Neil Armstrong

When I was 7 years old, back in 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. I remember, at the time, that everyone was amazed by this. Every boy had a collection of Airfix models that either made the Apollo rocket, the Lunar Module or an astronaut. I had an astronaut hanging from my ceiling for years! Blue Peter showed you how to build a rocket out of a Squeezee bottle, together with other parts, and I had one balancing on my window ledge for months. Heinz beans gave away some fantastic posters of the space project that we all had pinned to our walls and Findus gave away free flexi-discs of the voices of the astonauts talking to mission control during the moon landing. For a while, everyone was moon-mad. I remember our teacher at Knowle Primary, in West Park, letting some of the kids in the class watch the moon walks on the tv that was kept by the assembly hall. Everyone had black and white televisions in those days and we all sat mesmerised as we watched the flickering images broadcast live back from the moon. After it was finished, we had to go back to class and tell the other kids, who hadn't been allowed to watch, what it was all like. We were all fascinated by space travel and imagined that people would soon be living on the moon and then Mars. Of course, none of it ever happened and Neil Armstrong's trip seemed to be the peak of NASA's achievement. It seems odd now but when the final man walked on the moon in 1972, just three years later, people had lost interest and were turning off their tellies in their droves. The same thing happened with the Space Shuttle program. It got in the end that, unless one of them crashed, their missions weren't even reported on the news. It was all very incredible but, people being what they are, soon get fed up with it all.
When Neil Armstrong died a couple of days ago, a part of my childhood went  with him. Days of anticipation watching the flight to the moon, the live broadcasts of the moon walks and the pomp and ceremony when the astronauts arrived back on Earth. It was all fascinating stuff especially for a small boy.
I read somewhere that there's more technology in a modern washing machine than there was in the lunar module (although I find it hard to believe!).
They were great days and there's nothing like it nowadays. The 1960s and 1970s were great times, full of adventure, when anything seemed possible.
No matter where space technology takes us, Neil Armstrong will always be remembered for being the first man on the moon and will always remain an icon of the 20th century.

D Day in Saltash Passage

In January 1944, the US army set up camp at Vicarage Road in preparation for the D-Day landings. Altogether, it housed 60,000 troops on their way to the Normandy landings. It was also a reception centre for returning troops from July 1944.
The whole operation was highly secret and from May 1944, anyone who wanted to visit relatives in the area had to apply for a permit and would be escorted to the address by military police. They would also have to give a specific time when they would be leaving.
The mission was codenamed Operation Overlord. The codename for the many US bases around Plymouth was 'sausages'.
During this time, the river was full of ships loading men and equipment. One day the river was full of ships and the next day, it was completely empty as the troops headed towards the beaches of Normandy.

Children in the area loved the American troops and would pester them for sweets, chewing gum, chocolate, food and cocoa etc. The Americans weren't affected by rationing and were very generous to the locals especially the children. In the city, they even paid for and organised parties for them.
The large majority of troops in Plymouth were from the 29th Armoured division which went on to land at the Omah and Utah beaches. Omah beach was the codename for one of the main landing points for the troops on 6 June 1944. Unfortunately, it is where the Americans suffered their heaviest casualties. The Vicarage Road camp was decommissioned in September 1945.
Tamar Terrace was later renamed Normandy Way and Vicarage Road was renamed Normandy Hill to commemorate the troops that passed this way on their way to the D-Day landings.

A monument stands in Saltash Passage to commemorate where a slipway was built for the departure of the US troops. They constructed slipways or 'hards' which were known as 'chocolate box hards' to the troops. Sections can still be seen there, some are scattered along the foreshore.
A tablet commemorating the event was unveiled on Normandy Hill, known as US Army Route 23, by the Mayor of Cherbourg in May 1947.
A memorial was later erected in the gardens and the plaque on it reads:
'This tablet marks the departure from this place of units of the V and V11 corps of the United States Army on the 6th June 1944 for the D-Day landings in France and was unveiled by His Excellency John Hay Whitney, the Ambassador of the United States of America.
May 1958'.

I was lucky to know Marshall Ware, the St Budeaux historian, and I have many of his cuttings and notes amongst my collection. Marshall wrote down many things that happened in the Second World War and some of his reminisces I've included in my book, 'Memories of St Budeaux.'
When the American troops took over Saltash Passage in preparation for D-Day in 1944, everyone was issued with special passes so that they could enter the area. Marshall remembered, 'We all had identity cards but Saltash Passage residents were issued with yellow Certificate of Residence Cards. It bore the holder's National Registration Identity Card number and stated that the holder was thereby certified to be a resident within the specified area and that it must be carried out of doors at all times and shown to any Constable or member of His Majesty's or Allied Forces on duty. It bore the signature of the holder and was signed by the Chief Constable of Plymouth and the distribution was completed by 19th April 1944. One resident, wearing tennis gear, forgot to carry his card and was taken in a jeep for interrogation to the US Naval Advanced Amphibious Base at Vicarage Receiving Barracks at St Budeaux.'

The troops were very friendly and polite to the local residents.
Maurice Dart recalled, 'I remember the American's camp at Vicarage Road. When I was a boy, we would go down to the gate sometimes and they would give us chocolates and sweets and items to take home, such as tins of cocoa, biscuits and butter. My mother used to tell me off for scrounging but she was always pleased to receive it all!'
The rare colour photo shows the smiling faces of the American troops as they left for D-Day. Residents remember that the area was a hive of activity while the troops were there but, one day, they awoke to find that they'd all gone, leaving just a baseball bat behind.

Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee

It was lovely to see the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations earlier this month. There has only been one other Diamond Jubilee Celebration in the past and that was held on the 22nd June, 1897 to celebrate the 60th year of Queen Victoria's reign.
On the 23rd September, 1896, Queen Victoria became the longest reigning monarch surpassing the reign of her grandfather, George III.
A diamond anniversary would normally celebrate 75 years but in the case of a monarch, it is celebrated in the 60th year. Originally, it was brought forward during Victoria's reign because she had been out of the public eye for so long after the death of husband, Prince Albert, in 1861.

Celebrations were held up and down the country for the Jubilee and there were gatherings on the Hoe and all over Plymouth. Back in a time when there was no television or cinema, everyone came out in their thousands to take part in the events.
Two of the photos here show the huge bonfires that were set up on Plymouth Hoe. Beacons were set alight all over the country to mark the celebration. The history of beacons being lit across the country spans back many hundreds of years and was once used as a means of communication between towns and villages. Beacons were also lit during Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977.

The other photos shown here show much activity taking place at West Hoe with many people taking rides on huge swing-boats erected there. Everyone has turned out in their finest clothes. The final photo shows Old Town Street decorated and festooned with flags.
Buildings in and around Plymouth that were erected to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee include the Turnchapel Jubilee Hall and the Technical College in Paradise Road in Devonport.
Victoria Park was named after the Queen, as were many other streets and locations in the area. However, the park wasn't finished in time for the Diamond Jubilee and didn't open until 1905.

In 1887, festivities for the Diamond Jubilee lasted two days covering 20th and 21st June. It concluded with a procession through London which, according to Mark Twain who witnessed it, 'stretched to the limit of sight in both directions'.
Queen Victoria was born on 24th May 1819 in London and was the only child of Edward, the Duke of Kent, and Victoria Maria Louisa of Saxe-Coburg.

At the age of 18, she succeeded her uncle, William IV to the throne in 1837. She married her first cousin, Prince Albert, in 1840 and they had 9 children. When Albert died, Victoria never recovered from his death and remained in mourning until she herself died 40 in 1901 almost 4 years after her Diamond Jubilee. It'll probably be a very long time before another monarch celebrates their Diamond Jubilee so I hope you made the most of the celebrations earlier this summer!
(Photos courtesy of Chris Goddard and Plymouth City Council Libraries)

Plymouth's Prehistoric Past

Last month, I wrote about Plymouth's first car and this month I'm travelling even further back in time with a story about some of the area's earliest creatures and also the story of one of Plymouth's earliest men, dating back approximately 140,000 years.
It's hard to imagine that the area today known as Stonehouse once had prehistoric animals roaming across it. Deep beneath the streets of Stonehouse lie ancient caverns. A story in the Evening Herald of the 9th November, 1960 carried a report about the prehistoric caverns at Stonehouse. It read:
'Stonehouse's prehistoric limestone caverns, discovered in the 18th century and since lost to modern knowledge have, it is believed, been rediscovered by builders excavating foundations for a new warehouse in George Street. Directing a pneumatic drill into limestone boulders, a workman found the rock giving way to expose a 10ft shaft with two long fissures squeezing from it. Remains of prehistoric rhinoceroses, horses, oxen, deer and other animals were once found in the caverns but were destroyed when the Athenaeum was blitzed in the last war.'
I haven't been able to find any follow-up to this article but it's amazing that all this probably still exists beneath the streets of Stonehouse and it's such a shame that the remains found in the 1700s were destroyed in the war.

 

The story of Cattedown Man is well-known and his remains were discovered in limestone caves in the Cattedown area of the city in 1887. Excavated by local historian and naturalist, R N Worth, the finds were meticulously recorded and are considered to be one of the most important discoveries ever documented regarding the history of Homo Sapiens in Europe.
With Cattedown Man were the bones of 15 early humans together with the remains of woolly rhinoceros, woolly mammoth, deer and lion dating from the ice age. The remains are approximately 140,000 years old and are the oldest human remains discovered in the British Isles.
Other caves within Plymouth, containing ancient bones, have been discovered in the 125 years since the discovery of Cattedown Man. Prehistoric remains have been found in Ernesettle Woods, at Mutley and Keyham as well as at Stonehouse.

 

The surviving remains found at Cattedown are kept at the city museum in the city.
Fossil remains were also discovered at caves at Oreston but were never documented, although they are referred to in several scientific papers. The remains, incredibly, were thrown away as being of no great importance and because they 'contradicted the Biblical Account of Human origins'.
It's amazing what lies beneath our feet but also incredible that very little of this history ever seems to be mentioned. I certainly haven't read anything at all about the Stonehouse Caverns in the last 40 years.
The location of the Cattedown caverns is meant to be a secret, for fear of fossil hunters etc, but it's well-known that they are located close to the fuel depot there. It would be incredible to be able to visit them and it seems a shame that the area is off-limits to local residents.
When you think of prehistoric animals such as woolly mammoths, you imagine that they once inhabited areas such as Siberia or North America. It's certainly incredible that they once walked very close to where many of us are now sat reading this month's blog!

Plymouth's first car

It's hard to imagine today, with the endless stream of traffic, that Plymouth once only had one car. Dr Francis Pearse, who was a dental surgeon, was the first person to own a car in the town. The car was a German Benz which dated from around 1896. Pearse drove it for many years until it became outdated in the 1930s. He objected to having to pay £2 10 shillings a year in rates to garage the car so threatened to bury it.
Newspapers around the world picked up on the story and one, the Barrier Miner Newspaper, published in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia in 1931, read:

FIRST TO RUN IN THE STREETS OF PLYMOUTH
London, March 15.

Sooner than pay rates on a car shed, Dr Francis Pearse of Plymouth, decided to bury a famous old 4½-horse-power motor car. Dr Pearse bought the car in 1900. It was the first to be run in the streets of Plymouth, where it has since been a familiar sight at pageants and processions. It participated in the London to Brighton old crocks' race in 1926. Dr Pearse then spent £20 to win a 2/6 bet that the car would complete the distance. Dr Pearse offered the car to the Plymouth Museum which refused it. Unable to find a purchaser,he arranged to bury the vehicle near the cemetery, saying that he had only kept it out of sentiment, and therefore burial was the decent thing.

A later story reported that he had carried out his threat and the car had been broken up.

The Winsconsin State Journal of 3rd August 1931 read:

MAN BURIES CAR 30 YEARS OLD

Rather than pay taxes on the 'garage' where he had kept his thirty-year-old automobile, Dr Francis Pearse of Plymouth, England, has buried it. He drove it reverently through the city to the burial ground near the cemetery and had it broken up and interred. Dr Pearse bought the car in 1900 and had driven it until three years ago. He had paid no taxes on the old shed where he kept it but this year it was classed as a garage.

Somehow, the car ended up at the Brooklands racing circuit and the photo shows the doctor driving it to Friary Station so that it could be transported there by train. The story is told that he did indeed bury the car but it was later exhumed when a local motor dealer persuaded him to send it to Brooklands.
Another early car belonged to Marshall Ware who lived at the Kloof in Saltash Passage. At the time, it was the only car in the area and small boys would chase after it as it drove over the cobbles towards the Saltash Ferry which, back then, was only used by foot passengers and horses and carts.
The first garage in Plymouth for repairing motor vehicles was the Mannamead Garage in Elm Road. In 1901, it repaired its first 'horseless carriage' which, perhaps, was the one belonging to Doctor Pearse.

 Traffic has continued to grow steadily over the years. Nowadays, even the traffic of the 1960s seems minimal compared to today's busy roads.
Today, there are so many vehicles on the road that they're almost impossible to count. It's hard to imagine a far quieter time when the sight of a car would draw a crowd and would have young boys running after it chasing it down the road.

Plymouth Zoo

I'm sure that many people will have happy memories of Plymouth Zoo. I remember that we first went there when I was about 9 years old in the late 1960s. A pelican called Percy followed us all the way around the zoo, it was almost like he was giving us a guided tour! Over the years, I visited the zoo with my parents, my brother and friends from school.

It was a shilling to get in and there were many animals including chimpanzees, polar bears, seals, camels, giraffes and lions. The chimps were always my favourite but were obviously quite bored in their relatively small cage. The chimp cage was at the beginning of the zoo and if any smoker discarded a lit cigarette in their direction, one of them would pick it up and start smoking it. Unruly kids would chuck gravel at the chimps and the chimps would throw it back. I remember one school trip where the elephant took our teacher's umbrella!

It seemed a lovely place to start off with but got a bit run down and smelly towards the end. Amazingly, the zoo was only open for 16 years. It opened on Thursday April 19th 1962 at a cost of £30,000 and it had 13,000 visitors during the first three days. The zoo was owned by the Chipperfields and was a very popular attraction for many years.

There's a great movie on the Pathe News website showing the zoo in the 1960s and all the animals look very happy. I know that the keepers were very interested in their welfare and got quite attached to the animals. When you're a kid, a zoo seems a wondrous place but when you're older and with hindsight, it seems cruel keeping them all cooped up in cages. I used to watch the polar bears pacing up and down, doing repetitive movements and obviously being driven crazy by being locked up. Even as a naive kid in the 1960s, I felt sorry for them.

I remember the sweet popcorn that was sold at the cafe to feed the animals. All the kids always ended up eating it themselves although I'm sure it wouldn't have done the animals much good anyway. I remember once that there was a giraffe which was just about to swallow am empty popcorn packet. Luckily, the keeper managed to get it off him before he choked!

The cafe sold allsorts of souvenirs such as pendants, guide books, badges (I've still got mine) and my favourite, chimpanzee masks! I once wore a chimp mask all the way home on the bus and nobody said a word! As we got home, our next door neighbour was moving out and he shook my hand and said, 'Bye, Derek!' I still had the chimp mask on. That year, the mask ended up on our guy on Guy Fawkes night and ended up on the street's bonfire (in the days when you could build bonfires!).

The zoo also had a children's area with guinea pigs and rabbits and a huge tortoise which I believe was a gift from the Navy in the early 1960s. There were rides for smaller kids on ponies and mechanical giraffes.

The zoo closed on Sunday January 8th 1978 and was later converted into a skateboard park. Now, it's hard to work out where it once stood but probably forms part of Plymouth Argyle's ground.

Like many Plymothians, I had some great times at Plymouth Zoo in the 1960s and 1970s but today I'd be reluctant to visit any zoo as it now seems wrong, to me, to coop animals up in small, unnatural environments. It was all part of my childhood though and I've very fond memories of it.

The old oak tree in Saltash Passage

The old oak tree in Saltash Passage was cut down this morning (16th February 2012). It was probably well over 100 years old but has been dead for many years, maybe a victim of Acute Oak Decline which is caused by a bacterial infection.

The oak probably appears somewhere amongst these trees shown in a photo from about 1900. Many of the trees have been thinned or have disappeared completely over the years.

It's amazing to think that the tree was there before cars, radio and television. There have certainly been a lot of changes in the area in its lifespan. Trams would have rattled along the cobbled road beside the oak and church services would have been given in  the now long-gone St Peter's Church which would have stood across the way.

It's a shame to see it go and, for its long life, it was completely gone in little over an hour.