I suppose you could say that growing up in Keyham was pleasant and in many ways. In a community with spirit because of the strength of both religion and politics. There was also a strong spirit amongst “Dockyardies”, (those who worked there) and that could sometimes be shown as almost unique dark humour only known inside the walls of the place. As a nine year old life had settled into a regular sort of routine. Religion through the week with Mass and Communion the core reaching a contented sort of spirit on a Sunday as if the week had been worthwhile. School with the looming 11+ coming ever closer and detailed schooling, Sister Austin teaching Penmanship as it was known then, but really it was just clear writing classes. She would have three lines across the pages or the blackboard and you had to keep your letters up to the first level, top level for “t l b d” etc with the round bits exactly to the first level. You were in serious trouble if it was scruffy. I also recall some classmates were left-handed and this was not encouraged, in fact it was deemed wrong and there were some confrontations with some parents over the ferocity the Sisters dispensed if they thought you were defying them. I have often wondered if those classmates had problems in later life over that, although I hope not.
So many people I have mentioned here were good friends of both Mum and Dad and that created a mixture of religious,political and neighbours who brought a range of opinions and views to life in Keyham and in many ways they all came together as a community if any changes or issues affecting the community came there was usually a united front. It was for me the first time I had seen or experienced that and in some ways was reassuring to a boy of nine that this could happen.
I can recall one annual event that was always something to look forward to. I think it was around Autumn time when nights were pulling in. Aunty Vera lived in Wombwell Cresc with Grandma Riggs and Uncle Ernie who worked in Dockyard and stayed at Wombwell for some of the time. The military started conducting annual mock attacks on the Naval barracks and base. The Royal Marines were tasked get into both by whatever means and claim a victory while the Royal Navy was tasked with stopping this happening. Sailors and Marines were armed although only firing blanks. At the back of Wombwell beyond the allotments was the firefighting site with parts were regularly set ablaze so the practice of firefighting aboard could be accurately enacted. Right next to and almost under “Shaky bridge “carrying the main Penzance to London Trainline it was an entry point for a marine attack through the creek at Camel’s Head. Bursts of gunfire indicated action and huge movement of bodies suddenly appearing from the base this would go on during the day but more intensely at night.
I can always recall Uncle Ernie moaning when delayed leaving work and late home that it was because “Bloody military playing bloody cowboys and Indians again”. For a nine year old it was quite exciting and always wanted to be at Grandma’s as long as possible. Apparently the Marines did some clever manoeuvres in lorries going into the Dockyard and under lorries so much that in these exercises all vehicles were stopped and searched throughly. I think the Marines did get in a few times to claim victory.
Tag: school
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Dockyardies
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Atlee
Correcting as I go I typed the wrong name of one of Harry Wright’s walking/photography group it should have been Fred Stott. He was another strong Methodist laypreacher who was the Personel Manager at the Dockyard and served as a Ward Councillor for the Efford Ward up to the early eighties.
As deputy Leader of the Labour Group, his passion was the Museum service and served on the Local Government National Museum Committee for many years. He was a very forceful orator and it was always a morolistic approach. It was where I heard about the inequality of access to opportunity for our people first being voiced by someone with whom it was very difficult to debate with from the purity of the line about fairness for everyone.
More about Fred and the others who formed the Labour Council in 1945 and their experiences in rebuilding the City with the Atlee government later. A number of the group played role beyond local government, demanding though that was, in the development of the NHS,and the nationalised electricity and gas services where the structures and control management that was needed was similar to local government, particularly in the accountability areas. -
More Personalities
There was a garage at the back of the corner House opposite Victory Hall which had a large space and here Harry maintained a black van always serviced and ready for use especially in elections. It features in many of Michael Foots photos from his elections. Always driven and looked after by Ted Rippon who lived in Fleet St he and his wife were members of the Party and he looked after all the batteries and equipment like speakers,they were always in tip top condition.
Of course in later life when I first started work the Victory Hall was a Monday night Rock and Roll venue with live bands,that floor certainly was sprung well when everyone was dancing.They were packed evenings although I don’t think I ever mastered the dancing very well.
I do recall as an infant maybe seven or eight that I dropped Maureen in the deepest trouble. She was babysitting with I think my cousin’s Tricia and Mary and I was upstairs supposed to be asleep.They went to get fish and chips, I decided I’d visit mum and dad who were at a dance at Victory Hall,in my nightclothes.I think it was summer the night was light but upon arrival at the dance you can imagine the reaction,and the subsequent consequences on Maureen,Mary and Tricia.It always stuck in my mind that it wasn’t a really bright thing to do,but seemed like a good idea at the time.
A whole series of families connected to the Labour Party lived in Victory St,the Batershills ,the Steers,the Mitchell’s and Sid became a councillor later on and on top of that a good number of dockyard workers who were very active trade unionists although not individual members,they would know Harry Wright and the front bench of the party on council as they wer mostly dockyardies as well.One in particular from Victory St was Percy Roskilly he was the big mind of the Party and very close to Harry Wright.More about him and his role later on in the way the Labour Group conducted themselves after the War during their period of delivering the regeneration plan for the City.
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Personalities Continued..
Sitting at the back of Victory Hall waiting for my parents did let me see a variety of characters. Doc Miles from Ernesettle was one, an early practitioner in the new NHS. He had an enormous number of patients and almost all poor. He would always come late and sit near me having been on call. He would find bits of paper from his pockets and would meticulously roll them into perfect balls and seek to log them down a series of knotholes in the dancefloor with deep concentration. But he was obviously following the meeting he’d suddenly shoot up and express a most passionate argument and then sit down returning to knothole filling.
Harry Wright was a simple boilermaker in the Dockyard but like all his Methodist colleagues he was a brilliant figures man. He could talk through a Council budget in a clear way committee by committee without notes and make it interesting and bear in mind in those days computers weren’t heard of so it was pure knowledge that made him so good.
He also set up the Devonport Supply Society which ran a drapery and clothing shop under the Hall in the ope.Many people paid in so much each week and could buy clothes,shoes and most importantly coal in the winter.If enough people joined Harry could buy a couple of lorryloads and have them delivered to individual homes at quite a saving for someone buying on their own.He had an office above the corner shop which was owned by the society and at one time was a Lipton’s store quite large.
Tim Harvey was a local Councillor and was a chemist in Station Rd and a huge advocate and supporter of the new NHS along with Scotsman Peter Ross another Councillor living in North Down Gardens next door to the Coop shop.Also in the actual park was a terrace of houses which house Betty Batchelor and her Mum Mrs Reeby and next door Mary Jago a Catholic both would become Councillors for Ford along with Dorothy Briscoa who lived in Warleigh AVE next to the tunnel to the Ford Hotel.
On the Conservative side there was a lady called Mrs Grafton who stood for the Tories time after time and in bad years came close to winning and I can’t recall if she ever did win an election but she was well known and was quite a fighter.
Harry Wright was quite a rambler in the countryside along with Best Harris the City Librarian they along with Fred Story would bring slideshows of their walks around the city to show communities some of the places perhaps noone had heard of before.In the top of the canteen wall they put a ledge and a hole for the projector to show the slides.Bearing in mind no one had cars at this time unless you were wealthy it was always well attended and hopefully many made a visit to some of the spots when they were able get a car.These were very popular meetings as many as 100+would attend. -
Keyham Personalities
There are people and places that have played an important part of growing up in Keyham with their connections with my family. The Victory Hall is one such place. It was a large dancehall with a very expensive at the time sprung dancefloor. Formal ballroom dancing was both popular and fashionable in my growing up time. It was also the venue for the Labour Party’s activities both social and political. On a Monday coming home from school I always came here up the steep steps to what was the cloakroom,a huge room,which hosted the Women’s Section of the Constituency Party and Mum would attend. Usually they had a speaker and a cup of tea and biscuits but here were some very strong and forceful Labour women who could hold more than their own with anybody.
Some of these were also very active in the Cooperative movement particularly in the Women’s Guild movement. All of them capable of speaking off the cuff on the Coop maxim stand up, speak up, and then shut up. Lilian Newbury, Susy Sewell were two of the most ferocious speakers. Betty Batchelor, Mary Jago were to become councillors for Ford later on along with Hazel Dolley who would become a fellow Councillor for Honicknowle with me many years later. She would embarrassingly for me tell everyone how I was very naughty at these times as a child growing up.Apparently I would get in the way of dancers on special occasions causing one or two to topple dancing at full pelt and having the inevitable whack from mother. I do have a vague recollection but I’m sure nothing was deliberate.I was fascinated how these people could move so well.Dad was like lots of men didn’t dance so many women would partner each other to dance and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the evening.
There was a large canteen facility which the ladies would run for tea and soft drinks and biscuits in the interval, there was a large seating area as well. This became the bar and seating area of the later Devonport Labour Club many years later. These were usually held after an election or at Xmas to celebrate or commiserate depending on the results and there was always a summer fair for the constituency when all the Wards would run a stall to fundraise.
It was also the venue for the ward meetings and for the Constituency and I recall many of the meetings me sitting at the very back by the canteen waiting for Mum and Dad,of course I couldn’t fail to hear some of the debates and personalities. There was a very eloquent guy Percy Bull who used to scan all publications for mistakes,errors and accuracy at elections and he was also a very passionate speaker.These were real full on debates with very different views. Dad had a good ability as Chair and was voted both locally and regionally as chair for many of the visiting MP’s.
The overriding personality was Harry Wright later Sir Harry after Leading the Council after Harry Mason stood down he was heavily involved not just with Council but the overseeing of the emerging Gas Industry and the Health Service across the SW Region as well as being hugely involved with the regional Labour Party which Dad was very involved on the regional executive committee. These were the Atlee on the ground people seeing how things were developing and where problems arose had direct contact with the PM.
My sister has a photo of Dad chairing a meeting at Victory Hall with Atlee where he made one of his few mistakes in the introduction of Clem Atlee not as Right Honourable but as Right Reverend.Atlee said Roy I have been introduced with many different descriptions but I’ve never been a Right Reverend before so Plymouth gives me a new authority. Very generous of him. -
Lessons Learned
Things were pretty good there was a regular income from serving Mass at weddings and funerals. Although sometimes weddings could interfere with the social calendar a bit. When we moved to Renown St I was right next door to the Church. Mr Duggan the unofficial church warden would be knocking on the door if someone hadn’t turned to serve the Mass and sometimes it was the earlier 7 a.m mass. Of course you weren’t paid for the masses you served which was why weddings and funerals were a bonus. Your graces and blessings would be stored in heaven for you and you may just be glad of them when you get to the gates if it ever was stored at all.
I served Mary Monk’s wedding to Peter and on Tricia’s to George Vinnie and at Maureen’s when she married Jo Holland. But the nice things in the summer that I recall vividly was the lovely Sundays after Mass. I’d visit Grandma and Aunty Amy at the off licence, Uncle Bert and Aunty Vera in Fleet St and Grandma Riggs and Aunty Vera in Wombwell Cresc and back for Sunday lunch at home with one of mum’s roasts Sometimes in the afternoon Uncle Bert and Aunty Vera would go on one of their walks which meant catching the train at Keyham station and there were lots of trains to Saltash. Walking up past the hospital down to Forder and Notter Bridge and back around the front of the waterfront at Saltash back on the train.The nicest part was if Aunt Vera had done a top and bottom pie left low in the oven when we got back that went down honey-sweet. Good cook was Aunty Vera.
I learned one of the lessons that stuck with me for life here in Keyham, in unusual circumstances. Some of us kicked a ball about either by the side of Meager’s the butcher aided by Terry, or down at the side of Lethbridge’s against the dining hall. On the bottom corner House of Renown St diagonally opposite Meager’s lived a family called Harris. I think Mr Harris may have been retired.In my real effort of trying to shoot the ball like Johnnie Williams did at Argyle I put it over and through the rear back window of Mr Harris. There’s always a time of silent pause before running like hell and in that time and just as I started to run Mr Harris appeared. He said he knew who I was and knew my parents too so there is no point in running away. If I would care to call on him next day at the same time and help him repair the window he would be very happy.I duly turned up next day to find Mr Harris had a glass pane cut to size and proceeded to show me how to effect the repair. I hadn’t of course said anything to mum or dad about all this and thought I’d managed to extricate myself very well. Mr Harris knocked the front door next day and gave me an envelope which of course Mum and Dad wanted to know what’s all this about. Mr Harris had given me a receipt for my helpfulness in put right his broken window, and for services rendered he enclosed a florin which was old 2 shillings and sixpence piece. So I never kept it from them at all but it taught me,face up to whatever you’ve done and put it right in the right spirit.
I’m not at all sure if anything like this would happen today, I hope there are Mr Harris’s still around who would act in the same way the Keyham community taught me that and for it and to Mr Harris I shall always be grateful.