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The Cheltenham Book of Days

The History Press

January 1st

1966: On this day the beautiful old St James' railway station closed. The first station on this site was opened in 1847, when the Great Western Railway opened a direct line to London via Swindon. Although this was intended to be a temporary building, it was not replaced until September 1894 – nearly fifty years later. Italianate in design, with an impressive covered carriage entrance, it looked like a mini version of many of the great London terminals, being very much like St Marylebone. The arrival of the railway spelled the end for many of the town's established coaching inns, although the improved communications did increase the number of short-term visitors to the town.

Probably the most famous train to operate from St James' station was the 'Cheltenham Flyer'. This was the first train in the world scheduled to run at more than 70mph start to stop, a feat she achieved between Swindon and Paddington in 1932. Today the nameplate of the 'Cheltenham Flyer' is preserved in the National Railway Museum at York. The St James' site is now home to offices and apartments, and much of Waitrose stands on what were the station's sidings. (Various sources, including Rowbotham & Waller, Cheltenham: A History)

January 2nd

2011: On this day the daredevil motorcyclists of the Cheltenham Home Guard Motorcycle Club held their annual New Year Trials at Hazleton Quarry. The ninety-five intrepid riders had to negotiate three laps of the fifteen-section circuit, braving cold and wintery conditions. In fact, they were lucky to be holding the event at all, as only a few days previously the course had been under 2ft of snow and was completely inaccessible. Although the trial was categorised as easy, it nevertheless provided some tricky moments as some of the rocks were still a bit icy. The most successful rider of the day was Tim Wheeler, who lost only one point.

The Motorcycle Club was formed at the end of the war in 1945; the members were drawn from those who had served in the Gloucestershire Regiment's Home Guard. The club was granted the unique privilege of using the Sphinx emblem from the regiment's badge. The badge, worn on the back of the beret, is itself unique to the 'Glorious Glosters'. (Cheltenham Home Guard Motorcycle Club;www.glosters.org)

January 3rd

1915: On this day the celebrated poet, novelist and playwright James Elroy Flecker died of tuberculosis in Davos, Switzerland. His death at the age of thirty was described at the time as 'unquestionably the greatest premature loss that English literature has suffered since the death of Keats'.

His actual name was Herman, but he later decided to call himself 'James'. His father, Revd W.H. Flecker, was the first headmaster of Dean Close School in Cheltenham, where young James was educated. Although perhaps not the best-known poet, his work has influenced many others. His poem 'The Bridge of Fire' is featured in Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, in the volume The Wake. The most enduring testimony to his work, though, is perhaps an excerpt from 'The Golden Journey to Samarkand', inscribed on the clock tower of the barracks of the British Army's 22nd Special Air Service regiment in Hereford:

We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go
Always a little further; it may be
Beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow
Across that angry or that glimmering sea.

(Various sources, including Gwen Hart, A History of Cheltenham)

January 4th

1988: On this day the first episode of the Ronnie Barker BBC sitcom Clarence was broadcast. It had two connections with Cheltenham: exterior locations for the first episode were filmed in Lansdown Crescent, and the house of the character Jane Travers was in Malvern Road. The series was written by Barker himself under the name of Bob Ferris. He wrote the character Jane Travers especially for Josephine Tewson.

Clarence begins on Coronation Day in 1937 with Clarence Sale, a very short-sighted removal man, clearing the house of a snooty lady who is emigrating. There he meets Jane Travers, her maid. The couple strike up an unusual relationship and soon Clarence proposes to her. Jane decides that they should have a trial period of living together, with a pillow between them to inhibit Clarence's lustful advances. With only two characters there was not much opportunity to develop the plot, and only one series of Clarence was made, the last one being shown on 8 February 1988. (Various sources, including BBC)

January 5th

1891: On this day the gaieties of the week commenced with the first of the Tarantella Dances. The round room of the Rotunda had been lightly draped, and the long one more elaborately decorated by Messrs Shirer and Haddon; the colour scheme – amber and green throughout – harmonised well with the deep tones of Mr Cypher's plants. The arrangement of the drawing room was more than ordinarily effective, the slight division produced by the use of screens and plants having a less formal effect than a more rigid separation. That the ornamentation of the room had not been left wholly in the hands of the professional furnisher was proved by the presence of a number of elegant articles which had evidently come from private drawing rooms – possibly from the residence of Colonel Bainbridge, who had carried out the arrangements for the dance. The company, numbering about 170, began to assemble shortly before nine, at which hour dancing commenced. It was kept up until one o'clock with great spirit and without intermission, refreshments being served throughout the evening by Mr Locke. (Cheltenham Looker-On)

January 6th

2011: On this day, motorbike fanatic John Bliss made his final journey. Instead of a hearse, his body was taken to his funeral at the Cheltenham Crematorium in a motorcycle sidecar. Joy, his eighty-year-old wife, had arranged for the vintage Triumph to carry him to the service. She said: 'He had motorbikes all his life from when he was sixteen.' His son-in-law, Clive Wilson, travelled on the back of the bike to the crematorium.

Mr Bliss had died three weeks earlier at the age of eighty-four after a year-long battle with prostate cancer. He was one of the founder members of the Cotswold branch of the Vintage Motorcycle Club, which met regularly at pubs around the county. Former vice-president of the club, Len Ore, paid tribute to Mr Bliss, whom he had known for forty years. 'He was never happier than when he was building motorbikes and would always help anyone out with spares they needed,' he said. 'He was a keen rider and keen mechanic. All he wanted to do was ride. It is a very sad loss.'

Mr Bliss worked for Dowty Mining for thirty-three years and also served in the army in Egypt during the Suez Crisis in 1951. (Gloucestershire Echo)

January 7th

1963: On this day the Owe 40 Club held their Junior Squash Rackets Tournament in the Old Bath Road. The lawn tennis and squash club had been founded after the First World War by Henry Holgate Yolland and his wife Katherine. They had bought some land on the Old Bath Road and built a house and four tennis courts. The house was named Longuenesse after the place in France where they had worked together on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. They then set up the Owe 40 Squash Racquets & Tennis Club, the name deriving from the highest lawn tennis handicap.

After Yolland's death in 1939 the courts and the club declined, but in 1944 Major Albert Edward Millman, who was recuperating from serious wounds he had received in the war, stayed at Longuenesse and, with the help of some German prisoners of war from the camp at Leckhampton Court, set about restoring the courts and reviving the club. Before the war Millman had been a tennis professional, running the Billesley Lane club in Birmingham, and became quite a significant figure in the sport. Several exhibition matches were held at the Old Bath Road club by some of the world's best players. Jack Kramer played there in 1952 and 1965, and Pancho Segura in 1952. The club closed in 1965 when Millman and his wife Elizabeth sold the land to property developers. (CLHS Journal 24)

January 8th

1872: On this day Frederick Jones was hanged for the murder of Emily Gardner in Wellesley Road, Cheltenham the previous year. As he could neither read nor write, his confession was written down by the chaplain on the Sunday night before his execution:

I had been very jealous of her for some time and for a month or more it used to come into my mind very often that if I could not have her, nobody else should. She used to tell me about the larks and bits of fun with this chap and another, and this made me jealous of her and I swore that if I caught her speaking to anybody I would kill her. ... I confronted Emily one evening, she said, 'Don't bother me, I shall do as I like.' I said 'Do you care for me or not?' but she would not tell me. ... I said 'I will make you tell me or I will cut your throat with your father's own razor.' She then screamed murder three times and I said 'I will murder you if I am to hang for it the next minute.' ... I cut her across the throat and she fell against me and knocked me down and we fell together and that was how I was covered with blood. I never knew any harm by her in all my life and I love her now. I should not like to live and do not dread what is before me, and I pray every hour for the Lord to have mercy upon me and forgive me.

(Excerpts from the Gloucester Journal, 1872, by Senior Prison Officer White)

January 9th

1881: On this day the Cheltenham Looker-On reported a packed audience at a Rotunda concert on the previous Saturday. The crowd at the Montpellier event testified once again to the popularity of the Promenade Concerts, of which this was the eighth. Though only one vocalist took part in the programme, the absence of a second – for there had been two singers at each of the previous concerts – was compensated for by the introduction of several instrumental compositions. The most popular of these was a duet for pianoforte and violoncello by Mr von Holst. A pianoforte solo by Mr Teague also afforded the audience great pleasure. Mr Teague's performance was quite an unexpected treat, while Mr von Holst was as brilliant as ever. Miss Lizzie Evans, the sole vocalist, sang four songs all very effectively and was warmly applauded for each, receiving a persistent encore for her rendering of 'When the Heart was Young'. (Cheltenham Looker-On)

January 10th

1865: On this day a flight of pheasants was released to enter Cheltenham. Having reached the place prepared for their reception near Regent Street, they flew off in various directions. One brace, for example, headed towards Tivoli Villas, another towards Sandford Place, while a third extended their flight as if making for Leckhampton, but, failing in the attempt, sought refuge behind shrubbery on the side of the road. A fourth brace followed in their wake, but, weaker on the wing, were only able to reach Thirlestaine House, where they came to grief, as did a fifth in the Thirlestaine Road. Several other birds, less confident in their strength, took shorter journeys. One brace sought shelter in the larders of the Queens Hotel, another in one of the Bayshill villas, and a third in Suffolk Square, while some perched in the High Street or crossed over in the direction of Pittville. These aristocratic members of the feathered community were attended on their visit to Cheltenham by others of humbler plumage, who contrived to find their way into the pantries of several of the most respectable tradesmen of the town. (Cheltenham Looker-On)

January 11th

1840: On this day a dastardly attempted murder took place at Coombe Hill, just outside Cheltenham. The victim was Richard Yarworth, a twenty-four-year-old quarryman who had been to Worcester for the purpose of collecting some money owed to his father. He left Worcester by the Wellington coach, in the company of two gentlemen named Pritchard and Sharp. Yarworth explained:

We came to Tewkesbury, where we all got off at the Bear Inn. Mr. Pritchard was left at Tewkesbury, and the man who was before inside got outside, and took the place [he] had occupied. While proceeding along the road I said I should walk from Combe Hill [sic] to Cheltenham and the man said he was going to Cheltenham and would walk with me. When the coach arrived, we both got down. ... We then set out to walk, and after proceeding about 400 yards, he pulled out a pistol and shot me. I fell. He then stood over me, and reloading the pistol, asked me for my money. He than rifled my pockets, and took seven £5 notes, twelve sovereigns and nine shillings, a cheque for £5, a bill at two months for £13, drawn by me, and accepted by Mr Perkes, stonemason, and my watch.

The following Tuesday the bullet was extracted by Mr Gregory, parish surgeon of Cheltenham. Mr Lefroy, the head of the constabulary force, 'used his best exertion to discover the horrid assassin'. (Cheltenham Free Press)

January 12th

1795: On this day, John de la Bere died. De la Bere was an important man in Cheltenham: a lawyer and Steward of the Manor, and a member of a family that could trace its roots directly back to the early fourteenth century. This branch of the family was based in Southam, a few miles north of Cheltenham. At one point the family owned the land on which the Tivoli area of Cheltenham is built. Not much is known of John de la Bere, but a tablet which used to be in the parish church testified to his importance:

To preserve the memory of those whose excellences will never be forgotten, this marble records the names of John de la Bere, Esq., who died Jan. 12th 1795. Also of the Reverend John de la Bere, his only son, who died at Burford 1810

The first known Sir John de la Bere appears in 1328. A document of 1397 records that Sir John had died eight years earlier possessed of the castle. His heir was an underage boy, also named John. He may have been a grandson, possibly a younger son of the late Sir Richard of Crécy. The house occupied by the family in Southam, which dates back to 1485, is now the Hotel de la Bere. (Gwen Hart, A History of Cheltenham)

January 13th

1831: On this day the New Clarence Theatre was opened in St George's Place by Mr Belmont.

The theatre had originally been established as a puppet theatre by Samuel Seward, who had also worked at the Theatre Royal as a scene painter. He named it Sadler's Wells after the theatre in London where he had once worked. His productions were, apparently, as spectacular as anything that the Theatre Royal could offer, except they didn't use live actors. The theatre ran continuously for thirty years until the death of Seward and his wife. Belmont took over the theatre, replacing puppets with live actors and renaming it the New Clarence. The venture did not start well: the company of actors failed to turn up and the opening had to be postponed. Things did not get much better and the theatre closed a couple of years later, becoming Gardner's Academy, privately owned and run by Joseph Gardner. The Church of England Reading Association then took the building over in 1839, and ironically it was Francis Close – who was opposed to most forms of entertainment, particularly the theatre – who inaugurated it.

During work on the St George's Place building in the 1970s, the façade, including the original sign for the theatre, was discovered. It was subsequently demolished and no trace remains. (Michael Hasted,A Theatre for All Seasons)

January 14th

1865: On this day a brilliant private party was hosted at the Queens Hotel by Mrs R. Bolton and her sisters, the Misses Ireland. The entire suite of rooms forming the northwestern angle of the building were appropriated for the reception and entertainment of the guests, who numbered some 150 of the most influential and fashionable residents and visitors of Cheltenham. The large room, in which public dinners occasionally took place, was converted into a ballroom, the walls being covered with white and pink drapery, and ornamented with floral decorations. The drawing rooms of the hotel formed the reception rooms, through which the company entered, and these, also, were most elegantly fitted up and draped with great taste, the curtains separating the apartments being looped up with light festoons of flowers. Here the hostesses received their friends shortly before ten. Dancing began with a quadrille, to the music of Mr Bretherton's Band, at about 10.30 p.m. and continued until 12.30 a.m. Valses, galops and lancers alternated in quick succession. When supper was announced the guests repaired to the large room of the Table d'Hôte, where a sumptuous banquet consisting of every delicacy of the season was set out for their refreshment, with wines of every vintage and variety that the Queens' cellars could provide. (Cheltenham Looker-On)

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Excerpted from The Cheltenham Book of Days by Michael Hasted. Copyright © 2013 Michael Hasted. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
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