PAINTING BY T NOELSMITH
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THE HISTORY OF CRANMORE
Mary is also writing a history of Leigh-on-Mendip which is very interesting
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SOME OLD PHOTOS
Click on this link for some photos.
Old Photos More would be very welcome.
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MEMORIES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN CRANMORE -by Mary De Viggiani Part 1.
Before the advent of the Second World War (1939-1945) Lady Muriel Paget of Cranmore Hall, East Cranmore, gave sanctuary and housed refugees who had fled from the pogroms and purges which had been the aftermath of the Russian Revolution and the general unrest throughout Europe.
The Royal Signals Corps set up a search light near Cranmore Tower and ammunition dumps were sited along the roadsides at Waterlip. An air raid shelter was privately built at Sunnyholme (now Dean Court) and American Officers were billeted in the house. When the Americans entered the war they arrived at nearby camps, bringing their tanks and, for the children of the village excitement. Not only were they interesting but they also distributed chocolate and oranges which had not been seen in the area before.
Amongst the various changes was the arrival of refugees from London and Bristol, and a maternity hospital was created by Somerset County Council at Cranmore Hall for evacuee mothers. A Voluntary Aid Depot (VAD) post was set up in Cranmore Memorial Hall where gas masks were both distributed and tested (in a gas van). Civil Defence meetings also took place in the hall and several local women joined the Women's Voluntary Service (WVS) A First Aid post was sited at Cranmore Cottage and run by Mrs de Couet who also gave lodging to evacuee mothers both before and after their stay at Cranmore Hall Maternity Hospital. At times whole families arrived including grandparents, older children and husbands on leave, and of course, the new babies. This led to problems with rationing since such large family groups needed extra food and the relatives of evacuee mothers were often loath to part with their precious ration cards.
A single decker bus ran from Shepton Mallet to Frome and back, very few people had cars because of petrol rationing. Only key workers such as doctors were allowed enough petrol coupons to make it worthwhile. A hospital car, driven by a Miss Smith, was allocated to the unit at the hall. Local people rode bicycles and walked many miles both to work and visit their relatives and the children walked to school in Cranmore, Downhead and Doulting. Those attending secondary school in Shepton Mallet travelled either by train from Cranmore station or by bus. Mr Hobbs of Downhead drove his pony trap every Friday to Shepton Mallet Market.
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MEMORIES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN CRANMORE -by Mary De Viggiani Part 2.
Milk was delivered by horse drawn cart or by Mrs Smailes in her car which carried a milk churn out of which the milk could be dispensed into householders’ own jugs. Some milk could be collected from local farms.
Rationing was not only imposed on human beings – poultry ration cards were issued allowing the purchase of animal feed from such merchants as Moore & Sons in Frome. This was supplemented by the saving of every scrap of surplus vegetable waste (in particular potato peelings) which was boiled up and added to balancer meal purchased from the grain merchant.
Much of the pasture land was given over to arable, providing food for the populace and extra nutrition for the dairy cows. Horses were employed for ploughing, most harvesting was done by hand as was the milking.
Most agricultural workers were exempt from serving in the forces and they were supplemented by Land Girls many of whom married locally and remained in the district after the war.
Most people “Dug for Victory” turning their gardens into vegetable patches and digging allotments within the parish. The tennis lawns at Cranmore Hall were dug up to be turned into potato patches. A produce lorry distributed fruit and veg to local hospitals from the Hall and from many other sources.
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MEMORIES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN CRANMORE -by Mary De Viggiani Part 3.
Camps had been set up for German and Italian prisoners of war locally and their occupants given farm work in the area. Many of these men stayed in England after the war and married local girls. Alliances were made between the American soldiers and some local ladies, however, these did not normally end in “happily ever after” because the G.I.s usually returned home, going back to the fiancées and wives they had left in the States.
In 1939 it was possible to order supplies from various local sources. Those who were lucky enough to possess a telephone, of which there were few, could place an order with Mr Bowden the Shepton Mallet Grocer who would deliver the goods, usually on the same day. Bread was delivered every day except Sunday by Mr Gilson of Stoke St Michael; Paraffin for cooking stoves and lamps was supplied by Mr Hares; Coal by Mr Shearn of Shepton; Mr Britten delivered meat from his shop in Shepton and Mac Fisheries in Wells delivered fish. This continued for sometime during the war. During, and for some time after the war, there was meat, grocery, clothing, sweet, cigarette and fuel rationing. The Dean children could spend their sweet rations at Miss Cornish’s shop sited in the rank of cottages to the south side of the road. These cottages were demolished during the 1950’s for road widening.
Two lady doctors Dr Annie Hyatt and Dr Wright, who had also served the Cranmore maternity Unit took care of medical needs, visiting people in their own homes. Shepton Mallet Hospital was largely subscription funded. Medical care was paid for by those who could afford it but, more generally, the East & West Cranmore Provident Society would, for a sum of five shillings per annum and one or two shillings a month, provide payment for medical care. The stated object of this society was “to encourage habits of carefulness and sobriety amongst its members and provide medical attendance for its members and also the means of a decent burial in the case of death”
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Click here to see a letter about Cranmore in the 1970s / 80s.
This lovely picture is a painting by T Noelsmith of a Cranmore cottage with St Bartholomew's church in the background.
It is thought to have been painted in the 1890s
The cottage is not much changed today and the owner kindly provided the picture for the website. It's not known where the
original painting is but the reproduction which was in the form of a bithday card, gave the acknowledgement 'Courtesy of Fine
Lines Art, Shipston-on-Stour'.
Mary de Viggiani has two books published on the subject.
‘Two Estates’ £7 and ‘A Cranmore Chronicle’ £4. Anyone wishing to purchase copies please
contact Mary via her website.
Click here for Mary de Viggiani's website
Foreign Nationals were given jobs by the Paget family. These refugees were in fact restored to their native countries before the war began. War having been declared, retired Colonel H G Spencer of Southill formed the Home Guard, manned by local farm workers and retired or exempt villagers. The late Fred Greenaway drove a lorry for them during the war, Jack Trotman was appointed Sergeant and Clifford Hurle was a Non Commissioned Officer (NCO).
The older girls benefited from gifts of nylon stockings – unheard of except in the movies. Dances were arranged in the village hall and the village maidens flocked to meet the new influx of young men who arrived to take the place of the home-grown variety who had gone overseas to fight.
The new American dances were all the rage. The children also spent a great deal of their time playing with the anti radar silver foil strips which “fell from the sky”.
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THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST BARTHOLOMEW'S, WEST CRANMORE.
Cranmore — or rather Crane Mere, the Lake of the Cranes (for that is what the name means), as is evidenced by the
fact that some shells have been found at East Cranmore, to prove that a considerable area was once a lake — first
comes to our notice about the time of Bishop Jocelyn in the 12th century. For some reason, probably to do with
tithes and their collection, the parish was divided into East and West, it having previously been only one village.
Any churches or chapels of that period are certainly not those of today.
As regards West Cranmore Church, you can see at a glance that its style of architecture is perpendicular Gothic,
which dates its construction towards the end of the 15th century. Some windows, for example, are quite sharply pointed,
not more rounded as in the early English period which followed the Norman. The crenellated tower and ornamental pinnacles,
not strictly functional, also help us to fix its date, although happily it remains basically a simple country parish
church, which is all it ever aspired to being, and which is the way we hope people will continue to look on it today.
During the Middle Ages the power and wealth of the Church grew immensely—far too much, some would say. Nevertheless
it was very much an age of faith, and it was this faith which invented and saw the growth and fine flowering of Gothic
architecture. This style has been described by the writer G. K. Chesterton as “infinity made imaginable”, and we can see
what he means. Our older parish churches and cathedrals do give us a strange sense of God’s mystery and beauty, in a way
which somehow more modern church buildings find it hard to convey, but of course the materials and craftmanship available
today have altered enormously, as indeed has the whole sociological structure and environment in which we live.
It seems certain that from early times Cranmore came under the authority of Doulting, which was itself under the patronage
of Glastonbury. Thus the Somerset Record Society of mediaeval wills gave no hint of benefactions towards the building of
the church, which is not surprising, since it would have been financed through Doulting. But if, in the Ecclesiastical
hierarchy, Cranmore was thought of in subordinate terms, as a chapelry of Doulting, it does not follow that the villagers
thought anything of the sort. Indeed, rumour has it that on high days and holidays, a kind of football was played with
a pig's head, placed at the kickoff midway between the two villages, which themselves served as the goals. A certain
friendly rivalry still exists today between them.
The 16th century saw the end of the Pope’s domination in England. and the breaking up of the great monasteries and abbeys
such as Glastonbury. Patronage passed increasingly to great families, in the case of West Cranmore the Strode family,
after whom the local hostelry, the Strode Arms is named. But should you require refreshment of body as well as soul,
take a look at the open fireplace, obviously mediaeval, and the date 1492 scratched rudely upon the beam.
The Strodes were actively associated with West Cranmore from the 17th century onwards, and many plaques to different
members of the family can be seen in the church. The one to Admiral Strode, in the Chancel is particularly fine. Note
also the hatchments under the tower at the West end, which incidentally has some fine fan-vaulting. The Strodes were
followed by the Spencers, and a very fine memorial to Lieutenant Spencer, killed in action in Italy in 1944, is also
to be seen in the Chancel.
The Chancel itself was rebuilt in the 19th century and restored in Early English style. This was a period of great
religious upsurge and revival in Church, which often took the form of church building, although, of course. there
were many other ways in which it was expressed, such as foreign missions.
And so to modern times. We have welcomed many visitors and newcomers to the village in recent years, including the
artist Mr. David Shepherd and the restored East Somerset Railway. We like to think that Cranmore retains its essential
character as a village, a place where it is meaningful to live and perhaps work, and where the community still counts.
For the local inhabitant and the visitor the church building does help to express something of the inexpressible longing
of every human, if only for a moment, on spiritual spheres beyond space and time.
The Ministry of Environment list of historic buildings describes the Church as C.14/C.15 Perpendicular ... nave, north
aisle, chancel, south porch, west tower, good perpendicular tower of 3 stages, angle buttresses with pinnacles up 2 lower
stages, embattled parapet with spirelet. Other windows pointed arch perpendicular except square headed to North Aisle.
Cross 14C./15C. Restored shaft and head in square socket on base of 2 square steps. The reader is also referred to Pevsner,
Buildings of England, N. Somerset and Bristol, p. 332-333.
The ring of five bells was not used and fell into disrepair during the last war. We are very grateful to generous
donations which have made it possible for the necessary restoration work to be completed and the addition of a sixth bell.
We now have a very committed team of bellringers who ring the bells every week, so that the ‘music of the bells’ ring out
once more from Cranmore
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POEM BY GWENDA BROCK, REMEMBERING SHEPTON MALLET
When I was young I went with my Mum
I was fascinated to watch the cashier in her box
I remember the other shops with nostalgia
Everything was weighed on scales and bagged
Henley’s was the ‘departmental’ store
The men did their shopping in the High Street
Boots and Watkins Chemists relieved our ills
The Bazaar in the High Street was an experience
Frisbys and Hoopers supplied boots and shoes
The florist in the Market Square was Lily Hope
The Regal Cinema situated in Paul Street
We saved the ‘divi’ and paid by cash then
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Notes and Observations ( Many thanks to the church for this document )
To Shepton on a double decker bus
We went to the Co-op at the bottom of town
To place an order – to be delivered to us
Receive money sent on an overhead line
From the counter where goods were purchased
And the change then whizzed back – in no time
Bowden’s and Hobbs Bros. come to mind
Where rows of tins and hessian bags
Displayed tea, flour and dried fruit of every kind
And often we would be pleased to see
Bags of broken biscuits going cheap
Which we dunked at home in our tea
Where ladies every need could be met
From knicker elastic, pins and underwear
To the most fashionable coat and hat
At Thomas Laing or H G Fish
Hellikers and Ron Miller for their haircuts
If a short back and sides was their wish
Brittens the butcher displayed meat on hooks
Haskins and Stephenson’s for our furniture
And crockery and pictures were bought at Cook
Ran by the Miss Witcombes’ I recall
In their woollen hats and mittens
They could sell you anything at all
And did the repairs as well
Hobleys and Barnes for our household needs
They had wicks, mantles and fork handles to sell
And sometimes for a special treat
We would go to Baker’s Fish & Chip shop
And sit in the restaurant – if there was a seat
For entertainment it did not lack
Children sat in front for the Saturday Club
And as teenagers we sat at the back
No credit cards to get us in debt
No supermarkets or computer shops
This once was Shepton – I’ll never forget