Back Through the Pages: Country dancing at Garden of Remembrance

WILFUL DAMAGE

A charge was brought by James Redstall against his daughter, Elizabeth Smith, for breaking his window.

Mrs Smith did not appear but Fanny Shipton attended as a witness and deposed as follows: 'I live in South Street and am a laundress.

'On Saturday 18 October, about 11 o’clock, as I was going around the corner of South Street, I saw Mrs Smith near the window of Mr Redstall’s cottage.

'I stopped to speak to Mrs Hammond, and then I saw the defendant split a piece of board, and put it back through a broken pane of glass in Redstall’s window.

'Previous to that I heard a rattle of glass.

'I saw the defendant take the board out of the window but did not see her break it.

'Her back was towards me, so that if she had broken the window, I could not have seen it.

'There was no other person near the spot and the rattle I heard was like glass being broken.'

The husband of the defendant was present and he cross-examined the witness, and also the plaintiff, but without shaking the evidence or throwing any new light on the case.

He said that the family of the plaintiff had been subject to great annoyance by the plaintiff’s conduct towards them.

The bench considered the charge had been proved and ordered the defendant to pay the damage and cost of the proceedings, amounting to 12s 6d.

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO – FRIDAY 8 NOVEMBER 1901

HOUGHTON – SOME REMINISCENCES BY A NATIVE

The Boot Inn at Houghton, where a village club was held in Victorian times. (Image: Supplied)

I was saddened to see in the last copy of the Advertiser a paragraph relating to the death of the late Mr John Jennings.

I have seen about half the number of years which he saw, but the Jennings family has always been very closely associated with Houghton.

During much of the last half-century, a village club was held at the Boot Inn, and the custom was to spend the first Monday in July as an annual festival.

For those of us attending the parish school, this was the big event of the year.

We heard a brass band and after a short service a procession marched down through the village.

We always saw Tom Moody in the front rank with his trombone; the two old veterans of music, John Harding and William Hulbert; and of course, the White family.

One thing I remember so well was that we always had the same band – the same old faces and the same old tunes – and we always looked upon the whole as complete right down to the old drummer, whose eyes were deeply sunken.

His features were somewhat altered by the deep wrinkles which chased each other down his face, and ever afterwards no other drummer seemed to me to be so who did not possess the same facial characteristics.

Of course, the festival’s main feature for us was the Jennings’ stalls of toys, sweets, shooting saloons and last, but not least, the ‘three sticks a penny’ before the large balls came upon the club scene.

There were Tom and Rose, John and Emms, and others whose names have just slipped my memory for the present, but so used were we to seeing them at our club that it would not have seemed the same without them.

Now the band is gone, the club is gone and now our old friend of childhood days, Jennings, has also gone.

Alas, we live in a world of changes.

These old landmarks of childhood days have been removed one by one, until very few, if any, are left.

Who I wonder will record the changes of the next half-century?

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO – FRIDAY 5 NOVEMBER 1926

THE SALE OF ELECTRICITY

Sir: During the last five years the sale of electricity in this country has doubled and the domestic supply of electricity is proceeding by leaps and bounds at an unprecedented rate; and it may be said that as soon as trade revives there will be another substantial jump in the use of electricity, all proceeding without the interference of a Government Bill, the aim of which is to create another bureaucratic body whose duty it will be to expend large sums of money to indulge in state spending and to adversely control the management of other people’s businesses.

I hope the government will pause before they rush any bill through and give an opportunity to those in the industry who oppose it to put their views forward.

Yours faithfully W B Woodhouse

SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO – FRIDAY 19 OCTOBER 1951

COUNCIL NAMES TWO NEW ROADS

The question of what to call the two new cul-de-sacs off Suffolk Road was debated by the council at their meeting on Tuesday night.

Cllr Mrs Harvey, chairman of the Housing Committee, suggested St Anne’s Close and Willow Grove.

Asked why she thought these were suitable, she replied that there was a well, some said a wishing well, close to the piece of ground, and there were willows by the river.

Cllr Mrs Allen: 'Will there be a public house named the Bat and Ball?' (laughter).

Alderman W Armstead, who had earlier stated that this day was his 21st anniversary of his entry into the council, said that he always urged that new streets and roads should be named so as to be easily associated with the immediate neighbourhood.

He thought that these names had no connection with Suffolk Road and may cause difficulties for strangers and indeed locals, who may take a long time to learn where they were.

Cllr H Guard said it would have been better if the alderman had made some constructive suggestions but he was certainly against anything like Suffolk Road East or Suffolk Road South, while Cllr Harvey retorted that suggestions with associations could include 'Gas Works View' or 'Behind the Broadway' but owners may object to those.

In the end, Cllr Harvey’s suggestion were accepted.

FORTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO – FRIDAY 9 NOVEMBER 1979

GARDEN OF REMEMBRANCE NOT THE PLACE FOR COUNTRY DANCING

An Andover councillor claimed last week that the Garden of Remembrance at St Mary’s church was not the place for country dancing after TVBC’s Recreation and Amenities Committee had agreed a request from the Festival 80 committee to use the garden to stage an arts festival, which would include country dancing.

The church authorities were still to give their consent.

But Cllr Betty Stone disagreed with the concept and she put down a motion of displeasure that was supported by Cllr Tom Moloney, who said: 'There are other sites which are more suitable for this kind of thing – for instance the Common Acre or Cricklade College.'

But Cllr Brian Smith pointed out that the event was on behalf of St Mary’s church and involved children performing country dancing: 'We are not envisaging a wild west atmosphere at all.'

And Cllr Laurie Porter, chairman of the committee commented: 'It is a perfectly harmless event. I see nothing wrong with what has been proposed.'

The motion of displeasure was lost.