From Overdale to Cala Sona by Douglas Ferguson

From Overdale to 'The Happy Haven' A History of Cala Sona in Words and Pictures Douglas Ferguson 1 for Cresta 2 INTRODUCTION Cala Sona Court is an area of Netherton, Wishaw, which has a very distinguished and interesting past. The story of this area goes back to the late 1890s and is still a vital part of Netherton to this day. Netherton itself is a suburb of the town of Wishaw in south-west Scotland, around 15 miles from Glasgow. Initially, Netherton was mostly farmland, some of which still exist, though by the turn of the 20th century would be dominated by the iron and steel industry. This would remain a staple of the area through until the 1980s with companies such as Ravenscraig, Clyde Alloy and Dalzell Steelworks being a major source of employment for the local population. © Mr. John J. McKillop, Lanarkshire Legacy One of the major names in the iron and steel industry was John Williams, who in 1866 founded Excelsior works in Motherwell, which became a medium sized malleable iron works specialising in iron sheets and diversifying into steel manufacture, then in later years went on to become involved in the manufacture of wire, nails, staples, rivets and washers. 3 OVERDALE In the course of researching this booklet, I have been unable to find out exactly why John Williams jr. authorised the construction of a mansion house and grounds on the land where Cala Sona Court now stands. What is known however is that his father, John Williams sr. died in 1897 and the mansion house, which was named Overdale, and designed by local architect John Steel, was built the following year. Williams sr. had as his residence a closeby house named The Green, around half a mile away, not far from Cambusnethan Priory. Whatever the reason, the mansion house and lodge house was built over three acres of land bought from the Sinclair-Lockhart family, who owned Cambusnethan Priory and the surrounding land. The mansion consisted of five bedrooms, three public rooms, three bathrooms, reception, kitchen and maid's accommodation. There were several outhouses and tennis courts, though the main feature was the commanding views over the River Clyde towards Larkhall. The lodge house was 150 yards from the main hall and consisted of two bedrooms, living room, kitchenette and bathroom. Williams jr., as owner of Excelsior Works, would use Overdale as his company main office. Williams himself would remain the owner and resident of Overdale until his death in 1932 with his company going from strength to strength. His son would move to Cranleigh, Surrey and would later rename the company John Williams (Wishaw) Ltd., which would continue as a family business until it was taken over in 1950 by the Thomas Ward group. After the death of John Williams, the mansion was sold to a family called Harington- Walker, the head of which was ex-army Captain Austine Harington-Walker, who was a merchant with business premises in Hope Street, Glasgow, though when he died his business activities would be based in Dundee. His granddaughter Noel would later achieve a degree of fame in the 1950s as a ballerina under the name Noel Rossana. Ms. Rossana would later become the wife of Sir John Gorst, a Conservative MP who was a controversial figure in the crushing of the Grunwick strike in the 1970s. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Harington-Walker would continue to make a feature of the gardens which has been started by Williams. The circular featured planting areas and putting green would be extensively developed and the planting areas would remain as a feature until the mansion house was finally demolished in the early 21 st century. The gardens would be used for fund-raising by opening them up to public display, usually in aid of the Queens Institute. The lodge house would be a home for housekeeper and gardener/chauffeur. As a sidenote, during research I came across a press cutting in The Times of London, 1942, informing readers of a forthcoming marriage between Rosemary, elder daughter of Captain and Mrs. Harington-Walker to a Captain Mervyn Sansome Preston. This was preceded by the news of Lady Constance Milnes Gaskell becoming lady-in- waiting to Queen Mary. Exalted circles indeed! 4 Overdale Mansion (top) and Lodge House (bottom) © Mrs. Helen White 5 CALA SONA – BEGINNINGS After the death of the head of the household, the Harington-Walker family would also eventually move out of the area in the 1950s. The house would lie empty for a while, and the future must have looked rather bleak. At this time many of the mansions across Britain, including the very grand Wishaw House, were being stripped bare and demolished. However, a few years later the house, and indeed much of the surrounding area would be revitalised through the application and dedication of one woman. Muriel Gofton originally came from Middlesbrough, England and during the war came to work for the British Red Cross Society. In April 1945, she was one of the first people to go into the liberated Nazi concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen and the experience of the suffering she saw there shaped her future career. Later, she would work with the Guide International Service, helping TB sufferers. As Overdale had became ownerless, Miss Gofton set about raising funds for a venture which was quite unique at this time. Many millions of people in Europe had been displaced as a result of World War Two, and even by the late 1950s there were still many thousands of people living in makeshift camps. Although many of the young and able of those people were relatively easy to make room for in other countries, it was much harder for those who were elderly, disabled or completely shell-shocked by the events of their lives, many of whom had been victims of the cruelty in Nazi concentration camps. Miss Gofton fought for nearly a decade to try and remedy this situation and in 1958, after a Herculean task of fund-raising, letter writing and sponsorship was given the funds to purchase Overdale mansion and to house ten families of displaced persons in the area. The name of the mansion was now changed to reflect an optimistic future for the families living there. The name chosen was Cala Sona, Gaelic for 'the happy haven'. The purchase and rename of the mansion house threw Miss Gofton into another major round of fund-raising and sponsorship, with money being sourced from everyone from Christian Action, to local jamborees and perhaps even more bizarrely, a donation from one of Adolf Hitler's inner circle, munitions chief Albert Speer. This resulted in four bungalows being built to help house the families of Cala Sona and also to help set up a slew of businesses. The community of Cala Sona threw themselves into hen rearing, stamp sorting, dress making and many other money making schemes. Miss Gofton helped set up a limited company called Cala Sona Enterprise, which helped to raise money and co-ordinate these schemes. The company was a wildfire success, as a result of which a cobblers and a market garden were opened in the grounds of Cala Sona and a haberdashery and a chip shop were opened nearby. This resulted in the Cala Sona enterprise being completely self-sufficient. Cala Sona by the mid 1960s had become a major success and the people of the area had become integrated into the local community. The chip shop and market garden in particular became major attractions and were a huge success. However, it appears that very success would sow the seeds of its eventual downfall. (continued page 18) 6 A Life at Cala Sona Mrs. Danuta Miller, February 2015 © Douglas Ferguson In the course of writing this booklet, it became obvious that purely personal memories of Cala Sona were missing. With that in mind, on a cold morning in February 2015, I visited Danuta Miller and her husband Anthony in their modern flat in the new Cala Sona complex. Danuta is the last of the original members of the diaspora of displaced peoples that made up the original Cala Sona community and as such I was interested to hear her story. Danuta is a lovely, fiesty person and the following is her story in her own words, of the life of her family and herself leading up to, then living in, Cala Sona. “My grandparents had a smallholding in Poland. My family name is Kaczynska. My father was born in the barracks at the Poland-Ukraine border. My father's father was Polish and his mother was partly Jewish. My mother's grandfather died when he was 111 and he passed away in his sleep after he and my mother were peeling potatoes. At 111! My father was a prisoner in Dachau concentration camp and his job was to help burn corpses in the oven. My mother was in Burgenheim then taken to work on a farm by the Germans. She was shot in the legs there and would always have trouble with her legs after that. She was only 14 at the time she went in. My father also had a bad time and contracted typhoid.” Danuta's husband then tells of a story Danuta's mother, Genevieve had told him: 7 “One day Genevieve had missed her meal of water and a piece of bread, and she was crying so a nun gave her a piece of her bread. The Nazi's saw her giving Genevieve that piece of bread and the nun was never seen again”.

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