Bilborough, Nottinghamshire
Memories of Evelyn Towle
and Band of Champions
Evelyn Towle
We exchanged our large house in town for a new council on Bilborough Estate and found ourselves in the midst of the slum clearance area. We made many friends, as friendship was needed most and was easy and free. My friend also was an exchange. She lives some 50 doors away. It was her neighbour Polly Bird who first asked me to join Miss Russell’s club voicing her praises as everyone else did who knew her. This first meeting was to be part of a lifelong friendship for Miss Russell and myself and the start of her work which for the past 30 years has been life itself to me.
Through we started our first club in Strelley school with,, Miss Russell who lived at Browns Wood Yard would walk through Bilborough Woods with a bag of sticks and coal, milk, sugar, tea, crumpets and butter. Always there would be a lovely fire to greet us on ??? after boiling the kettle and making tea we would toast pikelet with fresh butter, a real luxury in those days. Miss Russell provided all this for which we paid two pence. We had a lady who taught us the art of make do and mend, and made garments for he children out of cast-off clothing, later paying 6 pence per week to purchase curtain and dress material and really learning the art of dress-making. Our children were cared for by Harriet Hallam, Miss Russell’s housekeeper.
We became aware of the problem facing us - the inclusion of the slum clearance people into a new modem environment.
In this short history of our beginning any attempt to mention everyone who took part would be an impossibility. We all know the part we played and are grateful and wiser for the experience that we enjoyed ourselves and stayed to conquer during the years or moved on.
Our Founder, Miss Sheila Russell, had to leave after fifteen years spent in happiness with us. That she left us the joyful spirit to carry on her part in the beloved community in will and in deed is our heritage. We are all members of Bilborough Community Association.
Every club meeting was a day to look forward to. Miss Russell made everything brimful of enjoyment and long after every chore was a gave. It was a pleasure to be in her company; sadness was med to light fantasy. Worry was made into a beautiful song, and grief into the blessed enlightenment of her Beautiful self
In her younger days she visited the workrooms of the girls in the lace manufacturing, and it was through her endeavours that facilities were made better. Through getting to know these girls, she was invited to their houses, and gain saw conditions in which they lived. No small wonder that when slum clearance began in 1934 her attentions were still with the girls in their need to be rehabilitated into new modern homes and country (the area of Bilborough was chosen by the City fathers to build modem houses and to rehouse Barker Gate and March Street slum clearance people) to get them settled into a new life, taken away from the City center and its many enjoyments, these people were lost. Monday was short, men on the dole. Many’s the time they walked back to the City and they were full of complaints, at being moved into the back of nowhere.
The need to have a place to meet together in their new life was the start of the first club which met at Strelley School. There was always a lovely fire to greet us. The meeting commenced with a short prayer. Every meeting was a different prayer, simple and pleasing. The kettle was boiled on the fire for making the tea. We toasted crumpets on wintry days and with real fresh butter indeed a treat, often some got more than one piece and many times there was not enough to go round. The charge for this was one penny and one penny membership.
Thursday Afternoons was dressmaking. We were taught to make smaller garments for the children from cast-off clothing. At a later date we were able to purchase dress and curtain material and so make our own dresses and curtains. Membership which started with eight people was increasing. The need for larger premises was acute. The meetings had only been for women and children but now the men wanted some activity. Their need was even greater. They were unemployed, and time hung heavy.
Withal the land in Bilborough Area being taken for house building, the likelihood offer of the former was nil. Manor Farm became vacant. Our prayers were almost answered. Here was a place just right for all our activities. Dilapidated as it was, we had great plans for its future. Money never was mentioned - we all looked up to Miss Russell and hoped. She formed a great plan, contacting all her friends, borrowing and begging, getting them to promise for three years certain obligations. These friends are too numerous to mention. The work on Manor Farm got started - canteen, kitchen, clubroom, toilets. We all played our part, scrubbing, cleaning, making cupboards, machining. All we spoke of was the opening, what a great day, and so many important people. We all thought Manor Farm would never be got ready for the opening so hard we worked for the day.
Bishop Talbot above all presided, towering above all he Blessed the centre and all of us within. Miss Russell thanked him and said “This may not be your conception of how to carry on the work of God”, to which he replied, “If this is not God’s work, loving thy neighbour as thyself, then what is?”
Wonderful reception, plenty of food and cups of tea galore, but we were not ???? so full of our new centre and the people within.
Food had to be distributed to families afterwards. Our first warden was Miss Lippert, a born organiser, shy though, and helped us to form committees and run our separate clubs. We had many signings and our tuition was ???? than we thought.
We felt that need for a district nurse and organised a scheme where residents interested paid a penny per week for which we acquired a Queens Nurse from London.
The cellar was equipped with dark red cushions on the stone slabs, which were used by the farmer for selling pork, and so a chapel and quiet reading room was made much us of. the larder was a cobbler’s workroom, which for the price of one penny, anyone could come in to do their own repairs and also purchase leather and tacks at a very cheap price . The dairy was to become an excellent kitchen with all facilities to cook meals, generous use of this kitchen has been made and thousands of people enjoyed the free offered from its portals. The kitchen was to be our canteen. Real made benches by one of our members, a large counter divided the room and everything was sold from cups of tea to a penny bar of sweets, cigarettes, sold singly, of course, which included a light.
The dining room and parlour was to be our club room, and divided by a screen, at times became separate rooms for use by two clubs. Upstairs was Warden’s Office and Library, which was equipped with furniture given to us, some of which came from Wollaton Hall, our time table for instance. A number of hundreds of pounds must have been spent on Manor Farm. It became a show place. Visitors called all the time. University students came to our club sessions as part of their training, and remained our friends, some of whom at a later date during the war we visited in Oxford and Cambridge.
The garden at the back of Manor Farm was cultivated as part of our effort to produce during the war. Many of our difficulties were answered. Our men were called to His Majesty’s Forces and women entered Munitions, some poverty was elevated. During the war our numbers still increased and we set up a social service run by Miss Heason, and from which many benefited.
By then on the club were Leader Captain Radcliff first started counting sessions for boys and
girls to encourage them to join the club instead of meeting at street corners. At a later date the
Nottingham Education Committee took over the Youth Club which to this day meets at Players
School. The Association has representation on the committee.
Finding we had a large group of 18 to 30 years not catered for, activities for this age was convened and flourished, but with the coming of the second world war these people fell away. And up to writing is the hope that the need again for this age group, and the one to start things moving will be achieved.
The first conference was at Lemington Spa, Sir Anthony Eden presiding. Mr. Jockey McDonald and myself were chosen to go, along with Miss Russell, Miss Lippert, Miss Burrows (Guide Mistress). This indeed was an experience and to find people with the same problems trying to find an answer. We had lunch in the Royal Pump Room. Mr. McDonald never removed his cap. Miss Russell prompted him, only hastily asking him to replace it after much amusement. His head looked like a white Edam Cheese! All through lunch he was explaining to Miss Russell how he lost his hair whilst a prisoner of war and he almost lost his lunch in the telling. We have many a laugh afterwards. This before N.F. was formed,
Sadly I cannot complete this article yet but hope to update soon.
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