Wartime Worle 1939 to 1945 the Goings on in the Village of Worle in World War 2
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WORLE HISTORY SOCIETY Wartime Worle 1939 to 1945 The goings on in the village of Worle in World War 2 Raye Green December, 2015 A study of the home front in the village of Worle, Somerset, during World War 2, with pictures, cuttings and memories of the people of Worle. Wartime Worle Raye Green Published by Honeypot Press www.honey-pot-press.co.uk 2 Wartime Worle Raye Green 1. Introduction I missed the war. Right through childhood I listened to my adults, and I had a lot of them, reminiscing about ‘the war’, by which they meant World War 2. I had the good fortune of being born in the first year of peace, a fact that I imparted to people regularly, as if I had planned it all. I normally added that my Dad had also been born in the first year of peace, and I left it to others to work out, if they cared, that I had arrived in 1946 and my Dad in 1919. In point of fact I rather resented having missed it all. My mother and grandparents succeeded in making the whole experience sound like a romantic idyll. Community spirit, the fun of making the food go round, the blackout, good old Winnie, make do and mend – rose coloured specs, in fact. My father, on the other hand, and my uncle, rarely mentioned it. They had both been in the front line and looked up to the sky with exasperation. The home front propaganda, the Hollywood versions of events, the hero worship of Churchill, all irritants to them both. People spoke, with apparent affection, about a time that I didn’t share with them, and I frankly considered them thoughtless to make me feel so left out. This might be one reason for my eagerness to research and write an account of Worle in the Second World War. My family did not move to Worle until 1949, so there is no collective memory to rely on this time. In comparison, the 1953 book was easy. I remembered it, had lived it and knew at least a little of what I was talking about. This is different. In Worle, for the duration of WWII, my family did not exist. They were still in the Welsh valley where they were all born, and Worle managed quite well without them. So this book is based entirely on what other people have told me via newspaper reports, photographs, log books, minutes, registers and endless conversations. These chats have sometimes been with folk who were at the centre of life in the village and sometimes with people whose families have passed on memories. It is, in the literal sense a history book which has to rely on research, and mainly the written or printed word. It cannot hope to be a complete, or a final account in any way. Doubtless others will add to or alter what is to be found in these pages. If you have contemporary evidence which adds to our understanding of the time, record it, write it up. Don’t allow it to be lost. 3 Wartime Worle Raye Green 2. Setting the Scene We are going back to a time when Britain had had its confidence shaken by the abdication of Edward VIII. George VI and Queen Elizabeth with their daughters the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, collectively the ‘new’ Royal Family had been warmly adopted by the nation, but my parents’ and grandparents’ generations could have done without another war. The cream of a generation of young men had been lost in the Great War and it takes longer than 20 years to recover from that kind of devastation. I had assumed, before I started the research, that early in 1939 people were largely unaware of the possibility of war, or at least not too concerned. After all, it was only twenty years since the armistice was signed which was supposed to mark the conclusion of the war to end all wars. They would, I thought, have assumed that the ‘powers that be’ would have more sense than to go down that route again, and against the same foe. Surely they could not have been expecting it. Not true. Talk of war, beneath the surface, was everywhere. Let’s start by having a look at the map of the village in 1938. There are some drawbacks in this approach. The Ordnance Survey were a few years behind the building programme, so the houses on the north side of Hill Road East do not appear on it, neither does the Church Hall, which plays a large part in village life before and during the war. The map is small, I know, but may help conjure up a picture as we go along. An alphabetical list of street names follows. Annandale Avenue; Bristol Road; Bristol Road [Old]; Castle Road; Church Road; Coronation Road; Ebdon Road; Greenwood Road; Hampden Road; Hawthorn Hill; High Street; Hill Road; Hill Road East; Kewstoke Road; Lawrence Road; Lyefield Road; Madam Avenue; Mayfield Avenue; Mendip Avenue; Pine Hill; Ranscombe; Spring Hill; Station Road; The Rows; The Scaurs; The Square. In these 25 streets, according to the street directory and electoral roll, lived 720 men and 868 women, 1,588 voters in all. The under 21s probably equalled this figure, as in previous decades for almost 100 years, so about 3,000 souls inhabited the village. This volume is for them. The housing in Worle was not dense, as it is now, but much more scattered and interspersed with fields and orchards. Only in reasonably small patches were houses clustered closely. Coronation Road was noticeably built up, and along the High Street neighbours were in nodding distance of each other. Greenwood Road looks positively cosy which, of course, it was. The ‘old’ village snuggled around Manchester Square at the top of the Scaurs and led along Kewstoke Road to Castle Road and then to the new council properties. Spring Hill had avoided development and still had a stream and a little bridge at the bottom, but even there, the new school building was rising from the soil. The Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Light Railway chugged merrily through Worle, crossing Station Road on its way to Wick St. Lawrence and thence gently northwards 4 Wartime Worle Raye Green 5 Wartime Worle Raye Green One of the luxuries of researching these years is the fact that Worle news was covered by two local papers. Before the war, both papers appeared on Saturdays, so were in direct competition. The Mercury we are still familiar with, but in 1939 it was a more austere publication, scorning the rather common idea of having photographs all over the place. The Gazette, on the other hand, had a much more modern look, illustrating wherever possible and using shorter stories with designated columns for different areas. This is a joy for a local history nut, since it is much easier to find information. It makes you wonder why the Gazette went out of business in 1952 and the Mercury ploughed on. It seems to me that the answer lies in the content and information given in the rival papers. There is no doubt that the devil is in the detail. The Mercury provides considerably more information, rather like a modern ‘broadsheet’, whilst the Gazette has a lighter feel, as do ‘redtops’ these days. However, for the moment, I am going straight to the Gazette and the delightful column headed ‘Worle and Milton Notes and News’. This appeared faithfully each week and gave the village all the news, in brief. The drawback is that we get the news from the viewpoint of one individual: the journalist responsible for Worle. 6 Wartime Worle Raye Green 3. Happy New Year: January 1939 On December 31st 1938 we very sensibly head directly to the pub – the Golden Lion, that is. Mr Lickes, the hospitable landlord, had put on an evening of food and entertainment for the old men of Worle on New Year’s Eve. All male, old age pensioners were welcomed to an excellent supper and the chance to reminisce about New Years Past. The women, I suppose stayed at home, knitting or something. Nineteen of the old fellows turned up, with Mr. J. Harris the acknowledged senior member at 79. Apparently, colds and influenza had struck down a fair number of folk, so perhaps some of the chaps remained at home with their wives. This would be the last time that the New Year would be welcomed without a heavy heart until 1946 arrived on the scene. The report, below, is taken from the Gazette dated 7th January, 1939 and gives some idea of the difficulties of transcribing some of the details. My attempt at this task is attached, to assist the reader to make some sort of judgement as to accuracy! As it is the first week of the new year it would be pleasant to begin with a Happy New Year story which concerns the aged people. The reason for pleasantry should be obvious, for besides being festive, the New Year has provided a nice crop of ‘coulds’ and influenza in the area. Exactly 1,352 years of ripe old age and experience were present in the Golden Lion, Worle on New Year’s Eve when the hospitable landlord, Mr Lickes entertained every old age pensioner [male] who could be persuaded to come along. There were 19 of them but unfortunately there were several absentees due to the weather and health reasons. Anyway 19 old age pensioners, many of whom were well past the three score and ten, had a good time, an excellent supper and some pleasing entertainment.