John Winchurch - a life story
This is intended to be my story – John Victor Winchurch, born on 27 September 1942 up to the present day, but as an amateur family historian, I feel the need to begin with the basic details of my origins.
My main vehicles for recording family history are Ancestry.co.uk where you will find my family tree under the user name John Winchurch and the tree name is John Winchurch 20170730 and also my blog sites :-
On Wordpress the URL is https://jonvic42.wordpress.com/ with various sub headings leading to different family branches.
On Blogger you can find similar material on http://winchurch.blogspot.com/ . This tends to be updated more often and is now the site I use most after Ancestry.
Here is a basic pedigree version of my family tree as it currently stands
My Grandparents
When I was born in 1942, three of my grandparents and also, unusually, three of my great grandparents were still alive, as you can see from the family tree.
Since all of my grandparents had a significant influence on my childhood in various ways, I will give a short biography of each one. More detail can be found by following the links I have set out above.
Percy Walter Winchurch
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| Percy - about 1939 |
Percy was born on 15 April 1882 at 83, King Edward Street Birmingham. He was the seventh child of Benjamin Winchurch and Eliza (née Tester). Benjamin was a glassblower and at times publican of the Cross Keys public house in Upper Windsor Street, Aston.
Percy’s grandparents, Thomas and Ann Winchurch had kept the Cross Keys since about 1855.
Percy was therefore well acquainted as a child with the effects of too much alcohol on those around him and cited this as the reason for his lifelong teetotalism.
In Kelly’s directory of 1880 Benjamin is listed as a shopkeeper at 83 King Edwards Rd, the address at which Percy was born two years later.
In the 1880 Kelly’s directory of Birmingham, Thomas Winchurch (almost certainly Benjamin’s older brother) is listed as a glass maker in Phillip Street; surrounded by gun manufacturers and finishers.
The proliferation of new businesses and technologies in this area must have made it the ‘Silicon Valley’ of the late nineteenth century.
Benjamin died in 1891 at the age of sixty two, around the time of Percy’s ninth birthday.
Later, Eliza had a grocer’s shop. In the 1901 census she is described as a widow aged 58, Head of household. Shopkeeper Grocer ‘on own account’ (i.e. supporting herself) ‘at home’ at 64/65 Wheeleys Road Birmingham.
At the same address were:
Percy aged 18, an Engineer fitter, Roland aged 17, a Machine Tool Maker and Lizzie Smith aged 15, a servant
How difficult life was financially at this time is difficult to judge, but Eliza was certainly concerned about money, or at least the mysterious ‘Tester fortune’. I heard as a child Percy joke about being ‘descended from a German Baron’. He was not alone in the family to have heard of an ‘unclaimed will’ originating from the early 1800s. I have copies of the letters between Eliza, her youngest sister Clara and their cousin Maria about the existence of a will and their mutual cousin Betsy’s attempts to lay claim to any proceeds.
I have recently been in contact via Ancestry with other Tester descendants who were also aware of the legend and letters.
I believe that Eliza was a driving force behind her sons’ successes. My grandmother, Marion described her as a formidable lady with a Cockney accent and Marion was not given to exaggeration.
Several of the Winchurch boys became keen cyclists as this photo of Percy with a cycling club about 1901 indicates. (Click to enlarge)
Winchurch Brothers cycle shop preceded the garage started by Percy and his younger brother, Roland.
How many of the brothers were involved in addition to Roland and Percy, I don’t know, but it is fair to assume that the cycle business prospered, because in 1905 Percy and Roland set up ‘Winchurch Brothers Limited ‘. The business was initially at 152a Ladypool Road (Kelly 1907 and 1908 )
By 1912, no less than four cycle shops are listed by Kelly at Ladypool Road, Moseley, Waterloo Road in Smethwick and at 134 Sandon Road in Bearwood.
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| Percy outside the cycle shop in Ladypool Road. 1904 |
At some point after 1912 ‘Edgbaston Garage’ in Sandon Road, Bearwood was opened. The premises eventually occupied numbers 102 – 120 involving the demolition of several houses as it expanded. Certainly the earliest driving licence I have for Percy, dated 20 October 1914, lists Sandon Road as his business address.
The selection of the name ‘Edgbaston Garage’ is in itself interesting since, as anyone familiar with districts of Birmingham will be aware, Edgbaston is (even now) very much more ‘upmarket’ than Aston or Bearwood.
This seems to have been part of a shrewd move by Percy and Roland to target a wealthy section of the population who were about to lead the country into a long lasting love affair with the motor car. In the same year as Winchurch Brothers’ foundation, Herbert Austin formed the Austin Motor Company and began production at Longbridge in 1906.
There are gaps in my knowledge of many aspects of Winchurch Brothers in the early years, from 1905 until my father’s earliest memories from around 1918. Percy’s surviving driving licences from 1914 to 1919 include an endorsement ordered by Kings Heath Police Court on 21 November 1916 for ‘not obscuring headlights’ on 29 October 1916, for which he was fined 10 shillings. This was, of course at the height of the Great War, but how much real risk ‘not obscuring headlights’ caused is a matter of speculation !
Percy Walter Winchurch married Marion Brown, the daughter of Henry Ambrose Brown, a tailor, and Alice Plucknett Brown (nee Sternberg) on 18 April 1911.
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| Back row: Marion Sternberg, Henry Ambrose Brown (Marion’s father), Roland Winchurch, Percy, another Winchurch brother (Harry?) with wife ? Middle: Alice Brown (Marion’s mother) Mildred Brown, Marion, Marcelle Prentout (French milliner), Eliza Winchurch (Percy’s mother) Front: Harry Brown and Edith, his wife. |
Percy was 29 and Marion 28.
On their marriage certificate Percy’s address is 11 Newton Road and his occupation is ‘Cycle Dealer’, underlining the fact that the motor side of the business was less important than bike sales in the early years.
Their first child, Francis Victor Winchurch, known for most of his eighty three years as ‘Vic’ was born on 5 February 1914 at 12,Waterloo Road in Bearwood not far from the garage. His birthplace was the family home where Percy, Marion and Vic lived until the move to Pargeter Road (I think in around 1918). Interestingly, Percy is described on Vic’s birth certificate as a ‘Motor Engineer’. So only three years later, the motor side of the business had presumably become the more important.
Jeanne Marion Winchurch was born on 5 July 1919.
The business clearly prospered during the 1920s since photographs show Percy and his family in increasingly comfortable surroundings and on holiday in Devon and later Cornwall. The children both had private educations and lifestyles befitting the rising generation of a ‘well off’ family.
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| Jeanne, Vic, Marie, Percy, Millie, Mary Alice. |
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| Percy, Jeanne, Vic, Horace Bench (husband of Millie, Marion’s younger sister), Millie, Mary Bench, Alice Brown (Marion’s mother). About 1925 at Meadfoot Beach, Torquay. |
Roland meanwhile had Married Alice Wood in 1914. They had four children, Barry, Betty, Molly and Pat between 1915 and 1927.
The brothers bought houses in the newly expanding suburb of Quinton. Roland, with his larger family, probably moved from Galton Road to 757 Hagley Road West in 1931, with Percy following to 755 a year later. A high wooden fence separated the back gardens !
The brothers also owned the semi detached ‘other half’ of Percy’s house 753, which was rented to a childless couple from London called Perrott. Hugh Perrott was a travelling salesman for a children's clothing manufacturer.
In February 1930, Vic was 16 and a pupil at King Edward VI Grammar School at Five Ways. He took his School Certificate examination that year and in January 1931 he began training with Smethwick Borough Council as a weights and Measures inspector. I believe Percy had misgivings about him joining Winchurch Brothers straight from school and wanted him to gain experience of outside employment first.
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| The Regent Billiard Hall about 1947. Notice the newly installed fluorescent lights – a pioneering feature. |
The Billiard Hall (or to give it its full name ‘The Regent Billiard Hall’) was situated adjacent to the garage fronting onto Bearwood High Street. It features in Kelly’s 1933 trade index to Birmingham and judging by references to its profitability in 1936, it had only been running for a few years. My guess is 1932.
I remember Fred Winchurch and Fred Payton serving behind the bar in the late 1940s. That bar, however served only non alcoholic drinks, a legacy of the aversion to alcohol that Percy had throughout his life, resulting from his upbringing as a publican’s son.
The years during the war cannot have been easy. Car production ceased and fuel was rationed.
In February 1941, Vic and Margaret were married at St Paul's Church in Smethwick.
Vic had joined the Royal Navy in January 1941 and became an operator of the new equipment known as Radar. He was in Durban on the battleship HMS Valiant when I was born and didn't see his new son until early in 1943.
Both Percy and Jeanne wrote to Vic whilst he was away and I have a few of the heavily censored letters they were allowed to send.
Percy, along with a large part of the population on Britain, ‘dug for victory’ growing vegetables and keeping hens. He slept at Sandon Road on fire watch on a regular basis in a concrete ‘Pill Box’ next to the showroom.
Birmingham was bombed by the Luftwaffe on several occasions between August 1940 and May 1941 and Bearwood Road School was hit, fortunately at night and there were no casualties. I don’t know how much fuel was stored at the garage at this time, but it can’t have been a comfortable place to be. I still have Percy’s wooden and canvas camp bed from this time. It became my bed for several years when I was a child.
In the post war years, the business prospered. Restrictions on prices meant that second hand cars with low mileage were more valuable than new ones. Consequently, Percy and to a lesser extent, I think, Roland had a succession of new cars often for no more than six months. I can remember well the excitement of being collected in the latest of ‘Grandpa’s new cars’
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| Percy and John, summer 1946 |
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| Jeanne and John , summer 1946 |
My brother David Christopher Winchurch was born 13 December 1946 and I can now understand how Percy must have felt at this point that he was laying a path for all of us for the future.
Vic had been added to the payroll of Winchurch Brothers after demobilisation from the Navy in 1946. I don’t think his employment did anything to remove Percy’s earlier misgivings about his involvement in the business. After a spell in the workshop, which I believe was not a great success, he was moved to the stores. My pleasure as a result of this was derived from having a typewriter to play with when I called there. David remembers that too and additionally a narrow passageway between the back of the line of timber buildings and a brick wall behind. We both think used engine oil was stored there before being burned as fuel in the heating system.
The minutes of a meeting and the associated financial report from 1947 reveal that Winchurch Brothers Limited was on a sound financial footing. Percy proposed that the directors’ fees be increased to £520 per annum from 1 October 1946, This was carried.
Some £1500 was paid out in dividends that year and I believe that at this point only Percy and Roland were shareholders.
Percy made a move in 1947 to appoint three extra directors, Horace Bench, his brother in law (through Millie, Marion’s sister) plus Vic and Frank Angel, the company secretary, of whom I know very little, but he seems to have had a legal background since he was asked to produce a report on the operation of the company if these appointments took place and also in the light of a further proposal by Percy to issue shares to Vic, Jeanne, Betty, Molly and Pat ( but excluding Barry, who seems to have left the family behind him by this time – he eventually died in Rochdale in 1975)
This is quite clearly marks the intention, on Percy’s part to marginalise Roland and lead to a breakup, or takeover, of Winchurch Brothers.
In the same year, 1947, Percy staged a dinner and concert at the Red Cow Hotel in Smethwick
‘To commemorate the completion of 25 years service of Miss O. Parr with Messrs Winchurch Brothers Limited’
It is noticeable that it was Percy who sent out the invitations although Roland does seem to have been present to perform the presentation to Olive. He is, however totally absent from photos I have from that evening.
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| Percy making a speech with Olive Parr standing next to him and Marion sitting on his other side. Vic is seated on the extreme right of the picture |
About this time, Millie Bench reported with some amusement that Roland had sidled up to her, cigarette in mouth and in his broad Birmingham accent enquired :
‘D’yow think as ower Percy’s susceptible to flattery’ ? Her reply was ‘Yes Roland, I think he probably is’. Millie had a wry sense of humour.
Whatever form Percy and Olive’s relationship took at this time ( he was now 65 and Olive 46 ) there was no attempt to conceal it. Olive acted as chauffeuse on family outings as well as business and her family, particularly her sister Hilda Martin, husband Harold and children Denise and Roddy, were part of a large circle that Percy gathered around them.
This behaviour earned the vociferous contempt of Margaret, my mother, particularly when Olive went on holiday with Percy, Marion and entourage.
Percy however had no evident signs of acceptance the received morality of a late Victorian childhood !
He was equally contemptuous about organised religion. I remember how, towards the end of his life, on a trip to Pembrokeshire with Marion, Jenny, (Fred’s widow) and myself in the car, he replied to Jenny’s favourable comments about the picturesque appearance and setting of St Issel's church at Saundersfoot with the remark :
‘Yes Olive and Midge went there one Sunday. God knows why. Some time when they were feeling extra religious, I suppose.’
I can still hear those words today, over fifty years later and to me as a ten year old, such deliciously daring blasphemy both amused and horrified me.
I don’t think I ever told my mother !
Life with Percy was fun. I often sat on his lap in the front passenger seat of the car up to the age of about six. There were, of course, no seat belts in cars before the late 1950’s. Percy would often sing along with the car radio as Olive drove us to Wales, Malvern, or in this case, Sutton Park
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| Percy with a rather scared looking John at Sutton Amusement Park about 1948 |
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| Winchurch Brothers with flags and bunting flying for the 1953 Coronation, three months before Percy died |
In June 1949, Jeanne committed suicide, as I have reported on the pages that I have written about her here
https://winchurch.blogspot.com/2020/07/jeanne-marion-winchurch-1919-1949.html
The plans that Percy Winchurch made in the four years after Jeanne’s death were far reaching and profoundly affected my life and the lives of many members of my family.
In 1939 Percy, Marion and the Paytons (Fred and Beattie) had gone to Pembrokeshire instead of the more customary West Country. I think this might have been on the recommendation of Frank Collins, who was a Winchurch Bros employee and who later retired to Penally, I believe.
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| Unknown man , Beattie Payton, Percy Winchurch, S Beach Tenby 1939 |
After Jeanne died in June 1949, Percy and Marion immediately put the house in Hagley Road West on the market and they moved to Stennels Avenue in Halesowen within months. Devon and Cornwall would have brought back painful memories, I guess and Percy’s thoughts must have turned to alternative holiday destinations. Pembrokeshire quickly moved to prime position and he began to make retirement plans. These included roles for my father and David and me (his grandsons). I don’t know whose idea boatbuilding was, but it clearly had links with my father’s wartime service in the Royal Navy.
Percy entered into negotiations with Vic Morris, who owned St Brides Garage in Saundersfoot, to either purchase the business outright or go into partnership. I don’t know how the formula was arrived at, but plans were drawn up to add a boatbuilding venture to the motor business, to be known as ‘Saundersfoot Marine Company Limited’.
Then, early in September 1953, Percy suffered a major stroke. He was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, but never regained consciousness and was dead within twenty four hours on 9 September 1953.
Marion
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| Marion Brown at 21 in 1903 |
My grandmother Marion Brown was born on 9 August 1882 at Cannock in Staffordshire. She was the third child of Henry Ambrose Brown and Alice Plucknett Brown (neé Sternberg). She married Percy Winchurch in 1911.
Our grandmothers were affectionately known to us as ‘big’ (Annie) and ‘little’ (Marie) grandmas
Marion (or Marie, with the stress on the first syllable rather than the French pronunciation) had an elder sister Norah (b1879), brother Harry (b1881) and younger sister Millie (b1890)
Marie was perhaps the most introverted of the four. There was an underlying sense of humour within the family, which delighted me as a small boy. Life with the Browns was fun !
I am lucky to have known and loved all of them in their different ways as my childhood years overlapped with the later years of their respective lives.
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| Norah and Marie C 1903 |
It was a conversation between Norah and Marie 1n 1963 that was an early inspiration to look into family history more.
Norah talks about ‘mother’s father’s father’ being a ‘wonderful musician’ and ‘coming over with a German band’
She was almost right, Francis George Sternberg was actually a generation further back and was a trumpeter with the Royals and Blues Regiment. He settled in Northampton, married Frances Furnivall and established himself and his family in a music retail and education business.
At the time of this recording in 1963, it was two hundred years since Francis’s birth. It is an interesting example of how family information can be passed down the generations.
If I count my granddaughters, we have nine generations here.
Marion owned her own millinery business in a suburb of Birmingham. The landlady of the shop was Eliza Winchurch, Percy’s mother. I assume this is how my grandparents met.
She was an avid reader throughout her life, being particularly fond of Charles Dickens and an opera lover too, which I shared with her from my mid teens onwards.
Percy and Marie married in 1911 with a fine array of hats on display on their wedding photographs
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| Back row: Marion Sternberg, Henry Ambrose Brown (Marion’s father), Roland Winchurch, Percy, another Winchurch brother (Harry?) with wife ? Middle: Alice Brown (Marion’s mother) Mildred Brown, Marion, Marcelle Prentout, Employee (French milliner), Eliza Winchurch (Percy’s mother) Front: Harry Brown and Edith, his wife. |
When Marion died in 1982, she was just four months short of her hundredth birthday.
As far as I know, she is the longest living ancestor that I have. That is quite a thought if you project back into prehistory.
Arthur Downing
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Arthur in 1894 |
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| Mary Ann Downing and children. Arthur is back right. |
He was the fourth of eight children born to James and Mary Ann (née Pugh) Downing between 1873 and 1886.
In the 1881 UK census, two year old Arthur is living with his family at St George's Terrace in Kidderminster. James's occupation is described as a 'clicker' in carpet manufacture, a trade which employed a large proportion of the population of Kidderminster for many years
Ten years later, James and Mary Ann have only three children with them at Oxford]Street in Kidderminster and Arthur at twelve has already left school and is working as an 'errand boy - cart'.
Somewhere around this time, Arthur became a chorister at St Mary the Virgin church at Stone in Worcestershire, a village within walking distance of Kidderminster. The choirmaster and organist was Albert Dovey Chambers and as a child I was shown a treasured family possession, which I still have.
It was a photo album with the inscription:
'Arthur L Downing from ADC, Christmas 1894'
The humorous photo of Albert's dog 'Pug' sitting at a table with pipe and glasses appealed to me as a toddler and my mother clearly felt that her father had benefitted from his time in the choir.
Several of the photos are general shots of places visited on a choir outing, by train, presumably some time in 1894,
Locations include , Tintern Abbey, the Wye Valley and Monmouth.
I am reasonably confident that I have identified my grandfather and Albert Chambers in some of the photos.
To this end, I have been greatly assisted by Tony Brett whose website featuring the photos from glass plate negatives by A D Chambers I discovered online at
http://www.albertchambers.com/Albert_Chambers/Title.html
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| Arthur in 1894 |
The photo album might have been a farewell, present from ADC when Arthur left the choir.
In any event, it would seem that Albert held his pupil in high regard and that is the impression I got from my mother, Margaret.
In the 1901 Census, Arthur is single, living with his widowed mother in Clarence St Kidderminster, employed as a Carpet colour finder.
In August 1906, Arthur was present at the marriage of his brother Albert Downing to Eleanor Slater. Also present at the wedding was my Gt Grandmother, Lizzie Smith, whose mother was born Downing. Her husband and twenty two year old daughter Annie accompanied her. My grandparents, Annie Elizabeth Smith and Arthur Lionel Downing met for the first time at that wedding and subsequently married. They were first cousins once removed.
I have yet to find Arthur in the 1911 Census. I know that by then he was working for the GWR as a signalman at several boxes around the Welsh border.
He and Annie married in 1914 and my mother, Margaret Downing was born in 1916.
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| Arthur, Annie and Margaret in Weymouth, 1929 |
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| Margaret and Arthur |
In addition to Arthur's musical talents, he was also a skilled wood carver
These are images of some of his work and the certificate he was awarded in 1927.
Sadly, Arthur died at home in fairly traumatic circumstances for my mother, grandmother and himself. He had suffered with heart problems for some time, but could not seek medical attention because it would have cost him his job as a signalman.
He died from coronary thrombosis on 24 March 1938 at the age of fifty nine
Annie Elizabeth Smith
My Grandmother, Annie Elizabeth Smith, (my mother’s mother), was born in Alexandra Street, Stone, Staffordshire on 30 September 1883 and died in Tenby, Pembrokeshire on 6 July 1958.
For the last few years of her life, Annie suffered from senile dementia and the memory of that time is in many ways painful for me and inevitably obscures a broader view of her life.
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| Annie with her father, Arthur Smith. About 1935 |
Annie was her parents’ eldest child and the only girl.
Four younger brothers followed
George (1885), Thomas (1889), William (1894) and Frederick (1899)
George died a month before the Great War armistice in October 1918 in Syria.
The remaining three were all involved in the war, but survived and lived within half a mile of their parents. I remember all three of them. Annie's brother Tom brought home a cherished memento from the battlefield of the First World War. He had entered a house almost wrecked by shelling and found a china cup, which was the only thing intact after the onslaught. Tom brought it home and gave it too his sister. Annie treasured it all her life and I am honoured that I still have it, sitting on my mantel shelf.
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| Brought home for Annie by Tom Smith in 1918 |
The couple made their home at 49, Topsham Road in Smethwick, but my mother, Margaret Downing, was born at 7, Victor Street in Stone, the home of her grandparents.
Annie and Arthur’s marriage was not a happy one, by the accounts that Margaret gave. Arthur drank heavily and was apparently abusive and violent. Paradoxically, he produced beautiful oak carved furniture by hand at woodwork classes organised by the GWR. Maybe there he found relief from the pent up frustrations of a life of poverty. Like the homes of previous generations of workers, number 49 had no bathroom and an outside toilet.
Arthur died at fifty nine on the floor of his home. He died in agony, during a severe angina attack at which twenty one year old Margaret was present. He refused to allow her to call the company doctor, since a confirmed diagnosis of heart disease would have cost him his job. Signalmen could not put the travelling public at risk by dying in their boxes !
When Margaret finally reached the doctor’s house it was the middle of the night and the annoyed GP callously threw a death certificate from his bedroom window to the distraught girl in the cold gaslit street below.
Her father’s death in such tragic circumstances affected Margaret greatly, but to my personal frustration as an adolescent attracted by the fairness of socialism, she never voted for the Labour Party with its revolutionary National Health Scheme, but turned instead to a personal attempt to ensure that she always had sufficient funds to avoid poverty. It was a difference of opinion between us that lasted until her death.
Annie was left a widow in Smethwick in 1938 and at the outbreak of war in 1939 became an air raid warden. I think that in a strange way this was probably the most self fulfilled period of her life.
So it was that I arrived in the world, after most of the bombing had finished, with a ‘gas proof’ cot with a hand air pump fitted and later a Mickey Mouse gas mask. These were ready to accompany me and my mother and a good part of the population of Topsham Road, from what I gathered, in the descent to the galvanised steel ‘Anderson Shelter’ which lay half buried at the end of the small garden. I don’t think any of the equipment was used seriously after I was born, but it made a scary, damp, dark playground for me, David and friends as we grew up and was dug out by my father and turned into an impromptu garden shed in 1950, when we and it moved to the rural heaven of Hagley.
Despite being thirty miles away, it was always Annie who was summoned when her ageing parents were unwell. This gave rise to much resentment by my mother, Margaret and in fairness, Annies health was not good as she progressed through her sixties. I can remenber a telegram from Stone arriving from some member of her family which read, quite simply, ‘Annie come at once’
Following my birth in 1942, I had a bout of gastroenteritis and Margaret attributed my very survival to the loving attention that Annie gave me during that time of great deprivation in Britain. The second world war was only just beginning to turn towards eventual victory by the Allies and food and material shortages were acute.
Annie was a very selfless and uncomplaining person. She moved in with us when we went first to Hagley and then to the Wild West of Pembrokeshire in 1954 and sadly declined in health until her death four years later.
The Nineteen Forties
When I was born on 27 September 1942, the Second World War was entering a critical stage. Hitler had made the fatal mistake of unleashing the horror and might of war machine on the Soviet Union. A combination of resistance by its people and the deadly cold of the Russian winter would lead to the ultimate defeat of his forces and the collapse of Naziism. But that surrender was still over two years away.
I spent my early years with my mother and grandmother at 49, Topsham Road Smethwick, an industrial inner suburb of Birmingham.
My grandmother, Annie was a tenant in the terraced house, which she had lived in since her marriage to Arthur Downing in 1914. Margaret was twenty one at the time of Arthur’s death in 1938 and living at home. She worked in a secretarial role at a local engineering works Bellis and Morcom
Margaret and Vic Winchurch met, I think, because they had mutual friends, in particular Nina Woodhouse whose parents ran a music shop in Smethwick High Street was a friend of Margaret from the age of five and they later went on to Holly Lodge High School for girls together. I don’t think Percy, my grandfather, was particularly approving of Margaret, she was from a financially poor background and as a shrewd and successful businessman, I believe Percy viewed her as a ‘gold digger’ There was certainly animosity between him and Margaret, which lasted throughout both of their lives.
The contrast between the house in Topsham Road and Percy and Marion’s modern home in Quinton was stark. Topsham Road had no electricity , the lighting and cooking were provided by by town gas, which was poisonous as well as being explosive!
There was no piped hot water and the only indoor cold water supply was a tap over the kitchen sink. Hot water was provided by heating a kettle on the gas stove.
The single toilet was outside in a small outbuilding in the back yard, the same single story addition to the house also had a ‘coal house’ to store fuel for the living room fire which was the only source of heat in the house. There was no form of central heating, As was usual there were ‘chamber pots’ kept under the bed to avoid the long dark trek to the yard toilet. A luxury item would be a stone hot water bottle to warm the bed on cold winter nights. I know it all sounds very grim, but even having running water , a flushing toilet and gas lighting were all advances one those conditions experienced by countless generations going back to the ice age and beyond. I often think about that when someone complains about having slow broadband speed !
My Dad’s family conditions were very different even allowing for the hardships of wartime. They had a bathroom with stored hot water provided by a ‘back boiler’ behind the kitchen fire and a flushing toilet. The house was lit and powered by mains electricity and Percy had a car to travel to and from work when there was enough petrol to be able to use it. He kept his garage business ‘Winchurch Brothers Limited’ operating with his brother Roland and a skeleton staff, often sleeping on a camp bed on the premises on fire watch duty in case of a hit on the garage by a bomb.
By the time I was born, Luftwaffe raids had decreased as German offensive action shifted to the Eastern front, but there was bomb damage in Bearwood close to the garage on one occasion. The camp bed that Percy used became my bed as a child and I still have it: a well made folding bed constructed from oak with a canvas ‘hammock’ to form the sleeping base.
Percy also kept chickens to provided a welcome supply of eggs and occasional meat and grew vegetables as a contribution to the ‘dig for Britain’ campaign to provide food for the nation when supplies and imports were severely limited. He developed a contact with a farmer at Heightington, Mr Ward. In the years just after the war, I occasionally went with him to buy vegetables and loved to see the pigs and experience the smells and atmosphere of a working farm. David also remembers that our visits to Mr Ward were marked by purchase of rabbits and goats milk for David's eczema, which he suffered badly from as a child and resulted in a spell in hospital.
At the time I was born in September 1942, Dad was in South Africa on the battleship HMS Valiant. It was 1943 before he was home and able to see his first son. In the meantime he received carefully written mail from both Percy and Jeanne.
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| Annie, Arthur, Margaret, John, Lizzie plus cousin. March 1943 at Stone |
Annie parents, my great grandparents Lizzie and Arthur Smith lived in a small terraced house in Victor Street, Stone, Staffordshire. I was even more primitive than Annie's house, but typical of so many working class homes built in the 1800s.
Next door live a great uncle, Fred and his wife 'little auntie' Polly (to distinguish her from 'big auntie' Polly who was was married to another of Lizzie's brothers). In fact many relatives lived in Victor Street and other streets close by, including Annie's brothers Tom, Fred and Bill and Lizzie's brothers Albert and Fred and their extensive families.
I have a vivid memory of accompanying Arthur on a short walk to the public park at the end of Victor Street when I was about four or five years old. Since Arthur used a walking stick, I insisted on doing the same, so a stick of some description was found for me. On reaching the park a group of elderly men turned to Arthur and one of the asked 'Is this your young grandson then Arthur' to which he replied 'No, it's not my grandson, John is my GREAT grandson'
I felt very important.
Visits to Stone were also memorable for biscuits. Lizzie always seemed to have a supply of Lincoln Creams stored in a large chest of drawers in the living room. The limit was one per child per visit, but a real treat in the post war years of rationing and hardship.
The house was heated by a coal fired black leaded range in the living room. This also provided hot water via a large kettle which was kept close to boiling at all times. Baths, if taken at all, were in a galvanised tub placed in front of the range. I never saw that actually happen !
Another source of fascination was a well behind a door under the stairs. This had been to sole water supply for several houses in the street before the coming of piped water several years before. As a small boy access to this was severely restricted, but every now and then I was allowed to peer down the dark hole to the water down below.
The scullery housed a copper washing boiler, heated by a fire lit beneath it in a brick enclosure. Bedclothes and other linens were boiled in this tub and swilled around by hand using a wooden 'dolly'
Another washing day essential was the cast iron mangle with huge wooden rollers used to squeeze out water from the linens that had been washed.
The scullery also had an extra room above, accessed by a steep open tread wooden staircase. This had been used by Arthur as his shoe making workshop in the early years of the twentieth century. He was employed as a skilled craftsman and examples of his work were exported to various countries including Australia. I was allowed up that staircase once and saw the remnants of his trade set out on a bench in the small room with a low roof. Arthur's work as a skilled cobbler had been cut short when he developed bowel cancer some time after the first world war. He had a colostomy operation, still quite rare at that time and even as a child I was aware that he had to retire to 'the parlour' at the front of the house to attend to his stoma. This must have been unpleasant and humiliating for him, but he bore it with quiet patience and lack of complaint. Arthur lived to within a day of his eighty ninth birth and for the last few years of his life Annie, my grandmother travelled regularly from Smethwick to Stone to care for him and Lizzie who died in the same year as Arthur - 1949.
Visits to Stone were usually made in Winchurch Brothers' van an Austin A40, similar to the one shown below. There were no rear seats and , of course, no seat belts, so David and I were perched on cushions in the back, sliding around dangerously if our father took corners too fast
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| A late 1940s Austin A40 Devon van |
It was quite an adventure and over the years I was able to identify landmarks along the way, such as the rather futuristic looking Midland Counties Dairy in Wolverhampton.
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| Midland Counties Dairy in Wolverhampton |
Soon afterwards buildings gave way to green countryside and by comparison to Handsworth, Stone was quite rural with areas like the Downs Banks - a favourite area of open parkland within walking distance of Victor Street.
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/downs-banks#Overview
Visits to Stone were always memorable. Annie's cousin Mary (nee Gadsby) Williams live near to Victor Street and had an allotment where Bill, Mary's husband grew chrysanthemums in a greenhouse. I was fascinated by the sight and scent of so many flowers in a confined space.
School days
I was almost six years old when I started school, because my birthday in September was just after the schools admission date of 1 September.
My first primary school was St Michaels Church of England school a short walk from home in Handsworth.
I cannot say that I immediately took to school life. The rules at St Michaels were strict, for example no child was allowed to go to the toilet during classroom hours. The headmaster, Mr Jacobs would watch from his study to see that this rule was obeyed and it caused me agonies trying to hold on until break time. Occasionally, I had accidents as a result and eventually my mother went to see the Headmaster to ask that I should be allowed, pleading a 'weak bladder' The outcome of this was almost as embarrassing though, since the toilets were across the playground, in full view of several classrooms and it was rather humiliating to make that 'walk of shame' - even with official sanction !
The school had been built in the 1900's and was austere, with rows of wooden desks with integral seats and metal knibbed pens and ink wells.
As with many Church of England schools, St Michaels had been taken into the State school system, but retained strong links with the church, so we had for example, prayers at the start of each day. Once a week we listened to a radio broadcast service for schools originating in a large church in Birmingham (possibly St Philip's Cathedral) with an organ played by the redoubtable George Thalben-Ball.
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| John - middle row, extreme right 1949 |
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| The Blue Lake, Fairbourne |
The Move to Hagley
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| John, Robert and Richard in 1952 |
We were lucky enough to have a playing field directly behind the house equipped with new Wicksteed play equipment - swings, slide, roundabout etc. This, in addition to the open countryside with fields, woods and ponds made Hagley a great place to live for small boys.
Sadly, essentials like grooming , diet and general dog care were not skills that had been learned in our family and, as so often happens with family pets, the novelty wore off and poor Linda became rather overweight and undergroomed. A low point was reached when she ran off whilst 'on heat' and it was me who found her in the playing field firmly coupled with a well known 'dog about town'. I was distraught , the whole thing was a frightening mystery to me and I ran home in tears. Within a few weeks, the inevitable happened and Linda gave birth to five black furry puppies.
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| Percy, with a rather scared looking John Sutton Park. About 1948 |
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| Margaret Winchurch standing by the Berkeley Messenger 1961 |
- October 1955 Back row L – R Wilfred Harrison, Bill Davies, Arthur Richards, L.J. Williams, Alan Nicholas, J.A.Jones . T.K. Edmonds, Ken Lee. Middle row : Heinz (Hugh) Holland, Colin Boilieau, Philip Nunn, John Winchurch, Geoffrey Titterton, ?, Brian Rees Front row: Michael Edwards, Kenneth James ? ? Geoffrey Torkington.
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| Auf dem Meere 2022 I had never been outside the UK before this visit and landing and getting used to different rules and traffic conditions was challenging at first. We were surprised by the number of bikes in use, mostly heavy looking steel ones. We also very quickly got gestured at the move to the cycle track rather than the road. This was made slightly confusing by the fact that low powered motor bikes could be used by anyone over the age of fourteen and whizzed along at an alarming speed ! We stayed at Youth Hostels along the way, which I had pre booked in advance using the postal service (this was decades before online booking or emails !)  I can't remember much of the details of the route, but I do remember the way small bungalows with lots of flowers seemed to line the track through Holland, the change to much more open fields in Germany and the miles of juddering riding over cobbled roads ! We went through Rotterdam and I remember eating good food at a number of youth hostels - at places like Amersfoort and Appeldoorn In Germany there were many signs that the rural areas were still recovering slowly from the effects of the second world war. I was surprised to see horses being used to plough fields. This was sixteen years after the Nazi surrender in Europe. I was made to feel very welcome in Luneburg by Heinz's family. His aunt Clara found out that I was interested in opera and kindly organised a trip by train to Hamburg to see Puccini's Tosca at the Opera House. This was my first visit to an opera house and was a great experience. I also have some rather hazy memories of drinking a lot of strong German beer in Luneburg, which I certainly wasn't used to doing ! Many years later I discovered that my ancestor Franz Georg Sternberg was born in Luneburg and was a member of a family of Town musicians stretching back to the time of J.S. Bach who had played the organ at St Michaeliskirche the main church on a hill in the town. We took a short bike ride during our stay in Luneburg to the River Elbe at Lauenburg. At this time the Elbe was the frontier between East and West Germany - part of the 'Iron Curtain' across Europe. The bridge over the river was closed by a barricade at its centre and whilst the Western half was freshly painted, the Eastern half was rusty and decayed. We didn't try to cross ! I received my GCE A level results whilst I was travelling and with passes in Maths, Physics and Chemistry, I was set to start at University in Cardiff in September 1961. We left Luneburg on our bikes after three weeks and headed North towards Denmark. After crossing the Kiel Canal we entered Denmark on a hot summer's day . Heinz recalls feeling guilty when he went into shop to buy beer- possibly because we were technically under age. I don't remember this, but I'm not sure if that's because it wasn't me who bought the beer or perhaps I declined it after over indulgence in Luneburg !  Kronprinsesse Ingrid ferry The ferry left from Esbjerg and we were housed in 'tween deck' accommodation which was basic, but comfortable and aimed at students. There was a huge fish processing plant on the quayside with a strong smell, which spread across the whole port, but I have good memories of Denmark and wonder why I have never been back ! |
Cardiff 1961 - 1964
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| The Grand Place in Brussels in 1964 In late September 1964 I joined the BBC Communications department in London. The department had several sections, all based in the annexe at the rear of Broadcasting House, (BH), which has now been rebuilt following the closure of Television Centre. I was initially on a three month probation period, which traditionally had been followed by a course at the BBC Engineering Training Department at Woodnorton near Evesham. This course for 'direct entry engineers' had however been scrapped just before I started, so it was two years before I eventually went to Woodnorton. I sent my two years in London in shared flats and houses, mainly with house - mates with Pembrokeshire connections. One flat was within site of Wembley Park Stadium and the last was in Ealing. For a while I cycled into Broadcasting house along Western Avenue, but after a few months the winter winds and London traffic persuaded me to revert to the Tube. I had a circle of friends in London during this time, based mainly around house mates and work colleagues, but none of them were particularly close. I stayed in touch with Heinz, who was in Bristol, studying to become a Merchant Navy Radio officer and we met up a few times, travelling by train between the two cities. Sadly, a tragic event occurred in 1963 at Luneburg where Heinz and I had been two years before. His mother, stepfather and brother Tony, who was ten years old, were staying in the town. Tony was taken by his father to the local swimming pool, where in a moments lack of concentration he drowned. The family was devastated and so was I since I had known them all for many years. Tony's body was brought back to Tenby, where he is buried next to the chapel in the Town cemetery. I was sent to Belfast in March of 1965 for three weeks to fill a temporary vacancy in the Comms Dept . Memorably this was my first commercial flight anywhere. In January 1965, I played a small part in the state funeral of Winston Churchill. The service took place in St Paul's Cathedral in London and I was given the job of equalising the sound lines from St Pauls to Broadcasting house. Later the same year I was part of the Comms crew at Television Centre in West London for the General Election. This was the final major political broadcast hosted by the veteran broadcaster Richard Dimbleby, who died of cancer in December 1965 I knew at an early stage in my time with the BBC that I did not want to stay in London. I applied for a regional posting and was offered a job within Communications Department at Cardiff, which I readily accepted. I returned to Cardiff in 1966. In between, I had my first course at Evesham, improving my rather sketchy knowledge of transistor theory and application, which at that time was the important future for practical electronics.  The BBC in Cardiff was a hotchpotch of locations around the city in 1966, with most of the sound department located around Park Place in the city centre, whilst the television operations were mainly in Broadway off Newport Road. Here a former chapel had been converted into a general purpose studio plus continuity and the TV switching centre for which Comms dept was responsible. I immediately took to the live atmosphere of this aspect of the BBC and it formed the basis of most of my next thirty years in broadcasting. Communications departments in the BBC regions had just undergone a merger of the former Lines departments and Radio Links. In Cardiff, this forced marriage had not resulted in a happy union and there was a lot of rivalry and bad feeling , made worse by a number of strong willed and abrasive personalities. All in all it was not a happy place to work !  BBC radio links vehicle at the National Eisteddfod at Aberavon 1966 One of the responsibilities of Comms Dept was outside broadcast (OB) lines equalisation. Sound lines for both radio and television OBs were rented from the Post Office (later BT), but were not normally suitable for broadcast quality before frequency equalisation was applied. Various other tests were necessary to to overcome inherent noise problems. At this time the BBC did its own equalisation, whereas ITV rented lines that were deemed acceptable for broadcast quality. Since a Comms engineer had to travel to the OB point about a week prior to broadcast, there was a lot of driving involved and time spent in hotels. This was particularly true in Wales, where a church service (often in Welsh) was broadcast every Sunday, alternating between South and North Wales. I got to know the roads and villages quite well during this period. One of the remotest locations was Aberdaron on the Lleyn Peninsula where I drove one winters day from Cardiff to carry out a lines equalisation at a tiny church near the coast. The telephone lines in that area were mainly bare wires on telegraph poles exposed to the ravages of moist salt laden air and strong wind. These conditions were a nightmare for sound signals since the damp penetrated the joints and added to the problems of audio noise. A trip like this could last two days and must have cost the BBC a fortune in travel and accommodation claims, when the audience was at most a few thousand people. It is not surprising that eventually the BBC began to rent pre equalised lines and ultimately reduce costs massively by using satellite and internet communications sub contracted to independent companies. But all of that was well into the future ! The part of my job that I enjoyed most at this time was being on operational shift duty in the television switching centre in Cardiff. This was the junction of all TV signals in and out of Wales and also where 'opt outs' were controlled for such things as regional continuity and news. It also involved responsibility for technical equipment, which in those days failed regularly and sometimes spectacularly . Some of the equipment was both temperamental and unreliable and you very often had to think quickly to get the station back on air. It also meant working closely with non engineering staff such as announcers and journalists. I met many interesting and entertaining people during that time. One of the most pleasant was the late lamented Ronnie Williams who was a continuity announcer and later comedy actor in the Welsh language series 'Ryan a Ronnie' with Ryan Davis. BBC staff in Cardiff were encouraged to take Welsh lessons, given in the BBC Club by a welsh speaking programme producer. They were based on a course of radio lessons running at the time. Even though I had never formally taken lessons, I had a very basic vocabulary and perhaps more importantly and ability to pronounce Welsh reasonably fluently. I never gained very much ability to converse, however. Welsh is not an easy language to take up beyond childhood, as countless surveys and census reports have found. The proportion of fluent Welsh speakers has remained at around 11 % despite a vigorous attempt to popularise and encourage by language enthusiasts and nationalist politicians. One very famous event in 1966 was the football World Cup. By that time I was staying in the house of Mrs Howell, a widow, who was a very friendly and tolerant landlady. I shared the rented part of her house with two former university friends who were both doing PhDs. Although I wasn't particularly interested in football, I, like many others became enthusiastic about the World Cup and watched England's games as the team progressed to the final. BBC television was still transmitting in black and white in 1966, but the electric atmosphere was infectious on the day when England beat Germany in the final. |
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| John and crew sailing Enterprise 2556 'Ptarmigan', Bray harbour 1970 |
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| Margaret with her first granddaughter 1971 |
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| 54,Stagborough Way, Stourport, 1971 |
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| Daughter number two 1972 |
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Enterprise E17211 being built in Stourport 1973 |
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| Malcolm, Mike, John, Ray, Rick at Heathrow 1 March 1982 In those days there were no direct flights to Nepal. One flew to Delhi by transatlantic jet via Dubai or other middle eastern transit point . At this point the plane filled with Indian travellers loaded with luxury goods such as bulky transistor radios which were far cheaper than in India. A Royal Nepal Airlines flight completed the journey, with a reputation for unreliability, but we made the connection without any problems We spent three days in Kathmandu organising trekking permits, currency etc. None of this was easy and involved delays whilst bureaucratic checks took place, but it allowed plenty of time to explore Kathmandu. My first impression was shock at the squalor. The smell of sewage was apparent even as we stepped from the plane from Delhi onto the tarmac. It was common to see people defecating at the side of streets in the city - you had to watch your step ! |
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| Malcolm, Rick, Mike and Ray at Kathmandu Airport 2 March 1982 |
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| John, Malcolm and Ray |
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| Ray studies the route |
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| Ray and Malcolm entering a bank to change dollars to rupees The general advice was to carry American dollars as a universal currency |
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| Heavy goods transport |
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| Ray outside the Hotel Asia, where we stayed in relative luxury |
We reached Lamosangu after several bumpy hours on the bus and were immediately surrounded by a hoard of cheerful and inquisitive children.
Many were offering to take us to accommodation and after a discussion about whether to take this option, we followed a young boy of about 12 called Garnesh to his family home.
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| Garnesh on the left with his family |
After a meal of chicken and vegetables, which was not to Mike's liking, we slept on mattresses that had him worrying about bed bugs.
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| 6 March 1982 John and Rick setting up camp for the first time, watched by a curious audience. Notice the minimalist tent.  |
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| Rick Mike and Ray on a tea house break 7 March1982 |
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| Camp at Kiratichhap 8 March 1982 |
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Hitching a ride to Jiri on the back of a stone truck with Malcolm taking the next photo   We arrived at Jiri on 9 March 1982 and headed for an Swiss financed farm project we had heard about. The very friendly young American showed us relatively comfortable bedrooms and later we joined him for a delicious meal of goat stew. Life was good. The following day he took us to a small cheese factory, where we were able to buy a welcome tasty addition to our diet.  We were approaching much higher peaks now and the ascents and descents became tougher day by day.    |
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| John, Malcolm, Rick and Mike. 13 March 1982 Photo by Ray Dimmock |
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| A mountain pass. 13 May 1982 Photo by Ray Dimmock |
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| Click to enlarge |
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| John, Rick and friend 17 March 1982 |
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| Yaks with supplies heading for Namche Bazaar |
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| Entering Mount Everest National park on 18 March 1982 Ray and Rick on the right |
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| Arriving at Namche Bazaar 19 March 1982 |
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| Rick visits the loo The toilet facilities in our 'hotel' were interesting. An outdoor shed had a toilet with a seat that dropped contents directly on to a muddy patch of ground below. Cattle housed in the field would distribute the manure aided by a man with a wooden rake who worked the land now and then. Namche Bazaar had a distinctive odour !   |
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| Ray 20 March 1982 |
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| Tengboche monastery |
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| Ray's tent in prime position |
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| Rick and John on the high trail 21 March 1982 |
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| Yak transport heads towards Everest 21 March 1982 |
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Ama Dablam |
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| Ray, John, Malcolm 22 March 1982 |
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| Ray, Rick, John 22 March 1982 |
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| Malcolm outside the 'Amadablam Hotel' 23 March 1982 |
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| Interesting toilet |
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| Approaching Lobuche 23 March 1982 |
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| Ray, Malcolm and Rick. Acclimatising 23 March 1982 |
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| Malcolm, Rick, John, Ray. Gorak Shep 25 March 1982 |
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| John's luxury accommodation at Gorak Shep 25 March 1982 |
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| Ray in similar nightwear to all of us at -20C |
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| Rick looks across towards base camp and the Khumbu downfall 29 March 1982. |
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| The maze of ice seracs leading to base camp 28 March 1982 |
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| Sunrise 28 March 1982. |
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| The names of just a few of the people who have died attempting Everest |
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| Trekking down from Gorak Shep to Lobuche 28 March 1982 |
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| Back to Namche Bazaar 29 March 1982 |
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| Farm we stayed in at Peruche 29 March 1982 |
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| Yaks and trekkers - with a very tiny John on the horizon 30 March 1982 |
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| Rick, Malcolm and Ray with boy shepherd at the window 1 April 1982 |
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| A seat in the Himalayas 1 April 1982 |
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| Gokyo Lakes 1 April 1982 |
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| Ray, Rick, Drew, Greg plus Stephen and ?Kiwi in warmer surroundings |
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| Rick in a rhododendron forest as we headed south with a rapid change of climate |
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| Much warmer ! |
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| John and Rick foot washing |
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| Drew above one of the high passes |
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| The Rai village of Bung. |
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| Gudel |
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Rai Villager
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