The Timberscombe Friendly Society with St. Petrock's Church in the Background
Title
The Timberscombe Friendly Society with St. Petrock's Church in the Background
Subject
Description
A photograph by Alfred Vowles of members of the Timberscombe Friendly Society, posing in the midst of their annual Timberscombe Club Walk. The year is undated but the photograph would have been taken on either the first Tuesday (1) or first Thursday (2) in June, when all the healthy society members that lived within a 15 mile radius of the village met in the morning, usually at Bickham Manor, to begin a march to the centre of Timberscombe (3).
A 10:00 AM breakfast would traditionally be held at St. Petrocks Church (4). What the gentlemen (and it was all men) paid for their breakfast went to the Friendly Society to help care for the ill and insane, organise burials when needed, offer loans, arrange pensions when necessary and to provide the services of cooperative banking for locals that might need financial aid. These gentlemen were an earlier version of a credit union. Doubtlessly all of them knew that one day they could be a recipient.
Friendly Societies arose throughout Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries (5). By 1892, 80% of male industrial workers were members of such societies (6). The Timberscombe Friendly Society began in 1827 (7). These gentlemen (and one boy) appear to be on the Glebe, when it was the church's Rectory Farm. The tower of St. Petrock's is behind the group to the right. The participants are carrying staffs, richly adorned with flowers, foliage and ribbons. The gentleman in the front row, on the left edge of the photograph, also looks to be on the left of a group assembled at the church's North Porch in another photograph at SP-109--but perhaps not in the same year. His staff is different and in general, the clothing in the photograph seen here may be of a slightly later date.
Besides breakfast, a village fair would usually be on offer and sports would be played at the club field (8). Visits would be made to The Lion --and before it closed in 1915, to the Rose and Crown, Timberscombe's other pub (9). Money raised at any of these stops likely benefited the Friendly Society's goals as well,
By 1910 Winston Churchill was advocating a national unemployment insurance. In 1911, a National Health Insurance Bill was introduced into the House of Commons by David Lloyd George (10). With this and other nationwide pension programs, the Friendly Societies became less necessary. While Friendly Societies still exist and still aid, the last Timberscombe Club Walk was held in 1939 (11) and the Timberscombe Friendly Society disbanded shortly after World War II (12).
James Henderson, a Churchwarden at St. Petrocks and his brother, Edward Henderson, Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1960 to 1975, wrote a private publication, "THE VILLAGE OF TIMBERSCOMBE AND ITS CHURCH", publishing it in 1955, well in the memory of the Timberscombe Club Walks. They lament this "one old custom" was allowed to collapse "even though the original object for which the money was collected no longer exists". There would always be other good purposes that could be aided in Timberscombe but almost more than that, the Hendersons seem to miss those "village gala days", as a loss to "so much of the colour of our national life".
The photographer of this photograph, and of many other Club Walks, was Alfred Vowles, born in 1882 at Stone Allerton, close to Axbridge. As a young man he worked in London as a clerk for the the counting house of the Eastman Kodak Company, which may or may not have anything to do with his later career. He returned to Somerset in 1904 and answered an advertisement as an "assistant to take photographs in Somerset". By April 1910, Vowles was on his own, beginning in Porlock and around 1927, opened his studio in The Avenue, Minehead . Until the later 1940's, there hardly seems to be a Club Walk, a Hunt, a Jubilee or a West Somerset village he did not record" (13).
A copy and an original postcard of this photograph were donated respectively by Bernadette Brunker, of School House, Timberscombe in 2020 and Tim Collins of Whitelackington near Illminster, Somerset in 2021.
A 10:00 AM breakfast would traditionally be held at St. Petrocks Church (4). What the gentlemen (and it was all men) paid for their breakfast went to the Friendly Society to help care for the ill and insane, organise burials when needed, offer loans, arrange pensions when necessary and to provide the services of cooperative banking for locals that might need financial aid. These gentlemen were an earlier version of a credit union. Doubtlessly all of them knew that one day they could be a recipient.
Friendly Societies arose throughout Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries (5). By 1892, 80% of male industrial workers were members of such societies (6). The Timberscombe Friendly Society began in 1827 (7). These gentlemen (and one boy) appear to be on the Glebe, when it was the church's Rectory Farm. The tower of St. Petrock's is behind the group to the right. The participants are carrying staffs, richly adorned with flowers, foliage and ribbons. The gentleman in the front row, on the left edge of the photograph, also looks to be on the left of a group assembled at the church's North Porch in another photograph at SP-109--but perhaps not in the same year. His staff is different and in general, the clothing in the photograph seen here may be of a slightly later date.
Besides breakfast, a village fair would usually be on offer and sports would be played at the club field (8). Visits would be made to The Lion --and before it closed in 1915, to the Rose and Crown, Timberscombe's other pub (9). Money raised at any of these stops likely benefited the Friendly Society's goals as well,
By 1910 Winston Churchill was advocating a national unemployment insurance. In 1911, a National Health Insurance Bill was introduced into the House of Commons by David Lloyd George (10). With this and other nationwide pension programs, the Friendly Societies became less necessary. While Friendly Societies still exist and still aid, the last Timberscombe Club Walk was held in 1939 (11) and the Timberscombe Friendly Society disbanded shortly after World War II (12).
James Henderson, a Churchwarden at St. Petrocks and his brother, Edward Henderson, Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1960 to 1975, wrote a private publication, "THE VILLAGE OF TIMBERSCOMBE AND ITS CHURCH", publishing it in 1955, well in the memory of the Timberscombe Club Walks. They lament this "one old custom" was allowed to collapse "even though the original object for which the money was collected no longer exists". There would always be other good purposes that could be aided in Timberscombe but almost more than that, the Hendersons seem to miss those "village gala days", as a loss to "so much of the colour of our national life".
The photographer of this photograph, and of many other Club Walks, was Alfred Vowles, born in 1882 at Stone Allerton, close to Axbridge. As a young man he worked in London as a clerk for the the counting house of the Eastman Kodak Company, which may or may not have anything to do with his later career. He returned to Somerset in 1904 and answered an advertisement as an "assistant to take photographs in Somerset". By April 1910, Vowles was on his own, beginning in Porlock and around 1927, opened his studio in The Avenue, Minehead . Until the later 1940's, there hardly seems to be a Club Walk, a Hunt, a Jubilee or a West Somerset village he did not record" (13).
A copy and an original postcard of this photograph were donated respectively by Bernadette Brunker, of School House, Timberscombe in 2020 and Tim Collins of Whitelackington near Illminster, Somerset in 2021.
Creator
Alfred Vowles
Date
possibly 1930s
Contributor
Language
English
Identifier
The Timberscombe Friendly Society / Timberscombe / Village Centre
Acquisition Date
2020
Acquisition Method
Gift
Category
PEOPLE: Organizations / Timberscombe
EVENTS: the Timberscombe Club Walk / Timberscombe
EVENTS: the Timberscombe Club Walk / Timberscombe
Condition
Good
Condition Notes
Entered by Tom Sperling
Condition Date
2020
Dimension Type
W X L
Dimension Units
cm
Dimension Value
10.5 X 19
Institution Name
St. Petrock's History Group
Notes
(1) Victoria County History News Letter, Spring/Summer 2014 (2) "THE VILLAGE OF TIMBERSCOMBE AND IT'S CHURCH", by B. L. K. Henderson and G. O. E. Henderson, printed by E. Goodman & Son, Ltd., The Phoenix Press, Taunton, 1955 (3) VCH (4) VCH (5) Encyclopedia Britannica, britannica.com (6) Encyclopedia.com (7) VCH (8) "THE VILLAGE OF TIMBERSCOMBE AND IT'S CHURCH" (9) VCH (10) Spartacus Educational.com (11) "THE VILLAGE OF TIMBERSCOMBE AND IT'S CHURCH" (12) VCH (13) "AROUND MINEHEAD: From Old Photographs" by Joan Astell, Amberley Publishing, Chalford, Stroud, Gloucestershire, 2010"
Storage Location
St. Petrock's History Group Archive
Storage Date
2020
Storage Notes
St. Petrock's History Group PHOTOGRAPHS
Item Reference
SP-110
Technique
Copy
Collection
Citation
Alfred Vowles, “The Timberscombe Friendly Society with St. Petrock's Church in the Background,” St. Petrock's History Group, accessed May 2, 2024, https://stpetrockshistorygroup.omeka.net/items/show/3212.
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