by Flo Wadlow
‘Oh yes,’ she replied, ‘Mrs Wadlow’s here.’ He asked if he could be introduced to me and he said it was one of the nicest cakes he’d ever cut.
The cake made by Flo for the wedding of Mary Anne (née Long) and Charles Shippam
Flo became involved in the life of the parish church of St Peter and St Paul during her time in Heydon, taking her share of the usual village duties of Parochial Church Council membership and through this, representing the village on the deanery synod. Flo took her turn with the flower arranging and with reading the lessons, and even made three altar frontals in white, green and red.
Flo’s interests have been many, the WI and the Red Cross particularly.
‘Costume through the ages’ being portrayed by the ladies of Heydon WI, photographed outside ‘The Old Cottage’. Mrs Bulwer (‘Aunt Bee’) is seated far right, with Flo standing beside her.
I was always interested in the WI and that really enhanced my life quite a lot. It didn’t matter what craft you name – we had lessons in it. Mrs Bulwer-Long [the younger] was to do with the Red Cross, and we were in the Red Cross. I’ve got my medals now. Once a year we used to have a big Red Cross Ball, which Mrs Bulwer-Long and I catered for.
Another memorable Red Cross event for Flo was taking part in the Guard of Honour for the Queen outside Sandringham House, composed of representatives of eighty-five Norfolk detachments. On that occasion the Queen named the first mobile hospital unit of the County British Red Cross, with Lady Walpole, the County President, accompanying Her Majesty.
A splendid Red Cross event with a big surprise for Flo and a Red Cross colleague was the fashion show presented at Blickling Hall on October 1st 1960, featuring British fashion house Lachasse. The local paper reported:
The two ladies have done a good deal of helping behind the scenes at big events and last Saturday they went along to the big fashion show at Blickling Hall to give, they thought, some more of the same kind of help. Instead they found themselves at the very centre of everything – helping to dress the models. They are both keen dressmakers … and they had a wonderful opportunity to see these marvellous creations and their fabrics at the closest quarters.
Flo (far right) helping out with the teas
And Flo always rose to the challenge of catering, it would seem, whatever the event.
When Mrs Bulwer-Long was the head of the Norfolk Pony Club, they used to have their camp in Heydon Park, and they would have a special day when they jumped for the cups. We would give lunch to all the judges. They would come in when they were ready, because they were judging different events. Then we had Mr Gordon Parker, the founder of the Felixstowe Docks. I always used to do their shooting-party lunches. For his seventieth birthday he had about two hundred people there that night. And that was the night of the Royal Norfolk Show. It wasn’t a big meal; they had drinks and they had a lot of canapés, and I made a big birthday cake. I had a big oven that you roast your meat in and I made the cake in that. Mr Parker’s daughter said, ‘Oh Mrs Wadlow, I hope we don’t have any left.’ But it was gone – just like that. There wasn’t a bit left.
Flo’s interest in drama started at school, so it is of little surprise to have found her as a regular member of the ‘Heydon Minstrels’. This local village group was set up at the instigation of one of the American tenants at the Hall, Sergeant Dextras, and it provided a wide range of entertainment over a number of years, including pantomimes and Old Time Music Hall.
The ‘Heydon Minstrels’
WI pageant, ‘Kett’s Rebellion’
Flo also took part in the WI Pageant, ‘Kett’s Rebellion’, at the Royal Norfolk showground in 1982. Flo’s considerable skills as a needlewoman were put to very good use over the years. Flo designed a tapestry chair for Heydon Hall and hassocks for Norwich Cathedral. When in the early 1970s an appeal was made for volunteer workers to create hassocks for the Chapel of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, in St Paul’s Cathedral, Flo responded. Her heart sank somewhat when the complicated patterns arrived, but never turning down a challenge, Flo set about creating her hassock, and then volunteered for another . The service of dedication was held in the Cathedral on 22nd November 1972.
Three years later, in 1975, Flo repeated the work, this time for the Regimental Memorial for the Middlesex Regiment, again in St Paul’s. Colonel Clayton, the President of the Association, wrote thanking Flo:
I am writing on behalf of the Middlesex Regiment and its Association to thank you very much indeed for your help in making those beautiful hassocks for use in the Regimental Chapel in St Paul’s Cathedral. It is really most kind of you to have given up your time to do this and I can assure you that your invaluable and unselfish help is much appreciated.
It was especially appreciated by the family of the soldier to whom one of Flo’s hassocks was dedicated:
Dear Mrs Wadlow,
In the course of a recent letter from my sister, Mrs Phelps, she gives me a glowing account of a really handsome and skilfully made kneeler which you have recently completed for the Middlesex Regimental Memorial in St Paul’s Cathedral, in which you have incorporated not only the regimental crest, but also my father’s initials and dates in his special memory.
I feel I must write and thank you for this work. I do not know if any of the other kneelers being made are so personal i.e. bearing the initials of individuals, but I doubt it. The one you have made will therefore have a special significance for all who see it, and particularly for members of my family. I hope that my children and grandchildren, visiting St Paul’s in future years, will find this kneeler and be proud to think ‘That was our ancestor, especially worked in his memory by the lady who worked it.’ Needless to say, I shall be proud of it myself, and I look forward to seeing it on a future visit to the Cathedral.
Yours truly,
Duncan Stewart
Flo’s husband was associated with the Far East Prisoners of War Association, and although he sadly died in 1983, Flo continued the connection. In 1992 – and by a remarkable coincidence, on 8th December, the exact day of her eightieth birthday – Flo was invited to a reception in London’s Guildhall, for the National Federation of Far East Prisoners of War Clubs and Associations. It was a glittering occasion in the presence of the Queen Mother. Flo shook the hand of the Queen Mother and the Lord Mayor of London. She spoke to the ceremonial pikemen and met Dame Vera Lynn as she was leaving the Guildhall. A splendid eightieth birthday present!
July 14th 1998 was also a very special day for Flo, when she attended a Buckingham Palace Garden Party accompanied by her granddaughter, Paula. Flo believes her name was put forward because of her very long membership of the WI.
Our day started early with a trip to the hairdresser’s at 7.40 a.m., then home to have a chat with Radio Norfolk, who wished us a happy day. Time to don our finery and out with our cameras to record our looks, then off to Norwich to board the train for London. On the platform we were greeted by a lady, ‘I know where you’re going.’ A British Legion member, she also had an invitation. In London we travelled by Underground to St James’s Park, a short walk from the Palace. Of course there were hundreds of people queuing to enter. It was fascinating to study the various fashions – long skirts and mini ones, flowery and plain dresses, all in a variety of colours and styles. The hats! Large ones plumed with feathers, straw ones garlanded with flowers and others a froth of veiling and ribbons. What a gala day for milliners. They must bless the Queen for ordering hats to be worn.
Slowly the queues moved forward through the gates, across the courtyard and up the red-carpeted stairs; at last we were in the Palace – what splendour. Ushered through a couple of rooms and out into the garden, more like a park really. Sun shining, band playing, tea tent beckoning with a tasty array of dainty sandwiches and cakes.
The Yeomen of the Guard, resplendent in their red-and-gold uniforms, lined up, down the steps and across the lawn, to form a path for the Queen and Duke to walk through the crowds of guests. The Queen
was dressed in a royal-blue silk coat and hat to match, with a flowery dress. We sat near the entrance to the Royal Tea Tent so had a very good view of Her Majesty as she went into tea, but not near enough to say hello.
A Gentleman of the Queen’s Household on duty in the Royal enclosure asked Paula about her badge and she told him it was a Norfolk Women’s Institute one. He replied, ‘How nice to meet a young member.’ I told him how proud and honoured we felt to be fellow members with the Queen and Queen Mother. All too soon it was time to go, and what a day. The magic lingers on.
Sharing the memories of her life in service has led to a mini media career for Flo. She featured in a press interview with Gillian Shephard no less, who was then researching at the UEA into domestic service in grand houses. She was interviewed by that indefatigable Norfolk flag-flier, Keith Skipper, during his time working for Radio Norfolk, and contributed to the national radio series The Century Speaks, in addition to her own programme, Cooking Up a Royal Treat, for BBC Radio 4, as mentioned above. On television she has been interviewed by Susie Fowler-Watt, and has also ventured into national television with the series Upper Crust, presented by author and photographer Christopher Simon Sykes. Here Flo starred with Mrs Sarah Bulwer-Long in the kitchen of one of Flo’s favourite houses, Heydon Hall. As at Blickling, she made the ‘Royal’ chicken dish. Flo commented:
The film crew were most intrigued by my experiences and told me I was a natural for television! I’m not a person who’s a bit shy and, with cooking, I don’t get worried if anyone looks at me. Why would I? It’s been my life.
I’ve given my talk about my life in service to ever so many WIs, and lots of organisations in the Fakenham area and around the county, and nearly every time they’ve said, ‘You ought to write a book!’
When some years ago the National Trust at Blickling produced a children’s guidebook, ‘Mrs Wadlow’ featured in it, to help the children find their way around.
Mrs Wadlow in the Blickling children’s guidebook
And when the National Trust wanted a speaker to address their members, Flo surprised them because she is never at a loss for words.
One time they asked me at Blickling Hall if I would go there and talk to a lot of the people who belong to the National Trust, so we had a whole group, all in the Hall. The man who was head of the National Trust at Blickling said he was absolutely amazed. He thought I would talk for about half an hour and then I’d run out of steam. He said, ‘There you are, more than an hour later, still going!’
Flo in the kitchen of Heydon Hall during the filming of Upper Crust in 1998
EPILOGUE
Florence Wadlow died on 9th January 2013, at the age of 100. The Daily Telegraph paid tribute to her with a detailed obituary. Flo was unimpressed by the TV programmes Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey, saying: ‘They have got it wrong. They should have talked to people like me.’
APPENDIX
Recipes
Just as most of the horsemen had their books of remedies handed down from generation to generation, closely guarded secrets that were said to earn a man a living, so most cooks, even if they will not admit to them, usually have, secreted away, a little notebook of recipes. These are often the distillation of a lifetime’s cooking, the firm favourites that have found their place of honour on the handwritten pages. Flo of course had such a book, and was prepared to share one or two of its secrets …
THE FAMOUS (ALMOST A DISASTER)
BLICKLING GINGER SPONGE
Ingredients: 7 ozs flour, 1 heaped tsp baking powder, 4 ozs butter, 5 ozs sugar, 3 eggs, ½ teacup of milk, 1 heaped tsp ground ginger
Method: Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and beat well. Sift flour, ginger and baking powder. Add milk. Bake in moderate oven for about 50 minutes.
MEXICAN GATEAU
Ingredients: ¾ lb self-raising flour, ¾ lb sugar, 6 ozs butter, 4 eggs, 2 oranges, 2 ozs shelled Brazil nuts
Method: Peel one orange thinly and cut peel into very fine strips. Chop nuts. Cream butter and sugar, add well-beaten eggs and the juice of 1 ½ oranges, add other ingredients. Bake in sandwich tin, in moderate oven, testing after 30 minutes. Put together with filling.
MARMALADE CAKE
Ingredients: 1 lb flour, 6 ozs fat (marg./lard), 6 ozs caster sugar, 6 ozs mixed currants and sultanas, 2 tbsp marmalade, 1 tsp bicarb., milk
Method: Rub fat in flour. Add sugar, currants, sultanas and marmalade. Dissolve bicarb. in warm water and add to milk. Bake in moderate oven and test after 40–45 minutes.
MRS AVES’ CHURCH WARDEN’S CAKE
Ingredients: 1 cup soft brown sugar (6 ozs), 1 lb mixed fruit, 6 ozs marg., 1 tsp bicarb., 1 cup cold water, small tin condensed milk, ½ lb chopped dates, ¼ lb cherries, 2 ozs chopped walnuts, 1 ½ cups self-raising flour, 2 beaten eggs
Method: Bring to boil all ingredients (except flour and eggs), and simmer for 20 mins. Leave to cool. Stir in flour and eggs. Cook in 7- or 8-inch tin at 325 degrees for 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours.
RAINBOW CAKE
Ingredients: 6 ozs marg. or butter, 6 ozs sugar (caster or gran.), 3 eggs, 6 ozs self-raising flour, 1 dsp cocoa, 1 dsp of pink blancmange powder – either strawberry or raspberry (if you cannot get blancmange powder, use ‘Angel Delight’), green colouring
Method: Beat marg. and sugar together then stir in eggs and flour. If you have an electric mixer this can be done all at once. Divide the mixture into 4 basins. In one add cocoa, add strawberry to another basin, add drops of green colour to the next and leave one plain. From each basin put different spoonfuls of colour into two 8-inch greased sponge tins, and bake at 350 degrees. Test after 30–40 minutes.
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Copyright
Allison & Busby Limited
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London W1T 6DW
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First published in Great Britain in 2007.
This ebook edition published by Allison & Busby in 2013.
Copyright © 2007 by FLO WADLOW
Introduction © 2007 by ALAN CHILDS
The moral right of the author is hereby asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978–0–7490–1576–3