Scrapbook images capture the times
Magnificent shows, and times of tragedy and turmoil in a Shropshire Conservative Association in the 1930s and 1940s are all touched on in a collection of memorabilia which has been passed to a Telford woman.
Magnificent shows, and times of tragedy and turmoil in a Shropshire Conservative Association in the 1930s and 1940s are all touched on in a collection of memorabilia which has been passed to a Telford woman.
A scrapbook of press cuttings about local party activities, programmes of fetes held at Orleton Park, and a photo showing the annual meeting of Wrekin Conservative Association of April 14, 1934, were all given to Mrs Jo Savage of Admaston.
"My best friend was the daughter of the Conservative agent, Mr Maurice Ridgwell. He died and she had this material, and she gave it to me.
"She thought maybe the Conservative association would be interested in having it. I put a feeler out a couple of years ago and they weren't really, so I have kept it.
"I don't quite know what to do with it. I suppose it should go to the archives at Shrewsbury," said Mrs Savage.
The collection includes five programmes spanning the years 1936 to 1950 from the Wrekin Fete and Wellington Horse and Pony Show. Held every July, it grew from a small-scale local show to a major date in the county calendar attracting thousands of people – estimated attendance at the 1938 event was 20,000.
"It was a magnificent show. A lot of people will remember it," said Mrs Savage.
The 1936 programme lists over 100 entrants in the horse and pony show. Other attractions included the crowning of "Miss Wrekin", a ballet – "An Enchanted Glade" by the pupils of Miss J. V. Dawson – a "mass demonstration" addressed by the Rt Hon Sir Thomas Inskip, boxing contests, a Shropshire brass band contest (competing bands were Lilleshall Collieries Prize Band, Madeley Town Silver Band, Oswestry Excelsior Town Band, and Sankey's Castle Works Band), and dancing on the lawn with music by the Oakengates Imps Band.
Among the boxing bouts was an eight-round welterweight challenge contest involving Jack Sessarego of Hereford and Buller Evans of Wellington. Climax of the boxing was the final for the Colonel Baldwin-Webb Challenge Cup.
Colonel James Baldwin-Webb was the 1930s Wrekin Tory MP.
Another part of the memorabilia is a 1937 Coronation Year "Wrekin Souvenir Quotation Calendar" with quotations, seemingly chosen mostly by local Tories, for every day of the year.
The scrapbook starts in May 1936 and has cuttings on its first page telling of the appointment of Mr Ridgwell as the agent for Wrekin Conservatives, in succession to Jack Galloway. Mr Ridgwell came from Boreham, Chelmsford.
For some reason there are no cuttings relating to one of the most significant events in the history of the association – the death through enemy action of the Wrekin MP.
Colonel Baldwin-Webb was drowned, along with many evacuee children, when the ship City of Benares was sunk by a U-boat in the Atlantic in September 1940.
However the scrapbook does detail a major row which tore apart the association in the aftermath of his death as it strove to choose a candidate for the resulting by-election.
Initially selected was Colonel E. R. H. Herbert, of Orleton Hall. But that decision was successfully challenged on procedural grounds by another candidate, Mr R. H. Colwill, and his supporters. They alleged that after interviewing Mr Colwill and another shortlisted candidate, the selection committee then chose Colonel Herbert – without interviewing him at all.
As the controversy exploded, and members voted 238 to 226 to send things back for reconsideration, Colonel Herbert withdrew his candidature.
Ultimately, it didn't do Mr Colwill any good. The matter went again to the executive committee, who considered three shortlisted candidates – Mr Colwill, a Mr G .S. Tomkinson, of Kidderminster, and businessman Mr Arthur Colegate.
Mr Colegate won, and went on to win the Wrekin by-election in September 1941, in which Labour did not stand.
His tenure was ended in the 1945 general election when Ivor Thomas took the seat for Labour.
As for Mr Ridgwell, he left to work for Conservative Central Office in London in November 1948 and, at the time of the last cutting, loose in the back of the scrapbook, in 1956, was the national organising secretary for the Young Conservatives.
