Part Two - A Trek through old Mumbles Village by Stuart Batcup
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A Trek through old Mumbles Village
and Thistleboon by Stuart Batcup
and Thistleboon by Stuart Batcup
Part Two
Up Tichbourne Street to the Hilly Field
We paused our trek through eighteen forties and nineteen fifties Mumbles Village at No 1 Thistleboon Road enjoying a ‘virtual pint’ in the old ale house that was once there. As will be seen from the 1844 Map the view to the East was over part of Thistleboon Meadows towards the Hilly Field. The Hilly Field was still there in the nineteen fifties, too steep for any arable farming and only fit for sheep grazing. But it was a paradise for children!
Many happy hours were spent on the Hilly Field sliding down very fast on bits of cadged cardboard, or just rolling over and over on our sides or more daringly tumble tossing which made it much more difficult to stop. On the very rare occasions that we had snow and went there with our sleds it was impossible to stop and our adventures were fairly short lived when we went through the hedges and fences at the rear of the houses on Bryn Terrace. Tattered and torn some of us would then try to toboggan down Tichborne Street, only to crash into the wall of Thistleboon Stores as Mr. Jones’ shop was then known.
Why was it called Tichborne Street?
Good Question. Most of our local historians thought it may have had something to do with the famous Tichborne Case, a legal cause celebre that captivated Victorian Britain in the 1860s and 1870s. John Court seems pretty sure that that was the case as his grandfather William and his brother Matt Smith built the houses on Tichborne Street, Bryn Terrace, The Woods and Nos 2 to 10 Thistleboon Road in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and that was the tale passed down the family.
As a lawyer I too was captivated by the Tichborne case as a matter of legal history. It concerned the claims made by a man sometimes referred to as Thomas Castro or Arthur Orton (‘the Claimant’) who claimed to be the heir to the Roman Catholic Tichborne baronetcy and the substantial landed estates at Tichborne Park near Alresford in Hampshire, and the annual income from it of £20,000, equivalent to £2,278,000 in today’s terms. Sir Roger Tichborne the heir to the estate was lost at sea off Rio de Janeiro in April 1854. In February 1863 his mother Lady Tichborne, encouraged by a clairvoyant’s assurance that he was alive and well, began placing regular advertisements to find him in The Times followed by some Australian newspapers, offering a reward.
Unsurprisingly the Claimant, a bankrupt butcher from Wagga Wagga in Australia crawled out of the woodwork. His claim in the Civil Court went on from May 1871 to March 1872 when the jury rejected the suit with costs of about £80,000 then against the Claimant. The judge Chief Justice Bovill ordered the Claimant’s arrest on charges of perjury and committed him to Newgate Prison. The criminal trial that followed was then one of the lengthiest cases heard in an English Court, beginning on 21 April 1873 and ending on 28 February 1874, occupying 188 court days.
Needless to say, the Claimant was found guilty and sentenced to 14 years for perjury, but that wasn’t the end of the case. His Irish barrister Edward Kenealy QC was disbarred over his conduct of the case, insulting the judges and abusing the Roman Catholic Church.
After serving 11 years the Claimant was released, toured Music Halls with decreasing success and died destitute on 1 April 1898 aged 64. He was buried in Paddington Cemetery and his coffin was inscribed ‘Sir Roger Charles Doughty Tichborne’. In 1925 his widow died in Southampton Workhouse where she had been known as ‘Lady Tichborne’.
There doesn’t seem to have been any connection between the characters in this tale and our local gentry, but the timing of the case coinciding with the building of the terraces of houses on the very steep incline gives the tale its credence. Perhaps the fact that ‘Tichborne’ almost rhymes with ‘Thistleboon’ was another reason? After all the two words do trip off the tongue quite nicely!
Overlooking Tichborne Street, Bryn Terrace and Dilston House (Lower Right)
But back to the twentieth century. As I sit looking up Tichborne Street I remember that there were some very pretty girls living on the right hand side; Margaret Paine, Liz Reeves and Pat and Celia Hoppe. The Cook family lived on the left-hand side as well as Brian ‘Bunny’ Evans and Lucy Morgan who later helped hone my skills as a Barman at the Pier Hotel with the doughty Landlord Jack Bartlett. My fellow tenor in All Saints Church Choir, Roy Webborn was a much older product of Bryn Terrace who became one of my inspirations.
At that time one of the pair of semi-detached houses at the end of the Terrace was the home of Fred Boyle and the other of the Grenfell Family. The older brother, Harold was to become the well-known photographer to the Gower Society’s annual Journal. His younger brother Clive ‘Grannie’ Grenfell was my Sixer in the 1st Mumbles Cubs, one of the first to lead me astray!
I have only recently discovered that the Parish’s own Moira Sutton also lived in that house as a child between 1943 and 1947 when the family moved away. She was a pupil at St Anne’s Convent School, has happy memories of the Head Teacher Sister Albert and describes her childhood at the Woods as idyllic. They certainly had one of the best views out over the Bay. She particularly remembers the VE Day and VJ Day Street parties held on Bryn Terrace in 1945 when her father set up a loudspeaker system from the Gramophone in their house for the music of the day, and as a six year old staying up late dancing to Glenn Miller’s Orchestra. As the Terrace was, and is an unmade road, dancing must have been quite difficult.
Moira also remembers taking part, as an eight year old in the Pantomime ‘Babes in the Wood’ performed in the Church Hall (now the Ostreme Centre) between the 7th and 10th January 1947, and has even produced a copy of the Programme. It will be seen from this that the production was the work of the well-known local impresario David Stockton assisted by his Dancing Mistress Eunice ‘Madam’ Stockton.
The Pantomime ‘Babes in the Wood’
The Pantomime Dame was Michael Charles’ grandfather George Charles, and the ‘Juveniles’ of the Chorus numbered 34 well known village girls. Study these ‘maidens’ maiden names and you’ll be surprised how many you know. Moira’s maiden name was ‘Sloggett’, and yes it was our Babs Lewis who was only 4.
The yacht project:
Because Tichborne Street was so steep not a lot went on there until Eastertide 1962 as will be seen from the image I have obtained from the Mumbles Yacht Club Website. In the late Summer of 1961 Jeff Court who had just started an apprenticeship and was a keen sailor decided, with the help of his Father Les, a Master Carpenter, to build himself an Osprey Class Sailing dinghy. The old Stable on the left hand side of Tichborne Street that Jeff’s grandfather had built was being used by Bob the builder who lived opposite as his workshop, but the first floor hayloft was no longer in use, and presented the ideal place for the project.
The construction of the yacht went on through the Autumn of 1961 through the Winter until it was completed in time for the 1962 Sailing Season. Building it was a labour of love by Uncle Les and Jeff assisted by his brother John and his sailing companions Bunny Evans and Tony Martin. I too spent a lot of time there during those months learning rather than helping. When it was finished the logistical problem of getting it out had to be tackled!
If my memory serves me correctly one of the doors to the Loft had to be taken off and a platform set up on the road for those below to receive it . . .
. . . Yes, that is me in the blue top getting a grip on the dinghy as it came out.
Fortunately, there were no mishaps and mounted on its trolley ‘Crud y Gwint’ was taken down to Southend for the mast and rigging to be installed before it was launched. It was a beautiful thing to behold and to sail in, and Jeff and his crew were successful in the many sailing competitions that were held in those days.
The canoe project:
As a corollary to this, I then took over the Loft to restore a badly damaged canoe that I had rescued from Langland, and with the things I had learned watching the building of the dinghy, and a lot of help from Uncle Les, and Andrew Macfarlane a retired upholsterer who lived opposite the project kept me busy for the next few months. I became quite close to both of these craftsmen, and particularly remember learning from Andrew the art of cutting, stretching and tacking the canvas.
I was 17 at the time and in the Lower Sixth Form at Dynevor School, so there were no serious exams to interfere with my hobby. I kept a diary in those days and see that I varnished the canoe for the last time on Wednesday 18th July before breaking up for the School holidays on Friday 20th. Getting it out of the Loft wasn’t too difficult, and with a pair of pram wheels as a trolley it soon found itself at the Rotherslade Beach Hut Site where we had Hut No 24.
The canoe was well used that Summer and, in the Summer of 1963, not only for the pleasure of canoeing as far as Pwll Du, but for surfing in those pre surfboard days, and more importantly for chatting up the girls at Langland. I have no photos of the canoe, but the photo shows me with John Court that Summer holding up the first Sea Bass that I caught out of it at Whiteshell Point. It seemed a lot bigger then than it looks like now!
The photo taken on Tichborne Street clearly shows Mr. Jones’ Thistleboon Stores in the background where I will linger until I move on to the next section of my Trek.
Stuart Batcup
June 2020
PS My Mr Jones was not Ben ‘the Bandit’ Jones who ran the Stores much later.
A postscript from John Court-
'Hi Stuart'' many thanks for part three of your Trek,
I wonder who that skinny chap is with you, holding a fish!!! He is a lot larger now.
I still remember that the old hayloft where Dad and Jeff built the boat had no power and all the work was done by the light of Tilley lamps. Not even a window for daylight and I suppose you also worked under those conditions on your canoe.
I also remember that late one day, Jeff and I met up at Bernard Hastie's scrap yard, so as to buy some scrap galvanised piping for us to make him a launching trolley.
After lashing the pipe onto Jeff's bike, we walked it home to Thistleboon and a few days later we built the trailer by bending the pipes around my mother's Laburnum tree, which unfortunately died shortly afterwards,
I need not say that Mammy was not amused, as she was very proud of that particular tree.
We can't get everything right can we?'
'Babes in the Woods'
Cast List
Dilys Wilkins, Frieda Walters, Eunice Stockton, Betty Harris, Floretta MacFarlane, Monica Rees, Moria Gibby, G. C. Charles, D. E. Stockton, Tom Ball, Alfred Hoile, Dennis Venton, Jack Kostromin, W. Bryce,
Chorus - Juveniles
(which were split into two groups)Barbara Jenkins, Angela Hoppe, Betty Gammon, Brenda Durk, Maureen Noel, Moira Sloggett, Vera Bignell, Yvonne Rott, Mollie Rees, Iris Jenkins, Jean Rott, Carol Morris, Elizabeth Thomas, Marlleen Secombes, Christine Kostromin, Pauline Laid, Susan Rees.
Jean Twells, Dlanne Thomas, Josephine Richards, Wendy Williams, Ann Clark, Pamela Seacombe, Clair Cottle, Mhari Jones, Sonia Kostromin, Barbara Lewis, june Stewart, Ann Jones, Pat Hoppe, Elizabeth Alden, Pamela MacDonald, Susan Clevesly, Julie Gray.
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N.B. - Tichborne Street ' is spelt Tichbourne Street.' on their current street sign, by The City and County of Swansea