My Memories of Malmesbury During The War Years

Part 3 - Recreation and leisure time

Having arrived in Malmesbury in June 1940 to work at W.D.U. in the High Street, some married couples were housed at Priory House on the corner of Swindon Road and Chippenham Road opposite the Black Horse PH and the rest rented private property in or around the town.

Us younger personnel were allocated accommodation at Rodbourne House in the Village of Rodbourne about 3 miles from Malmesbury, which I believe was a girls private school that had been requisitioned for EKCO who converted it into a hostel for young men who worked either at W.D.U. or Cowbridge House, it was also where Mr Lipman (the MD) and his wife lived. At that time, there were no ladies living there although later in the war some did.

Rodbourne House was in the middle of nowhere - as the saying goes; leaving the house, if you turned right out of the drive then right again, you would soon arrive at the 'Plough', which was a typical country pub, small and friendly. Further along the road would reach the village of Corston, which was on the main A429 Chippenham/Malmesbury road. Here there was another pub 'the Radnor Arms'. Both were popular with my fellow residents and both were within walking distance, which was important since there was no public transport and our only form of transport was a bicycle.

We all had to cycle to and from work every day whatever the weather although for me it was an easy (flat) ride until I reached the Silk Mills where I then had a short but steep hill up to the High Street. For the Cowbridge people they had similar conditions except they had to contend with the steep hill from Cowbridge House back to the junction of the Chippenham Road after a long days work.

As I've previously said, we worked long hours and we did not have a lot of spare time. Radio was the main source of entertainment and information although the news was censored. The Plough and the Radnor Arms were thus our only local social outlets although the Plough was my favourite and its here that I learnt to enjoy real beer - at an early age although there were times when there was no beer due to the general shortages at that time.

I resided at Rodbourne House until the day of the UXB when people awoke to find a crater in the driveway (see part 1) whereupon we were all evacuated and room was found for me at the Priory.

It was nice living at the Priory since it was only a few minutes walk into work and to bright lights of entertainment such as there was and different pubs one of which I well remember being the 'Bear' at No.53 High Street. This was once an old coaching inn and had a large room at the back, which held a ¾ size snooker table. Many were the times when finishing work, some of us would stop off there to have a game on the way home or go there for an evening of snooker.

Going up the high street towards the Market Cross and the Abbey were the shops (mostly locally owned) and banks, the George Hotel and opposite that, the Kings Arms hotel. Behind the George was the Cross Hayes, a large open space that in years gone by was the site of the market. At the top end of the Cross Hayes was the Town Hall and to one side was a Fish and Chip shop, which always served very good fish and there was always a queue when it was open.

On the opposite side of Cross Hayes to the town hall was a small pub called the 'Brewery Tap'. I remember going in there one Saturday evening and we went into what I can best describe as a 'sitting room' where there was a tall 'grandfather' clock. An elderly lady came into the room and took our order, returning a little later with our drinks on a tray. We stayed there and had another round of drinks, whereupon one of the lads turned the clock hands back 30 minutes to enable us to reorder, which we had since the lady while she looked at the clock did not realise what we had done. Incidentally, we never did see a bar room?

The Cross Hayes Brewery Tap - small building centre of picture - 1940s

Beyond the Market Cross was the Athelstan Cinema, which was only open Monday to Saturday evenings in the early days of the war although later it opened on Sunday evenings as well. It only ever showed quite old films and the program changed Mondays and Thursdays with a completely different film just for Sunday evenings.

The Cinema only seated a few hundred people with the back seats being doubles - designed for courting couples. You could book seats in advance, which was advisable since it could be difficult to get in such was its popularity especially with all the EKCO workers (particularly the ladies) who had little else in the way of entertainment in the town. If you wanted to see a more up to date film, you invariably had to get the bus or the local train to Swindon where there was a number of Cinemas thus giving a choice of films. In those days the train service was quite good but you had to watch the time of the last train otherwise it was a long (very) long walk.

The Kings Arms had a 'Jug and Bottle' room (which today would be called an 'off licence') and it was common place to see people going in with a jug to carry away beer to drink at home. In the bar was the usual Dart's board, cards and a 'Skittle Table'. It was fascinating to watch the old boys playing skittles and they were so skilled at swinging the ball to drop all the skittles in one go.

Kings Arms Inn High Street Malmesbury 1930s

Mr Simpkins (known to most people as 'Simmy') who looked after the pigs at Home Farm adjacent to Cowbridge House was a regular here and I think he won many a drink from his skills at skittles especially when the 'yanks' arrived later in the war. Simmy would always stop off at the Black Horse for a nightcap on his way home and I remember watching from the Priory window as often as not, Simmy would come out of the Black Horse 'three parts to the wind', really happy and try to mount his cycle for the ride home. He never seemed to hurt himself when he fell over, he would simply get on and try again and with some help he would be on his way - he lived in one of the estate cottages at Cowbridge.

I seem to remember the pubs used to close at 10.00pm and in those days especially during the summer months it was light later due to the 'double summer time,' which then gave an extra hour of daylight so as to help the farmers and industry.

Staying at the Priory, we were right opposite the Black Horse, known locally as the 'Kickker', where one entered through the main door into a corridor. To the left was the landlords front room furnished with a lounge suite etc. and an upright piano. This room was kept locked weekday evenings but on Saturday evenings was opened up for a one and all singsong. It was all very impromptu and great fun. Later when the Americans arrived, a soldier turned up who had played piano with Glen Miller and I can still remember him playing the piano in that little room - marvellous.

Further along that corridor there was a small room on the right, this was the main bar and where we normally drank although there were times (as with many other pubs during the war) when it ran out of beer. They did sell 'spirits' from a few bottles behind the bar, but again there were always shortages. Incidentally the landlords name was Bill Jones although the regulars called him 'Jack'

Dances and bands

There was no swimming pool as such in Malmesbury, but in the summer we would swim in the Avon at a point where the river bends below the Sherston road, here the water flowed clear and deep enough to dive in. We could also dry off and relax afterwards on the grass banks alongside the river here.

There were regular dances in the hall of St. Joseph's R.C. School at weekends, music was from records and the tempo was mainly 'strict tempo' and it was very popular with the troops stationed in the area.

A number of village halls surrounding Malmesbury would occasionally put on a Saturday dance and these were also well attended both with locals, EKCO people and sometimes troops.

Occasional dances were held in Malmesbury Town Hall and here music was usually from live bands one of which was the 'Altona' band mostly made up of WDU staff.

Altona band - Cyril Lingwood centre holding guitar - town hall 1942

'Johnny Hankins' who before the war had been a professional musician but had retrained at a Government re-training school in Bristol before joining the model shop in WDU formed the band. John played the Saxophone, Cyril Lingwood played Guitar, Bryn Evans (D.O.) played the Tenor Sax and Clarinet, Ken Stewart played the Bass Bassoon - he worked at WDU and was a regular with the EKCO symphony Orchestra.

Of the other band members, there was an Ernie Holbert who played the Piano; he worked as a Turner for a company called Duck Son and Pinker in Bath. There was a Ted Radcliffe who played the Alto Sax; he was a Blacksmith from Foundry Road. The first drummer was a lad from Sherston to whom Cyril gave his Mouth Organ, he was called up to the RAF and was shot down over Germany, the second drummer was a chap called Derek Poole who came from Charlton. I think he drove a sewerage tanker since Cyril remembered that there was often a bit of a 'whiff' in the air when he turned up. There was also a girl from Crudwell who sang with the band from time to time and occasionally Jack Gard would join them for a gig.

Incidentally I believe that some of the instruments were bought from Dudley Hewitt's Music shop in the High street where Dudley's wife taught music.

Working with the lads, I would often then go to their 'gig's where in addition to the Town Hall, they would regularly play in the surrounding village halls and once they played as a 'second band' to a well known dance band (who I can't remember) at the Town Hall one Saturday evening.

As Cowbridge House developed and various outbuildings were converted to workshops etc., a canteen was built onto the Old Mill House overlooking the river and various social events were held here. I can't remember how I got involved, but one time I was asked to operate a 'Projector' to show some films. Later in the war, there was a big dance organised featuring Melville Christie and his Broadcasting Band. I remember it was a lovely summer evening and all - both WDU and Cowbridge Staff, had a great time.

Cycling etc.

We really did make use of our bikes in the war, mostly because it was the only form of transport to get anywhere of note since buses were few and far between, so, on a Sunday if we were not working and the weather was fair, we would set off for a ride. There was some lovely countryside around Malmesbury and one frequent ride was to Tetbury, which was only 5 miles away and like Malmesbury it had a small Cinema.

About the same distance was Sherston; this was an attractive small town with a wide main street, which had a good baker at the far end that did my favourite Lardy cakes and was almost a reason for the ride on it's own!

Chippenham was further being about 10 miles (on mostly flat roads) but here you had the choice of two Cinemas', which from memory were the Astoria and the Gaumount thus giving you a better choice of film. One thing I remember was cycling past Hullavington airfield, where there were two big hangers completely covered in grass for camouflage near the road.

Hanger at Hullavington Airfield - Photograph courtesy of Pam Brophy

A good ride was to Castle Combe, which we did a few times, this was a lovely village completely unspoilt in those days and it was like riding back in time. I, amongst others cut my initials (AM) into the bark of an Oak tree there - sorry.

Another favourite ride was to Minchinhampton Common, which was a good ride and going up Scar Hill to the top was quite a challenge but rewarding when you got to the top.

There was one major snag cycling around however that being that all the signposts had been taken down to fool the Germans should they ever invade, however it did not help us if we got lost - as we occasionally did when out and about on our bikes, so you had to find somebody to ask, which was not always easy when out in the countryside.

One of the things I noticed riding around was that most of the front gardens I passed had been dug up and were growing vegetables, potato's, greens, tomato's etc., of course this was all part of 'dig for victory' and was helping households to be self sufficient.

Cycling did lead me to court one day when I was fined 2/6d for riding my bike with no lights (there were no streetlights then and a blackout) and it was a lot of money to me then, but my one consolation was that I was not the only one fined - in fact quite a few people were fined the same as me.

Holiday's

We did get holiday's despite the war and I think it must have been 1944 that I went off by bus to Weston Super Mare with a pal of mine Geoff Bamfield who shared the room with me at the Priory. On the way we passed through the outskirts of Bristol and it was evident that it had been badly bombed judging by the ruins all around the roads.

We arrived after what was a long journey and found a private lodging doing B&B. The lady who ran it was very good to us and cooked an evening meal for us during our stay although of course we had to hand over our ration cards.

To be continued.

Part One