OFFICERS

PresidentNick Lechmere

Tel: 07771 644927

ChairJenny McGowran

Tel: 311820

TreasurerJohn Boardman

Tel: 311748

Secretary & NewsletterEditor

Malcolm FareTel: 311994

Programme SecretaryDavid Thomas

Tel: 310437

FORTHCOMINGACTIVITIES

21 September 2018AGM and talk by BenHornberger on TheHistory of WoodenBuildings and theirRestoration.Village Hall, 7.30pm

23 November 2018Talk by RichardChurchley on MarketTowns: their History,Function and Importance.Village Hall, 7.30pm

THE RAILWAY CHILDREN

Enid Loynes, born Taylor 82 yearsago, gave members an entertainingtalk about growing up at Uptonrailway station with her two brothersand sisters, Chris, Adrian, Racheland Monika. Her father, HarryTaylor, had been in charge of Ripplestation in 1932 and moved to Uptonwith his family the following year. Hewas to be Upton’s last stationmaster. Although nothing remains ofUpton station, a smaller version ofit, now a private house, can be seenat Ripple.

Enid remembered the stationhouse where a porter would pumpwater from a well and her motherwould light a fire under a copperkettle, transferring hot water to a bathin the kitchen. Lighting was providedby gas, supplemented by oil andcandles. They had an indoor lavatory,a luxury in Upton in the 1930s.

She and her siblings would playin and around the station - in thesignal box with its 20-lever frame atthe far end of the platform, onengines where they would pretendto be engine drivers, and in theunlocked station lorry until one day,after they released the brake, ittrundled into some parked cars,after which it was locked.

Upton station was looked after by

three porters, two signalmen andfour gangers who maintained thetrack. Ten trains a day (four freightand six passenger) passed throughthe station, taking just 14 minutes toreach Great Malvern. On the routeto Tewkesbury the line crossed theSevern over a bridge with a slidingsection to permit the passage of tall-masted ships.

The town thrived during the war.The weekly market continued, cattleand sheep being driven to thestation and kept in a holding pen foronward transportation. Sacks of coalwould be loaded on to carts fordistribution around the parish. Theirfather would supervise theunloading of injured servicemen tobe taken to the American hospitalsat Blackmore and Merebrook.

Only a couple of bombs fell onUpton, just missing the bridge. Enidremembered seeing the glow in thesky as Coventry was bombed. Atweekends the children would pickand sell blackberries and rose hips,which were used instead of citrusfruit; they learnt to swim in the river,boys changing on one side of a hayrick, girls on the other.

In 1961 Upton closed topassenger traffic and to freight threeyears later.

Harry Taylor,

Upton’s last

station

master

Issue No. 43

Summer

2018

HANLEY MATTERSthe newsletter of

The Hanleys’ Village Society

Upton station c. 1920

MORRIS DANCING

Richard Hannah, dance organiser for the Upton Folk Festival,brought a group of eight Faithful City Morris Men to HanleySwan village hall in March to talk about and demonstrate themysteries of Morris dancing. He explained that its origins are

lost in the mists of time, although this style of dancing may derive from the Spanish morisque or Moorish tradition, or from similar dance displays in the Balkans and Turkey. In England, it is first recorded around 1450 when tradesmen’sguilds began to pay dancers to

entertain their members. The most famous Morris dancer was the Shakespearian

actor Will Kemp who Morris-danced the 125 miles from Londonto Norwich in 1599. Music always accompanied dancing, traditionally a pipe and tabour or a fiddle, but today the most common instrument is the melodeon. By the mid-17th

century, it was a working man’s dance, with quarrymen, fishermen and agricultural workers among the groups.

The costume normally consists of white shirt, blackbreeches or trousers with bells attached at the knees, tabard orshort coat and top hat, from thetime when hats were given by

the gentry as cast-offs. Morrismen are often led by a man in afool’s costume carrying a hobbyhorse or other animal head.

Although dancers were usuallymen, women are known to havetaken part as early as the 16thcentury and the north-west hasfeatured mixed and female

groups or sides since the 18thcentury. Margery Brider ofWilley, Shropshire, is said tohave danced with the Morrisdancers the year before herdeath in 1756 at the age of113.

The Morris continued inpopularity until the industrial revolution, but by the late 19thcentury it had almost died out.Then in the early 20th century,the folk collector Cecil Sharpand other English folkloristsstarted a revival. New sideswere formed and localnewspapers began to carryreports of Morris dancing atplaces like Rhydd Court,Madresfield Court, EarlsCroome and Upton.

Worcestershire, along withHerefordshire and Shropshire,is part of the Border Morristradition, a simple vigorousstyle often danced withblackened faces. This form ofdisguise was said to have beenadopted by men from Uptonwhen dancing in Worcester toavoid recognition by theiremployers. Today the Morris isthriving, with more than130,000 dancers around thecountry.

Richard interlaced his talkwith displays of dancing withwhite handkerchiefs and hazelsticks performed by theFaithful City Morris Men,finishing with a dance in whichseveral members of theaudience took part. A goodtime was had by all.

Will Kemp