LOUGHTON AND DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER 194 SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 2012 Price 40p, free to members

www.loughtonhistoricalsociety.org.uk

Golden Jubilee: 50th Season

Warren Pond, Epping Forest – c1900 This is a large pond just south of the Hunting Lodge. Probably a gravel pit that has been in existence since at least 1878.

Our Society came into being on Tuesday, 16 50 years, and still going strong October 1962 at a meeting of a local history group (formed earlier) held at Bedford House, Westbury On 16 October, 1962, two significant events took Road, Buckhurst Hill. After a talk by John G O’Leary, place. The Cuban crisis began when John Fitzgerald FSA, FLA (Chief Librarian at Dagenham), on ‘The Kennedy became aware of nuclear missiles in Cuba, Study of Local History’, it was agreed to form the and, at a historic meeting in Buckhurst Hill, the ‘Chigwell Local History Society’, the name indicating Chigwell Local History Society came into being – in that its range should cover the whole of the then this issue Ian Strugnell describes both those early Chigwell Urban District. The founding chairman, days and the decades that followed. David Bowen, was Warden of Bedford House Now, 50 years later, in our Golden Jubilee year, (Buckhurst Hill and Knighton Community Centre); we can celebrate that the planet hasn’t blown itself Clive Osborne of Loughton was secretary. A treasurer up, and that the now renamed history society (Henry Gower) and committee of six members were thrives under the banner at the head of this appointed, and at the third meeting (13 December) Newsletter . there was a ‘Local History Quiz’; Arthur Robinson had This first issue of the new season has been produced the first ‘News Letter’ in November. expanded by four pages, covers our first 50 years, By September 1963 the Society had 49 members, 9 and includes a few articles from past numbers. meetings had been arranged up to April 1964, and in We hope all members and other readers enjoy October it was agreed to publish the News Letter the 2012/13 season. quarterly in November, February, May and August. In March 1964 the Society arranged a conference of Essex historical societies which resulted in the The L & DHS and its formation of the Essex Archaeological and Historical antecedents – 50 years Congress (publishers of The Essex Journal ). Meetings were by then held in Loughton Library (in The Drive). IAN STRUGNELL Membership had passed the 100 mark by April 1966, and the well-attended lectures given by invited This is not a detailed history, but rather a summary speakers and members held in the ensuing years of the main events and some of the people involved. covered a wide range of subjects, not all specific to this 1 area. There were also group visits to places of with David Wilkinson as editor, it changed to two interest, although support for these could be foolscap sheets, folded to produce 8 smaller pages. variable. Another change to a single A4 sheet produced on a David Bowen retired as chairman at the May word-processor and photocopied (double-sided) came 1970 Annual General Meeting and was succeeded by in December 1978, lasting until May 1981. It then David Wilkinson, who had been a committee reverted to a folded format giving 4 pages member from the start and vice-chairman. photocopied onto a single A4 sheet. In November 1990 Subsequent chairmen’s terms of office tended to be the then editor Vic Barham suffered a stroke, and only a few years for various reasons, but Chris Pond Eddie Dare took over in 1991. The format eventually has held the post since 1994. settled at four pages photocopied on a single A3 sheet The Society’s first printed publication was a 48- folded, sometimes with another A4 sheet stapled page A5 size booklet of ‘Transactions’, produced by inside to give 6 pages, and illustrations became more the Kingfisher Press of Chingford in December 1970; frequent. a second similar booklet was published in 1974. Eddie decided in 1997 that he could no longer Since then, publications have been more precisely continue and the Committee kept it going until Ted titled and sold to the public through Loughton Martin, with a lifetime of experience in the printing Bookshop and elsewhere. trade, produced the first ‘properly printed’ issue in 1981 brought a change of name to the Chigwell & 1999. By the time Ted moved away from this area in Loughton History Society, although the reasons for 2006 it had enlarged to eight pages, which has since this remain unclear. It coincided with the success of become 16 in Terry Carter’s hands. Printing the Society’s stand at the Loughton Residents technology has changed, making some colour Association 4 July ‘Loughton Day’ in the Lopping illustrations economically possible for the small print Hall, which brought more members, and the start of run involved. The content has always been wide- a project to record the grave inscriptions in Chigwell ranging, reflecting members’ interests, although the (St Mary’s) churchyard. Forest is an almost perennial subject. David Wilkinson became secretary during the Although the Society has never had any official Society’s twenty-first year (1983–84) in succession to standing with local government, over the years Clive Osborne; his reports to Annual General members have made representations about, or Meetings noted how few members engaged in brought public attention to, development proposals sustained research, but he was rather modest about which would affect buildings or other aspects of this his own achievements. The Society was granted area. A notable success was Alderton Hall in the mid- ‘Charity Status’ on 28 June 1983. 1960s, but some other ‘vandalism’ could not be Henry Gower retired as treasurer in 1988, surely stopped. From its very beginnings, the Society’s the longest serving holder of that important post. objects have included the promotion of interest in local The 1993–94 season saw the return after many history and it is gratifying when efforts in this years’ gap of serving refreshments at meetings (by direction are rewarded. then settled in the Wesley Hall for two years), and with increasing numbers attending there was more A nostalgic, even poignant, past item selected by Ian: work in setting out and putting away the chairs. The move to the Methodist Church in 1996 was a great From Chigwell Local History relief in this and other matters; the Society adopted its present name in that year ‘to better reflect the Society News Letter No 15, May actual membership’. 1966 Although John Howes had taken over as (acting) secretary at short notice in 1994 following David It is often said that the older one grows the more one tends Wilkinson’s serious road accident, he soon made his to look back, comparing the present with the past, generally mark by introducing the programme leaflet in its unfavourably. It is natural for memory to gloss over present folded format (from 1998 incorporating the unpleasantries and recall only the pleasant things. membership application/renewal form) which Perhaps therefore, I may be forgiven if, in this brief suited the leaflet racks then available in local ‘flash-back’ to the days of my youth in Buckhurst Hill, I give libraries. It therefore also served as publicity and the impression that everything was just fine. probably helped in maintaining membership Gradually the face of our locality is undergoing change. numbers. John was able to hand over to Richard The fields, where once I delighted to roam, are now housing Morris in a more orderly way in 2002. estates. Walking was one of my favourite pastimes, cycling In late 2003 the Society acquired its own internet coming a near second. From Buckhurst Hill I would trudge across country to Hainault Forest and Abridge and beyond. presence through an existing Theydon Bois website, There were few buildings other than farmhouses. I was with much technical assistance from there. It has frequently guilty of trespass. Farmers would sometimes greatly expanded the ‘& District’ part of our name strongly object, but I soon found that a ‘soft answer turneth inasmuch as Newsletter contributions have come away wrath’. from as far away as Australia. A long walk produces a healthy appetite and a visit to a The Newsletter itself has also seen several wayside tea-shop would become a need. For a shilling I changes (and editors) since it started as a stencil could regale myself on a pot of tea, an egg with plenty of duplicated quarto sheet (both sides, soon increased new bread and butter, watercress, jam, and home-made to four sides on two sheets for most issues). In 1975, 2 cakes. Truly, a meal in which even Lucullus would have linked the six places (except, perhaps, market gardening, but rejoiced. there were plenty of other places that supplied London with As now, I could wander at will in the Forest, but, such produce). One at least of the early directors, Robert unlike the present, it was a quiet place to be in. One’s ears Diggles, lived in the area, at Cheshunt, but it is not easy to were not assailed by the ubiquitous cacophony of sounds see this as a valid reason for opening branches. The Imperial produced by a seemingly endless stream of internal were certainly breaking new ground, for every one of their combustion engines. Over the years I have explored the country agencies was the first bank in its locality. Forest from end to end and have never tired of it, but it In 1893 the Imperial Bank Limited merged with the seems to have lost that sublime feeling of ‘awayness’ it London Joint-Stock Bank Limited who up to then had had once had. no offices in the district. They promoted Woodford to full This is still a beautiful district. For a place so near the branch status, with E Purkess as manager and with two sub- Metropolis it must be unique. I am truly thankful that, in branches: Loughton, previously sub to Waltham Abbey, and these days of cars and transistors, I can still recapture in a new office in Queens Road, Buckhurst Hill. The Woodford some degree the pleasures of the countryside which I branch was in the High Road, Woodford Green, but the enjoyed in my youth. I can still walk across the fields to London Joint-Stock Bank later opened a second branch in Chigwell and Abridge, but, alas, the beautiful walk from Woodford, in the Broadway, by the railway station. Buckhurst Hill to Loughton Station is no longer available. The great spate of bank amalgamations during and after I can compensate for this loss by walking to Grange Farm the First World War saw the London Joint-Stock unite in and thence to Chigwell Row, or, in the opposite direction, 1918 with the London City and Midland to form the London to the ‘Owl’, via Connaught Waters, thence to High Beach Joint City and Midland Bank Limited. This unwieldy title and Epping. What better could one want? was soon shortened, and all the offices named above are Yes, I think present-day Chigwell Urban District has now (as at February, 1974) branches of the Midland Bank almost as much to offer as it had sixty years ago. The Limited. simple pleasures of life are, after all, the most satisfying, [Midland Bank plc was one of the Big Four banking whether one is young or old, and we must be thankful groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century. they are still available to us, even in this scientific age of It is now (since 1992) part of HSBC.] ugliness. A W ROBINSO N

Crime and justice in 1732 The Imperial Bank – a local oddity From The Gentleman’s Magazine , January 1732, submitted by RICHARD MORRIS A N HARRISSON, AIB Wednesday 19 January 1732.*

[Continuing the ‘Anniversary theme’, this article The Sessions which were held for five days ended at the Old appeared in the Chigwell Local History Society’s Bailey, 61 Prisoners were tried, 37 of which were acquitted, publication Transactions –Number Two, 1974.] 20 to be transported, 2 whipt [ sic ] and two received sentence of death, viz. George Scroggs for robbing Mr Bellinger,

Minister of Tottenham, on Sunday 14th February last, as The Bank of England, by its original charter of 1694, going to preach, of about 14s, and Peter Hallam, Waterman, enjoyed a monopoly of joint-stock banking in England and for the murder of his wife, by beating her, and throwing her Wales which was not breached until 1826. Even then, out of a Chamber Window, when big with child. restrictions and formalities made the operation of a joint- Peter Noakes was tried for the murder of William stock bank difficult until the old cumbrous legislation was Turner, by shooting him in the head with a pistol, at the superseded by the Companies Act 1862. In the next few King’s Arms Tavern in the Strand. They were by themselves years some former private banks were incorporated under in a room, a pistol went off, and the Prisoner ran away. It the new Act and a number of new joint-stock banks were appeared the deceased had hired a pistol, and one Mrs set up. Falkingham, with whom they kept company, and who had One of the first newcomers was the Imperial Bank been with them just before the accident, swearing she saw Limited, the history of which closely and somewhat him twice attempt to kill himself with a poker and sword, mysteriously concerns this corner of Essex. Incorporated the Prisoner was acquitted. in 1862, this bank had its office in the City of London and Corbet Wesey of Mile-end, Stepney was tried for then opened a handful of metropolitan branches in such murdering his wife. A few days before her death she made places as Kensington, Westminster and Chelsea. Oath that he had confined her above a year in a Garret, Later, like other banks started at this time, the Imperial without fire, candle or sufficient food. It appeared she was spread to the country, opening ‘agencies’ at Waltham like a starved skeleton, but he pleaded that he locked her up Abbey and Cheshunt in 1882. Further agencies appeared because she robbed him, and proving he often sent her at Waltham Cross (1883), Woodford (1886) and Loughton victuals, he was acquitted. (1887). The agencies appear to have been controlled direct [*The spelling and grammar are as printed in the Magazine. ] from the Head Office at 6 Lothbury; G H Barnett was manager of them to 1887. Waltham Abbey was promoted on 16 April 1891 to be a full branch, with T P Trounce as manager, the other agencies and a new office at Enfield Correction: Rue Jean Jaurès Highway becoming subordinate to it. These six were the only county offices, but why the In Newsletter 193 , April/May 2012, we printed in error Imperial Bank selected this close-knit group of an early draft of Chris Pond’s article on the Loughton comparatively small places in the area where Essex, connection of Raoul Villain, the assassin of Jean Jaurès. Hertfordshire and Middlesex meet, is not explained. There Although Villain had been due to come to seems to have been no specialised industry or trade that Loughton again in 1914, he did not in fact do so. He 3 FASCISM AND JEWS was actually arrested in Paris shortly after the shooting. Mrs Francis’s evidence was taken under It was only in answer to questions that the speaker dealt the reciprocal admissibility of evidence rules in the with the position between the British Union of Fascists and Extradition Acts. the Jewish race. He declared the movement was definitely anti-Semitic, but it had not always been. For the first two years of its A fascist meeting in existence the members had refused to be drawn into any discussion on the subject. Buckhurst Hill But it became quite obvious that the Jews were going to smash the movement if it was within their power, not LYNN HASELDINE-JONES because the Fascists had attacked them, but because their policy was detrimental to their world domination. I was recently asked to do some research into a In answer to further questions, he declared the Union meeting which took place in Buckhurst Hill in 1938. had an unswerving loyalty to the Crown, which it recognised as the most vital link of the Empire. They were It turned out that the meeting concerned was that of not out for international Fascism, but for Britain alone. the British Union of Fascists. I found this interesting The meeting concluded with the singing of the National article which appeared in our local newspaper in Anthem.’ May of that year: The name of the speaker, Wilfred Risdon, may not ‘BUCKHURST HILL FASCISTS’ MEETING be familiar. However, he was originally a miner, and

A meeting of the British Union of Fascists, remarkable for progressed to politics through union work in South its quietness and the orderly behaviour of the fair-sized Wales. The speech reported here was very close to the audience, was held at the Buckhurst Hill Hall 1 on time when he decided to leave the British Union of Wednesday. Fascists, because he felt that its potential for electoral The speaker was Mr W Risdon, from the Union victory had become virtually non-existent. Even headquarters, who outlined the policy of the British though he was interned for three months in 1940, he Fascists, led by Sir Oswald Mosley, dealing at length with was able to find work with the London & Provincial their economic plans. Anti-Vivisection Society, and when, after the war, it A national department of industry would be set up to merged with the National Anti-Vivisection Society, he deal with working conditions and standardisations of worked his way up to become General Secretary, and high wages, and when it had achieved a sufficiently high level in these respects would work for a gradual reduction moved it from Victoria Street to an address in Harley in working hours. At the same time the people would be Street, much to the consternation of the medical educated to use their leisure profitably, having sufficient fraternity! He died in 1967. means wherewith they could enjoy leisure. Wilfred Risdon’s grand-nephew is preparing a He went on to declare that protection was vital to detailed biography of his grand-uncle; if anyone has economic security. The Union did not confine itself to any memories of him he would be grateful if you hatred of any particular countries, but they would keep could get in touch with him through LDHS. out goods that were manufactured abroad at a low standard of wages when they were being produced at Note home at high rates. 1. Buckhurst Hill Hall later became Buckhurst Hill Library, on Queen’s Road. WAGE CUTS Reference At the present time a decent employer who wanted to pay The Woodford Times , Friday, 6 May 1938, courtesy of Loughton high wages was unable to do so, as another employer in Library. With grateful thanks to Jon Risdon. the same industry would make wage cuts and be at an unfair advantage. The Union recognised the need for Trade Unions in John Strevens 1902–1990 – industry, but they should have one hundred per cent membership, and not the present twenty per cent, Mr professional artist and amateur Risdon continued. Only two out of every ten trade musician unionists struggled to bring up the strength of their unions, but all members took the benefits. PETER COOK Dealing with class distinctions, he saw many big heads of industry, such as Lord Nuffield, had justified their ownership. But they would be against gamblers in [Through close contact with the artist’s daughter, Bridget, business, who impoverished the community. who unearthed new material from her archives in France, Mr Risdon declared the House of Lords, formerly a Peter, who owns a portrait of his father done by John valuable part of the Government, was now full of Strevens, has, with this completely new article, added so profiteers – people with ‘big noses and small consciences’, much more to the facts we printed in Newsletter 192 .] who bought honours from corrupt governments with money corruptly gained. The Union would replace this Frederick John Lloyd Strevens, oldest son of Henry with a second chamber of people who had made great and Lilian Strevens, was born on 12 July 1902 in East contributions in art or industry. London. His father, born in Shoreham, Sussex, was a merchant seaman, recorded in the 1891 census as a

steward, whilst his mother, Lillian Moss, was the

daughter of a Loughton veterinary surgeon. The Lloyd 4 name would seem to have derived from his great- classes at the Regent Street Polytechnic. Unfortunately, great grandmother, Mary Lloyd, who married a although making excellent progress, he was John Strevens, and a number of male descendants eventually forced to leave, being unable to meet the have carried the name through succeeding rising costs of tuition. However, by virtue of his generations. During the 1800s the family were natural ability (he was, to a great degree, self-taught), trading in Tower Hill and Bermondsey as Ships’ he returned to making copies in the London galleries, Chandlers and Sailmakers, and John, being aware of all the time adding to his proficiency. It was one of this, would speculate on a deep connection between these copies, La Thangue’s Mowing Bracken , which so sail and the canvas he painted on, and the colours of impressed an aunt that she decided to help him by boat paint and his oil paints. His father, by virtue of paying for further instruction which he proceeded to his lengthy absences at sea, played a lesser part in take through evening courses at Heatherleys, the the children’s early years, but this was countered by oldest independent art school in London. their mother, always there to provide the family with a loving, stable environment as they grew up. As a child his health became a cause for concern, and after missing weeks of school due to the kinds of serious infections common in the days before penicillin, he was sent to recuperate for a while with an aunt and cousins in Dorset. The beauty of the countryside made a deep impression on him, as did the discovery that apples grew on trees! By 1911 the Strevens family had grown, and Frederick, or John as he later preferred to be known, now had three brothers and a sister, who, along with his parents and a relative, were residing in Forest Gate, his father having left the sea and was now employed in the London Docks. At the age of 14, too young to enlist for service in the First World War, and with only a basic education (see school report below) he left school to help support the growing family by seeking work in London’s East End and the City. It was fortuitous that this move was to be the opening of the door into the world of art for John, as his then employer, with the advice and guidance of a French officer associated with the company, became somewhat of an art connoisseur, amassing a fine collection which included, amongst the works of other notable artists, a Rubens. It was A school report for John Strevens, aged 12 being in the position to study this painting and This post-First World War period in art schools others at his leisure that fired John’s interest, was dominated by discussions about Cubism and prompting him to seek out the London galleries and Futurism. It’s said that, during one such discussion, other sites such as the Guildhall where he could Strevens stood up saying ‘I thought Art had study and copy the works of the world’s great – and something to do with Beauty’ and walked out never to lesser known (John did not believe in hierarchies in return. He was often heard to remark that copying art!) – artists, whilst beginning to develop his own 19th century paintings in the Guildhall, and the talent. It was also at this time that another of his experience gleaned from working in illustration great loves, music, was to play a part in his life. studios in the publishing industry, provided his real John writes in his memoirs: art education. In the 1930s, prior to the outbreak of the

‘I taught myself to play a few tunes on the violin that Second World War, he was making a living in Fleet my mother bought. The Maidstone Violin people used to Street studios as a commercial artist, taking on send batches of them to the board schools. This opened commissions for everything from book covers for out a new means of making money so I got busy learning cowboy and detective stories, to background scenes some pieces . . . I played to theatre queues in London, for advertisements, which sometimes ended virtually without the knowledge of those at home. Eventually I had obscured by the product being advertised. Even to give up this, to some, degrading way of making money, cigarette cards, which often required extensive and for a short time I taught the violin to a small number research, were given the same attention to detail of school children.’ which always marked his work. It set him on the road to becoming an In 1937 he married his first wife Evelyn Jones – accomplished violinist, sufficiently skilled to form a who wrote as Jane Cooper Strevens – both having quartet, and even providing what would probably, been members of a North London music circle centred in today’s parlance, be called ‘backing tracks’ for around the Mann family, and once again music was silent pictures. He also gave lessons, all of which playing a part in his life. John writes: ‘It was while I helped to provide some income when he was freelanced and had a studio next to the Daily Telegraph , between jobs, as well as paying for his first art that I met my first wife Jane. She was a gifted 5 illustrator of children’s stories and could write a Whilst there he was able to spend some time visiting good one too although she was dogged with ill and painting in New York and Houston, and this was luck.’ In the late 1930s, just prior to the outbreak of to be the beginning of his enduring association with the Second World War, a commission for a Danish America and American art lovers. This was also the publisher took him to Copenhagen accompanied by period when the pictures that became best sellers on Jane. A comment he made in a bar about the rise of the British print market appeared, including Harriet , a Hitler: ‘He’s sown the wind and he’ll reap the little dark-haired girl holding a cat, and Amanda whirlwind . . . ’ drew threatening looks from some holding a dog, which were the best-selling prints in Nazi customers, prompting him to comment later the UK in 1964. He signed these paintings ‘Strev’, that he was lucky to survive the bar, never mind the saying – tongue-in-cheek – ‘half his name, half his bombing of London that followed. During the war talent’. he joined the local Air Raid Precautions unit in Several years later, back in London, he met the art Loughton, their Operations HQ being in one of the dealer and collector Kurt E Schon of New Orleans large houses in Upper Park where, during quiet who, having seen the mysterious painting, The Woman periods on shift, he would still find somewhere or in Black in the International Directory of Art , tracked someone to paint or sketch. The Epping Forest John down, and so began a lifelong working Museum has some paintings of this period in its relationship. Well into his 80s, he was still visiting collection. America to meet collectors and paint portrait During the late thirties and early forties he commissions from life, but he was happiest in his became a regular contributor to major exhibitions at studio, his refuge at the end of the garden of his the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Royal Loughton home, with his books and his music. ‘It’s all Society of British Artists and the Royal Academy. very well travelling around when you’re young’ he The year 1943 proved to be a turning point in his once said, ‘But as you grow older you want career with a one-man show at the Royal Society of somewhere you can dig roots’. Painters in Water Colours, received with glowing John died in 1990 and a Blue Plaque marks the acclaim by both the press reviewers and the public. home he loved at 8 Lower Park Road. In 1991 Epping The following years saw more success and Dressing Forest District Museum held an exhibition to celebrate Up in 1947, The Three Princesses in 1948 – depicting his life and work. Having lent a pastel portrait he did his daughters Jo, Vicky and Ginny – and The Little of my father while they were together in the ARP, I White Bride in 1950 were just some of those hung at was invited to the private view before the exhibition the Royal Academy. opened and was thus able to wander round and enjoy In 1955, following Jane’s death from cancer, John a collection of his original works and wonder at the was in Oxford working on a portrait commission colour and detail he managed to produce with what when the family mentioned that they knew a young appeared to be – but probably wasn’t – just a few Spanish girl who played the guitar. Being passionate brush strokes. about the classical guitar, and having helped found I am indebted to Bridget Strevens-Marzo for the the Classical Guitar Society – where he counted additional information she supplied and for the among his friends Julian Bream and, much later, photos which accompany this article. For those who Robert Spencer – he was anxious to meet someone may wish to see more of John’s work go to he imagined to be a genuine flamenco guitarist. www.johnstrevens.com, a site which proved useful in When they met he realised she was barely a producing this article as did the book John Strevens, beginner, and he found the guitar had recently been The Man and his Works by Dr T L Zamparelli (1982) . bought on impulse with money she’d saved for a winter coat! The girl was Julia Marzo, and later that year they married, John being encouraged to do so by his first wife Jane’s mother. Bridget remembers as a child meeting Granny Jones, who had been a nurse in the Crimean War, and that she and Julia got on well together. In 1957, with Bridget the latest addition, John, Julia and family set out by car for Catalonia and then Madrid, stopping first in France. He later commented: ‘We must have looked like refugees or wandering musicians, especially as I often played my violin or guitar.’ This trip was the first of several, and the places and people captured by John’s brush provided for another one-man show at the Cooling Galleries in 1958. By now his following extended beyond Europe and in 1961 he arrived in the United States at the invitation of Colonel and Mrs Paul Campbell of San Inspiration: John Strevens painting his daughter Bridget Antonio, Texas. They had become acquainted when the colonel was serving at the American Embassy in London and John did a formal portrait of their daughter, Betsy, in front of Buckingham Palace. 6 The Great Eastern Railway as an company’s cottages built in 1896 near the bridge over the road, paying 2s 6d weekly rent out of their 19s employer in Loughton wages; one of them had a porter as a boarder. The other two cottages were occupied by married IAN STRUGNELL platelayers, one with another porter as lodger. Station staff tended to move around in pursuit of promotion Sir William Addison wrote that Loughton ‘owes . . . in their early years, sometimes boarding or lodging everything to the railway’. There is little doubt that with other railway employees. the Eastern Counties Company’s decision to build a Loughton Station had more staff, and was also a branch line in the 1850s changed the way Loughton base for 14 guards and a porter guard. At this time developed, mainly by the activities of those with there was still a significant seasonal traffic of children money. for the Shaftesbury Retreat which needed certain skills As regards employment with the railway from the station master. William Murfitt had retired at company, census returns give an idea of how many the end of January 1911, after 26 years in the post, due people were so engaged but from 1861 (a dozen to continued ill-health; his successor, Harry Ernest identifiable) to 1901 (about 100) the surviving Smith, had been station master at Ongar for about four records are filtered through the enumerators’ and a half years but was due to move to Liverpool transcriptions from the householders’ schedules. For Street as chief parcels clerk. The planned date for this 1911 the actual schedules in the householders’ in the staff records was 26 March but there was handwriting were kept as public records, and these obviously some delay as he was clearly occupying the must be deemed the most reliable source; by station house on 2 April, while his replacement, coincidence the GER re-wrote their staff records into Llewellyn Staples, was still at White Hart Lane. The new books in 1910, and started a magazine in 1911. company magazine commented that ‘his experience at None of these tell us details of day-to-day working White Hart Lane with the crowds of followers of the hours and conditions at the time, but taken together Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, will stand him in they give a good idea as to who did what and good stead at Loughton with the summer where. excursionists’. A goods clerk (Walter Jackson, a coal A fundamental part of any railway is its merchant’s son and lad clerk at Ongar) was due to permanent way (so called to distinguish it from the start on 2 April; this was apparently a new position temporary way used in construction) and there were here, which suggests the clerical work for the goods just over three miles of double track line in traffic was done by the station master. Loughton parish, its maintenance depending A familiar sight to regular travellers would have entirely on manual labour. Thus we find two been the two ticket takers, who were almost the same foreman platelayers and 17 platelayers (one age (60) in 1911, and by then near neighbours in High describing himself as ‘leading man’); a further 10 Beech Road. John Pitcher, although born in Norfolk, were labourers with the railway. Most of them spent his whole railway career at Loughton, starting as occupied cottages near the Plume of Feathers, or in a porter in July 1877 and becoming a ticket taker in Baldwins Hill, Smarts Lane or Forest Road. The September 1879. John Payne, born in Dorset, had senior man was James Brown, who was an started as a probationary ticket collector at agricultural labourer in 1861, started as a platelayer Manningtree in June 1882, then tried his hand as in September 1864, became foreman about a year probationary signalman at two different boxes, but later and remained so until the end of March 1907, came to Loughton as ticket taker in January 1883. when ‘on account of advancing years’ (he was then ‘Career development’ (to use a more recent term) 69) he took on duties as a general labourer ‘on the seems to have been by station masters or other approach roads and goods yards on the branch’. The supervisors looking for potential aptitude in their others’ ages ranged from 24 to 69, about half born in staff; sometimes this paid off for the employees Loughton. They were employed in the Engineer’s concerned with promotion to higher grades in quite a Department, for which no staff records survive. short time, others might stay within their general Signals also needed maintenance, and three signal grade but move to a higher rated station (Liverpool fitters and an associated blacksmith appear in the Street being the ultimate in the London area). census. Another familiar sight in those days were porters: Station staff, signalmen and guards were Loughton had 11, including two foremen, one parcels employed in the Superintendent of the Line’s and goods, and one supernumerary. Two of the department, for which there are several thousand porters lived outside the parish: one with his parents staff records at The National Archives. in Leytonstone; the other (married) in Buckhurst Hill Chigwell Lane, as an example of a small (and (Lower Queens Road) who had misbehaved as goods quiet) station, had a station master, a lad clerk foreman at Buntingford in 1907. The Company’s (described by his police sergeant father as a booking general policy seems to have been to give such clerk), and two signalmen and two porters. The employees a chance to redeem themselves at another station master Thomas Frederick Kimm (a booking station; if the offence was deemed more serious they clerk at Liverpool Street until the end of 1907) lived would be allowed to resign, but for cases such as theft in the station house, and his son had recently started dismissal was usually immediate. One of the foremen as a lad clerk on trial at Loughton Station. The porters, John Snazell, owned his house in High Beech signalmen (both married) occupied two of the Road; his son was one of the two booking clerks, 7 having started at Loughton as a probationary clerk Stratford was also the company’s main works in December 1902, gaining promotion to booking which built or repaired most of the equipment needed clerk at Theydon Bois in 1905 and after 10 months at to operate a railway; there were three men in Leyton returning to Loughton in September 1910. Loughton whose occupations indicated they worked The other booking clerk, Joseph Addison (son of the in the carriage department, one who stated he was a coachman at Loughton Hall) had started at Chigwell ‘worker, Stratford railway works’, and a foreman and Lane in August 1896, served as booking or goods carpenter who didn’t state their place of work. clerk at four other stations, and took up his post at A large business such as the GER needed a lot of Loughton in September 1902. He married shortly clerks to deal with the paperwork at head office afterwards and, living in Clifton Road, had two (Liverpool Street), the large goods depot at nearby children. Clerks usually started at age 14 on leaving Bishopsgate, and elsewhere. Some of these were in the school (often ‘recommended’ by their schoolmaster), Superintendent’s department and I am grateful for the but porters were more likely to be 16 or over and to assistance of another Great Eastern Railway Society have had previous employment elsewhere; at member who has taken on the task of indexing these Loughton in 1911 their ages ranged from 23 to 31. staff records. Thus of 10 ‘railway clerks’ in the census Loughton Station had its own parcels delivery whose records are available, five were employed at van, a light two-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle, with Bishopsgate, another was at Stratford Market, and two a parcels carman (married, living in Forest Road) in the Goods Manager’s Office. The other two were and van lad (who lived with his uncle in Epping) to actually lad clerks at Snaresbrook and Brimsdown. look after the traffic. It was photographed at least Two booking clerks worked at other stations twice in different (but not precisely known) years. (Buckhurst Hill and Stratford), while a ‘canvasser’ was There were two signal boxes, which needed four attached to the Goods Manager’s Office (to go round signalmen; they had all been working boxes in the to existing or prospective customers and try to get local area for over 10 years and were destined to more business). Two other employees were a guard remain at Loughton for the next 10 at least. All were who worked at a goods yard near Canning Town and or had been married, although none was born a parcels van lad at Liverpool Street whose life came anywhere near here. to a tragic end in September (he was found dead on Of the 14 guards based at Loughton, 11 lived the line at Loughton). There were another six ‘railway here: in Forest and Meadow Roads, Smarts Lane, clerks’ and some other employees whose staff records Lower Park, The Drive and York Hill; the other have probably not survived, although the company three lived in Buckhurst Hill (Lower Queens Road, magazine suggests that Harry Bearman in Englands Alfred Road and Palace Gardens). All except one Lane was a clerk in the Temple Mills wagon shops. was married, including Jonathan Whybrow Alfred H Fruin in The Drive can be definitely Ambrose who will be known to readers of his son identified as the chief cashier at the Great Eastern Percy’s Reminiscences of a Loughton Life . The only one Hotel, and William H Haslam in Algers Road as chief born in Loughton was Atherton Edward Blissett in clerk in the Secretary’s department Transfer Office The Drive, whose deceased father lived in Smarts dealing with the paperwork for holders of stocks and Lane and had been a signalman for over 20 years. shares (his own description: Registrar, Great Eastern The porter guard was George Galley, a single man Railway). The only female worker found residing in aged 27 boarding with a widow in Smarts Lane; the Loughton at this time was Victoria Gabbitas in Forest grading indicated someone who had been a porter Road, whose deceased father had been a guard; she and trained as a guard, but was waiting for a gave her occupation as ‘B. Tea Attendant (Railway vacancy as a full guard – which in his case came Company)’ but probably didn’t work at the station. three years later at Ilford (A E Blissett above only However, there was a female waiting room attendant had to wait about two years in all). who was taken on when her husband, a ticket taker at A fair number of carriages were, when not in Bishopsgate Street, died in 1900 (long before coin- traffic, held in Loughton sidings where they were operated locks were introduced on ladies’ lavatories); cleaned and their gas (lighting) tanks replenished. In she apparently lived in a Company house until late 1911 the carriage maintenance staff were in the March 1911 but her usual place of residence is locomotive department (run from Stratford) but 10 unknown. cleaners and a gasman lived in Loughton, most of Of those who were ‘railway’ but certainly not GER them in Forest Road and Smarts Lane; another two employees, Robin C Verrall in Meadow Road was a were cleaners in 1901 but described themselves as Railway Clearing House clerk – this was an railway servants in 1911. Their ages ranged from 27 organisation which ensured that each company was to 46; all were or had been married, but some may paid its proper share of revenue for traffic that was have worked at Stratford. James Ellis in Forest Road carried on more than one company’s lines. There was was a carriage examiner, having first appeared in also a Canadian National Railway employee visiting the census returns in 1881. Loughton only supplied Loughton. coal and water to locomotives, but there was a small The above were all as they described themselves on depot at Epping which functioned as an outpost of census day, 2 April 1911; another 30 can be identified Stratford for light maintenance; one of the in the company’s records as future employees over the platelayers in the Chigwell Lane cottages had two ensuing nine years. Inevitably the Great War would sons who were engine cleaner and stoker, and may take its toll: of the 91 names on the Loughton War have worked at Epping. Memorial at its unveiling on 24 June 1920, six can be 8 definitely identified as GER employees with a seller. A print-run of 10,000 copies sold out quickly seventh possibly so. The company erected their own and new editions followed, as did a variety of editions memorial at Liverpool Street Station, where you will from other publishers. find T E Kimm, the Chigwell Lane station master’s son (who enlisted while at Brimsdown, where his father was moved to in 1912).

Some general Census statistics Loughton’s total population in 1911 was officially 5,433, of which 1,629 were males aged between 15 and 74. The official analysis grouped males aged 10 and over by occupation, and from 1,580 so counted as occupied 109 were engaged in railways as a means of transport; by coincidence this was the same number as those engaged as ‘merchants, agents, accountants’ or in ‘banking etc.’ and ‘insurance’ (a fair number of whom probably travelled on the railway). These two groups each account for about 1 in 15 (6.9%) of the 1,580 above. To put this into further perspective, the highest number of occupied males were in ‘food, tobacco, drink, and lodging’ (185) followed closely by ‘building, and works of construction’ (171). Agriculture accounted for 144, road transport 124, The first two verses are shown below - the dog isn’t really and domestic outdoor service 117. Given Loughton’s ‘dead’ though, and the rhyme goes on for another seventeen ‘class’ reputation, a figure of 96 in ‘professional verses before he finally breathes his last. The first verse is of occupations and their subordinate services’ is no six lines, the rest of four. surprise, nor 68 in ‘general or local government’. Old Mother Hubbard There were 45 ‘general labourers; factory labourers Went to the cupboard, (undefined)’ and 54 ‘all other occupations’, but none To give the poor dog a bone: of the other 23 categories (covering the remaining When she came there, 358 males) had over 31 males. The actual number in The cupboard was bare, the schedules identified as having an occupation And so the poor dog had none. connected with a railway company comes out at about 120; the difference may be accounted for by She went to the baker's To buy him some bread; not all being deemed to be directly involved in the transport aspect (‘conveyance’ in official When she came back The dog was dead! terminology). You can draw any number of conclusions from all of this, but I think it can be said that the railway contributed to and benefited from Loughton’s prosperity at this time in more than a minor way.

Sarah Catherine Martin

(1768-1826)

TERRY CARTER

Some L & DHS members, like myself, may not be aware that there is a Loughton connection with Sarah Catherine Martin, who wrote Old Mother What do we know about Sarah? Hubbard. Sarah Catherine Martin was the sister of Judith Anne Some of the origins of the rhyme are slightly Martin. Their father, Sir Henry Martin MP (1733-1794), unclear, and the ‘deeper’ interpretations (mentioned 1st Bart, was the eldest son of Samuel Martin, by his below) ascribed to it, seem extremely tenuous. second wife, Sarah, daughter of Edward Wyke, What is certain is that Sarah popularised the now lieutenant-governor of Montserrat. Sir Henry married famous adventures of Old Mother Hubbard. The Eliza Anne, daughter of Haring Parker of Hillbrook, origins of the verse are the subject of varying Co Cork, the widow of Hayward Gillman, on 26 theories, but it is likely that she took a traditional November 1761. Sir Henry's eight children included story, adapted it to verse, added illustrations, and Eliza Anne Martin, Henry William Martin, Josiah thus immortalised it. The Comic Adventures of Old Martin, Judith Anne Martin, Lydia Martin, Samuel Mother Hubbard and Her Dog was published in 1805 Martin, Sarah Catherine Martin and (Admiral Sir) by John Harris, and became an immediate best 9 Thomas Byam Martin (1773–1854), ), who, in 1815, lived there. At least this is the information that can be was made Knight Commander of the Order of the gleaned from ‘Loughton: Worthies and Social Life’, Bath. pp. 117–118 of A History of the County of Essex, Vol. 4 Sarah, born in 1768, is sometimes described as (1956). the housekeeper of the Kitley estate, the Devonshire In her simple will, written on two slips of paper, residence of Sir Henry Bastard, but whether she was she leaves everything to her unmarried sister, Lydia the real housekeeper seems a little uncertain. Maria, and her niece, Catherine Elizabeth, daughter of She was, after all, the daughter of the MP for her brother, Henry William. It was one of Catherine’s Southampton; perhaps she required work following descendants, Mary Emily May, who would lend the his death in 1794, although the association with the manuscript of Old Mother Hubbard to the Bodleian Bastard household appears to date back even Library for an exhibit in the 1930s. It was later sold to a further, at least to around 1785. Following her collector in the United States. suggested retirement as housekeeper, Sarah, it is Various sources mention uncertainties about some said, moved into a thatched cottage nearby and aspects of Sarah’s life. For example, was she ever a ‘continued to live out her retirement in Mother housekeeper? Only some points of her life are Hubbard's cottage’. undeniable: her birth in 1768; a proposal of marriage There seem to have been some romantic episodes by Prince William when she was 17; whatever the concerning Sarah. Sir Henry Bastard was the original source, she wrote and illustrated Old Mother Resident Commissioner of the Navy in Portsmouth. Hubbard in 1805; her death in 1826, aged 59, and her He counted amongst his friends, Prince William burial in Loughton. Henry, later to become King William IV. Prince William was struck by the 17-year-old Sarah Back to the rhyme Catherine Martin and the Prince is known to have Many nursery rhymes have their origins in British visited the estate and many legends abound in the history. Some were written to celebrate a particular area about Sarah and the Prince. One is that the local event, some to conceal real meanings, such as Prince proposed marriage, but the marriage was not when someone wanted to express displeasure toward allowed because of Sarah’s lowly background. the government or the sovereign without being persecuted, or worse. The Old Mother Hubbard rhyme allegedly refers to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey and his unsuccessful attempt to get an annulment for King Henry VIII. Old Mother Hubbard is Cardinal Wolsey. The cupboard is the Catholic Church. The dog is Henry VIII. The bone is the annulment Henry wanted in order to end his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. I feel this seems very unlikely, and much prefer what is suggested earlier in this piece. It has also been suggested that the character of Mother Hubbard may have its origins in St Hubertus, because of his apparent care for dogs. I think she chose Hubbard because it rhymes with cupboard .

Note Sarah Catherine Martin (1768–1826) *Refer to the L & DHS website for The Powells in Essex and Their London Ancestors Understandably, the idea of such a marriage by Richard Morris, (2003). horrified both William’s royal parents and Sarah’s humbler ones and Sarah was quickly removed from Mr Gandhi at Buckhurst Hill his orbit. As her father, Sir Henry Martin, was Comptroller of His Majesty's Navy, and an MP, it Submitted by LYNN HASELDINE-JONES can hardly be described as a lowly background. Apparently ‘She and her parents handled the affair This is the newspaper report of the visit of Gandhi to very discreetly’. Buckhurst Hill in 1931. It was a ‘private’ visit and It is this episode that concludes with, as journalists were not invited. His hostess was Elizabeth mentioned above, Sarah’s retiring to Old Mother Fox Howard, the daughter of Eliot Howard (who had Hubbard's cottage, where she writes the famous died in 1927). She was a pacifist and was active in rhyme to express the frustration at never being able Quaker affairs. The family lived at Ardmore House, in to marry the man she loved. what is now Ardmore Lane. The house was demolished in 1994. The Loughton connection? Sarah Catherine Martin remained unmarried and VISIT TO ARDMORE died in 1826. She was buried beside her parents in Mr Gandhi, the Indian Congress leader, paid a private visit the churchyard of St Nicholas, the parish church in to Buckhurst Hill last Sunday, when he was the guest of Loughton. The Martin family had connections with Miss Howard at Ardmore. The visit was arranged in order to Loughton through their relatives, the Powells,* who give him a quiet day away from public affairs. 10 He arrived in the morning, accompanied by several of is to show his oneness with the poorest of them that he his retinue, including Miss Slade (Mirabai), his English keeps so rigidly to his simple life. disciple, who looks after his comforts. Miss Howard told our representative that in his cell at It was a beautiful day, and the party took a walk the Kingsley Hall he sleeps on a mattress on the floor. The through the forest over the top of Warren Hill, and for room itself is very small, and possesses no other furniture. some distance along Fairmead Bottom. He rises at four o’clock every morning for prayer, and goes Mr Gandhi, who despite his years is very active, for a long walk afterwards. walked at such a pace that the others found it difficult to While talking to people – he sits while talking – he wears keep up with him, although he had already walked a long white robe which reaches from the shoulders to the several miles in Bow earlier that morning. He wore feet. Also while talking he gesticulates freely with fine, sandals and his loincloth, and was bareheaded. He was nervous hands, he has a pleasant smile which frequently much interested in the historical associations of the forest, flashes out, and he speaks excellent English with but the and in the animals found there, while he remarked on the faintest trace of an accent. He has a soft and rather increased number of men who walked bareheaded monotonous voice, but his transparent sincerity and compared with the time when he was previously in earnestness lend conviction to anything he says. England. On the same night that he arrived in England he was due He was asked why so many of his Indian followers to broadcast a talk to America, and beforehand several press wore what is known as the ‘Gandhi hat’ (like a little white representatives asked to see his notes. But he does not speak cap), and his reply was that it was so much more from notes. He spoke extemporaneously through the convenient and comfortable than the turban, which takes microphone in well-chosen terms and without the slightest about eight yards of material. hesitation. During the walk an old man spoke to him by name, He left Buckhurst Hill to return to Bow about 4.30pm and offered him some blackberries, which he smilingly and those who had been present were unanimous in their and pleasantly accepted. impressions that they had been in the presence of one who is one of the leaders of men.

Woodford Times , Friday, 25 September 1931 (Loughton Library)

Happy campers!

Ardmore House - photograph kindly lent by Margaret Sinfield

They returned to Ardmore and Mr Gandhi had his meal of goat’s milk and fruit, prepared by Miss Slade, This photo came from Pauline Martin’s (Ted’s wife) sitting on the floor in the corner of the room by himself, family collection showing a group of Girl Guides at and it was of great interest to him to find that he was camp at Debden Green, probably about 1937. The eating in a room built by Dr Barnardo, for whom he has a interest in the picture is the Gould’s milk horse and great respect. cart. The girl on the driver’s seat nearest to us is He has a great friendship and an intense admiration Pauline’s sister, then Vera King, sadly no longer with for Lord Irwin, the ex-Viceroy of India, and Miss Slade us. told how, while it took time for each to understand the other, when they eventually arrived at that understanding each had to hold his more impulsive followers back, and Harlow and its Railway – Part 1 thus they were able to reach the Irwin-Gandhi Agreement. In the afternoon a small group of Christian Pacifist leaders of the Society of Friends and other denominations, RICHARD BRADLEY some of whom came from as far afield as Birmingham, visited the house and had a conference with Mr Gandhi, [This article is reproduced from The Great Eastern and for some time they freely discussed philosophical and Journal, April 2011, published by the Great Eastern religious questions. Railway Society, with the kind permission of the author and They had a period of worship together, and those who the editors of that Journal. Some minor amendments have were with him found him a man of great sincerity, been made to help those not familiar with railway simplicity and deep religious feeling, and although the terminology and some of the more detailed changes to track eyes of the whole world are centred on him, yet he layouts have been omitted. All changes have been reviewed appeared to be thoroughly unselfconscious. He has a very by and approved by the author – Ed.] deep sense of his responsibility to his poorer and more unfortunate countrymen, whom he is anxious to uplift. It 11 The town of Harlow lies in west Essex on the border start being made on construction until 1838. To cut with Hertfordshire about 24 miles from London. costs the N&ER had reached agreement with the Today it has two stations on the Liverpool Street– Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) to use the latter’s Cambridge Main Line. Harlow Town is a large Shoreditch terminus so the line was built to the ECR’s modern station which serves the town as a whole gauge of 5 feet. It opened in stages reaching Harlow while Harlow Mill is a basic station which provides on 9 August 1841. a service for the north-east part of town. Sixty years After a pause at Spelbrook the line reached ago the situation was quite different. The site of Bishop's Stortford on 16 May 1842 where it remained Harlow Town was then occupied by Burnt Mill, a until 1843 when work began on an extension to small wayside station in the middle of the Newport. In the meantime the N&ER was leased by countryside, while Harlow Mill was then plain the ECR and in June 1844 powers were granted for the Harlow, a modest station serving the old town of extension of the line to Peterborough via Ely and Harlow. March, and from Ely to Brandon where it was to meet From its opening to just after the Second World up with the Norfolk Railway. At the same time the War Harlow was a typical country station serving decision was made to convert the ECR and N&ER the needs of a small town and its locality. The lines to standard gauge (4 feet 8½ inches), the work on railway and town were in a symbiotic relationship the N&ER being carried out in September and October and the development of the station mirrored the 1844. The construction of the newly authorised routes leisurely pace with which Harlow moved from the proceeded rapidly and the line between Bishop’s Victorian era to the post-War period. All this was to Stortford and Norwich was opened in July 1845 change in 1947 with the designation of Harlow and providing the first railway link between London and the rural parishes to its west of Latton, Netteswell, Norwich. Little Parndon and Great Parndon as the site of a New Town to take London overspill mainly from The railway at Harlow the north-eastern boroughs of Edmonton, Tot- The N&ER followed the valleys of the rivers Lea and tenham and Walthamstow. At once Harlow station Stort on its course northwards. It reached the became subject to the urgent pressures arising from boundary of the present day Harlow about a mile east the growing New Town and this, coupled with of Roydon and then passed swiftly through the railway modernisation, changed its character and northern fringes of Great and Little Parndon before that of the local railway forever. arriving in Netteswell. Here, at Burnt Mill, a small station originally called ‘Burnt Mill and Netteswell’ Harlow in history was built to serve the local villages and hamlets. The The town of Harlow was founded in Saxon times. line then continued through Latton to Harlow where a For hundreds of years it was a small market town station was constructed about half a mile north of the which acted as a focal point for the surrounding town at the point where the line met the London to countryside. The town began to change in the Cambridge and Newmarket turnpike road later to middle of the 18th century when improvements to become the A11 trunk road. the London to Cambridge and Newmarket road The line hugged the south bank of the river all the carried out by the Essex and Hertfordshire Turnpike way from Roydon to Harlow, undulating at first then Trust (the Hockerill Trust) brought increased trade rising gently from Burnt Mill to Harlow. In some from coaching traffic. Then in 1769 the Stort places it cut through spurs of high ground running Navigation was opened providing an efficient down to the river but, for the most part, it ran on a low means of sending malt and grain to London and embankment through water meadows and other bringing back coal, so encouraging the growth of the grazing land crossed by streams and drainage ditches. malting industry in Harlow and other towns in the At Harlow overline bridges (bridges over the line) Stort Valley. were built for the turnpike road and the old main road On the eve of the railway’s arrival in Harlow in which had been superseded by the turnpike 10 years 1841 the town was described by Pigot’s Directory as earlier. At Burnt Mill, the road from Harlow to the a ‘respectable and neat little town’. It had a Hertfordshire villages of Eastwick and Gilston crossed population of 2,315 of which 125 were navvies the line by level crossing but a bridge on the London employed building the railway. The town was side of the station carried the road from Little growing steadily, stimulated by the flourishing Parndon. The roads leading to the water mills at Little coaching trade. Its main business was malting but its Parndon and Latton also bridged the line. A large craftsmen and other traders served the farms, large number of underline bridges (bridges under the line) houses and villages of the surrounding area. and surface occupation (private) crossings were constructed to allow farmers to move their stock to The Northern and Eastern Railway and from the fields between the railway and the river. The Northern and Eastern Railway (N&ER) was The station at Harlow was situated on the London originally conceived as a route linking London with side of the turnpike overbridge and consisted of little York via Cambridge but by the time its Act was more than the station building and a pair of short passed in 1836 the promoters were authorised to sidings. The station building was a substantial construct the line only as far as Cambridge. structure of rendered brick with mock Jacobean Difficulties over the siting of the railway’s London features. It had a short platform for up (i.e., to terminus and the raising of capital then prevented a London) trains but the plan of the station in Robert 12 Stephenson’s 1843 drawings of the N&ER shows main line which led to two wagon turntables. From none for the down (to Cambridge) line, only a line in the first turntable a siding ran at an oblique angle to the six foot way which may indicate the edge of a serve the coal yard (the odd angle was needed to keep hard standing for passengers using down trains. The the siding within railway land) while from the second down side siding was directly opposite the station a siding ran at 90 degrees to the main line to serve the building while the up siding terminated in a loading cattle pens and a large brick-built goods shed. bay by the London end of the building. The main The date of the yard’s construction does not seem lines were connected by a trailing crossover under to be known but as it is not shown on the 1843 plan of the road bridge. The only feature on the country side the station it is likely that it was built by the ECR soon of the bridge was a short trailing siding leading after it took control of the N&ER. A clue is that the from the down line into a ballast pit carved out of coal yard was equipped with coal drops. Harlow is the north face of the cutting. thought to be one of a number of ECR stations which were provided with coal drops to suit the hopper wagons which were used from 1846 to carry coal shipped from the North East and unloaded at Thames Wharf. There is no certainty that the yard was opened when this traffic began but it seems likely that it was constructed in the late 1840s and that the coal drops were there from the start. At about the same time as the goods yard was created a down platform with a timber waiting room was constructed on the country side of the road bridge creating a staggered platform arrangement. A flight of steps from the bridge provided access to the platform for passengers but there was probably a boarded Harlow station building and up platform. This postcard of crossing under the road bridge for staff use. The exact Harlow Station is possibly the earliest surviving view of the station building. The view dates from the late 1890s or early 1900s date of the platform’s construction is not known but it after extensions had been built at each end but the original central was certainly in existence by September 1857 as it was portion is largely unchanged. then agreed that the waiting room should be oak- papered and varnished, and that six chairs and a small The early effects of the railway on Harlow table should be provided. In early 1842 when the line was open only as far as Spelbrook the train service at Harlow consisted of Passenger travel five up and six down trains on weekdays between The passenger timetable changed very little in the 20 the hours of 8am and 8pm, and three each way on years following the opening of the railway apart from Sundays. The fares to London were expensive the introduction of an early morning up mail train. ranging from 2s 6d for third class to 5s 6d for first The service may appear sparse by modern standards class but people were now able to get to the capital but it was probably adequate for the time. Most people in an hour and five minutes whereas the fastest in the Harlow area would have worked near their coach took four hours. The coaching trade could not homes so train journeys (for those who could afford to stand the competition and collapsed soon after the travel) would generally have been confined to trips to line reached Bishop’s Stortford. Within five months London or neighbouring towns for business or to visit the mails had also been transferred from coach to relatives and friends. Excursions to special events the railway. Over the next few years the Stort were popular and Burnt Mill station was opened on 9 Navigation lost a large part of its traffic to the and 10 September 1841, two months before its official railway suffering a 50% cut in its revenues before opening, for visitors to the Harlow Bush Fair, an they levelled out in 1848. annual horse and cattle fair which drew people from a The inns in Harlow were badly affected by the wide area. Ten years later excursions were run from disappearance of the coaching trade but the railway Harlow to the Great Exhibition of 1851 held in Hyde proved to be beneficial to the town in the long run. Park. Although Harlow was not ripe for expansion, the With the formation of the Great Eastern Railway improved communications provided by the railway (GER) in 1862 services at Harlow gradually improved contributed to the town’s development and until by the late 1880s the station was being served by prosperity. Its population gradually rose over the 10 up trains and 11 down each weekday (but still only remainder of the century despite the decline of three trains each way on Sundays). These offered a agriculture which led to stagnation in many of the service, mail train excluded, between the hours of surrounding rural settlements. about 7am and 10pm. Fares in 1862 had hardly changed from 1841 although there was now a Station improvements Parliamentary Fare to London of 2s 2d. People’s real When it was opened Harlow station had no goods income was beginning to rise and this led to increased facilities but it was not long before a goods yard was mobility for all classes of society shown by an increase constructed on the up side of the line on the London in people moving to or marrying people from other side of the station. The yard was served by a single towns and villages on or nearby the line. siding running from a trailing connection on the up 13 London was a magnet for those wanting to go attention focused on Jebson, after he gave police a list where work was more plentiful and better paid and of suspects for the murders. the railway made it readily accessible. The censuses 1998. Jebson confessed to the murders. show increasing migration from the Harlow area to 1999. The body of Susan Blatchford was exhumed, London and its environs from the 1850s onwards although forensic tests could not take place, police beginning with young women seeking jobs in were interested in other tests. service and progressing to agricultural workers Tuesday, 8 May 2000 Jebson was given two further escaping the agricultural depression of the last life sentences at the Old Bailey, after pleading guilty to quarter of the century. As the century progressed, the murders of Susan and Gary 30 years previousl y. many people settled at places in the Lea Valley within easy reach of the railway, Edmonton and Note Tottenham being especially popular. (To be continued.) *Born in 1939, Ronald Jebson, aka Ronald Harper, was discharged from the army in 1958 on medical grounds, he was separated from his wife and had a daughter. He was an illegitimate child who had been brought up by foster parents. ‘Babes in the Wood’ murders

The Babes in the Wood murders is a name which From tithe barn to tea house has been used in the media to refer to a child murder case in which the bodies of multiple victims were found concealed in woodland. There are many JUDY ADAMS instances in other English speaking countries of child murders that were so called. Sadly, the The newly refurbished Butler’s Retreat is now open, following events occurred in our district. The serving delicious food from 9am to 5pm Monday to following chronology of events is taken from Friday and 8am to 5pm Saturday and Sunday. www.murderuk.com – Ed Butler’s Retreat at Chingford began its life as a tithe barn, owned by the Lord of the Manor, latterly the Rev 31 March 1970, Susan Blatchford aged 11, and Robert Boothby Heathcote. The Corporation of her 12-year-old friend Gary Hanlon vanished from London purchased the old enclosures around the their homes in North London after going out to adjoining Hunting Lodge and the Hunting Lodge play. They were last seen about 4:30pm. When they itself with the passing of the Epping Forest Act 1878. didn't return home anxious parents called the police. Teas were served at the Hunting Lodge. By 1888, so At least 600 police officers interviewed more than many visitors were coming to the Lodge that the 15,000 people, and searched nearly 4,500 homes. provision of teas there by Mrs Watkins was One of the local residents interviewed was a transferred to the nearby tithe barn. convicted paedophile, Ronald Jebson.* He spoke to In 1891, John Butler (who had been serving teas police on two occasions but he had an alibi for the near the then newly created Connaught Water) took evening, and the police never followed it up. over the Barn and the name dates from that time. It is April 1970 , Jebson entices an 11-year-old boy into one of the last remaining Victorian Retreats within his car, he takes him to a secluded area and assaults Epping Forest. The Retreats originally served him. He was caught and sentenced to five years, refreshments and were associated with the Tem- being eventually released in 1973. perance movement. They were extremely popular 17 June 1970, The bodies of the two missing with the many thousands of visitors from the East End children were found by a dog walker in a copse in of London, who would take day trips out to Epping Lippitts Hill, close to Epping Forest, and six miles Forest at the weekend and on Bank Holidays. from their homes. The newspapers at the time nicknamed the case ‘Babes in the wood’. Post-mortem examinations were inconclusive, the bodies being so badly decomposed. The coroner was unable to ascertain a cause of death. At the inquest an open verdict was recorded, no suspect was identified despite the high profile of the case. Police and the families still maintained that the children were murdered. 1974. Jebson, with 11 previous convictions, including three for sexual offences against children, had been staying with Rosemary' Papper's parents but when they told him he was no longer welcome, he swore revenge. Neighbours recall the phrase: ‘I will do something you will regret.’ Butler’s Retreat 9 June 1974 he strangled Rosemary. In 2010, the restoration of Butler’s Retreat began 1974. At St Albans Crown Court Mr Justice again, thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Kenneth Jones recommended he serve at least 20 Fund. years for the murder of Rosemary Papper. Butler’s Retreat will form part of the developing 1996. The ‘Babes in the wood’ case was reopened, ‘Epping Forest visitor hub’ at Chingford, with Queen 14 Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge and a new Epping Forest With thanks for assistance with this article from the Visitor Centre being developed in the Coach House Corporation of London. buildings adjacent to the Hunting Lodge. Reprinted, with their kind permission, from Friends The ethos of the new Butler’s Retreat is to of Epping Forest , Spring Edition 2012. provide real food – local, artisan and organic where [PS –Judging by the numbers there when I drive down possible and to cater for vegetarians or those with Rangers Road, the revival seems to be going well – Ed ] dietary requirements. Breakfast will include the ‘Forest Fry’ (full English breakfast), or blueberry pancakes with yogurt and maple syrup. Lunch will The Lisbon Steam Tramways include various sandwich combinations, cooked Company food including homemade pies or handmade lamb burgers. Sharing platters will also be on offer TERRY CARTER including ‘The Forester’. A great children’s menu is also available. In this year’s January/March Newsletter 192 , we Later in the year [see below – Ed] Butler’s Retreat printed an article, ‘Test Tracks through the woods, plan to offer a restaurant in the upstairs of the 1873 style’. This concerned the laying of a track building in the evenings, whilst keeping the through Knighton Woods, on which a steam downstairs area open as a bar serving a mezze and tram/train was tested. As the piece provided only tapa type menu. Look out for special events in the basic details of the event, we asked if any member(s) summer including hog/lamb roasts. The much-loved ‘may be able to flesh it out more’. serving hatch will still be in operation for those Lynn Haseldine-Jones duly produced some very wishing to stop for a quick tea or coffee, or some revealing press cuttings, and Ian Strugnell some homemade ice-cream. excellent references to the event. It appears that this Superintendent of Epping Forest, Paul Thomson, was not the first time our society was asked to help said: ‘We are delighted that we can now welcome solve this ‘mystery. Epping Forest visitors to the beautifully restored

Butler’s Retreat to enjoy a diverse and tempting It’s a small world menu.’ In the West Essex Gazette of 5 June, 1964, a piece ‘The mystery trams of Buckhurst Hill’, found by Lynn, concluded with ‘Chigwell Local History Society . . . was asked by the Industrial Locomotive Society to solve the mystery of the trams’. The West Essex Gazette ’s follow-up came on 12th June:

THE TRAM MYSTERY IS SOLVED

Chigwell Local History Society has come to the end of the line in its quest for information about the testing of steam trains in Buckhurst Hill 92 years ago. For two months the Society has been trying to find out exactly where and how the trams were tested. This week Gazette reader Mrs Mary Bird, of 78a Albert Road, Buckhurst Hill, solved the mystery. Her late father travelled on a trial run of the train in Lord’s Bushes, Buckhurst Hill, and she has given the Society a copy of The Graphic containing a picture and story of the test. The steam trains were built for the Lisbon Steam Railways Company to run on two routes in Portugal – Lisbon to Cintra,17 miles, and Lisbon to Torres, about 60 miles:

‘In order to test the system a strip of land has been obtained in Epping Forest, at Buckhurst Hill, where a piece of tramway road, 1710 feet long, has been laid’. This is now known to be at Lord’s Bushes . . . The power of each of the engines already made has been Victorian Menu from Butler’s Retreat tested up to 300 tons, which has been drawn by them The new proprietor of Butler’s Retreat, James on the level . . . The carriages are of three classes; the Ward, said: ‘Like most other local people we have passengers enter from the sides, and are seated back to back.’ always had a soft spot for Butler’s Retreat. It’s really exciting that we are in a position to develop the next Then, on 10 July, 1964, this article, also found by Lynn, chapter in the story of this landmark site.’ appeared in the Chigwell Times: For further information on Butler’s Retreat, visit www.worldslarder.co.uk. 15 OLD NEWSPAPER SETTLES THE TRAM 1710 feet (570 yards, nearly the same). I have also seen MYSTERY 700 yards but, the Chigwell Times report gives a

Chigwell Local History Society have been presented with ‘variable’ mile-long run. a newspaper cutting, dated January 1873, which clears up Having walked the route with my wife, I plump for the mystery of the Buckhurst Hill Steam Trains. the 600 yards! The article [partly reproduced below – Ed ] gives a complete account of the tram’s first appearance, together After the above was written, Ian Strugnell discovered with an excellent engraving of the vehicle. The late Mr an article in issue No 8 of the then Chigwell Local George Bird, father of the lady who has given the History Society News Letter. This confirms the press information to the society, was one of the passengers on articles, and also goes into much technical and this local occasion. financial detail which we can send by e-mail to readers The ‘tramway’ appears to be more like a train, with two carriages and a goods wagon, pulled by an engine, who might be further interested. and it all ran on longitudinal wooden sleepers with a The Lisbon Steam Tramways Company was not a central metal rail as its directional aid. success and appears to have closed on 8 April 1875. Passengers entered from the side and sat back to back. The tramway was constructed for the Lisbon Steam Note Tramways and was destined to run over many curves and *See also Victorian Buckhurst Hill – A Miscellany by C. Johnson gradients, so that a suitable site had to be found for (Epping Forest District Council Museum Service, Monograph No 3, revised edition 1980, ISBN 0–903930–07–2), pp. 8 and 9 preliminary testing. Eventually a track was laid in Lord’s Bushes, probably on what is now the Central path. This had a variable mile- long run, which was made at a speed of 20 m.p.h., Elliott Seabrooke – artist of including a number of stops. Buckhurst Hill

This print was enhanced from Graphic piece LYNN HASELDINE JONES below, and we also print part of the article: Many people have heard of the famous painter of Buckhurst Hill, Walter Spradbery, but there was another artist of international note who spent much of his boyhood and beyond in Buckhurst Hill. Elliott Seabrooke was born in Upton Park, West Ham, on 31 May 1886. His father was Robert Elliott Seabrooke, who had been born in Cambridge around 1858. His mother was Harriet Elizabeth Seabrooke (née Ransom). His father was the Superintendent of the King George V Docks. The young boy was actually called Ransom Elliott THE GRAPHIC, 18 JANUARY 1873 Seabrooke, but he appears to have dropped the first A visitor to Buckhurst Hill in the winter of 1872/73 might name. He had a sister, Winifred Elliott Seabrooke, who have been just lucky enough to witness one of the most was born in Upton Park around 1889. bizarre events ever to take place in the town — the trial The Seabrooke family were living in Buckhurst Hill run of a steam tram through a sylvan glade in Lord's by the time of the 1901 census, and young Elliott was

Bushes. An experimental line some 600 yards long was there in the records of both 1901 and 1911, by which laid down in December of '72 by the newly-formed Lisbon time he was 24 years old. His parents and his sister, Steam Tramways Company on a roughly NW to SE who never married, stayed at the family home, alignment from a point near the keeper's lodge on Knighton Lane down to the entrance of the old Monkhams Brimfield, until at least 1923. Brimfield still exists, a Farm. The Company considered that this area of Epping fine late Victorian villa along the High Road, now Forest came nearest to simulating conditions in Portugal numbered 64. where they hoped to open the tramway. The track consisted of a single rail, flanked on either side at a distance of 20 inches with longitudinal timber sleepers. Only the bogie wheels of the locomotive ran on the centre rail - the flangeless driving wheels, which had a tread of 1ft 2ins, ran on the timber baulks which were 9 ins wide.

These articles make no mention of the suggestion, in Newletter 192 , that the engine used in that test was being transported to Portugal on a steamship that sank in the Thames, thus delaying its emigration. Chris Johnson surmised that this was something of a myth.* Brimfield There are also differences in these accounts as Elliott Seabrooke became a painter, having been regards the length of the track. We, as in The Graphic , educated at the City of London School and the Slade. originally reported 600 yards – above it is given as He served with the British Red Cross during the 1914– 16 1918 conflict and was an official war artist on the Loughton Schools c1751–1956 Italian front. His early works were painted in Epping Forest and the Lake District and he was later (Part 1) influenced by the French School, in particular Cézanne and later the pointillism of Seurat. His Extracted from A History of the County of Essex: Volume 4: paintings are in the Tate Gallery, the Dublin Art Ongar Hundred (1956) (Sponsor: Victoria County History). Gallery and the collections of various provincial There is said to have been a school in Loughton in about galleries and private collectors. 1751, which had existed for many years. In 1761 the curate, The Tate Gallery has five of his works, Near Pierce Dod, obtained subscriptions from local persons and Pourville of 1920, which was bequeathed to the opened a school. Subscriptions soon decreased, however, so gallery by his sister Miss Winifred Seabrooke in that pupils remained few, only 13 in 1766, and teachers were 1975; Old Shipping in Heybridge Basin of 1947, which poorly paid. Gradually, with the aid of an annual sermon, the gallery purchased in 1950 from the artist’s the school’s position was improved, and in 1807 it had 20 widow; Evening at Zandvoort , 1949, and two works pupils. These were all taught reading and writing and the on paper, Water and Trees , and Landscape with Castle girls were also learning housecraft, in accordance with the under a Stormy Sky. The paintings are in store but the original rules of 1761. By this time local interest in the school drawing Water and Trees, which looks remarkably was increasing. In 1810 James Powell gave £10 to introduce the monitorial system, and a few years later two new like Knighton Woods, and the watercolour Landscape schoolrooms and two teachers’ houses were built at a total with Castle under a Stormy Sky , which looks cost of £500. In 1817 the school was united with the National remarkably like Hadleigh Castle, can be viewed by Society, and the number of pupils increased rapidly to about prior arrangement in the Prints and Drawing Room 100. at Tate Britain. The two works on paper arrived at The population of Loughton was growing rapidly at this the Tate in 1996 as part of the Oppé collection. In time and new private schools were being established for 2011 the BBC showed a series of television pro- children of all classes. The National School also expanded. grammes about ‘hidden paintings’, those which The number of boys attending it increased from 48 in 1833 to belong to the nation but are not on display: 18 of Ell- 75 in 1846-47, and of girls from 58 to 85. This was made iott Seabrooke’s paintings came to light, in the possible by the enlargement of the building soon after 1834, collections of Hampshire Museum Service, South- and again in 1842. At this time the children paid no fees and were sometimes given clothes. In 1838–39 the school ampton City Art Gallery and the University of Hull, received £85 from subscriptions and possibly also part of the amongst others. £52 paid annually from Anne Whitaker’s legacy to the Elliott Seabrooke was based in Paris for some Sunday school, which was administered jointly with the time, and was an associate of Nancy Cunard, who National School. In 1846–47 the master was receiving £50 a ran the Hours Press. He prepared the design for the year and the mistress £30. Between 1851 and 1856 the school cover of one of the books she published, a volume of received grants from the government for training pupil poems by Harold Acton, This Chaos , of 1931. teachers, but an inspection in 1850 or 1851 revealed a Another of Seabrooke’s works is a drawing depressing situation. The master, though a decent man, was called ‘ South Porch, Dashwood House, West Wycombe’ , untrained and in very poor health. The mistress could not which is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert work in three figures, so that arithmetic was ‘a nullity’. Museum. This work is from the ‘Recording Britain’ collection of topographical watercolours and draw- ings made in the early 1940s during the Second World War. Elliott Seabrooke married Adolphine Christiana, daughter of Herbert Joosten of Amster- dam in 1930, and died in Nice on 6 March 1950. In Who’s Who he gave his recreations as ‘kite flying coupled with the study of cloud forms’, and his address as 44 Baker St.

New National Schools, Loughton, from The Illustrated London News ,

1863.

In 1863 the school was enlarged at a cost of £1,485. The diocesan board contributed £30, the National Society £75, and local supporters the remainder. The government refused help on the ground that the additional accommodation was unnecessary. National Society officials suspected that its real

motive in refusing aid was to protect the position of the local nonconformist school. The school committee was not able to ‘Regent’s Park, London, Winter’. Oil on canvas, painted 1940. In provide as much new accommodation as they had hoped, the care of Doncaster Museum Service but the rapid increase in the number of children attending

the school, from 100 in 1862 to 150 in 1864, encouraged the References committee to appeal for funds for another classroom. The Chisholm, Anne: Nancy Cunard (Sidgwick and Jackson, 1979) www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings diocesan board gave £10, the National Society £15, and www.collections.vam.ac.uk subscribers some £200. The building was finished in 1866. At wwwww.whowaswho.com courtesy of Essex w.tate.org.uk this time the committee, with the rector as chairman, was 17 very active. In 1868 it introduced gas-lighting, defraying Askew, who ran and owned George Askew Transport the cost by entertainments, and in the same year set up an (Buckhurst Hill). He also lived at and ran the Victoria infants’ department. In 1871 the school garden was Tavern in Smart’s Lane, Loughton, which had previously enlarged by a grant of land from the rector. A cricket club been run by his father-in-law Francis Heather. was started in 1866, a night school in 1868, and a scholars’ My grandfather was born in the pub (his picture as a bank in 1872. By 1875 the average attendance was 193. By child is just inside the door) and married Marie Green. 1865 the school was receiving an annual government I would very much like to know if there is any grant. Additional income came from school fees, local information you could pass on in relation to the Askew contributions, and, in 1876, the levy of a voluntary rate. family. Teachers’ salaries had been improved. The headmaster, I am also researching my grandmother’s side, the after long service at the school, was in 1879 receiving £155 Greens. Her parents are buried in Buckhurst Hill in the a year, with a house allowance of £20. In 1883 the mistress churchyard.’ and the assistant master each received £40 a year. The I passed the e-mail to Chris Pond, who replied: educational standard also improved. ‘Terry Carter has passed me your email. As a result of the Education Act of 1870 a survey was There are various references to the Askews in local made of the accommodation in Loughton schools. The records, as they were for years the dustcart providers and National School was found to have places for 134 boys, general cartage contractors to the Loughton UDC, and of 104 girls, and 42 infants, which, with the 104 places at the course when Lucy Askew died in 1998(?) aged 114, she was British School were declared by the government to be the oldest woman in England – I was mayor at the time and sufficient for local needs. The continued increase of had to do a BBC radio interview about Loughton population, however, soon made further accommodation healthfulness and longevity. necessary, and in 1878–79 the government required the If there is anything specific you want to know I can check National School to provide this, failing which a school it for you. board would be set up. This led to a fierce controversy If your family records include any photos, I'd be very between Anglicans and nonconformists. In March 1879 the interested in seeing them.’ Anglicans convened a parish meeting to authorize a voluntary rate for the National School. The meeting does Andrew replied: not appear to have been widely publicized except among the Anglicans. The nonconformists, suspecting that this ‘Thanks for the quick reply had been deliberately contrived in order to prevent their I have attached a couple of photos that may be of attendance and probable opposition to the rate, arrived at interest. the meeting in full force, led by C H Vivian, the Baptist minister. After a heated debate the voluntary rate was abandoned. During 1879 £300 was raised by subscription and by 1882 the school enlargement fund stood at £400 out of an estimated £500 required. By 1886 the school had been extended to provide 342 places. Even this, however, was insufficient for the growing town, and in 1887 the government insisted on the formation of a school board. In the same year the managers of the National School transferred their building to the board. When the Board School was opened in 1888 the former National School was used for girls and infants, the boys being accom- modated in the new school. In 1891 the infants were moved to a new building in Staples Road, the girls The first is of an Askew group shot in about 1936. The remaining at the old school. In 1904 there were 240 girls, young boy at the front is my father (Fredrick George though the accommodation was then estimated at only Askew). On his right is his grandmother (Elizabeth Kate 210 places. In 1907 the board resolved to build a new girls’ Askew née Heather). On his left his sister Joyce (still alive). school in Staples Road. When this was completed in 1911 The lady to the right of Elizabeth Kate is my grandmother the former National School was apparently no longer used (Marie Askew née Green). The lady to the left we believe is for educational purposes. About 1938–39 it was Emily Kate Marion Johnson (my first cousin 2 x removed). demolished to provide a site for Ashley Grove flats, which The man between Elizabeth Kate and Marie Askew is stand on the corner of York Hill and Staples Road. Frederick Heather Askew, my grandfather. It would be great [This material was published in 1956. Part 2 will follow if anyone could identify any more. The second photo is of a in November in Newsletter 195 – Ed.] George Askew truck:

The Askew family – can you help?

Earlier in the year I received the following e-mail from Andrew Askew. Along with many others I can remember the Askew family’s hay lorries, and their yards in Smarts Lane, Loughton, and High Road, Buckhurst Hill – Ed. It would be great to know of any Askews still living in

Loughton area, so I could contact them to try to find out ‘I am researching my family tree and during the period more.’ 1870–1970 many of my ancestors lived and worked in Loughton. My great-grandfather was George Henry 18 Vicente, a retired engineer, remembers the crossing in Vicente Romero returns to the ship: “we all slept on the deck. Everybody else was sick; Theydon Bois but my brother, sister and I were not. We were also very lucky because they took everybody’s luggage away and TERRY CARTER mixed them up, but nobody took ours.” Two days later, on 23 May 1937, after a terrible journey, the Basque children

arrived at Southampton. They were welcomed by the Readers may recall Ted Martin’s article, ‘Leah Duchess of Atholl, Sir Walter and Lady Layton and Sir Manning and the Basque Children in Theydon Bois’, Walter and Lady Citrine. that we printed in Newsletter 181 , in which Ted Many famous names including Cadburys, Horlicks, wrote: Rowntrees, Marmite, Jaegers, Co-op, Woolworths, Standard ‘Jim Watts, a neighbour in Theydon Bois before I moved Fireworks, Prudential Assurance, Sidney Bernstein, the to Bedfordshire, is the editor of the Theydon Bois website RSPCA and Marks & Spencer donated goods or money to the relief agencies.’ and also manages the L & DHS website for us, so though we are now 40 miles apart we still correspond regularly Through Codavonga, Vicente recalled that the by e-mail. On 20 November 2008 I received a request from children were dispersed all over England, and that his him for the Society’s help to find further information for group, 21, as he related, were sent to Theydon Bois. Covadonga Cienfuegos Jovellanos, a Spanish lady who They were sent to Woodberry, a house in Piercing Hill, lives in San Sebastian, a city in northern Spain. which for a time was known as the Leah Manning Senora Jovellanos’s father, Vicente Romero, who was 85 on 4 December 2008, and now lives in Gijon in Spain, Home (for her extensive involvement with the rescue had spent 10 months in Theydon Bois at the age of 13, of the children, and their subsequent aftercare, please with his brother, José, and his sister, Maria, and 18 other refer to Newsletter 181 ). Woodberry later became part Spanish children. They were part of the nearly 4,000 of the sorely missed Wansfell College. Basque children, who were evacuated to England to Vicente delighted in pointing out to us, in a very escape from the Spanish Civil War, thanks to campaigners old photograph of Woodberry, the very window of the in England persuading the British Government to take room in which he stayed for all his time in Theydon. them).’ Vicente, although only 13, seems to have been a

The full article, which is both detailed and leader in the group, looking after their luggage and moving can be found on our website, and I possessions. He spoke of staying in recommend a re-reading to members. Among many things, it reveals the lasting impact that Theydon ‘ ”a lovely residence in a long avenue with smart houses”. Next door to them lived a family with young daughters and Bois made on Vicente who, happily, is a fit and the Basque children used to play with them. The neighbours’ youthful 88. So much so, that Vicente, accompanied wife’s family were part of the Cadbury chocolate family and by Senora Consuelo Romero, his wife, and next to them lived a family with a son who was an “aviator”. Covadonga, came back to England, both for the 75th One day the aviator threw a message from a plane and it fell reunion of the Basque children’s arrival in this down in the Spanish children’s garden. The teachers gave it country and to take the opportunity to return to to the neighbours. It said he wasn’t going to be on time for Theydon Bois. the tennis match.’ Jim Watts hosted a meeting on Thursday, 10 May, attended by his three Spanish guests, plus During their stay, an English teacher taught them Peter Newton of Roding Valley U3A, Theydon Bois English and lived with them. Vicente recalled that the Rural Preservation Society and also the L & DHS, children used to walk on the golf course in the Trevor Roberts, Theydon Bois Local History afternoon and played football or visited Epping Recorder and myself. Ted was, of course, invited to Forest. Through Covadonga, Vicente related how ‘the attend but, much to his regret, he was urgently man in charge’ of Theydon Bois Golf Club, gave the needed elsewhere. children permission to use part of one of the fairways That morning, Jim Watts picked up the visitors for their group exercises and fitness routines. from The Bell Hotel, and gave them a guided tour of He spoke of a house in Piercing Hill which was Epping, a walk in Epping Forest and over Theydon lived in ‘by a famous admiral’ and another in the road Bois Golf Course. by ‘a wonderful doctor’ who often attended the Covadonga, a distinguished lawyer, proved to be children. a charming and memorable lady, as well as an Some evenings they had activities in the Loreto excellent translator, which was just as well, as my Convent in Forest Side, to the west of the Golf Course, Spanish is limited to a few words and phrases, and because all the children were Catholic. The convent Senora Romero spoke no English. The English that closed in the 1970s and was at first converted to a large Vicente learned here in 1937/38 had deserted him, so house called Theydon Towers and recently to flats and Codavonga relayed his thoughts to us. houses. At the weekends volunteers from the Labour From Newsletter 181 : Party came from London and took the children for an outing to the capital by train. ‘At 6.40 a.m. on Friday, 21 May 1937 the SS Habana left Bilbao. There were over 3,800 children on board, with 95 They were often visited in Theydon Bois by Leah women teachers, 120 senoritas as helpers, 15 priests and Manning. Vicente Romero remembers her as a ‘nice Leah Manning. The ship was escorted by the destroyer lady who loved the children very much’. Their parting HMS Forester . was tinged with sadness. Leah Manning got angry on her last visit to Theydon Bois, when she found that the 19 three Romero children had been sent back to Spain for his first job. There he married and then came back to the without her knowledge. Vicente stayed for 10 Basque country, where he worked for a large iron company months in England and it seems that a further group until he retired, becoming the director responsible for came to Theydon Bois after his group had left. organisation and security in the company. José Romero became a member of the Catholic teaching order of St Jean Baptiste of La Salle. He was a teacher in their

schools for many years. He now lives in a community with other brothers near San Sebastian. Unfortunately, Maria died 25 years ago. She always wanted to become a doctor but in those difficult times her parents could not afford her training and so she finally became a nurse. She did not marry. When she died, she was the much loved director of a health centre near Bilbao.’

Tailpiece

On the first page of this Golden Jubilee edition, Ian referred

to the early Transactions booklets of the Chigwell Local

History Society. This is the Editorial from the second issue,

published in 1974. Our apologies to those who may have

seen this before.

The Romero family in Theydon Bois The functions of an historical society are not Covadonga says that, after so long, Vicente has simply to hold monthly meetings, interesting forgotten most of the English that he spoke perfectly and necessary though such meetings may be. when he came back to Spain, but what he has never To survive, a society must undertake research into local history and having done so forgotten was a country and especially a village, Theydon Bois, which offered love and shelter to him should publish the results of such work and his companions far away from the misfortunes periodically. of war. The welcome extended to our first book of She spoke movingly of the pleasure it gave them transactions has encouraged us to issue the to be shown the places by Jim Watts, that clearly still second book. In it will be found articles of meant so much to Vicente. That made it so very local interest by local authors who have a thorough knowledge of the subject. much worth while, and I hope the three of them We are profoundly grateful to them for have many more years to be able to speak fondly of putting their knowledge at our disposal so Vicente Romero’s return to Theydon Bois. generously.

This little book is launched in the hope and

belief that it will be of much interest, not only

to present-day readers, but also may prove of value to historians in the future.

LOUGHTON & DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Registered Charity 287274) www.loughtonhistoricalsociety.org.uk President: Heather, Lady Murray of Epping Forest Chairman: Dr Chris Pond, Forest Villa, Staples Road, Loughton IG10 1HP (020 8508 2361) Secretary: Linda Parish, 17 Highland Avenue, Loughton IG10 3AJ(020 8508 5014) Treasurer: Paul Webster, 63 Goldings Road, Loughton IG10 2QR (020 8508 8700) Vicente Romero on Theydon Bois Golf Course Membership Secretary: Ian Strugnell, 22 Hatfields, Loughton There is more to say about the children, about IG10 1TJ Leah Manning and others, but space determines Newsletter Editor: Terry Carter, 43 Hillcrest Road, Loughton IG10 4QH (020 8508 0867) that, for this, as said earlier, you will need to turn to Newsletter Production: Ted Martin Ted’s article. However, from it I will add: All rights reserved. © 2012 Loughton & District Historical ‘After the Romero children returned to Spain, Vicente Society and contributors. Printed in Great Britain by Streets Printers, Baldock, Herts. became an engineer . . . He became a doctor of engineer- ing, he went back to the Asturias region in Northern Spain

20