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Marj Peel - 3rd February 2013 - 21:58

I was fascinated to read about the Post Office as I remember living there in the 1950's my father was the Mr Thacker mentioned. My mother was very I'll with TB during that time & spent a long time in a sanatorium in the Malvern Hills so during the week I lived with my grandmother in Banbury travelling back to Badsey at weekends. I think this must have been about 1951 when I was 2, my mother finally took over looking after me when I was 5. We must have left Badsey around 1956/7. While we lived at the post office I remember a Mrs Hemmings coming in to clean, also going to Mrs Morris' cottage a few doors away. There was a girl I used to play with called Caroline Olsen , I don't really remember much about school except a teacher called Miss or Mrs Goldstraw, am I right?

Hello Marj. Thanks for some fascinating memories. You will be pleased to know that Mrs Pat Goldstraw is still living in Badsey - she ran the infants school. There is an article about the history of the post offices in Badsey at www.badsey.net/past/post.htm

Just reading about Badsey Post Office, I too remember going in there as a young child. My parents lived in Badsey until they married in 1956. Mrs Hemming you mentioned was my Grandma. Talking to Dad - they still have the pyrex dish your parents gave them as a wedding present.

Interested in your Gran being a Hemming!My Mum's name was Florence Mercy Hemming....and her dad was John George Hemming.My daughter has got the heritage bug....and would be grateful for any info.I used to spend many happy holidays in Badsey with my cousin Kathleen Tandy,and her husband Fred Tandy.We called them Auntie Kath and Uncle Fred because they were quite a bit older than me.They had 2 children...Ian and Kaye Tandy,and I would be grateful for any news you may have about them.I that area too we had an Uncle Bill Rawlings,and his 2 sons Bill and Cyril.(They lived in the Evesham area ..but not Badsey.)in the same area I had an uncle Ted Rawlings...and he had some childrenMy Auntie Lizzie cooke lived in Norton.It's lovely to have found a site which just may know about our relatives all good wishes from Australia...Pam and Mal Cotton.My daughter lives in Oxford.

Cate Knight - 15th January 2013 - 0:00

My name is Cate Knight and I am currently the Music teacher at Blackminster Middle School. I have been researching the history of the school and have discovered that once upon a time there was a fantastic 60 piece strong brass band led by a Mr Paige at the school. I am a brass musician and am applying for funding and grants to purchase a full band worth of brass instruments and I hope to revive the wonderful musical heritage that the school once owned. I was wondering if you might know of anyone who has memories of the brass band? Or even any other Music at the school?

I have searched online records and your website appears to have the most comprehensive details. I would love to trace Mr Paige and/or any ex pupils or his relatives. Any help you can give me on this matter would be very much appreciated! Thank you for your time

Kind regards
Cate Knight

I was a euphonium player in Blackminster Secondary Modern School's Silver Band in the 1960s.The band was run by William (Bill) Page. He was the school's RI (Religious Instruction) teacher and lived at Offenham.The band practised in the Main Hall (not in the music room) with Mr. Page conducting. The band was equally split between boys and girls, with the girls generally playing the smaller instruments, cornets, etc.

I was in the band from 1964 to 1968, and played the cornet. We played fetes and local fairs, as well as visited another school band in Stourport i upon Severn. . Loved the concerts we did, the most memorable was when a school band ca me from Aberfan and we did a joint concert to raise money after the Aberfan Disaster. I wonder what happened to all our instruments. We were a Silver Band and proud of it. Bonus was we got to go on first dinners so we could get band practice in before start of afternoon lessons. Very happy memories.

Tony Wood - 15th December 2012 - 15:19

Congratulations to all the team on the new website. I have been up half the night "playing" with it! Fantastic achievement.

Roger Savory - 25th November 2012 - 0:00

Thank you for the report of the record peal on Badsey bells which I composed and conducted in 1956. Where have all those intervening 55 years gone?!. Strangely enough, this week I have also been in touch with the two other 'kids' that I lived close to in Brewer's Lane in the 1930's - Pat Goldstraw (nee Barnard) and Brian Jennings (currently moving back to UK (Rutland) from Vancouver, BC.

I, like millions of other people in the NY/NJ area, am recovering from the devastating effects of of 'Hurricane Sandy' that hit the East coast of USA last Monday. The eye of the storm hit the coast some 60 miles south of me, at Atlantic City. But it effects were felt over a wide area as it moves NW. (8 million 'accounts' left without power. I have been incredibly lucky, with almost no water ingress, and I was able to roll up the carpets where necessary. The biggest problem in this part of NJ is the loss of power for extended time. This is mostly due to thousands of trees blown down, severing power lines. Again, I have been very lucky, having power restored within 2.5 days. It isn't until you don't have electricity that you realise how very very dependent we are on having it there when ever you 'flick your switch'. My biggest worry what to do with the perishable stuff in my freezer, which was rapidly thawing out after 2 days without power. As I say, fortunately it came back in the evening of day three. Some people in the affected area will be without power for 2 to 3 weeks.

Thanks again,
Roger Savory

Robert Hall lent us a photograph of a record breaking bell ringing peal in 1956. knowing he would be interested, I emailed the details to Roger Savory, not realising what he had been through with Hurricane Sandy. What is particularly remarkable is, that a couple of days later, Roger sent us a fascinating email giving the background of everybody in that photograph. Badsey bells must seem very remote from his current predicament!

James and Emma Peacock - 4th November 2012 - 0:00

What a fascinating website. My wife and I lived at 48 Willersey Road from 1994 until 1999. I have just been reading all about our old house and its history. We had to do major work to modernise the property and make it habitable but enjoyed all of it.

Regards,
James and Emma Peacock

Gill Walmsley - 23rd October 2012 - 0:00

Hi there I'm hoping you can help! Your website has been of such great help when it's come to researching my ancestors from Badsey. I'm trying to find out where it would be possible to view or get a copy of a baptism in the parish registers from 1830, and I wondered if you'd be able to point me in the right direction? Many thanks for any help you can provide.

Gill Walmsley

As you have probably realised, we have a transcription of Badsey baptisms, marriages and burials on our website - and also the same for Wickhamford. But I know there are times when you want to see the originals. These are kept at the Worcestershire Record Office which has recently moved to the Hive - the new library centre in Worcester. You are normally expected to look at the records there on film readers, although they do have the originals in their store.

You may be interested that in a few weeks time, we are launching the Badsey Society archive website. This will allow you to look at images of quite a few original documents such as old parish magazines. But unfortunately, parish records are not included in our plans at the moment.

Robert Pratley - 15th October 2012 - 0:00

I am wanting help in finding a family connection to either a Leslie Reeves born 1915 or a Hilda Knight (nee Reeves) born 1916 died c2010.The connection is their mother Edith Reeves (nee Pratley) who was my grandad's sister. I live in Bretforton. Both of these ladies were educated in Badsey and I know that Hilda is buried in Badsey. She died in 2010 along with her husband. My grandad lived with her in 1924 at 19 Synehurst.

For some reason contact was lost. I can find all other members of the Pratley family but not on this side. If they wish to make contact, please email me.

Robert Pratley robertpratley@hotmail.co.uk

Patricia Child (nee Halford) - 1st October 2012 - 0:00

On looking at the old photographs of Wickhamford there are three pictures of Halfords. My father was Walter Owen Halford 1891 - 1967, so I believe that Rose Halford was my aunt and Charles my uncle. As far as I know Rose married a Gil Franklin and had 2 daughters June & Joyce. After the 1914 - 18 war my father lost touch with the family so can anybody tell me anything about the family and are any still living?.

Patricia Child (nee Halford)

Many thanks for your email regarding the Halford family and, as I am helping Tom Locke with the Wickhamford section of the Badsey website, and lived at one time in Wickhamford, it has been passed to me. Joyce Franklin married Tom Jones and had one son Neil. Joyce and Tom have passed on but Neil still lives in Wickhamford and he supplied us with the photo of the young Rose Halford stood outside the family home on Pitchers Hill. June Franklin married Vic Cull and had two children Vicky and Scott. June died some years ago but Vic is still alive and lives next to his daughter in Bowers Hill, an area not far from Wickhamford.

With regard to your father Walter Owen, if you look at the home page for Wickhamford and go to the article on the men who served in WW1, scroll down and just below No 15, you will find an article that appeared in the Evesham Journal about the five Halford boys serving in WW1 together with a photo of each one. Scroll down to No 18 and you will see an article about your father. Tom Locke would be interested in receiving further information about him to add to the article plus any photos you might have of him in his uniform. Scroll down to No 59 and you will see an article on Gilbert Franklin.

We are also trying to obtain photos of people who are on the 1911 census. If you look at Portraits of people who were living in 1911, you will see more photos of the Halford family.

There are no Halfords left in the village. The last one George, the son of Charles Halford, died some years ago. His sister Vera is still alive and living in Willersey and she has supplied us with a couple of photos. I have also been to see Carol, the daughter of Melvia Halford, who lives in Evesham and she supplied us with a photo. Brenda, the granddaughter of Allan Halford, also lives in Evesham.

We are really pleased that you have discovered the website. A lot of effort has gone into it and it's nice to think that people are looking at it. If you have any old photos of Wickhamford or any that you might think would add interest to our site we would love to see them.

Marion F Ransom - 25th September 2012 - 0:00

I was amazed to read all about Mr Amos. He was a household name in our house and a great influence on my father, who would go and visit him in later life, when my father went back home. Home was Blakes Hill, North Littleton where my grandmother lived well into her nineties. My father's name was George Oliver Bell (1922 - 1991). I have photos of him with a lady teacher, one of the same lady teacher with Mr Amos, and also one of Mr Amos with two large fish hanging up - I believe he was a great fisherman. I have other pictures of my father and also of Littleton Fete in 1925.

My father's sister Florence Eleanor Bell was born in 1920 and is also on our photos, she is still alive. My father moved to Norfolk when he was demobbed, met my mother and married, but he returned regularly to visit his parents, relations and friends, and it was always home to him. His life-long friend was Jack Harrison (my godfather) and when they met up, would tell wonderful tales of their youth.

Sincerely yours

Marion F Ransom, Dersingham, Norfolk

We have got records of the School Admissions Register for the period when your father was at Badsey Council School (these are not on the website because of possible Data Protection issues as some of the pupils may still be alive). I see that your father enrolled at the school on 5th September 1932, aged 10; his address was given as 6 Council Houses, North Littleton. He left on 24th March 1937. I can see from Ancestry that he had an older brother as well as an older sister, but neither of them attended Badsey School, although they were all born in the Evesham area (presumably, North Littleton). Badsey School had a very good reputation and children were known to travel some distance to get there. I can’t find any record of Jack Harrison or Johnny Careless attending Badsey School, so perhaps they were Littleton friends. It’s a real coincidence that there was also an earlier George Bell who was a school manager but, as your grandfather was Australian, there does not appear to be any connection with the other Badsey Bells.

Marion has sent us several photos for our picture archive. These include a picture of Frank Amos with two large fish he caught.

Miss June Lambourn - 1st September 2012 - 0:00

 Very surprised to find no mention of the Robbins Family on your website. Robin Cottage was named after them.

My grandfather worked for Lees Milne. My mother Lizzie Robbins and her sister Kate had the first double wedding in the church. My uncle Tom is buried opposite the church door. My uncle George Robbins was a well known market gardener. He lived next door to the Halfords at 22 Pitchers Hill where I was evacuated to during the war. I walked to Badsey School which my mother and her brothers and sisters also attended. Mr Amos was the headmaster. After many years my grandparents moved to No 1 Council Houses, then to Birmingham. George Robbins and his wife Nancy are buried in the new church yard. He also served in the Great War.

Regards
Miss June Lambourn

I am helping Tom Locke with the Wickhamford section of the Badsey website so was interested to read your email regarding the Robbins family. My grandparents Charles & Annie Mason lived on Pitchers Hill and my father Fred Mason was born in 1910 in Wickhamford and also attended Badsey School. On leaving school in 1924 my father worked for Mr Lees-Milne in the gardens of Wickhamford Manor and then left in 1927 to join his father market gardening. They worked land on Pitchers Hill and also at Whitfurrows. I remember your uncle George and his wife living next to the Halfords on Pitchers Hill and also their son George and his wife and family living in Sandys Avenue. I have looked in the index and the families with the surname Robbins appear to have lived mainly in Badsey. There was a John Robbins and his wife Elizabeth and family living in Wickhamford in the early part of the 19th century and Mary Robbins married Gerard Stevens in Wickhamford church in 1697. The latest census to which we have access is 1911 and George Agg and his family are living next to the Halford family on Pitchers Hill so presumably your grandparents moved to the house after that date.

A survey of Wickhamford churchyard has been undertaken by Peter Stewart and is on the Wickhamford section of the website. I note that John Robbins was buried in 1942 and his plot is opposite the church door. You say that Tom Robbins is buried opposite the church door. Is this the same man? I was interested to hear that Robin Cottage was named after your family.

We are always looking for old photos or documents relating to Wickhamford and their residents and wonder if you or any other members of your family have anything that may be of interest to include on the site. Many thanks for your email. It's nice to know that people are looking at the website and I hope you have found it interesting.

Christopher John Cox - 15th July 2012 - 0:00

 May I start by saying how much I have enjoyed your website. I am a descendant of William Thomas and Alice Cox who lived at Pitchers Hill in Wickhamford from around 1902/3 until the last child, another Alice known as Sis died around the 1980s.

I loved the photo you have of the Cox family about 1911, lent to you by Ruth Cox. However my purpose in writing to you is to suggest a few minor corrections to the Wickhamford goes to war article relating to my grandfather, John Henry Cox. He had joined the 3rd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment in 1912 and served throughout the war into 1919 as he was signed up for a seven year hitch. He ended up as a Serjeant, as it was then spelt, in the 8th battalion Royal Berkshire Rifles. It appeared after his convalescence in 1915/16 he was posted to this battalion of the regiment to add experience. In 1917 he was awarded the Meritorious Conduct Medal. Normally this medal was issued to a very limited number of warrant officers who had an unblemished service record of at least 12 years but in 1917 it began to be awarded for acts of gallantry. I have no further details. I can provide a photo of the medal if needed.

Many thanks for your website

Christopher John Cox

Very many thanks for your kind comments and the extra information. I shall put the additional facts into the article and arrange for an amended version to be put on the web-site. If you could send me a photo of the Meritorious Conduct Medal, I will include that as well. If you have a photograph of him in uniform, I would like to add that to the section on him.

Sue Daniels - 20th June 2012 - 0:00

 Does anyone know when the Council Houses were built in Wickhamford - we believe my Great Grandfather was one of the original tenants but no date can be found?

Thank you
Sue Daniels

I believe they were built not long after the First World War. I have a map from 1930, when many properties were auctioned in the village. The council houses are marked on this map roughly from the Sandys Arms to where the present A44 runs. There appears to be 7 pairs indicated. They were not part of the sale, but are shown on the map.

It is thought that the first Council Houses were ready to move into by the latter part of 1921, thus were still being built at the time of the 1921 census. Seven pairs were initially built (Nos 1-14, present-day Nos 3-31 Pitchers Hill), followed by six more pairs in the 1930s (Nos 15-26, present-day Nos 33-67 Pitchers Hill) after the sale of land by the trustees of Captain J P Lord. By January 1938, with rapid development following the sale of the Lord land, the houses were renumbered to the present-day numbering system (more or less, but some changes must have occurred in the 60s or 70s higher up the hill). Who was your great-grandfather?

Julie Fleming - 11th June 2012 - 0:00

What a fabulous site. I have tonight found the site and it's Wickhamford link showing not only text but pictures of my family, mainly that of my GT GT Grandparents Sam and Eliza Stanley. I was so taken aback at seeing these images I cried a bit with joy and on showing my husband, children and grandchildren have now decided to pursue the family tree I started some years ago. Thank you for putting all of this together and making it so interesting to read and please also wish me luck on finding my relatives, it's going to be fun.

Julie Fleming, Bidford on Avon

Jeanne Carmont - 29th May 2012 - 0:00

My name is Jeanne Carmont and I am distantly related to the late Vicar of Badsey, William Carmont Allsebrook. He is my Grandfather's 2nd cousin once removed. I have been researching my family history for some years now and recently came across your wonderful website and am slowly reading through it. I know William was the vicar for a great many years and wondered if there are possibly any photos of him and his family. I love the description Roger Savory wrote about him nearly going up in flames. I know he had two children William and Evelyn, but I don't think they ever married, I know William died young and Evelyn in 2002. I also know he had a brother Harold who died in 1973. I would be most grateful for any help you can provide

Kind Regards
Jeanne Carmont

All four members of the Allsebrook family are interred in Badsey churchyard. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, the vicar William Allsebrook did not fill in the burials registers from 1936 to 1945. He did not record the christenings over the same period. His son William James Basil Allsebrook died in 1938, aged 24. He is not recorded in the burial registers and there is no known plot number for him in the churchyard. There is also no known plot for the Vicar, William Carmont Allsebrook, who was buried in the churchyard on April 18, 1947, aged 79 and his wife Evelyn Kate who predeceased him and was buried on February 19, 1932, aged 67. His daughter did not marry and lived as a recluse in Bengeworth, Evesham. She died in 2002 and was buried in the churchyard on June 26, 2002. I numbered her plot as Section A, plot 82. Her parents and her brother were said to be buried nearby but nobody knows exactly where. William Carmont Allsebrook married Evelyn Kate Hands, of Badsey, at Solihull Parish Church on Thursday June 24, 1909 and I am attaching a copy of the photographs of the couple that appeared in the Evesham Journal for June 26, 1909. Also see my book on the churchyard where I have included a detailed obituary for William Allsebrook.

You are indeed correct that the Reverend W C Allsebrook had two children, neither of whom married. We are fortunate that The Badsey Society was donated an archive of papers relating to the Allsebrook family following the death of Evelyn Allsebrook in 2002. The papers include papers relating to Allsebrook’s career in the church and documents about the Hands and Payton families (he married Evelyn Hands in 1909, whose mother was a Payton). This information will all be available online by the end of this year, as we are developing a special Badsey Archive and Museum website, so please keep checking our website later in the year for news of the new website. You might also like to look at a copy of “Another Self” by James Lees-Milne, which is his autobiographical memories of growing up in Wickhamford, the neighbouring village to Badsey, where Allsebrook was also Vicar, and is mentioned in the book. I think it is still in print; I’m sure you should be able to get it on Amazon or borrow from your local library.

John Smith - 15th May 2012 - 0:00

I have been using you site for a few months now and it has provided me with a lot of useful information about my family who lived in and around the Badsey area. I read with great interest your article on the mill at Wickhamford as the Anthony Smith who married Catherine Calvert was my 3rd great grand uncle. Their son Samuel married Sarah Gee. No marriage record found so far. The article mentions two sons of Samuel and Sarah, George and John Wingfield. I believe there may have been a third son. Wilson Smith was baptized on 27 April 1837 in Badsey but died aged just 3 weeks. This information was found on your site in the Parish Records section but I have not been able to confirm that he was their son.

Anthony’s father was Benjamin Smith (my 4th great grandfather) he was a miller, and he married Elizabeth Roberts on the 21 February 1758 by license in Badsey. Benjamin died in 1819. In his will Benjamin left “Lower Mill” in Broadway to his other son Samuel Smith. After Samuel's death the mill was taken over by grand nephew Benjamin Burrows. Benjamin had also made provisions for the children of son Anthony who had died 5 years earlier.

As you mention in your article, tracing the Smith family has been quite difficult so I hope if you do more research into the Smith family it is published on you site.

At the moment I am trying to find out if the Benjamin mentioned above is the same Benjamin that is mentioned in the deeds for Badsey mill in 1759. In the deeds it states that Benjamin and his brother Anthony are the sons of Samuel and Ann Smith. I'm not sure but this Samuel may be the one that married Ann New on the 1st January 1716 in Badsey.

Keep up the great work on your site.
John Smith

Lynne Tarbutt - 2nd May 2012 - 0:00

We have recently received the deeds to our house in Horsebridge Avenue, and looking at the old maps, I notice that Horsebridge Avenue is built on land that was once called 'The Hanging Grounds No 2'. Do you happen to know how the land came by this name please? I believe it was once part of Aldington. Also on the map standing in what is now part of our garden was a 'shelter'. Could this have been an air-raid shelter perhaps? On our map, it just says the word 'shelter'. There is no diagram but there are about 3 short paths leading up to it, just off the roadside. I live at Welford House.

Lynne Tarbutt

You may be relieved to know that Hanging Ground does not refer to a place of execution. It just means a sloping field, in this case going down to Badsey Brook. Have a look at the notes that Maureen Spinks has assembled about Horsebridge Avenue and you may also be interested in Will Dallimore's history of local Council Housing in one of the Badsey Society books.

It is unlikely that the 'shelter' in your garden is an air raid shelter because the Horsebridge estate was built just after World War 2. Could it perhaps be a market gardener's hut or hovel? If you are willing to let Badsey Society have a photocopy of the map with your deeds, we might be able to discover more.

Lynne has kindly given us a copy of the map. The shelter remains a bit of a mystery. There was never a bus shelter in that position, nor is it an air raid shelter. Terry Sparrow has suggested that it might possibly have been an open sided sided shelter where market gardeners left produce for collection near the road. I have looked at large scale OS maps for several dates but it is not shown. We also have a 1946 aerial photo which shows Horsebridge Avenue as a building site, with the road partly constructed but no buildings in place. I cannot see the shelter on this either.