Icy Weather

Ice skating on the River Ouse at Bedford, 1891 [BP28/10]

  

Wednesday 14th February 1917: The recent spell of cold weather has completely stopped traffic on the Grand Junction Canal at Linslade. Ice between four and seven inches thick has prevented passage for boats since the last week of January. A dozen boats carrying sand for munitions and agricultural implements are frozen in near Linslade bridge. An ice boat drawn by eighteen horses has been at work breaking the ice between Grovebury sand pits and Fenny Stratford, but the large lumps of floating ice were a danger to the cargo boats and made the work too hard for the horse. Even steamers, with their advantage of greater power than the horse drawn boats, have been unable to travel on the canal. The delays are proving expensive to the boatmen. They have to feed their horses, with fodder costing about £1 per week, and many have to pay sixteen shillings a week for boat hire.  

The icy weather has at least allowed for some sport, which has in turn contributed towards the war effort. The Leighton Buzzard War Hospital Depot has received a total of £2 2s 9d raised from skating on Mr. George Garside’s sandpits. The activity was organised by Mr. Herbert Turner, the landlord of the Plume of Feathers public house in Lake Street. Skating has its dangers, and two small boys had to be rescued from Rushmere pond last week when thin ice gave way underneath them. Fortunately two discharged soldiers, Mr. A. Lansbury and Mr. P. Neal, were skating nearby and managed to rescue them from the water. Mr. Lansbury lay flat on the ice while Mr. Neal held his feet, and managed to grab the boys’ hands and pull them to safety.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 6th and 20th February 1917

The YMCA Camp

Soldiers playing snooker at the YMCA hut, Houghton Regis [Z1130/63/26]

Saturday 3rd October 1914: The YMCA has set up a marquee beside New Bedford Road in Luton which makes various useful amenities available to the troops. This is proving extremely popular with the services provided so far including:

• 60,000 letters, post-cards and parcels sent through the camp’s post-office
• Nearly 100,000 sheets of paper and envelopes supplied
• Over 70,000 cups of tea and coffee served
• Sunday services held during which 2000 testaments have been given away
• Nightly sing-songs
• Small items ranging from boot laces to toothache cures made available

The most recent addition to the camp’s offerings is a French class which began yesterday evening.

The Mayor of Luton is trying to secure a suitable building so that the work can be continued through the winter. If this is not possible then it may be necessary to build on the site now being used which it is estimated will cost £260. As the YMCA is already subsidising the work, so far to the tune of about £60, it is hoped that local people will help raise any funds needed.

Twenty thousand of Lord Kitchener’s recruits have been sent for training to Aylesbury and a new camp is to open there. This will mean workers will be lost from the Luton camp. Local volunteers to help, particularly between 6pm and 6.30pm when the camp is particularly busy, would be very much appreciated

Source: Luton News 8.10.1914

A Terrible Accident

Monday 31st August 1914 (Bedford): News of a tragedy which cost the life of one of their number has reached the Highlanders billeted in Bedford. A group of soldiers visited St Neots yesterday and went to Eynesbury to bathe in the river. When they arrived they realised it was ladies’ day and sat some distance away. After a time they realised two girls had got into difficulty and two of the men went to their rescue. One of these, Walter Taylor, was bringing one of the girls back to the bank when the other caught hold of him. The poor lad sank and was caught in the weeds where he drowned. The girls were rescued by others of the group of soldiers who found a punt. Young Taylor came from Aberdeen, where ironically his address was Bedford Road. His funeral is to be held tomorrow at St Neots.

Source: Bedfordshire Times 4th September 1914

Sing-Songs in Public Houses

Group of people in a wagonette outside the Globe Inn, 26 Union Street, Luton c.1914 [Z50/75/246]

Friday 14th August 1914 (Luton):  While the country faces up to wartime there is talk that some restrictions should be put on the opening hours of public-houses and beerhouses to reduce drunkenness. Some people would also like to see other attractions of the public-house curtailed, as show by this letter to the Luton News: 

Sing Songs in Public-Houses
Sir. – May I be allowed through your useful paper to suggest that the above be prohibited as long as the war lasts. There are many reasons to put forward why they should be. First is, that they entice husbands and fathers to stay away from home night after night spending what the children ought to have upon their feet, or what ought to go towards providing for the bad time that is fast coming. Many families could hold out months longer when poverty begins if husbands were more careful; and again, when our partners emerge from the public-house, more or less muddled, they are apt to become a nuisance, if not dangerous to their own neighbourhood, as their beery patriotism often demonstrates. In conclusion, Sir, I am not a temperance faddist, but I think during these serious times that we are embarking upon, any and everything that entices the married man to spend his money wastefully and recklessly should be curtailed. Yours truly,
“A Mother of Seven”

Source: Luton News 13th August 1914