WßD Chapter 14 ~ The Auction by Desmond B Webb (Revised Edition)

Windsor Street Days

Chapter Fourteen

The Auction

by

Desmond Budd Webb

MY ELDER DAUGHTER CAROL was married to Roger Wileman Martin on Saturday, 17th June, 1972 with the Ceremony taking place in the lovely village church at Prestbury, in the suburbs of Cheltenham.

My younger daughter Vanessa was married to Steven Opacic on Saturday, 30th August, 1986 – an important date in the life of our family, as it was my mother’s birthday in 1887 and also of her maternal uncle, William Wimbush in 1864, and, as I mentioned in the previous chapter, the marriage of my eldest brother Arthur and Bette.

The Webb Family Bible neé Wimbush 1824 given to Eliza Ann Wimbush in 1875 - the mother of Isabel Alice Webb neé Budd - and now held in safe custody on behalf of the family by Eliza’s Great Grandson, Kenneth Thomas Webb

My son-in-law was a qualified teacher and took up an appointment at Wembley, London. Carol and Roger were able to secure accommodation by renting part of a house in a select area. After a time it became obvious to them that it would be preferable to seek a teaching post, if possible in the Gloucestershire area, but this was not considered to be easy.

However, with persistent determination and endeavour this was achieved, with an appointment being offered at the highly respected Deerpark Comprehensive, Cirencester. Roger is now a well-established and respected teacher. One who is always willing to put himself out to help his pupils, and exercise compassion where he thinks it is needed – a valuable asset by any standards.

*

Writing exercises the memory, and it is important to recall past events, to record them, and thereby preserve family history.

This is quite a natural inclination for me given my police career, and Ken, I know, will vouch this.

Auction at The Green Dragon

Since I have been recording any information in my life that I can remember, I am recording many things, and one which amuses me is the way in which the purchase of Rectory Cottage was conducted.

This property became available, when this was placed on the market by the Gloucestershire County Council, for sale by auction. This meant that any prospective buyer would be relying on the expertise of several agencies who would possibly come from far and wide, looking for the potential for development in the highly sought-after Cotswold countryside.

To buy such a place with limited finance would be no small task.

The auction was fixed to take place at the Green Dragon, a well-known country public house, not far from where Carol and Rog now live.

* 

No one was aware of the highly prepared and secret planning that had decided that such strategy should take! But Roger and Carol, possessed of deep wisdom in the ways some entrepreneurs attempt to conduct their wily business deals, decided to outwit them. And how they succeeded!!

When Nancy and I arrived at the Green Dragon, taking our place in the room where the auction was to be held, we were surprised to find so many people crowded into the lounge!

Eventually all were called to order and the auction commenced, with the auctioneer outlining the type of property being offered, and everyone anxiously scanning the paperwork and photographs of the property that had been placed before us all, Nancy and I daring not to feel at all excited that this lovely location was about to fall within the hopeful grasp of Mr. and Mrs Martin.

* 

As the bidding proceeded hopes were high, as Roger’s bid was acknowledged time and again.

Then, quite suddenly, the stakes were raised, with the auctioneer offering Roger the opportunity to continue ... as he had learned from the Agent of Carol and Roger’s peculiar and especial interest in this property.

There was abated silence, except for the words from the auctioneer who commented, “Have you finished?”

* 

Roger nodded in confirmation, and the sale finally went to a man who had been bidding with affirmed interest at the rear of the hall!

Such disappointment and despair … was, however, suddenly turned into ecstatic pleasure as the full extent of the bidding was revealed!!

Not to be outwitted, my son-in-law had arranged for a “mysterious bidder” to challenge for the sale. Quite unbeknown to the Auctioneer, this clever and strategically thoughtful planning between Roger and his close friend, Mr. Beardsley, had paid off!

There was none more relieved than the Agent, as the sale was finally established, for he had personally felt sympathy towards Carol and Roger when he thought they had missed out to someone else, as he knew how deeply they had wanted it!

A pleasing family story to record.

Carol and Rog have a very extensive record through films that shows the steady progress and hard work over many years that they have put into their home.

Who knows?! The younger generation may learn a lot from it and may well assist them in their own decisions on homemaking one day.[1]

**

I should have mentioned that shortly after Carol and Roger married, Nancy and I decided to buy a boat. This was because we had seen one on the river Thames at Henley, where the day had been spent with Nancy’s Uncle, Tom (Thomas Hope from Northumberland) and who had visited and attended the wedding along with the entire Hope Clan. This had been a truly exciting occasion for us all, for it was the first time that my mother-in-law’s family came down from the north. All of us had instantly ‘gelled’, and our subsequent purchase of a 17ft Shetland motor cruiser was to be the forerunner to several boats before settling with a Princess 32, which we all loved – The Princess Maytime of Bredon.

My mother in Law Martha Isabella Marshall on the River Avon on board Maytime. The Mast and Ensign remain with the family, an important heirloom, and a symbol of happy times and days gone by. DBW

Having acquired the first boat, with, I might add, a generous gift towards its purchase by Uncle Tom, I decided to take a Seaman’s Navigation Course at Gloucester, and which was organised through the Royal Yachting Association, and was successful in obtaining the appropriate certificate of qualification. This was to have stood me in good stead with a view to enjoying offshore cruising upon my retirement from the police force.

Unfortunately, this desire did not take place, but Nancy and I have spent many enjoyable hours, over some twenty-five years, of river cruising on the Rivers Avon and Severn, from our moorings at Bredon, a beautiful village in the County of Worcestershire.[2]

The best days of boating were spent during the lifetime of Sadie (in the previous chapter) and it is these memories which are truly cherished.

by

Desmond B Webb

Windsor Street - Pittville - Bishops Cleeve - Bredons Hardwick - Toddington - Brambridge

A Lucky Charm - quite beautiful - being presented to the Bride and Groom by Grandma Martha Isabella Marshall. To the right of the Bride is her brother in law Guy, Roger’s eldest brother, and behind the Groom is his brother in law, the author KTW (IBM)

[1] And how prophetic was our father’s statement. For the skills have been passed on to their son and daughter-in-law and who have renovated three very old country properties, and by means of almost reducing the interior to a shell but to maintain the historic exterior of the buildings. And I suspect that this incredible skill will, in various ways, pass through to their three grandsons, my great nephews.

[2] What my parents did not know when they and I watched the Princess 32 arrive on an articulated low loader at Bredon Moorings in 1978, and would not have foreseen, is that their Grandson and his wife would settle in Bredon, and all three great grandsons attended the village school that we used to drive past so many times in the week, to and from our moorings, for a quarter of a century. I have a beautiful photograph of my mother (Nancy Webb) and her Great Grandson at his school on the day of the School’s commemoration of the World War II Tea Party. By then, my mother, Nancy, was fast approaching her 85th brithday, and thoroughly enjoyed the concert, the tea, the wonderful rendition of Run Rabbit Run Rabbit, Run, Run, Run … singing along as did we all … and became something of a ‘star’ when the children couldn’t quite grasp that this very ancient lady had seen a street go up with all the gardens in Cheltenham when Mrs Webb was their age … before being thrown under the bed by her father! For me, that special photograph became even more important … for her Great Grandson had written a message with that photograph and, at the very last moment, had asked if it could “go with Granny!” The funeral directors were marvellous and within moments, as the Priest, Carol and Roger’s lifetime friend, the Reverend Andrew Huckett, (they had all been at the same school) waited to lead the Family into Church for Nancy’s Funeral and Celebration of an incredible life, my Great Nephew had achieved his goal! That is a private memory, but it is the cement that makes up the bricks, walls and buildings of family life. Let this always be the goal of every branch of every family. KTW (IBM)

17 May 2022
All Rights Reserved

© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2023

First written July 15, 2020