Hello Again

You are about to read the shortest ever article that I am ever likely to write but before I continue here is some background to my humble offering.

As you might have guessed, I am something of a railway buff and like nothing better than spending my pocket money, travelling on a train to exotic destinations such as Acton Main Line and beyond.

Another silly habit of mine is that I collect old railway magazines and herein lies a tale as in about 2017 I remember purchasing a small bundle of railway magazines dating mostly from the 1950/60s from the Arcade.

I did not read them at once, but when doing so found the following account of a trip on The Far Tottering and Oyster Creek Branch Railway in Battersea Park in 1951.  Whether it was a fiction or a fancy or something else is hard to tell as it had been written, it appeared, quite rapidly on a scruffy piece of paper.

At the time of my discovery, I copied the contents onto my laptop with the view of using it later on in an article (I often do this).

Well fast forward to January 2021 when I decided that I would need to rationalise the contents of my laptop as it was rather disorganised to say the least.

After a short while, I found the The Far Tottering and Oyster Creek Branch Railway detail that I had stashed away some years previously.  It was then that I decided to put this very short article together if for nothing else, but to cheer us all up during these dark lockdown days.

Then, problem number one occured as I had just moved to the sea and even six months down the line, I still haven’t unpacked all my books (This is due to pure laziness on my behalf and nothing else).

I believe that both my railway and bus magazines (I have about sixty) are sharing a nice comfortable box with Aldous Huxley and his pals amongst other authors.  This meant in short that any attempts to find the magazine in question would be more difficult than climbing K2.

So hopefully on a fair summer’s day with the windows thrown wide open, I might open the correct box and place their contents on my rather nice new bookcases (It will be a choice of that or crashing out on the beach).  I had heard of The Far Tottering and Oyster Creek Branch Railway as my late mother had told me about it for I was not even a twinkle in 1951.

The Far Tottering and Oyster Creek Branch Railway was the brainchild of Rowland Emett and began its life in Punch Magazine in 1939 as a series of cartoons.  But when the Festival of Britain came along, Rowland was asked to help out.

Ben Brooksbank / Festival of Britain Exhibition, 1951

The miniature railway was a third of a mile long and carried passengers through the Battersea Pleasure Gardens.  It was very Heath Robinson in its design and presented a rather silly view of our rural countryside.

For those familiar with Rowland and Heath Robinson’s work, nothing was to be taken too seriously which is why the attraction proved so popular carrying some two million customers during the festival.

But once the festival closed and the exhibits were demolished (with an almost obscene haste I must add) the railway alone lingered on until 1953 when it was moved to another part of the park.The actual railway in its new home finally closed in 1975 and I personally have no real memory of it although, I am told that a cutting can still be seen.

It was one of those gloriously eccentric railways that for some reason we excel in building (The Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway is another odd example).  As I noted, this was going to be a short article and I thought that it would be fun to share it with you whether it was a fiction or a fancy or a remembrance of things past.

If nothing else, this anonymous account of how a day out on this lovely little railway etched itself into the memories of a child is evocative to say the least and a memory of an England now somewhat forgotten.

On the subject of The Festival of Britain in 1951, one can usually find items associated with the festival in the Arcade.  I have seen the festival brochures on sale on a number of occasions and the specially minted boxed souvenir coins show up from time to time.  But before I close, here is the small account that I found in my railway magazine.

When I was very small my parents took me on a trip on The Far Tottering and Oyster Creek Branch Railway in Battersea Park.

It was a great surprise to see my ‘project’ appear on the front cover of the Goring Gap News this week after I delivered the ‘creation’ to Grannie’s front garden as a bit of a Lockdown surprise for her. It seems to have captured people’s imagination and I could probably start a business, if I had the time to do it!

During the first lockdown, I needed a project to keep me busy and had seen pot people before around the village of Shere near Guildford. Thinking I could probably make some as well, I went about collecting the bits needed, mostly from the Hungerford Arcade – particularly the bench ends and pots. Most of the other bits can be found in local charity shops (children’s wellies etc.).

Copyright © 2021 Jim Emerson

I had great fun in the garage figuring out how to put it all together and probably painting the faces was the hardest part.  The big benefit from Grannie’s point of view is that lots of families with kids lean over the fence to take a look and often are happy to have a socially distanced chat with her.  Just what you need during isolation to stop you going crazy.

What I hadn’t appreciated was the demand to follow!  I would recommend this as a project to any of Hungerford Arcade’s customers who have similar needs during these crazy times…..

Barry Waddell

These are two fine examples of Blunderbuss’s from the 1780’s. Some of several available in unit 11 here at Hungerford Arcade along with a multitude of other militaria memorabilia.

The blunderbuss is a firearm with a short, large caliber barrel which is flared at the muzzel. It was used with shot and other projectiles of relevant quantity or caliber. The blunderbuss is considered to be an early predecessor of the modern shotgun, with similar military and defensive use. It was effective only at short range, lacking accuracy at long distances.

The term “Blunderbuss” is from the Dutch word donderbus, which is a combination of donder, meaning “thunder”, and bus, meaning “Pipe”. The flared muzzle is the defining feature of the blunderbuss. The muzzle was flared with the intent not only to increase the spread of the shot, but also to funnel powder and shot into the weapon making it easier to reload on horseback or on a moving carriage.

Jonathan Cardy, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The blunderbuss was typically issued to troops such as cavelry who needed a lightweight, easily handled firearm. In addition to the cavalry, the blunderbuss found use for other duties in which the shotgun-like qualities were desirable, such as for guarding prisoners or defending a mail coach. They were also commonly carried by officers on naval warships for use in close-quarters boarding actions. 

The origin of the word peddler is unknown, but it might come from the French ‘pied’ or Latin ‘pedis’ meaning “foot”, referring to a trader on foot. Peddlers usually carried their wares in a back pack or used a cart and were important visitors to any village. Poor roads meant wealthy merchants saw no profit in rural areas, giving an opportunity for Hawkers to make money trading between villages and hamlets which rarely saw anyone else. They bought, sold and bartered second-hand goods among the villages and brought in new goods in from neighbouring towns and ports. Most carried an extremely diverse range of goods which could be sold or bartered and included: combs, pins, cheap jewellery, knives, woodenware, knitted goods, books, needles and needlecases, cloth, metalware, baskets, rings, wooden instruments, dyes, ink, paper, parchment, rugs, pots, religious objects, spices, caps, yarn, stockings, ready-made shoes, wool hats, cups, flagons, brushes, brooms and wooden toys. They had to be careful when trading woollen items, especially in raw form or on rolls as the Guilds were jealous of their monopoly. Peddlers and Hawkers also had to be careful not to encroach upon the livelihood of local blacksmiths when trading or repairing metal items as every village depended on the local blacksmith for several services and could not afford to alienate them.

2.     Stephen of Loxwood – Mercenary Man-at-Arms

soldier. It was used to describe a fully armoured heavy foot soldier who was occasionally mounted, but while all knights certainly were men-at-arms, not all men-at-arms were knights. The man-at-arms primarily denoted a military function, rather than a social rank. The military function was to fight. Stephen is an ‘old soldier’ with twenty years experience on the battlefield. Although not wealthy, (his clothing and equipment shows the wear and tear of long service) he has accumulated a large variety of practical equipment, interesting stories and scars over the years. As a professional soldier, Master Stephen fights on foot, on horseback, in line formation or on his own. He gets regular pay from his Lord and also collects whatever items of value he can find after a battle, giving half to his Lord in tribute. His current employer is Sir William Marshall, Knight Commander of the forces of the Earl of Arundel.

3.      Master Stephen – Goldsmith

The relative value of jewellery was much higher in the middle ages than it is today. It was said that at his wedding, Charles V of Burgundy wore ‘jewels, crowns, belts, rings and other good worked stuff’ worth the county of Shropshire and everything in it (around £50-£100 billion by today’s standards). Gemstones were prized both for their looks and for magical properties. Pope Clement VII consumed over 40,000 golden ducats worth of ground gemstones by his death in 1534 in an attempt to cure his various illnesses. The geographical origin of gems in medieval jewellery shows the extent of trade throughout the world, for example the 53.5 carat ‘Sancy’ diamond belonging to Charles the Bold and listed amongst his possessions at his death in 1477 originated in India, and the 194.7 carat ‘Orloff’ diamond in the Russian crown jewels was originally the left eye of a statue in a Brahmin temple in Madras. Master Stephen trades in small pieces to the local nobility, concentrating on rings and hat badges.

The Hungerford Arcade is an excellent place to find all manner of goods for these three characters. A recent visit netted some silver plate and pewter dishes, goblets for a banquet, a wooden stool and some jewellery which was taken apart, gold plated, and is now a series of hat badges being worn by the ‘Destrier Pro’ international jousting team. Previous pieces bought in the arcade have been reworked into items shown on film and TV shows such as ‘The Tudors’, ‘Elizabeth’, ‘Gladiator’ and ‘Robin Hood’. A surprising find was some long hazel stakes which can now be seen as the support poles for the awning of the Peddlers cart (see photo).

Master Stephen – Goldsmith

The Peddler with hazel stakes made into support poles for the Peddler’s awning

Some shiny finds from Hungerford Arcade

Here we have a beautiful example of a vintage Merrythought toy cat. These now very rare and sort after soft toys are manufactured by Merrythought based at Ironbridge in Shropshire. Merrythought is now the UK’s last remaining teddy bear factory which originally started manufacturing soft toys in the 1930’s and became the UK’s largest toy factory by 1935. The company was started by Gordon Holmes in the 30’s and is still family run by his 2 daughters to this day now coming up on 100 years!

They have many famous bears such as the original “Mr Whoppit”, known as the mascot for the famous land and water speed record breaker, Donald Campbell. In 1957 the “Cheeky” bear was introdused and is still manufactured at the same factory in the same way today!

Gordon Cragg / Merrythought Teddy Bear Shop

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Merrythought_Ironbridge_2009.jpg

Production continued right up to the early 2000’s before the influence of cheaper foreign products began to flood the UK markets forcing Merrythought to change their direction. In 2007 they started to focus on a small much sharper “collector” based group of products.

All the toys are still hand made in England using traditional methods such as mohair to produce a limited range of toys for the high end of the market. More Recently they have produced limited edition bears for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton and the Queens Diamond Jubilee!

This is one of many wonderfully rare items with such a history in its making that we have here at Hungerford Arcade. 

Hungerford Arcade is full of all sorts of wonderful treasures and trinkets. Today we have this beautiul childrens silver charm bracelet!

Charm bracelets are known to have been used even as far back as 75,000 years ago made from shells or bone. They were originally thought to be made or given to warn off evil spirits or bad luck! In more recent times, Queen Victoria was famously known to wear and gift charm bracelets even starting a fashion for them amongst Europian nobles.

Such intricate detailing on the very small charms “Mouse with Cheese, Wishing Well, Sledging Bear and Mare with Foal!”

The individual charms on the bracelets usually carry a personal or sentimental attachment to the owner making many of these very unique indeed!

Today most famous for their charm bracelets, “Tiffany & Co” released their first charm bracelet in 1989 with the iconic dangling single heart cham. Although public interest in the Charm Bracelet waned in the latter 20th century, popularity increased after 2000 and vintage charms have been much sort after in fashion and by collectors.

Hungerford Arcade has many wonderful things in all the units and today, I want to show you the beautiful Sweetheart Brooches in Ann Parker’s Unit 42P.

Many wonderful things were made in the trenches of WWI from old shell cases and bullet casings.  This gave the soldiers something to while away the hours and help take their mind off the long wait for the next order to go over the top and face the enemy once again!  This was called Trench Art which is very popular from a collector’s point of view and you can often find wonderful examples of them at the Arcade.

During the Great War (WWI), service personnel desperately wanted to stay in touch with their loved ones and sent home many different types of memorbilia.  Valentine’s Day, Birthdays and Christmas were all special occasions and men from the different Armed Forces started to make Sweetheart jewellery using their various badges and insignia to make Sweetheart brooches and pendants to send to their wives, girlfriends, sisters and mothers who would wear them with pride, remembering their brave men away at war in a foreign land.  At the time, this would have been Regimental badges, Royal Navy insignia and the Royal Flying Corps wings.

Very rare Grenadier Guards Sweetheart Brooch in 18ct Gold and Diamonds

This tradition carried on into WWII.  This time, the Sweetheart brooches insignia and badges were made in miniature by jewellers and other jewellery makers. Now, it included the Royal Air Force (formerly the Royal Flying Corps).  Compared to the mainly big service badges and insignia, they were easier to wear on different types of clothing and were still very much treasured by the ladies who received them.

Today, these Sweetheart brooches are very collectable.  They are a wonderful piece of our heritage and when you touch one, you can feel the love with which it was given and received.

As you can see, Ann (Unit 42P) has a wonderful collection.  The next time you are in the Arcade, stop by her unit (by the desk) and have a look at the Sweetheart brooches and a great deal more.

Hungerford Arcade is no stranger to television, radio, magazines and newspapers, having appeared many times on and in each.  This week, we appeared in the Country Living Magazine, highlighting some of the beautiful garden features owned by Trevor and Jane Elliman (Unit 12) and Kay Davies (Unit 19).

The garden section is huge and and carries a wide variety of beautifuL items, including statues, bird baths, garden wall art, watering cans, gates and much, much more,  Stock is changing all the time so, when we reopen, come along and take a look for yourself.  I promise, you will not be disappointed.

The Country Living feature was written by Serena Lake and photographs taken by Susie Bell.