The signs say Heywood & London - Ames Crosta Mills and Co Ltd.”
Angie Morris-Harman has posted these images of the building of the sewerage bridge between Bartonsham and Rotherwas on Facebook. “The photos were taken in the late 1950s, early 1960s,” she writes. “My dad Bob Harman and his cousin Herby Jones are in most of them. The signs say Heywood & London - Ames Crosta Mills and Co Ltd.” Click pictures to enlarge
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Do any of you have any memories or pictures of the old Parish Hall that used to be on Eign Road?
Looking back, the Hall had played a key role in the local community. From puppy training to jumble sales, St James’ Parish Hall on Eign Road was once a thriving hub of activities. Faith Ford recalls: “Our elder daughter attended a fantastic nursery/playgroup run by Mrs Stafford there in the mid 1970s and later another good play school; Rainbows, was run from there. It was refurbished in the 1980s, when the Hall was home to junior and senior youth clubs with activities like table tennis, iceskating trips, and holiday clubs run by Rev George Fleming - cheap to attend, with fancy dress competitions and trips included! Faith also remembers: “Both school and church hosted social events there with pantos and shows while Mrs Charles from Park Street ran ballet classes. I recall Park Street’s Margaret Butcher, in the role of Maria, singing with children to a Sound of Music song while George Fleming did a comedy drag act in the same show! “ The St James Parish Hall was, controversially, sold for development by the Church in the early 1990s. Later the old Vicarage was converted to a community centre by the RVS in 2005, but sadly this is now closed. Please send us any of your memories. Just click on 'Comments' below, to open the link. The former vicarage in St James was built in 1872.
The vicarage was the third architectural element in a classic Victorian troika of church, school and vicarage, which form the heart of this part of Bartonsham. It stands on land once part of the Bartonsham prebend held by the Cathedral, close to the old hospital. The hospital served the community until the late 1700s when it became first a lunatic asylum and later Herefordshire’s General Hospital, where the the vicar of St. James was also chaplain. The surrounding parish of St. James, meanwhile, was formally constituted on December 7, 1869. The new church was consecrated in May 1869 while construction of the vicarage, funded by a mortgage on glebe land, started a year later. The first rector, Reverend Joseph Sutcliffe Partridge, waited in vain for its completion. He died in 1871 at his lodgings in Burghill Villas, St Owens Street and it was left to his successor, the Rev. Richard Powell, to source a £210 loan from the Queen Anne’s Bounty to complete the building in 1872. The long-serving clergyman, Revered Frederick John Landsell secured another loan for the Vicarage from the Bounty in October 1929 for an extension (located where the current lift stands). The old Vicarage in Vicarage Rd, St James was vacated by clergy when a new Vicarage was built on church land in Green Street. The building was taken over by the Womens Royal Voluntary Service (now the RVS) and in 2005 it was converted into a £1m community centre. The various community services included a day centre, playschool, meals on wheels and café. These services from the RVS building have been gradually run down from around 2010. The building is currently empty and its future is uncertain. St James School This was founded on June 11 1896 by Rev Henry Askwith along with vicars from six other parishes including St Peters and St Martins. The current incumbent at St James still sits on the school board of governors. The Women’s Royal Voluntary Service The vicarage was sold at auction in October 1963 by auctioneers Sidney Phillips and Son and C. L. Marriott to the then Women’s Voluntary Service for £5,100. The WVS used it as a base for a Meals-on-Wheels service, a residential club, clothing store and for the local scout troop. The centre was modernised and became a flagship learning centre (one of the first of its kind in the country) with its day centre, community café and fully equipped computer rooms. The Fourways Nursery was also housed in the same building. Old Link to Royal Voluntary Service Hereford Community centre. Now out of date. Does anyone have any old photos of St Owen Street, especially around The Victory? asks Tony Smith ([email protected]), formerly of 96 St Owen Street.
His great grandfather, Charles Vaughan was born at ‘Lambs Corner’, St Owen Street in 1864. Charles, who died in 1938, was a hawker, “quite a common trade at the time. He also served in the army for twelve years, seeing action in the Sudan crisis of 1885. “Charles married Anni Bridges in 1893. She was born in St James Street and lived at Number 1, The Yard. It’s my belief that The Yard was directly next 96 St Owen Street, which is now, I believe, flats. The next house, which belonged to my cousin’s for some years, was next to The Victory, formerly The Bricklayers.” Are you a long term resident of St James and Bartonsham? Do you have any special memories of Bartonsham Meadows, or the 'Bassom', as locals used to call it. Maybe you used to be involved in Haymaking? or perhaps you used to swim at 'The Bassom' bathing hut?
To compliment the New section we have developed on the History of these meadows, we would love to include some of your memories, and perhaps some pictures. Please click on the comments link below, just at the bottom of this section, to add your story. If you have any pictures, please email them to us at [email protected]
Bath Street use to come between the Lamb and – what’s the name of the pub? oh, I don’t know, I’ve forgotten (The Sun) Both pubs are still there, except the one’s called The Barrels. That used to go straight through to pick up Bath Street just round the corner, and there was a little road that came across that connected Daws Road, because it wasn’t a big road then. There was only a little – well, from here to the wall, more of a lane than anything else that connected us up to the roadways like.” Bert was then asked about the public baths on Bath Street “Yes – oh no. In Kyrle Street. Where the big building is now, where they sell carpets and different things there, well that was a flour mill, and it was the people from there that created the baths, which was round the corner on the left hand side, and that was the baths. Baths for years where I learnt to swim, anyway till in the end they built these new baths, and they shut that, and they made the baths into the Masonic Hall. They used to be there every week like, well they used to let it out for dances and all the rest of it. Posh dances, The Masonic Hall like, see” Photos of the excavation of St Owens Church graveyard and construction of Bath Street ring road.
Photographs courtesy of Chris Ogleby and Derek Foxton If you have any stories to add about this, please add a comment. No, not the company, a Hereford Times report on Hereford's actual first bus came to light at the latest meeting of Bartonsham History Group and includes a reference to a route from Grandstand Road to the Whale Inn - which was situated on what is now the Vets at the bottom of Old Eign Hill.
The article is dated 1946, and references the first services being from 1896. Does anyone have any memories or photographs of bus service history in Hereford? Naomi Bell reveals why St James helped parishioners at Chilvers Coton after the Nuneaton blitz of 1941
On the World War 2 memorial just to the north of the main entrance to St James’ church, writes Naomi, is an intriguing inscription to the help given to the rebuilding of All Saints Church Chilvers Coton following its destruction in the blitz. It reads as follows: Members of this parish have also furnished the chancel of the Chapel of the Three Kings in the rebuilt Parish Church of Chilvers Coton in the Diocese of Coventry destroyed by enemy action in May 1941. Beneath the war memorial is a small brass plaque recording the thanks of the people of Chilvers Coton. Beneath two shields representing the two churches of St James and All Saints’, it reads: The parishioners of Chilvers Coton have placed here this token of grateful acknowledgement of generous aid in the rebuilding of their church given by the Vicar (the Rev Norman Cooper MA) and parishioners of the Church of St James Hereford after the war of 1939-1945. Chilvers Coton, now a suburb of Nuneaton, was originally a village lying between Coventry and Nuneaton, chiefly famed for being the birthplace of the novelist George Eliot. Coventry and its neighbourhood were heavily bombed during WW2 and on May 17th 1941 a string of incendiary bombs fell on the church, setting it alight. Shortly afterwards a high explosive bomb in the churchyard brought down the walls and burning roof. Many other buildings in the parish were damaged or destroyed and there was considerable loss of life. The church remained a derelict shell until its rebuilding in 1947 at a cost of £40,000. £20,000 of this came from the War Damage Compensation Board and £5000 had been raised locally leaving a shortfall to be raised by other means which obviously included a contribution from St James. Interestingly the rebuilding work was carried out by German Prisoners of War from the nearby Arbury POW camp, who were paid at the standard rate for British workmen. My interest in this link was aroused when our vicar, Preb Paul Towner, asked if anyone knew why, from the large number of war damaged churches, had the parishioners of St James chosen to help with the rebuilding of Chilvers Coton church. Not many records from St James past have survived. Herefordshire Record Office had the PCC minute book covering most of the 1940’s. It recorded a resolution of the PCC to contribute to the rebuilding of Chilvers Coton church and the formation of a subcommittee to oversee the project. Presumably the subcommittee took minutes but these have not survived so there is very little detail of the project in the PCC minute book. Frustratingly the minute book ended shortly before the project ended and successive minute books have been lost. I contacted the Chilvers Coton vicar who told me that all their existing records had been transferred to the Warwickshire Record Office, and that he didn’t think anyone in Chilvers Coton would have memories of the project. On searching the Record Office website it would seem that the only Chilvers Coton church records held there are the parish baptism, marriage and death registers – i.e. no PCC minutes. Having written all this, I had a thought. I wondered whether the then vicar, Preb Norman Cooper had any connection with Chilvers Coton so I went to the Cathedral Library to see if Crockford’s Clerical Directory could shed any light on the matter. Crockford’s gives brief career details of all C of E clergy, and in the 1947 edition I discovered that the current Chilvers Coton vicar was the Rev Ronald Murray and that both he and Preb Cooper had been undergraduates at St Peter’s Hall, Oxford, graduating in 1933. So it would seem that Preb Cooper and Mr Murray had been friends since university days and that was how Preb Cooper heard of the Chilvers Coton rebuilding project and encouraged St James’ congregation to support it. So it would seem that we have now established how the two churches were linked. I understand that St James’ financial contribution was quite modest, so other agencies must also have contributed to the shortfall mentioned above. All this happened almost 70 years ago, but it may be that if you are a long term Hereford resident you may have memories or comments, either your own or passed down from a previous generation that you could share with the Bartonsham History group. Click for larger photo slideshow and captions
Gordon Lamputt was the former squadron leader at Hereford Air Training Corps. He rose from the rank of cadet to commanding officer of the 124 Squadron Air Training Corps, based in Eign Road at Hereford, remembered by many as the site where a redundant Vampire T11 jet was parked outside for many years. Gordon Lamputt was born in 1925 to Edith and Percy Lamputt of 3 Geoffrey Villas, Green St. His father was a cooper in East Street. Gordon attended St James and Scudamore schools and left at 14. “There was a little sweet shop, like a shed, in Green Street, in the 1930s. The lady who owned it was Edna Boucher and she lived in Park Street. Afterwards it became a junk shop." “Bartonsham Five Meadows was my playground. I did all my fishing down Bartonsham Hole, which is where the new bridge is built. I was invariably swimming in the river or running away from the attendants in Castle Green. It was a fantastic area to be brought up in." “At the Bassom, the swimming station on the Matthews Five Meadows where the water was very deep. In the early part of the war when I was about 15 or 16 I can remember we were down there one day and the army chaps who were stationed at Bradbury Lines used to come across and catch the ferry over. When we were down there one day half a dozen men were rowing across and the boat over turned and they went in. We were diving in to try and get them up and we couldn’t. I don’t know how many got away but I know we were bringing their clothes up. That was a sad event. Gordon also recalled an air crash in Harold Street between 1944 and 1946. “Mr and Mrs Matthews lived in a cottage nearby when a Percival Proctor crashed. I was told it was a Polish pilot from RAF Madley.” The Bathing Hut on Bartonsham Meadows served city swimmers like Margo Edwards who, in the 1920s, would take her morning dip here with her Auntie Gladys and friends before starting work at the Rockfield Road laundry.
The late Alfred Evans from Hinton was taught to swim at the Bassom. “The chief attendant of the bathing station lived in St. Martins Avenue. He taught me to swim with a rope. There was a diving plank, a long wooden strip going out almost into the middle of the stream where it was deeper. He had a flexible plank at the end and that’s where he used to walk along there, put a rope round your shoulders and pull you in. The attendant had a punt and Alf, who was brought up at the Wye Inn, would take a pint of beer in his haversack. “I’d walk up the river and he would spot me and row across. The other boys couldn't understand why I had this privilege, but, of course, it was the beer.” Squadron leader Gordon Lamputt from Tupsley recalled swimming here in 1939 or 1940. “These army chaps from Bradbury Lines were being rowed across in a boat when the damned thing overturned. Their heavy uniforms dragged them down and we were diving to try and get them up but we couldn’t.” Gordon still wonders how many survived. On May 29th, 1915, The Hereford Times reported:- ‘With the advent of summer weather bathing was commenced in the Wye at Hereford, the Bartonsham station, maintained by the Town Council, being opened on Tuesday. Every morning the swimming members of the Royal Army Medical Corp in training at the Barracks, parade for a river bathe, and at least 50 enjoy the matutinal plunge at the Bartonsham.’ The custodian was PC F. Bromage, whose uncle, Mr Reuben Bromage had served as a former attendant. Tom Preece was in charge of the boat. In total 369 bathers including 30 ladies on Thursday afternoon, took to the water during the week and the pressure of numbers led to the construction of a new open air annex thanks to farm tenant Mr Harry Walker. ‘The water is in splendid condition, being both fresh and of a comfortable temperature,” reported the newspaper. |
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