NEWSLETTER 177 MARCH/APRIL 2008 Price 40P, Free to Members
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
LOUGHTON AND DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER 177 MARCH/APRIL 2008 Price 40p, free to members www.loughtonhistoricalsociety.org.uk As Winter fades . The Irrepressible Mrs Mills! It is sometimes difficult to arrange the ‘menu’ of STEPHEN PEWSEY articles for the Newsletter into the most appropriate order. This season we have been rather fortunate to have the problem at all! Anyway, as Spring is (at last, There has been a revival of interest in the life and some might say) drawing nearer, I thought we might work of Gladys Mills, the popular pianist better open this edition in poetic mood. These anonymous, known as ‘Mrs Mills’. She was a larger than life figure 150-year-old lines may not constitute a masterpiece, who made frequent television appearances in the but they seem well suited to the anticipation of 1960s and 1970s, and whose records sold by the lighter, longer days and fresh green leaves. After such million. She was largely forgotten after her death in a pastoral opening, Mrs Mills, through Stephen 1978, but now social historians are coming to Pewsey, strikes a different chord! appreciate her enjoyable blend of Cockney fun and musical talent. Coming Spring (Lines written at Loughton, Essex, on the 1st of April, 1851) The trees are brown and bare, Cold is the evening air, From the east the keen wind blows, And the sunset fiercely glows; The cloudy sky has a wintry gloom, And lingering Spring has far to come. Yet I see the primrose pale Expand into the chilly gale And the fragrant violet blue Its leafy shrine peep through Gladys Jordan was born on 29 August 1918 at 154 Thus fairy hands the carpet spread Beckton Road, Canning Town, and christened at Holy The feet of the coming Spring shall tread. Trinity Church, Barking Road. Her father was Samuel Jordan, a policeman, and her mother was Minnie I hear the blackbird's note Jordan, née Dixon. In 1934, the family moved to And, in softer melody, gush from his warbling throat, The tuneful thrush reply: Loughton, to 136 Roding Road, then a newly built The music of the woods awakes; house on the Roding Estate, Loughton’s first large- As coming Spring her slumber breaks. scale interwar development. Gladys joined the Civil Service as a typist. She was already a skilled pianist, Soon shall the heavens be light having taken lessons since the age of 3½, though she And the green of the earth be bright; Soon shall the air be balm, gave up classes when she was 12 after her teacher And the breeze be hushed to a calm; objected to her trademark musical flourishes which For I breathe already the sweet perfume, she insisted on adding to her pieces! Prepared for the Spring that is near to come. Her father, by now a sergeant, was seriously injured in the Blitz, losing part of his arm when a Sharp is affliction's blast : How long its chill winds last! bomb exploded outside Loughton police station in And its weary gloom we mourn, 1940. Gladys meanwhile did her bit for the war effort As if joy would ne'er return ; by entertaining troops around Essex with a concert Yet the flowers that bloom, and the birds that sing. party based around her own inimitable piano-playing. Tell of Winter departing, and coming Spring. On 24 February 1947, she married Gilbert (‘Bert’) Mills, who worked for London Transport, and the ANON (submitted by Chris Pond – from the Monthly newlyweds moved round the corner to 43 Barncroft Christian Spectator , May 1851) Close, a maisonette off Oakwood Hill. She was promoted to superintendent of a typing pool, though accounts differ as to whether this was in the Treasury 1 or the Paymaster-General’s Office. She spent the thumpingly good melodies which characterised following decade developing and building up the Gladys Mills’ musical talents. reputation of her ensemble, the Astoreans. The Astoreans, with their big-band sound, were popular at local dinner-dances, and they were a familiar presence at large venues such as the Roebuck Hotel (Buckhurst Hill), and Woodford Golf Club. It was indeed at Woodford Golf Club that Mrs Mills got her big break. She was spotted there in 1961 by Eric Easton, Frankie Vaughan’s manager, who later went on to manage the Dave Clark Five and the Rolling Stones. Under the guidance of record producer Norman Newell (himself a Plaistow lad), she was signed up to Parlophone Records and turned Sources: professional. By Christmas 1961 she was celebrating Dictionary of National Biography. her first hit, Mrs Mills Medley , which reached the Top Whiting, Alison, The Loughton Roding Estate , Loughton & Twenty. District Historical Society (1998). Mrs Mills rapidly achieved celebrity status, Wikipedia , entry for Mrs Mills. sharing the famous Abbey Road studio with the Beatles (much to their amusement!) and playing at Buckingham Palace. She was a regular on the Billy The Gould family of Chigwell Cotton Band Show and radio, and made a memorable appearance on the Morecambe and Wise Show where and the damage to their home in she took their gentle ribbing in good heart. In fact, the Second World War much of Mrs Mills’ charm derived from her down-to- earth approach to her success. She is still fondly Contributed by VIC RUSSELL recalled in Loughton, where her parents would pull their piano into the garden so that the neighbours Perhaps not as affecting as the moving ‘Letter from Hills could enjoy an impromptu concert from the young Road’, submitted by Richard Morris in Newsletter 174, Gladys. which described residents’ stoic reaction to serious war However, success enabled the Mills to move from damage at the height of the blitz in 1940, this letter conveys Loughton in 1964 to Hathern, a village outside the very ‘English’ response to a (perhaps?) less stressful, Leicester, where they bought the King’s Arms pub. but nevertheless damaging, V1, ‘doodlebug’, raid in July Even there, Gladys could often be found behind the 1944. bar pulling pints, bemused and embarrassed by the Vic, a Life Member of the L&DHS, writes : parade of visitors who had come to stare at this famous entertainer. During this time, she not only The Miss Gould of Chigwell Lodge to whom this toured Britain with her beloved ‘joanna’, but also took letter was written was one of the spinster daughters of her show abroad to Canada, Germany and South William Gould of the corn merchant family related to Africa. Record followed record, each a familiar Chalkley Gould of Traps Hill House, Loughton. The medley of much-loved tunes given a Cockney daughters, I believe there were three of them, all lived flourish, each more or less indispensable at any party to a great age and died in their 80s/90s. of that era. The Mills’ eventually tired of the constant public ‘CHIGWELL LODGE, CHIGWELL, ESSEX attention at their pub, and in 1968 moved to the quiet Chiltern village of Penn in Buckinghamshire. Gladys’ 17th July, 1944 health declined in the 1970s and her appearances Dear Miss Gould, You will be more than sorry to hear that a flying bomb became less and less frequent. She died on 24 dropped on the Golf Course last Saturday afternoon about February 1978 in Beaconsfield. 3.30 and your house has suffered considerable blast, After many years of gentle mockery and semi- including all outhouses. We all had considerable escapes – obscurity, Mrs Mills is now firmly back in the public my sister and I were on the Tennis Lawn – in fact I had been spotlight. EMI has brought out a ‘greatest hits’ album, sitting in the Summer House, when I saw it come out of the clouds towards us, and we could not get back to the house The Very Best of Mrs Mills , and an American artist, P J in time. I have suffered slight shock, as I was in the open Loughran, has issued a limited edition print of her at and caught the blast –my sister escaped as she ran nearer to her piano, which sells for $150 apiece! Loughton the hedge. Town Council has agreed to put up a blue plaque at My mother, who was in the house, stood by the one of her Loughton homes, and she has received the hallstand and covered her head with a coat, and she was quite all right. In the house we had dust, soot and glass ultimate accolade of the electronic age, her own page everywhere. It is the windows at the back that have suffered on the Facebook web site. Looking at the comments most – frames have gone as well. Crack in the wall between on the site, it is clear that many of her young admirers kitchen and dining room, Drawing Room rather bad, nearly have no idea that she has been dead for several all the glass out. Every cupboard door burst open. decades, but it is not surprising that a new generation I believe the rent is due this week-end, and with it I will send you a schedule of all damage. Please rely on it we will has rediscovered the unassuming charm and look after your interests and use common sense and discretion in all matters. The Borough Surveyor came on 2 Sunday and went over every room in the house with Mr Patience, grocer: Mr Patience was invariably dressed Haynes (who had to be called back from his week-end at impeccably, with a crisp white apron. Petite Mrs P remained home, as I was not sure what Bank damage there was).