The Rank, North Bradley | One-Place Study

No, I don’t mean The Rank is heaven on Earth though I’m sure some previous or current residents would say so! The subject this post is one the occupiers of a house at the very end of the The Rank in 1939 – a true ‘local character’ called Sammy Paradise.

Samuel Albert Paradise was born in Melksham on 23rd January 1902. In 1935, he married Elsie M Sawyer, and by 1939 they were living on The Rank.

Such dry details as these tell us nothing about the man himself, however, beyond his occupation. He is listed on the 1939 register as a ‘licensed hawker’, though in the local area he was known as the rag-and-bone man, collecting scrap and selling it on.

Sammy comes up as a topic on the North Bradley, Trowbridge, and Wiltshire local history groups on Facebook very regularly. It is immediately striking how fondly he is remembered by hundreds of people; during conversations while researching The Rank I’ve asked several people if they remembered Sammy, and the answer is always a matter-of-fact “Yes”, as if to say “How could you not?”. In fact, I think if you ask anyone who lived for any length of time in Trowbridge or nearby up until the 80s the same question, you’d get exactly the same answer.

Common to all the memories and stories shared on these posts are his horse-drawn cart and the whippets scurrying around his legs.

Invariably seen with his horse and cart piled high with scrap.

Remember him on his horse and cart collecting scrap , he would always let us have a ride on his cart around Southwick , a real character.

As kids we used to bag a ride on Sammy’s cart in spite of being banned by our parents.

Dozens of people recall being given lifts on the back of his cart on the way home from school, and several people remember getting their childhood pets (in varying conditions) from him:

My Dad took a dog off him, a puppy – we called her Judy. She was lovely after Dad treated her for fleas.

He gave me a flea ridden cat once, my parents went mad.

He used to let me ride on Sunshine, his horse. Also gave me my first pet, a jackdaw which had died by the next morning!

My father ran the Fleur de Lys pub and Sammy came with the horse and gave all the kids a ride through Southwick on the cart. He sold dad a whippet dog, which kept absconding back across the fields to Sammy’s. On return my dad gave Sammy a pint. After 4 pints, dad said “Keep it… it’s costing me 8 shillings in beer.”

While he was often seen out and about in Trowbridge and nearby, some remember visiting him at his house:

I remember going into their house, the kitchen floor was bare slabs, he was such a character.

After he retired I saw him at his cottage in The Rank, North Bradley. I said “How’s your old horse, Sammy ?” He replied “She fine, out in the back field” in his high pitched voice! “Come and see my ferrets” He went into his kitchen, came out with a stale loaf, dropped it into a bucket. Then went over to his goat and milked it onto the bread, then fed it to the ferrets!

Another remembers his appearance in the Trowbridge Carnival:

[He walked] in Trowbridge Carnival – his horse and cart made into a ship. Captain Paradise – his dog trotting behind.

I was born at the very end of the 80s so I never had the pleasure of meeting Sammy. Luckily, he’s the kind of character who is a dream to research, since he comes up in the newspapers quite often!

In the edition of the Wiltshire Times and Advertiser from 21st March 1936, we hear about some trouble that Sammy was having with his landlord:

Nine Persons: Three Bedrooms
Horace Greenhill, Hilperton Marsh farm, applied for possession of a cottage at Hilperton Marsh now in the occupation of Samuel Paradise. Mr. Greenhill said the defendant came to work for him and his father in 1916, and occupied the house on a service tenancy. In 1920 this ceased, but his son took over the premises and worked for applicant until 1935, when he left. When he left, the father, who was now the defendant, remained in possession of two rooms in the house, promising to vacate them as soon as possible, but he failed to do so. Applicant had engaged other labour and wanted the whole of the house. The accommodation of the house comprised three bedrooms, two rooms downstairs and a lean-to shed, and at the present time nine persons were occupying the three bedrooms, and one party had to go through another party’s bedroom to get to their own bedroom. His men were now threatening to leave unless they could have the whole of the house. Paradise had paid no rent since Christmas.
Paradise said he was willing to go as soon as he could obtain another house. As Mr. Greenhill knew, he had “hunted”, but could not find other accommodation. Ordered to give up possession in 28 days.

The assertion that Sammy had paid no rent since Christmas would no doubt harm his hunt for a new house! In the following edition a week later, Sammy asked for some corrections to be made:

THE RECENT EJECTMENT CASE
Mr. Samuel Paradise asks us to amend two statements which were made at the Trowbridge Petty Sessions last week when he was ordered to give up possession of his cottage. Mr. H. W. Greenhill (the owner) confirms that Mr. Paradise has always paid rent without any trouble, “until just recently when the circumstances were such that I did not ask them for any.” With reference to the statement that there were nine persons in three bedrooms, Mr. Paradise states that there are two persons in one bedroom, two in another, and four in another; each room is shut from the others and it is not necessary to go through any bedroom in order to reach another.

Clearly times were hard for Sammy, and he may have found himself at The Rank soon after leaving Hilperton Marsh, just over the other side of Trowbridge.

In 1947, he appears in the newspaper again, having got into trouble over the animals he kept on the property at The Rank:

Another problem he found himself hauled to the Sessions for more than once was his casual approach to driving on the roads:

It seems he never got rid of his habit of being on the road without proper headlights, as a contributor to the history groups on Facebook remembers, on a more recent photo:

This was about the time when Sammy took a job in Bradford-On-Avon to make ends meet and the Police did him for riding his old bike without lights. He had a candle in a jam jar hanging from his handlebars!

In 1952, Sammy was being moved on from his house again. Rank Farm was up for sale, and the cottage Sammy occupied was included as Lot 2:

Sammy lived to the age of 85, and died in 1988. Over the course of his life he established himself as a local character, and a highlight of many people’s memories of growing up in Wiltshire. One thing that runs through so many of the memories shared of Sammy is his kindness and generosity:

I used to go to Sammy’s when we needed wheels make go-karts to run down the Ash Drive hill. Sammy would usually find us an old pram or something in the his overgrown garden. No charge.

However, many also remember his wicked sense of humour:

A real character. He would tell my Gran and me to go into completely the wrong field so that he could have all the blackberries for himself!

People like Sammy are the backbone of the history of any place. While telling his stories is one way to keep his spirit alive, it’s always nice to find a touch of remembrance in the names that people give to the new places that take over the old. On the site of Sammy’s cottage on The Rank, a new house was built: it bears the name ‘Paradise Farm’.