All Our Yesterdays – a monthly look at Harlow in years gone by – drawing upon the wonderful news archives of Harlow Museum.

By Ian Beckett

Having switched between the Harlow Citizen and the Harlow Star for my first five monthly blogs, I thought I would look at the Harlow Observer as we reach the midway point. Sadly, I soon realised that this weekly offering published in Hertfordshire, beyond the front page, was a paper dedicated to Bishop’s Stortford, Sawbridgeworth and the villages north-east of our town. Nothing wrong with that, except its misleading title.

So I returned to the Harlow Citizen. Or more specifically the Harlow Gazette and Citizen for, after 20 years operating under that name, the Harlow Citizen published its final edition in December 1972.

The front page is so crammed with news, it’s hard to pinpoint the main news story. However…

BANDITS MAKE DARING GRAB – Main Headline – Friday, June 8. 1972

Okay, in bold capital letters in the centre of the front page with the sub-heading “Gilbey men attacked with coshes” – this is the lead story but after a few paragraphs readers are told that the story is Continued on P64.

The journalist informs readers that “Three men armed with coshes snatched over £1,000 in a daring daylight robbery on Friday afternoon.”

The ”Bandits” set about two Gilbey Vintner employees, Albert Mechen of Cooks Spinney and Frederick Stockbridge of The Rundells, only yards from the busy Market Square – and got clean away with their haul.

The two men were returning from Barclays Bank in Terminus Street to their van, parked outside County Gardens in East Gate, when they were set upon by three raiders. Both men were slightly hurt and Mr Stockbridge received treatment in hospital.

Crime, and Policing (including the lack of it), has been a stable fodder for local journalists for decades and looks likely to remain so. This piece of audacious crime received national attention when Scotland Yard sent a film crew to film the route of the crooks for the weekly edition of television’s “Police Five” with Shaw (keep ‘em peeled) Taylor.

In other front-page news

Thirteen-year-old Netteswell School pupil Richard Pyne is shown receiving “advice from an expert” Sir Leonard Hutton, Yorkshire and England sportsman, who Wisden Almanack described as “one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket”. Sir Leonard is pictured giving some sound tips to young Richard, holding a bat which he won in a draw, ahead of a big cricket cup match between Essex and Middlesex.

Also on a sporting theme is a young woman with “Something to smile about.” Sixteen-year-old Sue Mapstone had been selected to partner Olympics champion Mary Peters in the British Women’s pentathlon team to compete in Holland. The report says that Sue “is the youngest athlete ever to compete in this event at senior level and the first Harlow product to reach this distinction.”

Harlow product? Curious words to indicate, I presume, someone born and bred in the town, as opposed to being produced at Templefields or The Pinnacles industrial estates!

Another young person receiving praise was David Arrowsmith, a former Potter Street Primary School, and Latton Bush Comprehensive School pupil, who serving with the RAF Provos in Northern Ireland, had been chosen as a representative at the 25th anniversary celebrations at RAF Debden where they would be inspected by Princess Margaret.

David’s mother, Mrs G. Arrowsmith of Carters Mead, thanked the Harlow Gazette and Citizen for sending a weekly copy of the paper to her son, giving him a “closer touch with home.” The paper then asks its readers to contact them if they have “a son or a husband serving with the Forces in Northern Ireland” who would also like to receive a free weekly copy.

When I first read this story, I was puzzled. Why was the offer confined only to sons and husbands? Why not daughters and wives also?

I visited the website of the National Army Museum for a history lesson and discovered, to my surprise the following key points that I think are worth sharing:

21 July 1915 – Suffragettes march in London to persuade the authorities to widen women’s roles in the First World War.
Spring 1917 – The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps was formed in response to the manpower crisis. The first women arrive to carry out support duties in France and Belgium on 31 March 1917.
April 1918 – Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps – In recognition of their hard work and bravery during the Spring Offensive, Queen Mary gives her name to the WAAC. But peacetime cuts lead to disbandment in 1921.

Despite QMAAC being disbanded in 1921, it inspired the formation of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), in September 1938. Whilst women were still not allowed to fight in battle, they once again returned to supporting roles during the Second World War as cooks, clerks, drivers, radar operators, telephonists, anti-aircraft gunners, range finders, sound detectors, military police, and ammunition inspectors.
By VE Day, 8th May 1945, over 190,000 women were members of the ATS.
The Women’s Royal Army Corps (WRAC) was formed in 1949, absorbing the remaining troops of the ATS.
Between 1949 and 1992, WRAC women served in over forty trades in operations across the world including Cyprus (1955-59), Northern Ireland (1969-92), the Falklands (1982-83) and the Gulf (1990-91).
In 1975, the Sex Discrimination Act was introduced, but Section 85(4) allowed for the continuing exclusion of women from combat roles.
It wasn’t until a social and political battle was concluded in October 2018, that British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson announced that all combat roles were open to women, including infantry and special forces units.

That last bullet point, only seven years ago, was an eye-opener. This is a potted history taken from A timeline of women in the Army https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/timeline-women-army. The resource is interesting and informative.

Staying on changing views and attitudes, the Harlow Gazette and Citizen nails its colours to the mast very clearly under the heading OUR POINT OF VIEW in an article about the shortage of contestants to take part in the local Carnival Queen Competition. It opens the article with the sentence “It can be said without fear of contradiction that Harlow is full of lovely girls.” It continues “if chosen, girls should regard their appointment as an honour and a real responsibility” – the role being that of “an ambassador for the town and the means of raising considerable sums for charities.”

I know that there will views will diverge from “equality rocks” to “politically correct madness,” “overbearing nanny state” and everything in-between, and I’m not about to suggest we launch the “Bring Back The Carnival Queen” Campaign, but I do miss the Harlow Carnival. I recall it starting at Bush Fair weaving through many streets and finishing at the fun fair at the Town Park. It was a big community day, supported by local businesses who provided or sponsored the float vehicles, and indeed raising a lot of money, as well as awareness, for local charities.

The reality is, I suspect, that because of the on-street parking congestion in our town, a carnival that involved vehicles nowadays would be hard to manage but that shouldn’t prohibit some kind of street festival. We had a Harlow Carnival Association that made it happen. Could it and should it happen again? Could a Carnival benefit community cohesion as well as local organisations and charities? Answers in the Comments section please.

The final feature on the front page of the 8th June 1972 edition of the Harlow Gazette and Citizen is entitled THEY WANT YOUR VOTES. Nothing knew there you might say, for a politcal story, but this was Harlow’s biggest every local election with a total of seventy-three candidates to choose from: 42 Labour, 14 Tories, 13 Liberals, 2 Communists, and 2 Independents. The Editor reports with accompanying photograph “It was a hard job – but we managed to get the agents to sit together and smile!” (from left to right) Liberal Jack Hewitt, Tory Sheelagh Welton and Labour Jock Arnott.

I have no doubt that the plethora of front page stories engaged with the interests of 1970’s Harlow Citizens, but the big story that everyone was talking about and getting worked up about was illustrated with a full-page spread, information and commentary from Harlow Urban District Council under the strapline THE EXPANSION OF HARLOW and the big question of the day: “Whose Town Is It Anyway?”

The devil, they say, is in the detail and the detail provided, in bold, was as follows:

Most people would agree that Harlow would benefit by expanding its size and population. It would bring both economic and social benefits to the town and also make a valuable contribution to the national housing problems.

But how the expansion is planned and the way it is carried out is vital: to do it badly, or for the wrong reasons would irreparably damage the existing community and perhaps even destroy the basic ideals on which Harlow has been developed.

The Council poses some of the questions which Harlow people will want answered before they agree that Harlow Development Corporation’s present proposals are in the interests of the people and the community.

The Urban District Council provides both questions and answers:
MORE HOMES – but for whom?
Whilst there must be a chance for people to but their new home, the major priority must be to press on with providing houses to rent.
HOW LARGE CAN WE GROW?
It is right to expand Harlow, but it may be done carefully and in a way that brings benefits to those who live here now, as well as advantages to those who come later.
THE ENVIRONMENT we can’t afford to lose
There must be planned protection and careful use of land, so that the best features are saved and the character of Harlow maintained.
JOBS AND HOMES – they must go together
We can contribute both jobs and homes to the solution of poorer and more crowded parts of the country. We can also avoid becoming a commuter town and attract jobs for children leaving our schools.
WHAT THE REAL EXPERT SAYS
Sir Frederick Gibberd, the man who designed Harlow and has been associated with its growth since 1947 called the Corporation’s proposals a “disaster”. Harlow Urban District Council “when someone of Sir Frederick’s eminence casts serios doubts, it is important the proposals and closely examined.

The Urban District Council feature concludes with NOW YOU TELL US….
Every Harlow household would receive a brochure with a pre-paid postcard on which they were invited to share their views on what they liked about the plans and what they objected to.

Some of the views of local people and our neighbours were plain to see that week, with the Roydon Defence Committee writing to Geoffrey Rippon, Secretary of State for the Environment tell him emphatically “We want to remain a village!”

In Harlow, the Maples Residents Association feared that they would lose much of the countryside surrounding their neighbourhood.

A report from the first public meeting organised by the Corporation at Tye Green Community Centre said those present considered the proposals as “the death of an ideal”, whilst the second public meeting at Moot House, The Stow, delivered resounding “No” to the proposals in a powerful resolution moved by former local JP, Sewell Harris.

The outcome of these painful and passionate deliberations was, what some have called a “mini expansion”, that saw the creation of the Sumners and Katherines estates in the mid-to-late seventies to the west of the town. However, it paved the way for further expansion with the Church Langley estate completed in 2005, Newhall in 2013,and more recently Gilden Park, which after years of acrimonious debate, was rejected by Harlow Council in 2012, only to be overturned by the Secretary of State for Local Government and the commencement of the development in 2018.

What next for our once green and pleasant land? The Harlow and Gilston Garden Town. Swings and, inevitably roundabouts that no doubt will be covered by Your Harlow.

And Finally….

I was delighted, as I sat in the Archive Room of the Harlow Museum & Walled Gardens,
poring through the pages of the Friday, June 8. 1972 edition of the Harlow Gazette and Citizen, to come across an article celebrating 5,000 VISITED MUSEUM IN FIRST TWO WEEKS. This, of course, referred to the original Harlow Museum situated in Passmores House, near Third Avenue. Festival Organiser and local historian Ron Bill reported that about 5,000 people had visited the museum during the first two weeks of opening and said, “this surely means that the museum is well and truly launched and augers well for the future” and indeed it did.

Additional space for Harlow’s history was found in 1983, when the late John Collins opened the Mark Hall Cycle Museum, showcasing his collection of rare and historic bicycles. This wonderful collection was retained in March 2002 when the two museums – the Mark Hall Cycle Museum and Harlow Museum at Passmores House – became one new museum for the town.

It is always well worth a visit, no matter how many times you go, because you will always discover some new about Harlow.

Next Month

Next Month I will be looking at July 2013 through the online Archives of Your Harlow during their first month of operation.