AS HER Majesty Queen Elizabeth II reaches the remarkable and historic milestone of the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne, it is worth pausing to appreciate just how much has changed over the last seven decades here in the village.
In 1952 the population of Penn and Tylers Green was about half of that today.
The great housing developments between New Road and Hazlemere crossroads were yet to appear. Instead there were farms, fields and orchards. Similar developments in the Wheeler Avenue and Southcote Way areas were also yet to appear.
Yet in Penn and Tylers Green there were at least 21 shops, eight pubs, two coal depots and two banks.
Some food was still rationed and few had a telephone: still less a television. The country was struggling economically when 1952 dawned, just six years and three months since the end of the Second World War.
Here’s a monthly run down of that momentous year:
January
- In the January sales Curry’s were offering to rent a Ferguson TV for 17 shillings (85p) a week, quite expensive considering the average wage for men was £9 a week (much less for women). Murray’s department store in Wycombe offered nightdresses at 7/11d (about 40p) and pyjamas at 13/9d (about 90p).
- There were six cinemas to choose from locally, including the Royalty at Bourne End and the Picture House in Beaconsfield, showing films like An American in Paris starring Gene Kelly. A growing attraction in Wycombe were the weekly wrestling bouts at the town hall. One of the highlights at Tylers Green Village Hall this month was a ballet.
- The leader of the opposition and former prime minister, Clement Attlee and his wife Violet moved into Cherry Cottage, Prestwood. At a village welcoming party 400 people queued to shake hands with the couple.
- Here, a former railway clerk and curate in Beaconsfield, the Rev John Siderfin was named the new vicar of St Margaret’s, Tylers Green following the death a year earlier of the Rev Gerald Hayward.
- The Government announced the closure of the Crown Film Unit, based at Beaconsfield studios, which had been created in the war to make propaganda and documentary films.
- Wycombe Wanderers, then a leading amateur team, were top of the Isthmian League, while Penn and Tylers Green FC were third in division 1 of the Wycombe Combination League.
February
- The death of King George VI on Wednesday 6 February resulted in shops in the village almost immediately draping their windows in black. The headmaster of Tylers Green School, Mark Filby, noted in the school diary: “The death of His Majesty the King was announced this morning. The children were informed. The Union Jack was hoisted at half-mast.” Pupil Trevor Long recalled: “Mr Filby gathered us all in the hall and told us the King had died. He said we could not go out into the playground at break but we must all be very quiet. We obeyed.”
- The 12,000 crowd attending Wycombe’s Amateur Cup tie at Loakes Park in the centre of Wycombe the following Saturday sang Abide With Me led by the High Wycombe Town Band before the kick-off and then joined players and officials in a minute’s silence before all sang the National Anthem, using the words, for the first time in most people’s experience, God Save The Queen.
- Memorial services on Sunday 10 February filled local churches. At St Margaret’s, Tylers Green “the choir sang Sir Walford Davies’ setting of ‘God Be In My Head’.” During the king’s funeral on Friday 15 February all shops closed between 1pm and 2.30pm. A national two minute silence was held at 2pm.
- Meanwhile life went on. Penn Street Cricket Club bought three-quarters of an acre of Penn Wood to enable them to extend Penn Street Common so it would be suitable and big enough to play cricket. Six trees were felled.
- The council was warned that the 670 new homes due to be built in the area that year – 256 of them at Micklefield – would not be enough to meet future demand.
- An outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease at Luton caused the cancellation of the local Old Berkeley Hunt.
- Davenport Vernon were advertising the new Sunbeam Talbot “as driven by Stirling Moss”, while Currall’s at Marlow were selling the new Austin A40 Somerset for £467 plus £260 purchase tax.
- Councillors in Beaconsfield delayed a decision on whether to put cat’s eyes on a new Zebra crossing in the town after one councillor said horses would be afraid to cross it because of the light reflecting from them.
March
- A dance to celebrate the coming of spring was held at Tylers Green Village Hall featuring “Ken Madelin and his full orchestra. Tickets 3/6d (17p) including buffet; 8pm to 11.45pm. Late bus to High Wycombe.” The hall also held regular square dances which were proving increasingly popular.
- Archeologists working at St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street before builders restored it from bomb damage, discovered 15th century Penn floor tiles they did not know were there. Most of central and east London was still a building site as work continued following wartime bomb damage.
- At Penn Street School a tuck shop was introduced because many children were unable to buy sweets locally, even with their ration cards. Local food control committees were still operating attempting to ensure the fair distribution of food, but it still led to occasional shortages.
- A blizzard brought 10ft (three metre) snow drifts to the area, cutting off Penn Street for a time and leaving passengers stranded on buses on the Hazlemere to Amersham road.
- McIlroy’s in High Wycombe were offering the latest peach-coloured hook-fastener corsets for £1/5/5d; plastic handbags for 19/11d and the latest Rayon taffeta – “ideal for blouses” – at 2/11 ha’penny (sorry I don’t think I have a ‘half’ on my 21st century keyboard!). For savers, the Reading and High Wycombe Building Society was offering a two and quarter per cent savings rate. (I don’t have a quarter either!).
- Meanwhile, being thrifty, Penn and Tylers Green Football Club changed its team’s kit from blue and white stripes to blue and white squares because Frank Adams’ sports shop was running a special offer on square designed shirts (£14/2/- for the entire team.) The club’s minutes noted: “In addition Mrs Trendell made the goalkeeper’s jersey for two guineas.”
- In local adverts Shell and BP reminded motorists that if they went to their garages for petrol not only would the attendant put the petrol in the tank but also wash your windscreen and headlights and check your tyre pressures.
April
- As most people didn’t have access to their own car, day-outs by coach and rail were still popular. Easter day-trips by coach included venues such as Hindhead, Southsea, Warwick and Brighton while British Rail offered trips to watch the planes at Northolt Airport – “London’s busiest airport” – for 3/6d return, including admission, from Beaconsfield station.
- Local scouts held their Bob A Job week during the Easter holiday, although householders were asked to check that scouts and cubs were carrying their official card of approval to prevent non-scouts cashing in.
- The West Wycombe Caves reopened as a tourist attraction. They had been closed since the beginning of the war.
- There was a major campaign asking people to get themselves X-rayed in the fight against tuberculosis. In one week 10,000 people in Wycombe area visited mobile X-ray vans.
- Curry’s were advertising new bikes at £12/10/- or £2 week on the ‘never never”.
- At the Buckinghamshire County Council elections the Chepping Wycombe area returned two independents.
- The Bucks Free Press, which had always carried classified advertisements over the whole of its front page, changed to putting news stories on its front page instead.
May
- Big news was the election of a woman as “chairman” of Beaconsfield Urban Council for the first time. In proposing Mrs L. Holloway, Rear Admiral F. Graham said: “We have a lady as our Sovereign so it is only fitting we should have a lady as our chairman.”
- Buckinghamshire Police said all its police cars would be fitted with radio communication by the end of the year. The Bucks fire brigade expected all its fire engines to have the same within 12 months.
- Work began on building a footpath along part of Elm Road, Penn.
- Several people throughout the area appeared in court for stealing money from their gas meters.
- An advert for Minors cigarettes (2/8d for 20) said:“Intelligent people save and smoke with Minors cigarettes.”
- The Whit Monday bank holiday saw three village Sunday schools – Penn Methodists, Tylers Green Methodists and St Margaret’s – compete in a sports day at the football and cricket ground, still called then the Penn and Tylers Green Recreation Ground..
- Not a good month for Penn and Tylers Green cricket team. They were bowled out for nine in five overs against Great Kingshill, and two weeks later two of their players, S. Nicholls and L. Semmens, were badly injured in the same match against Naphill – one requiring four stitches after being hit on the forehead by the ball and the other needing medical attention after being struck in the mouth.
June
- Courage Beer began a campaign to encourage more women into its pubs. “Courage pubs are friendly places where you’ll get a ready welcome,” said adverts and posters aimed at women.
- Wycombe MP William Astor warned about the increasing military strength of Russia at a public meeting, saying: “We need to be on our guard against the growth of communism in Great Britain.” Mr Astor was elected at the 1951 general election but resigned in August 1952 when his father died and he inherited the title Viscount Astor.
- Sir Adrian Boult conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra at a concert in Wycombe Town Hall.
- Norman Reeves garage offered to “underseal” cars “to add years to their life.”
- Lots of people had pen-friends in this country and abroad. The papers ran several stories through the year of pen-friends meeting up and marrying.
- ‘Guess the weight of the Vicar’ was one of the stalls at the annual St Margaret’s garden party in the garden of the vicarage in Hammersley Lane, Tylers Green. Other stalls included bat-the-rat, roll-a-penny, hoopla and skittles.
July
- Plans announced to increase industrial premises in the Wycombe area, including 86 acres at Cressex, 30 acres at Sands, 10 acres at Wycombe Marsh and four acres at Tylers Green – the latter was the former wood yard in St John’s Road, converted into the factory site and is now the Kite Wood housing development.
- The council asked the Government for the immediate construction of a by-pass for Great Missenden, saying the old, narrow High Street suffered serious congestion and was dangerous for both road users and pedestrians.
- Tylers Green School sports day, on the last day of term, was a big event on the recreation ground with certificates for all the winners presented by Mrs Lancaster Rose, a local dignitary who lived in The White House in Church Road.
- The BBC said 4,349 people in the Wycombe area had a TV licence and 16,613 people had a wireless (radio) licence. A mobile detector van was seen in the area for the first time as the BBC believed a number of people were dodging the radio fee. You also needed a licence to own a dog.
- Local farmers objected to proposals to move the Wycombe cattle market away from the centre of High Wycombe to a site near Sands. Farmers said they needed a beer in town centre pubs after market day and there were no such facilities in Sands.
- Bruce Belfrage, a well known BBC radio news reader, left his home at Folly Meadow in Hammersley Lane, Tylers Green to emigrate to Canada. He was famous for reading the nine o’clock news unperturbed when Broadcasting House was hit by a bomb in 1940 covering him in dust and plaster. Mr Belfrage had fresh milk delivered early each morning direct from Puttenham Farm, behind the Red Lion, in Penn, by farmer’s daughter Laura Parrot.
August
- The Penn and Tylers Green Gardens and Allotments Association held its annual show – a forerunner of today’s Village Show – with 660 entries in 142 classes. Mr H. Wooster won the cup for the highest points while his wife won the cup for best flowers.
- The Penn Horse Show and fete, organised by the Conservative Party, also included a dog show and motor show on Seeley’s fields.
- Forty boys from the Royal Grammar School visited Helsinki for the 1952 Olympics. The worse part, they said, “was returning to British austerity rations after the unrationed liberality of Finnish feeding.”
- One thousand girl guides from 40 countries attended the first international camp in England for 25 years at Hall Barn, Beaconsfield.
- An example of how rudimentary communication was at the time was illustrated in the tragic flooding disaster at Lynmouth in Devon, which killed 34 people. The wife of Flackwell Heath golf club captain James Wilby was staying in the part of the village where 100 buildings were destroyed by the surging waters of the River Lyn. The flood was on a Saturday but it wasn’t until the following Tuesday Mrs Wilby was able to find a working telephone in Taunton to call her husband to say she was ok.
- Two cases of polio were confirmed in Castlefield in High Wycombe and an unconfirmed casein Cressex.
- There were still plenty of politicians warning of a war involving the Soviet Union. A campaign to recruit people to the Civil Defence Corps resulted in it being 154 per cent over-subscribed in this area.
September
- Most of the roads in the village didn’t have a road sign naming them…which was fine because local deliverymen and women and villagers themselves knew where everyone lived. But it was frustrating for visitors. So after complaints from residents the council put up road signs for New Road, St John’s Road, School Road, Church Road (Tylers Green), Hammersley Lane and Cock Lane.
- A report found there were more pigs, poultry and sheep on farms in Buckinghamshire but fewer cattle compared to previous years. More wheat, barley and oats were being grown but fewer potatoes. The horse population had dived. In 1939 there were 10,614 horses on Bucks farms. In 1952 there were 4,200…due entirely to increased use of farm machinery. At Maidenhead market, horse meat “suitable for human consumption” was offered for sale.
- In their “Back to school shoe week”, the upmarket cobblers John Hearn were offering children’s shoes from £1/5/9d a pair to £2/7/9d a pair. Most people went to Freeman, Hardy and Willis where they were much cheaper. Meanwhile Curry’s were offering the latest radiograms for 33 guineas. (a guinea being £1 and one shilling [5p]).
- Visiting hours at the Wycombe area hospitals – the War Memorial Hospital in Wycombe (where the current hospital is sited); Marlow Cottage Hospital and Booker Hospital – were extended
- Wycombe Show on the Rye attracted over 10,000 people while the Bucks County Show banned cattle entries in the aftermath of the earlier foot and mouth disease outbreak.
- Top prize in a local raffle was two tickets to see Bob Hope at the London Palladium. Top film of the year was Singin’ in the Rain with Gene Kelly.
October
- Planners knew that in the years to come much work was needed to improve schools in the area and there was wide discussion on where to build new schools. At one stage the idea of selling Tylers Green School by the common for housing development was discussed and building two new schools, opposite each other in Cock Lane, on the site of the present Middle School. This was rejected. It was another 16 years before the middle school was built.
- In the meantime councillors agreed that improvements to sanitary conditions at the existing Tylers Green school were urgently needed. The basic toilet facilities for girls and boys were at the end of the playground. By the following year pupils and staff had the luxury of flush toilets and wash basins with hot water.
- Penn Street Cricket Club was reformed. The previous club had closed at the outbreak of war in 1939.
- Parish councillors said the amount of litter in the village was “disgraceful” and called for “litter baskets” to be provided.
- McIlroy’s department store in High Wycombe was offering fur coat renovation in time for the winter.
November
- Great excitement as the new Queen made her first visit to High Wycombe. Many hundreds crowded to catch a glimpse as she toured Harrison’s – specialist printers, including postage stamps – in Coates Lane.
- In the Wycombe parliamentary by-election John Hall, (Conservative) beat John Haire (Labour) by 2,100 votes in a straight fight.
- The return of dark evenings had its compensations. Elizabeth Nalder Williams recalled: “Walking home at dusk down Kingswood Road I would see the lights of glow worms. In the spring harebells grew wild there.”
- Penn vicar Oscar Muspratt led the successful fight to prevent Knotty Green and Forty Green areas becoming part of Beaconsfield Council. He said Penn had close links with both of them for eight centuries.
- Hundreds watched and attended a Remembrance Sunday service and parade organised by the Penn and Tylers Green Royal British Legion.
- The debate on whether to play sport on Sundays was raging in many communities. In nearby Ballinger there was a referendum, with residents voting narrowly in favour.
December
- “Housewives will not welcome ‘self-service’ grocery shops on the lines of those so popular in the USA,” said the chairman of the High Wycombe and District Grocers’ Association at its AGM. “They will prefer personal service offered by the small trader.”
- Mrs Finch’s shop window in School Road, opposite the common, began to fill with Christmas goodies Enid Blyton jigsaws available for 2/3d, and Tri-ang toy vans for 27/6d. In the bigger toyshops the “Elizabeth doll” complete with “paper pattern clothing” was available for 45 shillings.
- Garages urged motorists to put anti-freeze in their cars for the winter, while coal merchants offered “off-ration” nutty slack.
- Two hundred people attended a Beethoven concert by Penn Music Club in the village hall.
- Mr and Mrs Perfect retired as Tylers Green School caretakers after 28 years.
- Preparations to celebrate the following year’s Coronation began in earnest.
- The highlight of the BBC TV’s Christmas Day offering was a variety show featuring Arthur Askey, Norman Wisdom, Frankie Howerd, Petula Clark, Betty Driver, Eamon Andrews and Tommy Cooper.
- In her first Christmas Day message, from Sandringham, and heard only on the radio, the Queen concluded: “I pray that I may faithfully serve God and you all the days of my life.”
My thanks to Tina Brown, Ken Allen and all those who contributed family photos and anecdotes to the village diamond jubilee exhibition in 2012 for their help in putting this jubilee blog together.
I’ll be featuring more highlights in the village during the Queen’s reign throughout the year. If you have any stories or pictures from the last 70 years you could contribute, please contact me.
You can contact this blog at peter@pennandtylersgreen.com