Gerald Barnham is always on the lookout for pictures of his Aunt Zoe, who appeared on milk advertisements in the 1950s, so every time he goes into an antiques shop or bookshop he knows what to look for – never expecting to find anything.  Today however he got lucky.  Not only did he find the very edition of Picture Post he was looking for, bt it was in the most fantastic condition.  It even still contained the centrefold pull out poster with a picture of his Aunt which he had never seen before.

Needless to say, Gerald was very pleased with his find and even more pleased with the price – £3 is all it cost him to come closer to completing his collection of his Aunt’s modelling photoshoots.  Unfortunately, a lot of them will never be seen again as they were billboards.

The model’s name is Zoe Newton and was modelling between 1955 and 1957.

Thank you to everybody that came to our first ever Vintage Fashion Evening.  We put it on as part of the Hungerford and District Community Arts Festival and we were pleasantly surprised with how well attended it was.  Thanks goes out mainly to Chula who organised pretty much everything and also to the various traders who came down and turned the Arcade into the bustling clothes market it became that night.  Watch this space for another evening like this in the future.

Credit to Tony Bartlett for these photographs.

You may have noticed the scaffolding up over the last few weeks and wondered what was happening to the Arcade.  Well fear not – it isn’t being pulled down or converted into flats or anything quite that exciting.

We have had some minor roof repairs done and the entire frontage repaired and repainted. 

To the untrained eye, it will look no different at all as we have stuck to our old familiar colours and our new signs will be our old familiar logo – so no big changes.  Just fresh and clean. As it should be.

The most exciting bit was the view from the roof!

Congratulations to The Duke and Duchess of Sussex on their wedding day from everybody here at Hungerford Arcade.

The Union flags are going up throughout Hungerford in honour of this weekend’s Royal Wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.  

I published this article recently in our monthly newsletter but thought it was worth sharing again for those who may have missed it.  It’s an example of the kind of history you can find in the simplest of things while browsing in a place like The Arcade.  Thanks to Jane Elliman for taking the time to write this for us.

I spotted these two postcards in the Junk Shop the other day and was immediately drawn to the images so decided to see if there was any text on the back, so I was even more interested to discover they were both addressed to the same private house in Bristol. The post-mark isn’t readable and one stamp had already been removed but I guessed they must have been sent around the beginning of the 20^th Century. The beautiful “Pre-Raphaelite” girl postcard is a birthday card to a Mrs Wright from her “loving daughter May” and the Little Miss Muffett card is to Miss May Wright with “lots of kisses from Dadsy and he hopes you are well and a good girl”.

Well, this was all I needed to find out a little more about this family so at the earliest opportunity (as soon as I got home) I logged onto my Ancestry account and started with the 1911 census. It didn’t take me long to find a family that seemed to fit and a quick check of the front page of the census confirmed it was indeed the correct address that was on my postcards of 139 Cromwell Rd, Montpelier, Bristol.

So we have Thomas George Wright aged 60 married who is employed as an Inspector of Schools whose birthplace is Stoke Priors, Worcestershire. His wife is listed as Maria Susan aged 44 having been married 12 years with one child………but……. the census continues with Gladys Martha listed as daughter aged 23 working as a Teacher in an Elementary school as well as Beatrice May aged 11, who must be the recipient and sender of the postcards. So, who then is Gladys and who was her mother as it couldn’t possibly be Maria Susan?

I moved further back in time to the 1881 census and searched for Thomas George Wright to see where he was and what he was doing then. I found him living in York, married to Mary Hannah with a daughter Kathleen aged 1 year. His occupation is listed as a Lecturer in a training college.

By 1891 they had moved from York to 139 Cromwell Road in Bristol with a further 3 siblings for Kathleen; George, Gladys and Horatio. It’s apparent now that something must have happened to Mary Hannah as by the 1901 census Maria Susan is listed as his wife with Beatrice as 1 year old. Kathleen, George Gladys and Horatio Herbert are all still present at the address.

A search of the death registers for Bristol between the years of 1891 & 1900 revealed that Mary Hannah died in 1897 aged 43. A further search of the marriage registers between 1897 and 1900 revealed that Thomas then married Maria Susan Biggs on the 4^th August 1898.

I was then able to search and see that Thomas passed away aged 70 in 1921 and Maria aged 83 in 1949.

Sadly no-one seems to be researching these family names on the Ancestry website so one can only assume the family line has finished which is how the cards ended up in an Antique Centre.

This all goes to show that a simple item such as a postcard with an address on can easily reveal a family history and for some people can become a fascinating hobby or even occupation.

There are many websites and magazines that cover the subject as well as groups and society’s and even fairs up and down the country. Most websites are subject to a membership fee and basically the more you pay for your subscription the more you can research. To follow your research back beyond civil registration in 1837 you will undoubtedly have to visit some record offices. Each county town will have their own archives and many hours can be involved in scrolling through microfiche copies of early records.

I am a member of the Hampshire Genealogical Society and subscribe to Ancestry, Genes Reunited and 192.com.

Jane Elliman

April 2018

Hungerford Arcade owners, managers, staff and stallholders wish Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II a very happy and joyous Birthday.

By Original: Joel Rouse/ Ministry of DefenceDerivative: nagualdesign (www.defenceimagery.mod.uk) [OGL 3 (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3)], via Wikimedia Commons

We don’t know where they came from, we don’t know what brought them to Hungerford, and we don’t know where they went when they left.  But what we do know is that we would very much like them to come back!  On Saturday the High Street was suddenly full of classic racing cars and as I said, we don’t really know why.  But here they are in all their glory for you to enjoy as well.

Hungerford Arcade is a great place to come to find links to local history.  Some of the most interesting things seem to have originated just around the corner from us and somehow they seem to find their way home again.  This very thing happened today when we met Anne and Dave Herbert from the Swindon and Cricklade Railway.  Dave found this fantastic cast iron sign in the shop and thought it would be a great idea to take it back to where it belongs. It will be mounted somewhere along the railway, most likely near a station, for visitors to look at.  

The Swindon and Cricklade Railway is a heritage railway rather than a commercial public transport link.  They run steam and dielel locomotives along a private 5 mile long track between Swindon in the south and Cricklade in the north.  They are always looking for things to make the experience more authentic and hoping to extend the railway both north and south as soon as they can.

Dave is a consultant for the railway museum and whenever he finds something relevant he tries to source it for them.  He also has a personal collection of 744 items of railway memorabilia! 744!  Anne is the manager of the Whistle Stop Cafe at Blunsden Station at the southerly end of the railway.

There is so much history to discover without having to travel far away from Hungerford.  The Swindon and Cricklade Railway is well worth a visit if you are even mildly interested in steam and early diesel locomotion. Dave told me that the sign would be being put up at the railway within a couple of weeks so keep your eyes open for it!

Hungerford Arcade owners, managers, staff and stallholders wish all our Irish friends a very happy St. Patrick’s Day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Creative_Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Nheyob

Saint Patrick was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the “Apostle of Ireland”, he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, along with saints Brigit of Kildare and Columba.