Wartime snow scene’s location was a big secret
WHITE Christmases are rare, but the Echo photographer was there to snap Cheltenham’s Promenade blanketed in snow on the eve of the big day in 1940. You’ll notice that the iron railings surrounding the Long Garden were still in place, waiting to be removed a few months later and melted down to make munitions.
As the Second World War was underway, the photo’s caption sanctioned by the censor referred to the location vaguely as “A town in the west”. But curiously precise details were included of the person who owned the parked pony and trap. He was Mr Frank Townsend, of 6 Moorend Street, who was a pig and poultry farmer on his rounds collecting kitchen waste to make pig swill.
Unfortunately, pantomimes are few and far between this year. But many Gloucester people will remember with affection the pantos staged at the Regal (later ABC) cinema in King’s Square. The first was Cinderella, which opened on December 26, 1956 and starred Edna Savage as Cinders, with Davy Kaye as Buttons. The ugly sisters in that production were Alan Haynes and Danny La Rue.
The following year’s panto was Aladdin with Lita Roza. Then in 1958, Clarkson Rose took the title role in Dick Whittington.
A different kind of seasonal entertainment staged in Tewkesbury, Stroud and other county towns that those with long memories may recall was the meat show. Butchers vied with each other to present the most attractive window display for Christmas. The event was usually judged by the mayor a few days before December 25 and the winner became proud possessor of a trophy cup to keep for the next 12 months.
Putting on their best striped aprons and straw boaters, local meat traders packed their shops with sides of beef, geese and turkeys, hares and game, decorating the carcasses with bows and ribbons. By way of seasonal jape, there might be a pig’s head topped with a party hat, or with an orange in its mouth and a string of sausages round its neck.
Today, the vegetarian and vegan communities would swoon, but back then it was customary for families to do the rounds of butchers’ shops to view the free show and, at each, young children were given treats, such as a sugar pig by the proprietor.
In Gloucester, meat was just about the only thing the Bon Marche didn’t sell. The city’s leading department store’s festive window display aroused excitement and each year seemed more elaborate than the last.
Around the first week in December each year an advertisement appeared in The Citizen announcing that the Yuletide presentation was about to be revealed. Crowds gathered outside the store to watch as the curtains were drawn back to reveal the tableau.
The spectacle never disappointed. Many people, no doubt, will recall Santa’s sleigh, laden with presents that filled the Kings Square window in 1965. This featured the innovation of an automaton Santa who turned his head and waved, plus reindeers with moving legs. The crowd was wowed.
Cheltenham’s Promenade was snowdecked and speckled with a thousand lights for the festive season of 1982, and local photographer Brian Donnan was there to capture the scene you see below.
Those with even longer memories will recall that in the 1950s and 60s the centre of town was decorated for Christmas with olde worldy lanterns, suspended at first floor level above shops. Very Dickensian they looked, too.
Then the lanterns were banished to
Montpellier and replaced in the centre by white, furry stars with a light bulb in the middle.
Until the late 1960s, the Dickens Cup was an established part of the festive season. Athletes gathered for the Boxing Day race, which was run from Gloucester to Cheltenham, or Cheltenham to Gloucester, on alternate years.
The event was organised by Charles Dickens, the local tobacco retailer and wholesaler and teams came from as far afield as Bristol to take part. It didn’t strike anyone as odd that a long-distance running race was sponsored by a firm that sold cigarettes.
On a more cheerful note, the Wintry freeze was so severe that on Boxing Day 1860 a cricket match was played on Pittville Lake. Such novelty games were a Victorian vogue.