Page 2 - SHS Newsletter 2 Vol 3 Sept 29th 2020
P. 2
My great age had of course made me vulnerable. Always ask the locals
I had scarcely been out of the house by 8th May
when I saw union flags appearing in the High
Street and some in Ring Street. Of course, it was When the new telephone exchange was being
the anniversary of VE Day. A kind friend had sent installed down Station Road, the telephone
me a plate of sandwiches and cakes and the union engineers needed to dig a hole in the middle of
flag paper napkin for a victory tea which delighted the top of Station Road outside Meaders.
me. But suddenly before tea I had a telephone call The hole was duly dug and fenced off until the
to say that the music of the period would be played following morning. Much to
on a loudspeaker outside The Old Hind and would their surprise, when the
I like to come over and listen. I hurried across the engineers arrived the next
empty street to spend an enchanted hour listening day, the hole was
to old records playing the songs of the time and full of water. So it had to be
returning in my mind over 75 years. pumped out. The next day it
was again full of water. One
Hilary Townsend
of the older local residents
London Victory Parade 8 came along and commented that if they were
th
having trouble with water, it wasn’t surprising, as
June 1946 they were digging next to a well. When the
engineers asked why nobody had told them, the
older local resident pointed out that nobody had
I was amused at the thought of asking someone asked.
about the end of the war because I can remember
it myself. We were living in North London (as we Above Photo Pump in Station Rd outside Meaders
had done all during the war) and I cannot
remember much about VJ Day but I can Mystery photo solution
remember Mother taking my brother (11) and
th
myself (8) to the Victory Parade. [8 June 1946]
We went on the tube to I think Warren Street Back in our Christmas Newsletter, we carried two
where we had never been before, there was no old “mystery” photographs from our colleagues at
escalator but a large lift. the Stalbridge Archive Society. By luck one of our
We had a short walk up the road to a larger road members in Wincanton easily identified one
and stood on the corner to watch the parade. I photograph, which featured a group of people
can remember seeing the King and Queen in a standing beside a smart horse-drawn carriage,
horse drawn carriage and all the various army since it was taken in front of the farmhouse where
divisions, including the Greek soldiers who were he used to live in Stalbridge Weston.
wearing something like ballet skirts and had
pompoms on their shoes. [These were the elite
Evzones in traditional uniform, part of the Greek
Armed Forces contingent.]
I would be interested to hear if anybody else now
in Stalbridge was there.
Contribution from Danny Hine
We despaired of ever identifying the other photo,
showing a group of young children in front of their
church or school. But, by an even luckier chance,
we now know what that one is too. Just recently,
another History Society member, Lesley Wood,
Evzones in the London Victory Parade 1946 was looking through some old family papers,
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