大象传媒

I鈥檝e a lot of memories of the river in Bewdley. Like going along the river bank by Winterdyne, along by where I eventually played football for Bewdley Comrades, there is a lookout post built into the rock. We always said it was full of jewels because it was glass inside this lookout post. That lookout post was there from years ago when they used to watch the travellers coming up on the boats from Stourport to see if they were up to any misbehaviour. People say 鈥漌ell I鈥檝e never seen it there鈥�, but I say 鈥淚t is there because I鈥檝e been in it myself, as a boy, up on Winterdyne鈥�.

And when, as boys, we used to jump off Bewdley Bridge on the bandstand side, not the Garden Cinema side, because the tide was different there than it is on the front. So we never jumped off that side because it鈥檚 bottomless. It鈥檚 a very dangerous river, the Severn. It鈥檚 got to be the most dangerous river in England, because there is that many pot holes. We used to jump off the middle of the bridge for a ha鈥檖enny or a penny. We used to have a share out. Bill Cordwell was a great friend of mine; he pulled me out one day because I had the cramp. We used to jump in the middle, and used to swim down to where you could wade across and walk up the road. But this time I went down and I swam directly across where the tunnel is and that is where the cold water hit me. It was a cold undertow. I had the cramp and I went down twice and Bill caught hold of me. I never did it again.

That is why, if I go to the baths, I can鈥檛 have people around me. We were going down the River Severn as boys on a petrol tank. We thought it was a Spitfire tank; it was aluminium. There must have been six of us going down the rapid, straight down the river and we got by what we called 鈥淭he Bather鈥�, which was a particular area where people on Sundays used to come down. It was opposite, on the Stourport Road, where the school is, down the bank, and they used to sit there and have picnics on a Sunday afternoon. It was called 鈥淭he Bather鈥� and it鈥檚 very deep there and we were in the middle. Of course one of them tipped it up, and we all went in, and as I came up for air, so this tank hit me and I went down again. So I have this fear of being enclosed in. So that was another episode in my young life.

But there is a place there, further down the river where there is a ledge, and it only comes up to your knees and you can walk straight across. There is a particular ledge, but if you step either side you go down and you wouldn鈥檛 touch the bottom. I鈥檝e often thought it would be interesting, if they were to drain it, what you would see.

Like when we went along the riverbank at the end of flooding (because there was always a big flood) and we used to go looking into the rubbish, like beachcombing, and we used to go from Bewdley to Blackstone picking up loads of stuff. It was remarkable. Once, when we鈥檇 got as far as Blackstone and into the willow trees we were picking 鈥済oosegogs鈥� from the trees, because when the flood was on loads of stuff used to come down and nest in the willow trees. People would never believe gooseberries growing in willow trees!

The stuff we found beachcombing was remarkable. When you see all these things coming down the river and they hit Blackstone Rock they just disappear, because there is a big cave underneath there. I know there was an American; he died there. He jumped off Blackstone Rock. He鈥檇 had a drop to drink, to all accounts, so the story goes, and he dived off the top and they never found him except later on he came from underneath, because the current pulled him right under. Right opposite was a sandbank, well, that was our holiday. We used to sit on this sandbank and sunbathe on the river, and then we used to swim, the other side, not forward to the rock, the other side, watching the currents, because we knew about the current. You could swim right across the river, come back in, and just lay on the sand and we had some great sport there.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Joe Taylor for the CSV Action Desk at 大象传媒 Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Ben Jenkins and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

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