Bilson W.I. Scrapbook of 1965 (a Cinderford time capsule) (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Saturday, February 09, 2013, 23:26 (4300 days ago)

I would like to highlight an item to all Dean residents with an interest in 1960s life in the Forest in general & Cinderford in particular. It is currently held at Cinderford Library, tho' no doubt it could be moved to other County Libraries on request. I found it by chance on their Local History shelf, was intrigued to know what it could be, as the Library copy is just a cd-rom within a plain sleeve. I was so glad I borrowed and subsequently copied it to my pc for my future reference. I refer to a large format scrapbook running to 117 pages which has been high-resolution scanned to pdf files, I hope the original book still exists in safe keeping, perhaps at the Dean Museum.

The Library reference is brief, "Digital scrapbook of Cinderford: 1965",
https://capitadiscovery.co.uk/gloslibraries/items/916862?query=cinderford+scrapbook&...

From it's coverpage

"A Year in the Life of a Forest town", by Bilson Women's Institute.

Compiled by Elsie Olivey
Lettering by Sheila Llewellyn
Illustrations by Ann Phelps

These are such understated credits, given that most pages contain beautifully written, painstakenly-neat calligraphy titles & scripts; plus dozens of superb delicate watercolours of local wildlife & nature subjects.

The scrapbook contains some contributions from local "celebrities" such as Leonard Clark & Harry Beddington. However most important of all are the detailed thoughts, lives & handiwork of many members of the Bilson W.I.(thirtysix are fully credited, including Enid Healey, Beryl Evans, Cicily Morgan and so on).

Born in Bilson in 1962, I attended Bilson Schools and St Stephens Church & Sunday School. Our neighbour & close family friend was & is Beryl Evans, prominent in local education and Girl Guiding, as was Sheila Llewellyn plus Cicily Morgan thro' the Church. I grew to know all these good ladies as a boy, like many of the Scrapbook contributors they were always helping with community events with my mother, in later years they attended my sisters’ weddings at St Stephens. The fact I know them makes this book even more enjoyable to me, plus some of their children of my age are photographed within its various chapters, such as Childcare at the "new" Dockham Health Centre (Beryl's baby son - my Best Man years later). Also of particular interest was the section about the Choral Society, featuring photos & potted histories of two important members of my Bilson School days, choirmaster & headmaster Harold L.Williams, and Cliff Bonser, teacher of Times Tables & excellent pianist despite our less tunefull "singing".

The Scrapbook details every conceivable aspect of the town and area; it's history, it's people including the local Gipsies, jobs, industry & trades, schools, health & welfare, social life & clubs, amateur dramatics, Scouts & Guides, local government & politics, pubs & pantos, the mines, forestry, etc etc, even the sheep get a chapter !. There are sections on more general aspects of life in the 60s; holidays, food, shops, fashions etc.

You can read old Mercury newspaper clippings; interesting news stories both serious & amusing, great old adverts reminding us we could buy a brand new house in Springfield Drive for £3000 (Rates £80pa) or an older twoup/twodown terrace in Belle Vue Rd for about £1000, or we could join the "37% of households who were car owners" & buy a new Austin saloon for around £1000.

Throughout this beautifull book are several high quality photos showing, for example, the local school's & inmates, plus the "new" High Street shops being built and the Triangle being redeveloped, or members of the Mintec amateur dramatics in action. I particularly enjoyed the section about the Wesley Players pantomimes which were a Christmas highlight.

The Scrapbook was produced to help commemorate the national W.I.'s Golden Jubilee, having been formed in 1915 to assist the War Effort. One chapter describes the celebratory Golden Fayre held at the Miner’s Hall, opened by BBCTV “Points West” presenter Jeremy Carrad (and family!); many photos illustrate this day including one of the Jams & Preserves Stall manned by Mrs E. Healey - how different things were then for the wife of the serving Secretary For State !, clearly a different age....
There is a subsequent feature illustrating the Royal Garden Party to which the Queen invited a member of each national WI branch. Even in those days May 31st could be cold, dull and wet, sadly !. Mrs Cicely Morgan was the lucky winner of the Bilson draw who joined 9000! other members in Buckingham Palace Gardens, apparently Prince Phillip was "mobbed a number of times" ! The Cinderford & Ruspidge party’s big day out ended with the Black & White Minstrel Show at the Victoria Theatre, not returning home until 2.30am.

One of the more extensive Mercury clippings describes the life & times of Mr Charles A.J. Hale, who in the same week celebrated his 96th birthday and 70 years of Marriage to formerly Miss Ida Bright, they were clearly highly regarded & respected members of the community.
I also enjoyed the clipping detailing the life of "our oldest inhabitant" Mrs Elizabeth Susan Smith, enjoying her 100th Birthday party at the White Hart. Born December 1865, one of eight all of which lived past 80 and a brother still alive aged 98ish. A fever when just three left her deaf & dumb, yet that didn’t hold her back from enjoying life. At the annual Speech House Miner’s Demonstration she met her future husband, son of Thomas Smith (Engineer at Lightmoor Colliery), he was also deaf & dumb, they had a son Fred who accompanied her at the 100th party. Even into her 60s she still regularly walked from Cinderford to Gloster, and was famous for very high standards of personal appearance & behaviour - that said ;-) the clipping says she insisted on her photo being taken WHILE holding her lighted cigarette & sipping her sherry, not to mention her "love of policemen with flat caps" - her favourite TV show being "Z Cars". A remarkable lady !

I think & hope you will enjoy this unique “timecapsule” of Dean life in the mid 1960s, many will find photos or mentions of friends or even family, plus places and pastimes of a simpler age itself almost 50 years ago.

May I suggest this FoDFH website considers contacting the Library wrt maybe adding part or all of the pdf files to this website's online database, for a much larger audience to enjoy.