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June 2020 June 2020

and this was a great chance to cash in on that fact and make some money in
OBITUARIES whatever way you could. Some of the people living on the hill sold refreshments
and also made a small charge as Cyril Cheeseman recalls to park bikes in the
safety of their premises.
He left school aged 14 and had a succession of jobs until the war
broke out and he became a highly skilled “Fitter & Turner” at a Fred McDonald told Susan that there were many oddities at the Fair such as a
factory repairing machinery for the Aircraft industry. The men worked five two headed sheep and a bearded lady. Both Lenard Skinner and Ed House recall
and a half days, did Fire Watching at night, and Home Guard duties at that one of the Fairs in the 1940’s was cancelled due to the rain fall and was
weekends. His unit manned the Anti-Aircraft Rocket Launchers, called the “Z subsequent flooded out.
Batteries”. They fired 64 high explosive rockets at one time, so it was no
wonder that his hearing was very poor in later life. Len Presslee on the left and Sam
Cleall on the right Dick Knight is also in
After the war he went to “Lend a hand on the Land”, a scheme to get the image he took over as Shepherd
people out of the cities to help Farmers for a couple of weeks with the from Mont Cheeseman. John Warren
harvests. He enjoyed this so much that he gave up his well paid job in the sent a photo of some ornaments that
factory and travelled round the countryside from job to job, repairing tractors were said to have been won at the
and farm machinery, and doing anything that he fancied. Eventually in 1955 Fair in the presence of Thomas Hardy
he was working on the Cooling Towers at Tilbury on the Thames when he saw on the shooting
the Cruise Liners going up and down the River Thames, and fancied seeing Gallery; also Di

the world. Phillips gave a
photo of a very
He went to the shipping agents in London to try to get a job on board, but
impressive vase
they told him that he could only have a job if he joined the Merchant Navy.
t h a t w a s
He asked them if he could join the Merchant Navy, but they told him he had purchased from Woodbury Hill Fair.
to have a job first!! He went back to them, asking the same question for
several weeks until they gave in and found him the lowest job they could, From the records it would seem that the last fair was in 1951
which was washing up! After a few weeks of that he showed the managers and there have not been any other fairs held since on this
how they could save money by reducing the amount of broken crockery that location.
ensued when the ship rolled. This led to one promotion after another until he
became a First Class Steward! He travelled the world and had great stories to Alison Bennett
tell of his adventures in foreign lands.
After 3 years of this he decided to settle down back in Birmingham with his DIGITAL HOTLINE
Mother, Sister and 2 brothers, but before he did so, he spent 6 months walking
round Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, with just a pack on his back and a good
pair of boots. He then became a postman and kept on walking!! He retired If there is anyone out there who has been
at 65, and spent his time working on his garden and allotments, and helping abruptly forced into using new technology to
people he had met as their postman. keep in touch and you are feeling out of your
depth, help is at hand.
When his last surviving brother, Jim, developed
dementia he had to sell their house and they both The number to call is 01305 – 221000 and ask for
moved into a care home. I was living in Droitwich the digital hotline. It's open 9 – 5, Monday to
Spa in Worcestershire at the time and I told him that if Friday.
he was left on his own he could come and live with
me. He said, “Why would I want to move to a dump This link explains more about it [https://news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/2020/03/27/
digital-champions-ready-to-help/](https://news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/2020/03/27/
like Droitwich? The only place I would move to is
Dorset.” This was not remotely likely for me at the digital-champions-ready-to-help/)

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