The Following Pages Are Transcripts of Conversations That Were Recorded in the Late Eighties. They Record Some of the Details O

The following pages are transcripts of conversations that were recorded in the late eighties. They record some of the details of life in Hadnall in the twentieth Century along with some of the “characters” of the period.

My family used to live at Whitehurst in Astley Lane and later at 25 Shrewsbury Road and lived out there days there. I was born there; I left school on a Friday and started work at Hardwicke stables on the Monday as a groom. Jim Bowdler’s uncle was chauffeur to Mr Bibby; they em- ployed seven chauffeurs and about forty grooms. There were a lot of horses, they were the stables for the North Shropshire Hunt, but the hounds were kept at Lee Bridge. I was there for about four years and then I went to Leicestershire. My father was carpenter on the estate all my life, he made gates and rails. Everybody who left school in Hadnall always went to work on the estate. I should think a least two dozen people worked at the Hall; there were parlour maids, ladies maids, kitchen maids, footmen and also there was about a dozen men in Hardwicke gardens. When I was a youngster I hated horses and steam- rollers, then I left school and went to work at the stables. When I came back from the war, I went to work on Bradley’s van. My mother came from Lancashire, Widnes; my grandparents lived at Acton Reynald Lodge. Father was a bit of a mystery, to tell the truth. I suppose he was a Shropshire man but we never knew where he came from. I remember Moreton at Hermitage Farm; I was chased miles by him for pinching his apples and Williams, before Cecil’s family. Mr Mortimer was the vicar, he left in 1919 and then Mr Lee. He joined the navy as a chaplain when the war started. The two Miss Dones lived in Amstel House. I used to go there quite a lot and they told me tales. There was along path from the gate to the house and one day I saw a steamroller coming down Hadnall Bank and ran into the house shouting “Steamroller, steamroller.” She always used to laugh about that. I went to Hadnall School until I was eleven, Miss Hare taught me; she was a good teacher but she had her favourites. I remember Cis Tudor, we

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 1 always called him Potty. He was a wild character. One old character was Jimmy Done; he lived in an old henhouse in Haston. We used to call him Sponger; he was always trying to borrow a halfpen- ny. He chased us kids many a thousand mile. He used to be the chauffeur at the Hall, Hadnall Hall before it was the vicarage. I remember Tommy the dead man, he lodged at Lockleys in Ladymas Lane and they found him dead in the chair two or three times. Then he came to life again. I used to deliver Shrewsbury Chronicles round the village; they dropped them at home about a dozen. George Rhodes was the baker at Bradleys. We lived then at number 26 and I used to help him in the bake house on a Saturday. It was really heavy work because they had no machinery at all. I would cut the dough out of the trough and weigh it out and George would mould it, ready to go in the oven. While we did this, the next batch would be proving. My first wages were twelve shillings and sixpence a week and this went up to 45/- a week. Then I went into the army and I had 7/- a week but of course I had food and clothes provided. Cigarettes were cheap, five for 2d, ten for 6d and twenty for 11 l/2d. There was a thatched cottage where Bradley’s warehouse is now and an old postman lived there called Bob Morris. We used to play some tricks on him. He down the garden had an old toilet and we used to push nettles up it.

I was born in 1905. About 1920 we collected some money and started a netball team. We used to play matches with people from town and old Mrs Lee (The vicar’s mother) used to give a prize every week for the best table - we gave them refreshments you see. She used to lend us her silver teapot because we were in the choir and she wanted to be proud of us. Frankie Jones, the undertaker, made the goal posts for us. He lived on the corner of Ladymas Road and had the blacksmiths shop opposite the old post office. I went to chapel until I was about 10 but then I wanted to be in the choir like everyone else. The chapel was opposite Radcliffe’s farm, a Congrega- tional chapel. The vicar then was Mr Mortimer and he used to take us to his house several times in the summer and we had tea, it was very

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 2 pleasant. For one choir outing we went to Birkenhead onto one of the Bibby ships, I think it was the Shropshire, and we had to go up a rope ladder up the side of the ship. I’ve never been so frightened in my life. It was the day before it sailed and so they were all busy. We went by train, the station was busy then, and you didn’t think about coaches then. Members of the choir were Joan Andrews, Miss Roper from Battlefield, Ethel and Lucy Mathews, Harold Evans; most of them are dead. Mrs Spargo was the organist but she went to Australia. Different organists came from town. One was Mr Smout who had a big furniture shop in town. Rowley’s was quite a thriving tailor’s shop. We made all the liveries for Hardwicke and for Shotton; the Duke of Cambridge came to Shotton. I lined many a jacket for the old Duke of Teck, Queen Mary’s brother. About 7 people worked in the tailors shop, Mrs Needham was one, Joan Andrews, myself, Miss Hatton, Cecil Tudor, Harry Bird (he went to keep a pub in town after Mr Rowley; he was the owner. Mr Rowley was the organist for a while, he played the organ right well. When his son came back from the army he had different ideas altogether, he let the business go down. Mr Rowley was not a keen businessman and his customers often only paid up once a year. There was often not enough cash at end of the week to pay the wages. I worked one year for nothing, half a crown a week for the next year and my dinner. This was during the first war and Mrs Rowley wanted my ration of sugar. My grandmother, who lived in Mill Lane wouldn’t let her have it, so we used to have stewed gooseberries or rhubarb without any sugar. I can remember Shawbury being built, the airfield, and the prisoners from Shrewsbury marching each day to work there. They walked from Hadnall station in the morning and back about 4o’clock. I can remember the planes; I used to go baby-sitting for a pilot who lodged at Rowleys. I think rationing was worse in the first war than the second but everyone had a big garden and were more independent. Eleven men from Hadnall were killed during the war, the first war. Every young man who was of age had to go and the horses from the farms all went as well. I think times were worse than the second war; people were stranded when their men had gone. In the second war there was more transport, buses and trains and farm workers were exempt. A Mr Livinns lived at Provi-

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 3 dence Grove; he had a furriers shop in town. The shop was in High Street and was called Edwin Powells He had a wife and two daughters but he caught some disease from the furs and committed suicide on the railway line at Hardwicke. The station was very busy; all the farmers took their milk twice a day to the station in chums. In fact the station road was very busy. We used to sell poppies and Alexandra roses and I used to go to the station, the waiting room would be full for almost every train. My husband had been in the army during the war and was very friendly with George Rhodes who had been the baker here for about 22 years. Maurice went to bake for his father who was also a baker at Stanton. When George had saved up enough to buy the shop at Hodnet, Maurice took his job. We came here in 1927, just for the time being and Maurice worked here for nearly 50 years. Maurice was secretary for the Ancient Order of Forresters for about 40 years. The Forresters was a Friendly Society and provided some insurance, before the days of social security. It was almost a family concern as sons followed their fathers as members. Once a year they had a walk through the village following a banner, I think they called this hospital Sunday and when they had a club day with hobbyhorses, it was a field day for the village. This died out but to celebrate their centenary in 1951 they paraded their banner again through the village. The weather was bad, it was very windy, and the banner was badly torn. There was a celebration when the Village Hall was opened in 1910. I was about 5 and I was in bed with measles. I was heartbroken at not being able to go but I remember Miss Hare bringing me some books from it and reading them to me. Before they straightened the road there was a cottage and it was a very nasty bend. Brian Revitt had a bad accident there when he was about 4 or 5. It was Mrs Powell’s cottage. I suppose it was in the washhouse or something. Mr Jack Bailey who was a relation of Mrs Hughes who lived at number 25 was an old soldier who came home after the war (1914-18). He was the shoe mender there, he had a cobblers shop. I don’t remember a blacksmith there; the blacksmith was opposite the old post office, by what is now Smithy cottage. About characters in the village; there were the old people like Jimmy Done, Terry Dean was another one. Jimmy Done lived in the village, he lived at Haston in a hut or something. I used to scribble for the Hadnall News

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 4 about that. They were just characters that wanted to hold a horse at the Saracens to buy a glass of beer. Jimmy Done always said he was short of threehapence to pay the rent. I believe the rent was one shilling a year. Then there was Miss Hare who was the schoolmistress for years and how she mothered them as well as taught them. The children used to walk from Albrighton, as far as three miles, and they didn’t have wellingtons. They were big boys, they used to arrive at school with there feet soaking wet; they had been kicking the leaves up and they had eaten their dinner on the way to school. She used to sit them round the fire and many times has gone into the house to find a blanket to put round them while their trousers dried. At dinnertime she always walked round to see what people were having for their dinner and if she saw someone short of food, she would take them into her house and make them cocoa. She was a saint in a way. We had a big old coke stove that the boys stoked; the boys were there until they were 14. Miss Cooper started teaching at Hadnall on the same day that Gordon started, he started on his 4th birthday. She was the junior teacher, but she wasn’t with Miss Hare. Miss Hare came to live here after we were married (1927) and she lived here three years with us. She was a relation of the Leech family who farmed at Haston and then retired to Whitehurst, where Margaret Adams lives. Mr Bradley kept the grocers shop. When he retired he moved to the bungalow on Hadnall bank, where Win Price lives and his son Jack took over the business. Someone called Latter started the shop; they lived at number 27. The shop next door was the original shop and the building at the back of number 26 was the bake house. Mrs Latter died when the twins were born and Mr Latter took this house, number 24, and my Aunt came to live here when she left school to look after the children. Mr Latter then moved into the new shop but left to keep a pub in Shawbury. Mr Bradley came from Wem. When we came to live here in 1927, Mrs Hughes lived next door; I think all of her boys who were older than me had been to Hadnall school and Jean who still lives there is her granddaughter. Mr Hollinsworth was the stationmaster for many years; I’ve got a picture of him receiving an award for the best-kept station.

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 5 The deeds of the farm are now in the bank; the earliest date that we can read on them was 1604. The late Mr David Price brought a gentleman from the Victoria and Albert Museum and he said the middle part would have been 1400 because of the way the beams went. There is an insurance plaque, Sun Insurance, which is dated 1779 and everything was insured then for ten shillings (50p.) i.e. the house and the buildings. The house was thatched. It appears to have been two dwellings because there are traces of the stairs bring in several places. We think it was a farmhouse and a cottage. There are three rooms up and three down and at some time they have all been connected. The doorways are now all blocked up. When we did do improvements about 20 years ago, we went to take some of the walls down and they were all filled with glass to keep the rats out. There is also a great deal of wattle and daub in the house. I came to Hadnall with my parents in 1934 and I went to the local school in Hadnall. The first teacher that taught me there was Miss Stokes from Ellesmere and then Mr Worth who lived up Hadnall bank at Valdon. Later Miss Cooper was infant teacher at Hadnall. When I was a youngster before the war where Margaret Adams lives (Astley Lane) was a lady called Miss Groom who was quite an old lady and she used to have a donkey and a carriage. One of the older lads used to be the groom for her, and he used to drive the donkey and bring Miss Groom to church. So when Miss Groom was in church, we used to pile in to the donkey cart and go for a ride. Once we missed getting back before Miss Groom came out of church, I don’t know what happened, perhaps he got the sack. You couldn’t get the donkey to go over the bridge with the cart so when we went out on a Sunday morning we had to keep on the flat. I can remember going to her house, she kept the donkey in some sheds at the back, to see how this older lad was getting on and Miss Groom came out and said “Who are you? You are a dirty little lad. You’d better get off home and get a wash.” They used to exercise the donkey without the cart; they used to lead the donkey around for exercise and we thought - they have donkeys on the sands and ride them - so I volunteered to get on his back. I didn’t stay there very long, I was quickly thrown off. Another gentleman who used to be round the village, he was an old gentleman and I was quite young, we used to call him Sponger. The old

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 6 people in the village told me, he walked with a stoop as if he had broken his neck some time, that he used to be a groom at Hadnall Hall for the Wards and he used to drive them out. I think he fell off a stack or something and he broke his neck and it didn’t set right He used to live up Haston Lane. The late Mr Leech used to do a lot for him and he used to live in a henhouse on his field. He used to come down to go to the New Inn and he used to be sitting on a big stone on the comer of the New Inn; we used to go along and torment him and he tried to catch us with his stick. Miss Evans says that the rose that is on the front of our house now, the climbing rose, was there during the 1914 war and it’s still there. Where the warehouse is now, the late Mr Bradley had it built, there used to be a little cottage there and it was thatched. A gentleman lived there by the name of Bob the postman. Anyway Bradley’s had it pulled down, burnt down and they say old Bob never forgave them for doing it. I can remember him staying with Mr and Mrs Pugh; he used to live in a building at the back. They lived in the two cottages just past the chapel, the second one. There was one morning when we were loading the milk on the milk stand, it was an April fool morning and Miss Evans was coming along on her bike, very heavily laden because she used to manage the shop at the far end of the village. I was there with the milkman and I said, “Oh, Miss Evans, Mr Bradley wants you” and she turned round and went to see what Mr Bradley wanted. As she came back she certainly told me off for sending her back on April Fool morning. A certain lady was learning to drive a car and she was having some trouble and it kept jumping for- ward. I must have been quite a young lad and I said, “What’s the matter dear, have you got kangaroo petrol in it” and the wife met up with that particular lady and she said,” I can remember a very cheeky lad living there” and she remarked about the kangaroo petrol in the car. Mary took me along and introduced me to her. Miss Jones, who lived at number 26, told me that Pool Farm House had some connection with Hadnall Mill. When she was very young she could remember going round there to buy milk, they used to keep it in part of the house. Many years ago there used to be a football field on the Hermitage and there

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 7 was one on Pool Farm that was for the Hadnall football team. Two oak trees that used to stand in Astley Lane were planted to mark the drive across the field to Pool Farm House but the drive was never made, the entrance was made on to the main road. When I was a youngster and the late Mr Phillip was there, he used to put lights in the trees and we spent many a happy hour there skating on the pool in the evening. There were two old swans and they were on the pool for years, they always used to nest around the pool, because Mr Phillip was there to keep an eye on them. Across the far side of the pool where the outlet is there used to be a sluice, the slots are still there in the stonework where they used to put the sluice in; when the water got too high they would pull the sluice out and the water would flood over the fields. The old people have told me this. At the far end of the building that we had for a cow house and they had some summer dances there, used to be a slaughter- house. The rings are still there. They tell me it was one of the Forrester family from Yorton Heath that owned it. One of the Foresters used to come round when I was a youngster collecting damsons and I think it was a member of his family of a previous generation. The older people have said, about that building by the road that there used to be two big wooden doors that run right to the top on both sides. They used to stack the corn there and have the threshing machine there to thresh the com. They opened the doors and the engine that was used to drive the threshing machine used to be stationed on what is now the main road and the grain and the straw used to come out in the farmyard. Above the room where we live is what is called an old granary and under the granary steps is a place they used to call a dog kennel; they used to keep the dogs under there. On the opposite side of the road from Hermitage Farm, running from the church to the warehouse there used to be quite a wide strip of water that was always called the Horsewash, it was a watering place for horses but filled up gradually over the years. There was a fence all the way down made of posts with a chain running through the posts and it was fenced around by the church to the end of the church wall in Haston Lane (the village green). Where the Saracens car park is now part of it used to be a garden, behind it was a little paddock. It’s all been opened out now to make a much bigger car park.

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 8 The garden belonged to the pub and I think the paddock also belonged to the pub. In the comer of this garden there was a big pole with a big sign advertising the Saracens. One night there was a crowd of lads there and we had a bet to see who could climb the pole. I was the one who managed to get to the top but as I got to the top Mr Preece, the village policeman, came down and reprimanded the other lads. Then he saw me on the top but he couldn’t tell who it was. Eventually he said, ’’Cecil, I know it’s you, don’t be foolish, you’ll hurt yourself, come down” I stood up on top of the post and jumped down into what was then the garden. The school garden, the old school, used to be where the village Hall car park is (now the new village Hall) and we all used to have individual plots and Mr Worth used to come round and supervise. By the road in the main part of the garden was a strawberry bed and we used to spend as much time there as we could. My first part time job, while I was still at school, was to fetch a bucket of water for the late Miss Done at Amstel House. I had to carry it from the back of the house where Mrs Davies used to live and I got 6d a week. The late Mr Enoch Price used to do quite a few things in the village; he was M.C. for the whist drives and did quite a few things in the village hall. When we were young lads there wasn’t much entertainment, so we had to make our own. This was one of our pranks. In those days all the toilets were down the garden, privies, and you would see people going late at night before they retired to bed. We used to have carbide, if you put in a tin, put the lid on very hard and put a match to it —we used to let them off behind the toilets and there was a very quick exit! There was one village pump that several of the houses in Mill Lane used to use.

Francis spoke about Bill Abbot who lived behind the Chapel and said that his daughter Kathleen played the organ in church and used to play the piano at village hops in the Village hall. He showed me a newspaper cutting of the death of H.C. Williams. Mr H.C. Williams farmed Wood Farm, he died at Astley where he had moved into a bungalow after 50 years on Wood Farm, he took over from his father at Wood Farm in

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 9 1920. Mr Herbert Cyril Williams had the first attested milk licence in the county, he had lost 4 herds of cows with foot and mouth at one time or another. He was an active member of Hadnall Parish Council and he was a school manager for over 30 years. Francis also showed me a newspaper cutting of the death of Mr George Jones who died at the age of 90 who had worked for 20 years on the Hardwicke Estate, he had lived at 4 Wood Road.( I think numbers 4 and 3 have been made into one). Francis Ruscoe was born at 5 Wood Road, Hadnall and he worked at Wood Farm for 35 years. When he married, he moved further down Wood Rd to the black and white house by the railway bridge where Mr Harry Lewis lives now. Francis worked for the Rev. Lee at Hadnall Hall for 4 years before he went to work at Wood Farm. One of Mr Williams cows took first prize at the London Dairy Show. Miss Hare who was head teacher at Hadnall School and whose gravestone is almost opposite the church door had a brother who had a school in Kent and he used to ask Miss Hare to pick out girls who were leaving school to go down to Kent to work for him at the school. Amongst those who went were Dolly Meadows, Francis Ruscoe’s two sisters (Gladys and Louie) and Phyllis Foster. Francis Rus- coe’s father also worked for Cyril Williams and for his father since about 1900; when he died he was 72. When the Miss Potters lived at Crawfor- ton they used to hold a party for the Sunday School children in the garden very year. Bill Preece was the policeman during the war. Some- body raided a goods van that was full of wines and spirits and Francis found 3 bottles of gin hidden afterwards. The gin was half buried along the side of the railway line, obviously they were coming back for it but Francis’s dog found it before they did. Francis belonged to the Home Guard during the war. He said, we were at Stretton in the Ashes Valley on an exercise. I was rifleman number 1, he was number 2. He fired first and his grenade went off. I fired next and mine never went off. You were supposed to find these that didn’t go off because they were dangerous but we didn’t find mine; whether it’s still there I don’t know. We went on a bomb throwing exercise at Shrews- bury. They took us lads there, a proper army place. Sgt. Brisboume was in charge of us, and one poor old lad from Astley when it came his turn he was so nervous that he dropped it right by the sergeant’s feet. Of course the sergeant picked it up and threw it over, that was Reg Brisbou- me.

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 10 Francis Ruscoe, who lived at 5, Wood Rd. Hadnall

re Bill Abbot who lived in Holmleigh and lived to be 90 years old.

Peter’s mother and father came to stay here when we went on holiday. While we were away she was amongst the apple trees doing some tidying up and an old man same along. She spoke to him and he suddenly disappeared. When she described him to Mrs Leddington, she said it was a perfect description of Mr Abbot. There have been strange goings on in this house, in the kitchen mainly. One morning in the summer when Peter got up to go to work one Saturday morning, he left the back door open and went down to feed his chickens. While he was in the garden he heard a crash in the house; he came running back up the path and looked inside. He thought a cat had got in. He couldn’t see anything so he locked the door and went to work. When I got up and went down- stairs I found one of the silver cups that he had won at a Flower Show was on the kitchen floor by the cooker in the comer the comer. When he came home at lunchtime, I asked him if he wanted it cleaning to send it back to the Show, but he hadn’t put it there, it seems it just fell off the shelf. But the strange thing is that it had come across from the other side of the kitchen and the cup had been on that shelf for many months, and after we put it back it stayed there for many months. Why it had suddenly come off the shelf we had no idea. It appeared that someone had presented this cup from Wem called Bibby. Mr Abbot had at one time worked for this family and had been sacked. We wondered if his ghost had come and thrown the cup across the kitchen. On another occasion, late one evening I was sitting in the kitchen, we’d just finished supper and Peter had gone up to bed. I said I would be about 5 minutes; while I was sitting there there was a funny tinkling noise. When I looked up the soup scoop that hangs on the rack with the kitchen utensils was swinging too and fro for no apparent reason. On another night we both wit- nessed, as we sat at the table, a jam jar that I had washed and put upside down on the dish rack in the kitchen was suddenly bouncing up and down; then it stopped and wobbled to a standstill. For a few years now nothing unusual at all has happened, it seems to have all quietened down. When we first came to live here, I used to hear someone cough-

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 11 ing. At first I thought it was Peter, he worked a regular night shift and he was still in bed when I got home. When I heard the coughing, usually upstairs, I thought Pete’s awake, but it wasn’t him at all. He hadn’t been coughing and he hadn’t heard anything. This happened at regular inter- vals. One evening in summer I was working in the kitchen and all of a sudden it went terribly cold and I could feel all the hairs on my arm standing on end. It was a warm summer night and I said to Pete there is a really cold wind coming from somewhere. He said, I can’t feel anything, it was really strange. Then it just seemed to stop and nothing else has happened.

The name of the house when my father arrived with his family was Mow Cop, because it was the manse for a Primitive Methodist minister. Prim- itive Methodism began by certain members of the Wesleyan Methodists breaking away because they were more on the evangelical side and they very much favoured open air meetings. The first open air service or camp meeting as they were called, was held in 1807 on Mow Cop which I believe is one of the heights in the Peak District. There is a memorial commemorating the meeting. Primitive Methodism was founded in 1807 by two men, William Clowes and Hugh Bourne. The Primitive Methodists of the then known Hadnall Circuit, just before my father arrived, decided that they wanted to build a new manse. You see the previous manse was the house behind the chapel and evidently some of the Primitive Methodists on the circuit thought that wasn’t adequate and quite smart enough and so they had this family house built on the Shrewsbury Road and named it Mow Cop. My father arrived in 1919,the house had been built in 1915, the name of the house and the date was on a plaque on the front of the house but this has now been erased. In those days Primitive Methodist Ministers stayed on a circuit 3 years and then they moved on to another circuit, that isn’t the case now. He was the minister of I think it was 9 little village societies as they called them or chapels; Clive, Yorton Heath, Ruyton XI Towns, Broughton Heath, Hopton, Walford Heath, Roden and Shawbury Heath. They went out a long way and there were no cars so it was cycling to all these different places on Sundays and also during the week; most of them had a week- night meeting. Of course they had a team of what they called local

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 12 preachers, they followed a plan that my father and other members made of all the services for a quarter. So the scheme ran very well, but my father always said that where there was a parish church, an Anglican Church, there was no need for anything else. Mr Abbots lived in the first manse behind the chapel; he lived to be 90, he had a lovely garden but he wasn’t a Methodist. I think he must have bought the house from the Primitive Methodists when they built Mow Cop. In 1934 the Methodist Union took place and after many years of meetings and discussions the Primitive Methodists, the United Methodists (who were another branch) and the Wesleyan Methodists all decided to unite. The Methodist Union took place with great celebrations in London and all over which meant a lot of reorganisation. When that happened the Hadnall Circuit was split and half the small villages were taken over by the Shrewsbury Circuit and the other half were taken over by Wem. Gradually the Methodists in Hadnall died out and the chapel was sold, Hadnall had never been a very strong society but the manse remained in Hadnall because it was consid- ered to be more central. Some quite famous Methodist sons have lived there; Mr Chapman, a Cambridge M. A, and a very famous West African missionary, Mr Slater lived at the Manse. There was an account in the Shropshire Magazine some time ago and the chapel was listed as an important architectural building. While we were living at the manse, the Warrington District Methodist Synod was held in this circuit, it was most unusual to have a Synod, where delegates from a whole district came, in a country circuit. My father was well known for his powers of organisation. It meant a tremendous amount of organising because of the number of delegates. The highlight of it all was on Grinshill. On the Sunday of the weekend they had a Camp Meeting as an example of what Primitive Methodism stood for, and people came from all around, hundreds of people. I remember going to it. It was held in May. There were hundreds of people apart from the delegates, Methodists from all round came to this meeting on the top of Grinshill, it was remembered for years and years. My father was minister from 1919 to 1922; my brother was born at Mow Cop in that year and he was christened by one of the special delegates at one of the Synod services, that would be 1921. (Miss Preston said —Mr Bowdler had been friendly with the ministers. The land behind Mow Cop, which is now part of the garden of Valdon, was a nursery. Astley Lodge was occupied by the Blowers who owned the

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 13 furniture shop on Castle Gates, which became Smouts and is now the reference library. A governess taught the children at home.

The Hadnall Tennis Club was founded after the 1914-18 war and survived through different spells. Some of the early members were Mr. Frank Bishop, the milkman who was a leading player, my father Tom Needham who built the pavilion, Mr. Percy Philip who was a member of the committee, Mr. Jack Newbrook from Albrighton, Mr Jack Bradley and members of the Downes family of Astley, Leslie Downes was a member. Molly Johnson was a member, Miss Brisboumes friend; she lived at Overmoor, Astley. She was the Guide Captain and Miss Brisbourne was the lieutenant of Hadnall Girl Guides. I haven’t talked about the Boy Scouts. Mr Fitz Bowdler was the scoutmaster, he was the chauffeur for the estate, Jim Bowdler’s uncle and the secretary was Mr. Sammy Munro who lived at the Laurels, Station Rd. It was the Hardwicke Estate Troop and they met in a log cabin at the back of the Mill House in Mill Lane. It was a splendid scout hut because it was a log cabin in the middle of a wood. It was a keeper’s shelter and was given to the boy scouts as a scout hut. The Guides met in the Village Hall (then the Vicars Room). My uncle was in the scouts before the 1914-18 war. The original scoutmaster was Mr. Jack Harley from Yorton. The Village Hall caught fire once during the annual school Christmas tea party. The kitchen caught fire and we were all evacuated and watched the Shrewsbury fire brigade come to put the fire out .We were disappointed because the conjuror couldn’t do his act so we went over to the school and he did his act there. I would have been about six or seven. It burnt the roof off the village Hall, the part behind the stage; they were using a paraffin stove to make the tea. Ladymas Lane was where Mr Brooke Cunliffe Mortimer the first vicar of Hadnall lived. The Vicarage subsequently moved to Hadnall Hall which had been the home of the Ward family who owned a small estate on the East side of Hadnall comprising Pool Farm, Hall Farm and the Hatch Farm at Astley, all on the East side of the village. The Ratcliffe family came in to the village in my lifetime; Bickertons lived in Hall Farm when it belonged to the Ward

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 14 Estate. Mr Morris of Green Leas, his wife was Miss Bessie Simister, the Simisters are the oldest family in Hadnall and they lived in Hawthorne Cottage. We’ve (the Needham family) been in the village five generations and the row of stone cottages in which I live were built by my great- great-grandfather who was a builder. The end house which is brick built was a grocers shop run by my grandmother. Mr Bradley ran the main shop and there was another shop, the higher shop so there were three grocers’ shops in the village. The blacksmiths shop was opposite my house and the last blacksmith was Mr. Bob Lewis who was the bass singer in the church choir. The wheelwright lived on the comer of Ladymas Rd. and his name was Frankie Jones; he was wheelwright and undertaker to the village and I can remember funerals in which he used a bier to push the coffin to church, they didn’t have hearses. The bier was kept at the churchyard. There was a second blacksmith in the village that I vaguely remember in the loop by Mr. Ratcliffes farm, which was the old road before it was straightened; there was a blacksmiths shop there but it was derelict. When I went to Hadnall School. I walked along that old road and we used to go in and pump the old bellows. It was derelict but the bellows were still there. That loop was the original road and the reason that it was altered was there was an accident when an oil tanker skidded on that bend, overturned and set fire to the tree which until twenty years ago stood there as a burnt out oak. Was that when they took the end off the village Hall? The Village Hall used to be a coach house, there were two arches in the end of the Village Hall, for Hall Farm I think. Do you remember a garage up the Station Road at all? On the New Inn is a sign saying Chester Road garage. No that was quite recent, that wasn’t Mr. Lewis. Mr. Street was the landlord of the New Inn when I was a boy and that was his private garage but it was many years later that someone came in to the village and opened a small business there but that was quite recent. Mr Lewis’s garage that was opposite the Saracens was the garage for the village.

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 15 Do you know who else was in the choir beside the bass? Mr Revitt who was the tenor, Mr Challinor who lived in Ladymas Road, those two cottages on the right; Mr George Price was a bass. | My father, who was a builder, altered Providence Grove many years ago. The earliest inhabitant of Providence Grove was Charles Hulbert When my great great grandfather built those stone cottages, he bought the land from Charles Hulbert; he was a printer and also a poet, a publisher a rather than a printer. Father took the thatch off the roof and converted it into a style known as “the | Duke of Sutherland”. The gardener’s cottage was built in the same style and they also built North \ Cottage as the chauffeur’s cottage. My great great grandfather founded the Foresters. He was the Elder in the Congregational I Church .He and two others whose names I cannot remember founded the Foresters. It was a Friendly society and the Court was called Court General Hill who of course is buried in Hadnall , Church. They were founded in 1851; membership was open to everybody and members paid 6d. a week. If they were sick they had the club doctors services free and they also had 12/6 a week [ sickness benefit and a death benefit of £5. My family have always been Trustees, my great great grandfather was a founder, my great grandfather was a trustee, my grandfather and my father were I trustees and I was a trustee. The Needham family have always been trustees. Above Mr. Lewis’s garage was the clubroom, which the club leased and this was the meeting place for at least 90 years. When I joined the Foresters they had a membership or about 120, scattered across the country, because membership went in families. The clubs were grouped in districts; Hadnall belonged to the Shrewsbury District and was the second largest club in the district. The function of the Foresters has changed now and has been taken over by social security. The modern Foresters now do an insurance service. Bob Morris was a postman who did a delivery round the village all his life. He lived in a thatched cottage that was pulled down to build the warehouse (by the shop), in fact it was burnt down. He was the village postman until the late thirties. The post used to come to my aunt, Mrs Evans, from Shrewsbury on a horse drawn vehicle at about 6 o’clock in the morning. My father’s brother lived in Mill Lane and he was a post-

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 16 man, too. He was invalided out of the Great War; he was in the Welch Fusiliers, and as an invalid he was granted a government job as a postman in Hadnall. Another well-known postman was Percy Swain, Gordon Swain’s father. Mr Preece retired to Hardwicke Lodge in Ladymas Lane when he retired as the village policeman. Mr Reeves lived in the other lodge, he was the roadman on the A49; Mr Reeve’s sons were all bandsman in Grinshill Band, they were all keen brass bandsmen. The head keeper lived in Ladymas Lane, for a long period in my youth it was Mr Wesley who was head keeper, the other keepers were distribut- ed around the estate. I remember Hardwicke Grange being pulled down; it was a dispute between two ladies. When Mr Brian Bibby died, his widow and her mother-in-law disputed the right to live in Hardwicke Hall and as a result it was pulled down. There were over 40 servants there, including a liveried coachman and staff. Two of Mr Bibbys horses have won the Grand National, Glenside and Kirkland. Kirkland is buried in Hardwicke Park. Mr Bibby was Chairman and majority shareholder of the L.M.S. railway. There is a clause in the agreement when the L.M.S. was nationalised that Yorton Station will always remain open for transport to Hardwicke Hall. The Mill House in Mill Lane was built by Lord Hill as a memorial to the Battle of Waterloo at which he was second in command. It’s a reproduc- tion of the mill in Flanders from which he directed the Battle. It has never been a working mill; it was constructed with a decapitated top. It was always a ruin, it was an exact copy of the mill on the battlefield of Waterloo . It was never a working mill; people in the village say, “My grandfather can remember com being ground there “. It’s completely false; it’s a copy of a Flemish windmill. It was constructed as a ruin; a folly. My uncle who was postman in the village lived in the Mill House and while he was there, there was a wooden shed in the garden that was always kept locked in which were artefacts recovered from the battle including the anvil on which Lord Hill’s horses were shoed. There were also halberds hanging on the wall, axes with a spike on the back, with which they killed horses that fell wounded. These were brought from Waterloo, I’ve mentioned it to Captain Thomp-

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 17 son but nobody knows what happened to them. It was a normal anvil that horses were shoed on at the battle but it has disappeared. I went to Hadnall School. Mr Worth was the schoolmaster, before him was Mr Bingham, before Mr Bingham it was Miss Hare who taught my father and his brothers and sisters. In my fathers day they were educated at Hadnall to the age of 14, but in my day at 11 they moved on either to the grammar school or to the Senior school originally at Harlescott, then later to Wem. Mr Abbots was the milkman who had a smallholding at the Hatch at Astley, which was part of the Ward Estate. Mr Abbots who lived in the house behind the chapel was the painter on Hardwicke Estate and his wife was a music teacher in the village- she taught pianoforte. About the football team, my father talks of the time when they had a football team in the village but I think it was then called Hardwicke Rovers. That died out, and one was formed after the war (mainly by the returning soldiers) The estate held an annual fete to which all tenants were invited at Sansaw Hall. This consisted of sports for the children, tea and a dance in the evening which was a barn dance in what is known as the riding school. This was a brick building that had tan bark on the floor round which the horses were exercised. Of course it was a bam dance, you couldn’t waltz on a tan bark floor. Mr Bibby used to run an excursion for the estate tenants to Aintree racecourse. A train, an L.M.S. train, pulled* in to Hadnall Station and people boarded the train. They went direct to Aintree Station and on to the ! racecourse without any payment. They were treated to tea and were returned to Hadnall Station. Mrll Bibby was the head of Aintree racecourse, the Chairman. Hadnall church was a chapel of ease attached to Myddle and the Rector of Myddle was given an emolument to provide a curate to take services at Hadnall. The Saracens Head, which is now owned by the Shrewsbury and Wem Brewery, was previously owned by Hardwicke Estate and one of the landlords was Gerald Wright who was previously head jockey for Mr. Bibby. He rode the Grand National winner but I don’t know which one. Mr Sammy Drayton was the signalman at Hadnall who owned a pony and trap; in between manning the signal box he used to deliver parcels, which came by rail to Hadnall, all around Hadnall. During the

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 18 Second World War there was both an Observer Corps and a Home Guard in the village. In the Observer Corps the Chief Observer was Mr Tudor, the miller, and the deputy observer was Mr Worth, the schoolmaster. The observation post was on the top of the station bridge. It was manned 24hours a day throughout the war and it reported enemy activity and also activity round Shawbury airfield There were 15 observers, 3 were full time and 12 were part timers. The Home Guard had two sergeants, Sgt Reginald Brisboume and Sgt. James Ratcliffe and the Company Sergeant Major was Mr Ian Tudor. The officer was, I think, a Major Clarke from Albrighton. When I was young there was a Dr. Richardson of Grinshill, he had a partner Dr. Caldecotte, the first woman doctor. The next was Dr Wool- ward; his partner was Dr. Burnett who did her rounds on a motorcycle with her dog on the back seat. There was no surgery in Hadnall, you had to go to Grinshill or call out the doctor. There was a district nurse; you paid a local subscription. Miss Potter, Crawforton, was the organiser for the district nurse in this area and she collected the subscriptions from certain families in the village. My mother contributed and so had the services of the nurse as a midwife. The nurse came from Bomere Heath; there was no nurse in the village. I was born at home and when I was born, I was told that father had to cycle through a snowstorm to Bomere Heath to fetch her.

I can remember quite a lot that used to go on around here but a lot of the things you would not want to know. I came to this house when I was a year old. I used to live just down the road, where Mr and Mrs Yale lived. It used to be two cottages but it’s been made in to one, where the vet lives. I can remember the postman that used to come round on his bicycle at Christmas and fell in the ditch, he was drunk and they had to come and take him home. I always remember Mr Mortimer, he was the vicar and I used to be a favourite of his when I was at school. He was a bachelor and when he finished preaching he went back to his family at Lichfield. He was a very nice man, I’ve still got the bible that I had when I was confirmed at Shawbury with the date in it. I was bom in 1892.1

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 19 remember the Relief of Mafeking; they had a celebration at Albrighton. When I started school I went to a little school at Albrighton, it’s a cottage now but I tell everyone that I went to Albrighton College. I was in the choir at Albrighton church but Mr Mortimer persuaded us to go to Hadnall School and I went into the Hadnall Church choir. The teachers at Hadnall were Miss Rees, and Miss Hare and I think Mrs Pulford and Mrs Powell. Miss Hare was the head teacher and she lived in the school- house. She had a nephew living with her but he was killed in the Great War and he is on the Roll of Honour in the church; she had a niece Alice living with her as well. Miss Hare was very nice but I detested Mrs Powell and I think she detested me as well. One of the characters I remember was Jimmy Done; he fell down in the loft and broke his neck. In those days there was a bit of scandal. Jimmy Done was a gentleman and this Marion Ward was his ladylove. Miss Ward lived at the Hall. You see Mr and Mrs Ward never came to Hadnall together. They had a house at Wrenbury. If he was in Hadnall she was at Wrenbury, they never met. I can see him coming now, he used to keep a lot of little ponies and he had a flat old vehicle. I can see him with his great cape on, coming to look at these ponies, I think they were Shetlands. Miss Octavia was a very nice lady; she was with her mother. Miss Marion was a bit like her father; he was too fond of the ladies and Jimmy Done was her fancy man. In those days he was the coachman, which was very much against his wishes. He had to drive up to the front door to take the ladies to town or anywhere to do their shopping. But he went to Marion’s bedroom and that’s how he got turned out. He thought it was Miss Marion’s bedroom he was going into but it was Mrs Ward’s. That finished him! The Dones lived in Amstel House, where Mrs Leddington used to live. Ethel Done was sick (she had T.B.) and all the local people visited and took things. Jimmy Done was an uncle to Ethel. Mrs Evans kept the Saracens; she was a widow who had two children, Lily and Arthur. Lily was two or three standards above me at school and she and Rosie Potter used to mother me and carry me round the schoolyard and I hated it. Mr Done was a builder, and his son worked for him for years but I don’t think he ever paid him much money. The farmers used to take the milk to the station in those days and put it on the train. I remember standing on top of the steps one day; I’d been seeing an aunt off at the station. Miss Groome had the cottage next to

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 20 us. She had a big cottage in Wales. She used to take a cottage here for the summer months, bring her maid and she had a little bungalow built that she could sleep in at night. She had a donkey cart. It was a great old, black thing and she taught me to harness the donkey and I had to learn to take her out with this old donkey. This was the elder one, Miss Mary Groome; it was Miss Louie Groome who lived in Hadnall. The donkey was stupid, sometimes he would go, and sometimes he would stop. This day I went to see my aunt off and I drove her to the top of the bridge in the donkey cart. An old lady was crossing the railway line and she killed by a train. It was a great shock. Then I went to Hadnall Hall as between maid; my aunt was housekeeper and Harriett Simister was the parlour maid. My aunt’s name was Mrs Bishton. It was a very smart house in those days but Mr Mortimer was a bachelor and he didn’t do a lot of entertaining. He came of a very good family; he was here for many years. He was a very nice man, well liked by everybody. Mrs Newell kept the New Inn; I’ve seen her stone in the churchyard .We used to walk to Shawbury across the common, down Ward’s Lane (or the old lane, now Hall Drive). There was a big family lived in a thatched cottage there. One day when we went that way the kids were riding naked on their sow. They were wicked little beggars but there was no one down there that cared about them. The father was a builder and later he built a house at Battlefield. There were two cottages; Pat Griffiths lived at one end and her daughter in law at the other. Poor old Pat was burnt to death, I think her apron caught fire or something. (The cottages have gone now) She was a big woman who always wore a shawl; she used to do some cleaning for old Mrs Bradley. Now about village characters, there was Jimmy Done and Terry Dean. I think he lived rough. He was never a nasty man but he would shout after you. He used to come down to the Hall a lot, begging off Mr Mortimer to get a copper or two. I don’t think Mr Mortimer ever turned anyone away. I do remember Willow Cottage, it was a little black and white cottage behind the tennis court and I think it was pulled down when they built the bungalows. Reg Norman started the football club. He was at Adams the ironmongers for years; he started there when he left school about 14. Then when the war came (1914-18 war) he joined up and he was badly wounded. He always wore a shield over his eye. When he got

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 21 better he went back to Adams and worked there until he retired. He collected money to start the football club but it didn’t last very long. They had a shooting range in the Vicars Room; there was a young curate, Mr Davies who was a bachelor. He disappointed all the young ladies in the village when he went on holiday and came back married. He lived at the Laurels, in Station Road. Mr Munro, who was clerk on the estate, lived there for years. Mrs Munro’s daughter went to Canada and Mrs Munro went to live with her. The Rev Mortimer lived in Ladymas Lane in the house that is now the keepers until Mr Frank Bibby offered him the use of the hall and he moved to Hadnall Hall.

Mr Harley was in charge of the shooting gallery; he used to be scoutmaster. He lived at Yorton Heath. It used to be one night a week, on a Monday. The range was at the top end of the Village Hall, a range of about 25 yards. It was specially built unto the end of the village hall and the small room behind the stage was equipped with cupboards, three shallow ones along one wall, to store the guns and targets in. The entrance was through a sliding door, and there was a mechanism to wind the targets down to the end of the range and then back to count the scores. I think there were about a dozen members. It was open from 7 until 9. The guns were kept there, different types of guns. There was a competition for a bronze medal, awarded at the end of the season for the highest score. There was also a billiard table, which was on the stage. There was a man named Williams, a relation of Bibbys, and he got the table for us. There used to be a proper stage, a permanent stage, but this was taken away when the road was widened and the room made much shorter. We used to have village concerts there. Mr Harley was Yard foreman for the estate. I was a blacksmith for the estate for 56 years. I wasn’t in the Home Guard, we lived at Clive then and I was in the ARP. I was born in Hadnall in the house next to the police station that was and we went to live in Clive when we got married. My grandfather kept the blacksmiths opposite the old Post Office, his name was Wycher- ly; this was my mothers side of the family. When he finished a fellow

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 22 named Frank Jones took over, he was a wheelwright and carpenter as well. I was in the choir in Hadnall Church and I used to blow the organ; Mrs Spargo was the organist. Mr Rowley was a tailor; he lived in that house that stands back at the end of Painsbrook Lane and he had his shop there. They used to make all the liveries for Hardwicke. Mr Rowley used to be in the choir and father used to be in the choir. Ruby was in the choir and one of the Potters, William Potter and George Price who lived in Ladymas Road. At one time the house where Brookshaws live used to be the vicarage (the keepers house). Harry Gregory and Bert Evans used to be in the choir. Harry Gregory was a clerk on the railway, his father was stationmaster here and his brother used to be at Yorton Station. I was in the ARP at the Clive and we used to meet one night a week, Grinshill one week and Clive the next. We had a gold medal ambulance man to teach us and he was mustard. I remember the fetes at Hard- wicke, there was a Flower Show every year until the war. They used to come round all the cottages on the estate twice, once when things were just starting to grow and again before the show. The show was always on the last Thursday in July. There were prizes for everything out of the garden and the children competed with their sewing and knitting from school. There was always a prize for the best pig in the sty, we often won the prize for our pigs. You kept two pigs, one to kill and eat and one to sell. There used to be a Christmas party for the school children provided by the estate and held in the Village Hall. There was always a conjuror and every boy was given a jersey, every girl a dress length.

Walk to the crossing, look up and down the road, go back and then drive straight across the road without looking, regularly. We’re talking about Miss Groom. She did that so often that we never took any notice, there wasn’t as much traffic on the road then as there is now My brother saw this advert in the Wellington Journal about 20 years ago, “For Sale, 1 pedigree mule, apply Miss Groom Astley.”

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 23 I used to work at Pool Farm, for Percy Phillip’s father and for Mrs Bradley, after working for Mrs Sixsmith of Providence Grove. I was married in Hadnall Church in 1935, Mr Lee was the vicar and he married us. I remember going past the shop, the taxi driver slowed down, Mr Bradley came out of the shop and threw a big scoop of rice into the car and I got the lot. I remember when we were playing fox and hounds in the churchyard we were forbidden to go there. Do you know the little vestry door at the side where the choir go in? The boiler used to be underneath and there was a little flat wall. There were two of us up there and Rachel said, Good Lord, we shall get in a row, here comes the parson. So I said lie down and we squatted between the water tanks. She said, he’ll see us as he goes up the steps I said, no he won’t, lie down behind the tank. He unlocked the door and he left the key in the lock. There is a little window there and I thought that he might look out and see us; then he’ll come out and grab us. So I carefully reached over and turned the key in the lock. She said that he wouldn’t be able to get out but I said that the other door was always open. We scuttled off back to school, the bell went and we got in just in time. When playtime came she said that he must have got out but he was locked in until evening before anyone heard him call. The front door was locked and the key on the ledge in the porch. He came down to school in the morning and wanted to know who had been in the churchyard. Nobody owned up to it! I always used to be in trouble, Miss Hare always used to send for him Mr Lee if anybody wanted caning and he’d been on the ships with the boys and he couldn’t half wallop you. Nobody owned up to being the churchyard and everybody forgot about it. I went to put the bans up and he talked about this, that and the other; what I’d done and what I hadn’t done and I said you never found out who locked you in the church and he said no, but I have now. He started lecturing me and I thought I’ve had enough of this. He said that’s all, you can go now. So I said thank you very much and when I got to the door I said, if you lecture me the day you marry me I shall turn round and walk out without signing the register. We go up to the altar as usual and he looked at me and I looked at him. He said, Ladies and gentlemen, this is where I usually have a private talk with the bride and groom but she has told me that if I do she

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 24 will walk out without signing the register, so we’ll proceed and get the register signed. Hadnall hasn’t changed at all, except that the road is wider. The Horse wash was on the side of the main road but we always called it the moat. It had chains around it and was always full of water. We noticed that that had gone and the bad bend in the road by Swain’s; where the petrol tanker tipped up and went on fire. I remember that the petrol got into the brook and that was on fire for miles; this was about the same time I locked the vicar in church. Sometimes in the winter the pool was frozen over and it was all lit up with lights and Chinese lanterns and we had quite a do, I only remember it happening once. I remember we had one afternoon tying the lanterns on the bushes. Pool Farm was struck by lightening twice, the first time it killed a pony that was standing by the front door. After our wedding we went to the station and the express train was stopped especially for us, we had to be ready to jump on. Mr Drayton was in the signal box; he lived in Station Road .Sam Drayton the signalman used to deal in antiques, he had a pony and trap and used to go to sales. He had a house full of grandfather clocks but he wouldn’t sell one. Mr Moran lived in 1 Station Road, Sammy Drayton in number 2; Moran’s had a house built later by the Manse. When we lived at Hawkesmoor, the Lewis’s lived in the other house, There was a spring, just as you come out of the wood. The water was sparkling and was enough for the two houses, later on we had a pump. One day we saw a rick on fire just by the pond, by Hawkesmoor. We were all dressed up for town but we threw water on the fire and put the rick out. Then we went back and said to Cyril Williams “You had a rick on fire in the field but we’ve put it out, have a look some time “ and he said “I lit it, I wanted that burnt out of the way, it’s only rubbish”. My father worked on the estate, in the gardens and hedging and other things. The estate used to have a tenants show. The school children had classes for knitting, embroidery and plain sewing and there were games. There were competitions for the gardens and there was a tea. This was at Sansaw where Mr Brian Bibby lived. There used to be a fair in the field opposite the chapel, it came once a year.

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 25 When we got married first we went to live with his parents, they lived at Hawkesmoor. He had to leave his job at Prees; he worked for Doctor Becket at Prees, that’s where we got married. We were there when the Mapsons were there; we lived in the house down at the bottom so I knew the Mapsons well. We had to go across the fields to Wood Farm to get our water and of course we had to carry it. We came to live in the house at Astley in 1937; I’ve been here 50 years. Ron was born at Hawkesmoor, then we moved to the Braidway, where Mrs Birch lives, near Miss Cooper. Vera and Frank were born there, it was more conven- ient. I liked living at Hawkesmoor, it was nice and quiet, but the only trouble was carrying the water. The old folks kept a cow or two and I was quite happy there. Harry’s parents had lived there a long time; he used to work on the estate, he knew Mr Williams from the Wood Farm well. Mr Williams used to have the cattle auctions there .Mr Lewis had a workshop at the New Inn where he did bicycles, I can’t remember quite when. The landlord from the Saracens Head got him the garage, I think his name was Cadwallader, of course it belonged to the estate. They had been stables or something. He developed the business there, got it going very well; he was a good mechanic and the boys. I am 88 now. Mr Lewis was ill and Vera had to leave school to help. They had a contract for the schoolchildren and Vera did that, we had a big van.

My first memory of the war is seeing the front page of a newspaper, a picture of a soldier with a rifle, standing in a wood and taking cover behind a tree. I knew my dad was a soldier in the 1914 1918 war, when I asked him about it he told me that the picture was taken in Poland and that things were looking grim. My memories include the evacuees. They seemed to appear overnight, they were from Liverpool and they were Catholic. It was a big shock when the school doubled in numbers and I think a bigger shock was the nuns that came with them. This must have been in 1939. The children were billeted with local families, I think compulsorily, and were not

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 26 always welcome. Talk about a culture shock. From the city, these children knew nothing about the country. I can remember them saying, “They eat grass here”, that was cabbage and “They stick the apples on the trees and get them when they want to eat them”. They could not believe where milk came from! We had a cousin of my mothers and her two children, about the same age that we were, who came from Birkenhead. Elizabeth was a city girl and could not settle here; in fact she had been evacuated to Bala first but soon returned home. They came to Hadnall when the air raids began. Every weekend her husband came to visit and brought a party of rela- tions. He also brought the weeks rations but they ate most of them before they went home! I do wonder how my mother coped. Elizabeth soon became bored with country life, returned to Birkenhead and sent her mother to replace her and look after the children. They stayed with us for quite a while and Ted still says it was the best time in his life. I can remember going to the village hall for the distribution of gas masks and being told to practice wearing it and to always carry it with me. They came in a cardboard box with a cord to sling it round your neck. I carried it to school every day until the war finished. Lots of different cases soon appeared, the most durable one a cylindrical tin. I can remember my baby brother crying when I tried to put him in the baby’s version. It was an ugly thing and the baby was put right inside with a pump to supply air. There was also a model for small children, a “Mickey Mouse” which was red. They were all claustrophobic. I think Mr. Worth the schoolmaster was in charge of the distribution. Travel-I went to school in Shrewsbury in 1941. This meant travelling by train, trains that were always crowded, mostly by soldiers with large kit bags. The journey took ten minutes but the trains were always late which meant that arrival at school was very erratic. Rationing was introduced quite quickly and was strictly observed. I can remember my mother trying to explain that we could have only one two-ounce bar of chocolate a week. I think my love and craving for chocolate started then. Supplies of everything got gradually shorter and

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 27 shorter until everything was controlled by your ration book. As an ex soldier from the 1914-1918 war, my father was one of the first members of the L.D.V., the forerunner of the Home Guard. I can remember him coming home with an armband, all the uniform available, and a rifle. As we lived in an old house, we had some of the original hooks in the beams for hanging bacon. The gun was hung up and we were threat- ened, “You must not touch”. Supplies came from the local shop or from tradesmen who delivered to the door. The first milkman I remember was Mr Abbots from the Hatch, Astley. He came every morning with his pony and trap. The milk was in a churn, there were no bottles, and it was put into your own jug with a metal ladle. I suppose Mr Abbots retired, for our milk then came in bottles from the Wood Farm. At first the bottles had round cardboard discs in the top, you pushed a hole in the middle and put your finger in to open the bottle. Mr Williams was a very go ahead farmer; he had a big herd of Ayrshire cows and was the first farmer in the district to have T.T. Cattle.

The Methodist Chapel was originally in Astley Lane, where the Corbetts live. Conveyance of chapel site from John Powell for the use of the Methodist Connection, the meeting house was already built on it. The cost was "Ten Pounds of lawful British money", the date was 1862. See Hadnall Circuit Preachers Plan 1910. In 1932 William Hudson of Northumberland and William Devonshire of Northwich formed the "Evangelism and Tent Mission Society", aim to spread the Gospel using marquees and caravans, I remember the big tent in the Station Road that used to appear for one week in the summer and then disappear. In 1953 they bought the Chapel building and became the Hadnall Gospel Mission. Sold to Mr Miller in 1988 for £10,000. Sadly one early morning it literally collapsed.

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 28 Photographs, Chapel, ruin, new house. Monument, text on wall, inside new house. The Congregational Chapel was next door to the Village Hall, a stone building with a graveyard in front of it and a pair of yew trees. This was demolished when the road was straightened c. 1960. Little known, in 1800 the first itinerant minister was appointed ,by the Ministerial Asso- ciation for Congregational Ministers in Shropshire, to serve the Hadnall District. No photographs are available. In the earliest records the Methodist minister lived in Astley Lane, later in the house behind the Chapel and then Mow Cop, now The Nizells. The manse for the Congregational minister is still known as The Manse (opposite the end of Ladymas Road.)

The vicar lived in Ladymas Road, then in Hadnall Hall (always known as the Old Vicarage), and at last the new Vicarage was built. Hadnall became an independent parish in 1888, before this the curate, Brooke Cunliffe Mortimer lived at Smethcote; recorded as playing in a team representing Smethcote against Shrewsbury School at Smethcote in 1871. Earliest part of church the Norman Doorways, one blocked. At first the nave only, few windows, no seats. First makeover, Charles Hulbert in 1836; this included more windows and a gallery at the west end of the church. Lord Hill built the Tower on condition that he was buried under it. In 1872-74 the church was again restored and the biggest restoration was in 1903 by Mr. Frank Bibby of Hardwicke in Memory of his parents. (Clive Church)

Every organisation in the village. At first the Men's Club; the billiards table was sent down from Hardwicke, (my mother always said that the then Vicar thought this was a better table than his and made an ex- change) and was not moveable. The marker was on the wall of what was

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 29 the stage, I wonder if the table was there? The next user I know of was the Girls Club, (1922-27). They made use of the stage, at first with what they called Tableaux; Jim Bowdler was in one called "When did you last see your Father?". This developed into a week's performance of The Merchant of Venice, which mum remembered and could quote from. This developed into the W.I. and we have used it ever since. The shooting club was again for men; Mum said that this was started after the 1914-18 war for the men who had served in the army and lasted until the thirties. During the thirties the Mothers Union were strong and the W.I. was at its strongest. Between them they provided the crockery, washing up equip- ment etc. The first of the Girl Guide companies was started about then. The busiest time was probably during the War when dances were very popular and soldiers appeared in large numbers. The Vicars Room was in great demand, like distributing gas masks, organised by Mr Worth, the schoolmaster, and functions to raise money for the war effort. The Scouts pushed their trek cart round the village collecting scrap metal and this was stored underneath the Vicars Room; in fact I don't think it ever went anywhere. Organisations- Girl Guides, the Scouts had their own meeting place, W.I. and Mothers Union, various Youth Clubs, dancing was still popular and included some classes, the school always for special events like the Christmas Party, and the Ladies Keep Fit In fact everyone for special occasions.

The Village Hall, then known as the Vicar’s Room, was opened in 1910. My mother remembered this; she was 5 years old and was very annoyed that she couldn't go because she was in bed with measles. She remembered Miss Hare, the schoolteacher, sitting with her and reading books to her. There must have been a lot of talk at home about this but her Grandfather worked on the Hardwicke Estate who of course gave the Room to the Village.

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 30 The old Vicar’s Room and Lewis's Garage were all parts of the buildings belonging to the Saracen’s Head. The Vicars Room was a coach house and I think accommodation for horses (I believe this is where Potter Bros started making tarpaulins) and the garage buildings, the bothy where the grooms etc lived. The bigger room on the first floor was always known to us as the Club Room that is the Ancient Order of Foresters, a friendly society. This room was previously used for social events, village concerts which were very popular. The Vicar’s Room was set up for men who all worked on the Estate anyway, was this to keep them out of the Saracen’s Head? It was equipped with a billiard table donated by Hardwicke and there was a billiards marker on the South wall of the stage. The state of the room; central heating with a coke fired stove in what is now the ladies toilets, this was tended by the Vicar’s gardeners boy, the pipes were very large and ran around the room under the seats, bench seating, which ran all around the room. Later heating the room was a real chore, the stove needed to be stoked all day to heat the room for the evening. Conditions no toilets, only a men's urinal in the garden; No running water, you took a bucket to the outside tap at the Saracens; no facilities for heating water, no kettle, no crockery; I suppose the men did not want to make tea. The W.I. later provided a paraffin stove, black and smelly; it stood in the room behind the stage, a rudimentary kitchen, and the W.I. provided crockery, which they shared with the Mother’s Union. This room was in turn a ladies’ cloakroom, was used by the shooting club (there were shallow cupboards all along one wall, one with a gun rack, and a big wheel on a frame to wind the target up and down the range. This shooting club was formed after the 1914-18 war for men who had been in the army. It then became the kitchen with a trestle table, a bucket and enamel bowl also bought by the W.I. and later when water was laid on we had the luxury of a hand basin and toilet. The kitchen was moved to the landing at the top of the stairs, previously the men's cloakroom (pegs

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 31 only) and was fitted out by Oakleys who did business fitting caravans. This room was later the Doctors room. The main room - do you remember the stags head? We called him Rudolph. There were two pictures on the wall, one was a First World War cartoon with the Kaiser and the King of the Belgians and I expect the other was Mr. Bibby. By the end of the 1939-45 War, the room was very run down, everything was scarce for a long time and the Vicar handed it over to a committee made up of representatives of all village organisations. Over the next few years electric heating and a septic tank were installed, the floor was renewed, some of the ceilings re-plastered. The old permanent stage was removed and replaced with a temporary stage in I think 6 pieces; this was when the road was widened and a large section of the room was lost. All these things were done gradually. The Vicar’s Room has many mentions in the W.I. records, especially in the Accounts. According to Mum a girls Club was started in 1922, they were unwillingly allowed to use the men's room. This club became the W.I. in 1927 and has used the Vicars Room and then the new Village Hall ever since. They were asked by the Men's Club to help to raise money for redecorating and agreed if the men would keep the room clean. Howev- er they were soon paying a member to clean the room before the meeting, things had not improved. They also agreed to buy an electric kettle, but could not as there were no electric sockets. They later bought an electric boiler and paid for a socket at the top of the back stairs.

Who Remembers? In the last issue someone mentioned Mr Lewis, the Garage, selling carbide for your cycle lamps; who remembers Mr George Rhodes, 24 Shrewsbury Rd, also selling it?

Towards A History of Hadnall Page 32 Who remembers old Spenser of the Clive and his “Prairie Schooner“ picking up parcels on the way for a few coppers and delivering them to Shrewsbury Market? Who remembers the old Mail Cart and horse clopping past at 7.55p.m, collecting mail en route to Shrewsbury? I think Big Ben was timed from this nightly episode. I wonder how the mailman stuck the weather like he did, perched up there on the seat. Who remembers Hadnall when it was pitch black? This was before streetlights were invented and the only light in the village came from Bradley’s shop, open to 9pm. on Saturday. Who remembers skating, day and night, on the Pool, lit by some kindly soul who had a car with lights shining across the ice? Oh, what happy hours we had!

A village like Hadnall couldn’t exist without a few characters who remain in our memory, unlike the many strangers who pass in the night. One such person was “Old Bob Morris” the postman. He lived for many years in an old thatched cottage, black and white, that stood on the ground where Bradley’s warehouse is now built. He was upright in mind and body and inclined to lay the law down to everyone he met. He delivered mail to the whole village, often taking all day. Every Christmas saw him with a wheelbarrow full of Christmas cards etc. and he was known to have to be pushed home in it (on one occasion by the Head- master) when people plied him with “Christmas Spirit”. A very keen Forrester, he always collected more for the hospitals than anyone else. He had a fine garden of roses that made people stand and stare, should he catch you, you had to hear the name of every rose and plant in the garden. An old farmer who lived where Mrs Wynn now lives (Villa Farm) was known as “Mr Matchit”.

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