Scope and Content
Text of the eulogy of Mary Stanbridge (nee Poulter) read by Andrew Underwood at her funeral on 26 September 2003:
"Mary Stanbridge was born on 21st March 1921 at 7 Chandos Road, Ampthill - then still a very new road. Her parents, Mary and Frank Poulter, moved to 17 Ashburnham Road when Mary was about seven years old. She was christened Amelia Mary, but did not like the name Amelia one little bit, and was quite indignant when in her last days the nurses in the hosptial used it. To all Ampthill - and beyond - she was of course "Bubbles" - her fair curly hair and complexion as a child reminding people of the small boy in the 1886 painting by Sir John Millais, widely known as a Pears soap advert.
Mary hated school, particularly her first, which was Mrs Ellen Wildman's private 'Albion School' in Dunstable Street, behind number 32 (at the back of Turner's). She remembered her embarrassed father (who was to work for 45 years on the railways, principally as a foreman at Bedford) having to drag her there, kicking and screaming, in floods of tears and in great disgrace. There was one half-forgotten occasion when she thought he delivered her by horse and cart, and this was probably true because at the time Franklin's the coal merchants had their base in Chandos Road and a depot at Ampthill Station. It would be sensible for her father to hitch a lift on one of their carts, to his work on the railway. However, from 1929 to 1935 Mary attended the National School in Bedford Street (now a car showroom) where she made a lot of friends and found the Headmaster H.E. Cole and his young staff less formidable. (In the 1980s, as a member of the Old Scholars' Association, she was a key worker in fundraising for the memorial windows and other work in the north aisle here.)
When 'Bubbles' left school at the age of 14, Ampthill had a population of 2,500, and because it retained its historic role as a centre for the surrounding villages, a much wider range of shops than it has had at any time since the war. There were two chemists a few doors apart in Church Street, and in the tiny shop at number 15 [site of Pastiche] was Alfred Ronchetti, Optician, Chemist and Amateur Photographer, where 'Bubbles' was soon to be employed, serving behind the counter. The premises now trading as Cheeseman's were at this time Ernest Maycock's. Bill Cheeseman, the future owner, also worked there at one time whilst studying hard in the evenings for his own pharmaceutical qualifications. (Perhaps some here today will remember his mother, the much-loved District Nurse Cheeseman.)
Also working in Maycock's was the youth Jim Gillett. Years later, 'Bubbles' and Jim used to laugh over and ingenious 'understanding' where if a customer wanted something that was out of stock, they would be kept talking while somebody was sent (surreptitiously) to the other shop to borrow whatever it was. And then came the war. 'Bubbles', with many of her Ampthill contemporaries, joined the ARP, and a snapshot of her in her nurse's uniform has just come to light. It must have been about this time that she left Mr Ronchetti's for the Vauxhall works in Luton, where she is thought to have made munitions.
For a long time, 'Bubbles' had been courting Ken Stanbridge. He had attended the 'other' school on The Sands (by the Alameda gates) - but she forgave him that, and they were married in this church in January 1943 while Ken was briefly on leave from the forces. A reception, under the restrictions of rationing, was held at Nott's Cafe at 17 Church Street (now the Post Office). For a time they lived with the senior Poulters in Ashburnham Road, but when Ampthill's six prefabs arrived in 1947, to be built on a site in Austin's Lane (Alameda Walk), Ken and Mary and the three-year-old Isobel were lucky enough to be allocated one, their neighbours across the road being Jim and Joan Gillett. The arrival of Nigel Frank in 1951 completed the Stanbridge foursome.
From the prefabs the Stanbridges moved to Ashburnham Road, and then Cedar Close followed by Russell Drive. A spell living in Rectory Cottage ensured they were on hand to support Rector Leslie Sturman, both physically and emotionally, during the last days of his ministry here in Ampthill in the early 1980s. Often in great pain through arthritis, he could be quite a handful to his carers, but Mary's ministrations were appreciated as much by their recipient as by those who looked after the running of the three parishes. And Ken could always take Leslie down to the Wingfield Club for a scotch - or two or three! When Rector Sturman retired to his beloved Sheringham, Ken and Mary bought a house there too, and stayed on for a while after Leslie's death. But Mary missed her family and Ampthill friends, and when one of Doris Mann's houses in Ampthill Road, Flitwick became vacant, they took it. Following Doris Mann's death - her estate paid for a lifeboat named after her and based at Wells in Norfolk - the Stanbridges moved back to Ampthill and 27 Neotsbury Road, where Mary died.
It is difficult to find an Ampthill activity in which both Ken and Mary were not deeply involved. In the golden pre-war years when electricity had not long come to the town, the highlight of the week was like to be a visit to the Electric Kinema in Saunder's Piece to see one of the new "talkies", or after 1937 to visit the purpose-built and much more up-market Zonita in Bedford Street. (You could hear the soundtrack quite clearly whilst queuing on the pavement, which rather spoilt any surprise twist in the plot.) Trips to Bedford or Luton when few owned a motor-car, meant a train journey, first taking Bobby's Bus to Ampthill Station, or maybe going all the way by the Eastern National bus from its stop in Bedford Street. Althernatively, if it was too far to walk there was always the good old bicycle, and everybody had one of those - and used it.
And at home in the evening, if you were lucky, there was the wireless for entertainment - and little else indoors. But the columns of the late deeply lamented Ampthill & District News (where news that was news took priority over advertisements, and the journalists really knew the area they covered) always advertised a whist drive each week, with perhaps a jumble sale on a Saturday. The Hillmen column provided local gossip and opinion which sometimes inspired heated - and occasionally informed - debate. Weddings and sporting events such as cricket and football were always photographed by the paper's photographer, with pictures published the following Tuesday, and proofs displayed in the Ampthill News office window, 11 Church Street, for all to gawp at, or order copies. Yes, life, though hard by today's standards, was lived to the full, and Ken and Mary joined in with enthusiasm.
In more recent years, daily life for all of us has changed out of all recognition, and I must cover forty years in as many seconds. The memories that follow slice through the years in no particular order, and must inevitably be very few - and I'm bound to miss something out. Both were members of the British Legion and latterly of the RNLI. Ken, who had played football in his youth took a keen interest in Ampthill Town's ups and downs. Both loved dancing in the days when the most modern hall available was the Drill Hall in Woburn Road, and here they made many friends, some of whom will be here today. Both were keen gardeners, and Mary's input was vital on the various allotments they had. She was an accomplished member of the S.Andrew's Flower team - and an excellent cook and pastry maker. She was a particularly gifted craftswoman and inventive knitter and needle-woman, always ready to undertake the most challenging work. These three instances which come most readily (because they have involved me personally) must represent dozens of examples of similar acts of skill and kindness over the years.
Rosemary fell in love with a knitted crib set she had seen in a magazine: Mary obliged magnificently at very short notice - in time for its use at S.Luke's. Steppingley church's green altar frontal needed re-making. "Bring it along" she said. And within a few days not only was the frontal ready and installed, but with it matching pulpit and lectern falls. S.Luke's needad a green burse and veil - no problem for Mary. We were using it on the Sunday she died, 14th September last.
Nigel's sad death in 1997 and Ken's two years later (after 57 years of marriage) were difficult to cope with, although family and friends were always there. And when Isobel married Peter in 1982, Ken and Mary had acquired a couple of ready-made adult honorary grandchildren in Clare and Anna, who with their subsequent partners Paula and Alec, formed a closer bond of affection than you often find amongst blood relations. Of course Mary was delighted by the arrival of an honorary great-grandson Joseph in 2000, which was marked I have no doubt, by a new burst of knitting.
Mary was a true piece of old Ampthill, genuine through and through in every sense of the word. She will be greatly missed by all those who knew her, family and friends alike."