(Has anyone told you about the Gloster Jet which crashed in Easton Grey in 1944 where everybody was sworn to secrecy since witnesses heard a different noise and saw no propeller?)
Immediately after the war, since there was effectively no cars to service he applied for and was accepted as an instrument mechanic building the radar's - a role he kept until he retired in the early 1970's in Crawley (Sussex) where Radar production finally ended up having been snapped up by Phillips (MEL) following the foreclosure of the EKCO works.
One memory he recounted to me was the time that a Bristol Britannia had to make a forced landing on the beach near Weston-Super-Mare and he was called out to try and retrieve the radar before the tide engulfed the aircraft - unfortunately I cannot remember if he and the team succeeded.
I was 13 at the time of the move to Southend and when I left school I joined my father at EKCO Radar where the 2210 (valve system) radar was just coming to the end of its life and being replaced by the E190 (Transistor based system) and latterly both my father and I worked on the Helicopter Radar.
On a separate subject my father also Chauffeured for the Right Hon Captain Craig from about 1932 until we moved in 1960. What was interesting was that he knew both Herbert Morris and Austin so despite cars being rationed for a considerable time after the war, he always had the latest model for my father to drive!!
I remember my father and I once went out with Captain Craig who said he would drive (it was to an air show at Hullavington in either 1958 or 9 where the Black Arrows were the star of the show - they were the predecessors to today's Red Arrows) and I can honestly say both my father and I were seriously frightened because not only was the old boy a bit past it but he drove very fast and as if nobody else was on the road. Needless to say after a few drinks in the officers mess father drove us home.
As a boy growing up in Malmesbury in the 1950's I have fond memories of a very tall man who was always well dressed and had an imposing presence which struck fear into us boys and girls by his alarming habit of wandering down the High Street and tapping children with his walking stick then asking questions such as 'what's 12 times 7' etc. If you gave him the right answer you were rewarded with a penny or two (which you immediately spent in the sweet shop), if you gave the wrong answer you got a short poke from the walking stick (which sometimes hurt) and you were told you must do better!!
I wonder what people would think of that in these politically correct days. I think this gentleman was the same Captain Craig I metioned above whose family lived in Old Brewery House.
My fathers brother (and my uncle) was Ronald Poole, (he lived at 121 high street) who had a radio and TV sales/repair shop in the Triangle up to the late 1960's. In the back of the shop he also sold balsa wood and accessories for hobbyist's.
My aunt was Ms Wheal who had a haberdashery shop in the lower part of the high street (opposite what is now the Smoking Dog?). She never married. I can recollect often being in the shop when Lady this or that etc came into the shop enquiring about having chairs or sofa's re-upholstered for their big houses.
I was born in Kings Wall in December 1946, but we moved shortly after to Bremhilham Terrace where I grew up.
Thinking of Bremhilham Terrace, have you heard about the ghost of Bremhilham Terrace. All our time there it was widely accepted that the whole terrace was haunted. Legend has it that this was the Soul of a person who was beaten to death by a sadistic warder in the middle 1850's when the terrace was the work house.
Chris Poole
March 2004
