Category: Cirencester

Blast from the past… 38

A photo from my hospital trolley

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October 2025 (3 months before publishing this article)

This was an unusual month during which I suffered a small bleed in my brain (a subarachnoid haemorrhage). The effects were weird and quite sudden, I began having seizures, in my case quite mild symptoms of muscle weakness in my left leg and numbness in parts of my left leg and head; curiously my left arm was not affected. These symptoms lasted for a few minutes and then faded away. This happened three or four times a day to begin with but quickly reduced in frequency.

After nine hours in A&E I was admitted to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital (GRH) for six days of investigation including CT and MRI scans. I started off on a trolley in a corner of Acute Medical until they could find space in a ward. And much of my time was spent in Gallery Wing, Ward 1C. I was interested to see that all the medical and ward staff used their staff badges to log in to any hospital computer to see their own desktop with all the icons and applications they needed to do their work. Efficient and well-thought-out. The computer in the photo is displaying the login screen.

My symptoms were mild and were completely suppressed by low doses of Levetiracetam prescribed by my consultant. And my GP here in Cirencester can see the consultant’s notes as well as her own. I’ve had no seizures at all since 1st November. No surgery was required, but until I have six months clear of seizures, I’m not allowed to drive. There are more details in an article I wrote at the time.

JHM: I wrote about the Starship Programme; and began a series on a constitution for the church. World events: Dame Sarah Mullally was named the first female Archbishop of Canterbury; and The 2025 Syrian parliamentary election was held, the first since the fall of the Assad regime in 2024.

< Sep 2025 – Nov 2025 > (Jump to 2011)

July 2025 (6 months before publishing)

From 4th to 7th we took Donna’s Mum, Isobel, for a short holiday at a Warners Hotel near Hereford. We visited Great Malvern and struggled to get the wheelchair up and down some of the very steep footpaths in the town.

The Small Group I meet with on Tuesday evenings gave me an opportunity to work through part of JDMC with them. This was encouraging and successful enough that Al suggested we work through some more of it next week.

In our back garden I added some more turf to a path I’m rerouting. We visited our neighbour George who’s in hospital in Dursley.

JHM: I wrote about the apostolic gift; and about the complex water flows in Cirencester. World events: The International Court of Justice ruled that countries can sue each other over historical emissions of greenhouse gases and the effects of climate change; and clashes erupted in southern Syria between armed Druze and Bedouin groups.

< Jun 2025 – Aug 2025 >

January 2025 (1 year before)

I walked out in the evening twilight and took this photo near the footbridge from The Beeches to Cricklade Road opposite Aldi. In the south-western sky you can see a waxing crescent Moon and the planet Venus near the top of the image. You may need to click the image to enlarge it to see Venus.

Here they are again the following evening (3rd January) seen from Stratton north of Cirencester, see how far the Moon has moved along its orbit in just a little under 24 hours!

The builders came to fix our leaking chimney, it was good to have that job done. In the bad old days when I was young the builders would have nonchalantly walked over the roof as if it was at ground level. But these days scaffolding is a must as the safety standards have been changed. It costs a little more, but it reduces the risks considerably.

JHM: I wrote about Knightstone Causeway; and my breakfast. World events:  Bulgaria and Romania removed their EU land border controls having joined the Schengen Area; while Ukraine halted the flow of Russian gas following the expiration of a five-year transit deal and became a state party in the International Criminal Court.

< Dec 2024 – Feb 2025 >

January 2024 (2 years)

After a great deal of effort and trying several different ways, I was finally able to get the Paul Young videos live on YouTube from the House2House meetings CDs. I then wrote to my friends, the Dales, who hold the copyright to the recorded sessions from the meetings back in 2008.

Having got that task done I was then able to group them into a playlist and anyone can now watch them online. The video titles are Grace, Tradition and Soul; together they explain how Paul came to write The Shack, how he came to understand the grace of God working in people’s lives including his own, and the shame-based fear so many people face in our Western culture and just how crippling it can be. Paul wrote the book for his children and its amazing success as a book in 2007 and as a film in 2017 has changed the trajectories of so many lives ever since. The book remains available as a paperback and an ebook from Google Play, Amazon, and others, and the film is still available to view on YouTube, Amazon and elsewhere (here’s the trailer). The three talks Paul Young gave at the House2House conference must have been one of the first times he spoke about it publicly to a large audience, and they’re still well worth watching.

Two of them have been seen by the Small Group that I meet with most weeks, we really should try to see the third one too in the coming year.

JHM: I asked ‘What is the greatest priority‘; and wrote about very large mach diamonds. World events:  Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates became BRICS members; and a U.S.-led coalition launched airstrikes at Houthi militant locations in Yemen.

< Dec 2023 – Feb 2024>

January 2021 (5 years)

This was the view from our window on 24th January! A relatively heavy fall of snow and still coming down when I took the photo.

Earlier in the month, on 15th, I was able to get a lovely photo of the crescent Moon, just a day or two after New Moon. The sun had recently set below and to the right of this image. There was still enough light in the sky to prevent the sunlit side of the Moon from flaring and there’s enough contrast to just see the nightime part of the Moon, sometimes poetically described as ‘the old Moon in the New Moon’s arms’.

The later part of the month was wet and the River Churn broke its banks and flooded fields and meadows in low lying areas. the final image for this month shows Stratton meadows inundated. The village of Stratton is on the higher ground beyond the flooded area. This land, now used to graze cattle in the summer was used to grow willow rods 150 years ago. They would have been harvested in the autumn and bound into bundles for local basket making businesses.

World events: Supporters of US President Donald Trump attacked the US Capitol; and the global death toll from COVID-19 passed 2 million.

< Dec 2020 – Feb 2021 >

January 2016 (10 years)

We had daffodils in flower by the end of January, surprisingly early and evidence that global warming was already beginning to have practical effects. The photo shows a row of them along the roadside in St Neots. We welcome them in springtime, but in January I’m not sure they are quite as welcome, though very lovely.

One of my friends from the coffee shop Bible study group, Kevin, was suicidal, I took him to A&E at the hospital in Huntingdon and stayed with him until he could be seen. It seemed a wise and necessary precaution.

We had Peter and Dadka staying with us as they were unable to afford anywhere of their own. They were both from Slovakia. Peter received a message on 9th to say that his parents had been involved in a road accident and his father had died in the collision. He flew back home to be with the family for a week or two and help make the necessary arrangements. This must have been a terrible shock for him.

On 30th I enjoyed a coffee and a great chat with a friend, David Pacini.

World events:  The IAEA announced that Iran has adequately dismantled its nuclear weapons program, allowing the UN to lift sanctions; and the WHO announced an outbreak of the Zika virus.

< Dec 2015 – Feb 2016 >

January 2011 (15 years)

In the garden the snowdrops were in flower and our rhubarb was beginning to grow with buds bursting and the first, crinkled leaves beginning to unfold. We bought a new HP LaserJet colour printer to replace our old Samsung laser printer.

I was involved in several different meetings at this time. There was the Open Door Small Group once a week on Tuesdays, I was meeting with the coffee shop crew at least once a week and quite separately with Jim, Sean and Kevin on Thursday evenings. On Thursday mornings I met with Roger and Ruth at their home in Offord d’Arcy. With the coffee shop group we discussed ideas around not going to church because we are the church, and how our focus should be to plant Jesus, plant disciples, and plant the gospel.

On 7^th we had a sixth Cornerstone Meeting, not just directors this time, but staff as well. Paul has written off the setup costs of £81k and planned to run on a break-even basis in future. He also thought he might move to fried food and reduced prices. Paul declared that there would be no directors from now on, just a management team. Some of us foresaw problems, mainly because Paul wanted things all his own way and some of his ideas were somewhat controversial; but he was putting up all the money, and if he didn’t want ideas and thoughts from others, that was, of course, his choice to make.

JHM: I wrote about heartwarming news from Egypt; and about an Israeli company making progress with electric vehicles. World events: Estonia officially adopted the Euro, becoming the 17th Eurozone country; and the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring began.

< Dec 2010 – Feb 2011 > (Jump to 1971) (Jump to top)

January 2006 (20 years)

Following Mum’s death at Cheltenham General Hospital on 1st January, Dad was pretty busy getting the news out to friends and relatives and making initial arrangements for the funeral. I worked up an initial draft for the service sheet, and I discussed it with Dad and my three sisters before revising it.

Debbie sent me a scan of her unborn baby, and I felt sad that Mum would not see the birth of two great-grandchildren (Beth was also expecting a baby, probably a little before her sister, Debbie).

Towards the end of the month, we enjoyed visiting the National Trust’s Anglesey Abbey with our friends Ken and Gayna. It was a lovely, sunny day and the gardens at Anglesey are always a delight at any time of the year.

World events: A panicking crowd during the Stoning of the Devil ritual on the last day of the Hajj in Saudi Arabia, killed at least 362 pilgrims; and  NASA launched the first interplanetary spacecraft to Pluto, New Horizons.

< Dec 2005 – Feb 2006 >

January 2001 (25 years)

I began redecorating the stairs, hall, and landing. I fitted an electrical box with wiring for an extractor fan in the bathroom, repaired the plasterwork where necessary, and painted emulsion on the walls and gloss on the woodwork. It was quite a long job, but we got it completed in the end.

We decided to buy a conservatory, our garden was large enough to take one and it would extend our living space quite a bit. Also, we thought it would fit well against the long brick wall of the kitchen, airing cupboard and the old laundry room and we could easily replace the dining room window with a small bi-fold opening using the existing lintel; so just a matter of cutting through the lower brickwork, making good, a bit of plastering and decorating.

We began visiting conservatory suppliers to look at what they had to offer and get some idea of price. The one in the photo was the sort of shape and size we thought might work well for us.

A further improvement at home was the removal of the very old bathroon suite and its replacement with a new bath, shower, loo and sink in white to replace the worn out avocado bath, loo and sink. Times had moved on with bathroom colours!

And finally at Unilever Research Colworth, we all received brand new security badges which opened gates and doors automatically for all the areas each member of staff had access to.

World events: Greece became the 12th country to join the Eurozone; and  Apple launched iTunes, software that acted as both a media player and a media library.

< Dec 2000 – Jan 2001 >

January 1996 (30 years)

on 1st January Beth, Paul, Jenny and I went to see Apollo 13 at the cinema in Weston-super-Mare. It seems a strange thing to have done just after losing Judy, but at the time it seemed to make perfect sense. Debbie, would, I think have been preparing to go back to study for her teaching qualification at Newport in south Wales. I certainly enjoyed watching the film.

I returned to work at Long Ashton on 3rd and started to pick up the threads that had been temporarily abandoned, or taken over by Pete Moody or Mike Truman while I’d been away. Peter Shewry invited me to join the Computing Strategy Review Meeting, and I continued developing the Microscopy web pages in the evenings at home.

Judy’s funeral was on 5th January and the day did not begin well. I woke up in the morning to the sound of dripping water and found it coming through the top of the bedroom doorframe. An emergency plumber came out and soon got things sorted for me. When the house was built, the overflow pipe was never connected so instead of a pipe dripping outside the house, the system was dripping inside! That lost me two hours at the start of a rather busy day, but everything else went well.

About 160 turned up which was astonishing, Judy was much loved not only by the extended family but by her pupils and colleagues at Cotham Grammar School, and many LARS staff had come along too. Bev was great, he said all the right things and was appreciated by everyone, I think. But only around 80 to 90 came to the buffet afterwards at Horsecastle chapel, so we had far too much food and donated what was left to the Horsecastle youth groups.

Rachael and Neil witnessed a horrendous event on their way back to Rugby later that day. A man jumped from a motorway bridge just as Rachael was approaching it. She had managed to swerve and miss him, but two cars behind her were unable to avoid him and caught him full on. Neil and another man had made their way back to the area of the incident and saw what happened.

World events: Serious fighting broke out on 9th January between Russian soldiers and rebel fighters in Chechnya; and France undertook its last nuclear weapons test.

< Dec 1995 – Feb 1996 >

January 1991 (35 years)

We visited Nana and Grandad (Judy’s parents) at their home at 14 Belland Drive, Charlton Kings, Cheltenham. The photo shows Nana, Beth and Debbie playing a game on the dining table, perhaps one of Beth’s Christmas presents.

On 13th we were back at home in Yatton, Debbie and Beth were out in the cold cleaning out the guinea pig run. When it was particularly cold we used to bring the guinea pigs into the house for protection, but they were quite good at managing cold days, the three of them would huddle together to keep warm.

World events:  The US Congress authorised the use of force to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait; and in South Africa, Nelson Mandela and Mangosuthu Buthelezi agreed to end the violence between the ANC and Inkatha.

< Dec 1990 – Feb 1991 > (Jump to 1971) (Jump to 2011)

January 1986 (40 years)

I was busy at LARS constructing a user-friendly menu system for the EDAX X-ray microanalysis software on the scanning electron microscope (SEM). I also produced a series of step-by-step instructions for using the SEM. The instrument in the photo is similar to the one we had at Long Ashton, but with a different X-ray microanalysis system.

Debbie and Beth remained at school in Yatton and we were living at 80 Stowey Road.

World events: Spain and Portugal joined the European Community; while the United Kingdom and France announced plans to construct the Channel Tunnel.

< Dec 1985 – Jan 1986 >

January 1981 (45 years)

I couldn’t find anything for January 1981. Debbie would have been five-years-old, turning six in March. Beth was two and would become three in May.

John Jefferies and Son would have been clearing surplus stock from the shop in the January sales but would also have been starting to consider how best to dispose of the business since the four brothers were approaching or beyond retiring age. My cousin, Tim, was young enough to carry on for some time but it was far too much for one person to manage. My Dad would be able to help out a lot but for relatively few years. The options would have been to shrink the business very considerably by selling off much of the land, or finding a buyer to continue it as a going concern. I suspect a decision was made to sell and hope to keep Tim employed by the new owners. There would have been no great urgency at this stage, but the clock was certainly ticking and something would need to be done.

World events:   Greece joined the European Economic Community; and  Iran released the remaining 52 American hostages, minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President, ending the Iran hostage crisis.

< Dec 1980 – Jan 1981 >

January 1976 (50 years)

The photo is from February 1976 as I could find nothing for January. It shows Cindy with Gavin and Rebecca walking towards the front door at Churnside.

Debbie was 10 months old in January and we were regularly meeting our friends Tony and Faith for prayer and to explore ways to go deeper in our knowledge and experience of meeting and living non-denominationally. Others were beginning to join us too, but just in ones and twos at this stage. Judy and I were still regularly at Horsecastle Chapel on Sundays too. There was a certain tension about this as the Horsecastle elders worried that we might come off the rails meeting without oversight with all these other odd people (from their point of view).

World events: The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights entered into force; and  full diplomatic relations were established between Bangladesh and Pakistan 5 years after the Bangladesh Liberation War.

< Dec 1975 – Jan 1976 >

January 1971 (55 years)

Judy’s temporary Christmas job at a Bristol department store came to an end once the January sales finished. She began her new job as a lab assistant in the Woodland Road Biochemistry Lab at Bristol University. I think the photo shows the same building in 2008, though I can’t be certain. She worked for Dr Mike Tanner who was doing research on a human erythrocyte membrane protein. They used out of date donated blood from Bristol Royal Infirmary, prepared erythrocyte ghosts (empty cell membranes) and extracted the proteins. I think they were studying Protein D as it was then called, and assembling amino acid sequences. It involved a lot of acrylamide gel chromatography although the lab was the proud owner of an early amino acid sequencer that could analyse short peptides automatically. The short sequences had to be manually matched and assembled into longer sequence maps.

Our bed-sit was cramped and very basic, but it was home. We still had our first car, ‘Pumpkin’, a Ford 100E sidevalve engine with a 3-speed gearbox. In the mornings I’d drive to the top of Park Street and drop Judy off near the Wills Building, then drive to Long Ashton. I forget what the evening arrangement was, probably I parked on Woodland Road and we drove from there to the bed-sit at 59 Linden Road. We were saving money now and starting to look at the possibility of an unfurnished flat and we might have made the move later in the year.

World events: In the Ibrox disaster, 66 people died and over 200 were injured in Glasgow during a spectator crush at a football match; and the Aswan High Dam was officially opened in Egypt.

< Dec 1970 – Feb 1971 > (Jump to 1951) (Jump to 1991)

January 1966 (60 years)

The Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard, one of the local newpapers in the area, published a story on 7th January about The Corals, a local pop group who hired Cirencester’s Corn Hall on New Year’s Eve to attempt a world record of playing popular music without repeating a tune. They played for 11½ hours so did indeed smash the previous record of 10 hours.

What was not reported (because nobody knew) was that the drummer, Colin Flooks, would later become world famous as Cozy Powell, playing with bands like Black Sabbath as well as with Brian May and other famous performers. Colin was in my class (1B) when we started at Cirencester Grammar School in 1959.

World events:  Indira Gandhi was elected Prime Minister of India and was sworn in on January 24; and the Radio Caroline ship Mi Amigo ran aground on the beach at Frinton-on-Sea.

< Nov 1965 – Jan 1966 >

January 1961 (65 years)

I was studying a range of subjects in Class 2B, including Latin for a second year. The photo shows the cover of one of my exercise books. We began in years 1 and 2 with a wide range of subjects, but these changed after the second year, I was not doing well with Latin so discontinued it at the end of the summer term in 1962.

World events: Monetary reform in the Soviet Union devalued the Ruble, 10 old Rubles equalling 1 new Ruble; and a Soviet submarine (the S-80) sank in the Barents Sea, killing all 68 crew.

< Dec 1960 – Jan 1961 >

January 1956 (70 years)

The third year of my time at Querns School continued into its second term. Christmas and New year were already done and we were starting to look forward to Easter, and beyond it the long summer holiday.

I was in the third year at Querns School (my junior school). I was excited as I was seven-years-old now and feeling much more confident with school work, the environment and my fellow pupils. But it was still good to go home at the end of the school day to eat a meal with Mum, Dad and Cindy (we called it tea, dinner was the midday meal). Sometimes before bedtime we’d have a cup of hot chocolate or Ovaltine as a bit of a treat. If you had something to eat in the evening it would be supper. Perhaps if we’d been out all day we might have fish and chips in newspaper. Now that was a treat!

Fridays were special because they were followed by Saturday and Sunday when there was no school at all. All day to play in the garden with Linda and Graham Watts from next door, or walk to the little shop near the Golden Farmer pub to buy bacon or a loaf of bread for Mum and perhaps some sweets. Mr and Mrs Watts had a TV and often we’d go round to watch Whirlybirds or The Lone Ranger. Click on the link, choose an episode, and watch!

World events: The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ended in Sudan after 57 years; and Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser vowed to reconquer Palestine.

< Dec 1955 – Jan 1956 >

January 1951 (75 years)

The Korean War was in full swing, and I remember Dad getting his RAF kitbag out of the loft and going away to Kent for a week or two to train on the latest Radar systems. I don’t know when this happened, of course or even if it was in 1951. The Korean War ran from June 1950 to July 1953 and it seems to me that Dad’s absence for training was before Cindy was born in October 1951. It makes sense that if they were going to retrain people they’d have done it early during the war.

World events:  The UK announced abandonment of the Tanganyika groundnut scheme; and in West Germany, Ilse Koch, wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, was sentenced to life imprisonment.

< Dec1950 – Jan 1951 > (Jump to 1930s) (Jump to 1971)

January 1946 (80 years)

In January, Dad was receiving tobacco from Lilias as well as from Bob and Betty (Mike’s brother and sister-in-law). His Uncle Herbert (his Father’s brother) had left him a £50 legacy in his will. He had a bad dream about Lilias on 3rd/4th.

On 7th he had a second flight in the Avro Anson and photographed the runways from the air. By 10th he was worried because he’d had no recent letters from Lilias, a letter came on 11th to say she’d been ill. He had a further hour in the Anson and this time was given a chance to try the controls (he would have so loved that!) On 16th he heard that his friends Joe and Dorothy were engaged to be married. He watched quite a few films during January as well. Mike also took photos of the Anson, a Stirling, and his garry (lorry).

World events: The first meeting of the United Nations was held, at Methodist Central Hall Westminster in London; and Project Diana bounced radar waves off the Moon, measuring the exact distance between the Earth and the Moon, and proving that communication is possible between Earth and outer space.

< Dec 1945 – Jan 1946 >

January 1941 (85 years)

There’s not enough information to write something for every month in the 1940s. Mike’s diaries start in January 1943, so for January 1940 to December 1942 I’ll write about things I know, or draw on dated photos and documents. Sometimes I might use a photo or document with a guessed date.

Mike would have been 15 and still at school, possibly at Cirencester Grammar School or perhaps already at Rendcomb College just north of Cirencester. His older brothers were all serving with British forces in the Second World War. His father was managing the family business (John Jefferies & Son Ltd) on his own with help from some paid staff, but even these would have been in short supply due to the need for fighting men. It must have been a difficult time.

World events: Australian and British troops defeated Italian forces at the Battle of Bardia in Libya; and the US ambassador to Japan, reported to Washington a rumour overheard at a diplomatic reception, concerning a planned surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

< Dec 1940 – Jan 1941 >

1930-1939 (95 to 86 years ago)

Anything that appears in this section will have some connection with the 1930’s but may extend beyond the decade to follow a meaningful topic more fully.

Cirencester traditionally had a town carnival every August. These petered out and were discontinued, I think in the 1970s. The photo shows the Carnival Queen and her attendants in the 1939 Carnival.

The Carnival procession made its way through the Market Place and along Dyer Street and then Victoria Road to a field at Watermoor where there would be tents, amusements and fairground rides.

This photo taken 95 years later in December 2025 is seen from the same angle. I thought there’d have been no mill here in the 1930s, but the photo was made from a footbridge that’s still there and is in daily use as part of Riverside Walk. There is no mill here today, though, so there’s a fuller story to discover if and when anyone has the time and inclination to dig a bit deeper.

World events (January 1931): The cyclotron was invented (used to accelerate sub-atomic particles to study nuclear physics). (January 1936):  Radium E (bismuth-210) became the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.

<< 1930s >> (Jump to 1800s) (Jump to 1951)

1900-1929 (125 to 96 years ago)

As with the 1930s material, everything in this section will have a connection of some kind with these two decades.

Mike (my father) was born on 4th June 1926. The photo shows him with his father, my grandpa, Ted. The album holding this photo probably belonged to Mike’s older brother, Dick and this page is clearly marked 1927. The trees in the photo are leafless, so we can date the photo to wintertime which would put Mike at around 18 months old.

The second photo was on the same page so is also from 1927. It might have been a warm day in October, perhaps, and was taken in the back garden of Churnside, 37 Victoria Road.

World events (January 1921): The first recorded public performance of the illusion of “sawing a woman in half” was given at the Finsbury Park Empire variety theatre in London. (January 1916): WWI: Paris was bombed by German zeppelins. (January 1911): Robert Falcon Scott‘s British Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole arrived in the Antarctic and established a base camp at Cape Evans on Ross Island. (January 1906): HMS Dreadnought was launched, sparking a naval race between Britain and Germany. (January 1901): Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. 

<< 1900-1929 >>

1800-1899 (226 to 127 years ago)

This month I thought I’d provide a pen picture of Alice Freeth (later Jefferies) who married John Jefferies . Alice was born in 1810 in the village of Minety and baptised on 5th August 1810, her parents were Robert and Elizabeth Freeth. I do have some photos of her, but can’t find them right at this moment. I’ll add one later as and when.

Family connections

• Parents – Robert and Elizabeth Freeth of Minety
• Born – July/August 1810 (baptised 12th Aug 1810)
• Died – 29th December 1893
• Married, around 1842 or 1843) – John Jefferies of Somerford Keynes
• Siblings – Unknown
• Children – William John (1844), John Edwin (1845), Alice Mary (1847), Edward (1849), Julia Anne (1851), Henrietta (1854), Agnes Henrietta (1855)

John and Alice moved to Cirencester, perhaps when John took over the Gregory Nursery business or maybe before that while he was still employed by Richard Gregory. In any case, the census for 1881 records them as living at Minerva Villa in Cirencester. Although we don’t have a marriage date, Alice and John’s first child was born in June 1844 so it’s likely they married in 1842 or 1843 when Alice was in her early thirties and John about 30. Henrietta died as an infant aged just one month, so that would have been a time of great difficulty and sadness for them both.

World events (January 1881): Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell formed the Oriental Telephone Company. (January 1861): The first steam-powered merry-go-round was in use in Bolton. (January 1841): David Livingstone left Britain for Africa. (January 1821): Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen discovered Peter I Island in Antarctica. (January 1801): The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created and the Irish Parliament abolished.

<< 1800-1899 >> (Jump to top) (Jump to 1930s)

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Blast from the past… 37

A photo of William John Jefferies
Jump to 1800s

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September 2025 (3 months before publishing this article)

Small Group got started again after the summer break. This is a discussion group, part of CBC but run by my friends Al and Chris Booth. I’m not part of CBC but I am part of the Small Group and that suits me just fine.

I did a short canal walk with Phil and Al, both friends from the Small Group. The weather was a bit mixed but we enjoyed the walk with coffee and a light lunch at the half way point at Ebley Mill.

Donna and I walked around the centre of Cheltenham as she wanted to do the Lion walk. Some of those lions are amazing!

JHM: I conducted an AI experiment; and wrote about Rachael’s jigsaw. World events: Charlie Kirk was assassinated in Utah; and a UN investigation found that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.

< Aug 2025 – Oct 2025 > (Jump to 2010)

June 2025 (6 months before publishing)

We visited Blenheim Palace, in part to look at the flower show that was on, and in part to explore aspects of the palace that we’d not seen before. We took a good look around the Winston Churchill exhibition (Churchill was born in the palace and spent a lot of time here, it was one of his favourite places).

But we also explored the parkland around the house, a wide expanse and very beautiful too as you can see from the photo.

JHM: I wrote about the apostolic gift; and about the complex water flows in Cirencester. World events: India launched several missiles into Pakistani territory in response to an earlier attack; and the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 was held in Basel, Switzerland.

< May 2025 – Jul 2025 >

December 2024 (1 year before)

Donna ran a 10 km race at Westonbirt School; she was among the final finishers, but she did it. With a large field of experienced club runners, she did really well and deserves plenty of kudos for all the training and effort she put in!

The start date for our heat pump installation slipped to 6th January, so we’ll have to manage without central heating until half way through January. We still have the gas fire in the lounge, of course, and we have several convector heaters too.

A bonus this month was that I got a photo of the kingfisher perching on the barbed wire outside Cirencester’s outdoor swimming pool. Although it’s a little fuzzy, it’s the best image I’ve obtained of the kingfisher so far.

JHM: I wrote about a dark sky in bright sunshine; and our Christmas Cactus in flower. World events:  Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris reopened to the public following extensive repairs after fire damage in 2019; and  a car was driven into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany.

< Nov 2024 – Jan 2025 >

December 2023 (2 years)

Sadly, it was no longer possible to keep Erin alive any longer and I buried her in a carefully recorded spot in the garden (one of her favourite summer sleeping spots).

We visited Chastleton House, partly because we wanted to see the house and grounds, but particularly as we wanted to look at the amazing plaster ceilings for which the old house is so famous. We were not disappointed! The photo shows the largest of these extraordinary ceilings.

Shortly before Christmas a huge lime tree fell across the Gloucester Road between Cirencester and Stratton, demolishing a section of the Cotswold wall on the west side of the road, taking out a big chunk of the hedge on the east side, and almost crushing a passing car. The driver must have had a very narrow escape.

JHM: I wrote about Russia’s war in Ukraine; and about season’s greetings in a puddle. World events:  Google DeepMind released the Gemini Large Language Model which will be integrated into Google’s existing tools, including Search; and in the Gaza war, the death toll passed 20 000.

< Nov 2023 – Jan 2024>

December 2020 (5 years)

Walking in Cirencester Park near Barton Farm, I passed this medieval dovecote, the oldest building still standing in Cirencester apparently. What a delightful and wonderful old structure!

I had a really good phone chat with my friend Jim who lives near St Neots. His daughter Bethany has completed training as a nurse, following in her mum’s footsteps.

During a heavy storm on 23rd, we had leaks through the dining area rooflights, but a local builder, Trevor Rowlands, was exceptionally helpful and covered up the rooflights with waterproof sheeting, weighing it down with heavy timber and brick which worked well as a temporary fix.

Donna and I walked into Cirencester park to look at the elephants. There’s been a whole herd of a hundred of them in London, but three are currently on loan to the park.

JHM: I posted on the ingredients of kindness; and how truth matters. World events: The Arecibo Telescope of the Arecibo Observatory collapsed; and the UK became the first nation to begin a mass inoculation campaign against COVID-19 using a clinically authorised, fully tested vaccine, the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

< Nov 2020 – Jan 2021 >

December 2015 (10 years)

We drove to York to spend some time with Debbie, Beth and their families. As always, it was great to see everyone and exchange presents, now a long-standing tradition. There was the annual Nativity play in Thorganby, Sara was Mary this year.

And, of course, we also drove down to Broadstone to see Donna’s parents and meet Paul and Vanessa with more presents to exchange.

And on 28th, Ele and Jonathan tied the knot in grand style, so December was a really busy month one way and another. Three long journeys for us, but all of them well worth the time and effort.

World events:  OpenAI, a non-profit artificial intelligence research company, was founded; and SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 rocket, the first reusable rocket to successfully enter orbital space and return.

< Nov 2015 – Jan 2016 >

December 2010 (15 years)

On holiday in Gran Canaria, we drove up into the central mountains on 1st December; the scenery was amazing. We were surprised to get a view of Mount Teide about 120 km across the sea on Tenerife.

I finally made the move from Windows to Ubuntu on 13th December. No more Windows licence fees, no more expensive software, everything I need in one free installation – the operating system, office suite, image editing, everything, all at zero cost. I was well pleased. Then, a few days later we had a heavy snowfall.

We set off in the snow to drive to York, but most of the way the roads were completely clear of snow.

The 5th Cornerstone Directors’ Meeting was held on 7th November. It wasn’t clear if Paul wanted to have directors or not, our advice and suggestions seem to cut across his own plans, but he’s in difficulties and could do with help and advice. We decided he needs to be clear about his wishes.

JHM: I wrote about technology for writing on a hair; and about our holiday in Gran Canaria. World events: Comet Hale Bopp was found again around 30.7 AU away from the Sun; and the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring began.

< Nov 2010 – Jan 2011 > (Jump to 1970) (Jump to top)

December 2005 (20 years)

We drove down to Broadstone to Visit Donna’s Mum and Dad just before New Year’s Eve and Paul and Justine who were also there at the time. It was good to see Paul again, he’s always been one of my favourite people.

An extra Unilever Portal page was needed for Colworth, so I was working on that, but also I’d been tasked with managing the spreadsheets involved with the costs of Colworth mobile phone calls and that was proving much more difficult. Not only was I unfamiliar with Microsoft Excel, but the systems for charging departments were not easy either.

I’d been travelling down to visit Mum and Dad, often on a Friday, and not long before Mum’s Hospital admission Dad had asked me to pray with them. I think he knew Mum had little time left. I knelt down between them as they sat in the front sitting room at Churnside and each held one of my hands and we prayed together, I think for safety, blessing, peace and Jesus’ guidance. Then I left to drive home, and that was the last time I saw my Mum while her mind was still active.

Shortly afterwards, Mum had a couple of major strokes and was in Cheltenham General Hospital on 30th December, though she seemed to be no longer conscious or aware. The photo shows the hospital with Cleeve Hill in the background. Dad was of course distressed by this and the entire family rallied round. Donna and I made our way down to join them all. The hospital was very helpful, finding a room we could all rest in and even stay overnight to be with Mum and Dad as much as possible.

World events: Scientists announced the creation of mice with small numbers of human neurons to model neurological disorders; and an extra second was added (23:59:60) to resynchronise calendar time to atomic clock time, last required in 1998.

< Nov 2005 – Jan 2006 >

December 2000 (25 years)

We had a WebForum meeting in Amsterdam. The photo shows Phil Briggs (Briggsy) reading a newspaper on the plane, probably from Cambridge Airport to Rotterdam. We’d have completed the journey by train from Rotterdam to Amsterdam. Pete Keeley also came with us on this trip. My initial development of a temporary WebForum for Unilever Research sites was going to be replaced with a much improved version to be developed for us by INFO NL, a software developer in Amsterdam. INFO NL demonstrated their web site development software and we discussed early mock-ups of the appearance and functionality we would require.

Donna and I both worked for Colworth’s Data Sciences group. I was in the Knowledge Systems Group (KSG) while she was in Statistics. Data Sciences held a Christmas Party each year and anyone working there in 2000 will recognise the people in the photo.

World events: The third and final reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was shut down and the station was now closed down completely; and the 20th century and the 2nd millennium both ended.

< Nov 2000 – Jan 2001 >

December 1995 (30 years)

This was a difficult month for all of us as Judy became weaker and weaker and was unable to do anything for herself. She was stuck in bed and quite unable to get downstairs, even with considerable help. The exceptions were when Tony, Faith, Paul and Jenny visited for a meeting. Judy protested that we should continue meeting downstairs no matter what, so Tony and Paul carried her down in the wheelchair for the meetings and back up afterwards.

Reading through my journal entries during the last week or two of December reminds me of many details I’d forgotten. Judy tried to hide her pain, not only from me, Debbie and Beth, but also from Dr Boyles and the nurses. But once we understood this Dr Boyles was able to keep her comfortable without knocking her out entirely – a good outcome.

Our friend, Bev Foster agreed to take the coming funeral service at the crematorium when the time came, and Judy was pleased about that. On 26th Judy woke me several times to say she needed the loo, but it was far too late every time. This provoked a decision to insert a catheter. Judy died at two minutes past midnight on 28th December with my Mum and Dad, me, Debbie and Beth all gathered around the bed. In the end she just stopped breathing. I phoned the on-call GP who certified the death, and then called Britten’s Undertakers to collect the body. None of us felt like sleeping, so we watched the newest Wallace and Gromit film, A Close Shave, which Judy would have absolutely loved. we were in bed by 02:00 and slept like logs until the morning.

On 29th I drove into Clevedon to register the death and later began phoning round to make arrangements for the funeral and everything that needed to be put in place. It all came together quite easily and very satisfactorily.

World events: NASA’s Galileo Probe entered Jupiter’s atmosphere; and the Dayton Agreement was signed in Paris, officially ending the Bosnian War,

< Nov 1995 – Jan 1996 >

December 1990 (35 years)

Debbie had a major role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Backwell School on 15th December.

We spent Christmas Day and Boxing Day with Judy’s parents in Charlton Kings, then on 27th we visited Cirencester to see my Mum and Dad. We tried to ring the changes a bit, sometimes spending Christmas in Cirencester, sometimes in Cheltenham, but rarely at home in Yatton. Before leaving for Cheltenham, on 23rd December we’d spotted goldcrests and bluetits in our back garden in Yatton. Hungry birds in the winter often appear in gardens where food may be more available.

World events:  Channel Tunnel workers from the United Kingdom and France met 40 metres beneath the English Channel seabed; and Slobodan Milošević was elected President of Serbia in the first round of voting.

< Nov 1990 – Jan 1991 > (Jump to 1970) (Jump to 2010)

December 1985 (40 years)

Judy made and decorated a cake for her Mum and Dad’s 40th wedding anniversary and we drove up on the day to give it to them.

Around this time (I’m not sure exactly when) it was clear my gibberellin localisation work was not going anywhere, and Long Ashton management decided I’d be better employed helping with the electron microscopy lab supporting Richard Pring who needed an assistant. My extensive background in light and fluorescence microscopy made me a promising candidate and I was happy and relieved to take on the role. We had a Philips 505 scanning electron microsope (SEM) with a cryo attachment for work with frozen samples, and a Hitachi transmission electron microscope (TEM). Staff from other departments at Long Ashton, and visiting workers would often need microscopy work done and would either want help and advice with using the instruments or perhaps need someone to do the work on their behalf. So it was an interesting job socially as well as technically.

Debbie and Beth remained at school in Yatton and we were living at 80 Stowey Road.

World events: The first Unabomber victim, Hugh Scrutton, died in Sacramento; and the naturalist, Dian Fossey, was found murdered in Rwanda.

< Nov 1985 – Jan 1986 >

December 1980 (45 years)

I couldn’t find anything for December 1980. This photo is believed to date to 1980 based on its position in Judy’s photo albums, it looks like a dull but warm day in summertime. There’s a for sale sign in the garden which is puzzling because we moved house in August 1985 and Beth looks far too young. In summer 1980 she would have been two. Perhaps the sign was for Mike and Mary Low’s house next door at the end of the terrace. I’m pretty certain they moved some years before we did.

As with all the shops in Cirencester, John Jefferies and Son’s would have been busy leading up to Christmas with customers buying gift vouchers, pots of Hyacinths forced for Christmas flowering, and Christmas wreaths for front doors, and of course, the essential bare-rooted Christmas trees in a range of sizes, also local people ordering Interflora deliveries to far-flung friends and relatives.

Judy and I were busy collecting suitable things to put in Debbie and Beth’s tights to hang up on Christmas Eve. We didn’t pretend that Father Christmas was real, we explained that it was all a bit of fun, and it was mums and dads who filled the children’s socks; but we also told the girls that some of their friends might think he was real and they shouldn’t disappoint them as that was OK too.

I remember being about three or four myself and walking along the footpath between Queen Anne’s Road and St Mary’s Road with Dad and my younger sister Cindy. I said to Dad, ‘Father Christmas isn’t real, is he Daddy?’ Dad just put his finger to his lips and said, ‘Shh, we’ll talk about it later’, and we did. It didn’t occur to me to ask, ‘So… who eats the mince pies and the carrot, and drinks the sherry, then?’

World events:   Four American Catholic missionaries were murdered in El Salvador; and Mark David Chapman was arrested following the murder of John Lennon.

< Nov 1980 – Jan 1981 >

December 1975 (50 years)

Debbie turned 9 months old and by now we were well settled in our home in Rectory Drive, Yatton. We bought a twin tub washing machine that could be rolled out from under the kitchen worktop (it made washing nappies far easier), and our old cooker, fridge and double bed came with us from the flat in Bristol.

We were in Cirencester visiting my Mum and Dad on the day after Boxing Day (27th December). Probably we had been in Cheltenham on Christmas Day with Judy’s parents, perhaps splitting Boxing Day between the two families.

I have no photos for December 1975, but the two shots here in Cirencester’s Abbey Grounds were filed by Judy in one of her photo albums around that time. But, as Debbie pointed out to me, they must be a few years later than 1975.

World events: Wreck of HMHS Britannic (sunk by a German mine in 1916) was discovered by Jacques Cousteau; and  six people kidnapped delegates of an OPEC conference in Vienna.

< Nov 1975 – Jan 1976 >

December 1970 (55 years)

Judy began her temporary work at a Bristol department store during the Christmas/New Year rush when they needed additional help. The photo shows Broadmead as it was in 2005, the two large buildings near the top were Jones’s (left) and Lewis’s (centre) in 1970.

By this time we were well settled in our bedsit in Linden Road and saving as much as possible so we’d be able to buy some furniture once we moved to an unfurnished flat. We would need quite a lot, dining table and chairs, a sofa, easy chairs, a cooker, fridge, washing machine, kitchen stools, a TV and something to stand it on, the more we thought it through the more it seemed to add up. Most of it would have to be second-hand.

At work I was looking into the possibility of starting on a higher degree. It seemed possible I could do an MSc by research and write it up as a thesis; and one of the most promising lines would be pollination of a fruit tree other than apples which were already well-covered by Ray Williams and his team. One early contender seemed to be plum. My boss, Ken Stott was beginning to reduce his willow and poplar work in favour of helping with the pollination studies and it seemed we were going to buy an ultraviolet fluorescence microscope similar to the one being used to track apple pollen tubes growing in compatible and incompatible apple flowers. That would be perfect.

World events: The U.N. General Assembly supported the isolation of South Africa over its apartheid policies; and Paul McCartney sued to dissolve The Beatles legal partnership in the UK.

< Nov 1970 – Jan 1971 > (Jump to 1950) (Jump to 1990)

December 1965 (60 years)

The 6th Form went carol singing around the town. Judy and I shared a hymn book (the photo shows a similar version) so we could both keep one hand warm in a pocket. Judy put her school hymn book in my right jacket pocket and I held mine in my right hand so we could both see the words in the lamplight.

At the end of the event we all made our way home, but Judy forgot to recover her hymn book. I found it, of course, immediately after setting off for home (as soon as I put my hands in my pockets). I ran after her to hand it back but in the distance saw her disappear through the front door of her parent’s home at 69 Chesterton Drive. I walked on down and rang the doorbell. Her Dad answered the door, I explained that I was returning Judy’s Hymnbook, he thanked me, and I headed home. This was my introduction to Judy’s Dad; I already knew he was in the Police and had been a sergeant in Filton but was now newly promoted to Inspector, he seemed approachable and very matter-of-fact.

World events: The Glasnost Meeting in Moscow became the first spontaneous political demonstration in Russia; and Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 performed the first controlled rendezvous in Earth orbit.

< Nov 1965 – Jan 1966 >

December 1960 (65 years)

December saw the end of my first term in Class 2B at Cirencester Grammar School. Mum and Dad would have been preparing for Christmas, the cake was probably baked by now and it would have been undergoing regular drenching from below with sweet sherry (aided and abetted by numerous holes created by one of Mum’s knitting needles. Dad would have selected a well-balanced Christmas tree. Bonfire night had long since come and gone, the end of the school term would come next, and then it would be Christmas followed by New Year and then in January the second term in my second year at the Grammar School.

World events: A Soviet satellite containing the dogs Pcholka and Mushka, other animals, and plants was launched into orbit. Due to a malfunction, it burned up during re-entry; and Peter Pan was presented as a two-hour special on NBC in the United States. Rather than being presented live, it was shown on videotape, allowing repeats.

(If you really want to, you can watch this version of Peter Pan in its entirety.)

< Nov 1960 – Jan 1961 >

December 1955 (70 years)

I was in the third year at Querns School (my junior school). I was excited as I was seven-years-old and Christmas was getting close. Christmas was always fun, a decorated tree, presents from parents and grandparents, Christmas cake, Christmas pudding, sausages wrapped in bacon, a holiday from school. And, if you were lucky … snow!

The tree in the image was decorated in typical 1955 style. Tinsel hanging down like icicles, coloured balls, and early designs of electric lights, small but not tiny like today’s LEDs, often with moulded coloured glass in shapes of Father Christmas, reindeer, little pine trees, lanterns. And the presents stacked below – what would be inside those paper wrappers?! So exciting!

World events: The Montgomery bus boycott took place in Alabama; and sixteen nations join following the UN Security Council Resolution 109.

< Nov 1955 – Jan 1956 >

December 1950 (75 years)

Approaching 2½-years-old, Christmas must have been a huge surprise for me. I would not have retained many memories of the previous Christmas, and my understanding of all sorts of things would have improved dramatically as well. Christmas 1948 would have effectively passed me by, but Christmas 1950 would have been a revelation; presents to unwrap, the sound of tearing paper, the stickiness of sellotape, the smells of fruit cake, sherry, and the sounds of Christmas carols outside the front door must have been really striking! A tree with lights on it, tinsel, shiny balls hanging on the tree with miniature reflections. All the adults chatting and laughing would have seemed very different from their usual serious calmness.

World events:  Isaac Asimov published his science fiction short story collection I, Robot; and  Richard Nixon took office as a U.S. Senator from California.

< Nov 1950 – Jan 1951 > (Jump to 1930s) (Jump to 1971)

December 1945 (80 years)

December was a busy month. In addition to writing and receiving many letters and cards to and from family, friends, and of course Lilias, Mike watched some ENSA shows, and also films. Meanwhile he was taking part in an amateur Christmas play. He had a collision with an Indian army truck on 3rd and also was able to drive an Austin 10 Staff Car.

He went to communion on Sunday 9th and heard a service broadcast by the BBC from Cirencester Parish Church! He was picking up some local words in the Marathi language spoken in the Mumbai area, gadi sounds like ‘garry’ and was the word for a lorry, pani gadi sounded like ‘parny garry’, pani meaning water, and pani gadi was a boat (literally a water lorry).

By 18th December they were rehearsing their Christmas play ‘Round the Bend’ right through from beginning to end and everything was coming together. He had a chance to examine an American B-24 Liberator bomber with his friend Paddy. Christmas dinner was served by the CO and other officers. On 30th December he went swimming at Juhu Beach with Paddy, noting in his diary ‘water lovely and warm’.

World events: The United States Senate approved the entry of the USA into the United Nations by a vote of 65–7; and twenty-one nations ratified the articles creating the World Bank.

< Nov 1945 – Jan 1946 >

December 1940 (85 years)

There’s not enough information to write something for every month in the 1940s. Mike’s diaries start in January 1943, so for January 1940 to December 1942 I’ll write about things I know, or draw on dated photos and documents. Sometimes I might use a photo or document with a guessed date.

The top floor of John Jefferies & Son’s shop and office in the Market Place was entirely occupied by the Landscape Design Department. It was the domain of my Uncle John, born in 1907. I remember it in the 1960s as a large, open space filled with beautifully drawn plans of proposed gardens, some pinned on drawing boards, and many more rolled up and stored in cardboard tubes. John, and his assistant Desmond Walker, did the survey and design work, while a team of practical workers converted the designs into real gardens. Each site had to be cleared, the hard landscaping done first (building walls, laying paving, fitting gates, constructing rockeries), then trees, shrubs and herbaceous borders planted, lawns seeded and so forth.

From 1939 until 1945 or later, this work would have stopped. John joined the army as an officer and was away from home for a number of years. World War II was an unavoidable interruption for British businesses of all kinds. The armed forces required a great number of men and women, and inessential things like building gardens had to wait.

John was thirty-two-years-old in 1939 so he’d have done some garden design work before the war began, perhaps enough to become competent but not an expert. I remember helping him build a rockery somewhere south of Cirencester, probably in the Blunsdon/Highworth area north-east of Swindon from what I recall. This was much later, perhaps during a summer holiday while I was a Sixth Form student. I had thought for a time that I might consider the Landscape Architecture course at Pitville Pump Room in Cheltenham, but in the end studied Horticulture at the University of Bath instead. I remember the care and precision with which Uncle John manouevred large blocks of Costwold stone so that they aligned just so with their neighbours to give the impression of being part of an underlying natural outcrop. The angle of repose had to be just right.

I also remember that at one point his left wrist got trapped between a stone we were moving and one that was already in place. His watch glass was shattered though he was unhurt.

World events: British forces in North Africa began their first major offensive, attacking Italian forces at Sidi Barrani, Egypt; and Plutonium was first synthesised in the laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.

< Nov 1940 – Jan 1941 >

1930-1939 (95 to 86 years ago)

Anything that appears in this section will have some connection with the 1930’s but may extend beyond the decade to follow a meaningful topic more fully.

This time we’ll take a look at an aspect of the town rather than my family history. This is Barton Mill in the 1930s according to the OldCiren Facebook group where I found a copy of this photo. The mill burned down in 1926 and I had assumed it was never replaced, although the mill pound still exists in 2025.

This photo taken 95 years later in December 2025 is seen from the same angle. I thought there’d have been no mill here in the 1930s, but the photo was made from a footbridge that’s still there and is in daily use as part of Riverside Walk. There is no mill here today, though, so there’s a fuller story to discover if and when anyone has the time and inclination to dig a bit deeper.

World events (December 1935): The German Lebensborn program in support of Nazi eugenics was founded by Heinrich Himmler. (December 1930): All adult Turkish women were given the right to vote in elections.

<< 1930s >> (Jump to 1800s) (Jump to 1950)

1900-1929 (125 to 96 years ago)

As with the 1930s material, everything in this section will have a connection of some kind with these two decades.

In 1900, Watermoor was a recently but rapidly growing industrial area. It included the Cirencester Arm of the Thames & Severn Canal ending at Cirencester Wharf, Watermoor Railway Station, and an ironworks with its blast furnace, noted for its ability to cast large iron structures without cracks forming on cooling. Famously, the huge gear wheel for the rotating stage at the London Palladium was cast here. I wonder how they moved it to London?

The photo shows Watermoor Church in astonishingly open countryside. In the photo, the road ahead points the way north to Cirencester, becoming Cricklade Street at or near the junction with Lewis Lane and Querns Lane. In the other direction, it rejoined the old Roman route of Ermin Street heading towards Cricklade, Blunsdon near Swindon, and on to Marlborough. In this view Ermin Street would be a few tens of metres out of sight to the right

World events (December 1900):  Max Planck presented his groundbreaking paper on quantum theory to the German Physical Society in Berlin. (December 1905): In a Moscow Uprising a Bolshevik-led revolt was suppressed by the army. (December 1910): The second 1910 United Kingdom general election was the last to be fought with an all-male electorate and resulted in a majority for the Liberal Party. (December 1915): The 1 millionth Ford car rolled off the assembly line in Detroit. (December 1920): The confectionery company Haribo was founded in Bonn, Germany.

<< 1900-1929 >>

1800-1899

This time we’ll take a look at William John Jefferies, born in Cirencester 0n 8th June 1844 and my great-great-Uncle William. He married his wife Frances in 1894 and died in 1929 at the age of 84.

William had a huge role in building and expanding the family business he inherited from his father, John Jefferies. He was a real entrepreneur, someone with considerable drive, determination, and focus. He was a businessman through and through and he developed what was already a locally respected nursery business into a nationwide and even internationally renowned company. I suspect it might have been William who requested and obtained the title ‘Royal Nurseries’ This was a forerunner of the later ‘By Appointment to’ designation denoting high status businesses approved by and supplying royalty. It may also have been William who built the Warehouse (now flats) on what was then Tower Street Nursery and much later became the Forum Garden Centre. And it was likely William who developed the Garden Design Department and was behind the company’s presence at both local and national flower shows.

William built two houses in the Avenue. They were a semi-detached pair, he and Frances (Fanny) lived in the left half and his sister Julia in the right half. There was an interconnecting door between the two homes. On William’s death, Fanny moved in with her sister-in-law Julia. The houses still exist, William’s half is now The Avenue Surgery, part of Cirencester Medical Practice, the right hand property remains a private residence.

As William and Frances (Fanny) had no children, he took on his nephew, Edward Arthur Jefferies as his main assistant in running the company and Edward (often known as ‘The Governor’ or just Guv) continued managing the company on his Uncle William’s death.

Family connections

• Parents – (John and Alice Jefferies [nee Freeth])Jefferies)
• Born – 8th June 1844
• Died – 1929
• Married, 1894 – Frances (Fanny)
• Siblings – John Edwin (1845), Alice Mary (1847), Edward (1849), Julia Anne (1851), Henrietta (1854), Agnes Henrietta (1855)
• Children – None

World events (December 1800): The 1800 United States presidential election was a tie requiring a contingent election that selected Thomas Jefferson.
(December 1820): James Monroe was re-elected as US President, virtually unopposed. (December 1840): David Livingstone left Britain for Africa. (December 1860): Charles Dickens published the first installment of Great Expectations. (December 1880): The Battle of Bronkhorstspruit resulted in a Boer victory over the British.

(No earlier info) 1800-1899 >> (Jump to top) (Jump to 1930s)

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Blast from the past… 36

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August 2025 (3 months before publishing this article)

Kevin, Lariana, and her son Ruben (friends from St Neots) came to stay with us for a few days. They wanted to visit ‘The Farmer’s Dog’, so we sat outside and ate some of their excellent burgers.

We visited some of the Cotswold sights, walking in Cirencester, looking around Lower Slaughter and Bourton-on-the-Water.

Later in the month we spent a week on our family holiday in the Lake District. We had a grand, old house in Braithwaite just west of Keswick and enjoyed the local countryside and some lovely places to eat and drink coffee right in some of the best spots in this lovely part of England. And towards the end of the month we stayed near Tiverton with Isobel for a week – it was a busy August with a lot of holiday one way or another.

JHM: I wrote about some very small Police stations; and added a fifth part to the series on my journey to faith. World events: OpenAI’s  GPT-5 was released; and Donald Trump met Vladimir Putin in Alaska, to discuss a plan for resolving the conflict in Ukraine.

< Jul 2025 – Sep 2025 >

May 2025 (6 months before publishing)

It was Fern’s 16th birthday in May, and she’s our youngest grandchild. Sara expects to begin A level courses in September. They are all so grown up now! At the end of term, Mero will complete her first year at university, and Aidan took a year out to travel in South America and will start at York University when the autumn term begins.

At the end of the month we visited Donna’s brother Paul and his wife Vanessa in Weston-super-Mare, taking Isobel with us for the day. The entire summer seemed to have been fine and sunny, and sometimes just a little bit too warm.

It seemed like a good idea to rearrange my family history files by date instead of by topic, so I reordered everything and created virtual file and folder links for everything so that the data can be viewed in both ways. This seems to work well and will make it easier for other members of the family to find everything.

JHM: I wrote about crossing a bridge and continued the story of how I came to follow Jesus. World events: Friedrich Merz was elected Chancellor of Germany; and Robert Francis Prevost was elected Pope Leo XIV.

< Apr 2025 – Jun 2025 >

November 2024 (1 year before)

With colder weather on the way we needed to keep frost out of the greenhouse, so we ran an extension cable from the cabin to the greenhouse, put a plastic bucket over the reel to prevent water reaching it, and connected a heater set to just a few degrees above zero. This worked really well and even the more sensitive plants survived through the winter.

Donald Trump won the US Presidential Election, we found this hugely depressing and annoying. It seemed to us that at best he’s a loose cannon, and at worst he might become dictatorial. It’s not a great prospect so now we await February with some trepidation.

And we had water getting into our loft space from a leak around the chimney. It only happened in heavy, driving rain during storms from the south-west, at other times the roof space remained dry.

JHM: I wrote about the curious Spilhaus map projection; and a beautiful rose in the rain. World events:  Justin Welby announced his resignation as Archbishop of Canterbury; and  the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) was rediscovered in southeast Egypt, 5,000 years after it had been though to have died out.

< Oct 2024 – Dec 2024 >

November 2023 (2 years)

We drove over to Cotswold Airport for lunch at AV8, always a fun thing to do!

Ken Hudson’s funeral was on 15th, Ken was Donna’s Uncle, her Dad’s older brother. It was quite an occasion with a lot of family members turning up on the day.

SpaceX’s Starship had a good second test flight. It made significant progress over the first flight, with all 33 booster engines firing successfully for the full expected duration.

Donna’s cat, Erin, suffering with cancer, was still doing well on a second slow-release dose of steroids; this gave her a good and normal life for the time being. She was very much her old self, coming and going through the cat flap, and even play fighting with Donna again. A remarkable (and very welcome) thing to see.

JHM: I wrote about Chuck Pfarrer’s reporting on Russia’s war in Ukraine; and about Yaroslava Antipina’s very personal writing on the same topic. World events: The first AI Safety Summit was held in the United Kingdom, with 28 countries signing an agreement on how to manage the riskiest forms of artificial intelligence; and  The Beatles released ‘Now and Then‘, the band’s last ever song.

< Oct 2023 – Dec 2023 >

November 2020 (5 years)

We returned Tom Holme to Rugby for a scheduled MRI scan (he’d been living with us for a while) and we visited Westonbirt Arboretum on 12th, a sunny wintery day with some lovely autumn colours.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden was elected President of the USA.

Phil Reynolds and I did a long circular walk from Sapperton, taking in a nature reserve site where large blue butterflies are breeding successfully. I got a pretty photo of frost on stinging nettle leaves, and we also visited the Sapperton Portal of the Thames and Severn Canal tunnel.

World events: Safe and effective vaccines for COVID-19 began appearing; and an AI was developed to predict protein folding from an amino acid sequence.

< Oct 2020 – Dec 2020 >

November 2015 (10 years)

We took a short holiday in Somerset in late October and early November We stayed in ‘Ian’s Cottage’, visited Tyntesfield House near Clevedon (and recently given to the National Trust) and the lovely old town of Frome. We visited Bristol as well.

Our back fence blew down in strong winds, despite being sturdy and in quite good condition.

Over the weekend of 27th-29th I was at a Newforms Gathering in Lichfield’s Whitemoor Lakes Centre where I had a chance for a brief chat with Alan Hirsch. I don’t think I took full advantage of the opportunity, but he was kind and helpful despite being a bit jet-lagged (in the photo he’s just exiting on the right).

JHM: I wrote about science and religion. World events: Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet on the Turkish–Syrian border; and  COP21 was held in Paris.

< Oct 2015 – Dec 2015 >

November 2010 (15 years)

The 4th Cornerstone Directors’ Meeting was held on 1st November. We considered ways to reduce food waste and increase profits. We decided to increase customer numbers in the mornings and afternoons, and advertise the meeting rooms. Paul reported gross takings of £2000 per week, he also feels the kitchen is too small and volunteer staff are leaving, the reasons being the cramped and dirty kitchen and the tiring workload. I agreed to make documents available in a single place and our MP, Jonathan Djanogly would unveil the plaque on 12th November.

The Circus arrived in St Neots on 3rd (see the photo above taken through the window from Cornerstone).

We visited Yorkshire to see the family on 6th and 7th, going along to the fireworks display in Thorganby

JHM: I wrote about a wind-up torch; and fireworks and soup. World events: The G-20 summit was held in Seoul, South Korea. South Korea became the first non-G8 nation to host a G-20 leaders summit; and the European Union agreed to an €85 billion rescue deal for Ireland from the European Financial Stability Facility.

< Oct 2010 – Dec 2010 >

November 2005 (20 years)

Unilever Colworth’s Knowledge Systems Group (KSG) had moved to a new office upstairs in the New Foods Building. As I was part of KSG I had a desk in the new office, inside the glass partition on the right of this photo. It was a lovely place to work, the main entrance at the front opened onto a short, paved road and a view onto the park’s lawn and trees with the rear of the old house visible on the far side. It was like working in a modern office on a National Trust site!

At this time, KSG was in the throes of migrating all our websites to pages and portlets on Unilever’s new Portal intranet site.

I began moving my blog from Google’s Blogger platform to Squarespace, but in the end I didn’t get on well with the new software and reverted to Blogger. I redesigned the appearance in Blogger and was content with that new version until I made the switch to WordPress in July 2016. I was keeping up with current PC developments by buying PCW every month. Twenty years later all I need is a web browser!

I spent some time reading about Cirencester’s post-Roman history in the book ‘Town Origins and development in Early England’ by Daniel Russo. It seems that Romanised life might have continued here well after Roman forces were recalled from Britain.

JHM: I wrote about the house church phenomenon; and getting started with the new blog. World events: Andrew Stimpson was the first person cured of HIV; and the UN climate conference was held in Canada.

< Oct 2005 – Dec 2005 >

November 2000 (25 years)

On 19th we visited our friends Geoff and Dawn for dinner, other good friends were invited too, including Ken and Gayna seen in this photo. Geoff and Dawn were always very hospitable, and Geoff cooked amazing roast dinners.

We were both working for Unilever Research at their Colworth Laboratory in Sharnbrook, north of Bedford. Here, Pete Doe from the IT team is fixing something on my work desktop computer in Building 27, demolished later during my time at Colworth. My mobile phone and Psion palmtop are both visible on my desk, typical items of turn-of-the-century technology.

World events: The USA recognized the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; and Expedition 1 flew to the International Space Station (ISS).

< Oct 2000 – Dec 2000 >

November 1995 (30 years)

It was clear to all of our family and friends that Judy was nearing the end of her life. During November she was finding it hard to get downstairs, even with help. And her mind was being affected by the doses of morphine she was starting to take to control pain. This was sometimes quite amusing. One day I walked into the bedroom to find her tracing patterns of stems and leafy shapes on the duvet cover, talking about how they went round and round. Beth took her Oxford entrance exam on 13th, and when she had a letter confirming that she had a place as an undergraduate, Judy didn’t believe it, thinking instead that it had been forged by some of her school friends!

We had a lot of help from our friends, Tony and Faith, and Paul and Jenny, but also increasingly from our parents; my parents and Judy’s were both coming for a day once a week, making it far easier for me to get to work more often at Long Ashton.

Scott Russell at the University of Arizona, set up a mirror of my Microsopy web site on a sever there to reduce the load on the LARS server. I gave him FTP access to the folder on the LARS Windows NT box so he could set up a daily automatic file transfer.

At Long Ashton, we were considering a move to PC-TCP for networking our desktop PCs.

World events: The Indian government officially renamed the city of Bombay, restoring the name Mumbai; and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

< Oct 1995 – Dec 1995 >

November 1990 (35 years)

Judy’s Mum and Dad visited us on 10th November and we exchanged Christmas presents. We gave her Dad a copy of the giant book ‘Chronicle of the 20th Century’ and he said he’d ‘look forward to reading it in bed, a day a night’!

Our computing system at home was a Sinclair QL with a Sony green screen monitor, a basic ink-jet printer, and a twin 3½ inch floppy-disk drive. This was Sinclair’s follow-on from the Spectrum, it came with with a quite capable office software suite of word processor, spreadsheet, a functional database and a graphics package. I used it for programming and keeping track of finances, and we all used it for word processing.

World events:  There was a shake up in British satellite broadcasting; and Mary Robinson defeated odds-on favorite Brian Lenihan, becoming the first female President of Ireland.

< Oct 1990 – Dec 1990 >

November 1985 (40 years)

I was working in the Plant Science Division at Long Ashton Research Station in a rather futile attempt to locate the plant hormone gibberellin in frozen sections of plant tissue. It had been my idea to make the attempt, but I’d made little or no tangible progress. Judy was thriving as a biology teacher at Cotham Grammar School in Bristol (now Cotham School), especially enjoying teaching A Level and running field trips, often to Slapton Ley National Nature Reserve.

Debbie was 10 and Beth was 7, and both were doing well at school in Yatton where we were living at 80 Stowey Road.

World events: U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev met for the first time; and Microsoft released Windows 1.0 in the USA.

< Oct 1985 – Dec 1985 >

November 1980 (45 years)

John Jefferies & Son published their Christmas Hyacinth Gift Pack leaflet and order form (one of the last few years before closing the shop and selling the garden centre to Country Gardens). Here’s the order form that was circulated with the leaflet.

We were living at 22 Rectory Drive, Yatton. Debbie was five and Beth was two. Judy was at home with the girls on weekdays and I was still researching pollen and pollen tube growth at Long Ashton Research Station. We still had no car at this stage and I was cycling or motor cycling to work during the week.

World events:   Ronald Reagan of California defeated incumbent President Jimmy Carter and was elected the 40th President of the United States; and the NASA space probe Voyager I made its closest approach to Saturn.

< Oct 1980 – Dec 1980 >

November 1975 (50 years)

This photo of Debbie was taken on 1st November 1975. You can also see one end of the basketwork crib Judy made before Debbie’s birth, and the toys include film canisters, other jars, boxes and bottles, and some interlocking plastic shapes from Mothercare.

By this time, I was typing up the Horsecastle Chapel newsletter using waxed stencil sheets, and duplicating them on a hand-cranked Gestetner copying machine. This was a job previously done by one of our friends, Joe Stickland, and eventually we moved the machine to our loft to save moving it backwards and forwards.

Later, I began buying extra wax stencils and A4 paper and printing off copies of our own newsletter, ‘Community Spirit’, with announcements about Fountain engagements at local churches, larger meetings in the area that we wanted people to know about, and so on.

Judy often made her own clothes by buying patterns, buying the fabric and cutting out and sewing dresses to save money. In the photo she’s making curtains for our lounge/diner at 22 Rectory Drive in Yatton.

The photos are in black and white because colour film was expensive, but I could buy 35 mm B&W film in bulk, cut it to length, fit it into old film cassettes, and develop it myself to produce negatives. Then at work there was a darkroom with an enlarger so I could also buy photographic printing paper, processing chemicals and stay at Long Ashton in the evening after work to make enlargements at very little cost.

World events: The Treaty of Osimo was signed between Italy and Yugoslavia, resolving their dispute over Trieste. A majority of the land area and residents became Italian; and  in the Madrid Accords, Spain agreed to hand over power of the Spanish Sahara to Morocco and Mauritania by the end of February 1976.

< Oct 1975 – Dec 1975 >

November 1970 (55 years)

Dad’s radio and B&W TV licence fell due on 2nd November and I still have a copy of the new one. They wrote down his name incorrectly as Mr E J Jefferies, but the address is correct and the large fee of £6 was received (around £83 today). A colour TV licence would have been a lot more expensive.

During November we left Long Ashton and moved into our newly acquired bed-sit at 59 Linden Road in Bristol. It was a lovely part of the old city, an easy stroll from the front door to the glorious open spaces of the Downs. The bedroom had a comfortable double bed but I don’t recall what else was in that room. Presumably there was a wardrobe and a chest of drawers, and maybe some bedside cabinets.

Ken Stott was helping Ray Williams with his work on apple pollination, and I was interested in the fluorescence microscopy this entailed, so I started to take every opportunity to help with this where possible.

I mentioned the sitting room last month with its curious cupboard-cum-kitchen. I think there was a B&W TV set and Judy had brought along her reel-to-reel tape recorder so we could listen to music.

Opening the big cupboard doors in the sitting-room revealed the kitchen sink, a Baby Belling stove, and a range of storage cupboards as well as shelves in the doors themselves, so opening the doors until they stuck out into the sitting room at right angles provided a kitchen with ‘walls’ on three sides and a rectangular work area with a tiny worktop between the cooker and the sink. It was adequate – just. It was also fun because it was so weird.

The loo and bathroom were shared with the people in the bed-sit the other side of the stair well. We used the loo because, well, you have to. But we avoided the bath because the gas geyser puffed smutty blobs of soot into the bath. Instead we resorted to all-over flannel washes at the kitchen sink. It was not a great place to live, but it was all we could afford and we planned to move to an unfurnished flat as soon as we could afford it. Also in November, Judy began work at one of the department stores at Broadmead. This provided additional income and our finances began to improve little by little.

Our savings had all but vanished so the first week’s rent was a struggle and we had little to eat, but Judy was paid weekly while I was on a monthly salary so we survived on Judy’s income for four weeks and then the bank balance improved dramatically at the end of November with my first full month’s salary, and after that everything was hunky-dory.

At Long Ashton I was appointed in the first instance as an Assistant Scientific Officer (ASO) to help with growth studies in tree and basket willows. I worked with Christine Jago, (so two Chris Js doing the same work which was rather amusing). Mostly we took annual measurements of breast-height girth and height of the trees as these were standard forestry commission measures from which timber volume could be calculated. Our boss, Ken Stott, was interested in finding the willows and poplars that would put on the most volume annually. There were possibilities for using dried wood chips as a green energy source for electricity generation.

World events: The Soviet Union landed Lunokhod 1 (a surface rover) on the Moon; and The six European Economic Community prime ministers met in Munich to begin a programme of European Political Cooperation (EPC),.

< Oct 1970 – Dec 1970 >

November 1965 (60 years)

Judy and I were completely devoted to one another by this time. We used to agree to meet up in town on Saturdays, often in Woolworths in Cricklade Street (now split in two as Mountain Warehouse and another shop next door). We would just happen to turn up at about the same time and would soon be in conversation while vaguely looking at gloves or possible Christmas presents for family members. The photo shows the famous PicknMix in 1975, ten years later than our visits.

I had not met Judy’s family yet, but she would often pop in to Churnside for tea and a biscuit after school before heading home on her bike. Sometimes she’d push the bike (or I would) and we’d walk up to Chesterton Park where she lived at number 69 with her parents and younger brother, Frank. I was never invited in at this stage though, I think she knew her Dad would joke about us and wanted to put that moment off as long as possible.

Granny’s 86th birthday was on 6th November, she seemed really old but was still fit and could walk from her flat to the Market Place or round to Churnside and back with no problem at all. As she walked back to her flat in The Avenue she would always turn round and wave at the corner between Victoria Road and The Avenue.

I was 17, Cindy was 14, Ruth and Rachael were 9 and 8 respectively, and I was becoming more confident driving except in heavy town traffic. At the time, Dad had use of an Austin Countryman belonging to the family business. It had a steering column gear shift which was unusual but not a problem to learn on.

World events: Martial law was announced in Rhodesia. The UN accepted the British intention to use force against Rhodesia (if necessary) by a vote of 82 to 9; and Craig Breedlove set a new land speed record of 600.6 mph (966.6 km/h).

< Oct 1965 – Dec 1965 >

November 1960 (65 years)

Granny was had her 81st birthdy on 6th November, Mum and Dad were 32 and 34 years old, I was 12, Cindy was 9, Ruth was 4 and Rachael just 3. I was learning Latin for several lessons a week, definitely not my favourite subject. I was now in my second year, in Class 2B at Cirencester Grammar School. My favourite subjects at this time were maths, history, English grammar, chemistry and physics. Major dislikes in addition to Latin were English literature and PE.

There’s really little more to say about this month in my life. I took no photos that I’m aware of, and there are no diary entries or other documents in my collection.

World events: The US Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy was elected to become, at 43, the second youngest man to serve as President of the United States; and Belgium threatened to leave the United Nations over criticism of its policy concerning the Republic of the Congo.

< Oct 1960 – Dec 1960 >

November 1955 (70 years)

Granny turned 76 and seemed to me to be very old indeed. As I write this I’m well on the way to 77½! I was aged 7 in 1955 and was in my second term of the third year at Junior School. We were living at 17 Queen Anne’s Road on the Beeches Estate.

Although I have no photos or documents, I can write about some things that happened regularly in those days. The Corona lorry came round once a week with bottles of brightly coloured fizzy drinks. You could hand in empty bottles to get a small reward, perhaps just a penny, and we often bought three or four new bottles, especially in the summer months. I well remember the captive porcelain stoppers with a red rubber seal that hinged out on a spring steel wire mechanism and could be reconnected with a strong push at just the right angle. And I remember the ‘pop’ emitted when a new bottle was opened. (Later, bottles with screw caps replaced the captive porcelain stoppers. Also, I recall the glass hemispheres covering the upper, sloping part of the bottles, these always fascinated me as a child.

World events: C. Northcote Parkinson propounded ‘Parkinson’s law‘; and the British Governor of Cyprus declared a state of emergency on the island.

< Oct 1955 – Dec 1955 >

November 1950 (75 years)

I’m sure I would have enjoyed my second Bonfire Night on 5th November. Maybe some of the loud bangs might have made me nervous, but the brightly coloured lights in the sky would have seemed amazing.

World events:  There was an attempt to assassinate U.S. President Harry S. Truman; and a U.S. Air Force B-50 Superfortress bomber jettisoned and detonated a Mark 4 nuclear bomb over Quebec, Canada. The bomb was not fitted with its plutonium warhead.

< Oct 1950 – Dec 1950 >

November 1945 (80 years)

Although Mike had been assigned to a lorry driving job, he also writes that he had a chance to operate a Type 22 mobile radar and took photos of an Avro Anson twin-engined RAF plane. He also watched a number of films and attended an ENSA show. Letter writing to and from the family in Cirencester continued, as well as regular letters to and from Lilias in Coagh, and some to his friend Joe.

There was an Armistice Day church parade on 11th November. He received his driving licence and was glad to hear the news that Joe and Dorothy were to be married.

On 15th he drove to Bombay and back, and he began meeting with others about the Christmas entertainment on the base. He got a 1½ hour flight in an Avro Anson near the end of the month.

World events: The first clock radio was marketed, the model 8H59 Musalarm; and the foundation of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) was agreed at a meeting in London.

< Oct 1945 – Dec 1945 >

November 1940 (85 years)

There’s not enough information to write something for every month in the 1940s. Dad’s diaries start in January 1943, so for January 1940 to December 1942 I’ll write about things I know, or draw on dated photos and documents. Sometimes I might use a photo or document with a guessed date.

This time we’re going to take a look at the top floor of the Jefferies shop in Cirencester’s Market Place. This entire floor was the Landscape Design Office, it was led and managed by my Uncle John, the oldest son of my Grandpa, Edward Arthur Jefferies. My Dad, Mike, was the youngest son. John was born on 9th March 1907

This time we should take a look at Siddington Nursery, just a few miles south of Cirencester and very close to a short ladder of locks on the old Thames & Severn Canal. It’s actually quite likely that trees and shrubs from Siddington Nursery would have been despatched to more distant customers by canal in the early 1800s before Cirencester’s railways became available.

You can see from the map (click it to enlarge) that the nursery was divided into three parts by wide east to west avenues and divided again roughly at right angles by three smaller tracks. The northernmost wide avenue was planted with large specimen ornamental trees. It’d badly overgrown in 2025, but some of these trees still live and can be identified. In the 1950s and 60s when I was a child much of the original planting was still clearly visible, not just trees and shrubs, but also large clumps of bamboo and spring-flowering fruit trees too.

The central north-south track was originally planted with demonstration beds of smaller shrubs and other specimen plants, beautifully maintained. When I was young it was just a workaday route for tractors and other equipment.

There was a packing shed with a phone extension to the company shop and offices in Cirencester Market Place and I recall a large store of straw reaching up high, almost to roof level. My sister Cindy and I used to climb up this stack and slide back down. No doubt it was intended as packing material for the bare-rooted trees and shrubs that were produced at Siddington Nursery. And at the far end of the track at the southern end of the site was another shed for the grey Ferguson 35 tractor, a hand-guided ‘Hayter’ for cutting down long grass and weeds, as well as harrows and discs and a rotovator for connection to the tractor for cultivating land before planting.

World events:   In the Battle of Elaia–Kalamas at Epirus, outnumbered Greek forces repelled the Italian Army; and the Royal Navy launched the first aircraft carrier strike in history, on the Italian battleship fleet anchored at Taranto.

< Oct 1940 – Dec 1940 >

1930-1939 (95 to 86 years ago)

Anything that appears in this section will have some connection with the 1930’s but may extend beyond the decade to follow a meaningful topic more fully.

Dad’s brother Richard had the final office on the first floor, next to the General Office. His office was quite small, and the old wooden desk was large. Richard (my Uncle Dick) kept paperwork, his basic filing system was that older items were stacked below newer ones, and as he never cleared his desk, a wall of old paperwork grew higher and higher. Eventually, opening the door to see if Dick was in his office became utterly pointless as he would be hidden by the high stacks of paperwork!

Read last month’s entry for more details of the switchboard. The browser’s back arrow will return you here afterwards.

World events (November 1935): After 11 years in exile, George II returned to Greek soil as King of Greece. (November 1930): a pathologist at the Sheffield Royal Infirmary in England, achieved the first recorded cure (of an eye infection) using penicillin.

<< 1930s >> (Jump to top)

1900-1929 (125 to 96 years ago)

As with the 1930s material, everything in this section will have a connection of some kind with these two decades.

Perhaps it’s time to meet some of the Cirencester Jefferies family from the first couple of decades of the 20th century.

John Jefferies was born and baptised in Somerford Keynes in 1818 and grew up there as a child. I suggest this photo was taken in the late 1800s, perhaps when he was in his mid to late 60s. His older brother, Bradford, would have taken on the family farm in Somerford; so John needed to find work and he took a position with Richard Gregory in Cirencester. Richard Gregory’s father started the Nursery business in Cirencester in 1795, and John was appointed to help with the practical management. Richard Gregory lost money over a bad debt and had to leave the area; John Jefferies, seeking legal advice, was told he should continue running the business and wait to see what would happen. It turned out that he not only continued running the business, but also became the new owner.

John married Alice Freeth and they had a number of children. William John was born in 1844 in Cirencester, John Edwin in 1845, Alice Mary was born in 1847 at 7 Dyer Street, Edward was born on 13th May 1849, and Julia Anne was born on 2nd January 1851. John retired in 1892 and died in 1904; you can read his obituary online (click your browser’s back button to return here). His son, William John Jefferies, ran the business after John’s retirement and inherited it after his father’s death.

The story of John Jefferies does belong partly in 1900-1929 since he died in that period. But next month I’ll add a new section to cover 1800-1899.

Family connections

Father () Mother ()
Siblings
Children – William John, John Edwin, Alice Mary, Edward, Julia Anne

World events (November 1900):  Herbert Kitchener succeeded Frederick Roberts as commander-in-chief of the British forces in South Africa.  (November 1905): In a Moscow Uprising a Bolshevik-led revolt was suppressed by the army. (November 1910): The first air flight for commercial freight delivery took place in the USA. (November 1915):  Albert Einstein presented part of his theory of general relativity to the Prussian Academy of Sciences. (November 1920): In London, The Cenotaph was unveiled and The Unknown Warrior was buried in Westminster Abbey.

<< 1900-1929 >>

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Blast from the past… 33

Photo from the Old Ciren group on Facebook

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May 2025 (3 months before publishing this article)

I invited my friend Mark to the Small Group barbecue at Bernard and Vivien’s in Berryhill Road. He enjoyed the food as well as the chance to meet and chat with some new people. Al, especially, enjoyed talking with Mark.

On 16th we took Donna’s Mum, Isobel, to the Old Prison Cafe in Northleach; it’s one of the places we like to visit from time to time as it’s not very far from home and is in relaxing surroundings. You can still visit the old prison cells, but they don’t look relaxing at all!

Paul and Vanessa visited for the day on 18th. We met them at Lynwood in the Market Place for coffee and cake and then back at our house for lunch, with Isobel as well. We chatted in the afternoon round the dining table and then on the patio.

JHM: I wrote about a footbridge in Bedford; and part two of my faith journey. World events: Friedrich Merz was elected Chancellor of Germany; and Robert Francis Prevost was elected as Pope Leo XIV.

< Apr 2025 – Jun 2025 >

February 2025 (6 months before publishing)

While going through some items from storage boxes I came across this old hunting knife, it has an antler handle and a leather case and I used it as a teenager as a scout knife. But I think it was given to me by an uncle who might have acquired it from his days in the British Army during World War 2. But wherever it came from, it’s not an object I could legally carry around while walking the streets in 2025!

The snowdrops in Painswick’s Rococo Gardens looked lovely as they always do in season. Every year there are more, partly because gaps are being filled by natural spreading , and partly because additional areas are being planted up.

We had some issues with the new heat pump, mostly due to incorrect wiring during installation, but the engineers came back quickly to make fixes. The heating seemed better and better as time passed and we got to grips with the lifestyle changes – like using a summer duvet in the winter.

JHM: I wrote about truth and facts; and about an asteroid heading our way. World events: The Baltic states synchronised their power grids, connected to Europe and disconnected from Russia; and Thutmose II’s tomb was discovered.

< Jan 2025 – Mar 2025 >

August 2024 (1 year before)

We visited Springhill on our way north to Portrush. Mum used to talk about this old house and garden which she really loved. It was the home of William Conyngham who founded the village of Coagh where Mum was born and grew up.

We were on holiday with my daughters and their families, this time in Northern Ireland. On 7th we set out from the house and walked east along the coast to visit Dunluce Castle. Only Aidan and I went inside as we arrived near to closing time, but itwas well worth seeing.

It’s a magnificent coast as you can see from the photo, there are beautiful beaches and rugged cliffs along the way. So it was a memorable walk. The second image shows some of us near the start of our expedition, on Portrush’s east beach with the town in the background. As always, click the thumbnail for a larger version. Read more about our holiday.

Back at home later in the month, I decided to finally close down my account on X. Back in the day when it was still Twitter I used it a lot and enjoyed the conversations, but in its later form it became full of unpleasantness and anger. I had already found a better, more friendly home in Bluesky – so goodbye X.

JHM: I wrote about a Roman office desk; and a visit to Dublin. World events:  Ukraine invaded Russia’s Kursk oblast; and  The World Health Organization warned that Monkey pox was of international concern. 

< Jul 2024 – Sep 2024 >

August 2023 (2 years)

Beth and Paz celebrated their silver wedding this month, a grand achievment!

And we also had our family summer holiday, this year in Scotland. Beth, Aidan, Meredith and I made our way from the ski-lift car park to the summit of Cairn Gorm, but were unable to go further because of heavy cloud. On the way up we were lucky enough to spot a small herd of reindeer.

We visited a freshwater beach at Loch Laggan, a very strange thing to see, with patches of grass and seedling conifers growing in the sand.

We stayed in a big, old house in the village of Newtonmore. It held a few surprises for us, for example taking a shower caused water to drip through the ceiling in the dining room! But despite the quirks, we loved the house and the area.

Donna and I visited Boat of Garten where friends from near Cirencester were visiting family. Also in August, I went for a walk through the Beeches Estate where we lived until I was eleven-years-old; it brought back a lot of memories and I was able to jot them all down later when I got home.

JHM: I wrote ‘Blast from the past 9’; and an article on starting our North Coast 500 adventure in which we saw a mermaid! World events: Ocean warming reached a new record high temperature of 20.96 °C; and India’s Chandrayaan-3 was the first spacecraft to land near the south pole of the Moon.

< Jul 2023 – Sep 2023 >

August 2020 (5 years)

Beth, Debbie and their families camped at Siddington. It was lovely to have them so close and to be able to pop out to spend time with them. in the photo you can see several members of the family and my sister, Cindy.

Paul and Vanessa came to stay for a long weekend and we did a circular walk from Snowshill, then we went to stay at their flat in Weston-super-Mare to look after the dogs while they were away. The photo shows Vanessa, Maizi, Paul and Donna.

And finally, Thomas Holme came to live with us for a period of time, starting on 22nd.

JHM: I updated my article Introducing Matthew. World events: There was an enormous explosion in Beirut; and the number of COVID cases worldwide passed 25 million.

< Jul 2020 – Sep 2020 >

August 2015 (10 years)

We went to a ‘Wings and Wheels Day’ at Old Warden airfield, not far from home in St Neots. It was amazing, with a series of vintage aircraft flying and vintage cars on display, and with a picnic as well. Donna booked the occasion well in advance, and as it turned out the weather was perfect.

The cars and trucks were a mix of civilian and military vehicles from throughout the twentieth century, some from before World War I. And many of them were in the air or driving about, often flown or driven by people in period costume. It was an amazing day!

Also in August – I released a new version of JDMC, Ed and Jo were married, Peter and Dadka came to live with us for a while, and we had a visit from Beth, Paz, Meredith and Verity. Quite an eventful month.

World events:  Debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was found on Réunion; and  large accidental explosions in China killed and injured over 1000 people.

< Jul 2015 – Sep 2015 >

August 2010 (15 years)

The Cornerstone cafe and bookshop opened for business in St Neots; after a lot of hard work by many people guided mainly by our friends Keith on the construction side and Jim on catering. We were able to hand over to Paul who had provided the original idea and most of the funds, and a series of volunteers for the day-to-day running of the business. Cornerstone also offered a small meeting room for local businesses and clubs, and a comfortable space for conversation or counselling. The first directors’ meeting would follow on 1st September, involving Paul, Jim, Donna and me, and Mark.

We visited Broadstone near Poole to see Donna’s Mum and Dad. There was a naval display on, with ships off the coast and Royal Navy planes and helicopters in the air as well and we ate later at a local pub.

And finally, our Swedish friend David came for a short visit.

JHM: I reviewed ‘The End of Religion‘; and published my Bible reading plan. World events: WHO declared the H1N1 flu pandemic over; and Julia Gillard’s Labor government was re-elected in Australia.

< Jul 2010 – Sep 2010 >

August 2005 (20 years)

Donna’s church cell group went to an open air music event in Bedford, in the photo we were enjoying picnic food with our friends before the music began. A few weeks later the cell group went Greyhound racing, another fun social event.

Towards the end of the month, I looked around Loves Farm on the edge of St Neots with our friends Ken and Gayna. Archaeological excavations were going on where a new area of housing and facilities were to be constructed. Iron Age, Roman, and Saxon remains were discovered and recorded on the large site. It seems clear that this land had been farmed continously from Iron Age times right up to today. The Roman well in the image was carefully lined with stone, and ancient ditches were clearly visible as bands of darker soil across the site with several roads and trackways also identified.

World events: The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched; and the first joint China–Russia military exercise began.

< Jul 2005 – Sep 2005 >

August 2000 (25 years)

Donna travelled with her Open Door cell group to the New Frontiers annual event at the National Agricultural Showground at Stoneleigh; I drove up for the day on 1st August. The photo shows the book and music shop.

Knowledge Systems Group (KSG) met for lunch at the Beds Arms in Souldrop close to Unilever Research, Colworth. We often went there and played table skittles, a game local to the Northampton, North Befordshire area. Three ‘cheeses’ are thrown at the skittles and apart from that, the rules are very similar to normal ninepin skittles.

Other events this month were a visit from Donna’s Mum and Dad and a weekend with my Mum and Dad at Cirencester. We also visited Cindy and Paul at Bibury and I travelled to Amsterdam for a Unilever meeting on an intranet website, Research onLine.

World events: The Russian submarine Kursk sank in the Barents Sea; and  Tsar Nicholas II and his family were canonized .

< Jul 2000 – Sep 2000 >

August 1995 (30 years)

Beth worked hard on her A-level biology project with help and advice from Judy. Debbie was well into her University degree work. Beth appears again in the distance in the second photo. It was a very hot and dry summer, vegetation was scorched, even deep-rooted trees were suffering and grass everywhere was dry and brown.

Judy was still mobile and capable, leading a pretty normal life, though clearly losing weight and often suffering a little discomfort. I continued at Long Ashton Research Station, working for the Statistics and Computing Department and independently developing a Microscopes and Microscopy web site as a resource for professional microscopists. It was developed on my PC at home, and at first hosted only on the Long Ashton web server, but later a microscopist at an American University asked if he could mirror it for faster service in the US and after that it ran on both servers.

Meeting regularly with Tony, Faith, Paul and Jenny was becoming more and more special. Every time we all felt encouraged and peaceful, knowing that whatever the future held, everything would be OK.

It was around this time that Judy began collecting up all her old photos, putting them in albums, and and writing short notes about when, what and who appeared in the images. She was also getting them into date order as far as possible. Clearly she was planning ahead for me, Debbie, Beth and other family members. I’ve always been very appreciative of this, especially as I write these notes for the Blast From the Past series.

World events: Aided by NATO, Bosnian and Croatian forces continued to fight Serbian seperatists; and Eduard Shevardnadze survived an assasination attempt.

< Jul 1995 – Sep 1995 >

August 1990 (35 years)

Debbie returned from her French exchange visit on 8th and we collected her from Lulsgate Airport. She had lots to tell us about her trip and had brought back some souvenirs including a huge French banknote!

Later in the month we visited the Forest of Dean and walked via Biblins Bridge to Symonds Yat where we crossed the river by the rope ferry, stopped for ice-creams, and returned to the car by the same route. And at the end of August we enjoyed a time at the Bristol Flower Show up on Clifton Down, and a trip on the North Somerset Steam Railway.

World events: Iraq invaded Kuwait, leading to the Gulf War; and East and West Germany announced they would unite on October 3.

< Jul 1990 – Sep 1990 >

August 1985 (40 years)

We had a holiday at Ogwen Bank in North Wales. Debbie and Beth are sitting just outside our caravan in the photo. The site was close to Bethesda so we were able to visit lots of interesting places all over Snowdonia

One of the places we visited was Benllech Beach, lovely sand and rocks as you can see. I’ve always enjoyed messing around at the seaside, especially building miniature dams. So there were three kids on the beach and one adult – Judy, who took this photo.

Amongst other things we visited a working slate museum, a woollen mill, The island of Anglesey with its sea zoo and butterfly house, a couple of castles and more. Judy and the girls visited Port Meirion while I stayed at the caravan and worked on an Open University (OU) course.

Apart from the OU courses which ran through the summer, August was always a great time for family life. The girls were on holiday, so was Judy, and we were able to go out for day trips as well as have a week or two away somewhere.

World events:  A Japan Air Lines Flight crashed, killing 520 people; and a British Airtours Flight suffered an engine fire on the runway at Manchester Airport, fifty died during evacuation.

< Jul 1985 – Sep 1985 >

August 1980 (45 years)

Beth was interested in the cat, while the cat seemed to be interested in the paddling pool! And the sandpit in the background appeared to have been the scene of a nasty tractor accident. Just an ordinary summer day at 22 Rectory Drive.

Beth was just 2¼-years-old and Debbie was five and a half. Judy was considering beginning a teaching career having earned her qualification before Debbie was born while we were still living in our flat in St Andrew’s, Bristol. I was working at Long Ashton Research Station on fruit crop pollination, mostly on apples and plums; and I also had a week away at an Open University summer school.

World events: Hurricane Allen pounded Haiti, killing over 200 people; and the Gdańsk Agreement was signed in Poland allowing the free trade union, Solidarity.

< Jul 1980 – Sep 1980 >

August 1975 (50 years)

Debbie turned five months old and was growing quickly in both size and ability. She was developing better coordination, holding things and beginning to interact with adults and distinguish between them.

We started to get the house tidier and items put away. We had much more floor space than at the flat and although our furniture was the same it seemed lost in a large space rather than crammed together. We had only the old, green carpet we’d brought with us; it had filled the lounge/diner at the flat, now it just covered the dining area! Every other section of floor was bare boards, including the stairs, but the kitchen retained the covering left by the previous owners.

I began cycling to work from Yatton to Long Ashton, for a couple of years I’d been used to cycling from St Andrew’s, Bristol. What a change! No more dangerous, heavy traffic to contend with, instead a longer but much more relaxing trip through attractive countryside and the villages of Claverham and Backwell.

World events:   The Helsinki Accords recognising Europe’s national borders and human rights, was signed in Finland; and  NASA launched the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.

< Jul 1975 – Sep 1975 >

August 1970 (55 years)

Judy was away on holiday for two weeks in the Lake District with her parents and brother, Frank. She took this photo at Watendlath Packhorse Bridge near Keswick.

Judy and I were planning for our wedding in early October, there were just some finishing touches to put in place really, but we didn’t want to run out of time.

Pete, a good friend from University, discovered the Ministry of Agriculture were empl0ying graduate students to interview farmers during the summer of 1970. We signed up for this survey work as we both had our own transport, and spent several weeks driving around the Cotwolds with the questionnaires interviewing the farmers and some of their employees. We lived at Mum and Dad’s house in Victoria Road as our base of operations. Part of the time they were on holiday in Northern Ireland with my sisters so Pete and I looked after the place while they were away.

World events: The Soviet Union launched Venera 7 towards Venus; and rubber bullets for riot control were used for the first time.

< Jul 1970 – Sep 1970 >

August 1965 (60 years)

This was the month of the Grammar School Explorers Club expedition to Scotland, organised and led by one of my biology teachers, Mr Castle. I was one of two sixth formers who travelled with him in his Bedford van with the lighter equipment (the heavy stuff went by train). Graham and I camped just outside Edinburgh while Mr Castle returned by train to travel north again with the fourth and fifth form members of the expedition. Most of us would travel by coach while Mr Castle brought the van and equipment. Graham and I were assistant leaders.

We walked up the Dee Valley into the Cairngorms, then to Ben McDhui and Cairn Gorm, descending along the ski lift route. We visited Pitlochry for a night or two and then to Mallaig and the ferry to Skye where we viewed the Cuillins from Elgol beach and went to the Portree Highland Gathering. After a night at the coral beaches, we returned to the mainland to visit Fort William and walk to the top of Ben Nevis.

It was quite a journey and an experience I shall never forget.

World events: Singapore left the Federation of Malaysia; and U.S. President Johnson established Medicare and Medicaid.

< Jul 1965 – Sep 1965 >

August 1960 (65 years)

Our annual holiday this year was in Northern Ireland, staying at Holmlea in Coagh, Co Tyrone with Mum’s parents. The photo was a brief stop near the Spelga Dam in the Mountains of Mourne during a day out. I had scrambled up the steep bank and took this image of Dad taking a photo of Mum and my younger sisters, Ruth and Rachael, Granda is sitting in the car. Granny and Cindy may have still been in the car as well. How did we all squeeze in for the trip? Ruth and Rachael were small enough to sit on an adult lap, probably with Mum and Granny.

We’d have done a number of trips out like this one, almost certainly including a day at the seaside at Portrush, maybe a trip to see the Giant’s Causeway, and definitely visits to Cookstown and to Mum’s cousin on the farm at Killycurragh on Slieve Gallion. The first (and only) time that I milked a cow was at Killycurragh, but what I remember most was high tea, where the table with its white cloth groaned under a huge choice of delicious food, much of it home grown and home made.

World events: The Beatles began a 48-night residency at the Indra Club in Hamburg; and Russia launched  Sputnik 5 carrying two dogs, mice and rats, and plant specimens. All the animals returned safely after a day in orbit.

< Jul 1960 – Sep 1960 >

August 1955 (70 years)

In August we visited Windsor Castle, I don’t remember this trip although I was seven-years-old at the time.

Mum sent the postcard to her younger sister, Annabelle, and wrote on the back,

‘Christopher & Cynthia couldn’t take their eyes off the soldiers & had to send you this picture so that you could see them too. Wish you were all with us. Much love from us all. Your loving Sister, Lilias.’

World events: Hundreds die in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria; and the first edition of the Guinness Book of Records was published.

< Jul 1955 – Sep 1955 >

August 1950 (75 years)

I needed a photo for the summer of 1950 but couldn’t find one. I’m guessing this is a bit more recent, perhaps between 1950 and 1960; but it does capture business life in Cirencester in that era. In those days there were no supermarkets, you would have visited a variety of small bakers, butchers, grocers, greengrocers and so forth. Barnett’s was one of these.

Charlie Barnett was a famous test and county cricketer, born in Gloucestershire. When he retired from cricket, he set up a business in Cirencester, selling fish, game, and more exotic items such as seagull eggs. The photo shows him working in his shop.

We must have been settling into our new home in Queen Anne’s Road at this time. There were probably boxes to unpack, clothes to put away, as well as the normal household chores of laundry; and for Dad there’d have been the task of getting the garden area tidy, clearing weeds, removing building rubble, stones and so forth, and planning a garden.

World events:  North Korea’s Air Force was largely destroyed by anti-communist forces; and  Uruguay beat Brazil 2–1, to win the 1950 World Cup.

< Jul 1950 – Sep 1950 >

August 1945 (80 years)

On 2^nd August Mike had the bad news that he was being posted overseas. He had to rush to get Lilias to Cirencester as fast as possible, perhaps something they’d planned to do a little later.

He arrived in Stranraer on 3^rd and was in Coagh on the evening of 4^th. By 7^th they were on the train south from Stranraer. On 8^th his mother, Nor, met them at Cheltenham Station with the car and Mike drove them home. They then had five clear days to enjoy time together in Cirencester and around the south Cotswolds until Mike was required back by the RAF on 14^th. But this was a really good day because the victory over Japan was announced and the war was finally over. Medicals, inoculations, and the issuing of tropical kit took almost two weeks; then there was a final twenty-four hour period when he was able to get back to Cirencester to see Lilias and his parents, and the last three days of August were spent on duty in Blackpool waiting for a ship to become available.

World events:  Winston Churchill supported the idea of a pan-European army; and  Pope Pius XII declared evolution to be a serious hypothesis that does not contradict essential Catholic views.

< Jul 1945 – Sep 1945 >

August 1940 (85 years)

There’s not enough information to write something for every month in the 1940s. Dad’s diaries start in January 1943, so for January 1940 to December 1942 I’ll write about things I know, or draw on dated photos and documents. Sometimes I might use a photo or document with a guessed date.

For August 1940 I’m going to write about another of the John Jefferies & Son nurseries, this time a very small one, the Abbey Nursery. The medieval Abbey owned a great deal of land, not just in the town but in the surrounding countryside. Part of the Abbey’s land lay inside City Bank, and part of it formed the Abbey Nursery. It had a shed for equipment, and cinder block bins for sand, grit, gravel and other garden materials. The bins are still there, just inside the gate on the left. Today the land is a nature reserve and is open to the public.

All Cirencester people will know where City Bank is. As the name might suggest, it has to do with a city (which Cirencester is not). But in Roman times its predecessor Corinium was a large and important city only exceeded in size by Londinium, present day London. In the later years of Roman Britain, most cities aspired to a wall, perhaps defensive, or perhaps just a way to demonstate high status. So there was a city wall. In medieval and later times, the useful cut stone was robbed from the old walls and used to build the town anew. What was left of the old walls was a bank of tumbled stone and soil, covered with grass and scrub, hence City Bank, not City Wall.

In 1940 and up until John Jefferies and Son’s nurseries gradually fell out of use from 1975 onwards, the Abbey Nursery was used mainly for growing Christmas trees for sale in November and December, but was also the storage site for the Cotswold stone and paving slabs used by the landscape construction part of the business.

In August 1940 my father, Mike, was nine-years-old and lived with his parents at ‘Churnside’, 37 Victoria Road. His Father, Edward (Ted, Guv, or ‘the Governor’) was 60 and his mother, Norah (Nor) was 61. His brothers, John, Richard (Dick), and Robert (Bob) were 33, 30, and 27 respectively.

World events: Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were annexed by the Soviet Union; and the Royal Air Force bombed Berlin for the first time.

< Jul 1940 – Sep 1940 >

1930-1939 (95 to 86 years ago)

Anything that appears in this section will have some connection with the 1930’s but may extend beyond the decade to follow a meaningful topic more fully.

Uncle John and Auntie Jo were married on 15th September 1932. John was my father’s oldest brother, born in 1907 and 19 years older than his little brother. This is a large gap between the oldest and youngest in the family so it seems my Dad may have been an unexpected late addition!

John and Jo lived at 4 Tower Street, Cirencester; it was a three-storey town house and the features I remember most were a floor to ceiling mirror in the narrow hallway which made the narrow space look much more spacious, and the front reception room with a stone fireplace. There was a fine collection of hand-bells on the mantelpiece, collected over the years it seems and not a set, but nevertheless, in tune with one another. I remember a long passageway with the kitchen at the far end and a little, shady garden beyond that. The floor above must have contained bedrooms and a bathroom, but the top floor was the most exciting as there was a storage room at the front with all sorts of intriguing items discarded from everyday use. An Aladdin’s cave! John and Jo’s daughter, Jill, was my godmother so I was invited round from time to time. She always had something interesting for me to see or fun activities to do.

John and Jo had a poodle (one of the larger kind). He was called Gigot and I remember Auntie Jo collecting the wool when he was clipped and storing it year by year until there was enough to be washed, carded and spun into yarn. Gigot was a mid brown colour and she knitted herself a cardigan from the wool!

As a young child I always found Uncle John a bit solemn and aloof, even a little bit scary, but of course he was quite good fun in many ways if perhaps a little on the serious side. He became Chairman of Cirencester Urban District Council, almost but not quite the Lord Mayor. Cirencester had no mayor in those days, though today it does, and the chain of office is still the one once worn by John.

When my grandfather died, John and his brothers Dick and Bob took over John Jefferies & Son as directors. John’s role had long been managing the landscape design and construction side of the business, using the entire top floor over the shop in Cirencester Market Place as the design studio. I remember Desmond Walker who helped as John’s deputy in the design office. Desmond lived right next to Tower Street Nursery and had a mulberry tree in his garden.

World events (August 1935): The volcanic island of Anak Krakatau began to form permanently in the Sunda Strait. (August 1930): United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act into law.

<< 1930s >>

1900-1929 (125 to 96 years ago)

As with the 1930s material, everything in this section will have a connection of some kind with these two decades.

My father, Mike, was born on 4th June 1926. He would almost certainly have been born at home – Churnside, 37 Victoria Road, Cirencester. His parents were Edward Arthur Jefferies and Norah Jefferies (nee Monger), usually known as Guv or Ted and Nor. Mike had three much older brothers, John, Dick and Bob (19, 17, and 15 years older). Because he was a bouncy baby, his brothers called him ‘Tigger’ and this stuck. He was still known as ‘Tig’ by the brothers and by his parents while they were still alive. Churnside would itself have been fairly new when Dad was little, the house is Edwardian and was built shortly before Guv and Nor were married. This and the house next door are semi-detatched so were built as a pair, I believe they were the first houses on this section of Victoria Road.

World events (August 1900): International troops entered Peking to free European hostages during the Boxer Rebellion. (August 1905): Norway voted to break from the union with Sweden. (August 1910): Japan formally annexed Korea. (August 1915): In the First World War Gallipoli campaign, the Battle of Sari Bair was fought.

(No earlier info) 1900-1929 >>

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