James Caird Schoolboy stowaway on Shackleton’s inspirational vessel
RE Shackleton exhibition (Latimer’s Diary, BT Sept 28): I went to Dulwich College in London which is the school that Shackleton attended. I grew up with his heroic tales and read all I could find.
His boat, the James Caird, was in an iron cage in the school grounds, which I passed umpteen times a day for years and inspired me.
I knew about how they had adapted it – every nail and plank – for the incredible journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia so they could get help to save the rest of crew left on Elephant Isle. Indeed not a soul was lost unlike some other Antarctic expeditions.
So during my ‘A’ levels I could take it no more and when no one was looking I climbed over into the cage and jumped into the boat. This was of course a crime of the highest order and as an M Shed volunteer I would agree – a bit!
I spent an entire afternoon within looking in amazement at all those planks and nails etc that I’d read about.
It was truly was an amazing and still remembered experience nearly 50 years later!
Thank you for telling us about the South Georgia museum exhibition. Pity I can’t get there. Ed Hall by email
The Swan Inn
✒ MY parents, Jack and Marjorie Hale ran the Swan Inn on Stokes Croft, which stood opposite the Carriage Works. They left in 1949 and went to Gloucestershire.
Have you got any old pictures of the pub or of the road please? Alan Hale by email
Editor’s reply: We have plenty of photos of Stokes Croft from more recent decades, but we’ve not got any of the Swan Inn from any period. If any readers have any, please mail us – Bristol.Times@b-nm.co.uk – and we’ll pass them on to Mr Hale.
Everett the terrible
✒ REGARDING your interesting article on the hundredth anniversary of the Memorial Ground (BT,
Sept 28): My father in 1921 was a very accomplished rugby player and was at that time playing for Clifton.
He began playing for Bristol in 1922 as wing forward and was so successful that he received large coverage in the local media notably in the Western Daily Press.
I have a file of newspaper cuttings which are full of praise for him, notably about the many brilliant tries he scored.
His runs through the opposition were so remarkable, aided by his huge hand-offs, that he was dubbed “Everett the terrible”!
As with many other rugby players mentioned in the article, he volunteered to fight in the First World War, stating his age to be 18 when really he was just 17.
After a spell in France he was sent to Italy to confront the Austrians but when in 1918 a German offensive brought them almost to the gates of Paris his regiment was hurriedly brought back to bolster the defence.
He was commissioned almost as soon as he joined up and given the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery.
One night that summer he was billeted in a farmhouse and allotted a bed by a window, but because of his height (he was 6ft 2in) he found the bed too small and placed the mattress on the floor beside it.
During the night a German shell came through the window and landed square on his bed. Fortunately he escaped from most of the blast, though he suffered from facial and other injuries caused by shrapnel.
(Two of his brothers were also in the war. One, Jack, returned almost unscathed but the other, Boyce, lost a leg.)
He was returned to the UK and finished the war in a hospital near Southampton.
Happily he made a full recovery from his injuries which enabled him to play for Clifton and then
Bristol until 1928 and finally, a year later , and perhaps not so importantly, to father me! Tony Everett by email
Memories of Totterdown
Re Totterdown in Pictures (before Totterdown in Pieces!) (BT Picture Past, Sept 14): My great grandfather, Edward Horwood Chandler, set up his pawnbrokers business on the corner of Cambridge Street and the Wells Road in 1885/6.
My grandfather was eight at the time, and lived in Cambridge Street and the Wells Road until his death in 1964. The business continued until this corner plot was bombed in WW2.
These wonderful colour (not colourised I notice) photos bring back so many memories of my visits several times a week strolling down and trudging up the Wells Road from our family home opposite the Wells Road Garage and Dr. Easby’s.
I was fortunate to see this area when it was still a busy, close-knit community, with a range of shops, amongst them, Shepherd’s for stationery and toys, Fred Norcott for your meat and a good laugh, Nibletts the cycle shop, the Co-op with the overhead cash device, and Archibald Wallace Wilson who could ruin your hair at a stroke.
There was a continuous line of shops that extended from the Three Lamps to the bottom of the George Hill.
These long gone and muchmissed shops were used by people
from all parts of Bristol.
I am sure that there are many who will be able to supply stories and details to each of these photos.
I am not so familiar with the Bath Road although I did spend many happy hours around the showrooms of Glanfield Lawrence looking at the motorbikes.
The Gilera was my favourite, the threewheelers, of which I could never see the appeal, but there were on the forecourt always several Bond Microcars I think they were called, and always a selection of sidecars.
Glanfield Lawrence, a London based company, was set up around 1926.
Stanley Thomas Glanfield was a motorcycle fanatic and in 1927 set off on a round the world trip on a Rudge motorcycle.
A fascinating story and lots of advertising material available.
There is so much history in these photos, thank you Gordon Young, for sharing them. Can’t wait to see the rest.
Editor’s note: We’ve had to shorten this letter because Mr Read gave us so much detail about so many of the photos that we didn’t have the space to re-print all of them so’s readers would know which he was referring to.
Mr Read is, however, a leading light of the Knowle & Totterdown Local History Society and if you’d like to find out more, or join it, then see www. knowleandtotterdownhistory.org.uk