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Lady Mare in the River Assists the Reinstatement of a Water Course

Enclosed with the Edwin Hipsey’s letter – all the way from Canada – was a ‘notice’ of a family picnic to take place in ‘Greenwich Park..Near Bandstand..Café..toilet side. Last Sunday in July….26th July 1998..and forever.  9.00am – 8.30pm . . ..’  This notice had been sent with a Christmas Card to Edwin and Sheila by Kathy Skinner, born Hipsey, who lives in Benfleet.

JH was intrigued by this invitation to Greenwich Park as – in 1962 – JH had spent several months looking after male patients at the Dreadnought Seamen’s Hospital in Greenwich during her nursing training.  So JH went!  It was a pleasant summer day when old haunts were explored: the buildings which had housed the Seamen’s Hospital were now part of the Greenwich University Campus; furthermore Devonport House, the Nurses’ Home on the opposite side of Romney Road, was now a Conference Centre in which JH would be required to pay £78 a night to stay without breakfast – whereas the board and lodging she paid as a Student Nurse probably amounted to about £20 a month in her day!

JH recollects walking round the Park and speaking with the many friendly groups of people who all denied that they, or any of their number, were called ‘Hipsey’ but wished JH the best of luck in her search for her relatives.  It was many many years since JH had been to Greenwich and, although she had visited the park, and the Royal Observatory standing on 0° longitude, she had only a vague recollection of where to find the Hipsey Clan ‘. . . Near Bandstand..Cafe..toilet side.’  However, once met never forgotten: Bill could not be other than a Hipsey – as he greeted JH with a big hug, as did other members of the gathered Clan.  It was apparent that Kathy, Bill’s sister was Mistress of Ceremonies, with the quietly efficient help of her husband Ralph who managed all things to do with catering as, although the Café was only a few hundred yards away, Ralph had a gas camping stove on which he could brew up tea: there was a tap and drinking fountain close at hand, which also had a trough around the base to catch the water, so that dogs could quench their thirsts as well.  [Addendum: all visitors to Greenwich Park were prohibited from using camping stoves, and barbeques, because of H&S fears, and because the grass in the park was being damaged.  Finally the Hipsey Family Picnic was excluded from Greenwich Park in July 2012 when the Equestrian Olympics took over the Park – so we went to East Beach Park in Shoeburyness, to where the Skinners had moved in 2010.]

In her invitation to the 1999 Picnic – sent out with her Christmas cards in 1998 – Kathy listed all the Hipseys, Hemmings (related in marriage due to one of Kathy’s grandma’s husbands being a Hemming), and Wilsons (Kathy’s mother’s maiden name) who attended.  And . . . she wrote ‘The biggest surprise was Jeanette Hipsey, who was a stranger to us all, who received word of the picnic via Canada.  Jeanette made her journey from Plymouth and stayed overnight at YMCA (sic) Rotherhithe.  Great effort and good communication.  (Thank you Edwin Hipsey..Canada)’  JH only really ‘took in’ the information that she had stayed at the Young Men’s Christian Association hostelry when compiling this introduction to her website in 2012.  JH is a life member of the YHA –so JH actually stayed at Rotherhithe Youth Hostel and shared a women’s dormitory!   The YH is housed in an enormous renovated warfside building – out of the windows on the river side, the steamers taking trippers up and down the Thames were to be seen.  JH’s most abiding memory of this stay in a London YH was the heat.  Dormitory windows were not opened because of the noise of the traffic in Salter Road: JH could feel the sweat running down her neck onto the duvet cover partially covering the naked Hippo Lady - who had of course removed the duvet out of its cover.

JH now rewinds a bit - to the receipt of a letter from Edwin and Sheila dated 6th October 1998.  From amidst three and a half A4 pages of typing JH was told by Edwin that he had attended a Seminar at Camosun College on Family Health History to do with Genealogy; here he met Margery Woodruffe whom he recognised as being a colleague of his wife, Sheila, when she had worked in the Hospice Victoria; at Lunchtime Margery and Edwin reminisced so, when Edwin told Margery that he had been in contact with JH in Plymouth {amongst many other Hipseys}, it transpired that Margery remembered working in Freedom Fields Hospital (FFH) in Plymouth During 1967 and 1968 when she undertook her Midwifery Training, and a Neonatal Nursing Course – in the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) where JH worked for 21 years.  Edwin had also been a volunteer in Hospice Victoria: Whilst working there, Percy, a gentleman suffering from the last stages of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) was admitted for respite care to give his daughter – ‘who had put her life and career on hold to take care of him’ – a chance of a rest.  Margery remembered Percy’s daughter, Ann Stollery, as being a Sister in the Maternity Department at FFH; JH also knew Ann well; in the 1980s Ann had undertaken the Neonatal Nursing Course.

In January 1999 JH received a large package – full of all sorts of information including a copy of a letter from Edwin to the Skinners dated 15 December 1998.  It became apparent – from the tenure of Edwin’s letter to Kathy – that Kathy and Edwin had exchanged plots with regards to - “what about 2000”  And . . . in the package JH also received maps, lists of guest houses, and Kathy’s exhortation to attend a Family Weekend at the Huntsman and Hounds in Althorne from Friday evening 21st July 2000 to the morning of Monday 24th July 2000.

Rewinding again . . . in July 1998, JH remembered Kathy: a bronzed sun worshiper – in shorts and sun-top – playing rounders with the few young attendees she could muster – seemingly inexhaustible.  Had something in Kathy ‘run down’ a bit when JH attended the Picnic on 25th July 1999?  In any event, Kathy was still the Mistress of Ceremonies at Althorne in 2000 together with her very willing Logistics Manager, Ralph.  In a round-robin letter – JH’s copy being received in August 2000 – Kathy thanked all the attendees at Althorne but admitted to being ‘not herself’; she thanked everyone for ‘giving me your care and attention’ also adding ‘my weight went up to twelve and a half stone, with the Nephrotic Syndrome’.  JH had attended with her school friend Anne Dunk: after spending a holiday in the Isle of Man in the previous year – with our bicycles – I invited Anne to come along to the Hipsey Millennium Reunion – to which invitation Anne suggested that our trip to East Anglia could also be a celebration of our 50 years of friendship.  Needless to say, cycling on the flat Dengie Peninsula in Essex was just the sort of cycling JH enjoyed, whereas Anne – previously an energetic member of a cycling club with her husband, Bill, really required a more challenging bike ride!  Kathy also exhorted everyone to come along to the next Millennium Reunion (MR) – to be held three-yearly in view of the outstanding success experienced in 2000.

In August 2000, Edwin phoned JH to tell her that Fred Hipsey from Plympton had died suddenly on 9th August.  JH was sad that she had failed to contact Barbara Hipsey before her husband’s untimely death, so JH wrote to Barbara, and subsequently we have kept in touch together – including sharing the experiences of both of us undergoing surgery for breast cancer.  Edwin, JH, and Kathy and Ralph, continued to ‘intermittently’ communicate with each other – and everyone else – with regards to compiling a Family Tree: in fact, at the first MR, Edwin had brought along a constructed Family Tree (FT) [Familial Topiary?] on a long sheet of paper by means of sticking printed paper labels on the paper and then joining the labels with ruled lines; at the MR everyone was encouraged to add addition names to the FT of those persons not yet included and also, of course, recent baby additions.

In 2001 Ann, JH’s ‘big’ sister attended the Picnic in the Park: she created a certain amount of amusement by turning up with her lunch of cold chips which were excess to requirements of a previous purchase of Fish and Chips, an English meal Ann would die for!  Ann also came to the Picnic in 2002 and reclined on a rug – conveniently left on the ground – and explained that she had slept very badly at the Lawn Guest House: ‘little’ sister threatened to pour tea over the recumbent figure – in view of English tea being BS’s favourite beverage.

JH attended the second triennial Millennium Reunion in Althorne – without Anne D, or a bike; JH stayed at the Saxegate GH in Southminster and - on the days when she was not eating the Family Dinner on the 20th July 2003 – she explored the countryside on foot or on the bus.  Sitting by the lane side in a deserted spot on the East Coast of the Dengie Peninsula, a cyclist approached JH and observed her picking out the tares from her socks -acquired whilst walking across a field of corn stubble.  This gentleman is Pic and Bill Hipsey’s neighbour in Burnham-on-Crouch: his help was enlisted to taken a photograph of JH sat in the lane between Twizzlefoot Bridge and West Wick. JH popped into Southminster Library and obtained the name of the local Footpath Officer of the Ramblers Association: in the correspondence with this gentleman, and the District Public Rights of Way (PROW) Officer for Essex County Council, JH was most courteously apprised of the all things to do with the maintenance of  PROW, and advised to “. . . buy or borrow an OS Explorer 176 at 25000 for you next visit because it has the field boundaries marked.”  JH was also given encouragement to contact these Officers should JH go on safari in Essex in the future.  In the interim . . . JH has digressed into doing something else instead! 

During the years in which the MR was ‘staged’, JH did not attend the Family Picnics in Greenwich: but in about April 2004, JH received the usual invitation from Kathy - ‘Greenwich Park.  Near bandstand, Cafe and toilets.  Last Sunday in July and forever' - so in the intervening year 2004, on 25th July, JH went to Greenwich Park.  In her invitation, Kathy said also ‘Sorry we are late with our post!  Kathy spent Christmas in hospital, that was terrible . . .’ : however, JH has photos to prove that Kathy was still the Mistress of Ceremonies – as Kathy seemed to be engrossed in conversation with attendees, whilst clutching her clipboard on which she was no doubt ‘taking the register’!  Ralph was still Supervisor of the kettle-boiling, and Aide de Camp.

In October 2004 JH received a letter from Kathy which she also sent to all the attendees of the last ‘Hipsey Gathering’ at the Huntsman and Hounds in July 2003.  Kathy explained that this letter was ‘Belated because I ended up in hospital, yet again, and now spending the life of a dialysis patient at Southend Hospital three times a week, four hours a day.  Does anyone know of any family members that suffered renial (sic) failure, maybe its hereditary!  Doctors still cannot give me the answer of why I am suffering.’   Also ‘Jim [Publican at the Huntsman and Hounds] has noted 21st July 2006 for our next family gathering.  We hopefully will be camping and caravans are welcome . . .  Don’t forget to book with Jim for electric and Sunday Lunch . . . ‘  At the bottom of this letter/invitation Kathy listed a number of contact phone numbers – including JH’s.

On 6 November 2004 Doreen Hipsey, resident of Greenwich, left a CM message on JH’s phone: it was immediately apparent to JH that Doreen had phoned because Kathy had included Doreen in the circulation of the letter – which had JH’S phone number thereon.  When JH phoned back . . . she learnt that Doreen had been a Medical Secretary at the Seamen’s Hospital from 1966 until 1986 - when the Hospital shut down: JH was at the Seamen’s Hospital doing part of her nursing training in 1962!  We had a grand reminiscence session: the upshot of this was that JH would call in to Doreen’s Daughter’s house – almost immediately opposite the Hospital Entrance (that was), when JH was to be in Greenwich for the performance by the Finalists in the SRP/Moeck Solo Recorder Competition at Trinity College of Music (that is now) – to introduce ourselves to each other.  However . . . this meeting with un-met members of the Hipsey Clan did not take place until November 2005: JH has omitted the saga of missed trains, missed appointments, dispatching of copies of the FT by post, and the rest – as JH had/has lost this plot herself!

In December 2004 JH received Kathy’s exhortation to come to the Picnic in the Park at Greenwich on 31 July 2005.  Preceding this event was another momentous happening: at the end of March 2005 JH retired from being an employee of the National Health Service.  Since then – being a retired senior citizen – JH has discovered that one does not have ‘all the time in the world’ to do what one likes – which so many other senior citizens have discovered for themselves when their time came!  On Saturday 30 July 2005 JH attended the National Youth Recorder Orchestra’s end of course concert at Millfield School in Street in Somerset (where the cider apples grow, and where Clark’s shoes are manufactured): JH really enjoyed the challenge of travelling to Street {and back in reverse} from Plymouth to Taunton by train and then embarking on an interesting bus journey across the flat lands of Somerset – which JH followed on her OS Map.

JH made a day trip the following day 31 July 2005: this was the only time on which JH travelled to Greenwich and Back all in one day.  JH caught the 0855 train from Plymouth which – due to rail works – went via Bristol; on the return journey the train went via Swindon and Westbury, so JH just missed the last bus home and made a rare investment in a taxi. In any event, JH got to the Family Picnic too late to meet Doreen Hipsey who had been there, but had another family commitment later in the afternoon.  JH did not take her camera with her and so did not have photos to look at to remind herself of the happenings.  However, Kathy had recorded that ’51 people showed their faces’.  Add 1 to 51: Kathy had forgotten to add Doreen from/in Greenwich.  And in order to trace the paper trail of the Family Tree, Kathy was reminded of this omission by JH – on 6th October in the year of 2005 . . .

so my diary began! 


 
 
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