Delivery Bikes

When I was a boy, my Mother used go into town several times a week to do her shopping. Once or twice a week she went to the Butchers and the Fishmonger and then once a week to the Grocers where there was a proper counter and a stool to sit on while you gave the assistant your order for groceries. These would be itemised by the assistant  on a hand written receipt and delivered later that week by bicycle. Before Tesco or Waitrose in Ciren there used to be several Grocery shops in town that delivered. My Mother was loyal to the Wheelers Stores at the junction of Cricklade Street with Ashcroft Road which was just down from Macfisheries which was where she would buy what she called “Yellow Fish” on a Friday (Smoked Cod) to be later poached in milk for tea.  In those days – and still is for many Ciren folk; we had “Dinner” at Midday to One O’clock  and “Tea” was from Five O’clock to about 7pm. 
In the late 1950’s and the 1960’s there were also a number of motorised grocery vans that visited the Estates , Watermoor and Stratton.  The vans I remember were like a sort of walk-in version of a furniture van; fitted with shelves that were stacked up with tins of beans, peas and other popular comestibles. 

Going back to bike: When I was about 13 or so, as well as an evening paper round, I also rode a delivery bike after School and Saturday mornings for Timothy Whites in the Market Place.  Many was the time when, rain or shine, I  would mount my bike with its metal framed basket and ride to New Mills or up Chesterton to deliver the likes of a Sink Plunger or a new towel rail,  while all the time I pedalled the heavy bike, telling myself, at least it wasn’t a sack of coal..

​In 1976 the Country marked the  Centenary of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee . That year the Ciren Carnival reflected the event with series of “Imperial” themed floats.  But what was thought to be  “Imperial” back had a different perspective  to the way we understand it today:  The Carnival of 1976 had a number of Jingoistic floats depicting domination of people from what was regarded at the time as third World Countries. 

Throughout my childhood and teens,  the only exposure that many Ciren people had to foreign Culture, was a two week Clarkson’s all-inclusive holiday to a Mediterranean destination. Places further away from Spain or the Italian Riviera were mainly only within the experience of those who had served in the Forces or who could afford Thomas Cook excursions.  I can remember my Father’s stories about places such as Egypt that he had visited in the Army: places which he described pejoratively, (due to his war experience) but always sounded exotic to me as a child and inspired me to want to visit as many countries as possible one day.  I think it’s true to say that until quite late on, many Ciren people had never actually encountered a person with different coloured skin, Culture, or place of origin much further away from Ciren than the County boundaries. It was unusual to see anyone in Town that hadn’t been either born there or was visiting a relative in Ciren. The populist view of anything foreign to Ciren was informed mainly by newspapers, and TV shows such as “Love thy Neighbour” 1972-1976 and the longer running  “Till Death us Do Part”  ( 1965 to 1992). The Black and White Minstrel show was widely popular attracted an audience each week of around 21 Million viewers. The show presented traditional American minstrel and country songs, as well as show tunes and music hall numbers, usually performed in blackface, and with lavish costumes.

Ciren School Days – 1950’s  Pot-Bellied Stoves… 

I walked past the old Lewis Lane Council School last week and although it’s over 50 years. it seemed like it was only yesterday that I was there as a pupil in my school blazer and the red cap that my mother had bought for me from Scotts;  the School outfitters in Castle Street.  I noticed the buildings have been altered in some ways since I went there,  but the fabric appears almost as it did when I went there in the 50’s.  The school is all one building really, but as children we were very aware of the difference between the Primary school on the left side and the Junior School on the right. The differences started at the entrance, with separate entrances accessed by two different gates from Lewis Lane. Once inside, the classrooms had a quasi-Gothic sort of style with high ceilings and large windows through which light would stream in.  I don’t think I can recall lights ever being used, but obviously they had them and the fitting of them is recorded in the School records; now in the Gloucestershire Public Record office.  There was also heating, which many readers will recall, was provided by coal burning pot-bellied iron stoves. Each classroom had a stove; protected by an iron railing, against which children were allowed to stand if they were feeling a bit “poorly”.  During the big-freeze Winter of 1963, I remember there was a queue of “poorly” children waiting for a place at the rail each morning;. each clutching a 3rd a pint bottle of free school milk to warm on the stove. Outside the classroom, there was a playground which was divided by a tall stone wall with solid gate. Once a year in September, the gate would open and with trepidation, infancy was left behind as the 7 year olds filed through to become newly fledged Juniors.  

Winning the Pools
Watching the Lottery results on TV recently,  got me thinking about the time back before the Lottery started in 1994.  Back then, almost everyone I knew, did what was simply referred to as "The Pools"  each week. The dream was the same as winning the Lottery; the hope of winning a life changing fortune for small outlay. The Pools were cheap to enter, with the potential to win a very large sum of money.  I remember in 1961 a woman called Viv Nicholson hit the Nationals News with a win of £152.319; equivalent to £3 million today. Some readers may remember Mrs Nicholson famously said she was going to "Spend, Spend, Spend " and promptly did so on Fur coats, cars and holidays before being declared bankrupt in 1968.  
The pools entry money was either posted in each week or collected by local Agents who operated on a commission according to how much they collected. I could never understand how the pools actually worked, but I did know that to win a lot of money  you had to get  “8 draws on a line”;  a phrase loosely interpreted at many of the Regal Cinema fancy dress events,  and the likes of Butlins holiday Camps in the 1960's,  as ”Eight pairs of Drawers on a line” .
As well as the National Pools organisations such as Littlewoods, Vernons and Zetters, there were also local organisations that competed for the punters' fraction of a penny a line, but in a much smaller way. In the Ciren area the local pools organisation was the  “Wye Valley”  from Ross-on -Wye. You could post your entry to the Wye valley, but most people gave their entry to the collector who would call at your house each week. I remember a number of winners in Ciren and like Bingo winners in the town, were reported in the Standard with a photograph of them receiving a cheque. 

Suppers and Dinners 
Like most large towns, Ciren has Teams, Clubs and Organisations to suit all. Some, such as the Rotary Club, have been in operation for many years, while others such as the Bull Club and the Freemasons much longer. Many clubs today didn’t exist when I was growing up; we didn’t for example have a Kickboxing club back then and we certainly didn’t have “NinjaTots” to take our children to on a Saturday.  

Times may have changed but many Clubs and Teams continue to this day to hold social Dinners; some formal and some more casual. The Kings Head hotel and the Fleece in the market place has alway been a popular venue for Dinners and Suppers, but these have also been held as far away as Stratton or down the Victoria road at the function room of the long gone, Foresters Arms. 

Formal organisations such as the Bull Club used the Fleece Hotel for it’s Dinners, while Cirencester Freemasons held their “Festive Boards” at the Kings Head.  Masonic dinners held today at the Masonic Lodge in the Avenue, are fairly simple but back in 1930’s, the menu for the Cotteswold Lodge at the Kings Head  included Mock Turtle Soup,  Roasted Pheasants, Trifle, Cheese Straws.  I’m not sure what The Bull Club serve today but the meeting at the Fleece in 1913,  offered Eight courses including,  Clear Hare Soup, Turbot with Lobster sauce, Venison, Saddle of Mutton,  Partridge, “Savouries” consisting of Herring Roes sur Crout and Devilled Cheese biscuits.  Where would a Chef in Ciren find enough Lobsters to make a Sauce for a hundred people?  Mock Turtle Soup on the hand was probably fairly easy and could have been sourced locally- It’s made from brains and offcuts such as calf's head or calf's foot to duplicate the texture and flavour of the original's turtle meat. 

Grave Robbers
Whenever I’m heading up to Chesterton, I often take a little while out to visit the Cemetery. Its a tranquil part of town which seems to be rapidly becoming engulfed by office buildings and houses.  When it was built in 1871, it was rural; there being no sign of the housing estate that exists today (built in 1938).  Chesterton cemetery has expanded significantly over the years as more and more Cirencestrians “ Cross over the Churn” to rest in peace under the well mown grass. 
When opened in 1872  the Keeper llived in the Neo-Gothic Lodge at the entrance. Gothic style architecture was popular at the time and added gravitas to sombre situations. it was only two years previous that the Houses of Parliament had reached completion in this particular style. An job advert in an 1871 copy of the Standard offered £1 a week and free rent for the Keeper who was expected to devote 100% of his time to the Cemetery to dig graves, tend gardens and lock the gates.  He was also required to keep a register of burials and it was essential he could read and write. The Lodge is still there although I believe it has been sold as a private house. Two Neo-Gothic chapels remain, one of which was used at one time for inquests and is unconsecrated as is the adjoining Western part of the cemetery. Back then the cost to be buried varied according to the rateable value of the house the deceased lived in:  6 shillings being the lowest and 14 shillings for a house rated at over £15.  Extras were available or as we call them today  “upgrades". To have a grave deeper than the standard 7 feet would cost an extra 5 shillings a foot and for those worried about grave robbers, it was possible to purchase a brick lined grave for £3.10 shillings (£288 in todays money.) 

Wedding Photographs  Week 20
Since the invention of Photography in the 1850’s, photographs quickly became an essential part of our Culture. Initially expensive, photography  became cheaper and more accessible  as time went on and with the advent of more portable equipment; Photography stopped being mostly  a studio bound process and important milestones such as Weddings and Anniversaries started to be captured firstly on glass plates and later,  film.   Funerals were also a subject for photographic record, but this seems to have petered out in the 1920’s. The Standard continued to publish pictures of the deceased but not actual funerals.
From the  1950’s, Ciren had about 4 or 5 free-lance photographers covering  events in town and supplying the Standard  with pictures;  including  local Weddings. My Uncle Fred Heaven was one of the Ciren photographers and was widely known for not just for Wedding photography, but also for his studio portraits of babies and children.  Back then, most people got married on a Saturday and it was unusual for a wedding to take place on a week day, unless it was at the Ciren Register Office which until the 1970’s was at No 12 Park Street opposite the Museum.  This made it possible for people to attend weddings without taking a day off work and for people like my Uncle Fred, to have also have  “Day job” as well as his Photography.  Each Saturday, my Uncle would go from one Wedding to another, bobbing back and forth between the town’s Churches,  taking pictures at each, as successive brides stepped out of the church under a hail of confetti. The next day would spent, and probably most of the next week;  developing and processing the photos in his darkroom at the back of the garages on the Chesterton Estate. In those days, photos were mainly black and white;  Colour pictures being a bit of an expensive luxury for Ciren Brides. 
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