Shropshire 41- Whitchurch /the price of a stamp/starched collars and Laundrycraft/Edward German/The Caldicott collection and cheese memories

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Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes . Don't resist them - let reality be reality . My saying of the morning ended with the words Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. Quite an interesting thought from Lao Tzu. One of the favourites churned out in my calendar at least half a dozen times a year . Lao Tzu not the saying . I guess driving to Whitchurch I must have churned up that saying , digested it , wondered if it were true and changed it slightly here and there to something I could relate to .

The journey to Whitchurch was as always fairly uneventful apart from forgetting that in England I can still drive in residential areas at 30mph. That felt strangely exhilerating after the snail like crawl of 20mph in Wales. Liberating to be allowed to drive at a speed more suited to the road . Not to have the Dripfords rules imposed on us . I wondered though how long it would be before this very street was dropped to 20mp.

Parking up was easy now I know where the free parking lies in the town. The car park by the park had a few cars dotted around but it seemed quieter than my last visit a month ago . Then there were more cars , more mums walking round the park with small children or they were pushing them in prams or buggies . The skate park was heaving with youngsters enjoying the last day of the school holidays . Today the park was empty . I skirted the park and walked slowly up the hill towards the church . I had a good twenty five minutes on my hands to fill in before my 12.30 lunchtime meet up with a friend .

I had been in the church about three times. I had walked the streets times many but I had never been in the small museum advertised as being open today . So the museum it was . It was situated out of the way on a back street . Tucked away I wondered if anyone ever found it . Or was it one of these gems that hide themselves away. I doubt many locals know much about the museum and even less visitors .

The museum hides behind the Civic Centre and houses the Tourist Information desk manned by a lady who seemed to have little to do . The building once was the hub of the town as it housed the main Post Office . In its day it would have been extremely busy as pensioners rolled up on a Monday to cash their pension book at the counter. Mums would pop in every other week to cash their Child Benefit vouchers . Stamps would be sold, parcels would be weighed and postal orders purchased and cashed in. These were the days before cheques and now internet banking. The clerks of which there would be many sat on high chairs behind glass screens . Surrounded by high ceilings and ornate decorations work probably was a delight. I remember it mostly being men in the 60's who dealt with the cash side of things. The post office continued to be busy when it moved into the banking business under the name of Girobank . The unemployed popped in daily to cash their girocheques . The post office thrived as they grew into savings banks alongside their normal business . The Whitchurch post office like many was a grand building . Sadly though over the years business declined . No-one wanted postal orders , stamps could be ordered on line , the banking business was sold off . Pensioners still called in but had debit cards now . The post offices moved out of their large buildings into small retail outlets . In all towns now the post office is found tucked away in a small supermarket or shop . Which left the buildings redundant . Some were used as the local jobcentre for a while . Others lay empty . Whitchurch had turned theirs into the museum/tourist office .

It was welcoming inside . Small to be fair but I had not expected anything much larger . A volunteer stepped up and greeted me . "Have you been before ?" I had to admit although I had worked and lived locally I had never set foot in the museum although I had been into the archives when it was housed in the Civic Centre ."They have moved her too " he said . He went on to explain that there were several displays reflecting the history and industry of the town . I could wander about at will and take photographs . He asked if I were waiting for my Covid injection . I was quite surprised and wondered why he asked me that question . It turned out that the museum was having more visitors as many were coming in for their Covid jabs and wanted to waste a little time as they had turned up too early for their appointments . So for once Covid was doing something a good favour .

My first stop was Roman Whitchurch . Not the most busy or important Roman settlements in Britain but the town was located on a major Roman routeway . A route that ran to the extremely important city of Deva Vitrix - Chester and Viriconium Cornoviorm - Wroxeter . There was believed to be a fort here in Whitchurch built around AD 52. By AD 100 the army had probably moved on and the only remains were the civilian town - the vicus which had grown around the edge of the fort . There as some rebuilding in stone around the 3rd century and Whitchurch probably was prosperous . The roman artifacts found in Whitchurch were housed in cabinets around the small museum . I guess if anything of importance had been found it would have ended up in the British Museum . Lesser items might be displayed in the county museum in Shrewsbury and the smaller items were left for Whitchurch to display . I felt that there should have been more to see of this period as a roman trackway ahd been found locally , larger amounts of roman pottery and leather shoes . What was displayed in the first case was a very small silver mirror . The owner must have been extremely rich and proud to own such a pretty thing . Were they vain that they wanted to see themselves reflected in the mirror ? Beneath the mirror were several roman pots . They showed the wealth of some of the Roman inhabitants of the town and the distance items travelled within the roman empire . Some small coins had been found but they were not displayed here .

Clockmaking Whitchurch. The next display not under glass showcased the clockmaking history of Whitchurch . The company of J. B Joyce were founded in Shropshire and claimed to be the oldest clock manufacturer in the world . Established around 1690 they had been taken over in 1965 by the Smith of Derby group . The company had a base in the town which now houses an auction house owned and run by Christina Trevanion of Bargain Hunt fame. Clocks manufactured by the company can be seen in many locations in the UK from Chester to Oxford and from Lichfield to Worcester . Any church building worth its salt had a Joyce clock mechanism , The company provided clocks for railway stations and post offices . They can be seen from or Trajan, AD 98–117. Some Aberystwyth to Sydney Australia and from India to Shangai . A mechanism was fixed to the wall of the museum sadly not working and around the floor lay cogs , fly wheels and large brass hands that no longer told the time .

Laundry Whitchurch . The next case moved to the laundry business which once was big business in the town . Up to fairly recently the name linked with laundry and the town was LaundryCraft . The company ran a massive concern providing laundry on a rental basis to local and further afield hotels . It was in 1909 that Edward Gambrell not a local man but one living in Northampton spotted a gap in the market in Whitchurch . There were hardly any laundry facilities in the town and he set up his business in Egerton Road calling it the Whitchurch Model Laundry . It must have been extremely successful as it grew and became Laundrycraft . In its early days it collected dirty laundry in a one horse van . This was later joined by a motor van provided by the local company of J S Hopley. This was said to be the first commercial vehicle in the town. Washing was returned to the customer not only clean but also ironed. In 1937 the company expanded to do dry-cleaning as well. By 1984 the laundry owned 96 vehicles. A massive growth from its humble beginnings .

The showcase was full of starched collars and other small items washed and starched by the company . As I stood in front of the display case I found myself thinking of my great grandmother who starched collars . That cottage industry of wives starching collars for the rich was being taken over by the Gambrells of this world .

Whitchurch and music On to the Edward German connection with the town. One of the towns famous sons was Edward German . A road was named after him . Born in 1862 he was of welsh descent. What I thought with a name like German . It made little sense until we read that although born in Whitchurch his father was Welsh and his surname was Jones . To give him his full name he was German Edward Jones . German being an anglised version of Garmon . He changed his name and moved it around a bit so that the German forename became his surname so as not to confuse himself with another Edward Jones in his school . To confuse things further his parents called him Jim. He was a successor in music to Arthur Sullivan . There were various items from the Edward German collection but the one thing that caught my attention was his conductors dress . A handsome but extremely large black jacket trimmed with gold . A ceremonial sword was hanging from the uniform .

Whitchurch and cheese making Along one wall were the objects relating to the cheesemaking industry of Whitchurch. Whitchurch and the Marchers were a hotbed of cheesemaking . Over the years the dairies have closed and the cheesemaking become more artisan than industrial . I have memories of Reeces Creamery just outside of Malpas and the massive Goodwins Diary . In the 80's the dairy had a massive fleet of yellow and green daisy wagons which were driven from farm to farm collecting milk which was processed locally into milk products and cheese . The daisy motif was emblazoned on the back of the wagons . Goodwins delivered milk in glass bottles door to door . Goodwins produced orange juice delivered to houses locally . The produced their own cheshire cheese sold everywhere from markets to supermarkets . They owned supermarkets . The first outside of London . They owned and ran a laundry with the first washing machines and tumble driers. The items on show showcased cheesemaking . A large wooden truck formed the major part of the exhibition .

Whitchurch and Randolf Caldicott - Another road in the town was named after another son of Whitchurch - Caldicott Crescent . What did I know of him ? Not born in the town but born in Chester . He started his working life as a clerk in Whitchurch but he was more famous for being an artist . His collection of paintings were hanging on the walls . His collection of butterflies were on display in one cabinet .

Time was moving on and it was time to leave this lovely little museum . I am sure there was more to see but it was time to walk to meet my friend . Lunch was going to be taken in Walkers Cafe again . Jacket Potato with cheese and a pot to tea to finish off what was a good day out . I let things flow and followed the advice of my calendar.

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