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A Romp With The Band Of Hope (21 February 1975)

TRM/106

Sunday evenings at Fenny Stratford during the early part of this century were regularly enlivened by the baa-baaing of two or three hundred sheep who passed through the town on their way to Bletchley railway station. The sheep belonged to Mr Janes, of Mount Farm, Simpson. Besides being a farmer, he was a sheep trader or ...
There's No Medal Good Enough (14 February 1975)

TRM/105

From time to time in previous notes I have referred to the tremendous amount of work done by civilian women during the 1939-45 war, but without going into details. The truth is that 30 years later such details are difficult to find. For the most part, women did a job. Then, when their service was no ...
Crisis? Worse In The Old Days (6 February 1975)

TRM/104

Grim warnings of economic disaster are in the air. “Tighten your belts” is one call; “Save energy” is another. We older people do not face the prospect in any mood of complacency. Yet we are fortified by the knowledge that we have come through similar periods of short commons in the past. My own experience began ...
Christmas In The Workhouse (31 January 1975)

TRM/103

How far we have travelled in the past 50 years! Some of the items that appeared in the now-defunct North Bucks times during the month of January 1925, would stagger you if they appeared in the Gazette today. Yet they probably did not raise much more than an eyebrow then (and I was already in ...
Chinese Puzzle at The Crossroads (24 January 1975)

TRM/102

I am obliged to my friends, Leslie Stevens and Ron Staniford, for their laudable attempt to put me right out about the centuries and quarter-centuries. I understand their argument, of course, having used it myself in 1950 and possibly also in 1925, when I, too, considered myself a sharp-witted lad. I now think differently, however. I ...
Historical Polish For My Car (17 January 1975)

TRM/101

From time to time newspaper offices are invaded by students seeking information on local history or on some aspect of it for their theses. Quite often I myself used to be drawn into the exercise, though I could hardly afford the time. Sometimes I wondered what the eventual theses would be like. I never saw ...
Fire Now Let's Find The Horses (10 January 1975)

TRM/100

One day about 50 years ago Bletchley fire Brigade were bowling along in all their glory to a farm fire at Shenley Brook End. The outfit comprised a brightly burnished steam pump on solid-rimmed wheels, manned by a brass-helmeted crew and towed by an old Fiat motor car. This arrangement was quite an improvement on the former ...
A Happy New Quarter Century (27 December 1974)

TRM/099

I find something awesome in the fact that by the time these notes are published we shall have entered the last quarter of the 20th century. I would like to live to the 21st century, but as I would then be 92 my chances are pretty dim. Not so my wife, however. Long ago one in ...
When Houses Sold For £250 Each (20 December 1974)

TRM/098

Last week I told how the 69-year-old Fenny Stratford building business of Howard Brothers came to be founded. This week from the lips of 85-year-old founder-member, Mr Frank Howard, I tell something of the story of the firm. First of all, however, I must mention one of the most interesting developments to take place in Fenny. Where ...
Building And Rebuilding Of Fenny (9 December 1974)

TRM/097

Last week I told of a man who was a partner in the former Bassett’s Bank for 66 years. Quite a record! It is well beaten, however, by that of Mr. Frank Howard, of George Street, Fenny Stratford, who has been in the building business of Howard Brothers for no fewer than 69 years and still ...
Gold Money You Could Bank On (2 December 1974)

TRM/096

When I was a boy the old people around me did not wholly trust the Bank of England’s £1 and ten shilling notes which had been issued in great numbers at the beginning of the 1914-18 war. They much preferred sovereigns and half-sovereigns. If it had been possible, they would have done all their paying in ...
Now Is The Time For Confessions (29 November 1974)

TRM/095

During the week following the publication of my article on the former Bletchley Park Training College for women teachers I was delighted and highly honoured to receive a letter from the former principal, Miss D. Cohen, herself. I suppose the letter might be intended to be entirely private. But in it she draws attention – most ...

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