Box People and Places
Latest Issue 30 Winter 2020-21 
  • This Issue
    • Rudloe History
    • Roman Mosaics in Box
    • Drewetts and Bassetts
    • Hatt House
    • Leslie Bence
    • Bill Peter
    • Odee After Maisie
    • Crane 57
    • Guyana and Box
    • Kingsdown Residents
    • Ashley Farm
    • Cricket Club Part 2
    • Land Girl Remembers
    • Historic Tour of Box
    • The Boxfields Bungalows
    • Remembering Dr Jim
    • Bullocks of Melksham
  • Northeys
    • Early Family
    • World of the Northeys
    • Unpaid Bill: Smith & Northey
    • Family Tree
    • George Wilbraham
    • Life in Box
    • George Edward
    • Safe & Steady Son
    • Army Life
    • Theatrical Events
    • Rolls-Royce Pioneer
    • Northey Donkey Cart
    • Other Children
    • Later Family
    • Selling Up
    • Northey Legacy
  • Previous
    • Issue 29 - Darkest Hour
    • Issue 28 - VE Day
    • Issue 27 - Northey
    • Issue 26 - Heritage Trail
    • Earlier Issues 1 - 25 >
      • Issue 25 - Slave Owners
      • Issue 24 - Highwaymen
      • Issue 23 - Georgian
      • Issue 22 - War Memorial
      • Issue 21 - Childhood 1949-59
      • Issue 20 - Box Home Guard
      • Issue 19 - Outbreak WW2
      • Issue 18 - Building Bargates
      • Issue 17 - Railway Changes
      • Issue 16 - Quarries
      • Issue 15 - Rail & Quarry
      • Issue 14 - Civil War
      • Issue 13: Box Revels
      • Issue 12 - Where You Live
      • Issue 11 - Tudor & Stuart
      • Issue 10 - End of Era 1912
      • Issue 9 - Health & Leisure
      • Issue 8 - Farming & Rural
      • Issue 7 - Manufacturing
      • Issue 6 - Celebrations
      • Issue 5 - Victorian Centre
      • Issue 4 - Slump after WW1
      • Issue 3 - Great War 1914-18
      • Issue 2 - 1950s & 1960s
      • Issue 1 - 1920s
    • Index By Author
    • Partner Sites & Book Reviews
    • Currency Converter
  • People
  • Places
  • General
  • Series
    • Box School Series >
      • Box Charity School
      • Formation of Box Schools
      • Schools WW1 to WW2
      • Box Schools, 1920s
      • Boys' School, 1927
      • Evacuee Schoolboy 1941
      • Box School 1945-83
      • Class of 1954
    • Box Farms >
      • Weavern Farm and Mill
      • Old Jockey Farm
      • Hill House Farm
      • Coles Farm
    • Box Library Project
    • NATS Trails >
      • Heritage Trails 2019
      • Conservation Areas
      • Box NATS Trails 2018
      • Alcombe and Shockerwick
      • Mills on Box Brook
      • Saxon Footpaths
      • New History Trails 2017
      • Roman Road
      • Box Hill Trail
      • Georgian Middlehill
      • History Trails 2016
      • Mad House
      • Thomas Railway
      • Market Place Origins
    • Prehistory >
      • Kingsdown's Menhir Secrets
    • Roman >
      • Early History Hoard
      • Roman Road Finds
      • Ancient Discovery
    • Early Medieval
    • Feudal >
      • Magna Carta in Box
      • Monk's Tale
      • Norman Conquest of Box
      • Tracing Bartholomew Bigod
      • When it Rained and Rained
    • Late Medieval
    • Tudor & Stuart >
      • Box in Civil War 1642 - 51
      • Wolf Hall and Box
      • Marsh Family
      • People during Civil War
      • Original Box Revels
      • Tudor Local Government
      • Ordinary People
      • Religion in Box, 1475-1660
      • Where You Live in 1626 >
        • Ashley
        • Central Box
        • Ditteridge
        • Hatt, Old Jockey and Blue Vein
        • Hazelbury
        • Henley and Washwells
        • Kingsdown
        • Middlehill
        • Rudloe
      • Hugh Speke Shaped Box
      • Walter Bushnell
      • Reformation in Box, 1535
      • Ten Tudor & Stuart Mansions
      • Death at Thomas à Becket >
        • For Whom Box Bell Tolled
      • Tudor & Stuart Timeline
      • John Aubrey's Box
    • Georgian >
      • Napoleon versus Box
      • Revolutionary Times
      • Coaches in 1830
      • Agricultral Census 1803
      • Tithe Apportionment
      • Slavery Families
      • Mullins Family, Schoolmasters
      • Box Churchyard
      • Sheridan's Duel
      • Tree of Life at Middlehill
      • Box's Highwayman
      • 1752: Very Odd Year
      • Witches, Quakers and Chapels
      • The New Road, 1761
      • Vulgarity in Box
      • Rebuilding the Village
      • Speke Family
      • Georgian People
      • Georgian Timeline
    • Rail & Quarry >
      • Railway Men Remembered
      • Old Clay Pipe
      • Recalling Box Quarries >
        • Oily Series
      • Quarrymen and their Families
      • Built in Stoneyards
      • Quarries in 2000
      • Single Ticket
      • Trainspotting in Box
      • Light Through Box Tunnel >
        • More Light on Tunnel
        • Brunel Myth
        • Sunrise at Box Tunnel
      • Marl at Middlehill
      • James Moodey
      • Railway Staff in Box
      • Impact of Railways
      • Vivash Follow-up
      • Underground Quarries
      • Lambert's Stoneyard
      • Cranes at Work
      • Railway Policeman
      • Terror in Tunnels
      • Vivash Family
      • Railway Buildings and More
      • Why Railways Came to Box
      • Box in 1830
      • Building Box Tunnel
      • Boxing and Quarrymen >
        • More Jem Mace
      • Clift Quarry Steam Loco
      • Timeline 1830 - 1870
      • Trial Shaft
      • Underbridges
    • Late Victorian >
      • Edwardian Love Story
      • Northey Estate Sale 1912-1923
      • Box Fete & Friendly Societies
      • Methodism in Box
      • George Reeves, Quarryman Ganger
      • Dipsomania in Box
      • 1870 Start of Era
      • Victorian Farming
      • Ashley Leigh
      • Steam Mill and Cottages
      • Class Division
      • Grove Inn
      • Box House
      • Celebrations >
        • Jubilee Mug 1887
      • Parish Magazine History
      • Postcards of Box >
        • Postcard Solved
      • Skeate, Speck and Ponting
      • 1899 A Year of Festivities
      • Valens Terrace
      • Village Outings >
        • Excitement for Outings
        • Cycling Craze
      • Timeline 1840 to now
      • Local Pubs
    • Great War >
      • Photos 2014
      • Cecil Lambert's War
      • VAD Working Parties
      • After the War
      • Box School Research
      • School WW1 Projects
      • List of Servicemen
      • Embroideries
      • In Memoriam
      • Never Forgotten
      • Where They Lived
      • Christmas 1913 and 1914
      • Children in WW1
      • Neighbour Against Neighbour
      • Home & Far Away
      • Finding Private Hall
      • Box Before the War
    • Inter War Years >
      • Shops in 1920s
      • Fascism
      • Sports Day 1931
    • WW2 Index >
      • World War 2 Scrapbook
      • Box in 1943
      • Aircraft Factories
      • D Day Implications, 1944
      • Peace
      • VE Day 1945
      • After the War
      • Epitaph to WW2
      • Wartime Memories
      • Wartime People
      • Bath Blitz 1942
      • Invasion Threat 1942
      • Children in War
      • Air Raids on Box
      • Military Camps
      • Royal Visits
      • Your WW2 Tributes
      • Dunkirk Evacuation
      • Box Home Guard >
        • Home Guard Names
      • Life at Home
      • Evacuee Children
      • Village & Ammunitions Depot
      • Memories of WW2
      • In Service at Home
      • At War
      • Lead up to War
      • Servicemen & Women
      • Timeline 1939-45
      • VE Day Remembered
      • Dennis Moss >
        • Hazelbury Air Crash
        • Air Crash Wreath
        • Flight Crew Lost
        • Graham Brayshaw
      • Evacuated From Belgium
      • WW2 Resting Place
      • Sherman Tank Disaster
    • Modern >
      • Modern Art
      • Centre of Commerce
      • Shoe Sculpture >
        • Stiletto Sculpture
      • Characters in 1940s
      • Teenage Rebels, 1960s
      • Swingin Sixties or Not?
      • A Box Childhood
      • Box People from 1950s
      • Shops in 1950 Box
      • Box in 1950s
      • Village in 1950s
      • Summer of 1959
      • reCollections
      • Residents After the War
      • Coach Trips 1950s
      • Never Had It So Good !
  • Contact
    • Blog
    • Q&A
​Bernard and Hilda Lovell:
71 Years Wed

Julia Romain (nee Lovell) and Cliff Lovell
Photos Julia Romain and Cliff Lovell
​December 2019
 
Bernard Lovell (1922-2017) was at the centre of Box’s evolution from World War II austerity. He took part in sports activities during this period and he was the main recorder of the making of modern Box as the local newspaper correspondent. Hilda Butt (1924-2017) was the local farm girl who delivered milk to the Ashley RAF base where Bernard was stationed. They married shortly after the end of the war and became one of the most popular Box families. This article was contributed by their children, Julia and Cliff.

On their Wedding Day  26  December 1945
Picture
Picture

​Proud Welshman
Bernard was proud of his Welsh heritage but was actually named after an Australian jockey. Apparently, his mum wanted to name him Cecil but his father recalled reading a newspaper article about the popular Australian jockey Bernard Carslake and he preferred the name Bernard. So, their first son born 5th June 1922 at Snowdon Street Caernarfon was christened Bernard. He was later joined by a brother Tom and sister Enid.

From the local primary school, he won a scholarship to attend the Caernarfon County School and excelled in his favourite subjects of literacy, numeracy, art and sport. Bernard represented both his school and Caernarfon town at football and cricket.

Left: At home in Caernarfon with Tom and Enid
Below Left: 
Caernarfon County School football team 1939-40 and
Below Right: Caernarfon County School cricket team 1938


Finishing school, his forte for administration and clerical work beckoned and he secured his first job in the offices of the Welsh Food Ministry before being called up for war service in 1941.
Picture
Picture
Marriage to Hilda Butt
His first posting was to the small RAF supplies base in the hamlet of Ashley, Box where he met the local farmer’s daughter and land girl, Hilda Butt, who delivered daily fresh milk to the base and won his heart by smuggling Bath buns and extra milk into the camp for his evening cocoa. They married on Boxing Day 1945 and made their first home in rooms at Ashley Farm, where Hilda continued to work for her father on the farm.

Hilda was the younger daughter of William George and Florence Mabel Butt, tenant farmers of Ashley Farm.


Bernard and Hilda Christmas 1946
Picture
Sadly, Florence died when Hilda was 3 years old and her aunt, Eva Butt, moved from Kingsdown to Ashley Farm to care for the family. William remarried when Hilda was aged 7 and his new wife, Violet Primrose Comm from Bath, excelled as both step mother and respected farmer’s wife.
Picture
Tom, Bernard, Hilda and Enid in 1945
Life in Box
After the war, dad returned to the Ministry of Food in Bath and later transferred to The Royal Naval Stores at Copenacre. A work colleague at the Ministry played football for Peasedown who, on one particular day, were short of a player and asked dad to make up the numbers. They must have been impressed because he was soon playing regularly in the first team and an all-expenses-paid taxi would be booked to collect and return him to Ashley every Saturday. Dad also helped on Ashley Farm and kept the farm records and accounts in his meticulous detail and handwriting. The Miss Skidmore sisters of Ashley Leigh bred and showed prize goats and dad also kept their goat books. His reimbursement was a mug of cocoa made from goats’ milk.
 
In the winter of 1955, we all moved to 2 Ben Cross but we continued to help on the farm and on Sunday mornings, before 6am, dad and I would walk over to Ashley for early milking. On dry summer mornings we often took a shortcut by climbing over a 5-bar gate on the main A4, carefully negotiated the railway bridge and steep bank and finally crawled under the fence into the field that led into the farmyard. Valuable minutes saved! However, we must have been spotted because the Station Master had a quiet word with dad and pointed out that we were trespassing on railway property and suggested we walk the long way round in future.
 
On another occasion, whilst pursuing dad’s love of field mushrooms we diverted from our usual forage towards Ditteridge and set off for Drewett’s Mill. This field looks promising said dad so we climbed over the 5-bar gate into mushroom heaven. The field was packed with succulent whoppers and just half a dozen filled our container. Bacon and fresh mushrooms for breakfast. Yummy. Well the lure of that field got the better of us, so the following week we set off with two shopping baskets and filled both to the brim. That morning we shared our bounty with all the neighbours. Yummy breakfasts all round. Inevitably, word got out and the next we knew Farmer Ody was knocking on our door. Apparently, the mushrooms were a specially cultivated crop destined for market and he didn’t mind us taking the odd half dozen but two shopping baskets was a bit much. Of course, dad offered to pay but he saw the funny side and we returned to our usual Ditteridge route.
 
Living a good mile out of the village, as we did, meant making a lot of our own entertainment. Farmer Goulstone was very accommodating and on summer evenings, after the hay had been cleared, allowed dad to organise games for the small Ben Cross community, cricket and rounders proving the most popular. Anyone could join in and the rules were very elastic but we were all outside enjoying one another’s company, getting fresh air and exercise but above all having fun.
Outings
If I recall correctly, the Box Sunday School outing took place on the Tuesday of Whitsun week and at least two coaches – either Harry Miller or Brownings – left the village for Weston-Super-Mare packed with excitable kids and parents. Come rain or shine our large group from Ben Cross, Ditteridge and Ashley set up camp on Weston beach and of course dad was chief games master and sandcastle builder. Dad loved to have all the kids involved with building the most ornate sandcastles complete with towers, turrets, bridges, battlements and moats. Complete mayhem but wonderful times.
 
Every other year, we travelled to Caernarfon for two weeks in August to visit our Welsh grandparents. This involved a change at five stations, a train marathon that mum called journey to the end of the world. Luggage was kept to a minimum as we had to transport a large hold-all packed by Nan Butt containing fresh farm goodies for the Welsh relatives. Fruit, veg, butter, a dressed chicken, pork joint and at least two trays of eggs all securely wrapped and packed for the journey. At each station change, as he herded us to the next platform, was dad’s cry of Mind the eggs. Those eggs arrived in better condition than we did after such a long day. In my childhood naivety, I recall asking my granddad if they had any eggs in Wales, to which he replied Oh yes but there’re not like Mrs Butt’s Ashley Farm eggs.
 
One of dad’s favourite sayings was It’s not what you know, it’s who you know and this was proved correct on one Caernarfon holiday. Grandad was treating us to a trip on the Snowdon railway. At the Llanberis station he was chatting with the engine driver and soon Cliff was being ushered along the platform to enjoy the journey up front with the engine driver. Every young boy’s dream. As you’ve guessed, granddad knew the driver! 
Another of dad’s favourite sayings was to the grandchildren and great grandchildren if handing them any cash. He would always say Spend a little, save a lot, to which the kids replied No granddad, spend a lot, save a little.

​Later holidays saw mum and dad setting off with their best friends, George (
Jock) and Mary Kerr. Asked where they were heading this time was usually answered by just one word: Wales, Scotland, Norfolk or Cornwall.
 
They would load Jock’s car to the roof, mostly with food and goodies, especially sweets, and of course find room for the primus. Every holiday they set off like a group of excited kids on their next adventure, exploring the British Isles.

With Jock and Mary Kerr on holiday in 1976
Picture
Concusion
Dad was secretary of the Royal British Legion, Box School Parent-Teacher Association and the Box Boys’ Club. He was also a Sunday School teacher at Ditteridge Church and, for many years, treasurer, where he earned the nick name of The Chancellor because of his tight rein on the purse strings. His love of the written word came to the fore when he was persuaded to become the Box News Correspondent for The Chippenham News and Bath Chronicle in 1962. In tandem with his day job, he carried out this role for 20 years, reporting on all aspects of village life. In 1973 he had the task of reporting on his own election as chairman of Box Rovers and modestly described himself as one-time player of the Rovers’ successful post-war side.[1​] He enjoyed meeting and talking to people and being involved. ​He also submitted articles to the National Civil Service Monthly Magazine relating to items of interest and social events happening at Copenacre.
 
Bernard died in 2017, aged 95. Box residents who knew him have their own personal memories of this wonderful, generous man with his unique sense of humour and sincere and caring nature. His delight in Box was partly due to Hilda who gave him the connection to local people and the security which they both needed. Married for 71 years, they were devoted to one another, always together. Hilda also died in 2017. She was the homemaker: always constant, fire lit and meal on the table. She was the quiet one, the opposite to Bernard’s more boisterous nature. She kept his feet on the ground and decisions were always made jointly.
Reference
[1] Chippenham News, 17 August 1973
Back to Issue 27