March 2006
Forthcoming TADS meetings
Tadley and District History Society (Meetings are at 8.00 pm in St Paul's Church Hall, The Green, Tadley, on the third Wednesday of each month).
15 March 2006 - Middle East Dance, History and Practice by Sue Ealding
19 April 2006 - Eye Surgery, afloat in Bangladesh by Dr Lynette Moss & Dr David Moss.
17 May 2006 - It's a Monk's Life by Brother John of the Hospital of St. Cross, Winchester.
21 June 2006 - Filming Pride and Prejudice at Basildon Park by John Simmons, National Trust House Manager.
19 July 2006 - Tidgrove Warren Excavations by Mark Leah of Kingsclere Heritage Association.
August 2006 - No meeting. Holiday Break.
20 September 2006 - Felons and Fingerprints by Michael Carrigan, ex Metropolitan Police.
18 October 2006 - Researching the History of Local Villages by Gordon Timmins, an independent historian.
15 November 2006 - The History of England from Pub Signs by Greg Gregory, Andover Historian.
20 December 2006 - AGM and Social Evening
What's on - local events
Basingstoke Archaeological and Historical Society. (Meetings are at 7:30 pm in Church Cottage, Church Square, Basingstoke on the second Thursday of each month).
9 March 2006 - Life and death abroad the Mary Rose</p>
13 April 2006 - Recent Archaeological work at Kingsclere
Milestones Museum
On Your Bike - a special collection showing the development of the bicycle from the hobby horse to the modern day.
The Faces of Thornycroft (from 1 January) - The life and times of the company's Basingstoke workforce in a new photographic exhibition.
Riveting Stories (from 1 January) - An exhibition capturing memories of Vosper Thornycroft shipbuilders from Woolston, Southampton.
Willis Museum Open Monday to Friday, 10.00 am to 5.00 pm, Saturday 10.00 am to 4.00 pm.
18 March to 29 April 2006 - Hidden House History; objects deliberately hidden in houses.
The Medieval gold and sapphire finger ring, partly financed by TADS, is now on show at the museum.
Friends of the Willis Museum Meetings at 7.30pm in the museum.
16 March 2006 - The Work of Lord Mayor Treloar Trust.
20 April 2006 - The Ancient Sacred Sites of Wessex.
Hampshire Record Office (Sussex Street, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 8TH, tel: 01962 846154).
Last Thursday Lectures 1.15 - 1.45 pm (admission free, but donations welcome).
30 March 2006 - Following the Seagull - The Southern Television Years; extracts from programmes by Wessex Film and Sound Archive by David Lee.
27 April 2006 - Looking For Lost Houses: Some Hampshire Examples.
Silchester Roman Weekend (the Old House field off Bramley Road).
8 & 9 April 2006; starting at 10.30am there will be continuous displays of Military and Civilian Life. Adults £3, Children £2.
40th Anniversary of St Paul's Church, Tadley
10.30am, 2nd April 2006; a Celebration Thanksgiving Service addressed by the Bishop of Winchester.
Discover Hampshire
A guide to 160 great days out in Hampshire and contains some discount vouchers, available by e-mailing: hampshire@responseuk.co.uk or telephoning 0800 093 8930.
Last Month's TADS Meeting 15 February 2006
The Bevin Boys by Morris Pearce, Deputy Curator of Farnham Museum
(NB Morris very kindly gave this talk at very short notice because the 'Occupied Jersey' lecturer, Patricia Foster, sadly died unexpectedly in January 2006.)
Easy option? Cowards? Conscientious objectors? Not a bit of it! For the Bevin Boys, coal miners extraordinaires, these young men were catapulted, often from World War II armed forces into a coal mine. By the way, that's 'boys' of Ernest Bevin, 1881–1951, Minister of Labour under the wartime coalition Government.
Why were they miners instead of Marines, etc? Because the government of the day forgot to make coal mining a Reserved Occupation. Consequently the coal miners happily swapped the darkness and subterranean danger of mines for the munitions factories - another Reserved Occupation, instead. So, by 1943 our war-torn, power-hungry country was down to its last THREE WEEKS of coal supplies.
Life's a lottery. Morry reckons that's so. As his National Registration Number ended in '0' (Those with '9' were also eligible) he was one of the 50,000 Bevin Boys to go into mines all over Britain. Luckily he's survived unscathed.
After a hasty month's training, this lad from the green fields and Hampshire Downs of Kingsclere ended up under Doncaster in South Yorkshire's Askern Training Pit. Morry was trained by the admired and revered father-figure, Albert Chambers who turned out to be a mining teacher of great skill and patience.
Mining has always been dangerous. Still is. Between 1943 and 1947 (yes they kept the lads an extra 2 years after the war ended), Morry's group of Bevin Boys worked over 2000 feet down, producing countless tons of coal, but with many deaths and injuries in conditions of black dusty, stifling hot or freezing cold by turn, cramped claustrophobia, with the threat of high-level methane gas or low–down firedamp gas. They were hewing and hauling coal from under Doncaster. Tragically Morry's mentor, Albert Chambers was instantly killed one day by a steel hoop support. These could snap without warning whereas the old fashioned wooden ones would creak loudly for a while first.
Normally pit cages rise or drop very swiftly, but if there's been an accident the 12-bell ring means raise this cage with great caution and respect.
There were 44 pit ponies at Bentley Colliery, lovingly tended by the miners. The ponies had 2 weeks' holiday per year to frolic in the freedom of Yorkshire's green parts before returning to their subterranean stables. (Happily ponies have not been used in the UK since the 1960s).
As a Catch-Knocker, Morry had to be crafty and quick to stay alive, with 6 tons of coal in little tubs on a narrow gauge railway all too near him every 60 seconds. The miners favoured wooden pit props because wood 'talks' and creaks to you and you get a feel for its stresses. Steel props just snap at the joints and everything crashes down and crushes you. Apparently the whole mine 'moves' and lives and breathes 2000 feet underground, we 60 plus TADS' members discovered.
Morry seems to have been an all-about Bevin Boy and nothing stressed him, whether it was cycling to his pit; motorcycling over a board-walk with a 4 foot flood underneath; or eying up the lovely, local lass who was to eventually become his wife: young Sylvia, now happily wed to him for nearly 58 years.
Morry has an eye also for what is right. As with a few other worthies of WWII, the Bevin Boys didn't get proper recognition for many years: 60 years in fact! No medals, but a badge for the boys (soon). And an annual march to the Cenotaph wearing white miners' helmets and carrying a proud green flag and friendship all round. Lady Elizabeth Finsberg and Lord Roy Mason make sure these Boys are not the forgotten conscripts.
However, I think Morry is a character to be reckoned with and he keeps alive the Bevin Boys' Association by e-mail, lectures and visits. Anymore Bevin Boys out there? Thank you, Morry, for your spirited enthusiasm for what you feel is just and proper.
Morry's e-mail is: morry.pearce @ tiscali.co.uk
PS: as a result of Morry's lecture one more Bevin Boy has come out of the woodwork: Freddie Woodruff of North Bristol!
Rosemary Bond
History in the Making
The garage, 'Smiths of Baughurst' has been demolished and the site cleared for housing development.
'The Fighting Cocks' public house has closed and is boarded up. An application has been made to convert it into 3 dwellings and build 8 houses in the grounds.