The West Winford Incident (8 page)

Sue recognised Queen Square as they passed through, taking the pleasant route along Royal Avenue. Although most of the trees were bare, there were plenty of evergreen bushes and the odd conifer lining the route. And then the view. To the right, the grassy slope upwards with the imposing sweep of the Royal Crescent at the top. This was the impressive scene that most people associate with Bath. They walked along the cobbled way past the row of houses stopping mid-way to gaze over the city at the view to the south. Rows of houses climbing up the far hillside. Another architectural delight was the Circus. Sue was impressed. Although having no special knowledge of architecture, she could appreciate the wonderful symmetry of the colonnaded buildings circling a huge grass-covered island. In the centre of this were five towering plane trees which, she imagined, when in full leaf would add to the whole, awe-inspiring, effect. After dwelling briefly around this upper area they descended, in the gathering dusk, towards their 4pm rendezvous.

Pam and Charles were waiting and they said their farewells. Sue assured Peter that she was looking forward to reading his book and that she would be sure to return it.

The usual morning routine – a scampering irritability of girls disrupting the more measured approach of the adults.

Clatter, scrape, bump, slam – silence.

Sue hurried through her chores and settled down with Peter's book. After reading a few chapters, she had to agree with Peter that it was very straight forward. It gave an easy guide into tracing one's family history and was interspersed with interesting and informative examples. Sue found the subject fascinating and was surprised that it had not occurred to her to ask her parents about their family background earlier. Some of the anecdotes in Peter's book were compelling and made her wonder why so few people were interested in genealogy. She supposed that it could be time consuming, but in her own case that was part of its appeal. She was particularly struck by Peter's suggestion that for anyone beginning a quest, speaking with elderly relatives was the first and most urgent task. Documentary evidence was particularly useful. Birth certificates, photographs and family papers were a bonus. Following the information obtained from family members, one should attempt to draw up a speculative family tree. This should enable the researcher to see what information was missing from their recent past. The next step would be two-fold. Firstly, attempting to confirm the information given verbally and secondly, endeavouring to fill in missing items. This normally entailed obtaining evidence from civil registration sources in the form of birth, marriage and death certificates, which usually required a visit to Somerset House in London.

“Hmm.” Sue put the book down. Goodness, was that the time already? She went up to make the beds. She reflected that almost all her living relatives were still in the Birmingham area, as far as she knew. She would phone her mother. During the rest of the day family history matters dominated her thoughts. The obvious thing to do was to make a trip to her family home. The thought came to her suddenly; half-term was only a few weeks away, which would be a good time. It would be nice for Jo and Katy to be with their cousins again.

*

The second meeting of the Corrosion Sub-Committee was set for the eighteenth of February. Dave felt that he must make some progress before that. A store had been set up at a sub-station close to the Winford site where the failure debris was now being housed. He arranged for Gritty to collect a sample from the failed LP disc material.

*

“Dave, that's just so annoying,” was Sue's response when she learned that he had to go to London during the half-term break. “Surely you have a say in when the meetings should be held. You are one of the members, not the filing clerk.” Dave winced. He was still not confident of having paid off his bad debt associated with the skittles match. Sue was right. He should have an input when meeting dates were decided, but he still felt in awe of his fellow sub-committee members, as well as feeling favoured by his own department in choosing him to represent them. He was prepared to accept any date that was proposed, rather than rock the boat or to have a meeting take place without him. These people had international reputations; their time was valuable. He was a comparative novice from Fisher's Tubes who had trained at the Birmingham College of Technology, for God's sake. He was flustered.

“Of course I'm consulted. I was happy with the date. How did I know you were planning something?” He hoped that he sounded convincing.

“Half-term? Surely that's the most likely time we'd want to do something as a family,” Sue snapped, also a little guiltily, as her own planned research was hardly something the rest of the family would enjoy. “I'm surprised that the other members don't wish to spend time with their own families,” she added. Some might feel that the catastrophic failure at a nuclear power station was a tad more important than a stroll around the Bull Ring, Dave thought, but sanity prevailed and he just agreed that, indeed, it was surprising. Sue was not to be easily placated and trusted that they could rely on him for transport.

The following morning, Sue was still feeling aggrieved at Dave's selfishness. Since moving here she believed that he had changed. In Birmingham he had struck a happy balance between family life and work. As far as she knew he had been conscientious in his job, but this had not prevented him being pleased to be at home and actually having fun with her and the girls. Nowadays his work was clearly his main priority, perhaps his only priority, if you didn't count skittles. No, that wasn't quite fair, she wanted him to have a social life, but it did seem that she and the girls were seen as, more or less, obstacles to his ambitions. Maybe it was just a phase and things would eventually return to how they used to be. In the meanwhile she had to get on with her own life.

She made two phone calls, the first to her mother to make arrangements to visit. She thought it best if, whilst she stayed with them, the girls could go to Velma and Barry as it would be much more fun for them to be with their cousins. This suggestion seemed to be accepted. Sue mentioned her intention to do some family research and would be glad if her mother could think of who she ought to visit whilst she was there. There was evidence of teeth being sucked at the other end of the line. It might be tricky, her mother thought. Some of the family were still of the opinion that such matters were nobody's business but theirs. Sue left it with her mother to think about. Her second call was to Pam, partly for a chat, but primarily to see when she was next seeing Charles or Peter, when she could return Peter's book for her. Pam said that she was going to be in London for a couple of weeks – ‘the bloody DIY can wait'. She had Peter's telephone number if Sue wanted to arrange something directly with him.

Her mother rang back just before lunch to say that she had made the arrangements. As far as her queries on family history were concerned, her mother guessed that, since Auntie Clara had died, her best hope, on her father's side, would be her Uncle Stan, her father's brother and for her side of the family, she probably knew as much as anyone. Uncle Stan lived in Sparkbrook, which wasn't far. He wasn't on the phone but she had his address.

“Thanks Mum, that's really helpful. The whole idea sounds intriguing, I can't wait to make a start. Could you just give me some information to be going on with?”

“Oh! Dear. It would be better to wait and let me think about it properly.”

“Well, just tell me your mother's maiden name, that would be a start,” wheedled Sue.

“Daniel, surely you already knew that?”

“And when did they marry?” Sue persisted.

“I'll need to check, just after the turn of the century I think. Look, I've got to get your father's lunch. You won't have to wait long before I see you.” And with that her mother rang off. Sue decided to write to Uncle Stan, but first, she was like a child, she grabbed the telephone pad and began to sketch out the first, of what would be many, embryo family tree diagrams.

*

Half-term, and not before time from Jo and Katy's point of view. It wasn't that they disliked their new school, but the prospect of seeing their cousins again was exciting. Sue was eager to be back in Birmingham because it was home, but now this was reinforced by the exciting prospect of taking her first steps into family history.

*

Wednesday, the second meeting of the sub-committee. Dave was in a more relaxed mood as he had now met his fellow committee members and this time, he had something useful to contribute, in addition to having a better appreciation of the whole problem. Same floor as last time. Express lift for the three of them. Dave had met up with Dorinda McCann and James Collingwood in reception. Henry Fletcher and Joe Griffiths were helping themselves to coffee as they arrived. Pauline Sage followed, laden down with paperwork comprising photocopies of correspondence and other documents which had been generated since their first meeting – so much already! They settled around the table and Henry opened the meeting. Pauline, unconsciously exuding an aura of efficiency, passed around copies of a variety of papers which, Dave noted, all had their assigned document number at the top right hand corner, WW/CSC/1 being the minutes of their first meeting. When the time arrived, as it inevitably would, when the value of this sub-committee's work was assessed, at least it looked as though they would get good grades for record keeping.

Henry outlined his activities since they last met, which had been largely of a procedural nature. Dorinda McCann reported that she had found nothing of relevance in her literature search. As far as their own investigations were concerned, she would leave that to James to report as he was much closer to the laboratory than herself, these days, she said, adding ruefully that she had been reduced to not much more than a paper shuffler. James explained that he had carried out some crude tests using metal cut from one of the Winford LP turbine discs. These specimens had been subjected to a variety of tests, the results of which were consistent with the earlier suggestion that the turbine disc failure had been the result of stress corrosion cracking. The nods and murmurs of the folk around the table as they scanned the accompanying photographs reflected general assent. James concluded by commenting that their intention was to undertake more detailed testing.

Joe was asked about his research into previous histories of steam turbine failures. He said that though other failures had occurred, none were similar to West Winford. Dave began his report by saying that he was pleased to be able to offer to investigate the steam conditions at Winford to check for contamination. This could begin quite soon as he'd learned that Number 5 turbine was due to have a brief shutdown at the end of the month. The necessary test equipment would be installed during this outage. He surprised the others by adding his intention of including a test vessel in which he could expose specimens to actual West Winford steam. This was welcomed by Henry and the others. Joe thought that such tests would be useful and would complement his laboratory steam-rig tests, which he'd mentioned last time. It would be ideal if they could use similar specimens so that the results from the two tests would be comparable. Before leaving, Dave made arrangements to visit Joe Griffiths in Nuneaton to discuss the specimen design for their tests. A very satisfactory day was Dave's conclusion as he travelled home.

*

Dave's first job the following day was to bring his Section Head up to date with the sub-committee developments. Later, with added motivation, he visited Alan Smith to check what progress he had made with the design of the steam test rig. Yet more good news when he learned that everything was on track for the end of month deadline.

Gritty was waiting when Dave returned to his office to report that he had delivered the Winford turbine disc material to the workshop. The design and number of the test specimens seemed to be the next step. Dave had some ideas, but he needed to make the trip up to Nuneaton to discuss his thoughts with Joe Griffiths.

Jo and Katy were enjoying their return home, as they still considered it. Snow had arrived with a vengeance and although causing immense problems for commerce, it only added to the fun for the girls. Travelling was difficult, but they were able to visit the local cinema to see ‘Carry on Again Doctor' as well as calling on old school friends
.
They were also able to get on to the edge of the local golf course and hone their tobogganing and snowballing skills.

The snow did not hinder Sue as she began her oral family history. Her mother, initially with reluctance, but later with growing interest, informed Sue of her maternal ancestral background. On the face of it this did not appear to offer the promise of high intrigue or adventure, at least at this early stage, as she learned that all of her immediate relatives including her grandparents, had been born in Birmingham. In addition, no family member had moved more than a few miles from their birthplace during their lifetimes and their occupations had been essentially of the manual kind. Sue's mother had been a Boughton and her maternal grandmother, Florence, had been a Daniel. Sue's mother had her own parents' marriage certificate, which, after perhaps a moment's hesitation, she let Sue have. She also, after a long search, found a box of memorabilia on top of a wardrobe.

As Mrs Turner reminisced her excitement grew and she enthusiastically plucked dog-eared, fading, photographs from the box with appropriate exclamations such as, “Oh! It's Dot Walker, we used to go to Sunday school together. She was a laugh. Up to all sorts,” or some similar comment. In spite of Sue's keenness to press on with strictly family matters, she indulged her mother, as it seemed to her a small price to pay in view of the evident pleasure she was deriving. It was a long time since she had last seen her so animated.

“It says here that Granny and Granddad Boughton were married in 1902 and that both of their fathers were named Thomas. Do you know anything about them?” asked Sue.

“No, I never knew my grandparents on the Boughton side. They both died before I was born.”

“No family gossip?” persisted her daughter.

Her mother gazed in front of her, clearly searching her memory. “Well, I seem to recall that my dad was one of about five children, which wasn't a big family then. They went in for big families in those days you know.”

“What about your mother's father, the other Thomas?”

“No, he died early as well.”

Sue sighed and carried on looking through some of the other papers spread around her mother's chair.

“Now your great grandmother, Granny Boughton's mother, I think that I met her,” announced her mother, as if awaking from a dream. Sue was all ears and asked her what she could remember about this lady. Her mother replied that she only had a very vague memory of an old lady living at the home of one of her uncles.

“I went to visit them with my mother once, a grocer's shop in Sparkbrook, yes, that's right. She did seem very old sitting there outside the shop, but I suppose that I was very small, so they all seemed old to me.” Mrs Turner relaxed into the back of her chair as though exhausted from some great effort. Despite her inclination to push forward, Sue realised that this was proving to be something of a trial for her mother and it would be unfair to probe deeper at present. She thanked her and said what a great help she had been and, whilst her mother rested, Sue picked through the ‘treasure chest' and put aside some items of particular interest.

Sue's other planned interview was with her father's elder brother, Uncle Stan, the following day. This was a case of déjà vu as Sue left her childhood home and walked the half mile along the snow covered pavements to the No.44 bus terminus. Goodness knows how long it had been since she last made the journey. Fifteen? No, sixteen years. Before her marriage this had been her regular route to work, for five years, catching the bus from Lincoln Road North, through Acock's Green to the Serck factory in Greet. This morning she was travelling further towards the city to the Mermaid pub. She was pleased to find that her mother's directions were uncomplicated and soon she was being welcomed by her Uncle Stan. Another memory test. This time she reckoned that it had been at least twenty years. Her uncle, though his hair was much greyer, was still tall and upright as he led her into his tiny sitting room, the remnants of cigarette smoke catching her throat. Seeing her expression, he explained that since her Auntie Marion had died, he didn't need so much room and so he'd done a house swap with a young married couple. The phrase ‘in need of a woman's touch' sprang to mind as she surveyed the tell-tale signs of this deficiency.

“Sit yourself down over there by the fire and get thawed,” he said, indicating an arm chair, “brrr, I reckon it's almost as bad as sixty three. I've sorted out as much as I could for you to have a look at.” There was a shoe box near the opposite chair and as he sat down, he announced, “First thing is this.” He passed over a fading sepia photograph. Sue saw that it was a family group comprising two adults seated on chairs. The lady had a baby on her lap. Three other children were present, two in front of the adults, and an older lad, in a huge white collar, standing between.

“I reckon that it was taken about 1904.” Sue looked towards her uncle with expectant interest and he continued, “That's your Granny and Granddad Turner, with their first four surviving children. Maud is the one on Mum's lap.” Her uncle paused to light a cigarette.

“Now, although our dad was born in Birmingham, your granny, whose maiden name was Loomes, came from London. She was born in Paddington and they married in Southwark. Our Jim, Clara and I were born in various places around London. Maud and your own dad were born here in Birmingham.

“That's so interesting.”

“Oh yes, we were forever moving house and there were a few more excursions before we finally settled in Brum. Our Elsie was born in Sheffield and Edgar in Blackpool.” Listening to her uncle, Sue thought that this side of the family appeared to offer more interest than her maternal line. Uncle Stan took out a pencil and, squinting through his tobacco smoke, sketched out a rough family tree from memory, which he passed to Sue. He perched on the arm of her chair and she noticed his hand was trembling as he pointed to his sketch. “Our Jim was born about 1895 and as he was the eldest, I suppose Mum and Dad married around 1894, which means, I reckon, they would have been born, what, in the early 1870s?” Her uncle's knees cracked as he returned to his seat.

“What were they like?”

“Well me and your father you know about. We worked together with Dad for a long time – various engineering firms. I suppose Maud had the brains in the family and she was very artistic, good at drawing and such. Took after Mum's side of the family, she did. Mum was very artistic too.”

“Oh! That's interesting. Jo, our eldest, is good at art. She's hoping to go to Art College after school, assuming that she passes her ‘A' levels. Do you know anything about your grandparents?” Sue's optimism was rising.

“I only really remember Dad's mum,” her uncle broke into a fit of coughing, but retained the remnants of his cigarette in the corner of his mouth. “She was called Emma Perkins. The others were all dead, or near enough, when I was born.” As he talked, her uncle continued leafing through his box and, after a cursory glance, he laid the various items aside. “Ah! Yes. On Mum's side, the Loomes – it was a big family I believe – Mum was the eldest girl and was named Caroline after her mother, but second names were becoming popular amongst ordinary folk just then and so she was Caroline Jane.”

Sue was busily noting down all her Uncle said in a hurried scribble. “So my great grandmothers were named Emma Perkins and Caroline something who married a Loomes. That's so useful. Thank you so much, this is just the sort of thing I need in order to get copies of their birth certificates, unless you've got them that is?”

“No 'fraid not. Maybe your Auntie Clara had, but I don't doubt that she'd have kept them well hidden.”

Sue's uncle then offered her tea and she accepted, but insisted he stayed in his chair whilst she did the honours. Later, she bade him a grateful and fond farewell, promising to visit again once she'd progressed their family tree. She felt that she had achieved more than she could have hoped for from her visit. She was in high spirits when she returned through the slush to her parents.

*

Half-term over. Time to collect the family. The journey hadn't been difficult as the road-gritters had finally got themselves organised after a week of traffic chaos. Dave parked outside the nineteen thirties semi; the headquarters of the Turner dynasty. After a brief chat with his father-in-law, he was treated to another tour around the house to approve the latest decorations.

“Is it your lot who've been causing a stir around here with this rumour of an atomic power station to be built at Stourport?” asked his father-in-law.

“No it's the utility who have applied for planning permission, but you're not on your own, they've also applied for one near Chepstow.”

“Well, I dunno where it will all end. There's enough funny folk around here as it is without any little green men turning up.”

“I shouldn't worry too much just yet. There's a long way to go before any permission will be given, if ever.”

After tea, Dave and Sue left to make their next stop at ‘Uncle' Barry's, to collect Jo and Katy. It was only after promising to return soon, that the Harrisons were able to make good their escape. Even that did not prevent Katy's sniffles for a mile or so. The chance of another trip to Birmingham would suit Sue as she could look forward to delving further into her family history. Working around the girls' schooling would be the main obstacle.

Settling back as they made their way southwards down the Fosse Way, Sue gave Dave a summary of her chat with her mother and Uncle Stan. Naturally this had to be interwoven with equally enthusiastic reports from the girls on their perambulations during the week, including the dubious claim of fabricating the world's biggest snowball. Difficult to verify was their father's opinion now that the thaw had set in. Dave thought that Sue's research seemed to have been successful as she told him that she had obtained information about her grandparents and some on her great, grandparents.

“Well, that's good after just one trip,” he encouraged.

So, for the Harrison clan this had been a particularly agreeable week. In the case of both adults, jobs well done.