UPDATE No 4

POTTERIES

The following comment appears in the November issue of the Edmonton Hundred Historical Society Newsletter amongst "Gleanings from Local Newspapers" for November 1936:- "Messrs. S. South & Sons, garden pot manufacturers of White Hart Lane, Tottenham had a strike on their hands. A dispute arose over the faulty manufacture of plates in which flower pots were placed. An employee refused to smash a complete batch of the supposedly faulty plates since he claimed that not all were faulty. As the man was employed on a piece-work basis, the destruction of the whole batch meant a significant loss of earnings. The employee was 'finished up' as a result and 18 fellow workers - half of the work force - came out on strike" Joyce remembers the strike. Brenda has provided a cutting from the London Evening News for 8 April 1947 which carries an interview with her father, Charles, (son of Samuel(2)) commenting on the cuts in the coal supply then being experienced:- "We are allocated less than ten tons a week - enough for two days' work. We cannot carry on at that rate. We were just beginning to get started again after the war-time close-down and our staff are returning from the Services to find that we cannot give them a full week's work. The demand for flower-pots by nurserymen for fruit and vegetable-growing is unprecedented but we cannot supply a fraction of it. It takes four to five years to train a man and only one in four usually 'makes the grade'. If our men are forced to take other jobs, their years of training will have been wasted."

RIVER HOUSE

The parcels of land at Clay Hill conveyed in the 1881 Deed of Enfranchisement (see Update No 2) were in the shape of an inverted triangle with (on present day references) the northern perimeter extending from the Ash path east along the north side of Devonshire Hill Lane continuing down Mayfair Gardens to the Great Cambridge Road, turning south to the junction with Compton Crescent then bearing north west following Compton Crescent (the original route of White Hart lane), past Piper's Court, alongside the Ash path to rejoin the northern perimeter.

CHARLES SOUTH

Charles (see above) was the fifth son of Samuel(1) and was the traveller and salesman for the Potteries. In a letter to Hilda in March 1977, describing the history of the Nursery industry in the Lea Valley, Jim (son of Samuel(2)) reminisced:- ".............. I was driving Uncle [Charles] around and using him as a 'technical adviser" to grower customers with problems. He always earned his outing. He caused me a youthful moment of embarrassment at the Chelsea Show the year 'Golden Gleams' were launched with fanfares, by staring at the display, pushing back his bowler and saying in a 'stage' aside:- 'It's only a bloody Nasturtium after all!'"

JOHN SOUTH

Maud Hickson - daughter of John South and Maud Borley - recalls that because of the number of  "Mauds" the family described them as:- Our Maud daughter of Samuel(1) Sam's Maud wife of Samuel(2) John's Maud wife of John (Son of Samuel(1)) Maud's little Maudie Maud Hickson (daughter of John)

PIERCE ARROW

John South (third son of Samuel(1)) lived at Piper's Court and was the engineer at the Potteries also with a responsibility for cartage. He drove the first motor lorry - a Pierce Arrow.

NEW ZEALAND

Wendy Moses has produced a magnificent hand written family tree of the Souths' to date which is as much a work of art as of record. Judith Cranfield and Wendy (grand-daughter and great great grand-daughter respectively of Joseph South and Mary-Anne Dutton) are proposing to write a family history of the Souths'. They are providing interesting information about our antipodean history which will be included in future editions of the Update. In her last letter Judith sends Best Wishes to her South friends in the UK.

RECENT MATERIAL

Gladys Samuel(2) caricture photographs Jim reminiscences Wendy Moses family tree information on Dutton family

A HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND  PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR TO  ALL OUR READERS   KLB 11/96