Summervale

Derek Mothersele

2012-01-31T16:48:00.003Z

I'm not sure how but I had an email from a David Mills ho went to school wiht Derek.He Asked me to forward an email to Dianne. This I did and he also sent me a photo from Steps Cross School showing both Derek & himself.
The photo was not brilliant

but with the magic of one of my programmes I have enhanced it.
Can you recognise Derek?

A message from Bobby Chambers

2012-01-19T16:44:00.001Z

Hi Jeannie, HNY, hope the move went well, and you are feeling much better. So sorry to hear about Derek M, I remember him so well. Really looking forward to the reunion, stopped in Ilminster a couple of weeks ago, wife did some retail therapy in Labels for Less, opposite the Dolphin, town was quite busy despite iffy weather, good to be in the old place again, ah nostalgia, there’s no future in it. Cheers for now, LBC.

Bob

Smiling Bobby with Tony Satchell,one of the Jolly girls, not sure which one and Malcolm Driver?

Sadly Derek Mothersele has died

2012-01-10T20:19:00.001Z

I am sorry to have to say my brother past away suddenly on New Years Eve.

He will be sadly missed by all.

Eric and myself will still attend the re-union.

Regards

Dianne (Mothersele)

FLYER A LA PETER

2012-01-10T08:50:00.001Z

This is the flyer Peter will be sending out shortly. What it lacks in artistic merit it makes up for in simplicity

SUMMERVALE REUNION

WEDNESDAY, 27^TH JUNE 2012

AT THE SHRUBBERY HOTEL

Jean Boyce and Peter Westmacott are trying to contact as many Summervalians as possible for a very informal gathering in Ilminster at the Shrubbery. We shall meet from 10 a.m. in the Somerset Room, which we have hired for the day. Tea/coffee will be served on arrival, there will be a buffet lunch and afternoon tea. The cost, including the room hire, will be £20 per person.

This is a golden opportunity for you to meet old friends from the 1940s and 50s, and to reminisce about those wonderful Summervale days. This is a real one-off chance to see all your old friends, so we hope you will make every effort to come along to what should be a great day.

CUT -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMERVALE REUNION

Please book by Wednesday, 29^th February 2012, and return this form and cheque (made payable to P.B. & G. Westmacott) to Peter Westmacott,

29 Meadow Gardens, Beccles, Suffolk NR34 9PA.

Tel. 01502 716387 e-mail glen63@live.co.uk

Name(s) ………………………………………..

Address ………………………………………..

……………………………………………………..

Tel. No. …………………………………………

Total payment (£20 each) £…………..

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you want overnight accommodation The Shrubbery are offering a double room and full English breakfast at £100.00.
Phone – 01460 52108
or The Travelodge at Horton Cross currently have rooms at £29.00 for 27th June. Phone – 08719846229.
I am getting quite excited now as I have wanted to do this for years but I am not up to organising anything these days. Peter tells me has experience in organising reunions so I am more than happy to leave it all to him.
DON’T FORGET YOU CAN HELP BY CONTACTING EVERYONE YOU KNOW WHO MIGHT NOT BE AWARE OF THIS BLOG.

SEE YOU HERE VERY SOON

REUNION FLYER

2012-01-06T14:48:00.001Z

I am about to send this out to people for whom I have addresses but not email addresses.

This is the list I have so far -
Carol Richards
Lily Wren
Gloria Dixon
John Rogers
Joan Wakeham
Mike Jolly ( number not known)
Peter Plumridge
If you can help me save a few pennies and you know someone’s contact details please either let them know or advise me or Peter.

I have email addresses for the following -
Adrian Hooke
Bobby Chambers
Brenda SIMPSON
Carole Brown
Christine JOLLY
Dianne MOTHERSELL
Graham Whiting
Irene BROWN
Janice SYMONS
John Satchell
Marion BROWN
Mike Smith
Norman Newlyn
Peter Symons
Rob Drayton
Roger Everson
Terry Pell
If you can help in anyway to contact others to make this reunion a success I would be very grateful.

Normal Service will be Resumed – Eventually

2011-11-21T18:56:00.001Z

Just a quick apology for my absence but we are in the midst of a house move which, from start to finish is scheduled for under 6 weeks. Things are manic and the uncertainty of it all is not helping my stress levels.
We are due to move on 12th December and then we are off on holiday on 17th December.
Hopefully, the New Year will see me back to normal and having the time to spend on my computer and chatting to you all.
JJ

From Little Bobby Chambers

2011-11-12T10:43:00.001Z

Hi Jean, really enjoying the blog, was it only yesterday? Apologies for lack of photos, more chance now the winter is upon us, and that my son, Seth, is home safe and sound from Afghan, phew. the reunion seems so far away, if anyone fancies a day out prior give me a call on ( deleted), just for a quick breeze to the old stomping grounds, a little taster say. hope you are well, best wishes LBC.

Deleted your number Bobby for safety reasons. Contact me instead or leave a message .J

Email from Graham Whiting

2011-11-07T13:12:00.001Z

Hi Jean
I trust you are well? You asked if we were still in Torbay,Were
not, Carol moved initially to Isleworth then finally to Peterborough. I've told
her that I have made contact with you and when she gets herself sorted out she
will contact you.The problem is she recently moved and everything is all over
the place. I am living in Norfolk after moving first from Torbay and then to
London and finally to Kings Lynn.Ive been here over thirty years.I am still
working which is not necessarily a good thing but, I cant afford not at the
moment.Our parents eventually moved to Kings Lynn and both passed away here.I
was looking at the photos on your blog and can recognise Alan Dixon,David
Chambers and Barry Symons. I didn't really know the Westmacotts in Summervale. I
got to know them more in Foxhole Estate.When one of the boys(I cant remember
which) complained about my music being to loud.( I thought every one liked
Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran)
I was in Ilminster just a few weeks ago and had a wander around. Found
Summerlands as it is now called (The hill down to the prefabs didn't seem so
steep as when I was young)I got extremely nostalgic. Which is why I ended up
discovering your blog.I don't know what is that time in my life was very magical.
Silly Old Sod.I was very surprised to see photos of ourselves and others.Carol
and myself weren't around a lot during those days it seemed.Because when we were
six years of age they diagnosed that we were TB contacts and were sent off to
a Sanatorium for a year.Then we moved to Blackdown view. But I managed to keep
in contact with my friends i.e Malcolm Driver, Michael Jolly etc but I can
still remember things like the Coronation Celebrations,I think also we had the
BBC visit us in the rec. when Donald Gray was an announcer / commentator.(If
you remember he had only one arm)I have photos of both of those occasions
which I will copy to you. (Well I would if my scanner would do as it is told
so they may arrive later on their own)I also remember the STC Christmas Parties
and the wonderful presents we received.
A lot of water has flowed under that bridge hasn't it. And I wonder just what
near seventy year olds would have to discuss.I suppose we have photographs to
jog our memories.But it does seem such a very long tome ago now. Anyway I will
close now. Apologies for not replying sooner.
Best wishes
Graham

HERE IS A PHOTO WITH GRAHAM AS THE ONLY BOY AND GUESS WHO IS CUDDLING HIM?

I KNOW, I STARTED EARLY. CAROL SITTING IN FRONT OF ME.

THIS ONE HAS CAROL WITH HER CORONATION CROWN ON HER HEAD.

GRAHAM QUEUING FOR HIS CORONATION MUG.

More from our on the spot reporter– Peter W.

2011-11-07T13:06:00.001Z

I think this was the house on High Street where I collected the papers for my Sunday morning round. I believe Mike Smith did a round from here too. Did anyone else?

Mr Britten's house in Brewery Lane. What rent did we pay him for our prefabs? Was it 5/- a week or 7/6d? Can anyone remember?

Me with my back to "The Green" - now full of houses. Our prefab was to the left of the picture. Is the road wider now that when we lived there?

A fairly empty Market Square. "Frame of Mind" was Mr. Bradburn's newsagents, where I had a morning and evening paper round. Part of "The George" now an upmarket restaurant.

I recall this Silver Street cafe as a milk bar, where we would enjoy our milkshakes on a Saturday morning. I'm fairly sure it had a juke box. Can anyone remember?

I remember the Meadow Vale Cafe just along the road from the church and opposite the Chemists.JJ

Formerly Mr Giles, the newsagent's shop in Silver Street, with the narrow Wharf Lane on the right. We spent many an hour in here pouring over his stamps. Sometimes he would drop hints for us to leave, if we didn't look like buying any stamps!

My Mum used to go Old Time Dancing with Mrs Giles & Mrs Hurlstone.from the bike shop. I just remember some beautiful dresses with layers of coloured net. i learnt to dance before i could walk – almost.JJ

Bonners the butcher, formerly Britten the butcher. I recall going in here with my mother and,occasionally,on my own on an errand for her. She always said he was a very rich man!

Faggots and sawdust come to mind seeing this shop. My Mum always said that the faggots were made with sawdust.no she didn’t buy them.JJ

Now the town library in Ditton Street. Was it a library in the 50s? I never remember going in it.

Yes I remember it well.I was an avid reader in those days and loved The Famous Five books which i read at an early age. One of many buildings built of Ham stone from the nearby quarry. Mellow yellow gets better with age.JJ

Tesco gets everywhere! In Ditton Street looking towards Market Square, with Blackdown View at the top. I think I remember a shirt factory on the left beyond the second car. Was it called Days?

Looking towards the football "grandstand" at the Rec. We spent many a happy hour there, including hanging around in the stand, though we never sat in it on match days. We usually stood behind the goal at the Summervale end, having sneaked in for free!

The grandstand was where we often played games. We must have been small as we had to climb up the steps they were so deep.JJ

The stand looked a bit tatty when we visited. I suppose it's been there for over 60 years. I recall the extension to the main stand being built in the early 50s.

The grandstand was where we often played games. We must have been small as we had to climb up the steps they were so deep.JJ

Not sure where in the Rec this is ? JJ

Thanks for the trip down memory lane Peter. JJ

PETER’S VISIT TO ILMINSTER. Great photos and reminiscences.

2011-11-04T20:18:00.001Z

Here are some photos which Peter has sent me of his recent visit

1. Top of Brewery Lane; no cars in the 50s or theatre! The theatre was a fruit and veg store in our day.

I remember them finding a tarantula in some bananas.(JJ)

2. Corner of New Rd. Was a cafe with juke box.

3. Me at top of Summervale; now blocked off to traffic.

4. .Looking down Brewery Lane. Our prefab was probably just past these modern garages on the right.

5. Looking up Summervale towards the blocked off road. Methodist church at top.

We steered many a home-made trolley down this road without any fear of cars hindering our descent!

6. I think "The Green" was on the right. My grandparents prefab would have been at the end

of this road on the left. Yours too Jean!

7. he International Stores used to stand here. I recall taking my mother's weekly grocery order

here for it to be delivered on a Friday. We always ate well on a Friday evening!

8. Ditton Street, fortunately clear of traffic. Now one-way only.

9. The old Plaza cinema on the left. Occasionally we would let kids into the cinema free by

opening the door on the left in this alleyway! It could also be the unofficial exit if you wanted

to leave the cinema quickly!

10.The old boys' grammar school, now a first school.

11. Wharf Lane, now completely blocked to traffic. It was two-way traffic in the 50s.

Looking at it now it makes you wonder how any vehicle could pass through it at all!

12.Boys' grammar school from Wharf Lane. High windows to prevent people from peering in

and the boys from being distracted from their Latin! Somewhere along there,

nearer the red door was an indoor pool. The water was always freezing and GREEN I remember (JJ).

13. Ditton Street Secondary Modern. We would enter through these gates on the right,

having walked through the Rec to get there.

14. Ditton Street primary school. I never went there but David and Paul did. Mr Wade was

the headmaster at the time.

15.The original kissing gate at the bottom of Brewery lane, with me looking a lot older that I did

in the 50s. On the right was an old earth bank and just below here we would nip over the hedge

to do some scrumping in Mr Britten's orchard. Naughty boys!

16. The Girls' Grammar School where you were educated Jean. Sorry about the scaffolding.

Who else went there? Wenda and Carol Richards I think. Did Carol Whiting attend?

NO. Carol Whiting went to Chard Convent with Gloria and Pat Laughton.(JJ).

REUNION? A MESSAGE FROM PETER

2011-10-28T13:56:00.001+01:00

First of all I must thank Peter & Glenys for taking on the task of organising a reunion as I’m afraid it would be beyond my capabilities these days.

From what Peter says it appears that the Shubbery would be favourite but we must get some idea of numbers before we commit to a date.

I intend to contact as many people as I can but I need everyone to also help by contacting friends and family who may be interested. I then need you to contact me with numbers on my email address -

jeanjeannie44@sky.com

Or – Peter

glen63@live.co.uk.

If you have any comments or ideas please feel free to help out

Thanks

Jean

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News From Graham Whiting

2011-10-25T16:14:00.001+01:00

“Hi! to all you Summervale pensioners.Just to let you know that I and my sister Carol are still here and fit and well.I have Three children Five Grandchildren with one more on the way. I also have two step grandchildren.Sad to hear of my child hood friend Kenny Laughton passing away plus many more on your list.My condolences to all. good wishes to the rest of you. A lot of good memories came flooding back to me with some not so happy.

Love to you all Graham”

I’m so pleased to hear from Graham, I have been searching on several sites to no avail.

This photo is of Carol & Graham on their first day at Chard Convent – Gloria Dixon & I were also there..

Love your man bag Graham!!!!

MORE INTERESTED IN A REUNION.

2011-10-15T16:24:00.001+01:00

Peter Westmacott has been busy networking and has told me the following people are interested in the reunion.

Mike Smith & Maggie plan to come, also Brenda Simpson plus her sisters.

Glenys ( Peter’s wife) has said she would like to come (but she might wander off at some time if there's too much nostalgia!!) and Clive Williams wife, Pam, also plans to come.

David Westmacott probably although not brother Paul as he is his Mum’s main carer.

Bobby Chambers has expressed his interest already.

Me, not sure about Mike, I don’t think it is his ‘thing’ but we’ll see. All partners would be welcome of course if they want to come.

Today – 15th October Peter is in Ilminster looking for a suitable venue. The Shubbery appears to be rather expensive but Peter has come across a place called Monks Yard at Horton. You can check it out here -

http://www.themonksyard.co.uk/

Welcome to Monks Yard, your friendly local cafe, business and party venue. Let us help you plan your perfect event, be it a large conference or intimate wedding. Come and see why we are different, we'd love to meet you!

With a lovely cafe serving fresh, locally sourced food and plenty of outside space we offer something for everyone. Need a conference room? studio? workspace? We are here to help.

Flexibility and a personal approach are two things that make Monks Yard different from the rest. We're close to the A303 and M5, with lovely outside spaces.

Peter will let me know more when he gets home.

Having spoken to Marion Brown and Roger Everson last week I think they would come and Marion said Carol Brown would love it if she is well enough.

So, the list grows slowly, ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE COMING TO THE PARTY?

I’VE GOT MY DATE SORTED!

MAIMIE EVERSON

2011-10-11T08:40:00.001+01:00

EVERSON Maimie : Obituary

Published in the Torquay Herald Express on 6th October 2011

EVERSON Maimie Passed away peacefully at Mount Tryon Nursing Home on 26th September 2011, in her 91st year. Loving wife of the late Harry. Dearest mum of Gary and Lois, Roger and Carol. She was much loved by all her family. A service to celebrate Maimie's life will be held at Torquay Crematorium on Tuesday, 11th October at 10.30am. Family flowers only please, enquiries to T. & I. Stockman 882385. Maimie's family would like to thank her friends and staff at Mount Tryon for their care and support over the years.

So sad to read this but more memories came flooding back.

What a lovely couple they were .Harry the perfect gent and Maimie with her curly hair and always so glamorous

Here is Maimie on the right, front row . Several other familiar faces too!

I last saw Harry & Maimie by the harbour at Torquay. I was sitting on a bench in my lunch hour and they sat down beside me. We had a lovely chat about old times and Harry and I exchanged email addresses. We corresponded quite often and he kept me up to date re STC et al.

My condolences to Roger and Gary.

Jean.

BOBBY CHAMBERS IS UP FOR A MEET

2011-09-14T10:41:00.001+01:00

hi Jeannie, little Bobby Chambers here, reunion, what a great idea. would be free most anytime. photos whisk me back to halcyon days, I’m pretty sure that is David in the bike photo. hunting for my own pics, will post soon as. best wishes LBC.

I would love to see your photos Bob, any of your Dad’s Bike and Sidecar? Loved that!

Don’t you just love the Brylcream???

From Peter Westmacott

2011-09-09T09:29:00.001+01:00

Hello Jean
What a brilliant pair of photos these are. So clear and full of action. I don't ever recall seeing the one of all the boys working so eagerly on their bikes, over near the Dixon's house.
I think I can identify most of the boys shown. From left to right, the first is my brother Paul, then Gloria Dixon (I think) and Derek Drayton. In the next trio it is Mick Jolley, the one leaning over hard to tell, then my brother David. In the last group I have no idea who the boy is with his back to us, but the others are David Chambers, Alan Dixon and myself. Why on earth was I wearing a jacket (and tie?)? Perhaps I was supervising the others, or maybe I didn't want to get my hands dirty!
It was very difficult trying to identify all those in Mrs Newlyn's scout group. Yes, Clive is clearly recognisable in the middle. I think the one next to him, with his face half obscured,
might be Clifford Hargest. The tall boy in the topper might well be Craig Swift.
Lovely pics, Jean. Keep up the good work!!
Regards
Peter Westmacott

I was confused( so what’s new?) Allan Dixon looks smaller and younger than the others so even though I thought it was Gloria she looks older than him. Similarly, your little brother Paul looks older than Allan – strange.But I guess you are right and I also thought Clifford Hargest next to Clive.

Come on , someone else take the identity parade and help us out.

A New(ish) Ilminster website

2011-09-06T19:22:00.001+01:00

I came across this website a few weeks ago -

http://www.dot-the-eye.com/Ilminster/New/(S(1bhd1ezq1yw5qmjq2qf2apum))/Default.aspx?Page=MainPage&LHS=1&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

And I sent them an email asking if they would put a link on their site to our Summervale Blog.Under the Community heading they have a history section and I felt that we could add some interesting photos and stories to that.

They have agreed in principle to us interacting and I sent this email today -

I'm not sure how this will work with your website. Perhaps you could put a section under Community Groups headed - Post War Memories. I could then write a piece introducing my blog and including the link so that anyone interested could see the blog. They could then contact me direct.

I suggest that you and your committee could look at the blog -

http://summervale1944.blogspot.com/

so that you can see all the photos and read the memories of those who lived in Ilminster after the war and still call it " home".

Jean

In the meantime they sent me 2 great photos -

The Bike Boys

Allan Dixon and Peter Westmacott on the right & possibly David Chambers?

?? Michael Jolly, David Westmacott?

No idea! Help.

Note – there is a CAR outside Mike Smith’s bungalow – A rare occurrence.

Mrs Newlyn’s Scouts? ( She is at the back on the left).

I am assuming they are scouts as I don’t recognise anyone except Clive Williams – the love of my young life -

Clive in the middle in white.

Who are the others? Apparently this photo came from the Bristol Evening News.

FROM BARRY

2011-09-06T17:08:00.001+01:00

Hi Jean,
Thanks for the photo and all the info.I have a small suitcase jammed full of photos of this era,my father ran the STC Social Club with others and was often the MC/compare at various functions in Ilmister.
Ron Dixon took most of these pics,when the bad weather arrives, I am planning to have a major sort out of my late fathers paperwork,photos and other various items.
A little bit of info about me,I decided to take early retirement from the radio comms business and at 60 I achieved my aim.
My wife and I are avid golfers so we have spent most of the summer playing golf and spending time with our two and a half year old
grandson.
So there you have it,I will endeavour to dig out those pics and post them to you later in the year,well done for all the time
and effort you have put into the Ilminster project.
Best Regards.

Gloria did say you had loads of photos and I’m really looking forward to seeing them. I remember your Dad very well from the various concerts he was in.He made all us kids feel very comfortable if we went on stage.

Here is another photo of your parents with Maimie and Harry Everson in a boat somewhere. I don’t recognise the other couple.

I know Harry has died a few years ago – we used to correspond by e-mail , amazing at his age. Not sure if Maimie is still around. Someone may know ????

THE MAGIC OF TECHNOLOGY!

2011-09-06T09:09:00.001+01:00

I recently trawled through Facebook entering various names of old Summervaleans. Found one familiar name and sent this message -

Are you the son of the late Eddy Vane who worked for STC in Paignton. If so, my name is Jean Boyce and I have a blog dedicated to Summervale and Ilminster. Please get in touch.
Jean

AND this morning I received this reply -

Hi Jean, Yes my father was Eddie,as you probably know he died nearly a year ago.The whole family inc.his great grandson were due to visit on his 95 birthday.Sadly he passed away a week before, we were all very sad he did not see his great grandson.I did hear there was a blog but at the time I could not bring myself to visit it, but as they say time is a good healer.Barry

Another to add to my list – how exciting

BARRY,

Yes, I received a letter from Gloria Dixon telling me about your Dad. Of course most of our parents have passed on but Mrs Satchell and George Brown are still here.

Just for you, here is a lovely photo of you aged about two? I hope you like it, will read the blog and perhaps contribute to some of the wonderful memories we all have. As you are much younger than me – I’m now 67, you will probably have some very different memories of Summervale.

If you have any old photos I would love to see them.

Jean

THE WAY WE WERE

2011-08-31T15:13:00.001+01:00

Watching the riots on TV really brought it home to me how very lucky we are to live in the relatively peaceful area of South Devon. Although we see in the local press on a weekly basis that someone has been killed of badly injured in a fight it had no impact on me at all. Well, no impact other than not want to go into town on a Saturday night anymore but when I was 16, I was more frightened of Dracula appearing from behind a bush than seeing anyone have a fight.

There were the Teddy boys of course with their slicked back hair, tight, tight trousers and brothel creepers; the bikers ( more my type) with leather jackets and powerful bikes and then later, there were the Mods with their parkers and scooters and umpteen mirrors decorating the handlebars.

At the Jive Club on Thursday night in the Church Hall there was never any trouble despite the fact that knuckle dusters and flick knives were mentioned- no I never saw any. Neither was there any drunkenness, just hours of jiving to the latest records – Elvis, Bill Haley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Everly Brothers et al. This was around 1958 – 1960 when I could dance all evening mostly with my girlfriends, the boys were propping up the walls waiting to take someone home if they were lucky.

Remember Elvis’s King Creole ? Loved it!

http://youtu.be/yA_zS6-dO7Q

Fashions were varied, for jiving we wore sloppy joes ( usually our Dad’s jumper ) over tight trousers and baseball boots on our feet for that extra spring in the step. For “ going out” we wore pleated skirts, rolled up around the waist over several paper nylon petticoats which crackled as we walked. On our feet were the winkle picker shoes with the highest heels we could find.

Remember those wonderful Jukeboxes in the corner of every cafe belting out the Top Twenty but not deafening as is today's music.

Along with the Jukebox went the Espresso coffee in chic glass cups. The machines took some getting used to with the fresh coffee in the filter and the steam jet, very hot, to froth up the coffee – I just loved it. We were never taught how to make pretty patterns in the froth though – that is a modern idea.

The coffee bars were mainly for teenagers, we were quite content to drink coffee of coca cola or juice in those days – alcohol was not on our minds. Perhaps drinking laws were enforced more strictly then and, of course, it was not easily available. You could only buy it from a pub or an off license. Perhaps we should return to those days – definitely take it out of supermarkets. Other countries are far stricter :-

Alcohol in America

Legal Issues

By and large, alcohol consumption rules are set by the states, and in some places, by the counties or cities. Closing times vary from city to city, and in some states (primarily rural areas) there are still 'dry counties' in that you cannot buy alcohol in that area.

In many areas grocery stores can sell beer and wine, but not hard liquor, for that you will need to go to a liquor or 'package' store. In some states, the sale of liquor is controlled entirely by the state and you will need to go to an ABC (Alcohol and Beverage Control) store to buy it.

A few important rules:

1) You cannot drink alcohol in public. Taking a beer out of a pub onto the sidewalk is illegal in most states. Public consumption of alcohol, while tolerated at places like sporting events (the 'tailgate party'), drive in movie theatres and a few other situations, it is generally not allowed in the US. At most bars, you'll either have the cup taken from you at the door by security, or channelled into a 'beer garden' which is separated from the public sidewalk by a small fence. Walking down the street with a glass of beer is certain to get you a citation for 'public consumption'.

2) The drinking age is 21 (with LEGAL PROOF). You are 50, you have grey hair, you look like a geezer, technically, this is not enough to buy alcohol in many states. To get into many bars and buy alcohol, you often have to produce a government issued ID (drivers license, passport) that shows your picture and has your birth date. Some stores will only accept a US drivers license or liquor ID (ID for people over 21 who do not hold a drivers license), so not even a military ID or US passport will be accepted, but this is usually the exception to the rule. In some cases, only ID from that state or a neighboring state will be accepted. It may seem silly, but many a bartender can tell you about how they have turned away grey-haired old ladies because they couldn't produce proof of their age. If you plan to go out drinking, take an ID and avoid any problems. Whether they 'card you' (ask for ID) varies, but better safe than sorry.

3) Driving while drunk is a big no-no. This happens thousands of times a night, and some bars miles from anywhere you have to just ask 'how the hell are you supposed to NOT drink and drive with a place like this." But getting stopped for a DUI test can really cause some problems with your insurance, losing your license for a minimum of six months in many states, and also creating a lot of problems for immigration and VWP. It's best to find a 'designated driver' (i.e. the buddy who gets free Cokes from the bar) and have them deal with you getting home.

4) Every state has a minimum alcohol purchase age of 21 (18 still persists in some US territories). Before the mid 1980s some states had a lower age (it's a matter of state law) but the federal government made certain highway funding conditional on adopting a 21 drinking age. However, the laws still differ in detail by state (for example, in some cases it's illegal for under 21s to consume alcohol as well as buy it, in other cases it is only illegal to purchase alcohol). Providing alcohol to under 21s may be banned by a specific statute or something more general like "contributing to delinquency of a minor". People have been jailed for allowing under 21s (their children, or more usually, friends of their children) to drink alcohol at a party in their house.NIH APIS explains some of the complexities regarding underage possession or consumption of alcohol.

5) In some states, under 21s are not allowed in certain areas of bars, hotels or liquor stores.

6) Taking alcohol across state lines brings you within the scope of federal law. It is not a problem to bring alcohol for your own use from one state to another, but anything, for example, involving under 21s, could lead to offences under federal law as well as state.

7) Being deemed an "alcohol abuser" - which can happen if you are convicted or cited for alcohol related offences (eg DUI) - can cause complications for your immigration status, if you are not a US citizen. Even if you manage to overcome the problems DUI will cause in getting US resident status or citizenship, it could prevent you entering Canada (Canada is even stricter on DUI than the United States) and especially if you live in a border state, this could be a real inconvenience.

8) US state and federal laws on alcohol use among recreational watercraft users (many waterways are under federal jurisdiction) and commercial drivers are stricter than in many other countries. Also, if you cause an accident or injury/death while under alcohol influence, US laws are also stricter and you face the real risk of a jail sentence (and deportation if you are not a US citizen).

Perhaps if we did tighten up on alcohol abuse by young people my grandson(aged 15) would not have been rushed to hospital recently in an ambulance , having been knocked unconscious with a savage blow to his right eye. Perhaps I should make a comparison with “then” and “now” in my next post.

2012 REUNION–CAN YOU MAKE IT?

2011-08-28T10:05:00.001+01:00

Please let me or Peter know if you might be able to make this reunion next year. If not, what date would work for you?

POSSIBLE DATES TO MEET UP NEXT YEAR?

2011-08-25T20:13:00.001+01:00

Hello Jean
I am looking at the following possible dates: Wed 24 May, Wed 31 May, Wed 27 June, Wed 4 July or on the Tuesdays or Thursdays next to these dates. Do you have any preference amongst these dates? Can you see any problems with any of them?
When I am in Ilminster in October I'll certainly have a look at other likely venues. I agree with cyou about Travelodge; not the ideal place really. We did stay in the Horton once a couple of years ago, which was fine for one night, especially at their cheap rates. I think we got it for £19 for two! A good deal.
Best Wishes
Peter

PLEASE CONTACT ME OR PETER

Two Replies to our Reunion.

2011-08-22T19:26:00.001+01:00

From Adrian Hooke

I would like to attend a Summervale reunion, given enough advance notice (since we would have to travel from California). Please add me to the "interest" list.
PS: I went to the school on North Street when I was about six. I remember girls being at the playground break, so there must have been a girls component. From there I went to the Ilminster Junior Boys' School in Ditton Street, which now seems to be some kind of Skills and Learning Center; then after the 11+ exam, on to Ilminster Grammar School. We probably moved into Summervale about 1946 or so - does anyone know when exactly it was built? I distinctly remember my 6th birthday in 1950 because we lived at 6 Summervale and I recall looking at the number on the front door. We left Summervale in 1954 when my Dad built a house up on Higher Beacon, leaving Ilminster permanently in 1957 to follow STC down to Paignton.

My Dad moved down with STC in 1940 but my mother stayed in London for a bit. My Dad had really gloomy digs in Chard and then my mother came down and they got married in June 1941. They lodged at at Sea Farm out on the Chard road for a while. I was born in Bridgwater in 1944 and we lived in Watergore and Puckington when I was very young. I suspect that it may have been 1945 when we moved to Summervale.
I first went to Chard Convent as well - my Dad had some wacky ideas about how I should go to private schools. I hated the place with those really mean old nuns (do you remember how they would beat kids and then give out rice paper as a treat?) and I would throw a screaming fit every morning when my parents tried to put me on the bus to Chard. Finally my mother got fed up and told my Dad that I was going to the North Street school - end of subject. Excellent move. I do remember that there were girls at North Street because there one one girl called Valerie Hallett who was a bit weird and who would poop her drawers just about every day.
I just took a Google Maps video tour around Ilminster - the place is still so recognizable. And Dyers down by the church should be a national monument. I remember getting my school uniforms there; they had this wonderful spring-loaded overhead wire system for sending your money to the central clerk's cage, who would return the receipt and change the same way. The little metal containers holding the money were always whizzing around overhead.
I hope that the reunion works out. We are still working for NASA in Washington DC but I have some health problems so we will relocate back to California in a couple of weeks. I will think about retiring if the economy and the stock market ever gets out of the current hole. We are hoping to visit the UK later in October.

Here is a great photo of Adrian from his website -

Still signs of that red hair!

AND : ROB DRAYTON

Hi Jean and Peter, hope you are well and thanks for the e-mail regarding the possible Summervale reunion. I will be passing on the information to my mum Edith (known as Edie and Ede) Drayton who was 89 in July - she has been poorly after breaking her shoulder in a fall and then contracting the Norwalk virus in hospital but is now recovering well. I will also let me brothers know - the oldest is Derek and the middle brother Michael - I am Robert, the youngest of three children. My dad Dennis sadly died seven years ago and we lived at Number 15. In fact I was born there in 1951 - a true Summervale boy then!
Just a few comments regarding some of the request on the blogs:
The photo of the children immediately below the photo of the ladies in the sack race - I believe it is brother Derek top left (I will check when I see him next).

Regarding Derek Johnson, I vaguely remember that he passed away a few years back but will try and check that also.
North Street School: this was the home for the infant boys and girls and the junior girls - the infants went through the left-hand door and the junior girls through he right-hand door; when the infant boys were old enough they transferred to the junior boys school in Ditton Street (headmaster in my time was Tom Wade), the infant girls moved over into the junior girls section. After that, they would all go to either the boys grammar school in Silver Street, girls grammar school in Cross House behind the Minster, or the secondary modern in Ditton Street; a few might have gone to he convent in Chard. One of the teachers I remember at North Street was Mrs Kierstan - her son Richard (deceased) was in my class and he had a sister Peta; father Steve Kierstan was chief bull stockman at Horlicks cattle breeding centre. I also remember another teacher at Ditton Street junior boys was John Chislett.
I hope that brings back a few memories - I have been writing a book about my life and times at work and play in Ilminster which I will get around to publishing some time and reading the blogs is great fun.
Many thanks for reading and best wishes to one and all.
Rob Drayton (incidentally, I became a grandad two months ago - I prefer to call myself grandude)

Wow, I love that!

REUNION??????

2011-08-14T09:07:00.002+01:00

Hello all Summervaleans
Before I moved to Summervale permanently in 1954, my brothers and I lived in Princes Risborough in Bucks. During last winter I came across an old photo of our my primary school football team from 1953. I began to wonder what had happened to the boys - I hadn't seen or had any contact with any of them since moving to Summervale. Where were they now, what had they done with their lives, what were they like now, and were they still alive? The outcome of all my reflections was a reunion of the team - half attended - just a few weeks ago. We had an absolutely brilliant day! Lots of reminiscing, a lunch together, a fascinating visit to our old school, a walk around our old haunts, and so on. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it and we all wondered why we hadn't arranged it years ago. We have agreed to meet again next year!
Then the great thought came to me a few days ago. WHY DON'T WE HAVE A SUMMERVALE REUNION IN ILMINSTER!!! What do you all think? I would be prepared to organise it if enough people thought it would be worth trying. I should think the Shrubbery Hotel in Ilminster might make a suitable venue. We could meet, say, around lunchtime or a bit before, have some drinks and a meal, loads of reminiscing, a stroll round the Sunmervale site, etc. Whatever you like!
What do you all think? Is it worth giving it a go? Let's be hearing from you Summervaleans!
Regards
Peter Westmacott
I have often thought of doing this but, quite frankly, I never felt up to the organising of it.
If you would take it on Peter then I’m first on the list and I will send a copy of this post to those I have email addresses for and send a post card to those I only have addresses.
Anyone who looks in hear and is interested leave a message in the comments below.
JJ
First to reply - Bobby Chambers. See Comments

FROM CHRISTINE JOLLY

2011-08-14T08:52:00.001+01:00

Hi Jean,
Thanks for the memories...how lucky were we to have had such a wonderful carefree childhood..building camps..hide an seek on the green..sledging on Herne Hill..picking bluebells in the woods and trudging home with arms full and mum not knowing were to put them all..Mick getting caught scrumping or caught up to some mischief or another..Val out with her mates never wanting me to tag along but Mum insisting..Dad coming home from work me running to meet him..both past away now but never far from our thoughts..as all the memories come flooding back I shall dig out the old photos and post them to you.
Thanks Jean..will be in touch....Christine x

FROM JANICE SYMONS

2011-08-14T08:38:00.001+01:00

Dear Jean

Since last Oct Your Blog has been a life line for me, so good to get lost in the past for a few minutes ... Thanks too, to others that have sparked memories... I remember from your posting that you lived in Love Lane, Mum and Dad lived there too, she told me she was happy to move to Summervale. The posting of all the food really got me going, I love British food , but now with a little flair of French in it, thanks to my Hero Gordon Ramsey, and to think he may come and live in my Home town... Well better go, THANKS again for the Blog I love it

Love Jan xoxox

Hi Jan,

Thanks for your email posted above. You do not remember Summervale as you were only three when you moved to Paignton so I need to put this right.

Here is a photo of you ( in the front) with me on the left but I don't know who the other girl is.

That is Joe, our lovely dog sitting quite happily dressed in my navy blue knickers and school tie. He was a real character and loved by many – especially by Nell Hewitt and family.

You can just make out a row of runner beans in the background – I still love them.

Here you are being carried by your Dad as we all make our way to the beach at Weymouth. you can just see your Mum and Aunty Pat behind us.I guess the boys had run on!

I am carrying my favourite tennis racket complete with press , my Mum has the coats ( just in case) and my Dad is carrying everything else! I have been trying to work our how old my parents were, only late 40’s but don’t they look so much older compared with today? Fashion has changed hasn’t it?

Summervale was the estate of prefabs where we all lived. There were no road names, we all just lived in Summervale.

This photo shows our homes in Summervale, Ours on the left and yours on the right. Playing cricket are Gloria Dixon, batting. Me ready to catch the ball and Bobby Chambers behind me. Can't quite make out who the other boy is. Barry in the foreground does not looks like a very enthusiastic fielder does he? My Dad with arms folded looks like a proper umpire and Joe is ready to catch and run away with the ball if he can.

Take a close look at the gardens – beautifully kept and, I’m sure very pretty in colour.

Love Lane was a road in Ilminster just off East Street , up past the post office. We never lived there we just had friends who did. Your Mum and Dad lived at 28 Summervale, Ilminster, Somerset. Next door to us.

Hope you enjoy these Janice and get your girls to post a comment.

JJ XXX

Instant Recognition

2011-08-08T17:33:00.001+01:00

Went into town today to try to get a watchstrap ; went in several jewellers but no luck as it is an unusual fix.

I was getting a little cross with myself having lost the spare links ( well, not lost more misplaced I think Ha ha) and as one lady was trying to find me a strap I thought I know you !

Do you know who this is?????

She has a brother who is my age and an older sister. Answers on a postcard to …………….

Only kidding. It is Christine Jolly who. like me still lives in Paignton. How she recognised me I will never know but she did – immediately despite the extra stones I have acquired over the years not to mention the wrinkles.

Her sister Valerie and brother Michael are well and I forgot to tell her that I met Michael in our doctor’s surgery last year. He lives in Chelston. He looks very much like his Dad who played the drums at STC – remember him?

Just for you Christine I will see if I have any photos of your family…………….

Your Mum in the sack race.

All three of you in this one

I’m not sure but I think this is your Dad in the back row on the right.

You will have to let me know.

Well, Mike wants his dinner so I had better turn off this laptop.

Lovely to see you Christine and love to your brother and sister too.

REPLY FROM SUSAN

2011-08-01T10:01:00.001+01:00

Hi Peter
I think I am a little younger than you. I was born in 1959. My memories at Whitelackington are limited but I am sure we lived in one of two thatched cottages. My father was in the the Navy based at Yeovilton. I only attended infant school in Ilminster for a couple of years as we moved to Yeovil. I have been trying to remember just where my Grandma and Grandad lived in Ilminster but can't remember the name of the road. What I do remember is that the front room overlooked fields (where we used to play)and you could see the Horlicks factory. I will see if I have any pics from Whitelackington.

Is it possible to upload to this site?

No, I don’t think so but I can if you email the pictures to me. As I’m a little wary of posting my normal email address on this website – please email me yours to jeanjeannie44@yahoo.com and I will reply from my usual one.

Hi Jean
great to see a picture of the old school. I thought it was only up the street from my Grandad's shop. The only thing that I really remembered was the fact that there were two doors at the front and boys used one and girls the other. My other memory is the knickers that we had to wear for PE....not a pleasant memory and put me of PE for life. It's just a pity that my grandparents or parents are not around to read these posts

Navy blue knickers with a pocket – yuk! When we were there we never mixed with the boys as far as I remember. Did you?

P.E. in the freezing cold in the playground, warm milk in the summer, dreadful toilets which meant you did not go all day if you could help it.

Miss Lye was one teacher I remember and Mrs Pratt. Wracking my brain trying to think of the head mistress’s name ……………….

I have just come across this information :

1853 – National School for infants and girls in North Street erected by voluntary contribution. A cottage in North Street (formerly Langport Street) had previously provided the town’s first elementary education.

I am wondering now if the boys were there or was one side the infants and the other the junior school – anyone know?

Here is a better photo of the school

Under the Creative Commons Licence, the image must be credited as specified by the contributor, an example of good wording is shown above.
(The contributor of this photos is Chris Downer)
You should also mention that the photo is copyrighted but also licensed for further reuse. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a similar licence.

Right, it is 10a.m. and I’m still in bed. I get carried away with my blogs !

That’s all for now

Byee.

DEAR SUSAN–a message from Peter

2011-07-31T07:47:00.001+01:00

Hello Jean
I was very interested in the recent entries you received from Susan Dooney (nee Loxham). I'm not sure if I knew Susan or whether she went to the secondary modern school in Ilminster. However, as she said she lived on a farm at Whitelackington I wondered if she knew a friend of mine from the village called Derek Johnson. He and I were at school together and I seem to recall going out to his place at Whitelackington in one of the long summer holidays.
I haven't heard anything about Derek since I moved from Ilminster to Paignton in 1956, although somewhere along the line I think I heard that Derek and his family had emigrated to Australia, sometime in the late 1950s and 1960s.
Susan - did you know Derek and, if so, have you heard anything about him since he emigrated?
Hope you might have some information for me.
Regards
Peter Westmacott

This is our mystery poster

2011-07-29T09:38:00.001+01:00

Re my comment left on Tues July 26th.
Hi! My name is Susan Dooney (nee Loxham) and as I said previously Eddie and Alice Bradburn were my Grandparents from my mothers side (Brenda Loxham nee Bradburn). I now live in St Annes Lancashire but as a very young child my family and I lived in a cottage on a farm in Whitelackington. I seem to remember that we collected our milk from the farmer in churns while it was still warm. I went to school in Ilminster although I am unable to recall it's name. My mum would frequently walk me to school across the fields from Whitelackington. I also have a vivid memory of a farriers on the roadside in Whitelackington. Ilminster carnival time also sticks in my memory and if I remember rightly it was a big occasion.
I came across this blog quite by chance. I had been using google maps to see what the streets around Ilminster looked like now. I was unsure of the name of the street that my grandad's newsagents stood on. I typed newsagent's in Ilminster and couldn't quite believe it when reading Peter Westmacottt's entry.

Hi Susan,

Thanks for replying. Most of us are aged between 60 and 70 now ( still kids at heart though) so I don’t know if you might remember any of us. North Street school was the primary/ junior school just above your grandfather's shop. It was divided in two – Boys on the left and Girls on the right. Seems archaic now that sort of segregation doesn’t it?
Here is a photo of the school -
Funny what you remember isn’t it! When I passed the 11+ my uncle took me to your grandfather’s shop and bought me a fountain pen – it was a turquoise colour and made by Onoto.
I have never heard of them since so I googled the name and they are still in production and make luxury pens so I guess I should have taken better care of it!
We would love to hear your reminisces of Ilminster and your childhood so if you feel like writing about them please do.

Thanks again Susan

Jean

Please leave your name in your comments and sign the guest book

2011-07-26T08:00:00.001+01:00

I have just received the following comment in reply to Peter Westmacott’s post on 31st January 2011.

Anonymous said...

How lovely to read your story about Bradburn's newsagents. That yorkshire man was actually my grandather. I wonder if you remember his shop assistant Miss Denman? I also have fond memories of visiting the butchers with my grandma but the name of the shop escapes me.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

It would be lovely to know who left this and if he/she had any other memories to share. Anyone remember Miss Denman – is there a story there I wonder?

P.S.The butchers shop my Mum used was Brittons – opposite the Dolphin pub.

More from Peter – Summertime Memories

2011-07-14T10:06:00.001+01:00

A few more to add to the previous list:
* Making peashooters from old cow parsley stems and using dried peas or hawthorn berries as ammo

* Lying in bed on hot summer nights with Vaseline plastered on my legs (eczema!)
* Drinking tepid milk - no fridge in our house then
* Rolling around in the hay with my brothers in the fields on the way to Herne Hill

* Collecting birds' eggs (naughty boy!)
* Helping my grandfather pick blackcurrants and gooseberries in his garden
* Caravan holidays at Weymouth
* Getting stung by stinging nettles and searching for the remedy - dock leaves
* Filling my socks with white powder to combat athlete's foot
* Noticing the peonies in my grandfather's garden and thinking "what a strange flower!"
In the previous set of memories I sent you Jean, you wondered who we had been playing doctors and nurses with in our tent.
The usual suspects - Mary Williams, Valerie Jolly, the Richards girls and I think Joan Wakeham was occasionally in there.
All perfectly innocent, of course!
Happy days
Regards
Peter Westmacott

First there was me and you now Gordon Ramsey!

2011-07-10T19:51:00.002+01:00

FROM + thisisthewestcountry.co.uk

THE Square 1 Brasserie in Ilminster is becoming something of a ‘hang-out’ for famous people.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that Prime Minister David Cameron and his family popped in for breakfast while on their way for a holiday in Cornwall.
Then TV chef Gordon Ramsay was there for lunch on Saturday – and the News has been told he was perfectly polite and there wasn’t a swear word to be heard!
He was happy to meet fans outside who were looking for autographs and photographs with the loudmouth chef.
Among those who met him were sisters Holly and Martha Rogers, 16 and 12, of Ilminster.
Their mum, Sarah, said: “Gordon was lovely, and when he came out of Square 1 the children swarmed round him.
“He was really nice and didn’t swear!
“The children followed him all the way back to Tesco car park where he’d parked.”
A few months ago it was reported that Ramsay had bought a house in Ilminster in Station Road.
Anyone know where – I can’t find anything on the Council planning lists. There was a large house which was a boys home ????

Homeward Bound

2011-07-10T18:57:00.001+01:00

We arrived in Dover after our cruise yesterday and headed West via the M20, M25, M3 and then the good old 303. ( I still remember sitting on the steps outside Mr White’s shop collecting car numbers. God, you would have to be so quick today!)

Anyway, I digress yet again. Traffic was pretty good until we got on to Salisbury Plain when we crawled for miles and miles towards Amesbury. “Queues likely” the signs said but not why. However, once past Stonehenge the traffic disappeared as if by magic and once again we were in top gear enjoying the scenery.

Rain clouds threatened the further west we went.

I love the scenery across the plain – such big skies and huge vistas.

As we approached the Ilminster bypass we saw a police car and an ambulance going very slowly-

and then we crawled to a halt. No traffic moving on either carriageway and more and more cars piling up behind us. Mike turned the car round and we headed back around the roundabout and took the Ilminster exit. We found out later that the whole bypass had been closed due to a vehicle on fire and there were major delays.

And that is why I’m posting today – a few photos of our home town on a summers day in July. A most welcome break from a tedious journey.

Love Lane – happy memories of number 8.

The post office where I very nearly got run over as a child.

Barclays Bank – still there.

Nat West – still there.

And Lloyds – still there. Lots of money in this little town. Which reminds me – John Satchell told me that Gordon Ramsey has bought a house in Ilminster! So he does have some taste!

North Street school, boys on the left, girls on the right.

Houses now built in the old playground. Remember those toilets where the water ran under each one – Yuck.

Girls Grammar School

Back in the car, passing the Dolphin and onwards to Station Road and the 303. Umm, perhaps not, still queues at the roundabout so we turned tail, drove back across what was Brittens fields, past the Rec and into Ditton Street. A right turn took us to Chard and home that way.

This made what could have been a painful journey into a very happy one for me. Not sure how Mike felt - bless!

PS – a final photo for all those who went to Chard Convent -

Looks more like Dracula’s castle to me – I hated it. But that,as they say, is another story.

More Memories From Peter Westmacott

2011-06-18T09:32:00.002+01:00

Hello Jean
A few more summertime memories to add to those you highlighted:
* Playing doctors and nurses in our tents WHO WITH???
* Roast lamb, homemade mint sauce and new potatoes on Sundays
* Holding buttercups under our chins to see if we liked butter or not
* Staying out late in the Rec on those long summer evenings
* Watching the girls make daisy chains (the boys weren't very good at it!)
* Sand in our sandwiches at the beach. Ugh!
* Playing forfeits - could get quite risky!
* noting down car registration numbers in the High Street AND KIDS TODAY GET BORED! WE USED TO DO THAT FOR HOURS!
* picnics on Herne Hill with my brothers, Mum and "Auntie Jackie" (really a friend of Mum's)
* trying to cross the High Street on a Saturday with the endless traffic on its way to the West Country (in the days before motorways and by-passes!)
* watching county cricket at Taunton
* making dens up Herne Hill I CAN STILL SMELL THE BRACKEN
Has anyone else got some more?
THANKS FOR TAKING ME BACK PETER

Adrian Hooke has said -

2011-06-13T20:11:00.001+01:00

In the second picture down in the Weymouth section is a blond girl eating a banana (she also shows up in the center of the 4th picture down). I think that is Carol Whiting and I seem to remember that she and her brother Graham were twins. Aren't they the ones who were diagnosed with TB and sent off to a sanitariam for treatment? I remember them returning with the most incredible tans, probably from sun-ray machines. I often wonder what happened to them after that, given the state of 1950s technology.

Adrian Hooke

Monday, June 13, 2011

No, That is Carol Brown in both photos Adrian.

Carol Whiting is in the header photo above of our first day at the Convent school along with Gloria and Carol's twin brother Graham.

I don't remember the TB incident although I know Charlie Symons had it and was sent to convalesce near Bovey Tracey long before we left Ilminster.

does anyone know where Carol and Graham are?

Summertime Memories

2011-06-11T09:56:00.002+01:00

Sunshine – always sunny!
The sound of leather on willow
Kiss chase in the mowing grass
Picnics on Herne Hill
Bike rides
Picking blackcurrants and strawberries on the fruit farms
Trips to the seaside
Playing tennis – never heard of Wimbledon
Hopscotch
Swimming in the river Isle
Alan Dixon’s canoe
Collecting caterpillars from the cabbages
Hay Fever
Shelling peas
YOUR TURN ………………….

Dave Westmacott Remembers ……………..

2011-05-29T16:39:00.001+01:00

You will notice we haven't been on the blog since September, due to house move as you know and internet problem, sorted out now. we have read all the blog info since, very interesting.

Never did finish my first lot of memories, we got as far as (up to mischief in Summervale). So hear goes the next couple of episodes,Named "the wagon wheel bonanza" and "Scrumping from Britton's". Can anyone remember the wagon wheel bonanza and who was in the gang apart from myself and Mick Jolley,

trying to eat the amount of Wagon Wheels we found would have been impossible in one go for two or more lads and they were twice the size then as they are today that's if they are still made. For those who do not know what wagon wheels are, they were large chocolate covered biscuits the size of a small plate.

In the gang we were out wondering and ventured into the lane at the bottom of the rec to the football tea hut, discovering the door open and being the mischievous, nosey lads that we were, we had to go in and

check it out we found a large box or two open, needless to say the temptation was too great,we quickly took them back into the lane and under the far hedge and then had a feast, the four of us could not finish them all, I can't remember going back for a second helping, but others did, it took me ages to even think of trying to eat another wagon wheel, don't think I've had one to this day and I know we felt sick and it serves us right!!!!

They did seem huge didn’t they but we had small hands in those days. I never liked them, Very fussy and totally spoilt I would only eat proper chocolate such as Cadbury’s or Fry’s or Terry’s. Do you remember Bond’s chocolate – YUCK!

After that, scrumping apples in Britton's field was more tasty,

even though we were chased quite often, do any of you remember that high fence, if you were on the inside and got chased, it was a mad panic scramble to get back on the other side (that was the field on the left after you went through the swing gate at the bottom of Summervale's lane, I think it is Brewery Lane) I tore my trousers on many occasions it was more of a sport then if you were fast you would get your price "the apple" heard the shouts behind us but never got caught, what athletes we were we could have entered for high jump or pole vault if we had kept training.We were all scared, but the excitement took over.

I remember scrumping apples from the field below The Shubbery Hotel. I loved climbing trees but was terrified of falling once up there. Many a time I was pushed or pulled.

Just an added one talking of Brewery Lane, has reminded me of wasps which were often about in the summer along the banks of the Lane and if disturbed could be a pest, this of course made both myself and Mick Jolley very annoyed, even though now looking at the situation, we could have taken the sensible route home which was across the bottom of Summervale and up the hill to no. 10, but being young we didn't want to be sensible so we had a plan and Mick's idea was to do a bombing raid on the wasp nests, something like the dam busters but done by hand. With a bomb of fireworks, ten strapped together we placed carefully into the bank in the nest, being the daring one, Mick would light it whilst I retired to a good 10 yards away and waited for him to start running, of course we watched till the bank blew open to our horror, we hadn't thought these wasps would still fly and boy did they fly, in a swarm at least three yards wide, once again we were athletes, we must have broke the 50 yard record for trying to get home, much too late of course, I had five strings, two on my head and various others on arms and legs, can't remember how many Mick had didn't see him till the next day and we still went to school. We had to!!!!!!!! today they would have been off for a few weeks and been to the doctors. We were built pretty tough in those days. More to follow such as school day friends and teachers and the 1st. school magazine 1st. December, 1957. Hope you and family are Ok Jean. all the best Dave Westmacott.at No: 10.

Thanks for those stories David and glad to have you back. More please.

From our “foreign” Correspondent!

2011-05-25T08:30:00.001+01:00

Hello Jean
Looking at the new Ilminster website you recently displayed, I accessed the cricket club's site. It showed a picture of the club's ground - the old grammar school sports fields. Back in the 1950s the town team played in the Rec. at the side of the football pitch. At this time we Summervale boys spent so much time in the Rec, either playing cricket or football, or watching the town teams play. We used to arrange all our own "matches " there, but when I was 13 I started to operate the scoreboard for the cricket club during their matches. Soon after some of us would hang around the nets when the men were practising; this gradually led to us being asked to bowl at the men. Eventually I got a chance to bat against the men, but some of their bowling could be a little bit quick!
The next season, when I was 14, I was delighted to get a late call-up to play for the town 2nd XI at Staplegrove, Taunton. When Ilminster batted they had a bad day and looked like being out for well below a 100. I was stuck in as last man and the fielders immediately crowded in on me, as they often do with small youngsters. This soon changed when I hit a couple of 4s and I ended up 19 not out. Walking back to the pavilion, I well remember the applause and encouragement, and I felt rather pleased with myself! And it was enough to get me hooked on cricket for life! (Incidentally, I have only just retired from the game last year, aged 68!) Anyway, after the match, we all repaired to a local pub where one of our players asked me what I wanted to drink. Well, of course, I had no idea! We didn't seem to know anything about drinks and drinking then! Someone suggested a cider shandy (what on earth is that, I thought) and I ended up trying a rough cider shandy. Ugh! I don't think I had an alcoholic drink after that for a few years!!
After that game I was asked to play regularly for the team. Soon after I got invited to the County Ground at Taunton to receive coaching from the Somerset players. A great moment for a 14 year old! I travelled up on the bus and had a long session in the indoor nets. I recall Brian Lobb, a very quick bowler for the county, letting go a few express deliveries at me. Wow! Yes, it was a bit nerve-wracking! A good test nevertheless.
At the Rec. our heroes in the Ilminster team were John England and Cyril White, both good batsmen, and the Crockett brothers, Roy and Derek. We loved it when John England whacked sixes out into Wharf Lane and we wondered if we would ever be able to emulate him.
We liked our football too. John England and Cyril White played for the town team and Sid Garland in goal was a great favourite. I liked watching Arthur Paull ("good old Arthur"), a dashing centre forward with brylcreemed hair and a centre parting. You don't see them like that any more! Peter Lee was a very promising young goalkeeper and later on he was to marry one of our Summervale girls, June Wakeham of course. (I wonder where they are now?)
Sometimes there would be big crowds at the matches. This was in the days before most people had cars, televisions and all the other leisure activities that we engage in nowadays.
For F.A. Amateur Cup matches the crowd might be all around the perimeter and packed into the grandstand too. On match days the club would close off the entrances to the Rec and would charge for entry. Often we boys didn't have the money to pay so we soon found ways of by-passing that obstacle. The best method was to arrive at the Rec. very early, well before the barriers went up. We'd set up our own games ,then as soon as the Town started playing we would sneak over to watch them! A bit unethical I suppose ,but we weren't too keen on paying. I think most people did pay, but we boys felt it was an injustice to be charged for using what we rightly felt was "our Rec".
Great days they were! Best wishes Summervalians!
Peter Westmacott

That has awakened a few memories for me too as Tony, my brother was a keen sportsman and,in fact, played at one time for Somerset colts before going into the RAF. He also played football but I’m not sure if he played for the town team. The name Sibley comes to mind in connection with the football – am I right?

I remember going to watch him play at Chard; it was a very hot day and, as we went into the tent for tea, I was sick! I never did get to tuck in to the cucumber sandwiches or the homemade cakes.

June Wakeham remained in Ilminster and is still there as far as I know. She used to work in the Chemists just along the road from Dyers – can’t remember the name but I do remember buying my first lipstick there – aged 11.

Here is a photo of June ( on the right) with Maureen Kearney

Today is John Satchell’s birthday and we still keep in touch. Here is a photo of him as a trendy Mod back in 1961.

Happy Birthday John.

From Peter ( glad someone’s looking in!)

2011-05-04T21:03:00.001+01:00

Hello Jean
A great set of photos of the VE celebrations in Summervale in 1945! I recognise my Mum in the back row, 3rd woman from right. She is holding my brother David (20 months old) in her arms. It made me wonder where I was at the time! No sign of me hanging around at all. I would have been 3 at the time. Perhaps my uncle, Peter Durham, was looking after me. My grandmother (Ethel Durham) is also in the photo, in the same row, the tall one along from my mother.

I recognised several other women but there are quite a few I couldn't name. Can you please name them all for us, Jean? And who is the man (looks like one!) who is in the middle of the back row? How did he sneak in there?
In the photo of the men my grandad, Reg Durham, is in the front row seated 2nd from right. Again, I knew many of the men but certainly can't name them all.
Regarding the picture of the sit-down tea for the kids, I guess the chairs might have come from a local church, perhaps the Methodist church at the top of Summervale ,along West Street
Thanks for posting details of the new Ilminster website. Looking at it yesterday has given me some ideas for another piece for you. More about that next time.
Regards
Peter Westmacott
P.S. Mike Smith and I recently met up for an evening at his house in Berkshire! We had a great time, reminiscing over the old Summervale days in the 40s and 50s. We worked out
that we probably hadn't seen each other for 47 years!! We promised to meet again soon.

YES PETER I WILL NAME THEM A.S.A.P. I ALSO KNOW MOST OF THEM BUT GUESS THERE WILL BE SOME STRANGERS.

V E Day 8 MAY 1945

2011-05-02T13:24:00.002+01:00

I have just made this banner above for a forum I belong to and thought I would share it with you all.No, Winston Churchill was not in Summervale!

This photo shows a group of very happy women ready to celebrate; the bonfire ( bottom left corner) is ready to be lit and my Mum is centre stage holding a tray.

Lots of familiar faces, can you see your Mum?
In stark contrast – here is how the men celebrated probably on the actual day od Victory rather than at the celebrations.
I have to say it surprised me!

Another great photo by Ron Dixon amazingly sharp and clearly showing the hanging “German”
Do you think that is a loudspeaker rigged up behind Mr Ralph – top left?
Then we have the obligatory sit down tea. I wonder where all those chairs came from?

Not so clear this one but you might recognise someone?
JJ

Newish website / blog for Ilminster

2011-04-27T09:07:00.000+01:00

Just came across the blog which some of you may be interested in

http://www.ilminsteronline.com/

JJ

HOLIDAYS from Peter Westmacott

2011-02-10T13:36:00.001Z

Hello Jean
Regarding John Satchell's comments on the new cafe/restaurant in West Street, yes it does look rather smart. My wife and I spotted it when strolling around Ilminster on our last visit in September, but as we had already eaten rather well in the Meeting House Arts Centre (the old Unitarian Chapel) in East Street, we weren't able to sample what Tea Tree had to offer. Perhaps another time.

WELL, I’M A BIT MIFFED. I SENT THEM A LINK TO OUR WEBSITE BY EMAIL AND HAVE NOT HAD ANY RESPONSE! DISAPPOINRING THAT! JJ

I liked the photo you posted of the Dolphin pub in Silver Street. The day we walked past, there were several people sitting outside with drinks, quite a contrast to the one you displayed. I suppose back in the 1950s very few, if any, of us children would have ever seen inside any of the pubs. At least I can't remember ever doing so! Perhaps other Summervaleans had different experiences.

I REMEMBER THE DOLPHIN WHICH WAS RUN BY THE DUKE FAMILY. ON ONE VISIT TO ILMINSTER MIKE AND I WENT IN FOR A DRINK AND WE COULD NOT BELIEVE IT. THERE WAS A SORT OF BAR BUT VERY FEW BOTTLES AND THERE WERE HUGE BARRELS FROM WHICH THE BEER WAS DRAWN. MIKE SAID IT WAS LIKE THE DARK AGES! JJ

We have recently flown back from two weeks on Tenerife. On the return trip I was thinking generally about holidays and how they have changed in my lifetime. Thinking about Summervale in the 1950s I was struck by our lack of holidays then. We once had a week in a caravan in Weymouth with my mother, brothers and grandparents (Reg and Ethel Durham). It was a bit cramped, but we loved it and the many visits to the beach. Beyond that I can't recall a lot about it. The only other holidays I can remember were those when we visited relatives in London. These were the same relatives who would annually plonk themselves on my grandparents for a week or two, so it seemed a fair exchange to occasionally dump ourselves on them.
Where did other Summervaleans go for holidays in the 1950s? I'm sure that some of you must have gone somewhere, perhaps even abroad, although I guess that would have been quite unusual at the the time. The age of mass overseas tourism - the annual week in Spain - didn't arrive until the 1960s. Perhaps most of you just spent your time around Ilminster.
We certainly did for most of our school holidays!
Best wishes everyone
Peter Westmacott.

WEYMOUTH

Was one of the popular seaside resorts we all visited from Ilminster especially on our Sunday school outings.

Here is a photo of my family and the Symons walking from the coach park towards the beach.

I guess Janice is about 3 in this photo being carried by her very proud Dad Charlie. That would mean this photo was taken around 1952 so I would have been 8?? Probably as I can remember that dress; I had one in blue and one in pink and I ruined one of them at school by tipping a whole inkwell over it. Mum was not best pleased.

It also means my parents were in their early forties – they look so much older than that don’t they?

Here are some beach photos but I cannot be certain whether they were taken in Weymouth of Exmouth. Does anyone know?

We also went to visit family in London although I think they were duty visits rather than holidays.

My grandmother lived in Manor Park and others lived in East Ham.

My maternal grandmother, who fled Guernsey when the Germans invaded, lived on a houseboat in Poole. Loved visiting there and vividly remember Sandbanks before the millionaires moved in.

We spent several holidays in Lyme Regis in a chalet right on the beach. Used to love it and learnt to dive off the Cob wall. I think someone at STC owned the chalet and used to rent it out.

This is photo of Marie Macey in Lyme Regis

Anyone else got some memories to add?

Message from John Satchell

2011-02-01T13:14:00.001Z

“We stopped in Ilminster and found a new cafe/restaurant has opened in what was Scrivens, the old hardware shop "up the top"!

it is charming and the girl who owns it is lovely, even though she's not from the town!

its called "tea tree", and the address is 11 west street, tel 01460 559 58, and solves the problem of where to go eat tastefully when in lminster!!!

i told her i would pass on this info to you for inclusion on your blog, and she was delighted!!”

Here is the link to the website and the yummy menu -

http://theteatree.co.uk/menu.htm

HAVE A WALK AROUND ILMINSTER

If you’ve time to spare and want a walk around Ilminster click on this link which takes you to West St where the restaurant is and you can “walk “ around the town with Google Earth.

http://theteatree.co.uk/findus.htm

Whilst doing this I found myself in what was Summervale – here is a picture with Herne Hill in the background. The layout of the estate is different but it is H O M E !

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2010-12-30T17:01:00.000Z

Just popped in to wish all my Summervale friends a Happy and Healthy New Year.
Here's to another year of memories and reminiscences of the past combined with perhaps our thoughts and wishes for the future.
See you in 2011
JJ

HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM PETER WESTMACOTT

2010-12-21T17:19:00.001Z

Hello Jean
With Christmas coming up I have been thinking about making a contribution to the site. Then I realised I couldn't recall a huge amount about my Christmas experiences in Summervale from 54-57, that is until I read your piece on Christmas Is Coming. So thanks for writing it; it stirred my slumbering memory!!
It was a great collection of photos you posted from the STC Christmas parties, although most of them were before my time. I think I went to three of the parties, the first being in 1954 and the last in 1956. After that I was probably too old! Of course, I recognized several of you from the 17/12/55 photo, and yes it was definitely Peter Symons in the fairisle jumper. Some of the unamed faces looked familiar but I couldn't name them now.
The thing I remember vividly from those parties was the blancmange we got. It always seemed to have a hard skin/crust on it, and I never really liked that. Ugh! The jelly we usually got might have been a bit like that too! But they were very happy occasions, because in those days we didn't seem to go to many parties, unlike our grandchildren who seem to get invites all the time. The presents we took home from STC were always very welcome too. Along with other items we always seemed to get an orange, chocs and some nuts!
In number 10 (our home) my abiding memory is the waking up at ridiculously early hours on Christmas morning to raid our stockings. Yes, we were still putting those out at 14 and 15 years old! Well, if you didn't believe in Santa you might not get the pressies! Our grandsons do just the same; they are also up well before 6, eager to see what's in the stockings.
In some ways things don't change much!
A very Happy Christmas to you Jean and all |Summervaleans, wherever you are. Thanks, too, for another great year of fascinating reading on the Summervale site. Well done!
Best Wishes
Peter Westmacott

CONGRATULATIONS FRIENDS

2010-12-17T16:12:00.001Z

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE

1930's 1940's, 50's, 60's

First, we survived being born to mothers who drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer..

Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle...

Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds , KFC, Subway or Red Rooster.

Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on the weekends, somehow we didn't starve to death!

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy Toffees, Gobstoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and cubbies and played in river beds with matchbox cars.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY , no video/dvd films,
no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
Lawsuits from these accidents.

Only girls had pierced ears!

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time...

We were given air guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays,

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!

FOOTBALL and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on
MERIT

Our teachers used to hit us with straps and sand shoes and bully'salways ruled the playground at school.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law!

Our parents didn't invent stupid names for their kids like 'Kiora' and 'Blade' and 'Ridge' and 'Vanilla'

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO
DEAL WITH IT ALL !

And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

PS -The big type is because your eyes are not too good at your age anymore

CHRISTMAS IS COMING

2010-12-09T16:00:00.001Z

Remember the parties we used to have at STC. Great entertainment, food and rounded off by a present from Father Christmas.

STC certainly knew how to look after their employees and their

families.

Here are some of Ron Dixon’s photos ………‘

I can see David Chambers and Mike Jolly in the middle of the front row aged about 8??

Not so sure it is a Christmas party. Could be the Coronation as the Union Jack is displayed.

Here is a closer look at half of the photo

Here is one of me singing for my supper

Here we are waiting for the bus to take us to the factory

Me in the middle sucking my thumb which I did ALL the time. Mind you it never did drop off! I’m holding Shirley Hewitt’s hand.

This one is a Christmas party lets do a close up

Who do you recognise above?

Here are some of the X Factor contestants circa 1955

Joan Wakeham and me in the back row and Gloria Dixon and Christine Jolly in the middle row. Possibly Peter Symons in the fairisle jumper – front row.

WHO LIVED WHERE–REVISED

2010-11-19T16:34:00.001Z

John Satchell has sent me his thoughts -

1 plumridge,

2 kearney,

3 beard,

4 wakeham,

6 hooke,

43 hudson,

46 lester,

45 ward,

48 NOT chown, (they were down on the green),

39 bishop.

40 duke

46 peters

49 lester

pretty sure these are right!!

John.

ANY ADVANCE SUMMERVALIANS?

IT’S A SMALL WORLD

2010-11-19T08:51:00.001Z

We currently have our friends Lynne & Barry staying with us in between their trips aboard and yesterday I mentioned Ilminster. They attended the funeral of Barry’s cousin’s father in law on Monday and and I was told he came from Ilminster.

Apparently it was Reg Forbes – brother of Irene Forbes, who was in his eighties.

Irene is sitting in the middle between Shirley Hewitt on the left and Margaret Mason on the right.

I don’t remember him as Irene is about 10 years older than me and he would have been 10 years older than her but some of you may remember him.

Sad that another Summervalian has gone to join so many others but what a legacy these people have left us.

STC really was a family affair – Irene’s father, her brother and herself all worked there and I believe Reg’s son Stuart and his son Christian continued the family tradition.

I also bumped into Jessie Satchell in town looking amazing as always.

Here is a photo of Jessie -“Digging for Britain!”

Her grand daughter Dani came over recently from New Zealand to get married

and I believe Tony is in the UK until January.

If you read this Tony, it would be great to hear from you.

WHO LIVED WHERE ?

2010-11-11T08:54:00.001Z

Good morning Jean

Thanks for bungalow list. We lived in 10 and not 8 as shown. I think Drivers were in 8. I was sure that Kearneys lived at number 4 and not 43 as shown but I might be wrong. I always thought they were on the same side as Wakehams. What do you think?

Regards

Peter

HERE IS THE LIST : -

1 BEARD
2 CHAPPLE?
3 PLUMRIDGE
4
5 NEWLYN
6 WAKEHAM
7 CORNFORTH
8 DRIVER

9 ROGERS
10 WESTMACOTT

11 JOLLY
12 RICHARDS
13 SMITH
14 HUMPHRIES / EVERSON
15 CHICKS
16
17
18 TRUDGEON
19 SIMPSON
20 MASON
21 WILLIAMS
22 WREN
23 RALPH
24 LORD
25HODGESON
26 DURHAM
27 BOYCE
28 SYMONS
29 CHAMBERS
30 HEWITT
31 STOCK
32 LEOH?
33 DIXON
34 FORBES
35 WHITING / MOTHERSELE
36 POWELL
37 HARGEST
38 BROWN
39
40 HOOKE
41 LAUGHTON
42 FOULKES
43 KEARNEY
44 PELL/ SATCHELL
45 HUDSON
46 WARD
47 VANE
48 CHOWN
49 LESTER
50 MACEY

CAN YOU HELP WITH THIS ??

Music in the 1950s

2010-11-09T14:38:00.001Z

Hello Jean

When my family settled in Summervale permanently in 1954 - we had been there many times before on holiday at our grandparents, Reg and Ethel Durham - some of the first music I remember hearing was on the radio on Saturday mornings. "Children's Favourites", with the friendly Uncle Mac, at 9 o'clock, started our week-end off. How many of you remember that programme? We were avid listeners and I can remember some of our favourite songs : The Runaway Train, the Laughing Policeman, I Know an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly, and, of course, Teddy Bears' Picnic. I'm sure there were many others, but these are the ones I can most easily recall. Uncle Mac always ended his programme with: "Good-bye children, everywhere" . How different it all is today!

MY BIG HATE WAS SPARKY’S MAGIC PIANO IT USED TO SCARE ME FOR SOME REASON – LISTEN TO IT HERE -

One of the first songs I remember hearing around the estate in 1954 was 'O Mein Papa', a German song usually played by Eddie Calvert on his golden trumpet, or sung by Eddie Fisher. I remember hearing lots of Summervalians singing or whistling it. Yes, you as well, Jean! I can certainly remember Vic Noad pretending to play the trumpet to the tune!

My brother, David, wrote recently about how John Rogers was a big Slim Whitman fan, always singing his songs. Another big singer then was David Whitfield, and I recall trying to imitate him when singing 'Answer Me O My Love', usually in the bath!

The Billy Cotton Band always seemed to be singing 'Friends and Neighbours' on the radio and another great favourite was 'I See the Moon and the Moon Sees Me' from The Stargazers. There was a silly song called 'Close the Door ,They're Coming through the Window' in about 54-55, but I can't recall who sang it. Anyone remember? I think we usually heard it on the Billy Cotton show on Sundays.

We used to sing 'The Happy Wanderer', a German folk song very popular in about 1954. "I love to go a wandering along the mountain track ....val-de-ree-val-de-rah.... Dickie Valentine was a popular crooner

at about this time, and I remember singing 'Mr Sandman, bring me a dream', one of his big hits. Another one was 'The Finger of Suspicion Points at You', which I would sing and point the finger at one of my brothers' if I suspected them of any wrongdoing!
There were lots of songs about the American West at that time. We often played cowboys and Indians, of course, so it wasn't surprising that we liked the cowboy songs. There were some memorable ones about Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier, and Roy Rogers with his 'A Four-legged Friend'. There was 'The Yellow Rose of Texas (who sang that one?) and 'The Man from Laramie', which I remember Jimmy Young singing. This was well before he became a DJ. Then there was 'Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Riding through the Glen', but I can't remember who sang it. The same is true for 'Running Bear', a song about an Indian brave.

I remember quite liking Anne Shelton. She was a big, powerful singer. I particularly liked her 'Lay Down Your Arms ... and Surrender to Mine" . Petula Clark was another popular singer with many hit songs. 'The Little Shoemaker' was one I remember well. Can you imagine songs like this being hits today!!

In about 1956, I think, the skiffle craze erupted and Lonnie Donegan became a big name. 'Lost John' , 'Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O', 'Gambling Man', 'Grand Coulee Dam', and 'Tom Dooley' were all great hits. This was especially true in our house as we tried to form our own skiffle group using our Mum's washboard, pots and pans. My brother, David, was very keen on this and he carried Paul and I along with it. But, like most crazes, it was short-lived.

Some of the other popular singers I remember from Summervale days were Doris Day (I liked Secret Love and Que Sera, Sera), Frankie Laine (liked his Cool Water), Frankie Vaughan - remember Green Door?) and Johnny Ray - but can't remember what he sang.

Can anyone else remember any other favourite songs and singers from Summervale in the 1950s?

Best Wishes everyone

Peter Westmacott

Peter PS :

2010-11-03T20:20:00.001Z

Hello again Jean

Loved your pics and food memories. You certainly recalled a lot.

A few more food snippets from 1950s Summervale:
* Mother sending us off to watch Somerset play cricket at Taunton with a load of beetroot sandwiches in our bags. You should have seen our T-shirts after lunch!

* Mother making a steak and kidney pudding using one of her old stockings!

My mum used to use a square of old sheeting – I still do it that way , Just doesn’t taste the same using foil. A little water in the crust adds a certain – Je ne sais Quoi.

* Fish in milk. Ugh! We had this most weeks. I love fish now but that early experience could have put me off for life!

Yuck!

* Marmite sandwiches. Say no more!!

LOVE THEM!

* Lambs' hearts - mother first gave us these when I was about 12. They were lovely, full of lean meat.

O No – bet you liked liver too!

Up until then so much meat that we ate seemed to me to be full of fat and gristle, consequently I didn't like it much and tried to avoid it if possible!

Peter W

MORE FROM PETER W.

2010-11-03T19:15:00.001Z

Hello Jean

On a recent half-term visit one of my grandsons (8) asked me what food I ate when I was a boy. This got me thinking about food in Summervale in the 1950s.

I think one of the things that stands out is the monotony and predictability of the meals then. Sundays always seemed to be a roast (beef or lamb), Yorkshire pudding, greens and lashings of gravy, made with Bisto. This was often followed by heavy puddings like Spotted Dick and custard or bread and butter pudding - all designed to fill up active,

hungry children.

My Mum always cooked this in a cloth in boiling water. Loved it and it was just as good next day fried with sugar on top! And I wonder why I’m over weight??

Sunday tea was fairly predictable, too. Heinz spaghetti on toast or fish paste sandwiches (which I quite liked), or tinned pink salmon, celery, tomatoes and cucumber. For a special treat we had Libby's tinned fruit

salad and Carnation milk. Lovely!

Very occasionally, tinned peaches and clotted cream appeared on the table. Even better! If our mother had been busy in the kitchen, we might have got some fairy cakes too.

Or those very sticky pieces of homemade toffee!

Breakfast in our house was usually cereal because mother had to work at STC, so there wasn't usually time for a cooked breakfast in the week. Corn flakes, shredded wheat or weetabix and milk were the regulars. In winter the milk was often heated. We were sent off to school with slices of toast and dripping, meant for the morning break. But we usually scoffed them en route to school.

Anyway, our real treat came at break ,if we managed to secure a cream bun off the tray that was on sale each day in the school hall.

School dinners weren't up to much at the Sec. Mod. in Ditton Street. Meat and two veg was standard fare, with soggy cabbage suffering from overcooking. Puddings were typically rice, tapioca or semolina with a dollop of jam dropped in the centre.

I remember occasionally persuading one of the cooks to add an extra dollop. Much of the time we seemed to be quite hungry, so it was always exciting when we were called up for 'seconds'. The very rare 'thirds' were even better!

When we got home from school we were soon out to play. I remember seeing
Mick Jolly one day eating what he called a 'doorstep' - a chunk of bread smothered in jam. This impressed us and we soon copied Mick, taking out a doorstep whenever we could.

In the evenings, before bed, we would have what we called 'supper' For us it was either hot milk (ugh - I hated the skin!) or Ovaltine or Horlicks. The "Ovaltiney Kids" were on Radio Luxembourg at that time, so we often ended up with Ovaltine and a dry biscuit - broken biscuits from the International Stores on the corner of East Street and Ditton Street.

I suppose they were a lot cheaper than whole biscuits. When I worked for Tony White's grocery on the High Street on Friday evenings, I remember Tony would sometimes give me some broken biscuits to take home.

Anyone else got some food memories from 1950s Summervale?

Best Wishes everyone

Peter Westmacott

I cannot remember breakfast. As I could not drink cows milk I guess I had bread and ??

I loved the finger rolls from Tolleys and my favourite on Saturday mornings was a ripe tomato in a warm roll with butter!

Lunch – or dinner as we called it was things like Stews and shepherds pies, meat pies, steak & kidney puddings and rabbit stew – yummy.

Fridays was fish day – which I hated and I was made to sit and eat it. I can remember gagging at the table but was still made to sit there. I still don’t like fish very much.

Sundays, yes a roast and still the tradition in our home. I can remember my mother drawing a chicken and the smell was just awful. We also had lamb and beef and pork if there was an “R” in the month. Pork was considered dangerous to eat in the summer months as it went off. Roast lamb and mint sauce with fresh garden peas still reminds me of Family Favourite with Cliff and Jean Metcalf.

Pudding usually apple pie or perhaps rhubarb – as i did not like pastry I never had any.

Tea – Sardines on toast, sandwiches, salad with cold meat. Cold bread pudding with a cup of tea – lovely.

COME ON MORE MEMORIES PLEASE.

A Tour of modern Ilminster by Peter Westmacott

2010-10-25T09:58:00.001+01:00

Hello Jean
My wife (Glenys) and I recently spent a few days in Ilminster exploring the town and surroundings. I showed her where Summervale was, we walked down Brewery Lane by the side of our prefab and we strolled through Abbotts Close and Ladymead ,that now stand on the field where the willows were at the back of the gardens at the bottom of Summervale. Yes, that's where we played cowboys and indians, kiss chase and hiding in the stooks of hay that the farmer laid out. Passing beyond where this field was we met Canal Way, a modern development running alongside the Rec, and which now passes for a major through route in Ilminster. Of course, back in the 1950s, this was Wharf Lane, much of which was a cinder track then. Now, I note ,the top end of Wharf Lane, that used to come out by Mr Giles' newsagent's shop in Silver Street, is now closed off completely to traffic.

Still, we did find the footpath that ran parallel to the bottom hedge of Summervale, the one we used to take when walking to the fair in the autumn. Some of the footpath has been metalled but at least it is still there. The fair field is covered in houses now, but it was pleasing to see that its name lives on in Fairfield, the name of one of the new roads. There was also a Carnival Close nearby. 'Summervale' has disappeared and it has been renamed Summerlands Park.

A photo of John Satchell by the kissing gate down by the willows

We managed a walk up to Herne Hill and noted there had been a lot of recent tree planting - probably replacing those that some of the Summervale men, my grandfather included, chopped down for firewood in the 1950s.

I can remember my grandfather dragging home big branches with a rope slung over his shoulder.My grandmother was not too keen on seeing this and she used to reprimand him!

Here is a photo from Lily & Dennis Crockett’s wedding reception.Mrs Durham ( Known as Dunnell to me!) third from the right at the back – between my Dad and Bob Irwin.Reg Durham, Second from left in the front between my Mum and my brother.

We walked out of Herne Hill and on to Donyatt. Here we were impressed by the conversion of the old Chard-Ilminster-Taunton railway line to a cycle/walk track. We followed this back to Ilminster. What struck me on Herne Hill were the very fine views over the town from here. I don't think I ever appreciated this as a boy in the 1950s!

On another day we walked up the Old Road (at the side where Hurlestone's cycle shop used to be) and at the top were rewarded with good views of the town again. Then on to Dillington House and through the park and on to the Long Ponds and out to the road at Knott Oak House. Then a bit further on we passed Bay Hill, at the entrance to Ilminster. As we passed one of the houses, I was sorely reminded of the day a car crushed the wheel of my bike whilst I was doing my paper round. Not a very pleasant memory!!

Looking back on these walks around Ilminster made me realise how limited our horizons were as children in the 1950s. Yes, we went up Herne Hill many times and on to Donyatt, but I could not recall ever going through Dillington Park or past the Long Ponds as a boy. And I'm not sure I ever went up the Old Road, an enclosed track near Blackdown View where I did go many times because I had friends there.

I'm very pleased to see that my brother, David, has been making several contributions to the blog. I have been amazed by his memory and some of the things he has recalled for us all. Very impressive, David! One thing though.You thought that the first record you had for playing on our old gramophone was a Lonnie Donegan song. Actually I'm pretty certain it was a Gracie Fields number called Sally. We used to try and sing at the top of our voices! Do you remember that?

All for now Jean. Keep up the excellent work; we really do enjoy reading it, I promise you!

Wow, thanks Peter for that – reawakened so many more memories -

The Day I went to the fair and had my arm broken by someone falling on me on the Noah's Ark. When I got home I received a smacking for going to the fair!

Falling in the Canal after Alan Dixon said there was a snake. Losing a shoe in the mud and getting another smack when I got home!

Watching your grandad and my father dragging tree trunks up the garden in their wellies.

Watching a pageant at Dillington House when people were dressed in medieval costume. What was that all about?

More memories please

NEWS FROM GLORIA

2010-10-17T11:43:00.000+01:00

I have received a letter from Gloria telling me that she recently attended the funeral of Eddy Vane who died. aged 96 in Brixham. Eddy and Ron Dixon were great pals and Gloria wanted to pay her respects.

Barry Vane was there with his wife and daughter and they now live in Kent. Gloria says that he had loads of photos so I hope he gets in touch.

Here is a photo of Eddy Vane and Harry Everson taken in a boat

I remember Eddy as one of the men who entertained us at the STC parties.

Just in case Barry looks in here – this is a photo of him with his Mum at the Coronation Day celebration

R.I.P. Eddy and join all those who have gone before you.

More from David - Girls, Girls, Girls

2010-10-15T15:14:00.001+01:00

Hi Jean, Special correspondent David calling. This next little story is about other girls I remember

apart from yourself. Mary Williams (Clive's sister) Valerie Jolly ( Mick's sister) . Mary Williams
made contact on the internet in 2002, but not having a computer then, a friend took the various
messages I had meant to reply but hadn't a clue really how to do it I'm still stuck in the 70's good years, like many summervalians of our age they may also not have this technology this is possibly why some of the contact we are hoping to get is coming in slow.

Both Mary and Valerie seemed If I can remember back that far, were close friends and spent quite a
lot of time together, I saw them quite a lot with Michael and Clive and the gang when out roaming
as young boys, girls then were around but playing out with them was more of a sissy thing to us urchins
ie: Mick Jolly and myself, we always seemed to have more mischievous pursuits in mind (more about
that later) we knew most of the girls on the estate but the main girls round our age group were slightly
older were the ones I can remember more of, we would go in gangs up to Herne Hill or some country walks
rambling and messing about or watching Fox Hunting below Herne Hill, this pursuit seemed to be a normal
part of country life in those days but looked upon differently now.
When not going on walks, the Summervale green always had something to offer, like cart rides down the main road sloping down to the green, if you could get to the bottom without coming off or hitting the curb, you were lucky!! it seemed to be very steep but was a most exciting ride. I never had a bike at that young age, but managed building one at a later date after getting fed up with borrowing Mike Smith's mums high/stepper. Mary Williams was the first girl to introduce me to bike rides I would be sat on the back and
Mary doing all the hard work, by peddling me round the green it was great fun for me maybe not so for Mary. I can remember most of the other girls joining in on games etc, Valerie and Christine Jolly and the
Richard sisters had tents in the garden below us like ourselves and much fun was had in them. Gloria
Dixon was always round and about like yourself Jean, the Wakeham girls and family we knew but got to
know more about them in Paignton.

June Wakeham became Beauty Queen in Paignton, in the late 50's or early 60's ? Seeing some of the
Summervale Coronation photographs, Jean, brought all the names back and memories of such a lot of good fun that we had. At that point in my life I was still a very shy, quiet young lad when it came to girls, can't
say I had many girlfriends in Summervale, only thoughts about them.

Jean, you must work hard on the jeanjeannie blog, we are always amazed when we see how you plan it and finish it.
Best Wishes DW.
I'm afraid my hard drive packed up the day before I went on holiday and although I have salvaged most of my photos the computer is playing up an d I cannot upload them at the moment.
When it's fixed I will include photos of those mentioned above
JJ
Well. not many photos of the girls mwentioned above but here is one entitled " dressing up" a favourite pastime fro us girlies.

June and Mary are on the right with me next to Mary and Susan Newlyn sitting in the middle. There are also two of the Ralph girls and either Christine or Val Jolly on the left. I wonder who the Golly Wog is ? very un P C now.

More from our Special Correspondent

2010-09-14T12:15:00.003+01:00

Dear Jean, Once again you have created for me another fantastic blog on Alan Dixon. The photos were great, couldn't remember what Alan looked like but the pose on the bonfire made us wonder how he was balancing on the top, this was very typical of Alan, doing the daring bit again. The other which had people we didn't know, where Alan was stood on the end, in that "way out" overcoat, brought some of the memories back, and the mischievous look on his face said it all!! Then how he looked came back to me.
By the way, Mike Smith rang me the other day and we had a 2 hour long chat, it was brilliant about old times and things he had done up to now, at last we have made contact, so it does work, and I will phone Mick Jolly next week.

Mike Jolly standing in front of me waiting for our Coronation money 1953.
Now for the next on my list, this is John Rogers, my next door neighbour, alias "Slim Whitman". John lived next door in the semi prefab to our family, with his sister Pat and mum and dad,

Above – Mrs. Rogers with Pat in her wheelchair. In front, do I recognise those ears Mike? And right in the front – Bobby Chambers ( Not a brilliant photo but cropped from this larger one – )

I can't remember much about his parents and can't say I saw much of them. Maybe just a passing glance at the back door of their house, when I was scooting out to have fun on The Green. John you could say, introduced me to hearing some of the more popular music of the day, he was a Slim Whitman fan and played and sang, if I can remember, most days in his leisure time, I would imagine he would play the records on his parent's radiogram.
Slim Whitman.

Cannot find a photo of John Rogers – I only remember him as tall and thin.
I was a bit behind with quality radiograms and was given a windup version from a neighbour, can't remember who, the first record I ever played on it, was Cumberland Gap by Lonny Donnigan,

the gramophone was very old when I was given it it had the trumpet for the sound and great big needles, from what I remember, it didn't last for very long wish I had kept it, even in it's broken down state it might have been worth a bob or two now!!
I can remember me and my brothers laughing on many occasions to the Slim Whitman music John played at that time in the 50's, as John would try singing like him. John was a lot older than us being then 21 or so when we were 11 to 13 years old, any time since those days, when I have heard Slim Whitman sing, it always reminds me of John and his family back in the old Summervale prefab -
happy days!! If you see this John hope you can ring me, you may even give us a song, but it has got to be one of Slim's.
I was not a fan so googled his songs and you will see that he was obviously a very popular artist. Many familiar songs – made me think of Family Favourites on Sundays.

1. 12th Of Never

2. A Fool Such As I

3. Bandera Waltz

4.Birmingham Jail

5. Born To Lose

6. China Doll

7. China Doll Ver. 2

8. Ghost Riders In The Sky

9. I Remember You

10.Ill Take You Home Again Kathleen

11. Indian Love Call

12. Its A Small World

13. Love Song Of The Waterfall

14. Nobody`s Darling But Mine

15. Now Is The Hour

16. Paint A Rose On The Garden Wall

17. Rose Marie

18. Secret Love

19. Silver Threads Among The Gold

20. Stranger On The Shore

21. The Cattle Call

22. Tumbling Tumbleweeds

23. Una Paloma Blanca

24. You Belong To My Heart

More later -- Regard, DW.

Alan Dixon – Dare Devil

2010-09-05T20:34:00.002+01:00

Hi Jean, Just two or three more friends stories to go !!! Continuing now with Alan and Gloria Dixon Alan's nickname to us now as I remembered him, is "The Stunt Man" and Gloria was the more quieter,

Gloria’s 8th birthday.

a girl that we didn't see much of, but we mixed in with various games and would see her often going out with Ron her father, in the car, which seemed to be the only vehicle on
the estate in those days. The Dixon family lived at the opposite side of the green from us on the corner.

I can remember Ron having his photography business doing weddings and various other work, I cannot remember Mrs Dixon very well are they both still living? - Sadly both have passed on – Vi several years ago but Ron fairly recently within the last 5 years or so I think.

Alan was always about doing things where ever the lads were

A good example of his DARING DO!

He may have been slightly older than myself but everyone joined in with the fun, the swimming sessions in the different rivers were always sensational the locks above the waterfall behind the Horlick's Factory and further down river going out of Ilminster over the top road leading to further locks and waterfalls, Alan would do things that us kids wouldn't attempt like diving into waterfalls and off the lock tops into the river below.

There were many more scary stunts in winter when it came to sledging he had the fastest and most well made sledge in Ilminster, that meant another exciting show of going down very steep inclines and through very narrow gaps in hedges, over humps and bumps where he would take off like
Evil Kenival, luckily he managed to always stay on and never come to a sticky end!!!. It was fantastic
to watch, but not for the faint hearted like ourselves to even try there were so many more daring escapades, too many to mention, Alan stood out in my mind and to a lot of the more younger lads as a hero!

The last I saw of Alan was in Paignton where he had gone one step further and constructed a MONSTER MOTOR now he could drive, this special car which looked like something out of the film Mad Max, very way out for those days, had been made out of various models, it had a 6 cylinder engine, was a two seater, they called them hotrods in those days. He asked me on several occasions if I would like a ride in it, but can't remember if I was brave enough, can only remember going out in his more conventional car, a Standard Vanguard,

with friends, it had a bench seat in the front and Alan was never short of a girl sat by his side in it, amazing what attraction bravery is!!
He was as they would say today, "so cool" but then " way out".
Alan, if you're still living, after what I remember of your daring past, get in touch and let us know
how you have been getting along. By the way, did you go to Ditton Street school like Peter and myself
or did you go to the Grammar School in Ilminster?

That's all for now folks best wishes DW.

My memories of Alan are -

He built a canoe in the passage of his house.
We all went to the river Isle and learned to role the canoe over.
Once when we went, there were loads of dead fish on the surface. Were we bovvered? Nah!
One day on the canal he shouted out there was a snake, I ran, got bogged down in the mud, lost a shoe and got a good hiding when I got home!
His Mum used to give him and Gloria Malt extract which I loved.
Pretty sure he went to the Grammar school.

Derek Drayton AKA “sweetie”

2010-08-30T09:28:00.001+01:00

Hi Jean thanks for doing a good blog on Mick Jolly and Mick Smith love the added touches of The Lone Ranger and Tonto and the classic car, couldn't make out the model but it looked to me like a Riley and looked brilliant.

Yet another little story for the blog!! regarding another Summervale friend - Derek Drayton – nicknamed by us as " sweetie" not meant in the sense that you were "sweet" Derek, but that you were always fortunate to have a packet of sweets on the way to school, and cadging one off you could be an almost impossible task, the movement from pocket to mouth by yourself was very rarely seen but we all noticed that you were always chewing your secret goodies!! Sweets in those days were a luxury and enjoyed more so.

(Derek, please email me a photo of you as I can’t remember what you looked like although I do remember the name……… JJ)

I remember I think, you may have worked at Stan Kearney's small glass shop in Ilminster, along with myself for extra pocket money, is that so?

STAN KEARNEY

We worked part time I think, it was some Saturday's or evenings after school. At the shop we learnt how to cut glass, make test tubes and make insemination tubes for what I thought was for cattle breeding centres, am I right? The first shop was on the main street on the hill behind the church can't think of the names of the streets (Silver street ?) but then we moved to another shop near to Scrivens TV shop on that parade and went down into a basement to work, I believe your father and Stan Kearney were at that time partners. When I moved to Paignton to live I worked for about a year in the labs at STC, Stan Kearney was my foreman there and we learnt more lathe glasswork, I believe you stayed on living in Ilminster, is that so?

Being older than myself I think you were more my elder brother's age, that's Peter and may have more memories with him than myself, the school class age difference made this so. I remember you lived in the prefab near the bottom from us above the pathway that cut through to Brewery Lane, your father I remember well but didn't really know your younger brother, who has been mentioned on one of the previous jeanjeannie blogs hope you read this and get in contact to have a chat about old times!!

that's all for now, Jean!!

Best wishes DW.

MORE MEMORIES BOYS TOYS!

2010-08-25T09:12:00.001+01:00

Here are yet more memories of Summervale friends --- Mick Smith -- Mick son of Reg and Dorothy Smith, was certainly one of our families closest friends with his father being the personnel manager at STC and having quite a great deal of contact with us we were all growing up and starting
work. In Summervale Michael would come to our house many times for tea and his parents would make us always very welcome at his house for watching TV for the very first time Mick's house had the very first TV we had ever seen, programmes such as The Lone Ranger and Tonto,

Cup final football and many more it was all very exciting in those days and new I remember us all sat in the house along with many other friends who may still remember this. We would all be sat glued to it, and it took some time to get us out when the shows were over!! I remember Mick as a good sensible lad and good company, his mum Dot would quite often lend me her push bike to ride around The Green it was the first larger bike I had ever ridden, One day I came off it when learning how to ride and I still have the scar on my right knee to prove it!!

I last saw Mick when we had all moved to Paignton and lived on the Foxhole estate we were both interested in cars Mick in the garage next to mine, was rebuilding a vintage MG. and I had started to do work on a car I had bought, a 1947 Austin 12 saloon (a very large car by today's standards) it cost me the meagre sum of seven pounds and ten
shillings probably a full weeks wages in those days for a man. Michael was very clever with his hands
and had the MG stripped down to the chassis to rebuild and make the wooden frame structure before
mounting the outer body panels, he completed the job himself and I can still remember him driving around the estate with the top down, looking very pleased with himself having a sports car back in the late 50's and early 60's was something rare to the younger set. Be nice to be able to talk over old times
with Mick again.
More episodes of good friends and Summervale days to follow!!
Best wishes DW.

More From David Westmacott keeping things ticking along.

2010-08-22T16:05:00.001+01:00

Hello again Jean, I think I have the Summervale blog bug !!!!

These are just a few of the many friends I would like to contact which would bring back memories of childhood days in Summervale Ilminster in Somerset: Mick Jolley and Valerie, Mike Smith, Derrick Drayton, Clive and Mary Williams, Alan Dixon and Gloria, John Rogers, Mick Sibley not a Summervalian but lived on the top road and (Steve Crossland) already contacted) and any others not mentioned, who remember me I would be pleased to here from you.

IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE ------ JIM LAD !!!!!!!

One of my closest friends was Mick Jolley, nicknamed MICK ROUSALL. Named this because he could rouse up the neighbourhood in seconds, either has Davey Crockatt with his mottley fur hat with tail attatched or The Lone Ranger minus the horse. This was depending on what we had just seen on the TV or the Pictures.

I can still see the two of us with big doorsteps of bread and jam in our grubby mitts, after coming home

from school running around the estate sometimes causing mayhem or wandering down Brewery Lane to see what we could get up to in the Willows area. In the field adjoining the Willows, we became" blood brothers" another thing we saw on cowboys and Indian films, we cut our fingers and let the blood mingle and vowed we would be friends for life - what happened ?. Mick was a great friend always fun to be with and good company, activities we got up to were going fishing in the river behind the Horlicks factory on the outskirts of Ilminster, going scrumping if lucky in Mr. Britton's fields or going to Herne Hill and exploring all the surrounding countryside, whilst whittling wood or making catapults most of us in our childhood days, carried the common scouts knife mainly used it for this purpose and then it was classed as perfectly safe, it had all the different useful attachments which came in handy when camping or going youth hostelling.
We did a lot of wandering and enjoyed every moment of it, all the time in Ilminster we never seemed to ever

stay in the house always glad to get out and leave the old folks indoors. When most families went onto Paignton, Mick and most of my other friends seemed to drift away, work and responsibilities took over. I saw Mick afew times in Paignton, but can't remember what we did, would love to here from you again Mick if you should see this on the famous Jeanjeannie blog.

More to follow Best wishes DW.

Summer Holiday Time

2010-08-08T17:00:00.001+01:00

Well, it is very quiet here so I’m wondering if you are all away enjoying the sun.

We recently came back from Spain and it was O so nice to feel the sun on your body.

It also reminded me of long summer holidays when we were kids; I don’t ever remember staying indoors because it was raining but I suppose it must have from time to time.

Remember the long grass in the field by the willows?

We used to run through it, and play kiss chase and cowboys and indians.

Then it used to be cut and left in long neat rows which were just too perfect and just asking to be rearranged a bit. The smell was lovely.

This was then left to dry out and collected on a big hay wagon.

Then there were the days spent on Herne Hill. Leaving home with a few sandwiches wrapped in greaseproof paper and a bottle of pop if you were lucky.

Making a den out of the ferns and branches. Searching for butterflies and climbing the trees so quickly and coming down much more slowly. Cycling around the many lanes or playing tennis in the grammar school courts. My life long love of tennis started there. I played with Pam Noad and Irene Forbes even though they were much older than me. I also played with Tony’s racket –

it was a heavy old wooden one which I had to put back in it’s press when I had finished with it – or else!

Cricket was played in the Rec – Clive Williams bowled a googly and the ball hit my shin and really hurt! I still have a dent to prove it.

The old grandstand!

I remember having to climb up each level so I must have been really small. It was like climbing Everest.

Then there were the haystacks in the farmyard.

Under a corrugated roof to keep the hay dry but very high ,20 – 25 foot high?

I loved the feel and the smell of the hay and had no trouble climbing up but …………..

different story when I had to come down!

I’m still the same – no, not with haystacks but ladders or stairs. My little knees just tremble when I look down.

David Westmacott Reminisces

2010-08-01T19:52:00.002+01:00

Hello once again jean from DW -

This is more of an introduction to

Summervale on moving their in 1954 and what has been

happening in my life in the last 50 years or so.

Our family moved to summervale in 1954 a year after the coronation, from

Princess Risborough in Bucks and settled into No:10 on the estate of prefabs numbering some 50, which were 25 semis. We enjoyed the stay which seemed like at least 10 years but was only 4. The temporary estate which was constructed,was made after the war only to be used for a certain number of
years,summervale existed longer than most expected. The prefabs were very basic but cosy and very efficient with the fire and back boiler/cooker which kept us very warm in the winter. Mum (Joan)
Peter and Paul my brothers were the family.

We are now all living in different counties, Mum and Paul Maidenhead, Berkshire, Peter in Beccles, Suffolk and myself in Headingley, Leeds, West Yorkshire.

We moved to Paignton, S.Devon along with most of the Summervalian's to go to work at STC, which I worked at for just over a year in the laborotory glass shop. My foreman at STC was Stan Kearney who

is on the blog,I gained experience of glass work from him in Ilminster at his two glass shops,doing work after school and at weekends (more about that later).

In Paignton some people stayed at White Rock estate near the factory others like ourselves lived at Foxhole estate,the community spirit disappeared somewhat in Paignton compared to the smaller

town of Ilminster. Tht circular green and the willows and fields and Herne Hill still bring back many memories and do so right up to this day. I found the STC factory life not for me and being more mechanically minded at school in metal work and tech drawing and after buiding things with my hands such as push bikes at the age of 12, I moved on and turned to cars at 16 from then till I was 21 worked at various garages in Paignton.

Leaving Paignton in 1965 I moved to Leeds, West Yorkshire and after gaining more experience started my own garage business in the early 1970's and semi retired in 2008.

I still live in Headingley with my partner of 39 years, Beryl. We have no children, Beryl has had her own fashion shop for 25 years, we both seemed to have has very little time for a family.

I have been back to Ilminster on several occasions to see Summervale and the town. Something seems to draw me back there just to see it all again, I don't know if the same goes for the other old

summervalian's I grew up with. It would be nice to hear from some of them again. The last time I went back it had GONE!! in 2006, previous to this I watched over period's of time the demolition of the estate it went in stages - sad!!, but they can't take away the memories. Now Summervale has a different top entrance further along the road and has a different NAME - the cheek of it! taking away our Summervale! and renaming it Summerdale or something like that, the new mews type housing did not appeal to me and at the bottom, I preferred Britton's fields, the housing near the rec did not look much better, one good thing Herne Hill is still there, but it looks much smaller, never mind that's change for you Jean.
Bye the way Mum (Joan) is 88 now we spoke to her recently and have been to see her, the last time on a visit your name came up along with other Summervalian's and people fromPaignton.
The cricket photo on the blogg looks good I well remember you and your family and the house behind the cricket scene must be yours,which was the semi next to Nan and grandad's. I can't remember playing much on that corner, because I found them to be very strict like most were in them days, couldn't get up
to much mischief watched by their beedy eyes !

All the best to you and your family - more to follow, regards DW..

Thanks David. Who will be next to contribute?
Here is my interpretation of The Willows at the bottom of the Durham's garden.

Another Summervalian returns to the fold - David Westmacott

2010-07-22T16:59:00.000+01:00

Memories of Summervale Hello Jean, you will remember me from those

wonderful summervale Ilminster days, in the years from

1954 to 1958 which is a year longer than Peter my elder brother who left in

1957 to go and work in Paignton and as you know

Peter has made contact with yourself on the famous JeanJeannie blogg.

After reading the summervale 1944 blogspot.which I have found very

interesting I have put pen to paper to compile my

memories of summervale.

which will follow along in due course.

Consisting of: Friends I would like to contact

Memories and experiences

Mischievious moments

School friends and teachers

First School Magazine from Ditton Street Secondary Modern in

1957

Outside Hobbies and Activities

Love to here from you Jean

Best wishes David Westmacott

More Memories from John Satchell

2010-07-03T15:36:00.001+01:00

hi jean,

some newly awakened summervale memories....

peter,

your comments about that "small glassblowing business in west street" reminded me that my dad Jack (cricket team captain for STC - Iilminster!!), and Mr . Kearney, i think he was called Reg,

(No, Stan was the name)

but always known as "shag") also had a small glassblowing business, only theirs was in Ditton street, in a tiny rented shop, and they called themselves "Kearney and Satchell".

Stan Kearney

Jack Satchell

They made all sorts of stuff, can't remember if anything was subcontracted out from STC(where "shag!!" was the glass shop foreman and dad was the small valve assembly foreman), but they did make dreadfully complicated contraptions that were used at the Horlicks plant for the early artificial insemination experiments on cows, and also lots of little coloured glass ornaments which I'm sure some of you must remember decorating the mantle shelves in the "bungalows".

(Someone, probably your Dad John, made me a 21st. glass key but that was in Paignton.)JJ

I got into stained glass design as a hobby a while back, so maybe this glass thing runs in the family!!

i well remember working for three months with David in the glass shop at STC Paignton (also run by "shag"), when i was passing through there as a student apprentice. David was really good fun to work with, and made a generally miserable time at STC for me a bit of a laugh for a while!!!

Can't think of any link to that other Ilminster glass business, except that maybe "Kearney and Satchell" sold out to them before we all left Ilminster, 'cos fishing, stamp collecting and wood turning took over dad's life when we got to the coast!!

Janice,

of course we Satchells used the same formula for home-made sun tan lotion, how could we not when our Mums were first cousins and best friends??

Rose & Jessie

we probably didn't use olive oil in ours though - that would have been too expensive (remember you had to buy it in very small bottles from the chemists?) for mum to afford way back then - we probably did use chip oil!!! it didn't work though - I just had a run in with a surgeon to remove a skin cancer that she reckoned started with sun exposure when I I was a kid!!! mum is always remembering stuff that she and Rose did when they were girls, she really misses her a lot. Did you know that your Mum and Dad were their best man and matron of honour, my godparents, and that your Mum assisted at my brother Tony's birth at home in Summervale??? You can't get any close than that! They had grown up together in London, gone to school together and right to the end were always friends. Even now just passing your old house in Paignton makes mum very sad.

Jean,

I do appreciate all the hard work you put in on this blog, i used to edit a website myself and know how hard it is to keep coming up with fresh ideas, but you DO just that, and for that I'm sure we are all very grateful!

Take care - John

YOUR FAVOURITE COMICS?

2010-07-03T14:52:00.001+01:00

Hello Jean
Seeing some comics in a newsagent's shop recently made me think about the comics we used to devour in Summervale in the 1950s. My brothers and I used to read a lot of comics, though I knew that in some adult circles there was opposition to them ('rot your brain' and all that stuff). Actually, I think they helped us to improve our literacy. In the early 50s there weren't too many TVs about, so listening to the radio and reading comics all helped raise our awareness of language. As I was a newspaper delivery boy I also read a lot of newspapers too. My relatives were always laughing at me because I had my head in a newspaper!
I probably saw most of the comics of the time because I delivered them. There always seemed to be plenty of comics to read. Some of my favourites were Eagle, Beano, Dandy and Tiger.

In the Eagle my favourite character was the front page hero, Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future. Sci-fi was very popular then (remember "Journey into Space" on the radio?) and we loved it when Dan triumphed in his clashes with The Mekon. Riders of the Range was also good and I liked PC 49 too. Tommy Walls was super-human too, always coming to the rescue as he sprang into action with his famous W sign with his fingers and thumbs! (Was he a plug for Walls ice-cream?)

The Beano was widely loved and we would talk about it on the way to school, and in school. Dennis the Menace, with his red and black jumper and spiky hair was a favourite character, and the Bash Street Kids were unbelievable. Could they really play up teachers like that? Firing paper pellets at teachers; buckets of water suspended over the door, etc. None of this happened at school in Ditton Street, at least not to my knowledge! We also liked Lord Snooty and Roger the Dodger - if he could get out of something, he would!

We also read The Dandy, a similar comic to Beano. Desperate Dan, with his great strength, performed unimaginable feats of strength ,once he had eaten his favourite cow-pie. And who remembers Keyhole Kate, Hungry Horace and Korky the Cat? All much-loved characters.
Tiger was a big favourite of mine. To a football mad young teenager the adventures of Roy of the Rovers of Melchester Rovers were out of this world. Roy always seemed to be coming to the rescue of his team. He might arrive at half-time when his side was 0-4 down; then, of course, thanks to the super-heroics of Roy, they would win 5-4 to take the cup. Or something like that!

Does anyone remember reading The Boy's Own Paper? We often got this one; I think it was a monthly. It was full of adventure stories about the RAF, colonial explorers, scraps with the Germans, sport, the American West and so on. There were also lots of helpful hints about scouts, bikes, crystal sets, etc. I particularly liked the puzzles and games.
We used to swap a lot of comics or get given them. I think it was Mike Smith who used to give us Hotspur and Wizard comics. These were full of adventure stories, all aimed at boys. Two other comics I recall were The Topper and Beezer. These were so different because they were larger than the rest. I think they were broadsheet size, like many of the newspapers I delivered. But at the moment I can't remember anything about the contents of these two comics! Can anyone?
Many of these comics I've mentioned were aimed at boys. Apart from Beano and Dandy, perhaps. So what were the girls reading then? I know they had their own comics because I remember delivering Girl, which I think was something like Eagle.

(I only remember “Girl” and recognise the logo above. I used to get the annual at Christmas but have no recollection of any stories.

Comics, I think , were a “boy” thing.)JJ

I think I brought a copy home from my newsagent boss one day! Actually, that was another way we got comics. If copies were a few weeks out of date Mr. Bradburn, the newsagent, would give them to me, free, to take home.
To this day I can still recall some lines from one of the cowboy stories I read. There was a scene at the bottom of the page ,where the hero is hanging from a branch above a cliff edge. He says: "Hand slipping .... loose bark.....can't hold on...." And then you have to buy the comic next week to see what happened!".How do I remember this? My brothers and I thought this was so funny that over the years we kept repeating it to each other. So that's how it stuck!
Well, let's hear about your comic favourites and stories, Summervaleans!
Best Wishes
Peter Westmacott in Suffolk

BRYLCREEM OR ?

2010-06-27T10:04:00.000+01:00

Hello Jean

Greetings from sunny Suffolk!

I enjoyed Janice's piece about her Mum's home-made sunblock. A mixture of olive oil and vinegar shaken around in an old Heinz salad cream bottle sounds ghastly! However, I don't recall our mother ever using this stuff. In fact, I don't think she ever applied anything to us to prevent sunburn. But she did smear us with calamine lotion after we had had too much sun. This was usually done on those rare occasions when we went to the beach at Weymouth or Lyme Regis. No, I think we just went out and played, and applying any sort of suncream never entered our minds.

One home-made concoction I do remember was that produced for us by our great-grandmother (Alice Tilley). Most summers she would come down from London for a holiday with our grandparents, Ethel and Reg Durham, at no.26. The 1950s were the heyday of the Brycream Boys, and one of our great heroes was the Brylcream Boy himself, Denis Compton the famous England cricketer and footballer. He appeared in lots of adverts at the time. We couldn't often afford a jar of Brylcream - we did get one occasionally - so our great-grandmother would make some for us.

She would collect rose petals from the garden, let them soak in water for a while, them mix them up with lard of all things! Then she would rub the "cream" into our hair. It did the job and it smelt alright. But our mother wasn't too pleased with what it did to our pillowcases!

Does anyone else remember using lard and rose petals for "Brylcream"? Or was our great-grandmother unique?

Memories from Janice

2010-06-24T16:25:00.001+01:00

Hope your Summer is going GREAT for you ... Have to ask ...This weekend I had all the kids over for Father's Day and the Girls asked if I had sun block for the kids. I did, and they sprayed them down, I could not stop laughing when they asked what my mum used on us !!!! I told them Olive Oil mixed with vinegar, Mixed up in a washed out bottle of Heinz salad cream... Olive Oil so we didn't dry up and vinegar to take the sting out of the sunburn, we smelled like a bag of chips ! Was my mum the only one who did this ? Oh and the sand stuck to us like salt on hot Fries, that was the sun block part I am guessing, still laughing now, and the Girls are still in shock !Have a Lovely Day Jean, Hello to Mike and Emma

Take care Love Jan

Well, here is the bottle, I don’t remember the olive oil but I remember the vinegar – yuck.

I can’t find a photo of Janice on the beach – she was a baby but here are me, Joan Brown and Gloria.

Peter Westmacott has replied to Rob

2010-06-23T20:26:00.000+01:00

Hello Jean

It's some time since I posted something on your wonderful blog. Reading Rob Drayton's comments today, I have to say that I didn't know Rob but certainly knew his brother Derek, who I would often walk through the Rec with on our way to school in Ditton Street. I also knew his Dad Dennis. I particularly remember my brother David working for Dennis in his little glass-blowing business in West Street. Dennis worked at STC like most Summervalians and I assume he worked as a glassblower. I was never quite sure why he had this little business in a cottage in West Street. Had he some knowledge that STC was leaving Ilminster and this was his way of keeping in employment after STC had left? I remember the Draytons stayed in Ilminster and didn't move to Paignton when many did once the factory set up there.

Perhaps Rob can enlighten us about his Dad's glass-blowing business and what happened to it. Incidentally, my brother David did glass-blowing when he first worked at STC in Paignton (1958), so Dennis' training must have helped him!

Best wishes

Peter Westmacott

A message from Rob Drayton

2010-06-22T20:14:00.000+01:00

Hi there Jean,

You won't know/remember me as I was a little younger than you, but I

am a Summervalian through and through! I was actually born there -

Robert Drayton (Rob), brother of Derek who has contacted you before

and who was eight years older than me, and there was middle brother

Michael. Our parents were Dennis and Edie - dad died five years ago,

mum is now 88 and lives about 150 yards away from the old Summervale

site, in Orchard Vale.

I was just dropping a short note to see if your Summervale blog is

stll being updated and in use - if so can you send me a new link

please??

I can then add a few details, tell you about myself, about the housing

plan and ask you a few questions about the earliest times at

Summervale.

Will contact you again on the blog ...
best wishes for now
Rob

Sorry I have only just seen this Rob as I rarely use the email address.
I will email you direct.
Longing to hear from you
Jean.

SPRING IS HERE

2010-04-14T17:04:00.001+01:00

I have changed the header picture which shows Maureen Kearney and June Wakeham collecting primroses on Herne Hill.

Those little baskets bring back so many memories for me - just so cute.

Primroses grew everywhere and smelt delicious but not as overpowering and heady as the smell of bluebells in the woods in May. We would pick armfuls to carry home and were covered in the white sticky sap from the stems.

I don't have any memory of wild daffodils -

Do You?

From Janice Symons

2010-04-14T16:13:00.002+01:00

WOW who knew that walnut whips had been around that long, must have been too expensive for our pocket books... But thanks for the info Jean, the pictures of the whips looked heavenly mmmmm .

Sad about Kenny , I thought he was just the cutest looking guy when I was a little girl , Loved John's account of their adventures. What fun we all had as kids, I swear the weather always seemed to be sunny, but the few photos I have it doesn't look that way, Oh well it was a GREAT Childhood Take care Love Jan

Memories Of Kenny from John Satchell

2010-04-13T19:44:00.000+01:00

hi jean,

what a sad day yesterday to read about the passing of kenny laughton.

the laughtons lived very close to us in summervale, and as kids we were often together, me and tony, kenny and pat, specially on sunday afternoons, playing all sorts of street games on the ring (right by our houses), and down the lane.

i can clearly remember when they were laying a huge (to us little 'uns) concrete pipe under the lane, and at the weekends when the workmen weren't around we used to crawl up and down this thing - heedless of any danger, and have all sorts of games "underground".

this memory brings to mind those games of "tracking", when half the gang would run off with a lump of chalk (brought back from lyme regis!), and scrawl arrows and clues around town, to be tracked by the other half of the gang! i remember being totally impressed with gloria dixon who could write her clues in french (she went to the convent!!), whereas the junior school in ditton street didn't stretch to foreign languages!

other stuff i remember with pat and kenny were scrumping, midnight feasts and fishing in "our" beautiful river isle.

anyway, one winter sunday afternoon, when we were about 10 years old, kenny and i were on our bikes, well i was on my dad's bike which was fitted with sturmey archer gears), just cycling up and down summervale making those endless circuits of the green, probably waiting for the walls ice cream van to turn up.

somehow we got it into our two heads that we should go a bit further and maybe ride to lyme regis!!

now lyme is about 17 miles from summervale and certainly way further than we had ever cycled before, and it was a totally crazy idea in retrospect, but hey we were just kids and full of that wonderful optimism and can-do that we had then and seem not to have now!

so without saying a word to anyone, we set off!

first chard, then axminster and finally whoopee, lyme regis!!

of course it was now almost dark, and after messing about on the beach we thought we should "head back!"

pitch dark, no lights on our bikes, about 7 o'clock, we were exhausted and still only a couple of miles out of lyme, and we were getting the feeling that we had been totally stupid!

what to do?

no-one knew where we were and they were probably getting demented back home. we had school the next day, sunday was bath night, and always an early-to-bed night, hell were we in trouble!

on a long hill we were pushing our bikes when out of the dark loomed a red telephone box!

the only people i knew in the whole of somerset with a phone line were the beard family, who lived across the road from us satchells in summervale, but i didn't know their number. luckily i had used a phone before (!!), so i dialled O and blurted out our sad tale of woe to the kind lady who spoke to me.

she called the police and somehow mr and mrs beard were contacted too!

how this saga ended i have no recollection!! it's all a blur, of frantic parents, policemen, vans, cars and no school the next day!

i can't remember any fallout over this. ken and i were certainly not punished, or feted as heroes at school and now he's gone i don't suppose anyone else in the world remembers it!!

maybe i should ask my mum what really happened!!

once again, a very sad bit of news.

i just had a long chat with tony, he was as shocked and sad as me to hear about kenny, and we would both like to send pat our deepest sympathy.

thanks for updating us jean.

take care

john

Janice remembers her sweeties

2010-04-13T18:56:00.001+01:00

Loved the trot down memory lane about the Sweets... I never could suck the sherbet through the straw had to dip it in and suck off the sherbet...

Loved the Five Boys chocolate bar ... The kids were weird !!!

Pineapple chunks were great they lasted so long, but so did the ripped up tongue .

I loved Smiths crisps too with the little blue bag of salt all damp, which made it hard to sprinkle over the crisps... I can still remember the big pennies, really hard for a five year old to hold on to, for my tuppance worth of aniseed balls.

I thought walnut whips came out in the sixties, Mum and I loved them, bite the walnut off the top and see who could keep the shape while we sucked out the yummy filling to

get to the next walnut down the bottom...

Launched in 1910 by Duncan's of Edinburgh, Walnut Whip is Nestlé Rowntree's oldest current brand. Over one million walnuts, most of them imported from China and India, are used every week in the manufacture of Walnut Whips at Halifax, West Yorkshire. Nestlé claim that a Walnut Whip is eaten almost every two seconds in the UK

Mum Peter and I loved milk bottles, you got so many for tuppance...

Oh and rhubarb and custard ,

I can get those in a store over here called Cost Plus world market , they are all made by Bassetts. not for tuppance though..

Janice.

Another Sad Loss

2010-04-12T15:18:00.001+01:00

Ken Laughton

21st. April 1944 – 3rd. March 2010

I am sorry to tell you all that Ken died recently in South Africa and leaves two sons and a daughter and 9 grandchildren.

Pat tells me that

“he loved South Africa, made lots of friends and had a good, happy life. He worked mainly in Hotels as a Manager and then bought and ran a Bar of his own. He always kept his life quite private and moved from time to time but always kept in touch with me.He had Cancer of the Lungs and Heart Failure. I am so pleased that I spoke to him the day before he passed away, he was still having a laugh and a joke.”

Yes, we will all remember his cheeky smile and his sense of humour.

Rest In Peace Ken – you will not be forgotten.

WHO LEFT THIS COMMENT?

2010-04-07T19:51:00.002+01:00

Anonymous said...

I seem to remember two more Humphries,Hazel the eldest and Rodney the youngest.The Selfs were a family of three children Alan,Pauline and Bobby.Hope that helps.

Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Dying to know - who are you?
JJ

Allsorts

2010-03-29T13:22:00.001+01:00

Hello Jean
Sorry I didn't say which sweet shop. It was the one opposite the secondary modern school in Ditton Street. I don't recall ever using the one next to Tony White's on the High Street; perhaps it had closed by 1954.
Yes, I too loved chocolate éclairs and liquorice allsorts. I had forgotten them. Another one I've just remembered were the lemon sherbets, but I never really rated them.
Something very special were the walnut whips. Mike Smith introduced me to these. I think they were quite expensive, but were very, very tasty.Can you still buy them?
Best Wishes
Peter Westmacott
P.S. I liked your photo of the old coal lorry. I think it closely resembled the one in Summervale. Your sketch of the Summervale coal bin was spot on. Well done

Post War Sweeties

2010-03-29T09:34:00.001+01:00

Hello Jean
Before I moved to Summervale in 1954, I lived in a children's home in Bucks with my brothers David and Paul. At that time we had a shilling (1/-) a week pocket money, half of which went on sweets and half had to be saved. Sweets were rationed then and we had to use coupons to buy our restricted amount of sweets. Then, when we moved to Summervale in 1954 sweet rationing was abolished. This meant more sweets and a greater variety of them - when we could afford it.
There were some marvellous sweets around then.One of my favourites was Fry's Five Boys chocolate bar, with pictures of a boy with various expressions on his face, ranging from despair to ecstasy; presumably despair when he didn't have the chocolate to
delight when he could. I remember studying the pictures closely and thinking how odd they were.
I also liked Rowntree's fruit gums, especially the blackcurrant ones which were much fruitier than the others. Palm toffee was really delicious, tough and sticky, but I can't remember who made it. Sometimes we would ask our mother to make toffee on a tray. That too was delicious but usually very hard. We had to take a hammer to it sometimes!
We also had lots of penny chews, blackjacks (lovely!), Spangles (Derek Drayton seemed to like these), and aniseed balls. Rolos were very tasty but never seemed to last long, unlike pear drops and barley sugars which could be in your mouth for ages. Was that why they made your mouth sore? Gobstoppers and humbugs were tasty too and usually came unwrapped if I remember.
Does anyone remember eating the Horlicks tablets? We got ours in small, metal tins, with each sweet individually wrapped. Does anyone know if you can still buy them?
I remember Clive Williams introduced me to Barratt's sweet cigarettes. These were white, shaped like a cigarette with a red end. They were a bit sickly so I never bought them very much.
We would also have dolly mixtures, raspberry drops (gave me a sore mouth!), sherbet dabs, with a liquorice straw to suck out the sherbet, Fry's chocolate cream (sickly!) and occasionally we'd have some Turkish Delight. As an occasional treat our mother would get us a wagon wheel - large and scrumptious. Years later I remember being disappointed when I saw that they had become much smaller.
We bought a lot of our sweets from the shop opposite the school.

( Which school – Ditton Street , boy’s Grammar ?)

I can't remember the name of it. Any ideas anyone?
These are some of the sweets I can remember. There must have been many more. What were your favourites in the 1950s?

I remember chocolate éclairs that had real chocolate inside and I liked liquorice allsorts.

I was very fussy with chocolate – hated anything other than Cadbury’s or Terry’s plain. I still prefer plain to milk but rarely eat any as I find it too sickly nowadays.

We used to use the sweet shop on the main road opposite Brewery Lane. I assume it must have been Whites. The shop shown here on the right. The other was a grocery store. Best Wishes
Peter Westmacott.

SHOPS

2010-03-28T10:42:00.002+01:00

Thank you Jeannie,

Happy Easter to you also. It would be nice to celebrate it with a few Hot Cross Buns from Tolleys, do you remember their Bakery?

It would be nice to add a Cadbury's Easter Egg also. All of their products we can get here, they are made at their Hershey's plant but you can taste a slight difference from the ones made at Bournville in the UK, you really have to read the labels.

John, on one of his visits, went to Maynards in Taunton and bought their entire stock of Walnut Whirles. Now you can buy most things on line but you can't replace the memories.

The picture of both you outside the fish and chip shop was a good one, they sold the best and biggest Kippers also. We also liked the one opposite the library in Ditton St.

Dyers is always remembered because my mother worked there for so many years.

If I remember correctly, didn't Tony Dyer win the "Brain of Britain" title once or twice?

We were Married on Easter Monday April 6th, 57 years ago, still wondering where the time has gone .

Thanks for all your efforts you put in this site,
best wishes, Marie

Hello Jean
Yes, I certainly remember Dyer's in Silver Street. It was a wonderfully old-fashioned shop, even in the 1950s. Our mother used to take us in there to buy our shoes and sandals. We always hated the experience of choosing the shoes; it seemed an endless procedure. The shoes/sandals always had to be Clarkes. Mother would never buy anything else. I suppose in those days they were made up the road in Street, so it was her way of supporting the local economy!
I remember Carbin's fish and chip shop too. A visit there on a Saturday evening was a regular habit. Fish and chips for 4d (I thin k) plus a bottle of Vimto to wash it down. I believe the shop still exists. Was your photo of you standing outside it a recent one?
Yes 2000 with John Satchell.
Looking at the Ilminster shops website, I can't say that I recognise many of the shops now. Don't think any of them were in existence in the 1950s, except the chemists, Dyer's and Carbin's.
The whizz-bang cash register you mentioned in Dyer's had, I seem to recall, its counterpart at Rossiters department store in Paignton. I think it was still in use in the 1960s when I last went in there.
Some time ago I wrote about tradesmen in Summervale. A couple more I thought about recently. The coalmen used to call to deliver heavy sacks of coal (hundredweight?) to my grandparents at number 26. I always remember my grandmother carefully counting in all the sacks that she had ordered, to make sure she wasn't undersold. She was very suspicious of the coalmen! I think that on an earlier occasion she had been cheated out of a sack!
Above is how I remember the coal lorry.
And remember the Coal Bins by the back door? Made a great noise if you jumped on them! Here is my interpretation -

Does anyone remember the Corona pop delivery van? Occasionally we would get cherryade, lemonade, dandelion and burdock, and Tizer from it. You always made sure you returned your bottles because you got money back if you did so. Can anyone remember how much? It must have been quite an inducement to young children, because I can remember some of us going out looking for bottles to hand in for the money!
Remember these bottle tops ?

Best Wishes
Peter Westmacott

SHOPS

2010-03-20T09:04:00.001Z

DYERS

You must remember Dyers next to the Plaza. It was a clothing and haberdashery store – what a wonderful description !

Inside it was decked out with dark wooden counters with glass fronted display units and around the walls were row upon row of neatly stacked shelves.

No credit cards in those days, cash along with the bill was put in a little cup which whizzed it’s way across the ceiling to the cashiers office.

A photo of a cash railway in a museum.

The bill was checked, receipted and put back in the cup with the change to be whizzed back to the counter.

THE MAYPOLE

in Ditton Street also had this system. I can still smell the bacon, being sliced on the bacon machine to whichever thickness you wanted, and the big round golden cheeses, some possibly from the Horlicks factory down the road.

The rows of jars and bottles on the shelves behind the counter and, in particular, the Heinz 57 logo.

CARBINS FISH & CHIPS

As you can see, I liked my fish & chips!

This was the chemists in Silver Street where I bought my first lipstick and where June Wakeham worked.

Have a look at this website – how many shops can you indentify?

http://www.ilminstershops.com/directory/directory.html

From Peter Westmacott

2010-03-16T19:57:00.001Z

Do you recognize these three young boys from Summervale in 1950? Peter is the strong one, David is in the middle and Paul at the top. We were on holiday at our grandparents (Reg & Ethel Durham) at number 26 in the summer. We would have played with you, the Chambers boys and others at this time.

After I played with it -

This was a few years before we moved to Summervale permanently in February 1954. A favourite activity amongst us all then was riding our bikes around the green. I think the three of us learned to ride on our grandmother's "high-stepper". Don't those socks look awful!!
I'm now in contact with Clive Williams, thanks to you Jean. Well done!!

More From Marie

2010-03-14T09:33:00.001Z

Some things I remember, the girl in the picture with the horse is Mary Britten, she and I were very good friends.

(Actually it was me! I was allowed to ride him occasionally around the orchard)

The horse was usually kept in the field at the bottom of Summervale. She asked me if I had ever ridden a horse and when I said I hadn't she talked me into climbing onto it's back. When I did she smacked it's rear end and it took off with me hanging on to it's mane for dear life, a ride I will never forget.

Someone wrote that they thought by brother was eighteen when he fell into the canal, he was much younger, Tony joined the RAF and was stationed in Kenya by eighteen.

Margaret Plumridge , that was really tragic, my sister Loretta was with her when she was killed. They were crossing the road together when Margaret suddenly stopped to fix her shoe, Loretta continued on across but turned to see what she was doing just as she jumped up and ran straight into a motorcycle that she didn't see coming. Needless to say it was bad for all concerned, Loretta was traumatized for years.

Loretta lives in Exmouth and is in very good health. Tony is living in Chard but has some health problems, he had an operation on his ankle that they had to do over, it has curtailed mobility to the point that he can't drive any more.

I still have lots of photos to go through, my Grandson in Tennessee is getting interested in his heritage and he's keeping me busy. Bye for now.

I can imagine what an enormous impact that had on the whole of Summervale as it was such a close knit community. I, personally do not remember it as I was too young.

Here are some photos sent in by Marie -

Lyme Regis 1947

CARNIVAL 1951

LOOKING FOR CLIVE

2010-03-12T08:36:00.001Z

Hello Jean
Enjoyed the photos of the Ilton Halt - it all came back to me clearly!
Nice to see you had a message from Mary Williams. I have been trying to find out the whereabouts of Clive. Can you help? Do you have an e-mail, phone number or address for him? I would love to get in touch with him again.
Best Wishes
Peter Westmacott

Query from Peter Westmacott

2010-03-11T19:26:00.001Z

“Railways. Once, I remember some of us caught a train out to Ilton. (Was there an Ilton Halt on the Chard-Ilminster- Taunton line?)”

Thanks to Marie Macey, all the way across the pond in California – here is Ilton Station

From Mary Williams

2010-03-11T19:10:00.001Z

HI Jean,I'm not back in Paignton,still living in sunny Spain and I haven't seen Peter Plumridge for years. About your blog Clive only told me about it last week and I think you have done a great job.Clive's hair was never red though, you must have been looking at him with rose tinted glasses.I very rarely go on this site now ,I'm hooked on facebook.

Take care,Love Mary

Great to hear from Mary, Perhaps he didn’t have red hair but he definitely had freckles!

I guess Peter Plumridge has got her mixed up with someone else but, at our age, what can you expect!!

Identification

2010-03-07T18:00:00.001Z

Having identified Marie Macey I came across this picture of my brother’s birthday party -

From left to right :

Trevor Stock, Amy Stone, Eileen Simpson, Tony, Marie Macey and John Cornforth

Email from Marie Macey

2010-03-05T19:38:00.001Z

“ Hi Jean, Great to hear from you also, I really have missed the old Summervale site.

Tony did have a mishap when he tried to climb a tree over the old canal in front of the tunnel entrance. The branch that he was on broke and he fell into the water and mud and almost drowned. He got out after a lot of difficulty but some grass penetrated his ear and gave him trouble for a long time. I remember him coming home covered in mud.

I remember the Italian baker that worked in Tolley's, he didn't want to return to Italy after the war and married an English girl I think.

I am in the photo in front of John Cornforth, behind Trevor Stock with my hand on Shirley's shoulder.

All the photos that I have are ones that you sent me awhile back.

My memory is not quite as good as I thought it might be but here we go

Back row

Peter mason, ? . Mr. Hewitt, Iris , John Cornforth, Amy Stone, ?, Mrs Hewitt,

Next row,

?, Me Marie. ? , Eileen Simpson Tony Boyce, Joyce Stock, ? , ?,

Front row

Trevor Stock, Shirley Hewitt, George Simpson, Margaret Mason. Irene Forbes.

By the way, from one Aries to another,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Marie.”

Another Returns to the fold

2010-03-04T20:05:00.001Z

Date:
Thu, Mar 4 2010, 19:57:13, GMT

Name:
Marie Macey Kilby

Hi Jean, Nice to see so many Summervale people still alive and keeping well. Those were the good old days. I miss your old website that you worked so hard on. Best wishes to you and all the survivors. Love to hear from them.

I know Marie lives in America, California, I think & I now have her e-mail address if anyone want to contact her.

Are you in this photo Marie?

"Messin' about in Summervale in the 1950s".

2010-02-22T18:41:00.002Z

When we weren't playing those endless games of cricket and football, and riding bikes around the green, we did a lot of messing about:

1. Scrumping. This was an activity for autumn evenings in Britten's orchard down Brewery Lane (our prefab backed on to it).
One evening we were pinching some apples when up towards the house someone came out flashing a large torch, heading towards us. With hearts pumping, we leapt over the hedge and sped towards the Rec. and hid. We waited quite a long time before creeping back home. I don't think we did much scrumping after that.

2. Rattling door knockers. This was another favourite, especially in the autumn. We'd go along Silver Street and West Street knocking on doors or stuffing something through a letter box, then would leg it back to Summervale. Once, someone suggested putting a banger (lit) through one old lady's letterbox, but some of us thought this was a bit cruel so it never happened. Once, one woman, came out and chased us along West Street but, fortunately, we were much too fast for her!

3. Banger in the wasps' nest. Once, in late summer, there was a wasps' nest in the bank in Brewery Lane, quite near our house.

My brother, David, decided to have some fun with the wasps. He lit a banger and placed it in the nest and stepped away.
The firework exploded and loads of wasps emerged into the daylight. Some of them, obviously quite agitated, headed for David and he got very badly stung. After that experience, he didn't play around with wasps again. All good experience for the growing child!

4. Nets, catapults and air rifles. Looking back now I think nature must have taken quite a lot of punishment from Summervale boys. Mind you, I think there was a lot more wildlife around in the 1950s, before spraying and pesticides became more widely used. We would take butterfly nets out into the fields and capture butterflies, pop them in jars, then take them home and mount them on a display board. Fortunately, we didn't do this for too long.
Catapults were great fun and we always made our own from hedgerows and a bit of thick rubber. The favourite targets were bottles placed on the bank in Brewery Lane and, I am now ashamed to say, birds in the trees. Mind you, I don't recall us ever seriously hitting our prey.
Once or twice someone brought an air rifle along to one of our outings. (Was it Alan Dixon?) I was allowed to have a go with the rifle, but, like everybody else, was never successful.I think Alan was, on the odd occasion.

5. Railways. Once, I remember some of us caught a train out to Ilton. (Was there an Ilton Halt on the Chard-Ilminster- Taunton line?). We were playing some arranged boys cricket match at Ilton. After the game we realised we couldn't get back to Ilminster (no money? missed the train? Can't remember the reason now). So to get back to Ilminster we decided to walk along the track, which we did all the way to Ilminster. Not advisable, but we did it. This was when I first learned to place an old penny on the line, then see what an oncoming train would do to it when it ran over it. I never found out that evening but we did try a few other times elsewhere (Donyatt, I think), and I can remember finding the odd squashed penny
after a train had passed over a carefully placed one. Of course, many times you couldn't find them. They were probably sent flying!

Just a few of the crazy things we got up to in those wonderful early years in Summervale!
Best Wishes
Peter Westmacott
flying!

Adrian Hooke Remembers -

2010-02-14T09:44:00.001Z

Mr. Bailey “The Milk”

I remember Mr. Bailey bringing the milk on a horse-drawn cart. He used to wear a tan canvas-type smock and leather gaiters up to his knees. The mothers would take out tin milk jugs and he would ladle them full, directly from the metal churn. Every now and again he would tell us that he had the "special" and us kids would run back home to get a cup. Then he would give us each a smaller amount of the very top cream from the milk, which we would drink right there. It was cool and simply delicious.

Thinking about the "special" milk, does anyone remember the "Morgan Sweet" apples? Once/year, in the late Autumn if I remember correctly, word would get out in Summervale that the Morgan Sweets were ready. They weren't sold in the store, you had to know-someone-who-knew-someone and usually you got one per person in the family. They were unbelievably sweet and delicious. Morgan Sweets are old West Country cider apples, but I have no idea where they came from in the Ilminster area.

PIG BINS - Hilarious

Oh, and thinking about the pig bins, does anyone remember the Guy Fawkes night when my Dad blew one up? He (Arthur Hooke) was famous in Summervale for home-made fireworks, since we couldn't buy any so soon after WW2. We used to start making them sometime in October, baking wood into charcoal in cans on the coal fire, getting sulphur crystals that were sold for sheep dipping and potassium chlorate from the chemist. We experimented with rockets and "pretty-ones", but the "bangers" were his speciality. One Guy Fawkes night Arthur made an enormous banger, put it in a pig bin near the Circle, lit the fuse and put the lid back on. It went off so fast that the lid jammed on for a moment and finally it blew off and the whole contents of the can exploded. There were bits of rotten vegetables and bacon rind flying everywhere and next morning the trees were festooned with all that stuff.

Thanks for those thoughts Adrian – what a child hood we had eh?

As for your Dad ……… What would he make of Health and Safety??

Happy VALENTINES DAY Everyone

Be My Valentine

2010-02-12T09:23:00.001Z

Valentine’s Day. What did it mean when we were kids? Not a lot as far as I remember, certainly nothing like the commercial big business it is today.

I fell in love very young – about 4 I think I was when asked to say who I loved by Shirley Hewitt.

Clive Williams, I said, I love Clive. That was a sign of things to come – I always went for the older boys.

Clive had red hair and freckles and if he ever reads this I guess he will be a bit embarrassed. Can’t help that – he was so cute.

I had to search hard to find a photo of him. Here we are at a birthday party with Mrs Williams in the background and Mary behind me.

Sadly, he never fancied me – Carol Richards was so much prettier.

The Delivery Men

2010-02-06T11:32:00.001Z

In the 1950s when most mothers stayed at home in Summervale, many tradesmen would call on a regular basis. Mr.Bailey used to bring the milk round in churns on the back of his car (was it a Ford or Morris?).

I think I remember a horse and cart! Probably before you moved in.

I remember my grandmother taking jugs out to collect the milk in. I seem to recall your Mum doing that too Jean! One summer I remember collecting the milk for my grandmother (Ethel Durham) and when I brought it back inside she told me to place the jugs in a bowl of cold water. It was a hot day and the milk could soon go off - no fridges in Summervale then, I think! However, all the prefabs had cool shelves in the pantries and these helped to keep some things cool. I have no idea when this round ended and whether or not Mr Bailey switched to bottles. Any idea anybody?

The first milk bottles had cardboard lids with a hole in the middle -

Us girls used to put two together, wind wool around and around until the hole was filled. Then cut through all the wool around the edges , wind some more wool between the two pieces of cardboard, tie a knot to make

– POM POMS!

And they said childhood in those days were boring!!

Although there were at least two bakers in the town I remember we had our bread delivered to the house. The delivery man was a wide-smiling Italian called Tony. He used to say: "You wanta de hovees (Hovis)". Not being used to Italians then, we thought he was rather funny. When he had gone my brothers and I used to imitate him. I wonder if he had been a POW who had stayed on in England after the war. Does anyone else remember him?

PIG BINS

I remember that a special lorry came round to collect the pig swill but I don't know what happened to it. I recall that there were special bins for the swill.

All food scraps were put into the pig bins to feed local farm animals. We had one opposite our house on the edge of the green and the smell was dreadful in the summer as was the sea of maggots surrounding it Yuck. It was a large metal bin placed inside a concrete collar to prevent it falling over I assume. I still have a scar from when I tried to lift it!

Here is a photo of Janice & Peter Symons who must have been standing next to it -

I can clearly remember gypsies calling at our house selling their wares. Sometimes we would buy wooden clothes pegs from them and I remember buying some wild flowers once. My mother was a bit annoyed about this when she got home, and we never bought any flowers again. I don't think we ever had our fortunes told!
Can anyone remember any other traders calling? I have a vague idea that a knife sharpener used to call on his bike to sharpen scissors,knives,shears and so on.
More happy days!
Best Wishes
Peter Westmacott

Sundays

2010-02-02T15:44:00.002Z

Hello Jean
Yes, you were right about Bradburn's newsagents in Market Square. It is the one with the awning in your excellent photo of a deserted square. I wonder when Ron Dixon managed to take that one!

(Not one of Ron’s! Afraid I found it on the net!)

It would be very difficult to achieve that today. And thanks for naming the bakers (Tolleys) for me.
In our recent phone call, Mike Smith and I recalled Summervale days. Mike would come round to ours (No.10) for tea, especially on a Sunday afternoon after the traditional Sunday roast. Outside the summer months we would play endless games of monopoly, snakes and ladders (yes, still playing at 12-13 years old!), pontoon (thank Clive Williams for that one), lotto and, occasionally,
Chinese chequers. On the radio the Billy Cotton band show would be booming out, then "The Huggetts", "Educating Archie", "The Navy Lark" or "The Clitheroe Kid". I think we enjoyed most of these.

Then round about teatime we would be listening to the very thrilling, and sometimes scary , "Journey into Space", with David Jacobs, David Kossoff, etc. When this was on we always seemed to be eating celery for tea and, invariably, one of us would be crunching at a vital moment in the story! Shush, we'd shout! My Mum liked "Palm Court", a music programme on the radio, but Mike was never very impressed with this. Time to go home!
We would also go to Mike's house for tea with Uncle Reg and Auntie Dot. I was never quite sure why we called Mike's parents this, but we always did. They were very kind to our family and would help us in all sorts of ways, on at least one occasion providing us with some furniture. I especially liked it when they invited me round to watch floodlit football on TV. These were the early days of floodlit matches and I remember seeing Wolves v Moscow Dynamoes and Arsenal v Moscow Spartak. Very exciting!
Happy days!
Peter Westmacott

I remember roast lamb with minted peas from the garden and cricket on the wireless with that lovely sound of leather on willow. Very evocative of hot sunny summers. Tony used to play a lot of sport and I remember him playing one afternoon in Chard. I was always sick as a kid if it was hot and sunny and that day was no exception. We all walked into the pavilion for a tea of sandwiches and cakes and I threw up in the corner. Don’t recall any other cricket matches!

Two way Family favourites on the Light programme:

The time in Britain is twelve noon, in Germany it's one o'clock, but home and away it's time for "Two-Way Family Favourites" with Jean Metcalfe and Cliff Mitchelmore-

Most Exciting programme during the week?

DICK BARTON SPECIAL AGENT

Some Doodles

2010-02-01T19:33:00.001Z

LADIES ON AN OUTING

2010-02-01T12:05:00.001Z

The picture above is of many of our Mum’s who were waiting for the coach to take them on a shopping trip.

Below, I have named those I can - if you can add any others then let me know.

I hope you can read the names!

FROM OUR CHIEF CORRESPONDENT

2010-01-31T19:50:00.001Z

Hello Jean
Enjoyed your comments on my last piece. Occasionally I had to have the Pinkun but it was a poor substitute for the Greenun. Yes, I think it did contain a lot of racing.
I liked the photo of Tony White's grocery shop. I hadn't realised it had a cafe too. Don't remember one when I worked for Tony. Me neither. What good eyesight you have, What are all the people waiting for outside the shop? Was it a bus trip? Probably a trip up to STC for a party.
More Ilminster shops:
Bradburn's newsagents Market Square. I did two paper rounds here, a large morning one and a very short one in the evening.

Was it the shop with the awning above? I remember getting pens and stationery from there.
Mr Bradburn, a Yorkshire man, gave me a bike for the rounds. This was necessary because the morning round was all over Ilminster: Court Barton, New Road, Higher Beacon, Station Road, Winterhay,etc. I remember getting badly bitten once by a snappy Jack Russell in Higher Beacon; never liked delivering there after that! But the worst incident was during my evening round of just five papers - Ditton Street, Lister Hill, Station Road, Winterhay and the top of East Street (was it called Bay Hill?). Anyway, I was delivering to a house there and I parked my bike against the pavement whilst I popped the paper through the letter box. When I turned round disaster struck! A car had run over the bike and completely buckled the front wheel. What should I do? I was too scared to tell Mr. Bradburn what had happened, so I took the bike home and parked it in the lean-to where it stayed for ages. After this I had to walk the round, which took so much longer. I couldn't afford to buy a new wheel at Hurlstone's and I never did. Eventually, when I gave up the round, I was pleased when Mr. Bradburn said nothing about returning the bike and I never did either!
Bakers. I remember one in Ditton Street and one somewhere along the High Street, I think, on the Summervale side. We used to go in the Ditton Street bakers after school for cheap hardbakes (overbaked or yesterday's rolls). Were they two a penny?

Yes, I mentioned this in my piece about Brownies.
The other bakers was for serious treats, e.g. cream buns! We only got these very rarely but they were delicious. I remember at the Secondary Modern a tray of these goodies would be delivered to the school (daily?) and placed at the side of the stage for the morning break. You had to get there fairly quickly if you wanted to buy one! They were always snapped up quickly!

The Bakers at the top of Summervale was Tolleys. Mum would send me there every Saturday morning to get a dozen finger rolls which, of course, was 13. They were delicious and still warm – yummy. The start of bad eating habits!!
Mike Smith and I have just had a very long phone call (78 mins) reminiscing about Summervale days and Paignton too. We haven't had any contact since the 1960s, so it was great to catch up with all our news.
More about this in my next report!

Great News!
Best Wishes
Peter Westmacott

FROM OUR CHIEF CORRESPONDENT

2010-01-31T19:45:00.001Z

Great News!
Best Wishes
Peter Westmacott

SHOPS IN ILMINSTER

2010-01-30T10:06:00.001Z

Hello Jean
Shops in Ilminster:
Tom Clapp's sports shop. After watching Ilminster play football on a Saturday afternoon in the Rec. we used to go to Clapp's early evening to pick up "The Green un", the Saturday sports paper.

JJ says - ( I remember my Dad had the Pinkun, what was the difference? He was a bit of a gambler so his might have been horse racing and the Greenun – football?)

On the way home we would pick up some chips and a bottle of Vimto in the fish & chip shop, then I'd read the paper cover to cover in the evening. I think it was Mike Smith who introduced us to the Vimto! Can you still buy that stuff?

Did Mrs Carbin run the fish/chip shop?

JJ says - (Yes, she did and looked like she lived on it too! 3 pence for a large portion of chips and 1 pence for scribblings – those little bits of batter)
Mr Giles' shop on the corner of Wharf Lane. I think it was a newsagents/stationers but we used to spend ages in there looking at postage stamps and occasionally buying them. Old Mr Giles would get fed up with us sometimes and tell us to get a move on. Clive Williams and Cliff Hargest would go in with me sometimes. Was there anybody else?
Tony White's grocery shop, High Street, top of Summervale.

( the little girl in the front sucking her thumb is me)

I used to work there on a Friday evening after school. Firstly I had to help Tony and his wife fill up the order boxes then I had to deliver them around the town on my special bike. Sometimes Tony would give me some broken biscuits or cheese to take home. These were always appreciated at home as we were fairly poor in those days. I think we were the only single parent family in Summervale at the time.

JJ says ( Whites – loved that shop always full of lovely smells. Tony was a big smiley man and very friendly. One Christmas he asked me to draw the raffle and I was very honoured. However, I think we won 4 or 5 prizes – coincidence Gov – honest!)
Irwin's greengrocers - Silver Street, near top of Summervale. I used to go shopping sometimes for my Mum (remember she was at work at STC from 8a.m. to 6 p.m. ) and so we had to do a lot to help her. I always liked it when Mrs Irwin said "And here's an
extra one for you" (usually an apple).
More to follow!
Best Wishes
Peter Westmacott