Life in the Langport area: the Lisk and Overd families
Trevor Lisk has been researching his family history, much of which involves Langport. He has agreed to share it with us, and what he has written is reproduced here. If anyone has any information, photographs or stories they would like to add, please contact us.
Trevor Lisk's family story
The Early Years
Arthur Lisk and May Kathleen Lisk
Let’s start as early as I can with my grandfather on my father’s side.
My grandfather Arthur Ernest Lisk was born in Cardiff on 7th February 1902.
He moved at an early age to Glastonbury Somerset, I don’t really know the reason, but presume that his father found work in the footwear industry. It was only a short time in South Wales as his brother Cyril was born in Glastonbury a year later. He also had a sister Jessie.
I know he tried to join the army in the First World War but was found to be too young. There is a picture in a local paper which shows both Arthur and his father Ernest in a Discharged Soldiers football team, and the picture was taken in 1917/18.
He married May Kathleen Arnold (born 21st November 1903) at Wells Registry Office on 7th April 1923. The marriage certificate shows that his father was Ernest Lisk, a shoe factory hand, and that Arthur lived at 10, Orchard Terrace, Glastonbury, Somerset. Arthur was employed as a postman.
May’s father was Henry John Arnold, a general labourer, and she lived at 2, Beckery, Glastonbury, Somerset. They had two children Joan Margaret ( born 1923) and Robert Arnold (born 3rd June 1925) and both were born in Glastonbury, Somerset.
Arthur and May and their two children later moved to 49 Garden City, Langport, Somerset. I think this was around 1933 as there is a document showing Arthur starting as a postman in Taunton District that year. He was a postman in the Glastonbury district when he was married ten years earlier. In 1933 he started on a wage of 26 shilling and 6 pence a week that is £1.32p a week in today’s money! This was to be their family home for nearly the whole of their lives. They had a large garden where they grew their own vegetables
Their son Robert went to Huish Episcopi Council School North Street, Langport until he left at the age of fourteen. While he was there the school celebrated its Diamond Jubilee in 1936 as can be seen from the school magazine of that year.
Robert went on two school excursions 1937 to Exmoor and 1938 Windsor and London. Two souvenir guide books were produced for the excursions and they make interesting reading. Exmoor was by way of coach and London by way of train from Langport East Station, at the time Langport had two train stations, Langport East and Langport West, both were closed over the Beeching cuts in 1963.
Robert left school in 1939 and became a messenger boy within the postal service and after six months probation he was confirmed as a regular member of the messenger service.
Click on each image below to enlarge it and see the caption
Frederick and Ethel Overd
This is my mother’s side of the family.
Frederick Overd was born 22nd January 1905.
Ethel May Showers was born on 26th February 1903 in Hambridge Somerset. Ethel had two sisters and three brothers.
Frederick and Ethel married in April 1923. They had three children Cecil born 1923, Doris born 26th October 1928 and Philip born 1941.
Cecil and Doris spent their early years being brought up in a tied cottage on a farm at Stathe, Somerset. Fred being a labourer and Ethel doing cleaning and withy stripping.
My mother told me she was one of few girls in the area and generally had to play with boys one of her friends was Ned Sherrin, who went on to be a famous broadcaster, author and stage director.
Doris first attended Huish Episcopi School , North Street, Langport, and was allowed to ride her bicycle to the main Langport to Taunton Road,where she left her bicycle and walked the rest of the way. Before school she had to help her mother strip withies.
When Doris was due to take her eleven plus examination, their farm was cut off due to flooding for three months, because of this she had to take a special exam just for her which she passed. Her mother told that even if she passed she would not be able to go to grammar school due to the cost of the bus fares but when Doris was told she had passed and the headmaster told her to take the school bike and tell her mother who was working at Herds Hill.The first thing her mother asked was how she had got to her, and was not pleased that she had ridden a bike on the main road. The bus fares were found by my grandparents and Doris attended Bishop Fox’s Grammar School, Taunton.
At about this time the family had to move from their tied cottage due to my grandfather’s ill health. They moved to North Street, Drayton, Somerset. Fred and Ethel spent the rest of their lives here.
Click on an image below to enlarge it and see the caption
The War Years
The second world war started in 1939 and on 13/14th February 1943 a Wellington bomber and a Halifax bomber collided over Langport, the engine of the Halifax came down in the garden of my grandparents house at 49 Garden City, a soldier was sent to guard the fuel that was in the engine and he slept in the garden shed.
The Wellington’s pilot George Ashplant managed to land the plane at Westover Farm, Kingsbury Episcopi and was awarded a gallantry medal for his efforts. The Halifax crashed onto the flooded moor and all crew were killed.
In June 1942 Robert was appointed a temporary postman/messenger and in December 1943 he was appointed a postman starting on 30 shillings (£1.50 in today’s money).
On reaching the age of 18 Robert volunteered to join the Royal Air Force and received a welcome letter from the Air Ministry in 1943. Robert was to be a radio operator and went to wireless training school at Yatesbury, Wiltshire.
He could still remember morse code when I was learning it in 1971 when I joined the merchant navy.
Although he did say after finishing wireless school he thought he knew it all, and on his first flight over the Bay of Biscay a message had to be sent three times before he was able to read it.
After Robert completed his wireless training and conversion training he joined 576 Squadron at Fiskerton in Lincolnshire in April 1945.
He did not do many bombing raids as the war was coming to an end. The most famous raid he took part in was the bombing of Hitler’s summer retreat at Berchtesgaden. It took over eight hours there and back. After that it was supply dropping over Holland.
After the war ended he resumed his duties as a postman in Langport, Somerset.
Throughout the war years Arthur continued as a postman and they took in an evacuee Peter from London who was a similar age to Robert. Peter kept in touch long after the war, often visiting with his daughter Joselyn.
Fred and Ethel spent the war years working on the land in order to produce food. Cecil joined the Army. After the war Cecil moved to Manchester and lived there for the rest of his life.
After the War
Doris left school and went to work in the post office in Langport where she met her future husband. Robert ( Bob as he was commonly known) and Doris were married on 25th November 1950 at St Catherine’s Church, Drayton,Somerset. The service was officiated by the Reverend R W Philipson with the organ being played by Miss Stone.
Doris was given away by her brother Cecil, her father would not do this as he was too shy. She wore a turquoise blue crepe-de-chine dress with a white bouquet of chrysanthemums. Hazel Showers was the only bridesmaid and wore a pink crepe-de-chine dress and carried a bouquet of bronze chrysanthemums. The best man was Bob’s brother-in-law Ernest Eastment.
The reception for about forty guests was held at the schoolroom Drayton, Somerset. The gifts included an eight day chiming clock from the staff at Langport Post Office and a silver tea set from the crew of the Lancaster bomber. They went on a honeymoon to London.
Their first house together was a rented cottage in School Street, Drayton, Somerset. The cottage had a large garden at the front, in which Bob grew vegetables and flowers.
Their first son Trevor Robert was born 24thSeptember 1953 and their daughter Helen was born on 8th October 1957.
I first went to school at Drayton and there were only two classes in the school and I remember being taught in the big hall.
The cottage was not big enough for a family and Bob and Doris were offered a council house at Eastover, Langport, Somerset and in 1960 moved in.
I moved schools to Langport Infant and Primary School, my first teacher being Mrs Cox. The other teachers I remember to be Mrs William, Mr Scovel and headmaster Mr Coles.
I remember leaving Ethel and Fred’s on Boxing Day in 1962 when it started snowing and the snow laid on the ground until March. They scraped the snow and ice off the streets and dumped it opposite our house in Eastover and that didn’t melt until May 1963. That was the year with my father we walked over the north moor on the ice and I saw people skating on the River Parret.
I also have a memory of going on a motor boat ride across the north moor. I believe there used to be a boat builder opposite the primary school.
It was about this time that Ethel won a turkey in the Christmas bingo at the village hall, it was so big that it would not fit in the oven, so it was cooked in the ovens of the local bakery (Osmond’s) and delivered ready for dinner.
Bob continued to work at the post office in Langport and later was promoted to a Postman Higher Grade. This entailed sorting the mail for rounds and he had a walking round through Huish Episcopi, and down the Main Street of Langport.
Helen and I took part in Langport carnival several times whilst growing up. We have photos of the carnival with me in a musical costume and Helen on the decorated trike. I can also remember winning a prize dressed as a scarecrow.
In 1964 I moved from Primary school to secondary modern school, attending Huish Episcopi Secondary Modern.
Bob liked growing begonias and used to show them in annual Langport Flower Show which was held at Huish Secondary School. There was a group of other gardeners who all grew begonias, and competed against each other. Some of the names I remember are Cliff Knapp, Cyril Martin, and Walley Vile. Each year they all visited the begonia nurseries of Blackmore and Langdon at Bath.
When they moved to Langport, Doris worked at home, before getting a job as a receptionist at the local doctors.
Arthur Lisk continued to carry out his postal duties, his round covered Wearne Lane, Aller and outlying farms beyond Aller, which he would do on his bicycle.
Arthur would pick up prescriptions from outlying farms on his first delivery, take them to the chemist and return them on the second delivery. I sometimes met up with him during holidays and helped with rounds. When all post rounds were mechanised, Arthur was given special dispensation to continue using his bicycle for his rounds until he retired.
In 1966 Arthur was given an award sponsored by Cadburys chocolate, after being nominated by a member of the public, for his good deeds for people on his postal round. It was called the CDM (Cadbury Dairy Milk) medal.
Arthur retired in February 1967 after 46 years service and he received a letter of thanks from his local Member of Parliament John Peyton. The local people of Aller clubbed together and bought him a standard lamp and a rug.
In 1966 Bob and Doris had a big decision to make, the post office at Langport was going to be downgraded from a Crown office to an ordinary post office and therefore there was no need for a postman higher grade. Bob was going to have to move and they decided to move to Bristol as they thought this was best for their children.
The move to Bristol did not come without problems. First, where were they going to live? They lived in a council owned house at Langport, but transferring to a council house in Bristol was a non-starter as there were no houses available. Renting was expensive. So they decided to buy their first house.
This brought further problems as Bob was in his early forties by then and getting a mortgage was proving difficult. Eventually a mortgage was granted and they bought a house in Kingswood Bristol. We moved in on 23rd April 1967. Bob and Doris lived in this house most of the rest of their lives.
Bob continued to work in the Post Office until he retired in 1985. An entire career in the post office.
On retirement Bob and Doris planned their first big trip which was to Australia to visit his Lancaster bomber crew mates Jonny Hood and Bill Lea. This was Doris’s first flight abroad as all other holidays abroad had been by coach. This was also Bob’s last holiday as he developed cancer and died in August 1989.
Arthur and May continued to live in Garden City in retirement with Arthur doing all the chores. They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1973 and the diamond anniversary in 1983.
In 1983 May had a fall, from which she never really recovered and she died on 28th December 1983. After May died, my grandfather Arthur didn’t cope very well on his own and moved to Bristol to live with his son Bob, but he eventually moved into a care home where he lived happily until he on 10th September 1999 at the ripe old age of ninety seven.
Ethel and Fred continued to live in Drayton. Fred worked for the Water Board riding to work on his bicycle with his tools tied to his crossbar. Ethel still worked as a cleaner and at Christmas preparing chickens and turkeys for the dinner table.
Ethel and Fred celebrated their golden wedding anniversary at their home with their family in April 1973.
Frederick Overd suffered from ill health for a number of years and died on 5th July 1974.
Ethel continued to live in Drayton and was always fun to visit. My wife asked how do you manage with no street lights when walking home one night in the dark. Ethel replied ‘don’t need those when you have the moon and stars’.
Ethel became ill when visiting her daughter Doris in Bristol and died 16th March 1987.
Doris made a good life for herself after her husband died, taking up playing bowls and was able to win a few competitions. Doris lived in Kingswood until 2016 when she developed end vascular dementia and had to move into a care home in Glastonbury. She died on 31st July 2019.
Click on an image below to enlarge it and see the caption:
