Meet Dennis Benneyworth – Former Mayor of Hungerford and stallholder here at the Arcade. Dennis specialises in top hats and horse racing memorabilia. Every year Dennis empties his cabinet here and sets up shop at Ascot Racecourse for one of the most famous race meetings in the world – Royal Ascot.

If you are lucky enough to attend Royal Ascot, a top hat is an absolute must.  Indeed, if you have seats in the Royal Enclosure, you won’t be allowed in unless you are wearing one.

Royal Ascot was established in 1711 after Queen Anne opened the racecourse and attracts over 300,000 attendees every year making it Europe’s best-attended race meeting.

Although most popular during racing season, Dennis’ top hats are available all year round in cabinet 116.  Many more hats and related items are also available on his website at www.sportingstudy.co.uk

Hungerford Arcade is a place of memories.  Whose memories?  Usually we don’t know, but every now and then the right person is in the right place at the right time and they find a memory of their own, just sitting on a shelf.

Two lovely ladies, Sue Chillingworth and her daughter, approached the desk with a book they wanted to purchase.  It was a “TV Fun” Annual from 1957.  Being the young wippersnapper that I am I never had the pleasure of reading “TV Fun” in my youth but I’ve seen a few copies of it around the Arcade before. 

 Sue’s Father, Albert Thomas “Charlie” Pease, was a cartoonist for the Amalgamated Press at around that time and on the off-chance that one of his cartoons may have been in the book, Sue picked it up. Which is when she found this cartoon – she says she recognised it by the hand writing as it wasn’t signed.  

Sue says she remembers her Father sitting in the corner of the lounge making up stories while she ran about the place with her four siblings – I’m sure Charlie got plenty of inspiration for funny cartoons from his active household!

Sue bought the book for £2 from Countryside Books on the first floor of the Arcade and was overjoyed with it.  £2 isn’t a lot to spend on something that brings back so many memories.

           Adrian with lovely Linda Farrow on his left and the equally lovely Clare Campbell to his right

Hungerford Arcade’s co-owner, Adrian Gilmore was in Barclays Bank in Hungerford the other day and noticed, sitting on the counter a sweetie jar beneath a notice asking people throughout June to guess how many sweets are in the jar.   For a small donation of £1.00 per guess in aid of the Missing Peoples Charity, the winner gets to keep the whole jar. Adrian was so taken by this wonderful money raiser for such an important charity that he jumped straight in there and got rather carried away.  When finished, Adrian said that he had forgotten what he went to the bank for!

From the 18th to the 22nd June, Barclays employees will be cycling 500 mills in five days to support the Missing People’s free 24 helpline.  Last year, Barclays raised over £35,000 for Missing People.  Please help them raise even more this year by going to any Barclays Branch and making a donation.

If you are of a certain age you will almost certainly remember this face from a number of well known 1960s films.  Hayley Mills starred in pictures such as Tiger Bay, Pollyanna and her most well known appearance was for her role in The Parent Trap in which she played both identical twins!  

For her role in Pollyanna she was awarded the Juvenile Oscar and was the last person to ever receive it.

Here she is meeting stallholder James Hill who she very kindly posed for a picture with. James tells me that Hayley was passing through Hungerford and had some time to spare so decided to do a spot of browsing through the stalls of The Arcade.  James is a big fan and was most excited to meet one of Britain’s best loved actresses.  

Hungerford Arcade has a treasure trove of interesting items that can be used in many other ways than what they were actually designed for.  This is why the Arcade has become a hunting ground for all craft creators.  

When Emma Willcock and her daughter came to the counter with bags of assorted buttons, I instinctively sensed that she was a craft designer.  When we spoke, Emma told me how she got into creative craft and how she turned a hobby into a business.   I will let Emma tell you in her own words.

” Over the years my career path has ranged from veterinary nursing to working within adult education and now a full time mum to two of my favourite people in my world – my children.

I decided it would be good for me to start a hobby, something just for myself. If you are a parent then you know where I am coming from! I have always enjoyed being creative and especially love being creative around my                          home. This has led me to my wonderful world of buttons!

http://www.littleemsbuttonsandgems.co.uk/index.html

Go to Emma’s website and see all the marvellous things that she makes and testimonials from very happy clients.

“You can’t teach an old dog tricks” is a saying that doesn’t mean much to the members of the University of the Third Age who came on a trip to Hungerford Arcade the other day.  If you haven’t heard of it before, the U3A is a nation wide organisation with groups around the country encouraging retired and semi-retired people to come together and learn new things.  The U3A doesn’t offer qualifications – the members learn just for “the sheer joy of discovery.”  The members learn from one another – anyone can be a teacher or a student. 

The “students” we met are part of the Antiques and Collectables group at the High Wycombe & District U3A.  This year they are focusing on Wedgwood, Clarice Cliff and blue & white pottery.  They spent the entire day wondering around the Arcade and went away with some real treasures, from jewellery to Dinky toys.  I hope they learned a lot while they were here – I know I did.  They are an incredibly friendly and knowledgeable group of people and I very much look forward to their next visit.

Rude jokes and toilet humour are certainly not new concepts.  If you are sensitive to them, please stop reading now!  I’m sure toilet humour dates back thousands of years, but the example I’m going to share with you today is from around 1820-1850.

Chamber pot, potty, po or gazunder – call it what you like, this item of necessity is instantly recognisable and was for years a very important item to keep in the bedroom.

 The one I am showcasing today is perhaps more of a decorative item than a utilitarian one.  The frogs (or whatever they are) climbing up the inside wall might have made it difficult to clean.  If anybody reading this has any idea what those little frog-like creatures are for, I would be grateful if you let me know using the comment tool at the bottom.  

The transfer printed portrait of a man in the bottom is presented with a little rhyme – though a little bit worn it isn’t hard to work out what it originally said. “Use me well, keep me clean.  I will not tell what I have seen.”  I’m glad he’s not willing to tell me the things he’s seen.  The poor chap must have a few horror stories.

On either side there are slightly more risque poems – I won’t type them out as they are quite clear in the images.  Unfortunately, this wonderful example of antique lustre ware is quite badly broken.  It originally had two handles and it is cracked through the body, but is still a brilliant item.

As a matter of interest, the style of pottery we are looking at is known as Sunderland Lustre or Pink Lustre.  Gold was used in the glaze which turns pink when fired and the mottled effect was made by dripping oil onto the glaze before firing.  I’m no expert so I can’t say exactly when and where this piece was made; factories as far south as Staffordshire were producing pink lustreware throughout the 19th century but this mottled effect is very typical of the Sunderland factories.  

The Arcade is a great place to look for birthday presents.  Whether you are old or young I can bet that you will find something you will love.  But when a family comes in looking for a present for their 13 year old boy, you expect them to maybe find something like matchbox cars or dinky toys.  Maybe some records if he likes music, or something in the hunting and fishing arena possibly.

Callum Bond came in with his parents the other day for his 13th birthday and what he left with surprised us all.  Callum is hoping to bring the Victorian look back in at his school, so this top hat and cane were his first choices for presents from Mum and Dad.  Doesn’t he look dapper?  

Thanks very much to Callum and his parents for being such good sports and posing for a picture! Happy birthday Callum!

Midwinter Modern melamine teaware

The chemical melamine has many uses; from an ingredient in some mixtures of concrete, to an additive in industrial fertilisers.  But mix it with formaldehyde and it becomes an incredibly strong, light and easily moulded plastic.  

The relative light weight and strength of melamine led to its use as dinnerware aboard some ships in the US Navy – which in turn led to its use in millions of homes in the US and here in Great Britain.

1950s advert for “Unbreakable” Melmac

During the Second World War, metal was expensive.  But aboard a Navy ship, it is my assumption that dinner plates falling on the floor was a very common occurrence, so everything had to be made out of tin – a light-weight and durable metal.  As I mentioned, metal was at a premium and an alternative was needed.  I’m sure they tried with other plastics such as bakelite, but it was brittle and didn’t stand up to repeated exposure to moisture and heat.  This is where melamine comes in.  The manufacturers touted it as “Break resistant” and “Virtually unbreakable” and that turned out to be quite accurate which made it the perfect material to use for military dinnerware.

Rare Fantasy dinner service designed by Joan Luntz

After the war, designers such as Russell Wright and Joan Luntz worked with companies in America to bring melamine into the nations kitchens with modern designs and bright colours.  It wasn’t long before the craze made it to this side of the Atlantic and for some time, ceramics companies such as Midwinter were so worried about melamine taking over completely, they released their own range of modern dinner sets using the revolutionary material.

1960s melamine dinner set found in The Arcade

The set I have taken pictures of here is most probably of 1960s English origin.  The box seems like it is original as all the pieces fit nicely inside internal compartments but I am unable to find any other evidence that Royal Tudor Ware ever made any melamine crockery. But as I mentioned before, some English ceramics companies did produce melamine for a short time to try to keep up with a changing market.

Original box for my melamine dinner set?

As with all things, fashion changed and a move back to the traditional china and ceramic dinnerware was inevitable.  By the 1970s melamine had been relegated from the dining room to the picnic basket and the camper van (which is where I keep mine!).  But today, if you were to do a quick search on eBay or Etsy you will find some of the big names in melamine are making a comeback.  Mid-century design hasn’t been this popular since… well, since the mid-century!  

Alex Rogers