Pregled posta

Marketing

image above: Hanham Cricket Club c1910 (names not kinown)

Modern-day Hanham Cricket Club was founded in its current form in the early 1950's but has strong connections to the previous club which played from the middle years of the last century.

Including performances from the good Dr W.G.Grace and his brothers.

When W.G.'s brother Dr Henry Grace left their Downend home he established a practice at Hanham, and took charge of the local cricket team, often inviting W.G. to play with them.

Here is another anecdote which indicates the effects of the economic depression on people's lives

The clanking trains during the years around 1930 suffered competition from a rowdy, robust newspaper seller who sat in a mobile chair for handicapped people, and outdid the clanging of the tram-wheels by shouting 'Paper', which was the Evening Times.

Mr Daiziel, for that was his name, told me he had injured his leg in the first world war, but had been refused a pension. However, a policeman informed me that he developed rheumatism from diving into the River Avon to rescue the many suicides in those days.

Mr Dalziel confirmed that he supplemented his income by such deeds, adding that he allowed the bodies to float down the river beyond the Bristol boundary, because he was paid some ten shillings for every body he recovered by the Bristol Authority, but only received five shillings for a similar operation from the Gloucestershire Authority.

'Glass That Would Bend'

How new technology changed the face of market gardening.

Not all was doom and gloom. For some businesses the thirties offered the possibility of applying new techniques and products Hubert Dearnley describes the extent of market gardening, while Jack Bateman recounts how success brought prosperity to at least one family concern:

Market Gardening

There was never any official boundary between the Kingswood and Hanham communities, although the separatist feeling persisted up to post-war years. There was, however, a green belt of market gardens holding the two communities apart.

This buffer state of market gardens spread from the Bristol city boundary in Magpie Bottom in the west to Greenbank Road on the east. The fertile southern slopes below Mount Hill Road up to the rear of Victoria and Beechwood Avenues were substantially the present Woodyleaze Estate.

This area was intensively worked by several families,such as the Whitchurch and Bateman families. Similarly, the western valley of Footshill and Magpie Bottom were 'extensively worked' by the Sampson family.

On the horticultural scene in the 1930's arrived a Walter Victor Bateman, with an honours degree in horticulture from Cambridge. He was to change the whole of West Gloucestershire. He became the manager of H. Copp & Co. Prattens of Midsomer Norton covered several acres of south-facing land with an overhead watering system 'Walter Victor's'.

The idea was that plants absorbed as much water through their foliage as they took through their roots. I was apprenticed to W. V. Bateman, and learnt to pollinate Begonias with a rabbit's tail in an attempt to produce a black Begonia. It was never accomplished, but he had me spellbound.

Albert and Bert Copp went to the Royal Agricultural Show and came back with more radical ideas than W.V.B.; glass that would bend. Perspex had just been discovered. Perspex meant that one could put a greenhouse anywhere. Another innovation was to pump it up like a big half-grapefruit. Bert and Albert Copp covered all the land in Tabernacle Road in this glass.

It held heat from the sun and did not conduct the cold. It did not replace glass' too many people had interests in timber and glass. W. V. Bateman was one, H. Praten, who made the greenhouses was another. Henry Copp & Co grew cultivated mushrooms for the first time, and after the Royal Horticultural Show he came home with the first portable greenhouse.

It was like a wigwam, you could move it over blackcurrant bushes, strawberries, fresh flowers and outdoor tomatoes. It was about two weeks in front of every other nursery man, and so received a better price.

I had changed my job again, and my motorcycle for a twin Enfield with a side-car for light haulage. I hauled fruit to the Bristol market in the early mornings. Eric and I had a stall in Nicholas Street. By the 'nails' we prospered. Harry Copp became the purveyor of soft fruits for the West Country. I went to work for him for more money.