Dickiemoor Lane, Honicknowle

The other day, the Herald phoned me up asking me where the street name, Dickiemoor Lane in Honicknowle, came from. It was actually named after a man who once kept donkeys there.
An article appeared in the Western Morning News of Tuesday 5th April 1949 under the headline, 'Dickiemoor Lane gets Plymouth Council blessing.'
It read:

'Mr J. Folley, Works Committee chairman, told Plymouth City Council yesterday that Dickiemoor Lane, Honicknowle, was so named to perpetuate the memory of a man in that neighbourhood who bred donkeys.
He added, amid laughter, 'Rumour has it that some of them have found their way to the City Council.'
'In 1945,' retorted a Conservative member.
In seeking Council approval for the name, the Works Committee also recommended that the lane leading off Dickiemoor Lane be called Horsham Lane.
Dickiemoor Lane lay off Butt Park Road, leading up to Honicknowle Brick Works, said Mr Folley, and was not a new street.
Mr H.G. Damerell moved disapproval of the minute in  an amendment which was lost by 29 votes to 27.
He said: 'I have never heard a more inappropriate name than Dickiemoor. Why not call streets after some of the good old Westcountry names?'
He wondered who arrived at some of the street names, commenting that there was a  good Scottish accent in the naming of some of the new streets.
The Lord Mayor (Ald. H. J. Perry) interposed: 'Dickiemoor is a Westcountry name.'
Mr Folley said the policy of his committee in selecting street names was, whenever possible, to retain old names and associations.'

The photo shows another strangely-named street in Honicknowle, Butt Park Road.

The Angels of Mons

The Battle of Mons was the first major battle of the First World War undertaken by the British Expeditionary Force. The British Army attempted to hold the Mons-Condé Canal against the advancing German Army. Many troops who were either from Plymouth or had passed through the port would have fought at Mons.
One of the most enduring tales of the time features the legend of a group of angels who supposedly protected the British Army as they fought. Many soldiers were reported to have seen angels over the battlefield and the tale greatly boosted recruitment. Even today, the story is still taken to be true but was, in fact, a work of fiction and although many people retold the story, not one British soldier who was at the battle actually saw anything.

The tale developed from a short story written by Arthur Machen for the London newspaper, The Evening News, entitled 'The Bowman'. It was published on 29th September 1914. The story told of phantom bowmen being called upon from the Battle of Agincourt by a British soldier fighting the Germans. It was written as a first-hand account although was total fiction. However, readers thought that it was a true account and Machen was asked to provide witnesses to the event.
A couple of months later, Machen was asked by priests if the story could be reprinted in local parish magazines. One priest proposed to write a preface to the story and asked Machen for sources of the event for which he replied that none could be given as the story was a work of fiction. The priest replied that Machen must be mistaken as the 'facts' of the story were true, and that Machen must have based his story on a true account. Machen said later:
'It seemed that my light fiction had been accepted by the congregation of this particular church as the solidest of facts; and it was then that it began to dawn on me that if I had failed in the art of letters, I had succeeded, unwittingly, in the art of deceit. This happened, I should think, some time in April, and the snowball of rumour that was then set rolling has been rolling ever since, growing bigger and bigger, till it is now swollen to a monstrous size.'

Variations of the story began to appear each reporting the story as fact. On 24th April, the British Spiritualist Magazine published stories of angelic warriors being seen over the Battlefield at Mons and by May 1915, the story was said to show that God was on the side of the Allies. As the rumours of angels at Mons spread across the world, Machen tried to dispel the rumours by publishing the story in a book with a long preface stating that there was no truth in the story. It became a best seller but this only led to a series of publications claiming to provide proof of the angels' existence.
The story re-emerged in the 1980s. No witness accounts existed although it was said that some soldiers had seen visions of phantom cavalry as they retreated. However, these hallucinations were put down to the exhaustion of troops who had not slept properly for days.
In 2001, an article published in the Sunday Times claimed that a diary of a soldier named William Doidge had been found which proved the existence of the angels. This was accompanied by film and photographic evidence. However, this later turned out to be a hoax.
No doubt as stories emerge during the centenary of the commencement of the First World War this year, the story of the Angels of Mons will be re-told over and over and, even one hundred years later will still be taken, by some, as fact.

Officers at the Citadel, Plymouth in 1916

With the anniversary of the commencement of the First World War coming up, I thought I'd post this interesting photo of officers at the Citadel in 1916.
I bought this interesting postcard on ebay (for £1.99!). The caption reads: 'Officers' Course of Gunnery, Citadel, Plymouth, February 1916.' The photographer is J.W. Barter of Plymouth. Written on the back in ink is: 'Yours sincerely, Frank H Bullock. 29th March 1916.'
It's a lovely picture, let's hope that most of them managed to survive the war.

A German Spy at Plymouth

This latest rare photograph from the newspaper archives comes from the Evening Telegraph and Post of Wednesday 30th August 1911. It shows the German Officer, Max Schulz, in court in Plymouth. He was arrested on a charge of attempting to procure a local solititor to commit an offence under the Official Secrets Act. Schulz had been obtaining information about the British Navy and dockyard and was passing it back to Germany.

In November 1911, Max Schulz was found guilty and sentenced to 20 months in jail.

This photo and many others can be found on my online gallery at www.flickr.com/photos/derektaitold photos

Exeter in the Great War

The second of my books about the First World War, for Pen and Sword, has now been completed and will be published later this year. This one features the city of Exeter and, using old newspaper reports and stories from the time, tells that tale of Exeter's part in the Great War. This will form part of a series covering towns and cities across Great Britain. I'm currently working on a similar book all about Bath. Meanwhile, here's a sneak preview of the Exeter cover which I think is very eye catching!