Cheltenham in the 1940s

The first half of the 1940's saw the Cheltenham as any other British town contributing to the war efforts. Many local residents volunteered to do ‘their bit’ for the country into the many of the voluntary services set up. Home Guard Platoons were formed at large workplaces such as Smith Industries in Bishop’s Cleeve and Webb’s brickworks in Battledown.

YMCA ran a Austin Seven van with which they distributed tea and sandwiches. Pupils from Cheltenham schools were divided into squads and helped with night-time duties, firewatching and constructing Morrison shelters in local homes. At harvest time, children were released from school to help local farmers with haymaking and potato picking. Another way Cheltenham families contributed to the war efforts was by accommodating evacuees mostly from Birmingham, as Cheltenham was considered quite a safe area.

The blackout was enforced. Cars were fitted with metal plates on their headlamps with slits cut into them to provide some light to drive by. People were issued with gas masks. Ration books had to be collected from food centres and then you had to register with a particular grocer or butcher. Any luxury items, such as tins of fruit or spam were strictly under the counter for favoured customers. Queues became the norm and many times people would join a queue without even knowing what they were queuing for. Cheltenham lost a lot of its ornamental ironwork, which were melted for the war effort – the railings around Montpellier Gardens fell a victim, as well as the two cannons captured at Sebastopol during the Crimean War which stood in front of the Queens Hotel. Another Cheltenham feature which fell victim this time not to the war as such but rather the decision of the council was the Winter Garden, Cheltenham's own crystal palace, which stood in Imperial Gardens, just behind the Town Hall.

Cheltenham wasn’t spared bombing during the war. On 25 August 1940 a device fell at Hester’s Way, but failed to explode. 18 Novemeber 1940 18 delayed action bombs were dropped on Cheltenham, one of them smashed through the roof of a house in Pilley Crescent, Leckhampton, luckily failing to go off, however local residents had to be evacuated. Other bombs that night fell on Burrows Playing Fields and close to Leckhampton Primary School. 11 December 1940 was the night of the worst raid. At 7.30pm after flares have lit up the town over 100 incendiary, high explosive and oil bombs were dropped. Half of Stoneville Street was demolished when a bomb landed on the railway embankment nearby, and Pilley Bridge was destroyed. Other bombs fell on houses in Parabola Road, Christchurch Road, Lansdown Road and St. Mark’s.

Cheltenham became a sort of a cosmopolitan place. Uniforms of all the forces of the Allies were seen here – Dutch soldiers, Polish pilots, Belgians, Danes and so on. All these were soon outnumbered by the American soldiers as in 1942 the US Army made its headquarters for its Services of Supplies here and the US forces occupied numerous buildings including Pittville Pump Room. Several schools, hotels and garages were taken over, and in one of the garages, the Regent Garage, which was on the site of today's Regent Arcade, Frank Whittle assembled Britain's first jet engine in 1940-41. They also set up a hospital in Ullenwood, a few miles from Leckhampton. The Queen’s hotel was an American Services Club, which was visited by Bob Hope and Glenn Miller. For a brief time Mickey Rooney, the Hollywood Star, was billeted at Leckhampton Court. Every Cheltonian came to know an American on a personal level, children were given cocoa powder, sugar powdered milk and chewing gums. Many of the American soldiers found their sweethearts in Cheltenham.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom in the 1940s. The main source of entertainment was the cinema where one could queue up to two hours to get a seat. Regal cinema opened in the Promenade, just behind the Neptune Fountain in 1939. Regal's auditorium was splendidly decorated with pilasters and plasterwork with hints of Egyptian and oriental motifs. The Daffodil in the Suffolks was also a popular destination as queues were rarer unless a hit such as Gone With The Wind was screened. The ‘Gaumont’ cinema (now former Odeon) had a sing-song at 7pm on a Friday night and there was also the Essoldo which brought silver screen glamour to the Lower High Street and Coliseum to Albion Street. There were also dances at the Town Hall for the youth and The Lido, which opened in 1935, was a popular destination for families.

The VE day brought street parties galore to Cheltenham as residents celebrated the end of the war. The lights of Cheltenham were gradually switched on and on the tower of Charlton Kings church a large V was shining. The first concert of the first Cheltenham Music Festival on 13 June 1945, only a few weeks after the VE day, featured the London Philharmonic Orchestra. 1947 witnessed records blizzards and freezing conditions in January and February which gave way to the worst floods for decades in March. In 1949 Cheltenham Literature Festival was first held. Actor Ralph Richardson, who was born in Cheltenham, launched the festival, and poet Cecil Day Lewis, who used to teach at Cheltenham College, read a selection of contemporary verse.