Father Trevor Huddleston, the dauntless Anti-Apartheid Campaigner

This year celebrates 100 years since the birth of Ernest Urban Trevor Huddleston, who was born at 36 Chaucer Road, Bedford on 15th June 1913. Trevor’s father, Captain Sir Ernest Whiteside Huddleston, was the son of an Indian army officer and had been born in India, one of twelve children. He was educated at Bedford Modern School, and met his future wife, Elsie Barlow Smith in Bedford. They married in 1904 and had two children, Barbara in 1909 and Trevor in 1913. The family moved to Golders Green, London. Trevor later attended  Lancing College, a high Anglican public school chosen by his mother, and then went on to study history at Christ College Oxford, before training for the priesthood at Wells Theological College.  He spent two years as a curate at St Marks in Swindon, and then importantly joined the Community of the Resurrection (CR) at Mirfield, becoming a monk in 1941 at the age of 28. 

It was from here in 1943 that he was sent to on mission to Sophiatown in South Africa, where the Community had churches, schools and a college for the poor black residents. Huddleston himself thought that there was little of interest in his life prior to his time in South Africa, as an Anglican Priest and later Superintendant of St. Peter’s School in 1949, he helped to spread education and literacy in the community.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu at a commemorative service at Lancing College dedicated to Trevor Huddleston in 2007 told of his first meeting with Trevor Huddleston:

“I must have been about nine years of age or so, and I was standing with my domestic worker mother on the veranda of the hostel for black blind women for whom my mother was a cook, when a tall white man in a flowing cassock swept past … and doffed his black hat to my mother. Only much later did I discover that it had been Trevor Huddleston. What? A white man raising his hat to a black woman, and an uneducated domestic worker at that? Quite unheard of in race-obsessed South Africa. But for him it was quite natural, because the light he threw on the dank gloom of South Africa's racism declared that each person is of infinite worth, because each is created in the image of God … He sort of pierced the gloom of race-mad South Africa with the gentle light of the Gospel of God's love for us all.”

Father Trevor met many of the leaders of the anti-apartheid movement, such as Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Oliver Tambo and became a fierce critic of segregation.  Oliver Tambo applied as a Physics teacher during the early 1950’s at St. Peter’s School where Huddleston later became Superintendant and they became very close friends. 

Between 1930 and 1950 Sophiatown became a symbol of unity and diversity in what was an increasingly racially divided country. It was in this tiny suburb that South Africans of every group co-existed in a peaceful, if chaotic manner. It was particularly known as a centre of arts, literature, music and drama.

During the 1950's the government began a brutal campaign against so-called 'black spots' and racially integrated areas, such as Sophiatown, became a casualty of the government's new system of forced removals under the Group Areas Act. From February 1955 Sophiatown was systematically destroyed. Only four buildings survived the removals. Neighbours and families were moved to different areas according to skin colour. The community protests led by African leaders and Trevor Huddleston, extended to Britain, but were in vain. On the first day of removals on 9 February 1955, 2000 policemen ousted 100 families to Meadowlands. In all, 65,000 people of all races were affected. A new white suburb was built over the rubble, rather ironically, named Triomf.

In 1955 Trevor Huddleston wrote the book “Naught for your comfort” in response to the removals that he had witnessed. He used to publicise and speak out against the atrocities being committed in South Africa, calling for an end to apartheid. He witnessed the razing of black communities in the African townships, and the arrest of Nelson Mandela and 155 members of the ANC in 1956.  He appealed to the Community and the Anglican Church in England for help, but the Community of the Resurrection, fearing he would be expelled from South Africa, recalled him to England.  Before he returned to Mirfield, after being forced to leave South Africa, he toured the USA, meeting Martin Luther-King and other celebrities, doing all he could to promote the cause of the ANC and the release of Nelson Mandela from prison. In 1959 Huddleston helped to found the Anti-Apartheid Movement in England, alongside Oliver Tambo who had also been expelled from South Africa.

Huddleston was elected President of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in 1981. He criticized white liberalism, arguing that it had "done so much to keep the apartheid structure in place . . . by its essential philosophy of evolutionary change." Some people regarded him as a radical and combative man, but Huddleston crucially led the move for economic sanctions against South Africa. In the Xhoza language, his nickname is "the dauntless one" and in his many campaign actions you can see why. He was a man of action and would get exasperated with the many speeches, saying with impatience, "Words, words, words - I am sick of words!"

Archbishop Trevor Huddleston's gave a speech at the 1990 Nelson Mandela: An International tribute to free South Africa concert held on the 16th April at Wembley stadium, London. This celebrated Nelson Mandela’s freedom after he was freed from prison on the 23rd February 1990 after 27 years.

Father Trevor Huddleston was able to celebrate the end of Apartheid with the elections of a new democratic South Africa on 27^th April 1994, and saw Nelson Mandela become the first Black President of South Africa.  Trevor Huddleston died in 1998. He is remembered fondly both here and in South Africa for his great work. A memorial centre was set up in his memory in Sophiatown, which provides community facilities and projects, especially encouraging the education and development of young people.

The bust for Huddleston was sculpted by Ian Walters and was bought for Bedford in the early 1990’s after a local anti-apartheid group member, Steve Lowe, visited South Africa House and met Bishop Huddleston and the sculptor. Bishop Huddleston told Lowe the bust should be displayed in Bedford as he came from Bedford, as well as honouring the work of many people in Bedford who fought apartheid. In 1999 the bust was paid for by Chris Kilroy, High Sheriff plus contributions from hundreds of local people. The bust unveiled in 1999 was re-dedicated by Nelson Mandela during his visit to Bedford in 2000.

The plinth is engraved with Nelson Mandela’s own words “No white person has done more for South Africa than Trevor Huddleston”, is a worthy tribute to a great campaigner and a life spent serving, but also fighting for the freedom of others.

This year is the 100^th anniversary of Sophiatown. The Trevor Huddleston CR Memorial Centre are launching the Sophiatown 100: Motswako celebration. Find out more at www.trevorhuddleston.org

For more information see:

Naught for Your Comfort, by Trevor Huddleston

Trevor Huddleston a Life, by Robin Denniston

Lancing College: Click here for the Full Sermon by Archibishop Desmond Tutu

There is a live Radio 4 interview with Archbishop Trevor Huddleston from 1988 talking about his life and work to that date see BBC Radio 4 interview

By Lydia Saul, Keeper of Social History

Flint Knapping and other Stone Age adventures.

Will Lord flint knapping at The Higgins, Bedford, February 2013

Our recent meeting with a skilled experimental archaeologist, Flint Knapper Will Lord, was one of the high points in our re-display programme for me. We had arranged with Will for him to come to Bedford so that we could film him making flint axes.

Born in 1970, Will Lord grew up on the English Heritage site of Grimes Graves, a prehistoric flint mine in Norfolk, where his parents were custodians for many years. With a strong family history of archaeology and flint knapping, he continued & progressed the tradition, becoming the leading expert in prehistoric survival skills. Will Lord says; “We can all benefit from reconnecting with the past and learning from our distant ancestors. Their secrets can help to ground us.' Will may look a little scary, but he has a unique ability to open up a window on what life was like for our stone age ancestors.

I was anxious to begin with because the weather was not brilliant, overcast with drizzle and so cold you could see your breath, and I had no idea if we would all get along with each other. My worries were totally unfounded, it was a brilliant experience and a real education.

Since we closed to the public a while ago we have all been working to a tight schedule. We packed up all of our collections, which included those in our stores as well as the items on display, we moved ourselves out of the building and set up temporary offices in the town centre. Once here we began to design the new displays, looking at different objects to display and new ways to interpret them. We then moved ourselves and the collections back into the museum building whilst continuing to work on producing the new displays for the numerous cases in the galleries. It is an exciting opportunity but it does seem a bit like being on a high speed train going on a long journey.

When I started to look at ways of displaying the items in the Stone Age case it became obvious that the ancient flint tools that we are familiar with today would have been very different when they were new. The hand axes we have in the collections are incredibly old for a start, 300,000 years old. They have been churned around in the gravel deposits of The River Great Ouse which means that if they are not broken they have been rubbed smooth. In some instances they have almost been transformed into unique pieces of art as they have become stained orange and yellow by minerals present in the gravel.

The broken Paleolithic hand axe on the left was found at Kempston. The surface of the flint is stained from minerals present in the sand and gravel. The black fresh looking hand axe on the right is the one made by Will Lord at about 12.40pm on Tuesday 26th February 2013.

Illustration of how a Paleolithic hand axe would have been held. When new the fresh, sharp edges would have easily cut through skin and flesh of large animals. The sharp point could also have been used as a very effective hammer to split bones and extract the marrow.

This illustration of a Paleolithic hand axe found at Kempston in September 1861 was hand drawn by Worthington George Smith. This illustration forms part of the Worthington G. Smith Collection held by Luton Culture, Wardown Park Museum, Old Bedford Rd, Luton, LU2 7HA. 

It has been very difficult to view these hand axes as state of the art lethally sharp tools once perfectly suited to defleshing and skinning mammoths, reindeer and a whole range of other now extinct large wild game once present around Bedford. But the instant Will sat down, put his protective hide pad across his knee, picked up a raw flint nodule and began to hit it with the antler hammer the super sharp qualities of flint became very apparent. Razor sharp flakes fell off the nodule around Wills’ feet and with every considered and well aimed hit of the flint nodule a “new” Palaeolithic hand axe emerged.

The finished axe that Will handed to me had very sharp edges and easily cut through a deer skin, I instantly appreciated what an essential tool to early humans this would have been. All of the axes that Will made whilst he was being filmed are very different in colour to the archaeological ones. The ancient hand axes have acquired the patina and staining of extreme age whilst the new ones are black from the natural colour of flint nodules.

The film of Will making flint axes will be shown in a case housing ancient examples to demonstrate the skill of not only early humans in producing a flint tool which enabled them to survive but also the experienced and skill of a modern day man, Will Lord.

by Liz Pieksma, Keeper of Archaeology, The Higgins, Bedford.

Learning Bedfordshire Lace

Last year, following the success of the Lace in Place project through BCA Gallery there was a resurgence in interest from local people to learn the skill of lacemaking.

Marilyn Two and Sandra King of the Aragon lacemakers were keen to encourage and teach people, in order to keep the craft going and create another generation of lacemakers.

I was perhaps approaching lacemaking from a different perspective, having documented a huge number of bobbins and added many thousands of lace patterns and pieces to the Museums database. Not really fully understanding what it was all about, I was inspired by the beauty of the Thomas Lester collection lace and fascinated to give it a go in my spare time. The Lace in Place project gave me the opportunity to get to know the Aragon lacemakers better and going forward the opportunity to learn Bedfordshire lace from our local experts in the field.

Lace in Place on display in St. Paul's Square until end of February 2013

  

I had only really started on the basics of ‘whole’ cloth stitch and ‘half stitch’ when a new project was afoot with the making of a lace commission for The Higgins new displays.

I suddenly found myself in at the deep end. I was quite familiar with the different bits of kit needed for lacemaking having seen much of it on display at the museum and in the store. The lace pillow used today is polysterene rather than the traditional straw filled round kind, although the bobbins are pretty much the same.

Example lace pillow from The Higgins Collections

There is a variety of bobbins in use today, the bone ones are less common, the wooden bobbins are popular being heavier and nicer to work. Then there are the plastic bobbins, which do the job but are very light, and as I found a bit slippery – they kept unwinding themselves, which was frustrating. The bobbins cotton thread stays in place by putting a ‘hitch’ (a type of slip knot) around the top of the bobbin, which experienced lacemakers make look sooooo easy, but when you are learning it is and essential skill that is really quite hard to get right – especially when you have eight or twelve bobbins to contend with.

Showing 'hitch' around the top of the bobbin

The heart design I had started with, with just four bobbins had seemed quite straight forward and only needed one stitch repeated. Bobbins are always worked in pairs, they are wound in pairs before starting work with pure cotton thread. The design for the pattern is taken from a printed pattern, cut out and backed with card at the same size.

Traditional 'pricking' or lace pattern, patterns were drawn by hand or traced onto vellum and later card. Today photocopied designs are cut out from paper and  backed to card using sticky-back plastic, but play the same function as earlier patterns. Holes are pricked into the material using a 'pricker'.

To seal the card and paper pattern together blue sticky back plastic is used (a modern addition) – which brought back memories from my youth of covering exercise books for school. You then use a tool called a ‘pricker’ (a sharp pointed skewer) to prick holes into the pattern – hence why the pattern is sometimes also called a pricking. The holes pricked into the pattern are for the pins to be placed in as you work along the rows with your bobbins making the stitch.

Picture of piece created for Aragon lacemakers community contribution to the new Higgins displays

The community project piece was more challenging needing the skills of both whole stitch and half stitch, learning what a ‘footside’ was in the lace and how to create this effect. The interior design was also challenging learning how to make ‘legs’ using half stitch, and to attach more bobbins for the central design by using a pin lifter to remove a pin, and then thread through the bobbins. I also learnt how to secure the legs together by criss-crossing the bobbins in a ‘Windmill’ Stitch. The ‘leaves’ or ‘petals’ were more difficult to master, as they require a weaving finesse of four bobbins one over the other – over under over under over, then moving the two outside bobbins out and then back in to make the leaf shape. It was very satisfying to get to the end of my first leaf, having undone and redone the leaf several times before mastering a shape that I was happy with. The next thing was to make four all look the same …quite tricky for a beginner I can tell you.

Annotated picture with stitches and parts demonstrated

I was very pleased once I got to the end of my piece for the community project – it took me around 18 hours, but was well worth it for the end result. 

I do now feel ready for my next challenge in Bedfordshire lace and can’t tell you what a privilege it is to have experienced lacemakers taking the time to teach us learners the basics of the craft. The hours of work in the preparation of the project, the support given to the Aragon lacemakers members to get involved and the development of people’s skills in Bedfordshire lace is to be applauded.

I would like to say a personal thankyou to Marilyn, Sandra and Pam for all their time and kind words of encouragement. Do come to see the finished display piece when the Higgins re-opens, I promise it will be well worth a look.

Lydia Saul,
Keeper of Social History