Men At Work

In this picture Jack is second from the right, standing next to his father Sidney. On Jack’s right is his brother-in-law Joe, his sister Lucy’s husband and far left, his brother-in-law Cyril, Ena’s husband (my father). They were working on laying a new garden path at home in South Oak Lane, Wilmslow when they posed for this photo opportunity!

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Jack’s Parents

Here is a picture of Jack’s mother and father, Margaret and Sidney Wlliamson, taken in the garden of their home probably in the the early 1950’s.  Sidney died round about 1953 if my memory is correct.

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Family Photo

Here is an old photograph of Jack’s mother Margaret on the right, with her sister Bet on the left and I believe it is their mother (Jack’s grandmother, my great-grandmother) in the middle.  The photo is rather old so I apologise for the graininess!

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The Bridge That Jack Built

You may remember that way back in November I said I had chosen the theme for this site because it reminded me of the bridge that Jack built over the River Bollin as it runs through The Carrs in Wilmslow, Cheshire. 

Then on December 6th I posted an old photograph of “Carrs Bridge” sent to me by my cousin David and which we believed to be of the bridge that Jack’s team subsequently rebuilt.  

I now share with you two views of the renovated bridge. I am indebted to Colin Shepherd of The Friends of the Carrs Society (www.friendsofthecarrs.org.uk)  who recently provided these photographs for me.

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Jack’s Mother

This picture is of Jack’s mother Margaret on the right, with her sister Elizabeth (Aunty Bet) when they were young women.

They were always close, and later on lived next door to one another.  Jack moved in to live with his widowed aunt, who was childless, after his mother died.

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Jack’s Patch

This old postcard view of  South Oak Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire was probably produced before Jack was born but may well reflect  how he remembered the scene from his childhood.  During his childhood and youth he lived towards the far end, on the left hand side, at No. 69.  Later he moved with his mother to No. 73 and then to live with his widowed aunt Elizabeth (Bet) at No. 71.  Sometime later he moved to the flat above the Butcher’s shop (not there at the time of this photograph) just up a bit on the right.  This shop was owned at the time by his niece (Annie’s daughter) and her husband. 

This second picture is an old photograph of Nursery Lane, the opposite side of the square Jack refers to in his poem “My Birthright” (see last post, dated 27th January).  The local school that he and his sisters attended was in Nursery Lane.

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Jack The Lad

Jack as a young lad is pictured here on holiday with his mother and sister Ena on the left, and his Aunty Bet (his mother’s sister Elizabeth) with his sister Lucy on the right.

Jack was quite a lad as a youngster!  The small poem below, about an incident related to me by my mother (Ena) when they both attended the local school, comes from my own collection of children’s verse called “Barking At Nothing” which is due to be published in spring 2010 and which will be sold in aid of a children’s charity. (More about this nearer the time.)

Soap

We’ve got no soap at our house.
That was what he said,
But she didn’t get to find that out
Before being called to see the head.

You see, the boy arrived at school
Having stopped on the way to play,
And when they saw his dirty hands
What was a lad to say?

Of course we’ve soap at our house.
His sister told the head,
Landing him in double the trouble.
Oh great, thanks sis, he said.

by Libby (Elizabeth) Leaper

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Jack’s Bridge 2

I am grateful to my cousin David for sending me this copy of an old postcard which is dated around 1917.  It is entitled “Carrs Bridge” and we believe it to be the old bridge over the River Bollin which was replaced by the one built by Jack and his team. (See Blog Post dated November 8th 2009.) 

I am still searching for a picture of the bridge that Jack built to share with you.

For those of you who may be interested the name “Carrs” is believed to be derived from the Norse “Kjarr” which means “meadow recovered from Bog”. I am indebted to The Friends of The Carrs website at www.friendsofthecarrs.org.uk for this information.

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The National Poetry Foundation

During the 1980’s and early 1990’s Jack belonged to an organisation called The National Poetry Foundation but I can find no evidence that this organisation still exists. The Foundation was a registered charity with Lord Ted Willis and Spike Milligan as patrons and operated from Fareham in Hampshire, UK. 

Members could submit work to the Foundation for criticism and when sufficient work of an acceptable standard was produced the Foundation would publish a collection of poems for that member. Work was also published in their bi-annual publication “Pause”.

Jack never bothered to date his poems so the dates that I have been able to assign to them have come from the critique sheets that he received from this organisation. Several of his poems were accepted for a future anthology and at least one that I know of was published in “Pause”.  The first of these will be the subject of my next post.  

Another Cheshire poet, Dora Kennedy, had a collection called “The Sheltering Coast” published by The National Poetry Foundation in 1992, but no collection of Jack’s poems was ever produced. He had probably not written enough poems by the time his membership lapsed, and this seems to be also when he ceased writing as far as I can tell. I wonder if this coincided with the demise of the Foundation?

If any reader has any more information on The National Poetry Foundation I would be very pleased to hear.

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Is This Annie?

In my previous post “An Early Picture” (Nov, 17th) I stated that I had no family photographs which included Jack’s eldest sister Annie.

Then I came across this photograph which is of Jack with his mother on his left, his sister Ena on his right and I think it may be Annie on her right but I am not sure. 

If any family member could confirm this for me I would be very grateful.

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