Characters of Whitchurch - 1

A special Christmas edition of ‘101 Things’

By now we’ve all put up our decorations, decorated the tree and written our letter to Santa (or Sion Corn) saying how good we’ve all been during this last year

By any stretch of the imagination, this has been quite a momentous year, with any number of national and international personalities and characters, seemingly popping up most days in our newspapers and on TV. These people (some quite unforgettable others very forgettable) may linger long in the memory. But what about locally? What about the characters of our village?

How do you even define a local character (I’m guessing it’s a person not the place)? Is it a person who would recognise you in the most unlikely of circumstances and have a lovely chat? Someone, perhaps unassuming, who has (or had) a claim-to-fame for a special reason?

How would one even compile a list of characters? I concluded that it’s probably dangerous to list living people in this blog, so I’ve decided to restrict the list posthumously

It’s relatively straightforward within living memory, but then we have to rely on memories of people and notes. Even earlier, local folk hardly get a mention, it’s only the great and good(?) who are recorded. Here’s a list of local characters who I think might meet the shortlist, and in no apparent order. What do you think?

Henry Hopkins (b 1842)
Henry worked for his uncle Eli (the sculptor) and was the son of a butcher. By 1867 he was the Relieving Officer for the parish (doling out the parish relief) and had married Mary Wride, the daughter of a local farmer. He became the Registrar of Births and Deaths (even completing the forms for the infant deaths of some of his own children) and was later a local councillor. Philog House, where he lived, is still called ‘Hopkins Corner’ by many local folk

John Povey
We don’t know much about John apart from Census information from the 1860s, when he moved to the village. We know that he lived on the Philog and ran a market garden with his extended family helping
He must have become a local character, as in 1904 the parish council referred to his house as ‘Old Povey’s House’ when proposing to change the names of local streets

Winston Griffiths
Winston lived off Pantbach Road, and was a salesman. He became a local councillor and represented Whitchurch for many years. In the 1970s and 80s Winston was instrumental in setting up the Whitchurch Festival (still going), and organising the annual Father Christmas float, driving around all parts of the village and handing out tangerines to the children. A real local character

Ernie Broad
Ernie lived in the heart of the village, almost opposite Tabernacle Chapel. There are tantalising photos of Ernie as a child, but we’ve all got to know him through his wonderful jottings about village life in the earlier years of the 20th century. To my mind, Ernie is not just a local character but is the unabashed ‘Sage of Whitchurch’

Billy (and his memorial bench)
Billy was one of the ‘lost souls’ who wandered around the village in the 1970s and 80s, always ready for a chat, and always had a pencil or two to hand out to anyone who needed one. The local shops took Billy into their hearts, and on learning of his demise, fundraised enough money for a memorial bench

Trevor Ford (football legend of the 1950s and 60s)
Ceri Stennett tells me that Trevor and Ceri’s dad Stan were great friends. When Trevor looked to retirement after a lifetime in professional football in the 1960s, Trevor took to managing a car garage. First in Llandaff North at the Tivoli Garage and then at the Roundabout Garage on Manor Way

Billy Brian (trick cyclist)
I’ve included Billy and also Steve (the yoyo champion) as ‘proper’ local characters. We know next to nothing of them, and in spite of their unusual sporting prowess, they’ll live on local folklore!

Albert Bullock
The only pictures I’ve seen of Albert Bullock were when he was complete with a top hat and a wing collar shirt, so I really couldn’t call him by his first name. I can’t imagine him as an Al or Bert so the best I can do is call him AB! He was chairman of the parish council and was so instrumental in achieving our Carnegie Library. I’d like to think that he was a real character in the smoke-filled rooms of the parish council though! The attached photograph from 1903 (AB is far left with umbrella) shows the members of the Whitchurch School Board. Just the thing for a Christmas Card!

River Jordan
I’ve included this man only because of his name. He lived in the lower village in the late 19th century, but we no nothing more. Can anyone help?

Charles Burley Ward
No list of characters would be complete with our local hero (who wasn’t local at all!). CBW was the last man to receive the VC from Queen Victoria, and he’s buried in our local churchyard

Count Antonio Lucovich
How can any list of local characters not include an Adriatic Count who lived in the village, rode with the local hunt and sported the most splendid beard I’ve come across so far!

Herbert Cory
I’ve included Sir Herbert because my friend George remembered this man walking every day from his house at Coryton past the Hollybush pub to catch a train to his office in the docks in the 1920s. George remembered his demeanour, bowler hat and gold watch chain. An obvious candidate

Who have I left out? What names ought to be added to the list?

I’ve deliberately not included lots of the names of noteworthy or prominent people (both famous and infamous) who’ve lived in or had an influence on the village, because that’s for another list!

I’m sure we all know of a local character either by personal knowledge or a family story. If you’d like to share (as long as the stories are not too libellous) we’d love to hear and add to our village story

 

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