle sheets and let them truckers roll, ten-four, and so on. Now my pal Dave swears blind that around this time, or perhaps a few years afterwards, someone produced a Bristolian/west country song along similar lines. Not a rip-off or a spoof, but a song about lorry drivers round these parts talking to one another by CB. Citizen-band radio enjoyed a brief popularity in Britain in the early 1980s, and like McCall’s hit record, this tune was full of CB terms, including nicknames (“handles” in CB parlance) for local towns. Is there anyone out there who remembers this record? Is there anywhere we can hear it on the internet? Can someone send us the lyrics, and maybe even a picture of the artistes who wrote and recorded it? And is it true that back in the days when it had a cellophane factory, the CB handle for Bridgwater was “Smellytown”? Questions, questions … Cheers then!
● Get in touch: Email Bristol.Times@b-nm.co.uk, or write to Bristol Times, Bristol Post, Temple Way, Bristol BS99 7HD
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Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Bristol’s first church was victim of the Blitz
The tower of St Maryle-Port, pictured, a few years after it and St Peter’s (in the back ground) had been gutted by fire in the Blitz
Plans to redevelop the derelict site close to the Bristol Bridge have caused a huge political row in the last couple of weeks, with concerns that new building will encroach on part of Castle Park. But at the centre of the site are the remains of a church with a fascinating history. It even had a special chapel for unhappily married women. Eugene Byrne reports.
“ A stranger might easily pass under the shadow of its walls without being aware of its existence”
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HATEVER your opinions of proposals to build on the St Mary-Le-Port site on the edge of Castle Park, we can probably all agree that what’s there at the moment – a couple of grey office buildings, one derelict, and the rubbish-strewn remains of a church – are an embarrassing eyesore. As every true blue Bristolian knows, the area, and what is now Castle Park, used to be the heart of the city until the Blitz. Much of the damage was done by the first major German air raid on Bristol in November 1941. This hit Castle Street and surrounding areas hard. The remains of three churches – St Peter’s in Castle Park, Temple Church off Victoria Street, and the somewhat less visible St Mary-Le-Port near the bridge – were left standing after the war as memorials to those who were killed in the Nazi attacks. All three have a wealth of fascinating back stories, but St Mary-Le-Port is the least appreciated because it’s the least visible. It always was. Before the Blitz it was hemmed in on all sides by buildings. One visitor said: “a stranger might easily pass under the shadow of its walls without being aware of its existence”. Once known as St Mary-de-Foro, or St Mary of the Market, the church was built in the 15th century, but this was on the foundations of what was almost certainly Bristol’s first ever church. The blitzed building was once believed to date back to Norman times – about 1170 AD – but archaeological excavations in the early 1960s uncovered evidence that there was a church here
But, according to an 1816 history of Bristol, Yeamans was buried, not in St Mary-Le-Port, but Christ Church. So who was the man whose heart they took out? We may never know. The strangest St Mary-Le-Port story of all, though, goes back to before the Reformation, when England was still a Roman Catholic country. Some Catholics believe that praying to certain saints to intercede on their behalf can sometimes yield results, and at St Mary-Le-Port there was a chapel dedicated to Saint Wilgefortis, also known as Saint Uncumber. Her cult was widespread in late medieval Europe, because she was the patron saint of unhappily married women. Wilgefortis is one of those saints who probably never existed, but her legend was very popular. She was the daughter of a powerful pagan king, and had converted to Christianity. She wanted to devote her life to God, and so had taken a vow of chastity. This didn’t fit in with her father’s plans at all. He wanted to give her away in a political marriage to another heathen monarch. Wilgefortis prayed to the Almighty
Visitor’s comment
in the late Anglo-Saxon period. It is thought that the building was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and it was certainly used by sailors who would go here to pray for a safe journey and give thanks on their return. Ships would be moored on what was then a tidal riverbank near Bristol Bridge and the church, in full view of the Avon, would be most convenient for them. There is an old story that Oliver Cromwell, after capturing the city in 1645, moored his barge to a post in St Mary-Le-Port churchyard. The origins of this strange tale are obscure, but it seems highly unlikely; from here to the riverbank was quite a distance and there would surely have been plenty of more convenient – and closer – things to tie your boat to. (It was doubtless on the same occasion that Cromwell took one look at Bristol’s mighty castle, prompting him to later decide that it would have to be demolished as a potential stronghold to anyone opposing his rule). The church that survived until 1940 was a mish-mash of different bits added at different times. The most recent element is the tower, built in the 15th century. When the church was “restored” by
the Victorians in 1877, it was given a new font, with the old alabaster one finding a new home at Stapleton Workhouse. A handsome brass eagle lectern – standing 7ft tall and once belonging to Bristol Cathedral – was badly damaged in the Blitz. Dating from 1683 and rescued from the melting pot in 1803, it was, perhaps, the church’s greatest treasure. A mystery surrounding a burial in the church will now probably never be resolved. It concerns Robert Yeamans, a Royalist sympathiser who was hanged by the Parliamentarians in 1643. This was after he took part in a plot to seize the city from the Roundheads and let in Prince Rupert’s army, which was waiting on the Downs. Yeamans’ corpse was handed over to his father and, the story goes, buried in St Mary-Le-Port church. In 1814 the body, still exhibiting marks of the hanging and dressed in clothing of civil war date, was unearthered in a remarkable state of preservation. Before being reinterred in the church’s south aisle, the heart was removed to his museum by surgeon Richard Smith and “souvenirs”, a handkerchief and parts of a shirt, were taken by the rector and an attorney.
to spare her from this ghastly prospect, and her prayers were indeed answered. She woke up the following morning to find she had grown a copious beard. This put her out of the marriage market for good. In England Wilgefortis became known as Uncumber as she had the power to remove the encumbrance of a bad husband. There were a few chapels to her around the country, including the one at St-Mary-Le-Port, and apparently it was customary for women praying to her to bring an offering of a small bag of oats. Thomas More, the philosopher and jurist who later lost his head for opposing Henry VIII’s divorce, was scathing about the cult of Uncumber, thinking it a silly female superstition. He wrote that nobody knew why they would bring an offering of oats, “unless it be to provide a horse for the evil husband to ride to the devil upon.” From 1940 until 1960, the future of the ruined church, surrounded by a “temporary” car park, was in doubt. Then, when there was talk of demolition to clear the site for redevelopment, there was a public outcry. At this point it was still Church of England property, but the Church Commissioners sold the ruin and the land to the council for £25,000. It’s been more or less neglected ever since, overgrown, covered in graffiti and litter … Surely the site of Bristol’s first ever church deserves better than this?
Have you ever been involved with boxing? ✒I
AM trying to compile information for a book on boxing in Bristol from the turn of the 20th century until the present day, both amateur and professional. I am looking for any information from readers however small on anything connected to boxing in Bristol – fighters, trainers, gyms, fight venues, managers etc. Has a member of your family past or present ever boxed or been involved with the sport in any way? A neighbour, friend or work colleague? Do you remember old boxers like Dixie Brown, George Rose, Terry Ratcliffe, Gordon Hazell, Peter Richards, Tex Woodward, Gary Chippendale, Len Rocky James, Nick Wilshire, Chris Sanigar, Ross Hale, the Coopers, Dorringtons, Hardings, Pomphreys etc. Gyms like the Empire, Barton Hill, Dings, Holy Cross, Knowle, Patchway, National Smelting, or fight venues like the Colston Hall, Bedminster Arcade, Old Market Drill Hall, Docklands settlement, Whitchurch sports centre, or local amateur shows and fighters? Copies of clippings, photos, programmes, recollections and stories welcome. Any information however small would be very useful! Lee Woodward 703 Filton avenue, Filton, Bristol BS34 7JZ. Tel: 0782 4811778 Email: Leewoodward1974@yahoo.co.uk
Mines group talks ✒THE South Gloucestershire Mines
Research Group will be having two talks before Christmas. These are: Wed, October 23: “Chinese Steam Trains and Coal Mines” – a copiously illustrated talk by Steve Grudgings based on personal visits. Wed, December 4: “Coalpit Heath – what lies hidden below” – an illustrated talk describing explorations of ten different tunnels, passages, wells, adits and chambers underneath Coalpit Heath by Steve Grudgings. The venue for both talks is the Miner’s Institute (aka Coalpit Heath Village Hall), 214 Badminton Road, Coalpit Heath, BS36 2QB starting at 7:30pm for 8pm. Non members welcome, £2 each. For more information call 01454 883607. Roger Gosling Chairman South Gloucestershire Mines Research Group (www.sgmrg.co.uk)
PETER CAROL .... ASCENDERE OMNIS COLLIS
The Prestige Coaching Company
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Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Singing praises of Magpie
7
Picture of the Week
I
WAS fascinated by your article on the changing scene of the Bristol newspapers, but was disappointed not to have read any reference to the Bristol Magpie. My reason is that as archivist to the Bristol Amateur Operatic Society I have a copy of a cartoon in the Bristol Magpie dated 1896, the original of which has been deposited in the Bristol Record Office. It depicts a medical charity concert at the Princes Theatre, where they performed extracts from the previous show in 1895 of The Mikado. The society was formed in 1894 and is the oldest amateur stage group in Bristol. Peter Lamb Vice-President, Bristol Amateur Operatic Society
● The cartoon which appeared in the Bristol Magpie in 1896, depicting a charity concert by the Bristol Amateur Operatic Society
Morse the merrier for family fun ✒LATIMER’S Diary (Bristol Times,
sept 24) is quite correct when it says that many people still know Morse code. Like Mr Latimer’s aunties, my sister and I both worked for the Post Office, and both of us had been taught Morse by our father before that. During the 1960s I also lived in France for a few years, and I must say that my recall of Morse is much, much better than my knowledge of French, which at one time was as good as fluent but which now is sadly very rusty. Any of your readers who know Morse might be interested in a little game you can play with it. It kept my sister’s grandchildren amused and astonished for quite some time. Some years ago, I was staying with her when her grandchildren came over to visit. It was a rainy afternoon and they were left with us while their Mum and Dad went shopping. They
were seven and nine years old (I think) and had never heard of Morse code. My sister told them we have a secret way of communicating without speaking or writing. And to test it they should ask her to ask me to do some simple action. So they whispered an idea to her and she then rapped on the table “Pick up the cup” in morse. I picked up the cup. They then whispered to me that I was to tell her to point to the ceiling, or something like that. I tapped “point to ceiling” with my finger on the table and their Grandma pointed upwards. They were amazed! As I recollect, this kept them happy for some time. I can only say it’s a jolly good job they didn’t ask either of us to dance the Charleston! Mary Bennett, via email.
Chance to help with our bulb-planting ✒KINGS Weston Action Group in-
vites everyone along to help out with our Big Bulb Plant on Saturday. KWAG is looking for volunteers, their family, and friends to help us plant out thousands of native woodland bulbs on the Estate. We will be planting bulbs along the Echo Path between Kings Weston House and the ‘Echo’ folly. Volunteers are invited to bring a spade or trowel and muck in, contributing to a new natural legacy for the future. We identified a native species of bluebell on the Bioblitz earlier this year and want to strengthen existing colonies. This event will help create an eye-catching new spring carpet for generations to come. Come rain or shine KWAG will begin the Big Bulb Plant at 10:30 at the Echo Path, through until about 4pm. We are providing free refreshments. Wear suitable clothing, a spade or trowel if you have one, and an enthusiasm for getting your hands a little muddy! We hope you will be able to come along any time during the day and plant a few. Kings Weston Action Group
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Editor’s Reply: Thanks for that, Peter. Obviously there are many, many things which we could have included in the timeline, but decided to stick to newspapers and not mention magazines. The Bristol Magpie, though, is a fascinating publication, a local magazine which published from the late 19th to early 20th century, covering local affairs and sport, and with plenty of humour. It was our own little local version of Punch, if you like. And if anyone out there has a complete set of Bristol Magpies – the Central Library doesn’t have them all – we would be very, very interested in hearing from you.
● NO particular reason for this Picture of the Week; it’s just nice and atmospheric. This was taken by a Post photographer late one evening in Bristol’s city centre in the summer of 1951, and shows the illuminations that were put in place for the Festival of Britain, a big nationwide celebration that was supposed to celebrate the country’s achievements in science, technology and the arts and cheer everyone up a bit after the war.
8
Footsteps into history
Art deco building was city’s aerospace hub This week, Marion’s Memories of her times as a Brownie and Girl Guide
Wartime camping capers
N
EXT year the Brownies will be 100 years old – and I remember so well when I became one. I was seven years old when I first asked my mum if I could join a Brownie pack. The Second World War had started a month before, so my request probably did not seem too important in the scheme of things. But you cannot beat a child’s persistence when he or she really wants something. And how I longed to be a Brownie. One day I came home from school and my dear mum said: “When you have finished your drink, Marie, there is something on your bed for you.” There, to my delight, was a Brownie uniform. I was so proud the first time I put it on and my mum took me to be enrolled. Dressed in my brown tunic, a lovely leather belt and a yellow tie, along with the other Brownies I stood in a circle and made my solemn promise to help others and to keep the Brownie Guide law. In hindsight my uniform was probably second hand – but if it was it did not matter, because I was so happy. Luckily I did not have far to go and the only times I missed were during the blitz. In time I earned several badges which I sewed on to my sleeves. As you, my dear readers, know by now, I was never a great knitter or good at sewing. But with my gran’s
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help I learned to knit, sew and even crochet. When I was ten years old I became a Girl Guide – and that was even better. I learned more about the history of the movement. which began when a group of feisty young ladies barged into a Scout rally and demanded of Lord Baden Powell the right to join. So to me the Girl Guide movement is part of our social history. In the Guides the discipline was much stricter. We had an inspection every week from our captain before our evening started. With my mum’s agreement I went off to my first camp for a week in the summer holidays – and how I loved it. That was my first taste of freedom and of being away from home. It was also my first time camping – and since it was during the war and food rationing was bleak, our parents had to contribute several items of food the night before we were due to go. We slept six to a tent and at night there was lots of giggling. The air raids had tailed off quite a lot by then but we still had to practise getting to the nearest shelter. Luckily there was not an air raid. We tackled our camp chorus with gusto after we had demolished our bowls of porridge, cooked over a Primus stove, and then went off for trail finding and other outdoor pursuits to increase our badges. On our return we ate our sausages, usually
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either underdone or too well done, with our baked beans. Our evenings always ended with a singsong – not around a camp fire, because of the war – before bed. And on our last night we had a ‘secret’ midnight feast. Looking back, it probably was not midnight, and it certainly was not secret – but how we enjoyed it. How grown up we felt. My mum had given me a small fruit cake in a tin which went down very well. I must admit the toilets were a bit raunchy. But we were used to air-raid shelters where the toilet consisted of a bucket behind a piece of sacking, so we were not too worried. Our facilities for washing hands were just a bowl of water, with a small piece of soap and a towel. But I do not remember ever having an upset tummy. In time my daughter Julie followed in my footsteps and became a Brownie. And my son followed in his dad’s footsteps and became a Scout. When Julie went on her first camp she had to take an envelope addressed to us, and a sheet of writing paper. How all we mums laughed when we read our letters. Each one said “Dear Mum and Dad, I hope you are well. I am well, love” and an “X” followed by the child’s name. Happy days. God bless. Love, Marion
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ASCENDERE OMNIS COLLIS
YOU may have read in the paper recently that the Duke of Gloucester was at Filton a couple of weeks ago to officially open the newly-restored Pegasus House. Now owned by Airbus, the Grade II listed building, constructed in the 1930s in the art deco style, is a key part of Bristol’s proud aviation heritage, and the restorers seem to have done a splendid job. Not that long ago, the building was derelict and vandalised, but now it will be a focal point in a new £70m ‘Airbus Aerospace Park’. Around 300 Airbus staff will be working at the building. Architect David Olivares and builders Miller Construction, who carried out the work, spent 18 months renovating the building – including restoring an historic four-storey stained glass window and replacing all 430 windows. Opened in 1936, Pegasus House, then known as New Filton House, was designed for the Bristol Aeroplane Company by architect Austin Hall and was a bold and proud celebration of what by then was already a key industry for Bristol. By then, it was widely suspected that Britain would soon once again be at war with Germany, and it played a key role in Britain’s crash programme of re-armament which took place in the late ’30s.
CAROL
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In just a few years, the RAF’s fleets of fighters and bombers were completely overhauled. Biplanes more appropriate to the Western Front of 1914-18 were replaced with fast, modern monoplanes. In its heyday, Pegasus House housed hundreds of personnel, mostly draughtsmen. Though only the company’s directors were allowed to use the imposing front entrance facing the A38, and the ornate black-and-gold iron gates designed by Austen Hall. In the basement were wages and accounts offices, while the directors’ rooms were on the ground floor. On the second floor – a very modern touch, this – was a cinema for screening footage of aircraft trials. Over the years, Pegasus House saw many VIPs and famous people come through its doors. Winston Churchill visited, of course, as did Queen Mary, who was staying at Badminton during the war, along with other members of the royal family. Cary Grant also dropped by. Besides restoring the building, Airbus have also done lovers of Bristol’s aviation heritage another huge favour in putting together a website all about Pegasus House and its history, including memories of people who worked there down the years. See www.pe gasushousehistory.co.uk.
● Pegasus House in its 1950s heyday
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