Wednesday 19 March – England’s Oldest Showman – Steve Blake

At our March meeting, Steve Blake recounted the story of John Bellamy (1808-1893) once described as “England’s oldest showman” as he was still “on the road” with his exhibition of model buildings in the 1890s, shortly before his death at age 85!

Steve explained that he first became aware of Bellamy and his work when one of his model buildings – of Pitville Pump Rooms in Cheltenham – along with a portrait of Bellamy and his unpublished manuscript memoirs comprising some 179 handwritten pages, were given to a local museum.  Steve has transcribed the memoirs and they form the main source for his story of Bellamy, although as they end abruptly in 1873, he has also drawn on other contemporary sources for Bellamy’s later life.

Although they came originally from Westbury-on-Severn, John Bellamy’s family were living in Bidfield Farm at The Camp when he was born and the young Bellamy was baptised in Bisley.  His early life was unremarkable with jobs as a farmer’s boy and then as a servant. It was while working as a servant for a family in Fulham that he was first introduced to the art of making models of buildings, which would change the course of his life.  Returning to live with his grandmother in Gloucestershire in 1830 he set out with his brother to try to make money posing as travelling minstrels. By autumn it was too cold to continue travelling around and he started making models for the first time; initially from card, but eventually from cork and at first as commissions from wealthy patrons.

These models in their various forms were to provide his living for the rest of his long life. In 1831 he had the good fortune for his models to be seen by King William IV and subsequently made his models under royal patronage.  Finding it difficult to get a suitable display space, he resorted to having his own wagons built and travelled around the countryside living in one of the wagons and moving from fair to fair.  His Windsor Castle model covered over 90 square feet and had over 2000 hand made windows.  In 1857, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had a private showing of his travelling exhibition and this cemented his connection with Royalty.

At the height of his fame, Bellamy’s “Royal Model Gallery” travelled in nine wagons, initially drawn by 16 horses but adapted for rail travel in the 1860s. Together they formed an exhibition space of some 70 by 40 feet and it must have been an impressive sight indeed when all set up.  Sadly most of his larger models do not survive today, as having been sold to a gallery in Liverpool in 1877 they are believed to have been destroyed in the Blitz during the Second World War. Some models remain in private owenrship with Bellamy’s descendants and the Pitville Pump Room model remains in the possession of the Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum, though sadly it is no longer on public display.

This is just a very brief summary of the fascinating life of John Bellamy which Steve recounted for us and there are many more details and some pictures of the models in an article writen by Steve for the journal “Gloucestershire History” in 2008, which has been published online by the Gloucestershire Local History Assiciation and can be found here

Wednesday 19 February  – Lilyhorn Roman Villa and Local Pre-history, Pete Moore

Another full house for us to learn about our unique local (but totally hidden) Roman Villa. Sited at the top of the hill above Bournes Green in ‘Church Piece’ field (wrongly indicated on O.S. maps incidentally), the site is protected by Historic England. Pete took us through the development of Roman villas in Britain, explaining that the Lilyhorn villa seems to have been the second largest in the Cotswolds (after Woodchester), and in the top 10 in GB, comprising over 25 rooms and numerous outbuildings.

Initially identified in 1700, the first (and only significant) excavation was conducted by Thomas Baker in 1841 and 1845. The site already largely decimated, over the years much of the stonework and mosaics have been scattered. Small finds include pottery fragments and metal fastenings (in Stroud Museum), a significant hoard of coins (what was not traded is in Corinium Museum), glass fragments, tiles, oyster shells, and.. skeletons (possibly of slaves).

Clearly a villa of some opulence there are questions as to why it was sited there. The situation overlooking the valley is certainly key, and its possible extensive sphere of influence over local farmland. It followed on from local prehistoric and Iron Age sites such as Money Tump and Bagendon. Pete’s comprehensive overview was fascinating, highlighting many of the answered and unanswered questions about the site.

Wednesday 15 January – Slide Show – Mike Mills and Beyond

A full house in the France Lynch Church Rooms to hear four members of the Committe present a selection of “slides” both from the Stan Gardiner / Lionel Padin / Mike Mills collection and from a series of more recent (1960s/70s/80s) negatives from the Stroud News and Journal (SNJ).

Peter Dover, started off the presentation with a selection entitled “Then and Now”.  Using a selection of old photos from the Mike Mills collection, Pete had tracked down the locations and taken a modern photo as close as possible to the viewpoint of the original.  The selection included street and canal towpath views, pubs, schools and a view of the Victoria Steam Joinery Works, where it proved challenging to get to the same viewpoint today.  The picture left shows Victoria Works, with the archive picture on the left and Pete’s modern version on the right. The wooden shed in the old picture is long gone, but the building shapes remain the same.

 

Roger Carnt then continued with a selection entitled “Old and Sporty”. This included several pictures from the SNJ archives of sports teams (some now in our new gallery see next section for details), a few of local “personalities” and some views in and around Chalford, including the one on the right which very clearly shows the area known as Randall’s Green.

 

 

 

 

Camilla Boon followed with a section entitled “Mainly People”.  Photos in this section were exclusively from the 1960s onwards and resulted in a great many comments as people in the audience recognised themselves or others.  As a result of this response and hoping to capture some of the information, we’ve put a few of these photos on a new gallery page here and also on our Group Facebook page here (Private group so you need to join to view and participate) and we’d like to encourage you to look and comment if you think you might recognise anyone. Any information we receive will be recorded in our database along with the photo, so your contributions will be saved for posterity!  The photo on the left shows the interior of the roof of the former Company’s Arms.

 

 

 

Heather Collins concluded the show with a section entited “Miscellaneous”. This had everything from 1970s school photos to older views in and around Chalford, and again one or two of these photos will be in our new gallery and on our Facebook Group page for people to comment on. The photo on the right is an aerial picture of France Lynch (note no Sports and Social Club!) and we’d love to be able to date it more accurately, so if anyone can see any feature missing from or present in the photo which gives more of a clue to the date please contact us here