Betty James

Betty, or Elizabeth, was the wife of a Market Lavington baker, Walter James.

This is a good point to remind readers of our Museum Miscellany on 4^th October in Market Lavington Community Hall. We always have interval food made from our museum recipes and this might include some Walter James recipes.

But back to Betty who was a James by marriage but who was born a Gye in 1869 in Market Lavington. She was the daughter of James and Mary Ann. James was a carpenter and wheelwright and his descendants followed him into that line of work, setting up the yard on White Street.

In 1904 Elizabeth married Walter James who was establishing himself as a baker in the village. He had taken over the bakery at number one High Street which is now the Post Office.

This picture of Elizabeth is in an album that belonged to a member of the Gye family which we have in Market Lavington Museum.

Betty James – a photo in an album at Market Lavington Museum

The photo has a caption which would have been added later.

The photo caption

In 1901 Elizabeth was at home and had work as a dressmaker.

By 1911 the James family – young Walter had been born, were in their High Street premises which stayed in the family until well after World War II.

But Elizabeth (Betty) James died in 1927.

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Mrs Sayer at the 1927 Carnival

In Market Lavington and Easterton the carnival was always a part of Hospital Week. Before the National Health Service people needed ready money to pay for health care and those that didn’t have money had to either go without or rely on charity. The Hospital Week raised money and provided folks with a good time.

Mrs Sayer was wife of Fred who ran the local bus and coach company. She always dressed up as something for the carnival and in 1927 she appears as a banjolele playing minstrel.

Mabel Sayer at the 1927 Market Lavington and Easterton carnival

The banjolele had the size of a ukulele but the general form of a banjo – it was a cross between the two instruments. It had four pairs of strings with each pair tuned to the same note. It was actually the instrument of choice for George Formby.

Mrs Mabel Sayer (née Weston) was born around 1880 in Bath.

 

Struck by Lightning (2)

Storms of one kind or another have been in the news in the last month or so.  The major storm to hit the South of England on October 28^th pales almost into nothingness as compared with the awful tragedy of the Philippines. But we are aware that it won’t feel like that to anybody who suffered loss in the English storm.

Clyffe Hall in Market Lavington has suffered storm damage more than once – from lightning strikes. Back in February 2012 we featured one such strike. (click here to see it). That strike happened in 1911. Today we have another strike in 1927. Both strikes caused damage to trees and, as far as we know, nothing worse.

Here’s the aftermath of the 1927 strike.

Tree struck by lightning in the grounds of Clyffe Hall – 1927

Clearly, some substantial branches have been brought down, making clear that there is reason behind the advice not to shelter under trees during thunder storms.

The power of these strikes is laid bare by the huge rent caused to the tree. It is as though a huge axe has cleft branches from the tree

We do not know what the outcome was for that tree. We can be thankful that the strike caused no more than damage to a tree.

 

More from a carnival

Some time ago we showed a picture of youngsters dressed for a carnival in 1927 (click here). We believe this photo dates from the same occasion It would seem to include some of the same people.

Fancy Dress for a 1927 Market Lavington and Easterton Carnival

Sadly, we don’t have an original photo – just a photocopy and that means it is not the best quality image. But we do have some of the people named or partly named.

In the back row, from the left, we have Mrs Hatswell. This, we guess was Clara who lived on High Street. The tall man is not known. The next person has the name Arnold (probably his surname) and then there is Bill Hobbs. The final back row person is a Davis.

In the front row there is the golliwog who may well be Bob Drury for that is the name we have on the other photo. The animal mask and the pearly king are unnamed and then we see Iris Burgess. We do not have names for the last three people.

The location for this photo was the old recreation ground behind what is now Shires Close

We’d like to thank Mrs Jean Holt for making these images available to the museum (nearly twenty years ago) and for providing the information.

An Easterton Chapel Outing

The good folks who were members of the Methodist Chapel in Easterton are off to the seaside. And, praise be, it seems as though a sunny day has been delivered to them for this rare, once a year treat. The year in question was 1927 and the date was June 4^th. Back in those days this was known as Whit Saturday.

Easterton Chapel outing en route to Bournemouth on 4th June 1927. The bus belonged to the Lavington and Devizes Motor Service.

The photo was taken in Salisbury. Southons, whose shop we see behind the bus still have a furniture store in Salisbury. These charabancs had limited facilities and a badge on the front suggests they were limited to 20 miles an hour so the travellers would already have endured more than an hour, crammed into the little vehicle. What the coach trade seemed to call a ‘T and P’ stop was essential. And whilst stopped, an enterprising photographer could take a photo for collection on the return journey. On this occasion we know the destination was Bournemouth. That’s about 28 miles from Salisbury so that would take another hour and a half.

As yet we have not identified passengers on the bus but we have an inkling that the driver was Harry Hobbs.

However, the bus has managed to get its registration plate in the picture HR 7537 and that gives experts a chance to know more about it. The charabanc is a Crossley X type and was part of Fred Sayer’s Lavington and Devizes Motor Service fleet. Fred had probably acquired the chassis from the war department and the body work may have been added by Fred or another local builder. This bus was registered to Fred’s company in November 1922. It is believed to have been out of Fred’s use by January 1929.

Wouldn’t it be good if we could get as much information about passengers? Over to you!