"Miss SMALE of Lydney", Cinderford Baptist Chapel c1910 (General)

by peteressex , Friday, October 25, 2013, 08:02 (4042 days ago) @ Jefff

Harris's Forest of Dean Almanac and Directory, 1910, has an entry for Lydney Male Voice Choir, showing Mr C B Smale as conductor and "Mr H N Howell" (Herbert Howells) as accompanist. The entry says the choir had been formed in 1908 but had already grown to a membership of 72, winning prizes at Chepstow and Monmouth, despite 3/4 of the membership being new to choral singing. No wonder they were invited as far afield as Dursley, as well as Cinderford, as already described in this thread.

Handily perhaps, this 1910 entry was placed opposite a half-page advert reading as follows:-

"Smale's Stores. Oldest house in the town. For drapery, grocery and furniture. Best value at lowest prices. Immense stock of floor cloths, linoleums. 12, 16, 18 Newerne Street, Lydney." (So what, I ask myself, was at No. 14?)

The Lydney Observer of 4 Jan 1946 carried an article headed "Miss Deborah Kerr's rise to fame - grand-daughter of Mr and Mrs C B Smale, Lydney." The item is too extensive to do justice to it here, particularly in terms of Deborah Kerr's rise as an actress, but it confirms that her father, Arthur Kerr-Trimmer, had married Kathleen Smale, "daughter of Mr and Mrs C B Smale who had the well-known drapery business in Newerne Street."

My connection is that C B Smale's wife was godmother to W E E "Eddie" Pritchard, whose father John Frederick Pritchard ran the Lydney Coal Company with offices in Victoria Road and whose sister Clara Pritchard married Henry Sterrey, these becoming my great-grandparents who lived in Albert Street (next to the Step Aside Inn, again perhaps handily.) I imagine that the honour of godparenthood went to Mrs Smale as her husband and Eddie Pritchard's father were both prominent businessmen of the time.

I got most of this from Roger Dennis, another Pritchard great-grandson.