Glorious Gloucestershire E-Book

Mark Cummings

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 205

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

'Uniquely well-informed, all-encompassing and loving.' - Pam Ayres, poet 'Amazing revelations about my home county.' - Adam Henson, Countryfile presenter Did you know that Sir Peter Scott was named after Peter Pan; a Stroud man invented instant custard; and a Cotswold manor house is designed to look exactly like the Palace of Westminster? Gloucestershire has been at the forefront of world-changing innovation throughout history, has inspired great works of literature and even has its own rhyming slang. Join broadcaster Mark Cummings on a joyful journey exploring the Gloucestershire streets that gave us Scrooge and Long John Silver, find out where classic TV and movie scenes were filmed and feast on delicious nuggets about royalty, rock stars and rugby legends. Walk with Mark to London in the footsteps of Dick Whittington, discover the true meaning behind Gloucestershire's quirky place names, take advantage of unique tips leading you to hidden gems across the county and test what you've learned with Mark's 100 quiz questions, a challenge for locals and visitors alike.

Leseprobe

First published 2024

The History Press

97 St George’s Place, Cheltenham,

Gloucestershire, GL50 3QB

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

© Mark Cummings, 2024

The right of Mark Cummings to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 80399 754 4

Typesetting and origination by The History Press.

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ Books Limited, Padstow, Cornwall.

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

CONTENTS

Introduction

1 BOOK LOVERS’ TOUR OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Cummings’ County Quiz Round One

2 GOURMET GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Cummings’ County Quiz Round Two

3 SECRETS OF THE SEVERN

4 GLOUCESTERSHIRE – THE ULTIMATE FILM SET

Cummings’ County Quiz Round Three

5 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF DICK WHITTINGTON

Cummings’ County Quiz Round Four

6 LEAVING A LEGACY – INVENTIONS, COMPANIES AND PEOPLE WHO HAVE CHANGED THE WORLD

Cummings’ County Quiz Round Five

7 TOUR DE GLOUCESTERSHIRE – THE ULTIMATE BIKE RIDE AROUND GLORIOUS GLOUCESTERSHIRE

8 ROCK AND ROLL MAP OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Cummings’ County Quiz Round Six

9 ECCENTRIC GLOUCESTERSHIRE

10 BRINGING HISTORY BACK TO LIFE – MY YEAR AS MOCK MAYOR

Cummings’ County Quiz Round Seven

11 FUN AND GAMES WITH PLACE NAMES

Cummings’ County Quiz Round Eight

12 CHERRY AND WHITE HEAVEN

13 ROYAL GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Cummings’ County Quiz Round Nine

14 THE GLORIOUS GLOSTERS

15 DID YOU KNOW?

Cummings’ County Quiz Round Ten

16 ’TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS – THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE VERSION

Answers to Cummings’ County Quiz

Acknowledgements

PRAISE FOR GLORIOUS GLOUCESTERSHIRE

‘I never knew my home county had so many amazing claims to fame. I will enjoy testing friends and family with the 100 local quiz questions. I can’t wait to take Mark’s advice on how to squeeze every drop out of Gloucestershire.’

Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards, Olympian.

‘I have loved reading about all the legendary characters who have invented, inspired and left amazing legacies. I’m thrilled my dad features amongst many others who have dedicated themselves to keeping Gloucestershire’s treasures and traditions thriving.’

Adam Henson, Countryfile presenter.

‘A wonderful mixture of history, folklore and local characters. No Gloucestershire home should be without it.’

Katie Fforde, bestselling novelist.

‘A brilliant, clever book. Mark Cummings gets it. He understands fully the essence and soul of Gloucestershire and he truly loves it! He is one of us.’

Jack Russell MBE, England cricketer and artist.

‘Mark writes just as he broadcasts, with humour and warmth, telling stories about the writers and musicians who have been inspired by our county. I was surprised and intrigued by the stories about Rick Astley, Ivor Novello, Charlie Watts and even Kylie Minogue! Who knew?’

Mike d’Abo, former lead singer of Manfred Mann and composer of ‘Handbags and Gladrags’ and ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’.

‘I couldn’t wait for Glorious Gloucestershire to be published! I learned so much from Mark’s uniquely well-informed, all-encompassing and loving look at the matchless Cotswolds.’

Pam Ayres, poet.

INTRODUCTION

MY GREATEST WISH is that this book will convey my love and emotion for our staggeringly beautiful, innovative and surprising county. I want you to enjoy the wow factor of discovering gems about Gloucestershire you never knew before and feel inspired to explore more profoundly, armed with new knowledge. This is a unique guide, taking both locals and visitors deep into Gloucestershire’s soul.

Come with me on a whirlwind journey exploring the Gloucester streets that inspired the characters of Scrooge and Long John Silver, the countryside that gave us Gustav Holst’s finest work and the locations where the jet engine, the vacuum cleaner and instant custard were invented. For centuries, Gloucestershire has been at the forefront of innovation and famous historical events, prompting great works of literature and music, and we even have our own rhyming slang. Find out where classic movie scenes were filmed and walk with me to London in the footsteps of Dick Whittington. Fly over the county on Christmas Eve with Santa, discover more about our quirky place names and test your knowledge with the Cummings’ County Quiz questions sprinkled throughout the book to help you ‘squeeze every drop out of Glorious Gloucestershire’.

This book encapsulates all I have learned and shared over the years with thousands upon thousands of inquisitive, funny, informative radio listeners. After spending thirty years broadcasting with BBC Radio Gloucestershire it is now time to draft my love letter to the county I adore. I am drawing on personal encounters to create something a little bit different. I have spent a year holding the role of the Mock Mayor of Barton, interviewed the real Rosie from Cider with Rosie (Rosalind Buckland), created and cycled a ‘Tour de Gloucestershire’ (200-mile route around the county’s iconic locations), hosted guided tours of the Severn bore and looked into the mirror that inspired Lewis Carroll’s Alice Through the Looking-Glass.

If you are passing through, on a short or long visit, the book will give you a feel for the place and help you explore in a way no other guidebook could. You will definitely return. If you were born here, the book will teach you something you didn’t know and you will fall further in love with your county. If you have chosen to move here you will learn so much, so quickly, your relationship and interaction with Gloucestershire will blossom swiftly and your love and connection with the area will enrich your experience of living here.

Gloucestershire feels like one big village connected by five outstanding features: the Forest, the River Severn, the Vale, the Stroud valleys and the Cotswold Hills. Every morning on my BBC Radio Gloucestershire Breakfast Show I felt I could reach out and put my arms right around the county and give it a great big cuddle. We are blessed to have this sense of unity and completeness, as I discovered during storms, floods and the coronavirus pandemic.

I couldn’t have written this book without the inspiration and knowledge of my amazing listeners, the patience and skill of my wife, Jo, the support and expertise of the team at The History Press and the help and encouragement of fellow writers and photographers.

I hope you enjoy the ride this book will take you on. As an extra bonus, the purchaser of this book gets their hands on a most sought-after Fern ticket and can act as quizmaster, testing friends and family with a hundred questions about Gloucestershire. Cyclists will have an opportunity to download the route with every twist and turn of my ‘Tour de Gloucestershire’ ride around the county.

A friend once told me that her mum used to listen to my radio show and loved the way I talked about the county with such affection. She said her heart was so swollen with pride about Gloucestershire that the buttons on her pinny used to pop off. I hope when you finish this book you have no buttons left.

1

BOOK LOVERS’ TOUR OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE

IT IS ASTONISHING that in such a small area you can find the inspiration behind so many classic works of iconic literature. Join our exclusive book club and come on a literary journey around the county. We will go through a ‘Looking-Glass’ and visit places familiar to Dame Jilly Cooper, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. We will pop through a magical door into the Dwarven Kingdom, chat about Professor Snape and Humpty Dumpty and even enjoy a refreshing cider with my friend Rosie. We will visit the Gate Streets of Gloucester and step into the worlds of Peter Pan, The Tailor of Gloucester, Treasure Island and A Christmas Carol. Our readers’ road trip starts with a tipple.

CIDER WITH ROSIE

Our first stop is the Stroud valleys, where we will be immersed in the poetry and prose of the wonderful Laurie Lee. Laurie described the feeling of growing up in the Slad Valley as ‘snug, enclosed and protective’, and he and his family nestled together like ‘peas in a pod’. I had the pleasure of meeting the female inspiration for the famous story Cider with Rosie, Rosalind Buckland, who was Laurie’s cousin by marriage. She was a twinkly, mischievous, wonderful woman who just happened to be, in her spare time, a literary icon.

We managed to track Rosie down while we were researching a radio show I was planning to present from the Slad Valley. She very kindly granted me an audience and I found myself on her doorstep with a box of chocolates and a bottle of ‘you know what’. We discussed sections of the book and explored the picture Laurie painted of growing up in the period just after the First World War. They were all very poor, she remembered, and Laurie’s mum was a very strong but kind woman who was always late for everything but was a massive influence on Laurie’s life.

Rosalind recalled vivid details of Laurie’s two aunties, who always wore long dresses and bonnets. She confirmed how horrible one of their teachers was (the same teacher who was placed on top of a cupboard by a disgruntled student in the book). She told tales of getting a charabanc to Weston for Slad’s big day out once a year and the journey taking ages on the old Bristol Road. Winters were extremely harsh as they only had one fire and no central heating.

As for the key episode from the book, what really happened? Laurie describes this pivotal moment with cider-drinking Rosie under a haywain, ‘Never to be forgotten, that first long secret drink of golden fire, juice of those valleys and of that time, wine of wild orchards, of russet summer, of plump red apples, and Rosie’s burning cheeks. Never to be forgotten, or ever tasted again.’ Rosalind told me they were there together in the field but she didn’t drink any cider and no funny business went on!

Over time she grew to accept and like the fact that the book was about her, although she hinted that Laurie’s accounts were prone to exaggeration. When she grew up she married a policeman and lived in various locations across the county, ending up in Leckhampton. She would occasionally pop over to Slad and meet up with Laurie and she showed me a couple of notes he had given her. One read: ‘For Rosie who is never forgotten, Love Laurie.’ My favourite, however, is this one: ‘To you know who, with long ago love, from you know who … The author.’

As my time with Rosalind was coming to an end, I produced a bottle of cider from my bag and asked if she would share a glass with me. To our joint amusement she let me have the cider while she stuck with her tea, claiming she didn’t really like the stuff and it was a bit early. Just to drink some apple juice with her was a magical moment and it was an interview I will never forget. Maybe if I had stayed a bit later, she might have had a sip of the ‘golden fire’ because there is a possibility she liked it more than she claimed. Her granddaughter said, ‘She always maintained she never drank cider. I got her a bottle of Champagne for her 99th birthday and she said, “Oh, it tastes like cider!” She gave the game away there I think!’

One of my favourite radio interviews with Rosalind ‘Rosie’ Buckland.

WHAT THE DICKENS?

Charles Dickens performed on stage at a theatre on Gloucester’s Westgate Street during a reading tour and described Gloucester as ‘a wonderful and misleading city’. He was fond of nearby Cheltenham, ‘I have rarely seen a place that so attracted my fancy.’ Tewkesbury also caught his eye and it was mentioned in The Pickwick Papers when Mr Pickwick and his friends stop at a coaching inn, the Hop Pole, on their way from Bristol to Birmingham. ‘At the Hop Pole, Tewkesbury, they stopped to dine, upon which occasion there was more bottled ale, with some Madeira and some port besides … and here the case bottle replenished for the fourth time.’ Now that’s my idea of a good lunch. One final link that might surprise you is in the heart of the Cotswolds at Bibury, known for its Trout Farm and historic chocolate box cottages at Arlington Row. A short walk from the main village is the fabulous Bibury Court Hotel. I have been to wedding receptions and long lunches here, but I didn’t know until recently that there is a Dickensian link. This Jacobean manor was formerly owned by the Cresswell family and it is thought to have been their long-running dispute over a family will that inspired the court case in Bleak House.

SCROOGE

Since Charles Dickens was a regular visitor to Gloucester, it is widely accepted that he based his character Scrooge on his knowledge of the local banker James ‘Jemmy’ Wood. Jemmy was a well-known miser who ran the bank on Westgate Street and became known as ‘the richest commoner’ in England. He was born in 1756 and inherited a shop and bank from his father. Over the years he made a mint but was unpopular with the locals because of the way he conducted his business. He was a shabby character who never spent any money on clothes and was known to go to the nearby Gloucester Docks to pick up pieces of coal from the barges moored there. He was too mean to pay for transport, so would walk huge distances. He was once walking back from Tewkesbury in the rain when he eventually accepted a lift from a hearse. He climbed into the back and sat next to the coffin. When he died he left around £50 million in today’s money but his coffin was pelted with stones and the crowds booed during his funeral procession. He is buried in St Mary de Crypt Church in Gloucester.

If you keep these descriptions in mind, you will appreciate the similarities between Jemmy Wood and Dickens’s descriptions of Scrooge. ‘The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.’ A few years ago, I met a distant relative of Jemmy Wood. He joined us on a procession through the city on Gloucester Day and was utterly charming. We took him to the pub afterwards, had several rounds of drinks and, interestingly, he never paid for single one.

Jemmy Wood. (Gloucester Civic Trust)

LONG JOHN SILVER AND W.E. HENLEY

William Ernest Henley was born near Gloucester Cross at 5 Eastgate in 1849 and spent nearly half of his life in this city centre location. This man has always fascinated me because of the huge impact he had in many literary areas despite his own physical suffering and the loss of his daughter at a very young age. We are so proud that this poet, editor and critic was born in our county. Shortly after starting at the Crypt Grammar School he was attacked by tuberculosis of the bone, an illness that plagued him all of his life. He was only a teenager when his left leg was amputated below the knee. In a search for a cure, he was admitted in his early twenties to the Edinburgh Infirmary in 1873. It was here that he met and became close friends with Robert Louis Stevenson. They were nearly the same age, both were writers and they were fighting the same disease. Henley had a big, loud personality and a gingery beard, and when Stevenson wrote his first novel, Treasure Island in 1883, he based one-legged Long John Silver on his good friend. He wrote to Henley, ‘It was the sight of your maimed strength and masterfulness that begot Long John Silver … the idea of the maimed man, ruling and dreaded by the sound, was entirely taken from you.’

There is a blue plaque dedicated to Henley at Gloucester Cross where the four Gate Streets meet with a quote from his famous poem ‘Invictus’, written in 1875.

W.E. Henley blue plaque, Eastgate Street, Gloucester.

It is thought the inspiration for the poem came from his struggles with his health and loss of his leg. His motivational words inspired the title of the 2009 film about the South Africa rugby team’s bid to win the Rugby World Cup, and Nelson Mandela famously recited the poem to his fellow prisoners while he was in prison on Robben Island.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

PETER PAN’S WENDY

W.E. Henley’s daughter, Margaret, was the inspiration for Wendy Darling, J.M. Barrie’s character in Peter Pan. Barrie and Henley were good friends and would often meet up. Sadly, Margaret was a poorly child, unable to speak clearly, and she referred to Barrie as her ‘fwendy-wendy’. This amused and inspired Barrie, who coined the name Wendy for his famous character. Although Margaret had a short life, having died aged 5 of cerebral meningitis, she is immortalised in the classic Peter Pan.

J.M. BARRIE

Stanway House brings out two very different reactions in me. The first one is when I am cycling past and I have to face the impending horror of cycling up the never-ending Stanway Hill. The second is more pleasant as it is a lovely memory of spending a dreamy afternoon there with David Carroll, the author of A Literary Tour of Gloucestershire and Bristol. His love of literary connections was infectious and lit a spark in me. Stanway House takes your breath away with its magical gatehouse, tiny church, fourteenth-century tithe barn, water gardens and the 300ft single-jet fountain, the highest gravity fountain in the world. You can understand why J.M. Barrie fell in love with this place and rented it for six weeks every summer from 1921 to 1932. His cast list of summer house guests was impressive, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Walter de la Mare and H.G. Wells. David told me guests were encouraged to indulge in Barrie’s love of cricket and would spend many an afternoon at the village cricket club. Apparently, the rule was not to get Barrie out and to let him bat for as long as he wanted. The local cricket pavilion was an old railway carriage but Barrie wanted to leave a gift for the village so he designed and paid for a lovely thatched pavilion as a replacement. Stanway House has its own chapel and rumour has it that the tiny character on the weathervane on the roof was the inspiration for Tinker Bell, the fairy in Peter Pan. I would so love this to be true, but my friend David spoilt my fantasy by showing me the dates. Sadly, they don’t add up – Barrie had already written Peter Pan before his visits to Stanway House.

THE ‘TRAMP POET’ W.H. DAVIES

There is a magical zigzaggy road full of breathtaking sharp bends that drops from Minchinhampton Common into the town of Nailsworth in the Stroud valleys. It is called the Nailsworth W, has an eye-wateringly steep gradient and I cycle this challenging route quite often. As I see the rooftops and chimneys of Nailsworth appear beneath me, I without fail quote out loud:

What is this life if full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

I do this because the man who wrote the poem ‘Leisure’ used to live at the bottom of the Nailsworth W. After a death-defying descent down this magnificent road there is a right turn to a place called Watledge, where the poet William Henry Davies spent his last years. He was known as the ‘tramp poet’ because in his early twenties he left his home in Wales and travelled through America as a homeless person, spending time in various jails. His life on the road ended in a horrible way when he lost his right leg in an accident while jumping from a train. Back in this country, he wrote poetry and his big break came when the poet Edward Thomas publicly supported his work and gave him the confidence to write his famous Autobiography of a Super-Tramp in 1908. Having spent many years in London, he eventually moved to Gloucestershire and settled in Nailsworth. He lived in various properties around the town, ending up in Glendower, a small two-storey cottage with an elevated view over town. He clearly loved this location, which featured in his poem ‘Nailsworth Hill’:

The moon that peeped as she came up

Is clear on top with all her light.

She rests her chin on Nailsworth Hill,

And, where she looks, the world is bright.

‘Tramp poet’ W.H. Davies’s cottage Glendower at Watledge overlooking Nailsworth.

Plaque on the side of Glendower cottage.

Davies died in 1940, leaving a legacy of work that endures to this day. Here is a fascinating fact you can casually weave into a conversation: what is the link between W.H. Davies and an iconic rock band? The band Supertramp took their name from Davies’s Autobiography of a Super-Tramp. In the early years before any commercial success the band was originally called ‘Daddy’, but they needed to change their name as there was another band around at the time called ‘Daddy Longlegs’. The name change was inspired by their love of the work of our ‘tramp poet’.

The company Center Parcs has used the opening lines of the famous poem ‘Leisure’ in its TV adverts. I have a wooden plaque in my wild flower garden inscribed with the same first two lines.

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs,

And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

DAME JILLY COOPER – SEARCHING FOR PARADISE

Dame Jilly has lived in the dreamy village of Bisley for more than four decades and Gloucestershire has inspired much of her work. I have had the joy of spending time with her in her stunning house nestled above Stroud, usually talking about our shared love of rescued lurchers. I think we can safely assume Polo and Riders had something to do with the horsey county that became her home. Gloucestershire is awash with royalty, high society, show jumping legends and classic polo events in places such as Cirencester and Westonbirt. Dame Jilly’s novel Tackle was loosely based on her local football team, Forest Green Rovers. She is a dedicated fan and I know the club are thrilled to have her support. My favourite story about Dame Jilly centres on her novel The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous. The main character, Lysander Hawkley, makes a good living from helping lonely housewives feel better about themselves (if you get my drift), which in turn is meant to encourage their husbands to appreciate them more. Dame Jilly’s choice of name for the village where all this ‘action’ took place was Paradise. However, Dame Jilly hadn’t realised that there is an actual place in Gloucestershire called Paradise only a few miles from Bisley. I remember at the time the Daily Mirror sent a reporter to this tiny hamlet near Painswick to try and find a local Lothario who might have inspired Dame Jilly’s ‘racy’ blockbuster. I interviewed her and she was equally embarrassed and amused at her ‘blooper’.

Celebrating with Dame Jilly Cooper at an awards ceremony.

THE TAILOR OF GLOUCESTER