Hungerford Arcade had a huge BBC Radio Outside Broadcast unit turn up for a live programme taking place at Hungerford Town Hall.  They eventually moved a couple of doors down to the Town Hall where they are were preparing for the the evening’s Radio 4 Show, “Any Question”.

The programme, presented by Ritula Shah, presents political debate from Hungerford, Berkshire, with a panel including the chair of the European Research Group, Suella Fernandes MP, Bronwen Maddox from the Institute for Government, political activist an writer, Jack Monroe and the Labour MP Chuka Umanna.

With so much going on in the town yesterday, Hungerford was buzzing!

Hungerford Arcade had a lovely lady come in the other day, Caroline Pirouet.  Caroline is very camera shy so unfortunately, I do not have a photograph of her.

Caroline works as a beekeeper for a gardening charity for disabled adults, Growing 2gether.  The projects are designed to give people from all walks of life the chance to learn about and help to grow a range of fruit and vegetables, run by the Newbury Community Resource Centre, operators of the Community Furniture Project.

For further information, visit the Growing 2gether website at: http://growing2gether.org/home/3484565

Anne Mumby, Fundraiser for the Mary Hare Foundation came to the Arcade on Tuesday to collect the charity tin for the Mary Hare School for Deaf Children & Young Adults, which was full to bursting.  Anne was thrilled and said that they are launching a new appeal on 4th July at Englefield House, the Benyon family Estate.

The appeal is for a new primary school to be built on the same site as the senior school at a cost of £6m.  With the sale of Mill Hall Primary School, they will still need to raise £2.5m.  Anne left us with an empty tin so that we can get started and with the help of our generous customers, do our bit to raise money for this much needed new school.

Hungerford Arcade co-owner,  Adrian Gilmour was thrilled this week to come across this knitting pattern for a Pixie Helmet.  Dating from the 1950s/60s, the pattern gives intricate detail and design into this Fair Isle Bonnet for 7 to 8 year olds of the time. The cover pictures would now be considered old-fashioned, but come from a more innocent and simpler time.

Produced by P and B wools, it cost only 3D (an old threepence), and required ‘Beehive’ knitting needles, intriguingly ‘measured by Beehive gauge’.  We hope one of our readers can tell us what this means!

The skill and craft of home-made clothes of earlier times is often all but forgotten, but until recent years, there was enormous skill and care which went into clothes made for children, from their mothers, aunts, and grannies.  These skills were handed down through generation to generation for many hundreds of years.

There is huge nostalgia for those of us who can remember hand-knitted hats and jumpers as part of childhood, every one individually made. 

While many working mums have less time for sewing and knitting, and fashions have moved on, knitting still continues alive and well for many people.

For anyone interested in having a go, there are knitting workshops Saturday August 12^th at the West Berkshire Museum in Newbury
1pm – 4pm, free, with the Kennet Valley Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers.

http://www.westberkshireheritage.org/whats-on/workshops-knitting-and-crochet

Hungerford Arcade proudly watched as the REME 6th Armoured Close Support Battalion held a parade through the town, finishing at the Royal British Legion Club, Church Street in support of Armed Forces Day.  This annual event takes place around the country to commemorate/celebrate all the men and women of our Armed Services who serve at home and around the world.  The Union Flags lined the High Street, waving gently in the soft breeze as the soldiers marched pass.

Crowds of people came from miles around, lining the street from early morning to watch this wonderful event taking place in our town.  There were military vehicles, soldiers manning their stalls and talking with the public.  The salute was taken by the Mayor, Cllr Keith Knight, Deputy Mayor, Cllr Helen Simpson and The Constable of the Town and Manor, Mrs Ellie Dickens.

Not forgetting the wonderful Hungerford Town Band who entertained the troops and the public on this very hot Armed Forces Day.

I have been quite busy of late having to travel to Bath and back on frequent occasions due to my mother being in hospital.  But I have managed to pop into the Arcade on a couple of occasions and it was during one of these visits that I found under a pile of books a copy of The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke (With a Memoir).

This was not a surprising find as copies of this book are pretty common.

My edition dated from 1930 and was the nineteenth impression of the book which was first published in July 1918.  I already have a couple of editions of this book so initially I ignored my find.

However, as I placed the book on to a shelf a newspaper cutting fell out which stirred my interest. It dated from April 1931 and was reporting on the unveiling of a memorial (on Easter Sunday) to honour Rupert Brooke.  It was to be unveiled on Skyros where the poet was buried after his early death from blood poisoning in 1915.

The report was moving and very much of its time (the cutting was dated in pencil as being from a newspaper published on the 4^th of April 1931).

But what I found really interesting, was a report about a female burglar named Isabella Brown which was on the reverse side of the cutting.

The story of Isabella’s fall from grace was contained in a column which was entitled;

GIRL’S HEEL PRINT IN A GARDEN.

Underneath also in bold headlines was the sub-header;

BURGLARY CHARGE.

So a young lady named Isabella Brown had strayed from the straight and narrow and now was in trouble with the police.  The crime was a minor footnote of history and I would have been totally oblivious of it had I not picked up the Rupert Brooke book of poems.

Isabella was twenty-two at the time of her crime which means that she would have been born in 1908 or 1909 which at a stretch, means that she may still be with us.  If my maths are correct, then Isabella would be between 108 and 109 if she is still alive.

But let’s go back to her twenty-second year when she had fallen foul of the law.  Isabella was married and was accused of breaking into a house in Golders Green. To give you a proper feel of the newspaper report I am reproducing it in full;

The discovery of the imprint of a woman’s high heel in a garden was described at Hendon when Isabella Brown (22) was charged with burglary.

Brown a young married woman was alleged to have broken into a house in Hodford-road, Golders Green and stolen jewellery valued at £1000.  She was also charged with stealing and receiving jewellery and a fur coat and other property.

HAT SHOP SEARCH

At the time of her arrest, it was stated that she was in possession of a £5 note, 32 £1 notes, a diamond watch, a diamond ring and two purses.  At her home were found some of the other articles which were the subject of the charges.

Det-inspector Baker said he went to premises at Great College-street, Camden Town. It was a small, woman’s outfitting and hat shop.  Brown said she was the owner.

While he was searching the premises the woman threw into the fire a card which he recovered.  As he snatched it from the fire she said “I can burn my own property if I like.”

When he found jewellery Brown said she got it from a man whose name she did not know.

Brown was remanded in custody for a week.

I began wondering what happened to Isabella.  Looking at the evidence, it did not seem that she was a casual thief but more of a career criminal.  I wondered if the shop that she said she owned had been financed by her criminal activities.  Without doubt, Isabella if she had been convicted, would have been sent to prison.

If she had gone to prison, I wonder if this would have shaken her up.  Did she when released return to Camden Town a changed woman?  The answers are lost in the mysteries of time.  And I would not have been asking them or indeed writing this article if I had not found the newspaper cutting on that cool March day.

Was Isabelle Brown her real name or was it something plainer?  The newspaper report noted that she was the owner of a small woman’s outfitting and hat shop.  Did she use the name Isabella Brown as it seemed more up market for her business?  Was the business indeed hers or just a front?

I think that Isabella was much more that a petty thief.  She seemed to be quite organised, although she made plenty of mistakes.  Why did she wear heels when committing the burglary in Golders Green?  That seems rather odd to begin with.  Did she see herself as a female Arthur J Raffles or the like?  Why did she hide the loot in her home as it was obvious that the police would look there?  What was the episode with the card and the fire about?

Taking Isabella forward a few years to the Second World War, would she have changed?  Who like others would have done her bit and helped to dig in during the capital’s darkest hours.  Or was she involved in the flourishing black market?  The answers to these questions are open and will remain so.

Until yesterday I was not even aware that Isabella Brown existed.  It was not the intention of the person who removed the cutting from the newspaper to exhibit the report of Isabella’s crime.  This unknown person removed the cutting for posterity thats all.  He or she must have loved the works of Rupert Brooke and just added the cutting to the book as a record of the event.

This was the book that I found in the Arcade eighty-five years later.  What they did unintentionally, was to include a detailed report of Isabella’s crimes.  It was a trick of chance, but an interesting one and is the reason I am writing this short article.  I like what Voltaire said on the subject;

Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.

If Isabella had not committed her crimes, then she would have not attracted column inches in the newspaper.  It was by chance that the editor of this unknown newspaper approved the report of her crime.

Which was to be found exactly on the reverse of the report about Rupert Brooke.

It was by chance that the cutting was removed and placed in to the book all those years ago.  Where it has remained to this day.

It was by chance that I found this book (it was hidden by many others) and that the cutting fell out attracting my attention.  Due to my rather busy schedule, I had not planned to be in Hungerford that day but at the last minute things changed so I had a little free time.  It was all down to chance.

If like me you like finding cuttings in a book,  Do as I did, look on the reverse side.  You never know what you are going to find.

Happy Hunting

Stewart Miller-Osborne

Hungerford Arcade every day sees all sorts of interesting objects come through the doors and this week, we have had the chance to pore over a fantastic 1891 volume, Bacon’s Complete Atlas of the World from 1891.  Full of beautiful and detailed maps from around the world, facts and figures, it is a real snapshot of life in 1891, well before the First World War.  It captures a world view at the end of an era and is full of the spirit of discovery.

The information, accuracy and artistry of the atlas is amazing, and also an education – for example, you can see a contemporary view of the Austria-Hungary territory at that time.  There are also lots of fascinating and unexpected facts.

The ‘Diagram shewing the relative strengths of Armies on a war footing for the Chief Countries of the World’ has Russia in the lead with 2,151,000 Men – with the United States straggling in the bottom of the table with only 28,000 men!  You can also find out about national debt, exports/imports, snowfall -the list goes on.

We often see many items of geographical interest coming through Hungerford Arcade – check out our extensive book section, or look out for rarer items like globes, sextants – and of course, more atlases!