Part 39 – Blast from the past
Kevin and Lariana
Jump to Aug 2025
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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 an amazing photo of a volcano; and considered the effect of fog. 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.
February 2006
< Jan 2011 – Mar 2011 > (Jump to 1971) (Jump to top)
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.
At home our new bathroom was being installed and I retaxed Alex, our Citroen Xantia, on 9th February. You can see it in the image on the right and view the new tax disc as well.
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.
<< 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 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 11th 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 (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.
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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 Richard Gregory, predominantly growing trees initially. 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.
Gregory’s 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. John Jefferies was advised to continue running the nursery business, and later took ownership.
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