PoWs in Bedfordshire

An account of prisoners of war in Bedfordshire during the Second World War has been long overdue. 

 Stephen Risby has blended both military and social history to produce an excellent history of the subject*, which answers the questions: why were they here, what did they do, what were the problems and how were they perceived locally?

 

To answer these, the author has carried out extensive documentary research, as well as drawing on the Mid-Bedfordshire oral history research, “Changing Landscapes, Changing Lives”, to bring to life the experiences of both prisoners of war [POWs] and the civilian population who had contact with them.

There are chapters dealing with the various POW camps and hostels in Bedfordshire, what camp life was like and the public attitudes to both German and Italian POWs. There is also a chapter devoted to the unfortunate ‘Tilbrook Incident’ in which an Italian prisoner of war killed his English working party guard and was himself shot by a member of the Home Guard. This extremely atypical event gained national notoriety and the soldier was awarded the British Empire Medal.

What is particularly good about Stephen Risby’s book is the careful way he gives the historical background to the presence of prisoners of war in this country. In particular he explores the distinct national stereotypes of German and Italian soldiers, as perceived by the British government and members of the public, which affected the different ways in which German and Italian POWs, always kept separate, were regarded, employed as a labour force and held with varying degrees of security.

There are useful endnotes on sources (but no page references) and a helpful bibliography but no index. Finally, there are five appendices of transcribed documents which illuminate the topics of the treatment of prisoners, what constituted a POW establishment, an International Red Cross committee report on the Ducks Cross POW camp, instructions on camp maintenance and an end-of–the-war official visitor’s report on the Colmworth and Ducks Cross camps and various other hostels around the county. This well-illustrated paperback is very readable and informative.

* Stephen Risby, Prisoners of War in Bedfordshire, Amberley Publishing, 2011. ISBN 9781445603124 £14.99


Contributed by Stuart Antrobus

Anne Allsopp's new History of Luton (see below for publication details) is particularly strong on the town's recent history over the last 100 to 150 years, although in traditional style it begins with early habitation. 

After opening chapters on the early history of the town, where incidentally the author makes the point several times that little of the early town survives to be seen above ground or in the archaeological record (the exception being the parish church, shown here), she focuses on the themes that contributed to modern day Luton with chapters on country houses, education, industry, wartime, migration, leisure and the town. Under these headings she has woven together hundreds of strands including

Luton Airport

• brickmaking (with an account of how bricks used to be made)
• brewing and temperance
• Stattie fairs to the Luton carnival
• straw plaiting schools (where young children laboured and were denied an education) to the University of Bedfordshire
• hatmaking
• a medieval gild, non-conformity, Quakers,
• the multi-ethnic composition of today's population and the Luton Council of Faiths
• the town's musical and theatrical activities 
• roads, railways and the airport
• Vauxhall Motors and the connection with Vauxhall Bridge in London

Wardown Park

.... and the list could go....   The book is a treasure house of information about Luton's past, often in the words of people who were there, and supplemented by wonderful photographs and maps. 

This is a book for locals, who will revel in the memories of how Luton was - and is.  For others who are curious about the towns and cities of this country, this book is more than just a history of Luton, it is also a record of how people worked and lived in a time not long gone.  

Anne Allsopp A History of Luton from Conquerors to Carnival.  Andover, Phillimore, 2010. ISBN 978-1-86077-621-2  £20


Photos:  Parish Church © Barbara Tearle; Luton Airport © Jack Hill (Creative Commons); Wardown Park© Nigel Cox (Creative Commons)
 

Women's Land Army in Bedfordshire

Bedford Central Library hosted the launch of Stuart Antrobus’s book about land girls in Bedfordshire -

“We would not have missed it for the World”:
the Women’s Land Army in Bedfordshire 1939-1950

And what a launch it was! More than fifty former land girls (sporting their new WLA badges) and their families (including a couple from the USA) were amongst the audience viewing the display of information about their work and helping to launch the book. The event room overflowed and buzzed with conversation. Anglia TV took pictures and interviewed some people.

Book launches are about speeches to celebrate the successful completion of a lot of hard work by a lot of people. In this case, there was a double celebration because this was the book of the award-winning website.

Nicola Avery of Bedford Library’s Information Services welcomed everyone and explained the library’s involvement with Stuart Antrobus’s WLA research. She was presented by a trustee of the Library Services Trust with the Alan Ball Local History Award which is an annual award for local studies publishing by public libraries (see my blog earlier this year). The award was accompanied by certificates for the site’s webmaster and for the author. The book's publisher, Paul Bowes of Book Castle Publishing, praised everyone involved in its design and production, which was well-deserved as a great deal of care has gone into presenting information and illustrations in an attractive and clear fashion.

Finally, Stuart thanked all the former land girls who had contributed so much to the project and his team who helped compile the list of c3,500 names from WLA records. He has been working on the project for five years and is continuing to research the people and places.

And the book itself? It begins with a straightforward and brief account of the Women’s Land Army, nationally and locally. At this point it is worth noting that the book is about land girls who WORKED in Bedfordshire, not Bedfordshire born and bred land girls who were sent out of the county to work – that’s a different project!

The book ends with a superbly reconstructed list of the land girls who worked in Bedfordshire (the website contains information on some of them), the hostels they lived in and other useful facts on the WLA and farming jobs. The middle section of the book tells the story of some of these girls and what the work and the conditions were like. It brings home how different life was then, especially in comparison with the technology and convenience of the early 21st century. This is an essential reference work for anyone interested in women’s war work or the home front in Bedfordshire in WWII and it has the advantage of being updated through the website.


“We would not have missed it for the World”: the Women’s Land Army in Bedfordshire 1939-1950; by Stuart Antrobus. Yorkshire, Book Castle Publishing, 2008. £16.99. Is available from the bookshops on the side panel or online.

Vale of Aylesbury

‘Tis the Far Famous Vale: National Influences on the Vale of Aylesbury

Ken and Margaret Morley
The Book Castle, Dunstable, 2007 £25.00

If you stand on the Chiltern Hills at Dunstable Downs, you will be looking across the Vale of Aylesbury. The boundary between Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire can be traced quite easily by the lines of willows beside the Ouzel river and, in fact, some Bedfordshire villages are a part of the Vale.

We live in a very small county but we have much to learn if we look across our borders. As the fly leaf to this book states, `there is an increasing realisation that local history cannot be fully appreciated unless national factors are taken into account`.

Probably the first thing to strike anyone who looks at this book is the enormous amount of detail. It is truly remarkable and, if a book could be found to give a concise history of what was happening in this country during the last few millennia, this could well be it. The list of contents leaves very few subjects untouched, from early settlers to life in a medieval village, through religious conflict to the opening up of the countryside by canals, roads and rail, to the demise of cottage industries and the establishment of new industries and education for all. The text is supported by diagrams, maps, personal recollections, pictures, many of them in colour, references and tables.

The present and future are not neglected. The last chapter is devoted to threats to the Vale. In 1969, the Roskill Commission proposed the siting of a third London airport at Cublington. Fortunately this damaging plan was rejected but now there are plans to flood the area with greenfield-brownfield housing. Again, the authors have provided considerable detail on this topical subject.

Information is provided about places to visit and the rights and wrongs of accessing the countryside and, at the front of the book, is a list of places which are `well worth a visit`. Some of these, such as Stockwood Park and Wardown Park Museum are in Bedfordshire. There is indeed a great deal to learn from looking across the county boundary.

Reviewed by Anne Allsopp

Limbury-cum-Biscot

The Story of Limbury-cum-Biscot
by Colin R. Cook
Published by Colin R. Cook in conjunction with the Book Castle, Dunstable 2007
£8.99

Limbury and Biscot were hamlets just outside Luton but both have now been urbanized and the former `rural paradise` has given way to housing and traffic. However, the river Lea can still be found, the Moat House, the oldest secular building in Luton, looks in many ways as it always did and the peaceful churchyard still gives Biscot a countryside feeling.

Even before the Norman Conquest, Limbury and Biscot would have been known to travellers along the Icknield Way and evidence of Roman occupation has been found. Saxons lived here and remained in control even though, in the ninth century AD, the boundary that separated them from the Vikings was in the immediate vicinity. The book gives details of the entry for Biscot (Bissopescote) in the Domesday book and then goes on to note the names of the manors and landowners who managed the area during the following eight hundred years.

Of particular interest is the Moat House which can be traced back to 1370-1400 AD. The original purpose of the building is disputed but the quality of the richly-moulded roof beams suggests that this was more than just a manor or farm house. There is speculation that a nunnery was set up in the area. Although there is no proof of this, it is said that `on dark foggy winters’ evenings you may still see black hooded figures hurrying along Nunnery Lane responding to the distant ring of a church bell`. Nowadays the Moat House is a very popular carvery and the old beams can still be seen.

There is an interesting chapter on rural industries: tanning, straw plaiting, hat making and osier gathering. The author has gathered information about schools in the hamlets and reproduced some entries from the log books. Biscot church, built in 1868, is described in some detail and, at the back of the book, is a note from the `Friends of Biscot Churchyard` who maintain comprehensive burial books from 1870 and have maps to help relatives to locate graves.

Sadly Colin Cook died just before Limbury-cum-Biscot was published but the book is a pleasing record of his love and dedication.


Reviewed by Anne Allsopp.

From Grand to Grove - entertaining south Bedfordshire

From Grand to Grove Entertaining South Bedfordshire
by Eddie Grabham
published by The Book Castle, Dunstable in 2007 at £16.99

Eddie Grabham’s book was published to coincide with the opening of the new Grove Theatre in Dunstable (which, incidentally, is doing very well - 01582 609351).

It has been claimed that Dunstable was `the cradle of English drama`. This was because Geoffrey de Gorham’s miracle play, based on the martyrdom of St Katherine of Alexandria and performed in Dunstable in the twelfth century, is thought to have been the first English production in the vernacular.

In December 1898 the much-loved Grand Theatre was opened by Lillie Langtry. It was near the Luton railway stations and, therefore, easily accessible to people from the surrounding area. It was demolished in 1957 and remained the only purpose-built theatre in the south of the county until the Grove Theatre was opened. However, live theatre could be enjoyed at other venues, for example at Dunstable’s Little Theatre and Queensway Hall, Leighton Buzzard’s Exchange Theatre and Library Theatre and Luton’s Alma and Library Theatre.

The author goes on to describe the age of film going. The first permanent cinema in Bedfordshire was opened in Luton in 1909 with the unimaginative name of the Anglo-American Electric Picture Palace. Some doubted whether the new `flicks` would be popular but they certainly were as the title of the next chapter in the book indicates: `South Bedfordshire goes Movie Crazy`. The book names local cinemas which became significant parts of people’s lives in Dunstable, Leighton Buzzard, Luton and Toddington in the first half of the twentieth century, a real trip down memory lane! Cinemas certainly played a considerable role in boosting morale during the Second World War. They also provided `a valuable channel for essential propaganda`.

The heyday of the cinema was challenged by television. One by one the lovely old cinemas, with their beautiful artistic interiors, closed and took on other lives, for example as ballrooms, bingo halls or nightclubs. Films were still shown but were more likely to be found at multiplexes.

Eddie Grabham’s book is full of delightful photographs. There are also mentions of famous personalities who came to perform on a Luton stage: Julie Andrews, Johnny Dankworth and Cleo Lane, Ken Dodd, Warren Mitchell and Sam Wanamaker to name a few. Recently, the actor Brian Blessed has shown a particular interest in the new Grove Theatre in Dunstable.

This book is full of memories but is also a social history of one aspect of Bedfordshire life in the twentieth century.


Reviewed by Anne Allsopp

Buy this book from The Castle Bookshop, Dunstable - see links to bookshops on the right.