Cricket and Whisky Don't Mix.

Mr A.K. Grabham of Bickenhall, recalls that between 1920 and 1939 Bickenhall had a very good cricket team at staple Fitzpaine, Curland and Bickenhall. The Rector, Rev. Cooke, played himself and took great interest in the team. Lord, Portman, the president of the club, often played himself and arranged games, sometimes getting County players to come and play such as Mr. John Daniell (Somerset Captain) and Mr. Robertson Glasgow and others. Mr. Sammy Woods, an old Somerset player would come and umpire.

“In one match I had made 60 runs, Lord Portman was so pleased that he sent his butler out to the wicket with a drink for me. The butler said, “It won’t hurt you,” so I drank it. I was out the next ball. It was whisky!”

Six Trains a Day

An entry in William Margery’s school book (circa 1930) shows that there were six trains a day from Taunton to Yeovil and eight in the opposite direction, the journey taking a little over one hour. Fares from Matlock were 1 shilling return to Yeovil and 2 shillings and 3 pence to Taunton.

There were eight stations on the line all serving the surrounding villages. The line is now closed and there is no longer any direct public transport between Matlock and Taunton except via Yeovil.

Cheetah Racing

In 1937, Gandar Dower introduced cheetah racing into England as an exciting alternative to greyhounds.

He imported 8 cats and staged highly publicized events at Romford and Haringey. He had not discovered the cheetahs are remarkably uncompetitive, and too intelligent to mistake a length of rag on a stick for a Thompson gazelle or other prey.

The cheetahs wandered round in a state of indifference and the experiment was abandoned.

Personal Hygiene

The Daily Express – Enquire Within publication of 1934, gives the reader all useful and helpful information on every day issues.

When it comes to Personal Hygiene it has some valuable advice:

Personal Hygiene

A Physicians Ten Commandments

1. Keep a clean mind in a clean body.
2. Keep regular hours for meals, sleep, work and play.
3. Keep your temper, and avoid all excesses.
4. Don’t coddle your body, but clothe it loosely, lightly and warmly.
5. Drink water and milk, but see they are pure,
6. Eat of the fruits of the earth, ripened by the sun.
7. Take care of your teeth and visit the dentist regularly.
8. If your eyes trouble you see an oculist at once.
9. Get to know your body thoroughly and never over tax it.
10. Take daily exercise in the open air and breathe deeply.

Pumping the Church Organ

Jessie Lintern was the daughter of a United Free Church minister in Scotland, in the 1930’s she was bought up to go to church and her brother was given an important task for some reward.

"At Colmonell, my brother was given the task of pumping the organ, for which he received a copper or two and a bag of sweets from the organist, who kept a post office and grocery store three miles away. He was hidden from view by a curtain which shut off the stairs to the pulpit, and there he settled down with his ‘Wizard’ or ‘Hotspur’ as his father began the sermon.

One memorable Sunday he was so engrossed in the doings of Roy of the Rovers that, oblivious of the sermon’s end and the announcement of the final hymn, and that the organist was sitting with hands poised above the keyboard, he failed to put the pump into operation. Silence reigned, until the organist hissed loudly, “Blow, Jimmy, blow.” The bag of sweets rolled under the curtain, my father glared down at his son, and with a mighty surge of air the organ sounded forth! "  

A Second Hand Morris Cowley

Hazel Rolf recalls her experience growing up when her father purchased a used Morris Cowley in 1931

“Dad bought a second hand Morris Cowley car for thirty pounds and we sometimes went in it from Reading to Chertsey on Sundays to visit my Grandma and aunts.

The first time we planned to go we were all waiting in the drive and the car would not start. Dad worked on it for a while and then fetched a neighbour: eventually they got it going but we were about two hours late. The number of the car was MO 3311: it was brown with a rain hood and celluloid window frames to slot in.  As it was a lengthy job getting the hood up and the windows fixed, it had to be raining very hard before Dad would stop and see to it. Later Dad bought a second hand Morris Oxford saloon, No: PX 8961, which was entirely enclosed so more comfortable.”

The Telephone

The telephone in the thirties was a new invention. Mr. R. Cunningham recalls his childhood in Glasgow and his parents installing their new communication device.

                        

“In the early thirties a cousin of my father persuaded him to install a telephone in our house. Being a senior technician in the telephone department of the Post Office, the cousin had the installation carried out quickly. My parents decided it should go in the dinning room – the least used public room – and it was stood on a two-tier table beside the fireplace, with the directory on the lower shelf and an armchair beside it.

 The instrument had a long stem and a large mouthpiece at its head and the receiver set in the cradle just below, with a long cord to let it reach the ear. We children and the housemaid were taught how to answer it and, if we had to call someone else to the phone, not to put the receiving back in its cradle but to lay it on the table. “

Going to the Commodore in Hammersmith

Denis Thompson remembers his childhood and the enjoyment he got from the variety of entertainment offered at the Cinema in the Thirties.

"During the thirties the cinema really came into its own, following the movie craze at that time on the other side of the Atlantic. Up to 1936 I lived in Chiswick, West London, and a year or two prior to that the largest cinema in London - the Commodore -   opened just across the borough in Hammersmith, with the showing of the original ‘Show Boat’ film starring Paul Robeson. The next and larger cinema to open was the Odeon in Hammersmith Broadway about a year later. However, that place of entertainment was soon eclipsed in size by the opening of the country’s largest cinema in Kilburn, North London, with seats for about four thousand.

It is almost unbelievable when I recall that in those days my mother and I used to go to the Commodore at midday on Saturday and for 6d admission we enjoyed the following entertainment,

From midday until 1pm you sat (very quietly) and listen to Joseph Muscant and his orchestra doing a live radio broadcast for the B.B.C. from the stage. After that we saw screened the main film, news reel, and forthcoming attractions. In the interval Harry Davidson played the organ, finally, there would be nearly an hour long stage show, usually one of the top bands of the era. I realise how fortunate I was as I was able tosee most of the leading bands of that day, such as, Jack Payne, Jack Hylton, Harry Roy, Roy Fox, not to mention big bands from America: Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians."

The Bentley Boys

The Bentley Boys were a group of gentlemen racers who drove Bentley sports cars to victory in the 1920s. In 1925, as the marque foundered, Bentley Boy Woolf Barnato bought the company, leading to the creation of the famous supercharged Bentley Blower car.

The Bentley Boys included:

• Woolf "Babe" Barnato, heir to Kimberley diamond magnate Barney Barnato
• Dr. J. Dudley "Benjy" Benjafield
• Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin
• Dale Bourne
• Frank Clement
• S. C. H. "Sammy" Davis, automotive journalist, Sports Editor of The Autocar
• John Duff
• George Duller, steeplechaser
• Clive Dunfee
• Jack Dunfee
• Baron d’Erlanger, playboy
• Clive Gallop, engineer
• Glen Kidston, aviator
• Bertie Kensington Moir
• Bernard Rubin, pearl fishery magnate

At one point, on a bet, Barnato raced Le Train Bleu from Cannes to Calais, then by ferry to Dover and finally London, travelling on public highways with normal traffic, and won; the special-bodied 6.5 L car became known as the Blue Train Bentley.

Thanks to the dedication of this group to serious racing, the company, located at Cricklewood, north London, was noted for its four consecutive victories at the 24 hours of Le Mans from 1927 to 1930. Their greatest competitor at the time, Ettore Bugatti, whose lightweight, elegant, but fragile creations contrasted with the Bentley's rugged reliability and durability, referred to them as "the world's fastest lorries".

A great deal of Barnato's fortune went to keeping Bentley afloat after he became chairman in 1925; but the Great Depression destroyed demand for the company's expensive products, and it was finally sold off to Rolls-Royce in 1931

The victorious Speed Six team at Le Mans in 1930.  On the extreme left is Barnato's chauffeur.  Fifth from left standing is W O. Bentley with, on his left, Sammy Davis (in beret), Frank Clement, Barnato, Glen Kidston, Clive Dunfee and Dick Watney.  Mechanic Stan Ivermee is above Barnato and Hassan is above Kidston, with Kemish next to him.


By 1930 the 4½ litre supercharged ‘Blower’ cars were running and Birkin entered a team of three for the 1927 Le Mans race.  W O Bentley entered the works team of three 6½ litre cars.With 18 cars on the grid, the 7½ litre supercharged Mercedes of Rudi Caracciola was the most serious threat.


In the opening laps of the race Birkin had the time of his life duelling with the Mercedes.  Overtaking at nearly 120 mph just before Mulsanne with his off-side wheels on the grass, Birkin caught Caracciola totally by surprise, but in the process threw the tread of his rear tyre.  Undaunted, he continued to set the fastest lap of the race, before the tyre finally blew in the following lap.


The chase for Caracciola was taken over by the 6½ litre cars, initially Davis and then the Barnato/Kidston car.  Barnato had a terrific time.  The lead changed back and forth throughout the night forcing Caracciola to use the supercharger almost continually, instead of occasionally for overtaking as it was originally intended.  Eventually at about 4.20am it proved too much for the Mercedes which blew its gasket.


Thereafter, W O. Bentley slowed the cars to a fast tour.  The Blowers kept going until about noon, with the two  6½ litre cars of Barnato/Kidston and Clement/Watney taking 1st and 2nd place respectively.

British vs Continentals

Even in the 1930’s there was a difference of playing styles between English clubs and their foreign counterparts.

Willy Meisl describes in his book “Soccer Revolution” from 1955, the safety-first approach that didn’t result in the free flowing goal scoring Continentals.

“The British were bent on “safety-first”, on preventing the opponent from scoring goals. The Continentals were out to score goals. Most schoolboys good at arithmetic will tell you that it amounts to the same whether I win by scoring goals, or by giving away fewer to the opponent.

“In football I challenge the axiom. Though it may be the same mathematically, it makes all the difference to the soul of soccer…..”

“A generation of “Safety-first” football created a “Safety-first” mentality, just as the existence of that “Unassailable fortress” created a “Maginot Line” mentality (rearguard complex) in the French nation. In soccer as in politics and warfare “safety-first” meant surrendering the initiative, choosing the passive role. This must lead to decadence and weakening.”

Nudism in the 30's.

In their book ‘The Long Week End’ by Robert Graves and Alan Hodge published in 1940; talk amusingly of how the English climate was not beneficial to nudism and how boring it eventually became.

'Nudism was not so popular in Britain as in Germany or the United States: it was not suited to the climate. At first nudists gathered in muddy and midge ridden corners of solitary woods, but later built luxurious nature camps and in the winter held indoor meetings with sunray lamps. They adopted the Hellenistic Greek name "Gym­no sophists" , and brought their children along with them. After a time most members found the routine of these camps monotonous, despite the earnest psychological and valetudinarian talk that went on in them. Women especially grew bored sitting about with no clothes, while attracting no erotic interest in the opposite sex, and being made wonderfully healthy by compulsory drill and by lettuce and tinned-salmon teas.

Far better to wear a bathing dress on a beach and be conscious of its daringness, than to sit about with no clothes on and with everyone politely unconscious of it. At the superior nudist camps, a nice class distinction was made: the butlers and maids who brought along the refreshments were forced to admit their lower social status by wearing loin cloths and aprons respectively.'

Changes in ideas of Hygiene

After the First World War and into the 1920’s a new passion for fresh air and sunlight overtook people. Bathing costumes were gradually reduced in size and the fair skin complexion was traded in for the sun tan, all this giving way to an end of ‘Puritan’ thinking.

Gerald Heard in his book the 'These Hurrying Years', published in 1934. Has this to say about the changes in ideas of hygiene:-

'Just below the level of full consciousness were the ... changes in ideas of hygiene. Fresh air had won and pushed its victory against the curtain, blind, wrap and flounce so far that it began to pass the Plimsoll Line of prudery. A new issue was then joined, and the Hygienists, who till then had been allies of the Puritan, began to swing over towards the libertine. "To the pure all things are pure" was extended to the rather different and not so clear assumption that "to the naked all things are unexciting".
It may be true, but up to the present passion prevents sufficient scientific experiment. What is clear is that the fresh-air campaign had ceased to be physiological and had become psychological. That change involved a discussion of issues much wider than costume, though to the psychologist costume had always been a clue to understanding the subconscious sex life. Quite sane and kindly people went on to ask not whether clothes helped chastity but whether chastity itself was helpful.'

Major Frank Buckley of Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Today in the big spending world of Chelsea and Manchester United, who throw millions away after glory, it’s nice to recall a bygone era, when every penny was counted.

Major Frank Buckley would certainly put today’s mangers to shame; I love the fact that he had a sign on the team bus offering his players for sale. This is from ‘Soccer’ by Denzil Batchelor published in 1954:-

“Major Frank Buckley, this remarkable manager had began as a £3 a week player and had won his international cap while on the books of Derby County. He came to Wolverhampton Wanderers as manager in 1927, to find the club facing an overdraft. He stayed at Molineux for eighteen years....and when he left had the satisfaction of knowing that there was a £50,000 credit in the bank.
He did more than achieve a profit. His plan, carried out to the last particular, was to make stars and sell them. He sold stars during his stay at Wovlerhampton, to the tune of £160,000 - it was said that when his team traveled to away matches by bus there was a placard on the windows: "Stop me and Buy One." Buckley built new stands with the same money he made, rather than buy new stars. Between 1935 and 1939 he took over £110,000 in transfer fees and only spent £42,000 on new stock.”

The Queen of Romance

The Queen of Romance in the 1930's was Mrs. Wallis Simpson



Edwina H. Wilson in her book ‘Her Name was Wallis Warfield’ published in 1936, gives this amazing picture of Mrs. Wallis Simpson. It is difficult today to imagine what a world-wide effect the romance between King Edward and Wallis Simpson had:

“The world asks today, “Will King Edward marry Wallace Simpson? Will she, an American-born woman, be Queen of England?”
There is no answer until it comes from Buckingham Palace. The America will know if Wallis Simpson is to be consort to the mightest ruler on the earth and if she is to waer a crown. It would become her.
For Wallis Simpson IS a queen – the queen of romance, of glamour and the unfulfilled longings of a love-starved world. She is the queenly heroine of a love story, touching these two – Edward VIII, monarch of the British Empire, and Wallis Simpson of America- touches millions.
‘A toast, America! A toast to THE QUEEN OF ROMANCE.’”

Ms Wilson carries on even further:

"The most famous woman in the world today is neither a leader in public life, nor an heiress, nor a writer; not a philanthropist, a doctor, a scientist, nor a motion picture star.
Six months ago her name was comparatively unknown. Today it echoes above and below the equator – from Baltimore to the Isle of Bali, from Alaska to Antipodes.
She is the most romantic figure of the times, the amazing heroine of the most amazing chapter in recent history. Of international figures, she is, the best known and the one known least.
She is, of course, Mrs. Wallis Simpson, the American woman whom half the world expects to become Queen of England.
There has never been a story like it. There never has been an individual so glamorous. Did Mrs. Simpson take tea on Monday at Buckingham Palace? Did she drive out on Monday to go shopping? Did she really say this-and-so to the Duchess? Is it true that she wears a silver fox wrap worth $50,000? Does she, unfailingly, receive twelve dozen American Beauty roses each morning?
“Thus the tongues buzz. Thus the world wonders.”"