At a visit to the Badsey Society stand at this year’s Flower Show, one of our members, Daphne Gisbourne (née Salter), mentioned that she owned a script of a BBC broadcast about market gardening that had been aired in 1940. Tom Locke went to visit Daphne and took digital images of the 26-page transcript which may be seen below. The script had originally been sent by the BBC at Birmingham to Sidney Gisbourne of 10 Blakes Hill, North Littleton, Evesham. Sidney Gisbourne (1900-1963) was a market gardener and was Daphne’s father-in-law. We are grateful to Daphne for allowing a copy of it to be printed in this article.
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On 13th April 1940, the BBC broadcast a programme entitled ‘Vale of Evesham’ from their site at Wood Norton. The BBC had bought the site the year before so that it could relocate its operations away from London and the other urban centres in the event of hostilities. By 1940 Wood Norton was one of the largest broadcasting centres in Europe with an average output of 1,300 programmes a week.
The producer of the programme was Robin Whitworth (1911-1996), described many years later in his obituary as “one of the brightest young radio producers in the heyday of BBC Features and Drama before the Second World War”. He had moved to Birmingham in 1935 where he wrote and produced a wide variety of programmes about people and places in the Midlands. Soon after his arrival, Whitworth came into contact with Charles Gardiner, Clerk to the Evesham Rural District Council, and author of a number of plays in the Worcestershire dialect which Whitworth readily accepted for broadcast.
As Jane Neill writes in Aldington and Badsey, Villages in the Vale: A Tapestry of Local History:
Gardiner was always suggesting new feature programmes for the Midland Home Service. This is illustrated in a letter he wrote to a producer in 1937: “It occurred to me that ‘Blossom Time in the Vale of Evesham would make a pleasing and interesting feature and I’m enclosing notes about it which I’ve very hurriedly thumped out with two awkward fingers! If I’m too late or the idea isn’t too practicable, don’t hesitate to say so, because I’ve not spent many minutes on it. As a further idea, what about a 15-minute feature on asparagus – which is something of a mystery as regards commercial cultivation to many people who eat it? Kind regards.
The programme went ahead encompassing both the blossom and asparagus under the title of ‘The Vale of Evesham’ and was arranged by Robin Whitworth in co-operation with Gardiner.
The programme aired on Monday 12th April 1937, 8.45-9.25 pm; a report appeared in The Gloucestershire Echo of the following day. Three years later, on Saturday 13th April 1940, 3-3.35 pm, a revised version was aired, featuring many of the people who had taken part in the 1937 broadcast. It is this revised script which is shown below. There had been a rehearsal the day before for three hours and another one just prior to the live broadcast. A report appeared in The Evesham Standard of 6th April 1940.
As with the 1937 broadcast, the 1940 broadcast was arranged by Charles Gardiner and Robin Whitworth. The script used the people’s own words to describe various aspects of the orchard and asparagus cultivation. Charles Binyon of Badsey and John Hall of Bretforton had the biggest parts, the latter introducing the programme and the former providing useful background information about market gardening in the area. Binyon, unlike Hall, had also been involved in 1937.
Sixteen people were named in the script, most of them growers in the Vale of Evesham or nearby. Of these, 12 had featured in the 1937 programme. They were: Jack Bent (Badsey), C A Binyon (Badsey), Mrs Stella Byrd (Bretforton), Frank Clarke (Hampton), Walter Harwood (Offenham), Mrs Heritage (Wickhamford), Jack M Hodges (Evesham), Adam Howley (North Littleton), J E Knight (Badsey), W J Newman (Hinton-on-the-Green), Ralph Smith (South Littleton), James “Teapot” Williams (Campden).
The four newcomers were: John Brookes (North Littleton), John Hall Junior (Bretforton), Henry Sadler (Badsey), Gilbert Stanley (Bretforton). John Brookes and Henry Sadler were included in the 1940 programme to sing traditional folk songs.
Five were members of the Littleton and Badsey Growers General Committee – C A Binyon, John Hall Junior, Adam Howley, J E Knight, Ralph Smith – and may be seen in this photo.
The full script of the programme can be seen below. Please click on each image to see the text, which also gives brief biographical details of the participants on the page on which they first appear.
Tom Locke, Valerie Harman and Maureen Spinks, August 2025
