The Highbridge Podcast

Episode 11 (last in the series) - Laura Hylton

In this last episode of the series I chat with Laura Hylton from Seed Sedgemoor about the great work that Seed has been doing supporting projects in the community

Episode 10 - Cookies Barbers

Podcast ident  0:10   You're listening to the Highbridge Podcast celebrating the people, places and history of the Highbridge area in the Sedgemoor area Mell  0:27   Celebrating the history people and places in the HIghbridge Sedgemoor area of Somerset this season is funded by Seed which is a consortium of community organisations in Sedgemoor comprising of Bridgewater Senior Citizens Forum Bridgewater Town Council, Community Council for Somerset homes in Sedgemoor, Somerset Film and Young Somerset, which is funded and supported by Arts Council England, Creative People in places Lottery Funding and the Arts Council. The main aim of the project is to focus on the people, places and activities in and around Highbridge. It's important to remember that history is not just about recording the past, but also recording what is happening now as we create history for future generations. If you enjoy what you hear, do tell your friends and ask them to subscribe to hear future editions for free. So let's continue. According to Wikipedia HIghbridge was originally a market town on the edge of the Somerset levels in the UK, near the mouth of the river Brue and although it's no longer a market town, the market site is now a housing estate. Highbridge is in the district of Sedgemoor and the town of Highbridge closely neighbors, Burnham on sea, forming part of the combined parish of Burnham on Sea and Highbridge and shares a town council with a resort town. In the 2011 census. The population of the town was included in the ward of Highbridge and Burnham Marine, which totaled 7,555. For this edition, I went to get my haircut and I went along to Cookies to find out more about the generations of barbers in his family. So today I'm speaking to Mark Cook or sometimes known as cookie, who's basically the barber that goes back in time and the family go back in time. So tell me a little bit about how the shop all started Mark  2:26   Well its my great grandfather, George Cook who sets it off originally so he used to live in Bridgewater funnily enough. So he was I think he was 1883 if my maths is correct they started it all off. And he used to actually walk from Bridgewater to Highbridge to cut people's hair then walk home again, which was a hell of a journey. So I've gotten so long it took him and it wasn't the straight road it is now either do I mean it was sort of cut through he used to go through the back of West Huntspill so it was a right old journey when you first started Mell  2:55   So was that was that this this shop? Mark  2:57   Wasn't this shop unfortunately no, it was it was known as Corn Hill House, which is where the roundabout, the small roundabout by where FF & F used to be and the town clock is now it used to be a row of cottages that used to go right the way back through up to the market there. And we have a three shops on the front which which would have been a Brabers a fruit shop and a flower shop, which my Gran run. And then later on my my granddad's and his brother took over the barbers business went into there, then my dad went in then the I think the council compulsory purchased it because the lorries became 40 tons and couldn't get around the roundabout. So we were there for 99 years at the time, but they wouldn't let allow us to have 100 year, then they kicked us out. And then they left it there for four years before they knocked it down. And then unfortunately, the guy who owned this died and dad bought this. And we moved over to here, which is where I've been for the lastthirty three years. Mell  3:51   So there's four generations.  that's a lot of time that so you must have been handed down lots of stories of how things used to Mark  4:01   Absolutely, yeah, definitely. Yeah, there's hundreds of stories. I think getting back off how things used to be to compare to now, obviously, we've gone to appointments now, which is a real shocker, where there was just a sort of a walking culture, you know, back in the day when it started off. I don't think my granddad started or my great granddad I don't think he even started cutting hair. I think he was doing beards. I think nobody had a beard. So they started off just having bedrooms originally with the cutthroats because nobody could do it at home or as well. And then there was a sort of it sort of sort of evolved into sort of, could you just take a bit of rain in the air and then I think that's how he actually was I don't think he ever trained do you know what I mean it was just one of those things that he sort of graduated in, then it was taken a bit more often then he got a little bit a little bit better and just progressed through there to become a barber. So he was never above to start with That's right. he was shaving you. I mean, and then I think it just graduated from shaving into sort of barbarism as it were, so it sort of went through into, you know, haircuts and then got better at it but don't know how he became so popular here. But obviously, obviously his son then moved here and lived in the shop opposite which was my great my granddad. So Ray and Fred didn't quite have the reputation and all fairness, they were sort of they were pigeon fanciers. So it would be nothing for somebody to sit there for half an hour, where they were at the back, they had the two chairs as they would have been left and right of a wall. And then there was a window. And if they ever seen one of their pigeons come home, that's it. They were gone. The bloke was left in the chair on his own, they were out the back door on a call with this pigeon down off the roof to get his ring in and clock it in because there was a racing pigeon and that's what that was their thing. So it'd be nothing for a bloke to walk out with half a haircut and get fed up with waiting, just throw the gown on the floor and walk out Mell  5:36   I  notice noticed. Occasionally we've seen pigeon lorries. Yeah. And they released them. But it's something that's died out.  Mark  5:44   Yeah, that doesn't seem to work. Another things thats changed unfortunately, that used to happen loads, you know, these to sort of take pigeons from all over the country. And then they released them, they still have one up sort of what used to be Willits, which is the back across the road here where the market used to be in the nice to have thousands and then they would just let him go, and then they would fly back in the time them to wherever home is. And the first one back wins, you know, so was it Mell  6:03   Was it just a natural progression that each generation went into becoming a barber and took over the business? So it's  Mark  6:08   Yeah, it seems to have been that way. You know, everybody on my dad's side has been a boy. So I mean, so it's just an everybody has been a boy has gone into the barbering. So it just seemed to be a natural progression. Yeah, I don't think I even ever thought about it really, until I got to about 15 or 16. And dad said, "What do you want to do?" And I was like, Oh, be a barber, I suppose isn't it is the family trade it was? And we just went into it. And then I just fell into it. Mell  6:32   So did you get a chance to work with your father Mark  6:33   Yes, yeah, I work with dad. I went off and trained as a lady's hairdresser first. For four years, and then I came back to work here was a story that went with that, unfortunately, my dad, the guy that used to work with my dad ended up robbing him. As you do, so, he worked with dad for 36 years, I think, unfortunately, sticky for it used to be of a gambler. So unfortunately, the sticky fingers got the better of him. And he ended up robbing dads. So in the end, he sort of said, right, we'll ...

Talking with Fay Burtston about the book "Highbridge" A Somerset Market town and its people

The book "Highbridge A Somerset Market town and its people" was started over 20 years ago (and last published in 2004), it really does capture history both then and the memories and research that was done to compile the book. The book is still available if you look around but it is no longer in print. This is another nugget if you are interested in Highbridge and its history.

Episode 8 Highbridge Youth Arts

Chatting with Paul and Sharon about Highbridge Youth Arts -here is their Facebook Page Highbridge Youth Arts provides affordable dance and drama sessions for ages 5-18

Episode 7 - Larry Bennett (talks about Portishead Radio)

Ident  0:10   You're listening to the Highbridge podcast, celebrating the people, places and history of the Highbridge area in Sedgemore Mell  0:18   And welcome along to another edition of the Highbridge podcast celebrating the history people and places in the Highbridge Sedgemore area of Somerset. This season is funded by Seed which is a consortium of community organizations in Sedgemoor comprising of Bridgwater senior citizens forum Bridgwater Town Council, Community Council for Somerset homes in central Somerset film, and young Somerset, which is funded and supported by Arts Council England, creative people in places lottery funding, and the Arts Council. This episode, I'm chatting with Larry Bennett, who is going to tell us all about probably one of the world's most famous radio stations, which was based in Highbridge. Why was it so famous and who listened? Want to find out more then listen in to this fascinating chat with Larry Bennett? To start us off, Larry, tell us a little bit about what the radio station was all about. Larry  1:27   Right? It was probably at its time the world's largest maritime communication station. If you think of today, when you pick up a phone, you can speak anywhere in the world by a satellite anywhere and any aircraft, any ships anywhere in the world, you can do that. Back in the 1920s. When it was formed, the only way to communicate with a ship was via radio. And that's using Morse code of all things. There was no telephony at the time, everything was in Morse code. So if you wanted to get the message to a ship, you sent a message to your local post office, who would then forward it to the radio station at Highbridge. And then they'd relayed by Morse code to a ship over the radio link. And if they wanted the message returned, the ship's radio officer would send a message back via the radio station, and it would then be forwarded to the destination. And that carried on for 30 -40 years from 1920s, 1930s, 1940s. Right up to the 1960s when radio telex came into operation, which made it much easier for shipping companies to send messages direct. There was also rated telephone communication but that didn't come to Highbridge till 1972. Prior to that it was done through a station at Rugby with a receiving station that Brent in Essex and also at Baldock. So basically, the station was going to let everyone communicate with the ships at sea and vice versa. And that was the whole point. At the time, the British merchant navy was huge. One of the largest fleets in the world. And the station was and probably was even when it closed down the biggest maritime communication station in the world. Mell  3:02   In Highbridge? Larry  3:03   In Highbridge yeah, Mell  3:04   The other thing that threw me when I first discovered it was it's called Portishead radio. Larry  3:09   Yep. In maritime communication parlance. The station is named after the transmitting site. The station was formed in 1920. The original transmitters were at Devizes in Wiltshire. That was a site of an old point to point station which was converted to Army use in World War One. And in 1920, the post office took it over but transmitters there and it became Devizes radio station. The problem with that it was nowhere near the sea. It was a high power transmitter that was causing all sorts of problems to the receivers in the same location. So what the post office did was they put a receiving station in Highbridge away from all industry close to the coast. And then transmitters were about Devizes, the receivers were at Highbridge. But then in 1926, they moved the transmitting site to Portishead on Porterhead Down. And that's how the station got its name for so from 1925 It was known as Portishead radio. And that's how it stayed until the bitter end in 2000. Mell  4:09   So when they actually moved into Highbridge they kept the name and that's why it stayed Portishead? Larry  4:15   Exactly yeah the Portishead transmitters closed in the 1970s. But the station was so well known throughout the world. They just kept the name even at the closing down time the transmitters were at Rugby, but the main Portishead radio so so synonymous with shipping, they kept the name all the way through. Mell  4:33   So when did you work there? Larry  4:36   I was there from 1980 until the bitter end in 2000. So, unfortunately, I never got a job at sea, they preferred sea-going radio officers who knew the business backwards, but the turnover in staff was so high in the 1970s. They took people straight from college basically and that's how I managed to get a job. Obviously, there was quite a stiff entrance test you had to take a morse test and you had a year to prove yourself, otherwise, you were just chucked out. So you had to take a 27 words a minute morse test a French test of all things, which I was exempt from, because I had a French O level, and what's called a station and walk around, the station manager took around the station. And you had to tell him what every single part of this station did, from basic communication theory to how to power up the auxiliary power supply in case of failures and so on.  Mell  5:26   So that would be just in case of emergencies. And you were the only person in the building? Larry  5:30   Exactly, yeah, the station never closed, it was 24 hours a day, three, six 5.25 days a year, for over 75/80 years. Mell  5:40   So the size of this transmitter, it must have been huge Larry  5:45   Initially, yeah, at the time when the 1920s, they hadn't investigated shortwave very well. So to increase the range, they thought they had to increase the power. So the Devizor transmitters were sort of 10/15 kilowatt, huge transmitters. But as they develop shortwave communication, which the radio amateurs at the time were quite keen on doing, they found they could cover the world on maybe two or three kilowatts. So back in the day, you'll see pictures on the website, which I'll tell you about later on, have the original transmitters, and they were absolutely immense. And of course, those days, it was all spark transmitters, and so on. Modulation didn't come till later in the 1920s. Mell  6:24   So when the station originally was broadcast, and in its heyday, how many ships and how much traffic was actually going past or communicating with Highbridge Larry  6:37   Oh immense, probably at its heyday, we take over 2000 telegrams a day, from probably well over 1000 ships, all in Morse code. Mell  6:47   So that that is also time-consuming because you've got to translate it and then put it back and then send it out and then reply, an Larry  6:55   it's not as bad as it sounds. But the good thing about Morse code, it's built up letter by letter. So we can send and receive messages in any language in the world, we used to take loads of messages in Greek. And because the letter by letter, you didn't even have to understand it. So we'd sit their headphones on, message form in the typewriter. And as the guy would send it from ship, we just type type it in, letter by letter on the typewriter. Once that's done, we check it out to count the number of words, make sure there's nothing missing, and then just pass it down the belt to be sent off by telex or telephone. Mell  7:27   It's a completely different world to how it is today with just picking up a mobile phone and contact somebody. Larry  7:33   It was an art form, basically, I think. You know, some of the skills you'd see people there, they'd had the other headphones on drink a cup of tea, sending Morse c...