Woodhall Spa Cottage Museum Newsletter No.12 Arnhem Remembered November 2012 Issue Woodhall Spa Cottage Museum A Note from the Editor Another year has nearly passed and what a year it has been. Nationally we have celebrated the Diamond Jubilee, the successes of Team GB in the Olympic Games, all of which has left a feel good factor, even in these times of economic hardship. Here at the Cottage Museum we have shared in these celebrations, staging the Jubilee market event in June and helping with the 40’s weekend. We have also hosted what has become an annual event, with the Arnhem commemoration service and many veterans once again visited us here in Woodhall Spa. The Museum development has begun and work is now progressing on the outbuildings, following a succession of problems due to the discovery of clay when the footings were dug. The problems have now been solved but have delayed the building work. Work has now begun on renovating the Bungalow itself. In this issue we introduce Becky Fawcett, who has joined the Team as a fulltime Activities Manager for a 3 year contract under the terms of the HLF Grant. Christmas approaches and we prepare for the Memorial Lecture, “The Genesis of the Jet” which is to be delivered by Ian Whittle, son of Sir Frank Whittle. Also to come is the Coffee Morning on November 16th. and of course the Christmas Market. Hopefully I will see some of you at these events. In the meantime I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year! Philip Groves Cover Pictures - Top Left: The Service in St.Peter’s Church. Centre: Daisy & Charlotte entertain the veterans. Top Right: Chelsea Pensioner Sgt. Jim Fellow lays his wreath at the memorial. Main Picture: The standards are lowered for the 2 minutes silence. Bottom Left: The BBMF Lancaster flypast. Bottom Right: The Mercian Regimental Mascot, Lance Corporal Watchman V In this Issue Arnhem Remembered Page 3 Our New Activities Manager Page 13 Development Update Page 4 Clothing Appeal & Snowy Page 16 What our Visitors Are Saying Page 7 Poppy’s Page Page 18 The Xmas Post 112 Years Ago Page 8 The Friend’s Page Page 20 Meet the Directors Page 11 The Newsletter Committee Chairman - Paddy O’Neill Editor- Philip Groves Pam Cowlishaw David Radford To contact the Newsletter Team please write to:- The Cottage Museum, The Bungalow, Iddesleigh Road, Woodhall Spa, Lincs. LN10 6SH or email [email protected] Reg. Charity: 1114268 Reg. Museum:1929 Page 2 Newsletter 12 Arnhem Remembered ‘Dear Jackie, John, Dawn and I want to tell you how much we all enjoyed the wonderful day that we spent on Saturday. John especially appreciated that the right balance had been achieved through the sombre and dignified remembrance service at the church and the tribute at the memorial to the very enjoyable lunch and trip to Thorpe Camp. He was happy to meet some of the South Staffs veterans too. We were all very impressed and grateful for all the work and effort that must have been put in by yourself and the excellent team of volunteers. What a marvellous lot they are!’ This is a copy of the email sent by John Wilde, an Arnhem veteran. Accounts of his exploits in Woodhall Spa whilst here training are recorded in the South Staffordshire Regimental Book ‘By Land Sea and Air’ John was one of the many veterans and supporters who attended the third Arnhem Memorial Day on Saturday September 22nd. This day also saw the museum and village hosting its first Royal Chelsea Hospital veteran, Sgt. Jim Fellow, who saw service in the Parachute Regiment between 1947 and Sgt. Fellow (left with W/Officer Hedges & 1952 and the first visit by the Mercia L/Cpl WatchmanV Regiment‘s regimental mascot, Lance Corporal Watchman V and his dog handler Warrant Officer Greg Hedges, 4th. Battalion, The Mercian Regiment, complete with full uniform! Following the service and wreath laying guests enjoyed the low-level Lancaster fly past and lunch in St Peter’s Hall. During lunch all appreciated the help of Horncastle Air Cadets and the entertainment provided by Charlotte Richardson and Daisy Hibberd, two young and talented singers. Special thanks are extended to Mike Hodgson who opened Thorpe Camp Visitor Centre specially for the Veterans and then allowed free entry for them. Once again I extend my thanks to all members of the Charlotte Richardson (left) & Friends group who helped organise such a successful Daisy Hibberd entertain “The Troops” day. Jackie Goodall Page 3 Woodhall Spa Cottage Museum Development Update Despite the initial optimism in the last Newsletter, the gremlins decided to strike and work was brought to a halt after the footings had been dug. Having watched a number of ‘Grand Designs’ and ‘Restoration Man’, I should have realised that we would not escape them! Sample holes had been dug to assess the state of the ground during the initial stages of our Round 1 work. The sample holes had shown that the outbuildings were in an area of sandy soil and foundations were designed accordingly. Unfortunately, pockets of clay were found in places at the bottom of the footings. One small pocket of medium density clay was found on the Spa Trail side of the building in the area of the toilet. With trees being close by, Building Control halted the work and said a re- design was required. After protracted discussions between Building Control’s and our Structural Engineers, it was finally agreed that 28 mini-piles needed to be The first pour of concrete inserted and a reinforced concrete floor plate used. It also meant that the footings already dug had to be filled in. This has produced an additional cost of £35,000 and work did not really start until the end of August, some 2.5+ months late. As a result, instead of the outbuildings being completed at the end of September, it will now be mid January. Luckily, when we had submitted the HLF application, we had been unable to ascertain an accurate figure to use for building work inflation. The figure used had erred on the very cautious side and HLF has kindly allowed us to use Building the Plinth this surplus to cover the increase in foundation costs. The piles have now been inserted and the foundations are complete, with the second pour of concrete having taken place on the 1 October. The wall frames are now being erected. The delay in the completion of the outbuildings has meant that the bungalow contents have had to be moved into store. The museum closed on the 30 September and volunteers have spent the week of the 1 October packing everything away and the storage company removing the items. Jackie’s team of volunteers have also been removing notice boards and some non-original panelling etc that had been put up inside the bungalow. The new Activity Manager now has her feet firmly under the table and has been working with the education team to develop future education programmes at the site. She is also looking at possible temporary exhibitions in Jan 2013, so that Woodhall Spa doesn’t forget that it has a museum. In addition, she is working with the University of Lincoln to develop a new leaflet for the museum. As in every Newsletter, I put out a request please to continue to raise funds for the development appeal. The increase in costs has meant that we no longer have any surplus funds should further problems come to light. Page 4 Rodger Pickavance Newsletter 12 Page 5 Woodhall Spa Cottage Museum Page 6 Newsletter 12 What Our Visitors Are Saying Up to the last week of September the museum had attracted 2664 adults and 278 children. Some of their latest comments in the Visitor’s Book are reproduced below. JM of Sydney, Australia “An interesting mix of articles/items. Thank you” S & N H of Ipswich “Wonderful photos & information - enjoyed our visit, thank you” JS & NH of Wakefield “Very interesting. Well worth the visit. Beautiful garden. Wish there were more of these museums in every town” HP of Woodhall Spa “Beautiful history of the village, which should never be lost” S & C S of Cheadle Hulme “Lovely exhibition. A real insight into local history” J & P R of Isle of Man “Very interesting and sobering” J & C T of Spain “Interesting—most enjoyable” AMERICAN SENATOR VISITS THE MUSEUM J & L G & PH of Newark “Remembering Capt. Ron Beetham - Great Grandad and father, who served in the Airborne Division and fought for Pegasus Bridge in 1944. The Museum is a great tribute to those brave men. xxx“ I think this last entry makes it all worthwhile. Philip Groves In July, Senator John Warner of North Dakota and his wife visited Woodhall Spa. They are pictured here with Marjorie Sargeant, (left), a Director of the Cottage Museum. There has been an email correspondence between Marjorie and the Senator for some time, since he made contact because of a family connection with Woodhall Spa. His great grandmother, Sarah Anne Peck, ran a boarding house here, with the odd name of Dhoblat, from the late 1890s. The Senator and his wife were thrilled to see this village and praised its country charm, tree-lined avenues and interesting architecture. They were especially impressed by the Cottage Museum, housed in an historic building and with so much photographic evidence of how life was when his great grandmother lived here. Page 7 Woodhall Spa Cottage Museum The Christmas Post 112 Years Ago Here’s an interesting article for all you lovers of the early days of the postal services and those beautiful vintage carriages which have developed into the Lotuses and Maseratis of today!! My source is ‘The Autocar’ of January 6th 1900 and a Lincolnshire of over a hundred years ago entitled “Successful Experimental Motor Mail Service, Lincoln to New York,” it sets the scene for an essential part of Woodhall Spa’s gradual emergence into the Lincolnshire scene.