Category: Cirencester

Part 40 – Blast from the past

The Lauriston Hotel

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December 2025

On 2nd December Donna and I visited Bristol and Clifton Golf Club for the annual Christmas dinner for retired Long Ashton Research Station (LARS) staff. It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces, older of course yet clearly still the people I remembered. Of course, as we age we all change under the influence of new experiences, getting to know so many new friends and aquaintances, yet all the old patterns and habits are still there, faces instantly recognised, voices still sounding the same, facial expressions just as remembered from decades previously.

There were some glorious skies during December. I captured this view on the evening of 12th, walking around Stratton. In December the sun sets early here in the UK where the latitude is fairly high.

JHM: I wrote about an amazing photo of a volcano in Chile; and considered the effect of fog. World events:  EU leaders approved a €90bn ($105bn) loan for Ukraine for the next two years; and Israel became the first country to recognize Somaliland.

< Nov 2025 – Jan 2026 > (Jump to 2011)

September 2025

I did a canal walk along part of the Stroudwater Canal with my friends Al and Phil. We began by taking a look at Dock Lock, east of Stonehouse, It was under repair as the canal restoration steadily heads towards Saul Junction where the waterway will be reconnected to the national canal nework.

We walked from Dock Lock right into the centre of Stroud, stopping for lunch and coffee next to the Canal at Ebley en route. It was mostly dry with the odd shower.

The second photo shows Albion Street in Stratton where a lovely double-rainbow jostled for attention with telephone cables and local properties.

JHM: I wrote about clouds reflected in water; and about a wooden jigsaw. World events: There was a serious funicular derailment in Portugal; and a UN inquiry found that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.

< Aug 2025 – Oct 2025 >

March 2025

On 15th Donna dropped me off at the Daneway Inn at Sapperton and I walked east along the short section of the Thames and Severn Canal to the tunnel portal. I then walked the above ground course of the canal tunnel to Sapperton, through Hailey Wood and on to the Coates portal following the canal again as closely as possible to Siddington, and then along the Cirencester Arm to meet Donna in town and walk back to Stratton together. It was a 15 mile walk in all as I diverted several times to see the canal at various points where it’s not possible to follow the towpath.

I had my laptop rebuilt and had it back on 5th, now with a 2 TB SSD and the original HDD for internal backup. I hooked it up to our Wi-Fi and began streaming data back from Dropbox.

Another task this month was to transfer the Gumstool Brook website fully over to Nick Henderson. This was completed on 21st and it’s a relief to have passed on the responsibility.

Aidan was travelling and exploring in Columbia this month, very adventurous and exciting for him. He seemed to be doing well, making some friends with other young people doing much the same thing, and having a generally awesome time.

JHM: I wrote about a new terraced garden at Blenheim Palace; and installing our heat pump. World events:  The Trump administration paused military aid to Ukraine; and Israel launched widespread aerial bombardments and attacks on the Gaza Strip.

< Feb 2025 – Apr 2025 >

March 2024

I took this photo of the Lauriston Hotel in Weston-super-Mare where I stayed for a week with my parents and grandparents when I was about two-years-old.

I ordered a refurbished Google Pixel 7 phone to replace my old Pixel 3, and I continued scanning photos and documents. Paul and Vanessa visited with the dogs, I took them to see the old amphitheatre but it was too muddy. We bought a second-hand ‘Rollator‘ from Minchinhampton for Isobel so she can sit down at a moment’s notice if she comes over dizzy.

On 16th we visited the Newt in Somerset where the reconstructed Roman Villa was amazing to visit. It’s complete, based on the ground plan of the remains of an original nearby and built using methods that would have been familiar to Roman builders. It’s complete with mosaic floors, an upstairs section, and wall paintings, furniture etc in the Roman style as well. The Master’s office looks as if he’s just been called away and might return at any moment. Amazing!

World events:  Sweden officially joined NATO; and an Artificial Intelligence Act was passed by the European Union.

< Feb 2024 – Apr 2024 >

March 2021

We were beginning to see the first signs of relaxation of the strictest rules of COVID-19 isolation here in the UK. After isolation and 20 million vaccine doses, hospital admissions, and total numbers of patients were both beginning to fall. I got a bit of decorating done while some restrictions remained in place; the photo shows a first coat of primer/undercoat on a door frame in the hallway.

SpaceX seemed to be doing well now. Starship SN10 landed rather heavily, caught fire, then later blew up. SN11 was nearly ready to make another attempt within a few weeks, hopefully without the explosion! And I was busy updating the MainEvents files.

We visited Paul and Vanessa in Weston -super-Mare and sat chatting in their garden, we can only do this because we’re in the same COVID ‘bubble’, regulations are due to ease further soon and we’ll be able to start meeting outdoors with friends and family more often and more freely.

World events: Pope Francis met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, Iraq. The first-ever meeting between a pope and a grand ayatollah; and the number of COVID-19 vaccinations administered worldwide exceeded 500 million.

< Feb 2021 – Apr 2021 >

March 2016

There was flooding in St Neots as the Great Ouse spilled out over the surrounding low-lying land. This happens quite often, one year in four or five and usually in the winter or spring. It rarely causes damage as most buildings are above the danger area.

We were meeting regularly with Roger and Carolyn’s Small Group on Tuesdays, these were fairly open and flexible meetings, almost always with a shared meal. sometimes at our house, Roger and Carolyn’s, the Bresnen’s, Leanne’s, or at the Open Door Office in Eaton Ford. Meetings at the office were becoming more common, and at someone’s home rather less so, a trend I regretted. I was also meeting regularly with Jim and Kevin, and sometimes Sean would join us as well. At a meeting on 9th I gave some thought to what it means to be sons of the Most High. How come some sons (or daughters) can be leaders. elders or teachers, but others not; how can one son or daughter have some kind of authority over other sons or daughters?

We were helping Peter and Dadka in practical ways, and also our friend Darryn who was living in our flat up at Stone Hill. Dadka got a new job at Lidl’s in Eaton Socon and Peter returned to work driving the concrete mixing lorry following recovery from a leg injury.

We also visited our friends Ken and Gayna in Yoxford on 26th, we don’t get to see them often these days so this was a special opportunity not to be missed. On 27th we visited Melford Hall, an Elizabethan building, though parts of the building are much older, going back to before 1065.

JHM: I wrote about Ben Scott and the Calais camp; and about Belgium’s pain. World events: Barack Obama visited Cuba, the first time a sitting US president had visited the island since Calvin Coolidge in 1928; and Radovan Karadžić was sentenced to 40 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity.

< Feb 2016 – Apr 2016 >

March 2011

Walking along the bank of the River Great Ouse, I got some great photos of common reed flower heads (Phragmites australis). So delicate and pretty, especially when lit from behind on a bright, sunny day. They might be very effective (with their long stalks) for removing cobwebs from high corners around the house. Some time I might harvest a few to try.

Further upstream I got another nice shot, this time of the River Mill Inn in Eaton Socon.

We visited Debbie and family on 12th for her birthday. It’s always good to see them. Beth and Paz also came over so we saw the entire family and I did a short walk with Paz across the local fields.

Towards the end of the month preparations began for a new footbridge across the River Great Ouse between Eaton Socon and the secondary school and Tesco Extra in Eynesbury.

JHM: I wrote about a gathering at Moggerhanger; and thought about a blessing and a curse expressed in the beatitudes. World events: An earthquake in Japan caused a tsunami damaging several reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant; and protests across Syria sparked the Syrian Civil War.

< Feb 2011 – Apr 2011 > (Jump to 1971) (Jump to top)

March 2006

We had the ceilings and walls plastered in the passageway to the back door, the guy who did the work was cheap but did an awful job, even plastering over cables and so on, I was appalled! We decided to let him finish, pay him, and then decide what to do next. And the old wooden footbridge from Riverside Park to Eynesbury was about to be replaced with a new, steel bridge.

I set up a new server in the KSG collection, this one (named Hazel) provided space for virtual machines that we used to investigate Linux, and versions of Windows beyond those we normally use. I was also trying to get my head around the spreadsheets used to manage the Colworth phone bills, though I didn’t know enough about Excel to do the job and didn’t have time to learn it.

On most Fridays I drove down to Cirencester early and came home late to spend some time with Dad. His health, however, was the main issue during this month; on 30th March (or around that date) he was taken ill at the Little Chef at the Burford Road services. He was enjoying a meal there when he stopped eating and looked very unwell. He was in pain, the staff were worried and called an ambulance, and he was taken to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital for tests and treatment.

Donna and I travelled down to see him on 31st and by that time he was terminally ill with a dissected aorta. He died peacefully with the family gathered around the bed on 2nd April. He was the last member of the Jefferies family to live in Cirencester until Donna and I returned there ten years later in 2016.

World events: NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter entered orbit around Mars; and the website Twitter was launched for microblogging and social networking.

< Feb 2006 – Apr 2006 >

March 2001

Donna’s Mum and Dad came to visit us and helped us with some decorating. The photo shows Donna’s Dad, Tony, putting a roller coat of brilliant white emulsion on the ceiling of the stairwell.

Also this month there was a major event in spaceflight, Russia de-orbited their Mir Space Station over the Pacific Ocean. It was the largest spacecraft so far deorbited and re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the South Pacific on 23rd March 2001.

We were involved at Open Door Church in St Neots at this time, going to the Sunday meetings at Ernulf School and weekday cell group meetings one evening each week. I was not happy in the Sunday meetings, feeling unable to contribute fully; the cell group was more relaxed, friendly and personal.

World events: The Taliban government of Afghanistan began destroying the Buddhas of Bamiyan; and Apple Inc. released the Mac OS X operating system for Mac computers.

< Feb 2001 – Apr 2001 >

March 1996

Donna and I were growing closer and closer in March, in one sense this was wonderful, but we both felt the need to take things quite slowly because it was so soon after Judy’s death and we didn’t want to make things harder than necessary for my family. Debbie and Beth seemed to be coping surprisingly well, but there were my sisters and Mum and Dad to consider as well. We both came to a clear decision about wanting to be married. Debbie was a little anxious that she’d lose touch with Beth and with me, but no fear of that, we have a three-way video chat most Sunday evenings (30 years later!)

My Nigerian friend Elfrida died unexpectedly from a brain haemorrhage leaving Francis and the children without a wife and mother. This was a shock, there was no advance warning as we’d had with the loss of Judy, and no time to plan or adjust or to communicate or prepare. It was so very much a surprise.

I spotted Comet Hyakutake for the first time on 23rd March. It passed Earth at about a tenth of the distance of the Sun so was very bright and easy to spot in the early evening sky.

World events: The Dunblane school massacre took place in Scotland; and the IMF approved a $10.2 billion loan to Russia for economic reform.

< Feb 1996 – Apr 1996 >

March 1991

Pretty much the entire family descended on Ruth and Martin’s house in Holmer Green on 10th March for a party and a good old chat followed by their daughter, Eleanor’s, Christening.

The video is an unedited view from a VHS copy of my Sony Hi-8 original. It only covers the gathering at their home, you’ll get glimpses and voices of many people who are no longer with us as well as much younger versions of those of us who remain. A real trip down memory lane! (If you’re not a family member you’ll probably find the video utterly boring!)

On 11th, Debbie and her friend Sarah Fido played clarinet at a concert in Bristol’s Colston Hall (now renamed Bristol Beacon). The orchestra played really well, much, much better than most youth orchestras.

The 12th was Debbie’s birthday so it was time to open presents. This year they included a collapsible umbrella.

And on 31st we had a day visit from my Mum and Dad who brought Dan Holme with them from Cirencester. We drove over to Weston -super-Mare and visited the Helicopter Museum on the Westland helicopter site there.

World events: Massive demonstrations were held against Slobodan Milošević in Belgrade; and Germany formally regained complete independence after France, the UK, the USA and the USSR relinquished all remaining rights to the country.

< Feb 1991 – Apr 1991 > (Jump to 1971) (Jump to 2011)

March 1986

Judy made Debbie a cake for her 11th birthday (12th March).

The previous owners of our house had planted a row of conifers along the front of the property and they were becoming too large; I decided to remove them before they got too big to tackle.

It was quite a major task, but I cut them off about a metre above ground level, removed all the side branches, and then used the trunks for leverage after digging round them and cutting through the main roots. They made a lovely bonfire at the bottom of the garden!

World events: The first paper was published describing the atomic force microscope invented the previous year; and on 13th March, Microsoft Corporation held its initial public offering of stock shares.

< Feb 1986 – Apr 1986 >

March 1981

Debbie was six on 12th March, Judy had made her a cottage cake with hollyhocks and other garden plants growing outside. She had a lot of friends round for her party (the friends had multiplied quickly when she began school in 1980).

Later in the month, here’s Debbie (now at school and becoming good at reading) reading a bedtime story to her sister, Beth and three other characters who don’t really seem to be paying much attention to the story.

World events: The first London Marathon was held, with 7,500 runners; and there was an assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan.

< Feb 1981 – Apr 1981 >

March 1976

My Mum and Dad came to visit us on 13th March, the day after Debbie’s first birthday.

At work I was writing up the previous year’s research on flower and fruit development and nutrient transfer in developing plum fruit as well as the problem of gum production in plums which affects fruit quality and marketability. These and other results were published in the Long Ashton Annual Report for 1975, published during 1976.

World events: The Cray-1 was released as the first commercially developed supercomputer; and  Harold Wilson resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

< Feb 1976 – Apr 1976 >

March 1971

Judy and I moved into an unfurnished flat at 20 Belmont Road in St Andrews, Bristol, perhaps on 10th. The photo shows the building; our flat contained the two windows at the right hand end of the middle floor.

It was great to have a lot more space than our cramped bed-sit in Clifton, it was great to have our own bath, it was great to have our own loo even though that was on the landing just outside the door to our flat, and it was great to have a proper kitchen instead of the tiny cupboard/kitchen in the bed-sit. We had no furniture (but quickly bought an extendable table and four chairs from a second-hand shop on the nearby Gloucester Road) and we bought our own electric cooker with four rings, a grill and a clock/timer for the oven. We bought a double bed with the £60 my grandmother had given us as a wedding present, telling us ‘You spend a third of your life in bed, so make sure it’s a good one that will support your backs properly and last well’.

We felt we were off to a good start now, our rent was lower than before, we were able to begin buying our own furniture, and had room for our books, records, photos and other possessions. We both had steady jobs and were able to save some money most months to build a deposit for eventually buying a house of our own. And, of course, we still had our car, Pumpkin (so called because Judy’s Dad had once remarked that if I was still at their house after midnight at 18 Hales Close in Cheltenham, my Ford Anglia 100E might turn into a pumpkin).

World events: The Pakistani army occupied East Pakistan; and  Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali in a 15-round boxing match at Madison Square Garden.

< Feb 1971 – Apr 1971 > (Jump to 1951) (Jump to 1991)

March 1966

The Grammar School Founders and Benefactors Memorial Service was held on 3rd March. The whole school and many parents turned up for the occasion at Cirencester Parish Church. The front cover of the order of service is shown at the left (click to enlarge), or you can view the entire document as a PDF.

World events: The British Government announced plans for monetary decimalisation; and NASA’s Gemini 8 docked in space, with an Agena target vehicle. The first time this was achieved.

< Feb 1966 – Apr 1966 >

March 1961

My entire school year was tested for sensitivity and resistance to tuberculosis. If we were found to be susceptible we were inoculated. This included me, and I ended up with a large hole in my upper arm where I was inoculated, when the family GP saw this he told Mum that if I’d remained uninoculated and had been infected with the virus later in life I would almost certainly have died as a result. The hole filled in eventually, but I still have the scar (along with many others my age, I suspect).

TB is now a real rarity in western nations as almost everyone has received the vaccination or has recovered from an infection.

World events: Kurenivka mudslide: A dam burst in Kiev, USSR, killing 145; and black and white £5 notes ceased to be legal tender in the UK.

< Feb 1961 – Apr 1961 >

March 1956

I was approaching six-years-old and in the third year at Querns Junior School, the Spring Term ended in late March. Most of our lessons were arithmetic or English, reading and writing more widely and competently now as we grew older. We were also starting to learn some history, geography, art, religion, music and science, not as formal, dedicated lessons but rather as a sort of general knowledge.

World events:  Morocco declared independence from France; and Britain’s Fairey Delta 2 broke the World Air Speed Record, raising it to 1,132 mph (1,822 km/h) or Mach 1.73.

< Feb 1956 – Apr 1956 >

March 1951

I was now nearly 2¾ and, no doubt into everything. No specific memories remain, of course, except for one. I know it was early in my life because I was wearing a blue leather harness with three silver bells on the front. I had to wear this for safety if I was walking along the pavement, ie not riding in the pushchair. I remember being in Purley Avenue, just around the corner from Victoria Road where Granny and Grandpa lived. We were walking towards Victoria Road and had reached the footpath that runs between the gardens of Victoria Road and Purley Road (the path is still there today in 2026). I got very cross about wearing the harness; I probably had a tantrum. Dad said I could walk without it but if I did I must hold his hand – and that’s what happened.

I suppose it’s quite possible I was told about this when I was older, but it certainly feels like a memory. There are several other events I seem to remember from about the same age or even a little younger.

World events:  In the Korean War’s Operation Ripper, United Nations troops recaptured Seoul for the second time; and Remington Rand delivered the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.

< Feb 1951 – Apr 1951 > (Jump to 1930s) (Jump to 1971)

March 1946

Mike, at 19-years-old was still worried about Lilias’ health and in particular that they might not be able to have a family if surgery became necessary. On 6th March he packed and addressed his kit and boarded the HMS Largo Bay (an anti-aircraft frigate) at 11:00 on 7th. It seems the food and the hammocks were not great, and he was put in charge of deck welfare.

They were due to leave at 10:00 on 8th, but the crew went on strike so everyone had to disembark and return to Santa Cruz. On 11th they were to leave at midnight on the train to Calcutta but this, too, was cancelled. They returned to Largo Bay on 13th and finally left at 09:00 on 14th. This time Mike was appointed ‘Ablution Cleaner’. They passed Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) on 17th, putting the clocks forward 30 minutes every day until 19th.

The 22nd was an interesting day, they went ashore in an amphibious DUKW and saw Rangoon which was ‘much knocked about’. Mike saw his first rickshaw and some Japanese prisoners. The clocks were set an hour earlier here. He attended a Japanese War Crimes Trial on 23rd; and on 24th the ship sailed again but with the addition of Indian troops making it very hard to find enough space for sleeping.

Mike reached Singapore on the afternoon of 27th March. He had one letter from Lilias on 28th and thought that a lot of others had been lost. But 12 more arrived on 29th and a further 5 on 30th.

World events:  British troops withdrew from Iran according to an agreement, the Soviets did not; and in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill spoke about the Iron Curtain.

< Feb 1946 – Apr 1946 >

March 1941

John and Bob joined the Army and Dick joined the Royal Navy. All three served as officers during the Second World War, and all three survived the experience without injury. The photo was taken in 1939 before they left home. Presumably there would have been a similar image from the front, too, unfortunately lost I think.

While they were away Churnside must have seemed a very empty house with just Guv, Nor and Mike (who was still at school aged 15). The older brothers were in their 30s and 40s and would have been home on leave from time to time, but not all at once.

World events:  In WWII, Rommel launched his first offensive in Cyrenaica; and in the Battle of Cape Matapan British naval forces defeated an Italian fleet, sinking 5 warships.

< Feb 1941 – Apr 1946 >

1930-1939

This Wolseley car was bought my my grandfather in the 1930s. I believe it came from Steels Garage in Dyer Street and Lewis Lane. In the photo it’s parked outside 35 Victoria Road, next door to 37 (Churnside) where my grandparents lived. I think I travelled in this car when I was a small child and it was later replaced with an Austin Somerset which I also remember.

World events: (March 1936): In violation of treaties, Nazi Germany reoccupied the Rhineland. (March 1931): The British viceroy of India and Mohandas Gandhi signed the Gandhi–Irwin Pact.

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

1900-1929

Click the agreement to enlarge it. The document was signed on 19th March 1920. The cottage it refers to was empty when I remember it as a teenager, but it was always known as ‘The Carter’s Cottage’ and its last resident might well have been the William Richard Robinson mentioned here. I took a look inside when I was about 16-years-old and doing holiday work on the rose nursery a few hundred metres north of it (where Tesco Extra stands today). It seemed sound and was unlocked, but was very dusty, cobwebby and empty inside.

The rent in 1920 was 3/- per week, that’s 15p per week; with the large garden it might have been rented today for perhaps £1500 per month. Two and a half thousand times as much, that’s inflation for you! When Donna and I moved to Cirencester in 2016 the cottage was still standing and in use, although Watermoor Nursery had been sold and a housing estate built there. The cottage was demolished a few years ago and the land now houses three or four modern homes.

Notice that the agreement is signed by Mr Robinson, by my grandfather, Edward Arthur Jefferies and by his uncle, William John Jefferies.

World events (March 1926): Robert H. Goddard launched the first liquid-fuel rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.(March 1921): The Treaty of Versailles forces Germany to pay war reparations. (March 1916): US President Woodrow Wilson sent 12,000 US troops over the U.S.–Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa. (March 1911): The first congressional appropriation was made for what would become the United States Air Force (March 1906): Romanian inventor Traian Vuia becomes the first person to achieve an unassisted takeoff in a powered monoplane. (January 1901): Irish nationalist demonstrators were ejected by police from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in London.

<< 1900-1929 >>

1800-1899

My great-grandfather, Edward Jefferies was born in 1849 in Cirencester. In the baptismal record his father, John Jefferies, was listed as a Nurseryman living at Querns Cottage. Presumably John and Alice lived in the cottage when John worked as a nursery manager for Richard Gregory. After taking over the business, John may have built Minerva Villa on nursery land at the junction of the Avenue and Tower Street and the family moved there from Querns Cottage. Alternatively Minerva villa might have been built by Richard Gregory. Either way, Edward would have lived in Querns Cottage as a young child but would also have remembered Minerva Villa as an older child.

Edward married Mary Elizabeth Hedges in 1875 and they lived at 10 Tower Street (within sight of Minerva Villa), Mary’s wedding dress was in the possession of her daughter-in-law, my grandmother, Nor. She, in turn handed it over to my Mum, Lilias who passed it on to my sister, Rachael. As it was difficult to save the delicate and aging silk, it was finally sold to a Museum.

Edward worked as a Seedsman in the family business, and died aged just 35 (he was buried in Chesterton Cemetery, recorded as having died in Bournemouth). Although we don’t know the cause of death, it was quite likely to have been tuberculosis (consumption) as patients were often encouraged to move to a seaside town where cleaner air, bright sunshine, and rest from work were thought to offer a real chance of recovery.

Family connections:

• Parents – John and Alice Jefferies (nee Freeth)
• Born – 13th May 1849 (baptised 24th June 1849)
• Died – 20th January 1885 (buried on 24th January)
• Married – 8th July 1875 to Mary Elizabeth Hedges
• Siblings – William John (1880), Julia Anne (1851)
• Children – Edward Arthur (1879), Herbert Cyril (1880), Elsie Margaret (1883)

World events (February 1881): Kansas became the first U.S. state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages. (February 1861): The Confederate States of America was formed. (February 1841): The Act of Union (British North America Act, 1840) was proclaimed in Canada. (February 1821): In Mexico, Peace between viceroyalty troops and insurgents was proclaimed in Mexico (the Embrace of Acatempan). (February 1801): William Pitt the Younger resigned as UK Prime Minister.

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

1500-1799

In 1500 the wool trade was still thriving in Cirencester and the countryside in the area was partly devoted to raising sheep. A slow decline had begun towards the end of the previous century and was continuing, but there was still plenty of profit in the wool trade in 1500 f0r decades to come. The decline was partly due to a growing preference for Spanish Merino wool over the wool from the Cotswold Lion breed.

There were two main sources for wool. Cirencester Abbey controlled a good portion of the land around the area suitable for raising sheep (mainly the higher ground as this was well drained). Sheep don’t do well if their feet are frequently wet. The other source for wool was the privately owned and farmed land. Both sources sent wool to Cirencester for sale following shearing time and in rather large quantities. After sale to wool merchants the wool was baled up for export or for further processing locally (the Abbey may have done this in house). Wherever it went, the wool had to be washed and dried, carded with teasles, spun into woollen thread, dyed and then woven into fine cloth. The Cotswold sheep produced wool of particularly high yield and quality so it was in great demand. Much of the exported wool was processed, woven and sold in Flemish lands (today’s Belgium and the Netherlands).

The Kings of England at this time were also focused on trade and export so encouraged this wool trade as it brought useful income to England and could be taxed to increase royal revenues. The 1500s were mostly times of peace, stability, and industry in England. Cirencester Parish Church began to be rebuilt from 1514, and the earlier rivalry between townsfolk and the Abbots calmed down as there was adequate income for both to prosper.

The South Porch (now the main entrance to the Parish Church) was built by the abbey around this time, mainly as office space for the Abbey’s business connections with the town and its surroundings. If it had been paid for and built by town guilds there would have been carved crests and shields for the various guilds, but there’s nothing of that sort anywhere in the building. A small bridge over the Churn in Gloucester Street was known as Gilden Bridge but appears to have no connection with guilds or the building and use of the South Porch.

At this time the porch was separated from the Parish Church by a narrow street, the two being connected later by new walls and roofing. The heavy doors on the east and west sides of the porch show where this old street passed through, and it can be traced some distance on the east even today.

Some of the names of the old town streets are still known; in the following list I’ll provide the old name first in Tudor spelling, and then the current name in brackets:

• Abbot Strete – (Coxwell Street)
• Batel Strete – (Thomas Street)*
• Castell Strete – (Castle Street)
• Cheping Strete – (The Market Place)
• Cricklade Strete -(Cricklade Street)
• Dole-halle Strete – (Dollar Street)
• Dyar Strete – (Dyer Street)
• Foss, the – (Lewis Lane)
• Goseditch Street – (Gosditch Street)
• Inch-thrope – (Cecily Hill)
• New Strete – (Querns Lane)
• Shoter Strete – (Sheep Street)
• St Laurens Strete – (Gloucester Street)

*Batel Strete may refer to the 7th century Battle of Cirencester between Cwichelm and Penda. The name far precedes the English Civil War battle in Cirencester between Cavaliers and Roundheads.

The source for these street names (and some additional names and details not included here) is ‘A History of Cirencester’ by Welbore St. Clare Baddeley, page 213, published in 1924.

World events (Mar 1731): The Treaty of Vienna was signed between the Holy Roman Empire, Great Britain, the Dutch Republic and Spain. (Apr 1701): Mecklenburg-Strelitz was created as a north German duchy. (Mar 1631): The siege of the Protestant German city of Magdeburg by the Catholic League began and lasted for more than two months before the city fell and the inhabitants were massacred. (Mar 1601): The treason trial for five secondary participants in Essex’s Rebellion was held in London. All five were found guilty. (Mar 1531): King Henry VIII gives royal assent to the Poisoning Act 1530 which provided for the boiling to death of people convicted of poisioning others. (Mar 1501): Portuguese navigator João da Nova discovered Ascension Island.

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Part 39 – Blast from the past

Kevin and Lariana

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Note: Writing these Blast from the past posts every month has been hard work for me, particularly as my efficiency in researching and writing is slowing down as I approach 80-years-old. This has prevented me from writing on other topics that are also important to me. I plan to continue with Blast from the past but they’ll come out less frequently from now on; expect one every six to eight weeks instead of once a month.

November 2025

My grandmother (my Dad’s mum) would have been 146 years old this month! People come and go, history just keeps on going as hours, days, years, centuries and millenia are swallowed up relentlessly. In another 146 years, the year will be 2171 and all of us alive today will be gone – what a thought! Life, though temporary, is truly amazing.

After my discharge from hospital my seizures seemed to be fully controlled and November was symptom free apart from a very slight numbness on 1st. This is good news and life began to return to something much more normal, walking to town and back most days for example. We went to the CBC Quiz Night on 8th and our Small Group were the winners and took home a pot of Daniel’s Romanian honey from Plescuta as the prize. On 11th we had a visit from Cindy, Gavin and his partner Donna and he gave me a copy of his Dram Fools CD. I also had some Season’s Greetings cards printed.

JHM: I posted on John 17:24-26; and about Dram Fools. World events: There was a powerful earthquake in two provinces of Afghanistan; and the New Glenn rocket booster landed for the first time.

< Oct 2025 – Dec 2025 > (Jump to 2011)

August 2025

We visited The Farmer’s dog with our friends Kevin, Lariana, and her son Ruben from St Neots. They were with us for a few days so we introduced them to Cirencester and visited a number of other places in the area as well.

We visited Bourton-on-the-Water which Kevin remembered from previous visits, and walked through the pretty village of Lower Slaughter nearby with its picturesque water mill. We strolled around Stow-on-the-Wold too.

Our annual family holiday in the Lake District let us explore more of the lovely countryside from a grand old house near Keswick. The photo shows kites flying and on the ground at Maryport on the north-west coast, with the southern coast of Scotland visible across the Solway Firth.

JHM: I wrote about a moving experience; and about how things went pear-shaped. World events: The 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup opened in England; and at the 2025 Russia–United States Summit, US president Donald Trump met Russian president Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska.

< Jul 2025 – Sep 2025 >

February 2025

I continued taking photos of anything and everything that looked interesting to me. I started when I was nine and have no intention of giving up!

The heat pump was working part of the time but the house was not really warm, we were still not fully understanding how to get the best out of it. Jordan (the installation team manager) popped in to take a look and found the hot water and hallway thermostats were incorrectly wired so when hot water was demanded, the house got warm and when the house was cold the water heating came on. Problem solved!

Donna and I went to Cheltenham for a meal at Nandos and to watch A Complete Unknown, the film about Bob Dylan. I love Dylan’s music and the words are often clever, but I’ve never liked his character, and the film reinforced that.

The world political situation seemed to be more broken than I’ve ever seen it. Donald Trump and JD Vance remain serious threats to American democracy, Russia continues to make life hard for Ukraine, but there are growing hints that the alarm is producing some useful changes in European cooperation and spending on defence.

JHM: I wrote about Knightstone Causeway; and my breakfast. World events:  Donald Trump announced that the United States would take control of the Gaza Strip in an agreement with Israel; 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.

< Jan 2025 – Mar 2025 >

February 2024

I was still transcribing Dad’s diaries at this time, to make them potentially available to the entire family as PDFs. I was also busy scanning Judy’s old 35 mm transparencies and delivering some leaflets for the Lib Dems.

We visited Batsford Arboretum, the photo shows a drift of snowdrops and a group of Wollemi pines (Wollemia nobilis) showing signs of more maturity than we’d seen previously.

We visited Slimbridge on 12th, which we very much enjoyed although it was horrendously busy with so many families with children. I recognised the house built by Sir Peter Scott which I’d seen decades ago with Pete Landless.

JHM: I wrote two articles about the continuing innovation in the war in Ukraine; and causes for concern and hope in the war as well. World events:  There was a presidential election in Azerbaijan; and another in Pakistan.

< Jan 2024 – Mar 2024>

February 2021

At the beginning of the month I enjoyed a good walk around Cirencester, returning via The Beeches and Queen Anne’s Road where we lived until I was 11-years-old, and spotting many of the old, familiar places. The Golden Farmer where the sign showed a divided face as a farmer in daytime on the left and a highwayman with a black mask on the right (now Golden Farm Inn). I traced the footpath from our old house at 17 Queen Anne’s Road past the Ayre’s and Mrs French’s bungalow on the right (that was not her surname but her nationality!) and the stub of the path now cut off by the by-pass and on up the hill to the little shop at the top.

The second photo shows flooding in the car park at the back of the Corinium Hotel (used to be Corinium Court). I had my first COVID-19 vaccination on 5th at Cirencester Hospital and new cases were falling quite quickly by this time in Cotswold District.

My new Onyx BOOX reader arrived; I was soon able to get Google Play books and Amazon books opening in the web browser as well as viewing other web sites. It was a grey scale screen of course, but readable at night with a backlight adjustable from bluish through white to orange, so good for reading in an subdued orange when I couldn’t sleep. I soon found it almost indispensable, given that Donna needed more hours of sleep than I did.

World events: COVID-19 pandemic: The number of COVID-19 vaccinations worldwide exceeded 100 million; and The UAE’s uncrewed Hope spacecraft became the first Arabian mission to enter orbit around Mars.

< Jan 2021 – Mar 2021 >

February 2016

I was busy with several life transformation groups (LTGs) in and around St Neots at this time. These are a way of focusing on changing our lives rather than just learning more facts about church through Bible Study. These groups tend to be two or three men or two or three women digging into what it means to be disciples, not growing in knowing stuff, but growing in doing stuff. We would aim to read around 20 to 25 chapters of the Bible during the week, and meet for about 30 minutes.

They worked really well but when we moved to Cirencester they stopped because the friends I’d been working with were now 2½ hours drive away. Keeping them really small makes them quite intimate, but mixing men and women in a group this size can be unhelpful. If a fourth member is added, the aim becomes producing two groups of two within a few weeks rather than staying together as a larger group indefinitely. Sometimes we did CO2 as well or instead (Church of Two). These meetings were briefer (5 minutes per person) but we met daily and included elements called Virkler (listening to the Spirit) and SASHET (exploring our current emotions). We met at home or in a coffee shop, often at Costa (as in the photo), or at Caffe Nero.

There was a lot going on in the Small Group around this time too. Carolyn had a specific word for me, saying that I feed people spiritually, and just like feeding the fish in our conservatory pool, they come up to the surface to take a look. She also said that I was weighed down by something and should let it go and this encouraged me because I’d been feeling for a time that I should leave Small Group and move on with the primary task he’d given me of feeding people spiritually.

John decided to sell the model steam engine built by his father so I helped him get it over to Cheffins auction rooms in Cambridge who suggested offering it in their steam and machinery sale on 16th April.

We spent a few days in the little villlage of Hambledon (near Chichester) and visited RAF Tangmere, Arundel Cathedral, Butser ancient Farm, a National Trust property at Hinton Ampner, and Fishbourne Roman Palace, all of them fascinating to see.

JHM: I wrote about shoals and flocks; and about swimming in harmony. World events: North Korea launched Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 (a reconnaisance satellite) into space, widely condemned as a long-range ballistic missile test; and Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill signed an Ecumenical Declaration in the first meeting of leaders of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches since their schism in 1054.

< Jan 2016 – Mar 2016 >

February 2011

Heading out early for a walk on 8th February on a foggy morning I was delighted to see a foggy sunrise over a period of time. It was a magical sight, a wonderful combination of the orange glow of returning daylight with the mystery and hidden distance of fog. Wow!

Later in the month we drove over to Moggerhanger Park to see the snowdrops, They were beautiful as always, of course. Scattered through the woodlands in amazing drifts, to be followed later in the season by similar drifts of fragrant bluebells.

JHM: I wrote about an easy prayer turned hard; and about hearing and doing. World events: The First Libyan Civil War began; and  a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Christchurch, New Zealand.

< Jan 2011 – Mar 2011 > (Jump to 1971) (Jump to top)

February 2006

We had snowdrops flowering that we bought from Anglesey Abbey and planted last year. I set up our new NTL broadband router and Wi-Fi system and got it all working, such a great improvement on the old dial-up networking.

We flew to Florida on 10th, and Earl picked us up from west Palm Airport, and on 12th after settling in at Steph and Earl’s, I astonished Dad by calling him from their back garden for a short chat! On 15th we drove north to Melbourne to visit my cousin Jill and her partner Marcia.

World events: The 2006 Winter Olympics were held in Turin, Italy; and  the 2006 al-Askari mosque bombing, the attack on the shrine in Samarra, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, sparked an escalation of sectarian violence in Iraq resulting in full-scale war.

< Jan 2006 – Mar 2006 >

February 2001

This screenshot from my PC at Unilever shows some interesting features from 25 years ago. The main window with a background image of St Neots Market Square and the clock in the lower left is from Windows NT running on my desktop work PC. There are also two web browser windows open, an early version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. One of these is displaying my personal email service provided by Yahoo! The Web Team page was an Internal Unilever site containing work information for the team I was part of.

The remaining window with a darker green background and the name ‘Oak’ repeated in rows and colmns was a VNC window displaying a virtual desktop from one of our web servers so that we could access it without having to be physically present in the server room. There are two windows open on ‘Oak’, one displaying users and groups on the server, the other a DOS command window being used to manage the ‘Oak’ server.

The combination of local access and remote access all in overlapping windows on my office desktop was incredibly useful and fairly cutting edge at the time.

World events: Ariel Sharon of the Likud party was elected Prime Minister of Israel; and  The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touched down on 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.

< Jan 2001 – Mar 2001 >

February 1996

I was still serving on the Institute of Arable Crops Research (IACR) cross-site IS/IT development project. The purpose of this was to build a common computing system covering the computing needs of both Rothamsted (RES) and Long Ashton (LARS). Realistically this largely meant closing down the LARS infrastructure and extending Rothamsted’s to cover both sites. The initial steps were to add TCP/IP networking to the LARS PCs, remove the LARS Novell server and replace it with a UNIX networking system. It was a lot of work, a significant upheaval for LARS staff, and all for no reason: at the time we didn’t know that LARS would be closed down in 2003 and the remaining staff moved to Rothamsted or elsewhere.

During February Donna Hudson started coming to some of the meetings with Tony, Faith, Paul and Jenny. And Donna and I talked a lot during the lunch breaks at work. We became more and more fond of one another and by the end of the month Donna had met Debbie and Beth, my three sisters, and Mum and Dad as well. Paz also came into the picture, as Beth invited him to join us for pancakes on Shrove Tuesday and we all got along well together.

World events:  Cuban fighter jets shot down two American aircraft; and the first Pokémon game was released in Japan.

< Jan 1996 –Mar 1996 >

February 1991

The LARS Sytem continued to evolve and make our Viglen 286 desktop computers more usable and convenient for staff. I was developing a series of compiled Pascal programs, utilities, and batch files to fill some of the gaps in MS-DOS, for example a command line utility to alert to low disc space that could be called from the DOS prompt and also from a batch file during system startup. Another one was a unit conversion utility which I developed to run from the DOS prompt or from Windows.

We had a moderate fall of snow and some rather cold days, the photo is from 9th February after putting out food for the local birds.

The second image shows a greenfinch checking out peanut seeds that Judy had hung from Berberis branches. These were very popular!

World events:  The Provisional IRA launched a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street during a cabinet meeting; and  Saddam Hussein announced the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait.

< Jan 1991 – Mar 1991 > (Jump to 1971) (Jump to 2011)

February 1986

This little painting was made by my daughter, Beth. I think she has the original, I passed it on after I scanned it. It was almost certainly painted at school as it has been marked B.J. (Beth Jefferies) in the lower right corner. I can only guess the date so it probably doesn’t belong in February 1986 but could be quite a lot earlier. But it deserves to appear in a Blast from the past post somewhere.

So here it is. Oh, and thanks Beth, love from Daddy!

Around the same time I was running a little project at home, writing educational software to run on the Sinclair ZX81 and Spectrum computers. These were sold by mail and this little business slip went out with them as well. When the software came to the notice of my brother-in-law, Peter Holme, he saw more potential for professional development and marketing and developed a company, ComputerTutor that eventually got these and other programs into high street outlets like WHSmiths.

Debbie was nearly 11-years-old, and Beth 7¾, both still at school in Yatton.

World events: Pixar was founded by John Lasseter and Steve Jobs; and the Soviet Union launched the Mir space station.

< Jan 1986 – Mar 1986 >

February 1981

Debbie was learning to ride her bike, we’d bought a rather battered old bike in the autumn, I took it apart, resprayed the frame in a metallic blue, put on some new white tyres, and polished up the chrome parts. Reassembled it looked pretty good and we wrapped it up as Debbie’s main Christmas present. By mid-February she was becoming good enough to stay upright most of the time but I still needed to run alongside to guard against major wobbles.

During the month we drove over the Severn Bridge and along the Wye Valley to explore the atmospheric ruins of Tintern Abbey. We had so much more freedom now with our own set of wheels, a Morris Marina we called Excellent Car Jefferies (so-named because the registration number was XCJ 508K). You can see the car on the left in the photo of Debbie on her bike.

World events:   Pope John Paul II visited the Philippines; and a powerful  earthquake hit Athens.

< Jan 1981 – Mar 1981 >

February 1976

This photo was taken in Cirencester, probably by Mum, but possibly by Judy. It shows my Dad filming by the lake in the Abbey Grounds and I’m guessing it was Feb 1976 though it’s impossible to be sure.

Debbie was 11 months old in February, and it was exciting to think she’d have her first birthday in mid-March. Church life was still a mix of home meetings with Tony and Faith Moulin, and Paul and Jenny Shortman along with some other friends as well as Sunday morning meetings at Horsecatle Chapel.

I was working at Long Ashton Research Station, cycling in and out each day from our house in Yatton. I will never forget on my way into Bristol one lunchtime, a lorry pulled out onto Brunel Way from a slip road near Bower Ashton. The driver didn’t see me and physically pushed me into the next lane. I managed to stay on the bike and move further into the right hand lane which, fortunately, was empty at the time.

World events: The 1976 Winter Olympics began in Innsbruck, Austria; and  the Spanish Armed Forces withdraw from Western Sahara.

< Jan 1976 – Mar 1976 >

February 1971

John Jefferies & Son Ltd might have released their 1971 vegetable seeds catalogue around this time. The photo shows one of the pages from it.

Judy’s lab assistant job with Mike Tanner at Bristol University was going well. She soon made friends with a young woman her age who worked for another biochemist in the same lab. It was good to begin to make some friends; I, too, was meeting people at work that I enjoyed spending time with, though we were only on smiling and ‘Good morning’ terms with a few people where we lived.

Our car, ‘Pumpkin’ had some rusty spots, some of them quite serious, but the engine that Dad and I had rebuilt continued to run very nicely, and the gearbox and transmission had given us no trouble. It continued to pass MOT tests with little difficulty.

World events: Rolls-Royce went bankrupt and was nationalised; and  Apollo 14 landed on the Moon, getting the programme back on track following the Apollo 13 failure.

< Jan 1971 – Mar 1971 > (Jump to 1951) (Jump to 1991)

February 1966

Judy sent me a valentines card (I sent her one too, of course. The photo shows the contents, in verse and wordy (normal in those days), but the sentiments were heart-felt. Cards have changed since 1966 but falling in love never grows old. We were both still at Cirencester Grammar School where we had met. I was in the Upper Sixth and Judy was still Lower Sixth so we were able to see each other almost every day.

My Irish grandmother turned 68-years-old on 9th, which to me at the time seemed really ancient (though my English grandmother was a good deal older).

World events:  The Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft made the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon; and the Australian dollar was introduced at a rate of 2 dollars to the pound.

< Jan 1966 – Mar 1966 >

February 1961

I believe this photo was taken in February 1961 in the room we always knew as ‘the back sitting room’. Mum is knitting, Cindy has a pen in her hand so was writing, Chloe the dog and Figum the cat are on the floor enjoying the warmth from the fire. My school photo is on the mantelpiece along with a teacup, and my school cap is on the back of the sofa. That’s quite a lot of information from one very poor quality B&W photo.

We were fortunate to live just along the road from the school. Even when it was cold and wet it was a very short walk. I was in my second year at the Grammar School so Cindy was probably still at Querns Junior Scool at this time.

World events: The United States tested its first Minuteman I intercontinental ballistic missile; and the USSR launched Venera 1 towards Venus.

< Jan 1961 – Mar 1961 >

February 1956

At this time I was just 7½-years-old, as I write I’m 77½ though the halves don’t mean much any more! I was in the third year at Querns School and we were living in a rented council house at 17 Queen Anne’s Road. I remember Mum and Dad had a series of small, round tobacco tins labelled for various household bills that would fall due at known times in the future – rent, Pearl Life Assurance, electricity, coal, water etc. The man who collected the rent was a Mr World so when he appeared the relevant tin was raided to pay him.

World events: The British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean (missing for five years) appeared in the Soviet Union; and Nikita Khrushchev attacked the veneration of Joseph Stalin, in a speech.

< Jan 1956 – Mar 1956 >

February 1951

The image shows a page from The Radio Times, kept by Dad because it has a useful list of station wavelengths and frequencies. The adverts on the left of the page are interesting, coal was in short supply and the public were being asked to reduce energy usage, and it seems that wives (and never husbands) buy the tooth brushes. As always, click the image to enlarge it.

World events:  The United Nations General Assembly declared China to be an aggressor in the Korean War; and the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, limiting Presidents to two terms.

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

February 1946

On 6th February Mike and two others set off at 07:30 in an Austin 10 for the Western Ghat mountains inland of Bombay but turned back after four hours as the roads were so bad. There were some radar units up there that they had intended to visit. They arrived back at 17:00 pm, tired after 10 hours driving.

Mike had been expecting to be sent to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), but on 7th learned this would not happen after all.

Lilias had been hoping to go to Belfast to find work, but the family disagreed with this and clearly didn’t want her to go.

On 14th, Mike took a convoy of two Austin trucks to Worli, a peninsula (on the left of the map) that today is within the city limits of Mumbai but in 1946 would have been a country district. From 19th onward there was a revolt by the Royal Indian Navy and the trouble spread so RAF personnel were confined to camp. There was fighting in Bombay and civilian rioting on 21st.

On 26th February Mike heard he was to go to Singapore about a week later.

World events:  ENIAC, an early general-purpose electronic computer, was unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania; and Juan Perón was elected president of Argentina.

< Jan 1946 – Mar 1946 >

February 1941

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.

Penicillin was discovered to have anti-bacterial action and was used for the first time to help a patient with a serious facial infection. Unfortunately he died because there was insufficient supply, the infection improved greatly but then worsened when the penicillin ran out. A few months later, another patient’s life was saved and as production ramped up, penicillin saved many lives, at first mainly wounded soldiers during the second world war.

World events: In Libya, Benghazi fell to the British Western Desert Force; and  Albert Alexander, a patient at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, England, became the first person treated with penicillin intravenously, he responded well, but there was insufficient of the antibiotic to cure him.

< Jan 1941 – Mar 1941 >

World events (February 1931): Soviet leader Joseph Stalin called for rapid industrialisation, arguing that only strong industrialised countries would win wars, while “weak” nations would be beaten. (February 1936):  Radium E (bismuth-210) became the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.

1930-1939

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.

Last time we took a look at Cirencester’s Carnival and mentioned that the procession passed along Victoria Road. The photograph this time shows the procession passing Churnside (37 Victoria Road). The undated photo was taken from the garage roof of 37 Victoria Road must be late 1930s or early 1940s based on the clothes people are wearing. And the number of young men suggests it was not taken during World War 2, so either just before the war or shortly thereafter.

World events: (Feb 1936): The Spanish left-wing Popular Front coalition took a majority in the general election. (Feb 1931): Soviet leader Joseph Stalin called for rapid industrialisation as only strong industrialised countries would win wars.

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

1900-1929

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

Herbert Cyril Jefferies was my Dad’s Uncle, his father’s younger brother. He was born on 21st October 1880. The photo shows him as a young man, perhaps in his twenties, the family home was 10 Tower Street, just across the street from the Jefferies nursery in the town of Cirencester. At Herbert’s baptism his father, Edward, was described as a seedsman.

Herbert remained a batchelor and was the Proprietor and Managing Director of the the Ross Gazette, a newspaper in Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire.

Family connections:

• Parents – (Edward and Mary Elizabeth Jefferies [nee Hedges])
• Born – 21st October 1880
• Died – 27th August 1944
• Siblings – Edward Arthur (1879), Elsie Margaret (1883), Edward (1849), Julia Anne (1851), Henrietta (1854), Agnes Henrietta (1855)
• Children – None

Obituary:

THE ROSS GAZETTE 31 AUGUST 1944 (Verbatim)

MR. H. C. JEFFERIES

The many readers of the “Ross Gazette,” will learn with regret of the death of Mr. Herbert C. Jefferies, of Mervyn Lodge, Ashfield, Ross, following an operation which took place at Salisbury on Sunday last. He was a native of Cirencester.

It was in 1910 that Mr. H. C. Jefferies came to Ross. taking over the the printing and stationery business of the late Mr. H. N. Powle, and in 1915 the business was amalgamated with that of the Ross Gazette Ltd., Mr. Jefferies becoming a director of the company. He later became managing editor, a position from which he retired in 1943. Since his retirement Mr. Jefferies had not enjoyed the best of health, but his death came unexpectedly.

Mr. Jefferies was a man of many outstanding qualities, and he always took a keen interest in the social and religious life of the town. For many years he was secretary of the Ross Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society and the majority of the inhabitants of the town and district will remember his talented portrayals of various characters in their yearly performances. Apart from the Operatic Society, Mr. Jefferies was a keen musician, and in this direction was a member of the Ross Orchestral Society, which he also served as honorary secretary.

In the sporting world he played regularly up to recent years for the first eleven of the Ross Cricket Club, and was a liberal supporter of the several Rugby and Association Football clubs in the district; in fact there were few if any, clubs or institutions that did not get his personal or practical support.

Mr. Jefferies was a devout churchman, a member of the parish church choir and Parochial Church Council, a licensed lay reader, and a representative on the Ruri-decanal Conference. During the last war he served with the Royal Flying Corps.

His kindly disposition and generous nature won for him a wide circle of friends, who will all join in a sincere expression of sympathy to his sister and other members of the family.

The funeral takes place at Watermoor Church, Cirencester, at 11 a.m. on Thursday.

An Appreciation (By a friend) – By the death of Mr. Herbert C. Jefferies, managing Editor of the “Ross Gazette,” musician, actor, and churchman, Ross has lost one of its most outstanding personalities of recent years. To those of us who knew him intimately his death will mean a great loss. In sickness he proved himself to be an unfailing friend, while in all walks of life his sole desire was to be of service to all. He was a man who possessed his pet hobbies, but his love of music, his desire to play his part in opera or drama was perhaps his outstanding characteristic. The many roles he played in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas produced by the Ross Operatic and Dramatic Society were the life and soul of many of those productions as all members of that Society will readily admit. On the cricket field he was equally as popular, while his interest in the youth of the town, in so many directions, was a great source of encouragement to all. Then again, there was no more loyal churchman than Herbert Jefferies. His services as a chorister, lay reader, and councillor were at the beck and call of all who needed them. Indeed, one can almost go so far as to say that it was his earnestness in these spheres of his life that led to his ultimate break-down in health. He held very decided opinions on many debatable subjects, but he never allowed these views to interfere with his friendships. Although for just over twelve months he was prevented from continuing his good works through health reasons, his personality and his companionship will be greatly missed. Now that he has passed beyond the veil may he find eternal rest.

World events (February 1921): The Democratic Republic of Georgia was invaded by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (February 1916): The Battle of Verdun began in France. (February 1911): The first official air mail flight was made by Henri Pequet in British India. (February 1906): Pope Pius X published the encyclical Vehementer Nos, denouncing a 1905 French law on Separation of Church and State. (February 1901): U.S. Steel was incorporated by industrialist J. P. Morgan, the first billion-dollar corporation.

<< 1900-1929 >>

1800-1899

My grandfather, Edward Arthur Jefferies was born in 1879 at 10 Tower Street, Cirencester, his parent’s home. The photo below shows him in Watermoor Cottage as a young man playing chess with his younger brother Herbert. Edward is facing the camera.

He married Norah Monger in 1905 and they moved to a newly built home, Churnside 37 Victoria Road, just two streets away from his birthplace at 10 Tower Street. Edward (also known as Ted and sometimes Guv (short for The Governor) worked in the family business with his Uncle William, when William died he took over the management entirely and while his sons were in the armed services during World War 2 he must have struggled to cope.

Family connections:

• Parents – Edward Jefferies and Mary Elizabeth Jefferies (née Hedges)
• Born – 25th June 1879 (baptised 16th July 1879)
• Died – 22nd August 1959
• Married – 6th September 1905 to Norah Monger of Maidestone, Kent
• Siblings – Herbert Cyril (1880), Elsie Margaret (1883)
• Children – John Edward (1907), Richard William (1910), Robert Arthur (1912), Edward James Michael (1926)

Memories of Grandpa – Because he was my grandfather and died shortly after my 11^th birthday, I have personal memories of him so I’ll share a few of those here. I know he was always very fond of me as he had also been of my father. I think he had a very soft spot for babies and young children, and he was always sympathetic, helpful, patient, and wise as well as affectionate. I remember how he used to love sitting and reading to me and my sister Cindy, he would read anything that seemed suitable for whatever age we happened to be at the time. When I was young I loved Noddy books. Enid Blyton had written large numbers of these illustrated, short stories. He would often give me a new one as a birthday or Christmas present. And he would write short stories and illustrate them himself in pen and ink.

I remember playing darts with him at Churnside (37 Victoria Road, Cirencester), his family home where he lived from 1905 until his death in 1959. Sometimes my darts would miss the board altogether and he’d chuckle and exclaim, ‘That was a bad un’. Sometimes one of my darts would hit the board cleanly and stick (That was a good un’!) There was a drinks cabinet at the end of the room (a small extension built of thick concrete as an air raid shelter during World War 2). On top there was always a soda syphon and sometimes Grandpa would make himself a whisky and soda. He also liked an egg nog from time to time (Granny would always make those in the kitchen). He drank the egg nog from an old-fashioned scalloped beer glass, and I was always given a small amount in a miniature glass of the same style.

He had a grey Austin A40 ‘Somerset’ and a chauffeur to drive it and would sometimes take me with him on tours around the Jefferies nurseries. Each nursery had a character all its own, and at each place we’d get out, walk around, inspect things carefully, and then Grandpa would have a conversation with the foreman. We would visit Siddington and Somerford Keynes nurseries in particular with just occasional trips to Tower Street and Watermoor. I don’t recall going to the London Road rose nursery or the tiny Abbey nursery with him. I do remember visits to the Cattle Market on Tetbury Road, just beyond Cirencester Town Station. He would talk with the farmers there, doing deals on wheat, barley and oat seed, and no doubt mustard and other seeds too. I remember sheep and cattle in the many pens at the market.

Another memory is wearing my blue Noddy hat with its brass bell and Grandpa wearing his Big Ears hat (red but no bell). Granny had made them from crepe paper and we’d pretend to be Noddy and Big Ears from the Enid Blyton books.

Once, apparently, Grandpa was at the Cattle Market discussing business with his farmer friends and I was taken up to meet him there (I don’t remember this, but my parents related the story to me years later). I spotted him from a distance and ran up to him shouting, ‘Big Ears! Big Ears!’ The farmers would have chortled at this, but ‘Big Ears’ Grandpa didn’t bat an eyelid, it seems, and I was greeted with the usual grin and a big hug.

On another occasion, arriving back at Churnside, but still sitting in the car with the chauffeur, Grandpa turned around in the front seat and told me to never run with a stick in my mouth. He was unusually serious and opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue to show me a scar, still visible in old age, where he’d fallen over with a stick in his mouth and it had caused what was clearly quite serious damage. I certainly didn’t run with anything in my mouth after seeing Grandpa’s scarred tongue!

No doubt there are many other memories of my Grandpa, but these are the ones that come to mind as I write.

World events (Feb 1881): Kansas became the first U.S. state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages. (Feb 1861): The Confederate States of America was formed. (Feb 1841): The Act of Union (British North America Act, 1840) was proclaimed in Canada. (Feb 1821): In Mexico, Peace between viceroyalty troops and insurgents was proclaimed in Mexico (the Embrace of Acatempan). (Feb 1801): William Pitt the Younger resigned as UK Prime Minister.

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1500-1799

The Abbey – In 1500 Cirencester’s Augustinian Abbey wielded significant power over the town and its citizens. The Abbey’s dissolution under Henry VIII in December 1539 was a very major change, making both land and property available for alternative uses. Some buildings (especially the great Abbey Church, the cloisters and the monk’s cells, accomodation and refectory were considered surplus to requirements and were demolished with the materials sold for alternative use. The fishing pond was retained and can still be seen in the Abbey Grounds park.

The flour mills, bakeries and breweries were retained for use by the town’s inhabitants, most of these facilities being bought by relatively wealthy residents including Richard Basing (a wine merchant). The Crown took around 123 tons of valuable lead from the roof and retained fixtures and fittings from the Abbey church as well as the Abbott’s mansion. By 1541 the Abbey had been completely broken up. Sir Anthony Hungerford and Robert Strange (previously the Abbott’s bailiff) owned and managed much of what remained.

Growing nursery stock – The plant nursery business in Cirencester was founded in 1795 by the father of Richard Gregory, predominantly growing trees initially. Richard and his brother John helped to run the business with their father. In those days, the town was still quite small and compact, its development to the west constrained by the Bathurst Estate and farmland to the east and south, and by the old Abbey lands which included today’s Abbey Grounds park in the town centre and extensive farmland along the Churn Valley on the east and south sides of the town. Some of the nearby villages that are now part of the urban area were still entirely separate in the late 1700s and before. Stratton, Watermoor and Chesterton were all outside the town; Preston and Baunton remain so today.

The business passed to Richard Gregory (presumably on the retirement or death of his father), the nursery was successful and amongst other staff he took on a Nursery Manager, John Jefferies from Somerford Keynes. Later, because of a bad debt, Gregory declared himself bankrupt and had to leave the area; we do not know what happened to John Gregory. John Jefferies was advised by his solicitor to continue running the nursery business, and later took ownership of it.

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