Hungerford Arcade is holding another one of our very successful Jewellery Valuation day’s on Saturday, 19th August between the hours of 10.00 am and 4.00 pm.  Stallholder, Frances Jones is an expert on all types of jewellery and invites you to bring in all your treasures so that she can tell you all about them and their value.

 

Not only that, apart from jewellery, Frances would like you to bring in any items that you wish to be valued or simply would like to know more about.

 

 

Frances also buys items of jewellery and most things that you would like

to sell.  So, have a good old clear-out and bring all your treasures in and who knows, you could be another lucky lady or gentleman who gets a nice surprise on the value of their items.

I first became aware of Alfred Williams when, for my ninth birthday I received a copy of his book Life in a Railway Factory which was originally published in 1915.  As part of the day, I was taken to Swindon to see the railway workshops (alas, from the outside) and treated to a tea in High (Old) Swindon not far from where Richard Jefferies once lived.

 

My father noted that Alfred Williams had been at the railway works for many years before being retired medically, and had been the author of many books during his short lifetime.  As with most nine year olds, I let it go in one ear and out of the other, although I enjoyed reading my book.

 

To be truthful, I forgot about Alfred for many years until a trip to Hungerford a few years ago.  For some reason, my wife and I found ourselves in Eddington where we met and chatted with an elderly gentleman who told us about the floods in the area.  He also mentioned that a certain Mary Peck had married Alfred Williams the writer from South Marsdon at St Saviours Church in the early years of the century.  Although he was too young to remember the event, his family knew the Peck family at the time.

 

This re-ignited my interest in Alfred, but it was to be another twenty years before I was able to investigate his history more thoroughly.  Although he is less well known than Richard Jefferies, he is very much a Swindon writer even though like Jefferies, he lived in a village a little distant from the main town.

 

When you think of Richard Jefferies, you think of Coate and Coate Water.

When you consider Alfred Williams, you think of the pretty village of South Marsdon.

 

 

 

 

However, unlike Shakespeare’s Stratford and the Bronte’s Haworth, if you visit South Marsdon, there is little to say that Alfred was born lived and was buried there apart from a couple of plaques on houses he lived in.

 

 

 

On a visit to his grave this summer, I found it sinking slightly into the ground and a little neglected.  It was all a little sad for a Wiltshire writer and poet who deserves to be ranked alongside Richard.

 

 Alfred Owen Williams was born in Cambria Cottage (which was one of the four houses in South Marsdon that he lived in ) on the 7^th February 1877.  His early years were quite eventful, he nearly drowned twice and was knocked down by a cart.  However, Alfred was made of stern material and survived.

 

The years (1882-83) were traumatic for the William’s family.  Alfred’s father, Elias left the family and because of debts connected with his failed business, Cambria Cottage was repossessed.  The family was forced to move some seventy yards down the lane to Rose Cottage where his mothers parents lived.  Alfred was to spend the next twenty years there.

 

He started part time at the South Marsdon School aged eight.  The school was still going strong at the time of my recent visit and had not changed greatly since Alfred’s day.  The rest of his time he spent helping in the fields.

 

Alfred also developed a fascination with steam and with some of his early earnings he purchased a model steam engine which he loved to play with. When he was about ten he was dared to lay between the rails on the main London to Bristol railway line.  A goods train passed over him and luckily, he was unharmed.  It was a dare he would never repeat.

 

As with a lot of children, Alfred had an interest in the railway which was not far from his home.  He became friendly with the engine drivers and was sometimes given rides in the cab.  This was the beginning of Alfred’s long connection with the railways of Swindon.

 

In 1891 he met for the first time his future wife Mary Peck, who hailed from Eddington just across the river from Hungerford.  Despite extensive researches, I have not be able to locate where the Peck family lived although, they would have been very familiar with Hungerford.  Alfred would have also known our town at the time.  It was in this year that Alfred ceased his agricultural work and joined his elder brothers Edgar and Henry at the Great Western Railway Works in Swindon.  They all walked the eight or so miles there and back each day.   Having tried this myself one-way on a leisurely Saturday, I can confirm that it was quite a walk especially after a hard day in the factory.

 

He started work in the Stamping Shop in the May of 1891 and it was his employment there that gave him the name of The Hammerman Poet.  It was around this time that Alfred began to write poetry and to paint which was to set him apart from his fellows.  During this period Alfred tried to join the Navy and the Metropolitan Police but he was rejected on medical grounds.  It appears he suffered from varicose veins.

 

At the age of nineteen, Alfred began to exchange books with a local member of the clergy.  He was an avid reader and according to Alfred’s excellent website (more later), particularly liked Sweetness and Light by W M Thompson as well as various Shakespeare plays.  A love poem he wrote at the time (happily preserved) to Mary was, according to Alfred, his first written poem.  He cut a strange figure at the railway works reading a great deal, especially in his lunch hour.

 

Alfred was now in his early twenties and this was an intense time of self education.  He enrolled on a four year correspondence course with Ruskin Hall in Oxford and at this time, started to teach himself Latin.

 

In 1901, ten years after their initial meeting, Alfred became engaged to his Mary.  There was a little opposition from her family but this soon faded. 

 

Alfred and Mary were married at St Saviours Church in Eddington on the 21^st of October 1903.  They honeymooned in Torquay where almost to the day, seventy five years later, my wife and I spent our honeymoon.  Alfred, at the time of his marriage, left Rose Cottage and moved into Dryden Cottage opposite Cambria Cottage where he was born.  They were to live in Dryden Cottage for the next fifteen years.

 

In 1904 he completed Sardanapalus (after Byron) which was rejected by the publishers.  However, he was given encouragement noting that the readers admired it.  Alfred was submitting various works at this time but none were published at first.  This included his first book of poems, Gift to Eros.  He did however, have two of his poems printed in New Songs in 1907.  It was about this time that Alfred began to be noticed and he received his first payment for three articles for The Young Men’s Magazine.

 

In 1909, Alfred met Edmond Fitzmaurice from my home town of Bradford on Avon.  Edmond was to be an influence both financially and otherwise on Alfred’s literary development.  The previously unpublished Gift to Eros was retitled Songs of Wiltshire.  He also found time to read Richard Jefferies memorable Story of my Heart.  Alfred’s poetry was very much of its time (although very readable, even today).  He had little time for the modern poetry which he considered muddled.

 

In 1910, Alfred delivered lectures in Swindon and London.  It was while in London that he met a reporter from the Daily Mail who suggested that he write a book about his experiences in the Swindon Railway Works.  This was the genesis of his most famous book, Life in a Railway Factory.  He was beginning to realise that he would never earn enough through his poetry so he decided to turn to prose. It was also becoming obvious that the conditions of his job were beginning to have a serious effect on his health.

 

Life in a Railway Factory was a very candid account of his place of work and would have had a detrimental effect on his employment if it had been published at the time.  He was also writing A Wiltshire Village about life in South Marsdon.  When he finished this book, Alfred fell ill with a bronchial condition and depression.  He was also having financial problems which were to trouble him on and off for the rest of his life.

 

In 1913, he published Cor Cordium (which I read quite often).  Alfred was at this time becoming nationally known and respected in literary circles.

He also published Villages of the White Horse but the dark clouds were beginning to build.

 

In 1914, after an illness diagnosed as acute dyspepsia, he was advised by his doctor to leave the railway factory.  Initially, he ignored his doctors advice but the illness was having an adverse effect on his life.  His friends generously contributed to a holiday for Mary and Alfred and he spent a fortnight in Ilfracombe and a week in both Aberystwyth and Pwllheli. Alfred was also writing Round About the Upper Thames.

 

Due to his circumstances there were attempts to get Alfred nominated for a pension.  This went as far as the Prime Minister Herbert Asquith.  Alfred was a proud man who did not want to receive charity noting; So long as I can get pure air and a crust of bread that is all I want.  He was warned by his doctor that he would be dead in six months if he did not leave the railway works.  This he did in September 1915.  The following month, Life in a Railway Factory was published and although causing ripples, the actual sales were rather disappointing.

 

Alfred spent much of his free time collecting folk songs, mainly on his bicycle (against his doctors advice).  Although rewarding, his financial affairs were in dire straights and both he and Mary appear to have suffered as a result.  However, out of the blue in September 1916, Alfred was passed fit for war duty and in the January of 1917, Alfred found himself in Ireland.  He also spent some time in Scotland.  He had expected to go to France, but in the end, he was posted to India.  His ship, the Balmoral Castle was attacked by submarines, but was not sunk thankfully.  He was writing Boys of the Battery at the time.

 

After a brief spell in South Africa, he arrived in India in November 1917 and soon became fascinated with its history and culture.  He was by now working on a book called Indian Life and Scenery.  Like many, he became ill with fever.  As things worked out, he found himself in Ranikhet which, as you will see, will have a connection with a small Wiltshire village many thousands of miles away.  He was captivated with India and noted that if he were younger, he would have invited Mary to join him.  He also saw the Taj Mahal.

 

It was during his stay in India that he was informed by Mary that they would have to move house as Dryden Cottage had been purchased by a local farmer who had decided to live in it.

 

 

 

After three weeks leave, during which he explored more of India, he left in October 1919.  He arrived back in Wiltshire the following month.  Due to the situation with Dryden Cottage, Alfred had decided to build his final home, Ranikhet.  He was helped in the building costs by a government subsidy as well as help from Edmund Fitzmaurice.  Alfred and Mary moved into Ranikhet in January 1922.  Although this should have been the start of the good times, it proved totally the opposite.

 

The fruit and pea growing business he and Mary set up went badly, mainly due to the poor weather.  He received small royalties from his books but they had little to live on.  These were very hard times.  In the next few years things did not really get better.  Alfred was still writing, but it was a battle to survive for he and Mary were both in poor health.

 

As the decade ended, he finished his Tales From the Panchatantra which did not find a publisher.  He was always prone to depression and lapsed into acceptance of failure.  Alfred became resigned to the hard life he and Mary were suffering.

 

In the November of 1929, Mary was taken ill with what was thought to be an ulcerated stomach.  It was later diagnosed as cancer.  For Alfred this was the beginning of the end and he noted at the time;

 

Without her I see no value in anything but a life of emptiness.

I could never give my beloved girl any comforts.

For 15 years I have been fooled by promises.

My dearest has to go the hard way to death without seeing any of our hopes realised.

The pity of it quite overwhelms me.

 

As Mary’s health got worse, Alfred really gave up caring about his own welfare.  He was described as being like a maimed bird.  The tragedy was in full swing and Alfred was unable to control it.

He cycled to Swindon twice a day and this was to take a toll on his already weak constitution.  After a visit to friends on the 9^th of April 1930, an emotional Alfred returned to Ranikhetin  in very poor condition, suffering severe chest pains.  The following day he collapsed and died of heart failure.  He was only 53.

 

Mary, although terminally ill, returned home to Rankihet to witness his funeral procession on the 15th of April 1930.  She joined Alfred soon afterwards, passing away on the 29^th May 1930.  They were buried together in the churchyard at South Marsdon.

 

In the summer of 2011, I visited South Marsdon to see what traces of Alfred Williams still remained some eighty years after his death.  I was quite surprised to see very little had changed and indeed, if Alfred and Mary ever came back, they would recognise it instantly.  Cambria Cottage, Rose Cottage, Dryden Cottage and Rankihet are still there (although Rankihet is almost obscured from the road by bushes and trees).

 

 

Externally, these cottages have changed little from the historical photographs you can find on the internet.  Obviously, as they were private residences, I did not explore them, but if you stand between Dryden and Cambria,  you can see each of the four places where Alfred lived.  In theory, his life was fenced within a very small area, although his books have no such boundaries.

 

To find Alfred and Mary’s grave, you must pass Rose Cottage and head for the church.  Their place of rest is on the left as you enter the graveyard, about thirty yards from the path near the wall.  As I noted earlier, the ground near the grave has subsided a little so their grave is at a shallow angle.  It is indeed a restful place and you sense, as you do in the village, the presence of Alfred.

 

I am indebted when researching this article, to the excellent Alfred Williams Heritage Society website which is treasure trove of information about all aspects of Alfred’s life and his works.

 

In 1945 Leonard Clark published a fine biography of Alfred Williams which is an excellent read.  As with a number of Alfred’s books, it is a little hard to find although, if you look hard enough, you will find them.  Swindon Library has a fine collection of books by both Alfred and Richard Jefferies and these are worth checking out.

 

Usually, a town is lucky to have one major literary connection but Swindon has two.  Whilst Alfred and Richard were born years apart, they both had connections with Wiltshire villages only ten or so miles apart.  It is indeed a rich heritage.

 

Taking Leonard’s 1945 book as a source, I have listed Alfred’s published works below.  I apologise for any omissions.

 

Songs In Wiltshire (1909)

Poems in Wiltshire (1911) 

Nature and Other Poems (1912)

A Wiltshire Village (1912) 

Cor Cordium (1913) 

Villages of the White Horse (1913) 

Life in a Railway Factory (1915) 

War Sonnets and Songs (1915) 

Round About the Upper Thames (1922) 

Folk Songs of the Upper Thames (1923)

Selected Poems (1925) 

Tales from the Panchatantra (1930)

Tales from the East (1931)

 

Stuart Miller-Osborne

 

Hungerford Arcade staff were in awe as two beautiful young ladies came into the Arcade dressed head-to-toe in stunning Japanese gothic clothes.

 

Connie Tuttle has come over from Japan, where she teaches English, for a three week holiday.  Everything Connie and Lisa wear comes entirely from Japan.  The only time she does not wear Gothic Lolita is when she is at school teaching.

 

Lisa Robinson works in an office during the week, but dresses in Gothic Lolita seven days a week.  I was fascinated by her “coffin” handbag which, as you will see from the photo, looks exactly like one.

 

 

Connie and Lisa were kind enough to agree to having their photographs taken with our very own Arcade co-owner, Adrian Gilmour.  It was good fun.

 

Thank you Connie and Lisa for making our day!  Rita

Hungerford Arcade had a huge BBC Radio Outside Broadcast unit turn up for a live programme taking place at Hungerford Town Hall.  They eventually moved a couple of doors down to the Town Hall where they are were preparing for the the evening’s Radio 4 Show, “Any Question”.

 

The programme, presented by Ritula Shah, presents political debate from Hungerford, Berkshire, with a panel including the chair of the European Research Group, Suella Fernandes MP, Bronwen Maddox from the Institute for Government, political activist an writer, Jack Monroe and the Labour MP Chuka Umanna.

 

With so much going on in the town yesterday, Hungerford was buzzing!

 

Hungerford Arcade had a lovely lady come in the other day, Caroline Pirouet.  Caroline is very camera shy so unfortunately, I do not have a photograph of her.

 

Caroline works as a beekeeper for a gardening charity for disabled adults, Growing 2gether.  The projects are designed to give people from all walks of life the chance to learn about and help to grow a range of fruit and vegetables, run by the Newbury Community Resource Centre, operators of the Community Furniture Project.

 

For further information, visit the Growing 2gether website at: http://growing2gether.org/home/3484565

 

Anne Mumby, Fundraiser for the Mary Hare Foundation came to the Arcade on Tuesday to collect the charity tin for the Mary Hare School for Deaf Children & Young Adults, which was full to bursting.  Anne was thrilled and said that they are launching a new appeal on 4th July at Englefield House, the Benyon family Estate.

 

The appeal is for a new primary school to be built on the same site as the senior school at a cost of £6m.  With the sale of Mill Hall Primary School, they will still need to raise £2.5m.  Anne left us with an empty tin so that we can get started and with the help of our generous customers, do our bit to raise money for this much needed new school.

Hungerford Arcade co-owner,  Adrian Gilmour was thrilled this week to come across this knitting pattern for a Pixie Helmet.  Dating from the 1950s/60s, the pattern gives intricate detail and design into this Fair Isle Bonnet for 7 to 8 year olds of the time. The cover pictures would now be considered old-fashioned, but come from a more innocent and simpler time.

 

Produced by P and B wools, it cost only 3D (an old threepence), and required ‘Beehive’ knitting needles, intriguingly ‘measured by Beehive gauge’.  We hope one of our readers can tell us what this means!

 

The skill and craft of home-made clothes of earlier times is often all but forgotten, but until recent years, there was enormous skill and care which went into clothes made for children, from their mothers, aunts, and grannies.  These skills were handed down through generation to generation for many hundreds of years.

 

There is huge nostalgia for those of us who can remember hand-knitted hats and jumpers as part of childhood, every one individually made. 

 

While many working mums have less time for sewing and knitting, and fashions have moved on, knitting still continues alive and well for many people.

 

For anyone interested in having a go, there are knitting workshops Saturday August 12^th at the West Berkshire Museum in Newbury
1pm – 4pm, free, with the Kennet Valley Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers.

 

 

http://www.westberkshireheritage.org/whats-on/workshops-knitting-and-crochet

Hungerford Arcade proudly watched as the REME 6th Armoured Close Support Battalion held a parade through the town, finishing at the Royal British Legion Club, Church Street in support of Armed Forces Day.  This annual event takes place around the country to commemorate/celebrate all the men and women of our Armed Services who serve at home and around the world.  The Union Flags lined the High Street, waving gently in the soft breeze as the soldiers marched pass.

 

 

Crowds of people came from miles around, lining the street from early morning to watch this wonderful event taking place in our town.  There were military vehicles, soldiers manning their stalls and talking with the public.  The salute was taken by the Mayor, Cllr Keith Knight, Deputy Mayor, Cllr Helen Simpson and The Constable of the Town and Manor, Mrs Ellie Dickens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not forgetting the wonderful Hungerford Town Band who entertained the troops and the public on this very hot Armed Forces Day.

 

 

 

I have been quite busy of late having to travel to Bath and back on frequent occasions due to my mother being in hospital.  But I have managed to pop into the Arcade on a couple of occasions and it was during one of these visits that I found under a pile of books a copy of The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke (With a Memoir).

 

This was not a surprising find as copies of this book are pretty common.

My edition dated from 1930 and was the nineteenth impression of the book which was first published in July 1918.  I already have a couple of editions of this book so initially I ignored my find.

 

 

However, as I placed the book on to a shelf a newspaper cutting fell out which stirred my interest. It dated from April 1931 and was reporting on the unveiling of a memorial (on Easter Sunday) to honour Rupert Brooke.  It was to be unveiled on Skyros where the poet was buried after his early death from blood poisoning in 1915.

 

 

The report was moving and very much of its time (the cutting was dated in pencil as being from a newspaper published on the 4^th of April 1931).

But what I found really interesting, was a report about a female burglar named Isabella Brown which was on the reverse side of the cutting.

The story of Isabella’s fall from grace was contained in a column which was entitled;

 

GIRL’S HEEL PRINT IN A GARDEN.

Underneath also in bold headlines was the sub-header;

BURGLARY CHARGE.

 

So a young lady named Isabella Brown had strayed from the straight and narrow and now was in trouble with the police.  The crime was a minor footnote of history and I would have been totally oblivious of it had I not picked up the Rupert Brooke book of poems.

 

Isabella was twenty-two at the time of her crime which means that she would have been born in 1908 or 1909 which at a stretch, means that she may still be with us.  If my maths are correct, then Isabella would be between 108 and 109 if she is still alive.

 

But let’s go back to her twenty-second year when she had fallen foul of the law.  Isabella was married and was accused of breaking into a house in Golders Green. To give you a proper feel of the newspaper report I am reproducing it in full;

 

The discovery of the imprint of a woman’s high heel in a garden was described at Hendon when Isabella Brown (22) was charged with burglary.

Brown a young married woman was alleged to have broken into a house in Hodford-road, Golders Green and stolen jewellery valued at £1000.  She was also charged with stealing and receiving jewellery and a fur coat and other property.

 

HAT SHOP SEARCH

 

At the time of her arrest, it was stated that she was in possession of a £5 note, 32 £1 notes, a diamond watch, a diamond ring and two purses.  At her home were found some of the other articles which were the subject of the charges.

 

Det-inspector Baker said he went to premises at Great College-street, Camden Town. It was a small, woman’s outfitting and hat shop.  Brown said she was the owner.

 

While he was searching the premises the woman threw into the fire a card which he recovered.  As he snatched it from the fire she said “I can burn my own property if I like.”

 

When he found jewellery Brown said she got it from a man whose name she did not know.

 

Brown was remanded in custody for a week.

 

I began wondering what happened to Isabella.  Looking at the evidence, it did not seem that she was a casual thief but more of a career criminal.  I wondered if the shop that she said she owned had been financed by her criminal activities.  Without doubt, Isabella if she had been convicted, would have been sent to prison.

 

If she had gone to prison, I wonder if this would have shaken her up.  Did she when released return to Camden Town a changed woman?  The answers are lost in the mysteries of time.  And I would not have been asking them or indeed writing this article if I had not found the newspaper cutting on that cool March day.

 

Was Isabelle Brown her real name or was it something plainer?  The newspaper report noted that she was the owner of a small woman’s outfitting and hat shop.  Did she use the name Isabella Brown as it seemed more up market for her business?  Was the business indeed hers or just a front?

 

I think that Isabella was much more that a petty thief.  She seemed to be quite organised, although she made plenty of mistakes.  Why did she wear heels when committing the burglary in Golders Green?  That seems rather odd to begin with.  Did she see herself as a female Arthur J Raffles or the like?  Why did she hide the loot in her home as it was obvious that the police would look there?  What was the episode with the card and the fire about?

 

Taking Isabella forward a few years to the Second World War, would she have changed?  Who like others would have done her bit and helped to dig in during the capital’s darkest hours.  Or was she involved in the flourishing black market?  The answers to these questions are open and will remain so.

 

Until yesterday I was not even aware that Isabella Brown existed.  It was not the intention of the person who removed the cutting from the newspaper to exhibit the report of Isabella’s crime.  This unknown person removed the cutting for posterity thats all.  He or she must have loved the works of Rupert Brooke and just added the cutting to the book as a record of the event.

 

This was the book that I found in the Arcade eighty-five years later.  What they did unintentionally, was to include a detailed report of Isabella’s crimes.  It was a trick of chance, but an interesting one and is the reason I am writing this short article.  I like what Voltaire said on the subject;

 

Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.

 

If Isabella had not committed her crimes, then she would have not attracted column inches in the newspaper.  It was by chance that the editor of this unknown newspaper approved the report of her crime.

Which was to be found exactly on the reverse of the report about Rupert Brooke.

 

It was by chance that the cutting was removed and placed in to the book all those years ago.  Where it has remained to this day.

 

It was by chance that I found this book (it was hidden by many others) and that the cutting fell out attracting my attention.  Due to my rather busy schedule, I had not planned to be in Hungerford that day but at the last minute things changed so I had a little free time.  It was all down to chance.

 

If like me you like finding cuttings in a book,  Do as I did, look on the reverse side.  You never know what you are going to find.

 

Happy Hunting

 

Stewart Miller-Osborne

Hungerford Arcade every day sees all sorts of interesting objects come through the doors and this week, we have had the chance to pore over a fantastic 1891 volume, Bacon’s Complete Atlas of the World from 1891.  Full of beautiful and detailed maps from around the world, facts and figures, it is a real snapshot of life in 1891, well before the First World War.  It captures a world view at the end of an era and is full of the spirit of discovery.

 

 

The information, accuracy and artistry of the atlas is amazing, and also an education – for example, you can see a contemporary view of the Austria-Hungary territory at that time.  There are also lots of fascinating and unexpected facts.

 

 

 

The ‘Diagram shewing the relative strengths of Armies on a war footing for the Chief Countries of the World’ has Russia in the lead with 2,151,000 Men – with the United States straggling in the bottom of the table with only 28,000 men!  You can also find out about national debt, exports/imports, snowfall -the list goes on.

 

 

We often see many items of geographical interest coming through Hungerford Arcade – check out our extensive book section, or look out for rarer items like globes, sextants – and of course, more atlases!