Church/Rodborough/war

Church windows

Posted on by Julie

Today Rodborough’s vicar Peter Francis has been speaking on Radio Gloucestershire about the special stained glass windows in Rodborough Church. We are honoured to give home to the ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ window. Rev Awdry spent his retirement years in Rodborough from 1965. His wife Margaret was well-loved in the community and ran the infant welfare clinic at The Endowed School. After her death in 1989 Rev. Awdry commissioned the window in tribute to her. He died in 1997 before it was installed.

A small section from the commemorative window showing the Rev. Awdry shutting the engine shed doors for the last time.

Equally special is the window in the Lady Chapel. This commemorates 2nd Lieutenant Norman Steel who was killed, aged 20, at Passchendaele in 1917 and all those Rodborough men lost in WW1. The window was installed in 1939 after the outbreak of the Second World War. The dove perhaps a hope for peace. The window by Mr Henry Payne of Amberley was the gift of the executors of the late Mrs Steel.

The window in the Lady Chapel shows a soldier bending before a wayside cross with the poppies of Flanders fields above a regimental badge of the Glosters. In the distance is a building in flames.
Rodborough/war

Remembrance 2017

Posted on by Julie

Huge thanks to Rodborough Scouts who have again tidied the Commonwealth War Graves and those family graves commemorating soldiers who died in the First World War. A map and list appears here

The grave of Herbert Charles Nicholls is marked with a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone.
Herbert Charles Nicholls died on 15th October 1918 aged 33 of Gun Shot Wounds to his spine sustained at the Battle of the Canal du Nord, near Cambrai.
Rodborough

What an amazing day

Posted on by Julie

Thanks to all the lovely people who came to see us at Rodborough Community Hall. We were overwhelmed by the enthusiasm for our local history project. We had those wonderful ‘Antiques Roadshow’ moments when people brought things along, we introduced folks to others with a shared interest, we talked over tea and cakes and at times you were all as quietly absorbed as mice in  a reading room! 

Butterrow

Butterrow Book Exchange

Posted on by Julie

 

Butterrow Phone Box before restoration
Butterrow Book Exchange

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eighteen months ago, Butterrow Book Group approached Rodborough Parish Council in the hope that the iconic red telephone kiosk on Rodborough Lane could be preserved for the benefit of local residents. This quintessentially British treasure was due to be removed by BT, a fate which has befallen thousands of kiosks in recent years – nearly half of the phone boxes in the UK have been removed. This telephone kiosk is an older (1935-1952) K6 model bearing the Tudor crown instead of the more recent St Edward’s crown models which were manufactured after the Queen’s coronation. Butterrow Book Group’s intention was to repaint it and convert it into a community book share.  Indeed, 4000 communities UK wide have joined this scheme.
Happily, RPC agreed to adopt it in a very straightforward process which simply involved the payment of £1. Butterrow Book Group has lovingly restored it to its former glory and given it a new lease of life. Many Butterrow households took part in the restoration, making it a hugely successful community project which has drawn many encouraging and supportive comments.  Thank you to everyone in the area who has spurred them on by expressing their interest, joining in, donating books and by simply expressing their good wishes and telling them how lovely the kiosk looks!

Dudbridge/Milestone

Sharing our history

Posted on by Julie

Despite the pouring rain, we had a great turn out at the Coffee Pot yesterday. We are always thrilled at the little gems of information gleaned. It feels like adding extra pieces to the jigsaw of Rodborough.

Who knew that this milestone sits on Dudbridge Road? I, for one, have never noticed it.

Rodborough

Rodborough – a vibrant community

Posted on by Julie

We are very grateful to Rodborough Parish Council for a generous donation that has enabled us to set up this website.

The grant awards evening was an uplifting experience; Rodborough has so many active community groups, among them the Butterrow Book Group, who have adopted the redundant phone box on Rodborough Lane (It has been bought by the Parish Council) and will be converted to a book share kiosk. It dates from somewhere between 1936 and 1952. Does anyone know?

It’s interesting to reflect that photographing what we think of as ordinary may have huge historical value.

This photo was taken in 2012 as a modern day comparison to …..
…this photo of Butterrow Pike pre-phone box.

Also spotted and both in use, were two phone boxes in Dudbridge

Dudbridge Hill. The Police car registration dates from 1987. Note the man on the roof and the apparent lack of any safety precautions!
Dudbridge, opposite Redlers 1990
Rodborough

The Dudbridge Blackbirds

Posted on by Julie
The Stroud News carried several pieces about a family of blackbirds who achieved acclaim in 1911. House painter, Samuel Haden of Bay Tree House, Dudbridge, kept a tame female blackbird, who was allowed to fly freely within his house. Feeling so much at home, the bird constructed a nest on the mantel shelf in the living room and laid four eggs. Accounts vary as to whether a ‘Mr Blackbird’ was involved; it has been suggested that Mr Haden substituted fertile eggs from the wild. However, four baby blackbirds hatched, thrived and eventually flew away. Stroud News readers were invited to view the chicks and Mr Haden proudly wrote to the new King, George V and his mother, sending photos and received a royal response.
Such was the notoriety of the birds that at Stroud Carnival, in June 1911, a float was paraded with a nest made of hay and little boys in black clothes, with blackened faces sat inside bobbing up and down.
The original nest can be seen at the Museum in the Park. It sits on the mantelpiece in Gallery 7, alongside a changing display of old old local scenes from the Wilf Merrett postcard collection.