🇬🇧 Memories of VE Day & Shepperton Now! 💻

Gareth: 00:00:55

This time on the Sheppertonian:

Dallas: 00:00:58

Sandwich spread is something I remember. Bread and dripping was another thing we had and a jelly was absolutely luxury.

And today a jelly is still special to me because you got one cube of jelly if you were lucky a year.

Tony: 00:01:12

It turns out that some time ago there was a cricket match between Shepperton here and Shepparton, Australia. So I thought, well, here's an interesting twist then. Why don't we just allow the Sheppartons to join the group? If they want. And so they have.

Gareth: 00:01:34

Hello and welcome to the Sheppertonian, the podcast that shares the stories, people and history that make Shepperton such a special place. I'm Gareth, and in this episode we're marking an historic moment 80 years since VE Day, which is happening on Thursday 8th May.

I'm joined by Shepperton resident Dallas Barnes-Hughes, who shares her vivid memories of wartime life and the celebrations that followed victory in Europe. Dallas is brilliant and it's a conversation full of heart, humour and reflections on what that day meant to a generation who lived through it.

And later, I sit down with Tony, the founder and admin of the Facebook group Shepperton Now! I let Tony choose the venue.

So we sat down in the snug of the Red lion to talk about the highs, lows and surprising stories behind running one of the area's liveliest online communities. Before we dive in though, a huge thank you to all the brilliant local businesses who kindly donated to our Easter hamper. Your support was incredible.

Jamz, Cafe Moca D, Daines and Gray, Felicitations, Yellow Stone High Street News, Hamhaugh Hops, Deli Terra E Mare, Willow and Finn, Orchard Meadow Therapies, Co Op and Tulip Treasure Florist. And congratulations to Paul New, who was the lucky winner.

You can see a photo of Paul with his winning hamper in the newsletter, which you can subscribe to at thesheppertonian.uk thanks to everyone who entered and helped make it such a success. So whether you're joining us from Shepperton nearby or even further afield, pour yourself a cuppa, get comfortable and let's get started.

Gareth: 00:03:13

I'm joined today by Dallas Barnes-Hughes, a Shepperton resident who remembers VE Day from firsthand. She was a young girl at the time and today she's kindly sharing her memories of that historic day. Dallas, welcome to the Sheppertonian.

Dallas: 00:03:26

Thank you very much.

Gareth: 00:03:27

Before we get to VE Day, of course, you had 10 years of your life, so let's go back right to the start where were you born? What was life like then?

Dallas: 00:03:38

I was born on Clapham Common, on Lavender Hill. So I've always considered myself one of the Lavender Hill mob.

My grandparents lived there, they were watermen and lightermen and we moved on then when Mother was married to Teddington and our home was adjacent to the National Physical Laboratory. So we walked out the front door of the house and back into Bushy Park.

So I've got lots of lovely memories of Bushy Park, Hampton Court palace, riding on the back of my sister's bike, who was five years older than me, and to get on the cannons which were there in the park not far from us. Couldn't tell you exactly where to climb onto the cannons was the race.

Jill let me on the back of the bike, she got on the cannons, I was still on the bike and then when the bike stopped, I fell off. So that was my very youth there. So there I went to school in Twickenham at the convent, St.

course, when the war came in: 1939

In fact, we were Cold Hill Road when the war broke out and we were putting up black paper on the windows and I remember my parents sitting by the radio and we heard say, war's been declared.

Gareth: 00:04:53

How did that feel?

Dallas: 00:04:54

I was. Well, I was five, four and a half five at the time, but I realized it was serious.

But we were sheltered wholly throughout the war from all the dramas that happened. And then as I grew up, our house was requisitioned by the RAFA after we'd gone to Stoke and church, which is.

Sorry, I'm getting emerald out of this place. That's all right.

But I remember living in Kew Gardens in a house of my father's cousin because she was away in the army and because we'd got nowhere to go.

So we stayed in Kew Gardens for a couple of years and backwards and forwards to Stokenchurch, where we'd been at the beginning of the Blitz for a night's sleep.

And during that time, Mother, who was very much a city lady, always wore high heeled shoes because she got a high instep and she did the post round in high heeled shoes on a bicycle. She had a leather coat which obviously she'd worn in Dad's open cars. They always had cars. Dad was a car maniac. I was very nearly born in a car.

and nearly ran out of petrol getting from Teddington to Clapham Common to get me there.

So cars, motors have always been in my life and mother always got off a bike with the leg in the front of her, so she tripped her up as she got off, sort of thing. But again, we stayed in Stokenchurch, which was absolutely fantastic during the war.

We did eventually managed to find rooms in a farm where I stayed with my grandparents, where mother and father came from London whenever they could. And living on the farm was lovely. I got on the bus at 8 o'clock in the morning to go to High Wycombe, which was another convent school.

I mean, not Catholics, but it was education one school passed on to another. So at St. Bernard's Convent in High Wycombe, I went to school. It was 8 o'clock in the morning.

Walked along the muddy path from the house to the front gate in my Wellington boots, where I changed into my dark school shoes with my grandfather, then got me to the bus stop, which was literally the village, just a few yards up the road.

Then 8 o'clock the bus got to school and then when I got home in the evening, again on the bus, my clean Wellingtons were in the boots, ready to be walked home again. I learned to ride the milk horse. We had a cart and some people had their milk taken straight from the churn into their jugs.

Tony: 00:07:13

Wow.

Dallas: 00:07:14

Into the house that was in going through Stokenchurch on the way to Henley. So that was the farm, which was a bit sort of mad. And then at haymaking time, of course, it was lovely because the boys were there to get the.

Literally, you see it in the picture, whacking the mice and rats as they came out. But I was lucky enough to try the tractor because I was tall for my age and because it was only two pedals, so I could manage that.

So I drove the tractor with cable on that, and then was sort of pitching and stooking and I was pushing the tractor. So when I found the farm was chaotic, in fact, I went back.

Gareth: 00:07:41

No risk assessment then.

Dallas: 00:07:43

Oh, no, health and safety. But we all survived. We all survived. And of course, food was so short, even in the country.

I mean, kind, generous, but when it came to food, we were all short. But they had chickens on the farm and my grandfather was very naughty. He'd retired early to be with grandma because she was very nervous.

And he used to run a trickle of corn from where the chickens were into our bike shed. So we got the odd egg, you know.

We also owned an illicit pig, I understand at one stage, because Richard Murdoch, Dickie Murdoch of the radio, he also lived in Stokenchurch, backwards and forwards, I didn't know. But so, the parents and we shared. And I think her name was Belinda. And whenever we ran on a raffle, like a rabbit, rabbits in their cage.

You'd be surprised how they got out of their cages quite regularly, poor things. And I now realise we had rabbit for lunch the next day, you know, and all these things were going on.

The Swilly pond used to freeze and we'd skate on that because we'd got skating boots, having been in London with Richmond being the ice rink. So we did that. So that was sort of basically during the war. And it was also at Stokenchurch.

I remember just before my birthday again, the D Day landings. The whole of the Cotswolds and the Chilterns were covered with airfields.

And we were walking over the village green at Stokenchurch, which is now covered by the M40 and the whole sky was like a load of mosquitoes. There was hardly any sky at all. It was these gliders and aeroplanes going over and it was a fantastic picture. I can't tell you how wonderful it was.

I'd won a rabbit that day too. I remember that.

Gareth: 00:09:20

What was the sound like?

Dallas: 00:09:22

It was a purring sound. I didn't really notice it because I suppose aeroplanes have been going over the whole time and like what? Listening to the we're here and there.

You don't hear them after a certain time. But Mother said, look, Dal, that's history being made. So she knew then that that was D Day a year previously was really the beginning of the end.

Gareth: 00:09:42

So the mood was high at that point.

Dallas: 00:09:44

Yes, I'm guessing it will. Well, D Day was quite something, yes.

But again, we were so sheltered from it all our lives were very much, as you can gather, from the farm, from school, from the activities, the fundraising efforts. We'd been to dancing at Ms. Holdaway's at Teddington, we'd done shows at Kingston Empire, which is now Wetherspoons.

And, you know, my older sister and I, Mother shoved us off to dancing. So we were on the stage and on the show from day one.

And of course I'd got all our stage costumes and we used to have the barrel organ came for fundraising for services during the war. And I would dance in front of the barrel organ, you know, collecting money.

Gareth: 00:10:22

Wonderful.

Dallas: 00:10:22

Never one to stand back, as you probably gather. Jill was highly embarrassed, but.

So the war, during the war was fine, but when it came to VE Day we were living, I think I worked it out that we must have been at Waldegrave Road then in Teddington.

Gareth: 00:10:36

And you were about 10 years old at the time?

Dallas: 00:10:38

birthday. Yeah, well, it was: 1945

But for some reason Auntie Molly, who lived in London, she was widowed son, younger than me, a bit younger baby David we called him, was visiting parents of family of the Wheatcrofts in Worksop, which is Nottingham, isn't it? Nottinghamshire.

Gareth: 00:11:06

Right, okay.

Dallas: 00:11:07

And apparently branches of the family did live up there at that time.

And Auntie Molly, because she was widow, of course, was in touch with various members elsewhere and I was taken up there and I remember we were on the beach at Skegness when all this happened. Is that all that in that part of the sea? I think it was a bit. Absolutely seaside and Stan, we were able to go on the beach.

Gareth: 00:11:27

It's a big beach as well.

Dallas: 00:11:28

And that was the first time we'd been on the beach because when we somehow we got down to Brighton from time to time because there's barbed wire all along front. But really in Skegness I experienced. Or in Worksop, I suppose, that area. Anyway, it was names to me.

I remember we had a street party and that was something. I mean, in Teddington and Twickham, no way did you have street parties. I mean, they were not for our sort of people, you know.

Yeah, it sounds an awful thing to say, but it's true. But it was lovely.

And we were doing Gay Gordons, which of course, having been dancing, I knew all about the Gay Gordons, we were dancing, but I think the Midlands and the north had also experienced it, but not in the same way. And I've lived in the Midlands for 20 odd years and they've got much more open fun letting themselves go in public.

Whereas you see in suburban London you didn't. Suburban London was quite different and so this was such an experience for me. I loved it. And Auntie Molly was a gay girl, good fun.

She'd been widowed when her son was 4, but she was a good party girl and they used to go to holiday camps, which, I mean, again, we would never dream of. But Auntie Molly was the first one to lead the conga, you know, I was very happy to follow with her, you know, so that really was what I remember.

Gareth: 00:12:46

So the street party, is it as I would imagine, long trestle tables down the middle of the street and well.

Dallas: 00:12:52

It was sometimes there were small parties in gardens. A lot depended where they lived because not everybody. Because again, food was short too. It was all rationed.

How they got food for it, I mean, talk about beg, borrowing, stealing.

Gareth: 00:13:04

So what kind of food would there have been? Well, it was there at that one.

Dallas: 00:13:08

There must have been sandwiches, but we had sandwich spread is something I remember bread and dripping was another thing we had. And a jelly was absolutely luxurious.

And today a jelly is still special to me because you got one cube of jelly if you were lucky a year, if you could get it. I mean, butter was still 2 ounces a pack. We had bread and scrape, basically didn't notice it. And orange was bananas.

t have chocolate eclair until: 1940

anything with cream in until: 1946

Gareth: 00:13:53

Must have blown your mind.

Dallas: 00:13:55

Ice cream. I don't eat ice cream now because I didn't have it as a child, you see. Okay, sweets and chocolates, yeah, chocolate, but 4 ounces of sweets a month.

But then again, the American soldiers came over, just were here just after the war and at the skating rink in Richmond because they would come and buy us a tomato sandwich. I mean that was so special, really, really special. White sliced bread and a tomato in the middle. And that was luxury.

And of course they'd throw out sweets galore, but we'd never had them. And again, we were encouraged not to take them because we were able to give sweets to other people in a way.

There were those that hadn't got them, you know. And although we weren't well off, a lot of people were less well off because their families were.

Mother was working, dad was away at the war probably, but my father didn't go and we were exceptional. And dad actually was abused in the street because he hadn't got a uniform.

But I've got a letter from Shell Mex in my box congratulating him on the work he did dismantling the petrol supply on the road into more. It was obvious, obviously the Hawker Sidley factory was opposite and dad dismantled and stayed there while bombs the wall around and doing something.

So he did his bit as many men did. They weren't all spivs, you know.

Gareth: 00:15:13

So how do you feel when you look back on that day now?

Dallas: 00:15:17

I look on it with great relief because we could take down the blackout. We could switch on the lights here.

It wasn't encouraged because we were still at war with Japan and there were still obviously spies about and things like that, and we were still at war. But the relief of knowing with bit more certainty that we weren't going to be bombed at night, that the raid wasn't going to go.

And Kim was born in September: 1945

So right up to that time, we were still getting warnings and bombings from somewhere from May to September.

Gareth: 00:16:04

It's a cautious optimism.

Dallas: 00:16:06

Yes, yes. We didn't get rid of our air raid shelters or anything like that, or our gas masks. We still kept those and carried them with us.

Gareth: 00:16:14

What do you think younger generations should understand about that time in history?

Dallas: 00:16:20

I'm thinking about my grandsons who are 16 and 17.

And with the current situation of war would possibly be with us quite different from our war because, I mean, it'll be the push of an atomic button or something even worse or whatever, and it'll go. They won't experience it. But I think it mustn't be glamorised. I think they should certainly be aware of it.

And I think if they see how their families handled it, they would understand more than just being told like a history lesson. Your grandfather did this. You've seen it a bit on the family history programs on the television.

They're a bit glamorised, but if they know how it affected their family both mentally and physically, I think the mental aspect is a very important one. And I've seen that with my late husband. He was in the National Serviceman. He was blown up in Cyprus.

And we didn't know at the time because we were walking on Kings Road, Chelsea. He fell flat on his face when a car backfired.

He thought he was being shot at again, you see, and he lived with that, but with no treatment in those days, 40, 50 years ago.

And I think if they realized that with war and the results of war, it's so desperate, negotiation so important, but celebrate the good things, work on the bad and be tolerant. I think that's my main message to the younger people. Give and take. See their side of the story, see yours.

Because wars on the whole are by politicians who probably haven't been there. The man in the street does what he's told. Really? Because that's the way we are. You're either bullied into it in some countries.

In our case, we just support. I think we used to, anyway. So how would I tell the younger generation? I think they should know. And it mustn't be glamorised.

You must have the facts and the bitter things, but don't dramatise even the bad things, because that's what happens on television. Plays and things. It's drama. It's either glamour or it's hideous or it's something you know, but get the fact there.

But every child will have to see it differently.

Gareth: 00:18:19

Coming back to VE Day, do you have any messages that you'd like to share with the community in Shepperton as we mark the anniversary?

Dallas: 00:18:26

Enjoy every minute of it. Enjoy every jelly you eat, every fate. Just be thankful that you've got the day to be happy. Yes. Have fun.

Make it an opportunity to get to know people better, to meet people you haven't met before. Yeah, No, I think it's great. We're going to have a thing on the island.

Tony: 00:18:42

Oh, lovely.

Dallas: 00:18:43

Yes. They put it up, you know, we're going to come along, wear red WI. We're going to wear red, white and blue on the.

Gareth: 00:18:48

Fantastic.

Dallas: 00:18:48

No, we've got to celebrate it. It was a must. Marvellous event. It was a most fantastic day of relief. I see, for everybody at that time.

Gareth: 00:18:57

Yeah.

Dallas: 00:18:57

My message is enjoy it, have fun and be thankful.

Gareth: 00:19:01

Dallas, thank you so much for sharing your memories with us today.

Dallas: 00:19:05

It's been great fun. Thank you. It's been a great honor.

Gareth: 00:20:33

We're sitting in the Red lion in Shepparton, Wonderful pub. I'm sitting with Tony, who runs the Facebook group Shepperton Now! Tony, I asked you for a place in Shepperton that you like so we could record there. Why have you picked here?

Tony: 00:20:50

People that know me may suggest that this has become my second home over the last ten years or so. I'm sure that's a complete lie and I refute any allegations of the sort. But, yeah, Red Lion's very convenient to me.

It's obviously one of the local pubs we've got in Shepperton, all of which are very good. It just happens to be the one that I spend probably too much time, depending. If you're asking me, you're asking my wife, I suppose.

But, yeah, here we are.

Gareth: 00:21:13

Well, I mean, sunny day. It's a lovely pub, isn't it? And we're sat in the back room in the snug, which is just really comfortable.

You joked earlier about having an open fire as well, but it might be a bit too warm.

Tony: 00:21:26

We've not quite got the open fire, but as we both know, we've used this for social events before.

Gareth: 00:21:30

Absolutely, I've used it. Absolutely.

So we're here to talk about Shepperton Now! which is the Facebook group for the local area for listeners who might not use Facebook or aren't in the group. Give us a brief description of it.

Tony: 00:21:45

So Facebook, I mean, in a nutshell, social media group, probably one of the first ones that went viral and then globally viral. And it was a way of networking people that otherwise wouldn't have contact with each other using the technology that was available at the time.

And it was preceded by. By others that tried to take over the market there. So I think we had Bebo, wasn't it, and nice and things like that.

And, you know, Mark Zuckerberg's made a lot of money out of it, a little bit. He's monetised it very well. There are many good things to it.

There are also some inherent dangers with it and some things that I don't particularly like, but we kind of put up with it. First and foremost, it's a marketing platform. Then what we choose to use it for after that is entirely down to us.

And I don't know how long ago it was actually groups started probably. Was it 10 years ago, something like that? Because it never used to have groups and then groups became a thing, which.

Gareth: 00:22:40

Was presumably pages weren't there and then.

Tony: 00:22:43

Yeah, and then I don't know if that was to try and take someone else's product out of the market. It may well have been, but they.

Gareth: 00:22:50

Often copy each other, don't they, these platforms?

Tony: 00:22:52

They do. And, you know, you can see them all jockeying for position. So we've now got, obviously, Instagram, owned by Facebook as well.

We've got His Lordship, Mr. X and Elon and his rockets. Is he really human? Who knows? I suppose we'll find out one day. So and so it goes on.

If you look in each area, there's usually more than one group per area. I would say Surrey's probably got, I don't know, 30 or 40 groups of one form or another.

I haven't actually counted them and they all do slightly different things to each other. So, yeah, Shepperton now is one of those.

Gareth: 00:23:25

So why Shepperton Now? Why did you start it?

Tony: 00:23:27

I mean, it's no secret.

My background is in law enforcement and, you know, I've done a lot, a lot of work with victims of crime in the past, been involved in a lot of things, a lot of investigations and it was a kind of frustrating. I suppose that when you look around social media, one thing it's not really very good at is getting information out quickly.

And early iterations of groups on Facebook, they were pretty well locked down. So you could try and post something, but it would involve an administrator having to try and post that for you.

So I remember thinking, well, you know, if we want to do anything quick time, we should be able to do that.

You know, there are organisations out there that support the police, like Pub Watch or, you know, there's local street watch for shop, Shop Watch even. Sorry. And they all have quick time ways of getting information out about it. People who may be, you know, up to no good in the local community.

And we had some situations where we had people who were doing that. And I thought, well, maybe there's a quicker way we can do it.

And this isn't a criticism of any other group here, it's just I thought, well, let's try something a little bit different. So I started Shepparton now and Clue is in the title now. And so. Right, so, yeah, so. And it took a little while to get going.

I mean, it's, you know, it was really low numbers for a while and then all of a sudden it goes exponential and.

Gareth: 00:24:48

Well, 25,000 members now.

Tony: 00:24:50

Yeah.

Gareth: 00:24:50

I mean, did you imagine it would grow into that?

Tony: 00:24:54

Probably not in reality, but that's, that's actually the tip of the iceberg. I mean, if you look at it now. So, yeah, we're around about 25,000 of those. We have around about. Where are we now?

In the last month, 262,000 people have viewed our pages. Those are individual views. So it's not just the 25,000 because it's an open group that allows people to post, albeit we do vet them.

That's the kind of throughput it has, that has good and bad as we'll probably get onto.

Gareth: 00:25:28

And it also includes people from Shepparton in Australia.

Tony: 00:25:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Gareth: 00:25:32

Bit of a running joke.

Tony: 00:25:33

Yeah, well, that, yeah, well, we digress a little bit. But yeah, that started when somebody got on the group. I think the group, we were doing really well.

And I think what happens is if Facebook think your group has got potential and your posts are, you know, inclusive, involving people, the content's good, then they promote it. And so I started getting this odd one from Australia. And I thought, well, you spelled it wrong for a start. What's going on here?

And so anyway, one got on the group and then somebody said, oh yeah, Shepparton, Victoria, Australia. We played cricket against them. I'm like, what?

And so it turns out that some time ago there was a cricket match between Shepperton here and Shepparton, Australia. So I thought, well, here's an interesting twist then. Why don't we just allow the Sheppartons to join the group if they want?

And so they have and we get some that are. They post things that really just aren't relevant here. But they do get asked.

When you go through the joining instructions, you do realise this is Shepperton uk, but you're more than welcome and they still say yes and join. So we get, we get them, you know, in the group and there's over, I think there's something like 250, 300 of them now. Wow.

Gareth: 00:26:39

It's a lovely inclusive thing to do.

Tony: 00:26:42

I thought it was a bit of a different slant. I mean, you know, other groups might do it, you know, because there's places that are twinned with, you know, wherever.

And I'm sure there may be relationships there, but I just thought, well, why not? So that's what we did and could.

Gareth: 00:26:55

Be a little trip in the offing.

Tony: 00:26:57

Oh, I think that's probably optimistic. I did reach out to the local authority over there and say, do you know, we've got this, this.

But I've not yet, I've yet to have a reply but then, you know, that's.

Gareth: 00:27:06

So what's it, what's it like managing the group behind the scenes? Is it a. Does it seem like a full time job?

Tony: 00:27:11

Sometimes it can do and you know, there are some days where you barely have to touch it. And I should put a big thanks out.

Obviously my wife Tracey does some of the admin but she works globally so she doesn't have access to or time really to do quite as much as perhaps I do. I'm tending to be the one that's doing the back end at home. So I've got a little bit more time on my hands sometimes.

And we've had, recently we've had Lena, she's one of our moderators who helps out, sort of playing referee here and there. And before that we had Dan. Dan's a good guy. He was quite robust in the way he dealt with some things, which is useful.

But Dan moved out the area and so we haven't got a Dan. I've actually Got potentially a couple of vacancies for moderators now.

So if anybody feels like they've really don't mind sticking pins in their eyes, then please come and join us. Chat is timely, then, but the question, I mean, you say, what's it like?

It has its challenges, there is no doubt, and it's well publicized and I don't shy away from it. Some of the posts we get can be quite divisive or they can be innocuous, but we can see which way they're going. And even today we've had one.

I've seen it in other groups where it's gone wrong, and that's because we had, I think it was a traveller festival last week, which I'm not going to go into the whys and wherefores of it, but let's just say there was a lot of disquiet around what was actually going on and it caused some community tensions, not just here but around the local area. And so that tends to bring out emotions in people that aren't always best put on paper.

And so I have to keep tabs on that because we have a strong traveller community in Shepparton. I know some of them and they've got businesses here and they do really good stuff. And so I have to apply the balance.

And they're obviously quite keen to say, well, we're not all tied with the same brush and so you've got to find that balance. And the other thing as well is, particularly with Facebook, they are getting more acute at finding these things before we do.

And this stems from, I think it was the child abuse side of things. Facebook got taken through the Senate to explain why they weren't doing enough against child abuse.

And since then they've, I wouldn't say trigger happy, but they've certainly upped their game in that department. But what they do, they get very, very sensitive about certain words and content.

And I will quite often get something sent through that says, facebook have taken this post down because it violates community standards. And that's fine until you then go in to look to see what the post was. And they say, we can't tell you, so you don't know who did it, why they did it.

Gareth: 00:29:39

They don't support, do they?

Tony: 00:29:41

Yeah. So you sit there. So I have to go, well, okay, and that counts. Technically, there's a black mark against the whole page.

And so sometimes I get criticized, like, why is my post been taken down?

Well, actually, your post never made it, or whatever you write on that post has been Taken down by Facebook because of certain keywords or too many people have complained about what you've written. I mean, it doesn't happen that often.

And usually if I put a stop on things, I think probably half a dozen times, people have said, well, you're playing about with our free speech. And sometimes I have to go, well, I am the admin. And sometimes I have to do that because I can see where it's going.

Or Facebook have already sent through things that we've seen, because a lot of what goes on, you don't see on the group. What you see is what's made the final cut, really.

Gareth: 00:30:23

So you can talk. You talk about spotting things where they're going. How do you handle disputes or conflict in the group?

Tony: 00:30:30

It can be difficult. I've certainly had some. And people will know the big ones, you know, businesses. I know we've got that as a topic to discuss. It's awkward.

And I have taken things offline. I've actually gone and met people say, this is why we do things a certain way. We've had to do it this way.

You've got to think of a solution because it's there in front of you. These problems aren't things that you can see too far in advance, usually. So we have things like elections. Elections are difficult.

Political posts are difficult because everybody has a political view.

And unfortunately, it's a bit like, well, you support one football team and I support another, and the longer we talk about it, it might move from banter to something else. And that is what happens. And other groups have more or less the same way of dealing with it that we do. And political posts are largely right. Okay.

If you're going to start slagging off another party or another person, I can't have that. If that person has done a piece of good work in the community.

And they all do, no matter what party they are, they're all out there doing their thing. They're allowed to post that. But what I won't have is if they post well, I've done a great thing. Because the others are rubbish. Yeah.

Gareth: 00:31:36

It's just keeping it civil, isn't it?

Tony: 00:31:38

Yeah, I don't have a problem with that. So we've got, obviously got Lincoln Jopp now, who's the councillor for Surrey, Spelthorne. He posts, I have others. Harry Bopper. I post.

I have the other councillors. Maureen Atwell. People like that, they post when they need to and it finds its own level usually.

But, you know, sometimes people say, well, why have you taken that down? Or why have you not taken that down?

And it's because I've had to make a decision one way or the other and sometimes it's not perfect, but it's the best I can do.

Gareth: 00:32:06

You've made some clear decisions about what's.

Gareth: 00:32:08

Allowed and what's not.

Gareth: 00:32:09

For instance, the rule of banning negative posts about businesses. Yeah, you mentioned businesses.

Tony: 00:32:14

Yeah, yeah.

Gareth: 00:32:14

Can you speak to that?

Tony: 00:32:16

Yeah. A lot of soul searching, that one.

Because when I originally started the page, my view was you should be able to say pretty much what you want within reason.

And, you know, there are groups out there that will allow that to happen and say, well, this business is, you know, I'm not going to use the words that are often used, but then they themselves getting banned. But, you know, people criticise businesses, oh, I've had a bad experience.

And some of them, you know, they are well written and they, you can see that there is some validity to what they're saying. But ultimately I had to do some research because we had some problems with one of the businesses.

And again, people who follow the page will probably know which, which one it is. And it's. It's really, really unclear as to the legal ramifications of what happens.

And there is certainly some evidence out there that you, as the person who posts it and the administrators who allow it, could face legal action in relation to it for, you know, defamation or, you know, any of the sort of the civil law routes.

And it's also quite clear that Facebook, obviously big organisation that they are, with 300 lawyers in wherever, are not going to be touched on this and it will be down to you. So they will and do say quite frequently this post goes against community standards.

I have a very love hate relationship with Facebook for a lot of reasons. As I said to you before, I've worked a lot with victims of crime.

Facebook has been extremely difficult around that and some of the things that they do, targeted advertising to victims of crime posts, plagiarism and all sorts of things go on there. But anyway, it's not an easy thing to sort out.

It is difficult and, you know, sometimes I have to think, well, you know, I'd like to apologise to everybody for having removed posts here and there, but usually there's a reason behind it. I've had conversations with people in here and say, why are you making my life painful this week? What did you write that for? Why?

Why have you done that?

Gareth: 00:34:12

On the flip side though, you see some heartwarming posts, surprising posts. What kind of posts have you seen over the years?

Tony: 00:34:20

Well, we've developed really good relationships with a lot of people. I think the relationship with the police is better. It could be better. It's probably fallen off the edge a little bit lately.

I don't know if there's been a change of management over at Staines, but, you know, we've got really good relationships with the local councillors and things like that. So when people see homeless. Right, we can deal with that. Yeah. Somebody says, you know, I've got Route 1 straight to the right, people.

And chances are, if we're lucky, they already know about it anyway because they read it or they were dealing with it before the post even got created. So we do really well on things like that. We had a really good response when we had the floods last year. It was last year, year before.

There was a lot of people in the community who were suffering in relation to that. Even if it was things like, please don't drive down our road because you create a bow wave through the front door to. We're really in need of this.

That and whatever it is. And resources.

And I know that the local councillors and the council were using some of the pages to sort of try and target resources and look what needed to be providing where and when. So things like that. It works really well, you know, and we have a few funny ones here and there as well and things like that.

We also had a really good one, actually, which I should mention, it was probably two or three years ago now. We had a couple of sightings of a guy who was.

He was an identity thief and he was seen going through front doors of communal blocks and he was stealing the post and it was on this group that. That all came together and the police managed to arrest the guy, so that was dealt with and he went off to court. But that was.

That was quite serious, that, because identity theft is horrible for anyone. You know, it goes on for years if you have your ID stolen. And. Yeah, so that was. That's the kind of thing I envisaged it being used for.

So, yeah, if you've got shoplifters going down the high street, happy to hear about it. If you've got burglars in the street, definitely happy to hear about it.

Please make sure you contact the police first but, you know, by all means, put it on there. So that's the kind of good it can do. And there's probably other things as well. I mean, we've had a few funny ones.

Gareth: 00:36:21

Oh, it's nice to see it being used creatively by the people who, yeah, as well, you know, you can have your rules, but it's nice that people can just go in and use it how they want to.

Tony: 00:36:33

And as a platform for business, I challenge anybody to find one that's as good as that because, you know, I have to give them some rules because otherwise it gets unwieldy. There are, I don't know how many business. It's hard to work it out.

I don't know how many businesses we've got now who advertise, but it's probably over a thousand, maybe more. And you know, the rules are post on a Monday, post once. If you do that, we're all happy.

There are certain exemptions to that, one of which is I support live music from young and up and coming bands. If you've got a band or you're a venue, allowing that, you can post. If you're a charity, you can post again.

As long as those aren't excessive, like every day you can do it. And there's a few other ones that I occasionally allow.

But for businesses, as I've already said to you, we had 262,000 people looking across the pages and we get four and a half thousand people a month contributing to posts and we've got 25,000 people who are actively members. So as a business resource, it's great, but just don't post on other days because we do spend a lot of time sorting those out.

And to be fair, most of them, they'll do it once, they might do it twice.

If we go beyond that, then it's right, we'll have to start giving you a warning now and then we might have to suspend you for a few days just so you at least read the fact you're doing it wrong. And on the odd occasion we've had to say, right, you've had too many goes now and the virtual naughty step, you have been permanently send in. So.

But we try and keep that to a minimum because, you know, we've been through some hard times, haven't we, with COVID and things like that. And I think it's important that to use it as a resource that the community want and businesses need that help. So that's why we do it, how we do it.

Gareth: 00:38:17

We were talking about the difference between 10 years ago and now and then way it's grown, what you want the group to become over the next few years. I don't know, are you happy to.

Tony: 00:38:29

Just, you know, I think it's, it's found its own rhythm now. I Don't. Yeah, I don't think it. It will develop. I mean, we still get new members all day, every day.

I did think about capping it around about 25,000 because, you know, that seems to me to be quite a big number. Bear in mind that I do get told occasionally that there's only. I think it's about 6,000 on the electoral register for Shepperton.

Gareth: 00:38:53

Right.

Tony: 00:38:54

We've got 25,000 people in it. But if I was looking this morning, actually, where everybody's from, because it can tell me that. Let me have a look.

So we have in the group, 23,000 ish are in the United Kingdom. Hallelujah. 252 Australians, as discussed. We have 111 from United States. We've got 191 from Pakistan and 155 from Nigeria.

staines,: 2000

e another one there? Ashford,: 1400

Gareth: 00:39:44

Yeah.

Tony: 00:39:44

To say, are you really a Sheppertonian? But.

Gareth: 00:39:46

And there are. There are people who post in there who might have moved away.

Tony: 00:39:50

Yeah, totally.

Gareth: 00:39:50

Just want to keep in touch.

Tony: 00:39:51

Family members. Yeah, yeah, definitely. There's a lot of those, actually, and I do get messages from them from time to time.

In fact, one of the instructions, are you a resident in Shepperton or do you have interest there? And quite often people say, yeah, I've got interest in Shepperton. And that's exactly what they mean. They're just keeping in touch with family.

Gareth: 00:40:06

Lovely. So what advice would you give to someone thinking of starting a similar group in their own village or town?

Tony: 00:40:14

I'm not going to say don't do it. I mean, I think, you know, be prepared, have some time on your hands. Definitely.

And use Facebook's admin rules to help you, because if you don't, you'll quickly get overwhelmed with things. There are certain things that Facebook can do for you that bin a lot of the nonsense.

We get way, way, way more things that we don't allow than things that we do because we get bogus accounts all the time and they're quite obvious. Some of those are bot related, so they are automatic and they're just trying to forge access.

I've still not worked out what the bigger plan is there with a lot of that. But anyway, they do it. So what would I do? Use. Use those.

Have a couple of friends at least, who are willing to help you do it and just have some good moderator rules. I mean, the moderators and the. The admins, we, we do all talk to each other around here, or people may think we don't.

So, you know, what goes on here? Like I said to you, pubwatch or shopwatch, it's kind of the same with Facebook groups a little bit.

So, you know, we try and help each other out, particularly on scams. I'm quite strong on that because I don't want anybody to get scammed on our page or, you know, or locally.

So we sort of pass information around on that quite frequently. So, you know, get a feel for it first. If you understand how groups work, great. If you don't, get advice and just go for it.

I mean, I've got friends who've got. I mean, I'm in loads of groups. I waste too much time, really.

Mostly car groups, as people will know, but I've got friends who organize groups that are even bigger than this one, you know, particularly on the car side of things. So, yeah, it just depends. If you've got the time, go for it.

If you haven't, let someone else do it for you, because it can be quite challenging and it will take up some of your time, especially when you're writing big, long posts like I do, to say, I know you don't like me for this, but this is why I've just done what I've done. Right. But there it is for you.

Gareth: 00:42:09

So, final question. If Shepperton now were a real place in the village, a physical spot, what kind of place do you think it.

Tony: 00:42:18

Would be if it was a spot? Well, I think we're sat in it, aren't we? You like the Red Line?

Gareth: 00:42:24

Yeah, that's a very nice thought.

Tony: 00:42:26

A big red lion.

Gareth: 00:42:27

A big red lion, yeah.

Tony: 00:42:29

I think probably more things get sorted out in here, probably, than anywhere else, to be honest. Well, you know, pubs are like that, aren't they? Yeah. Community problems are aired and dealt with.

Gareth: 00:42:38

Absolutely. Going to get the community together.

Tony: 00:42:41

Look after your local pubs.

And that's not just the Red Lion, that's, you know, we have others in the village, as you're all aware, and not all have been successful because we lost the. What's the one down in the square? We've lost a few down in Shepperton Square.

Gareth: 00:42:52

Yeah.

Tony: 00:42:53

So places like that, you know, if they open again they need your support. But for Shepperton Now, cool. You're in a venue with 25,000 people in there all arguing over the arguing over traffic lights and cones.

It'd be horrendous. So, I mean, as you've noticed, we do have our favorite subjects. Studios, cones, absolutely.

Gareth: 00:43:13

But on behalf of Shepperton now and its members, I'd like to thank you for all the hard work you put in. I'm sure everyone will agree with that. And thank you for chatting to me today.

Tony: 00:43:22

Thanks for the invite about Shepperton Now. Thank you for everybody who uses it, because, you know, it is. I do think it's a valuable resource now and and long may it continue.

Gareth: 00:43:32

What's Going on in Shepperton?

Gareth: 00:43:35

Sponsor by Shepperton Matters okay, what's going on in May? There's so much going on that it would take all day to include everything here.

So do subscribe to the email newsletter at thesheppertonian.uk for the full list. So companionship services are part of the Dementia Friendly Spelthorne.

They are helping organize the Dementia Awareness Street Market on Staines High street on 22 May from 10 till 3 during dementia action Week. Next up, Bishop Duppas Lawn Bowls Club tryouts and open days. Saturday 10th May, 10 till 2, Tuesday 13th May 5 till 7, Monday 26th May 10 till 2.

Just bring flat shoes or trainers to Bishop Duppas Park. The link is in the newsletter. Staines Ramblers are a very friendly and active group who have members throughout Spelthorne.

Their program has walks midweek and at the weekend of varying lengths where they make the most of the countryside around.

Twickenham. A great night of: 1980

A rephrasing play with music telling the story of Rosetta Thorpe and Marie night on Thursday the 8th to Saturday the 10th of May at 7.45pm the Staines players present the House on the Cliff by George Batson at Stanwell Village Hall, TW19 7JR. Tickets are £11. Saturday the 10th and Sunday the 11th May, Hampton Court Gardens are offering free entrance. Oh, get down there.

Sunday 11 May 10 till 4pm there's an open day for World War II at West Horsley Place, you can explore the history of a house that sheltered Canad soldiers during World War II. Monday 12 May 2:30 to 4:30pm Leyland Good Neighbors invite you for afternoon tea at Laleham Village Hall.

Bring the neighbours and friends, tea and cake provided. What's not to like, eh?

Friday 16th May at 7.30pm there's an evening concert Trio Bronte piano, violin and cello at the Riverhouse Barn Arts Centre in Walton on Thames. Tickets are £30.

And on Saturday 17th May at 7pm, Weybridge Male Voice Choir perform at St Nicholas Church, Shepperton in support of the Friends of St Nicholas Church. Tickets are £15.

And finally, from Wednesday the 21st to Tuesday 27th May, it's the Walton Film Festival screenings and talks at Riverhouse Barn Art Centre, Walton on Thames.

You can find out all the rest of what's going on in and around Shepparton in May in the Sheppertonian email newsletter, which you can subscribe to at thesheppertonian.uk Hear.

Gareth: 00:46:25

This the Sheppertonian ShoutOut so May's.

Gareth: 00:46:30

Sheppertonian Shoutout is for a place. I put a post on Facebook with this question. Which Shepperton View is your favorite? Is it the Lock on a sunny day? Is it Church Square?

Or is it the High street lit up at Christmas, all brilliant and beautiful views. Rosemary Baker says Church Square by the river. Emma Cordwell says Manor Park.

Memories of running with my Labrador across the park in the snow when I was young.

First Shepperton Brownie and guides nights in the woods, going to the summer Shakespeare plays on the outdoor stage with my mum and getting attacked by the mozzies. My special bench is there where I like to sit and reflect. That is brilliant, Emma.

Gareth: 00:47:07

Thank you.

Gareth: 00:47:08

Terry Salt says the square. Rose Saunders says Dawson Hall. I had to look that up. It's the location of Cignet's Nursery, which is a preschool. Sandy Jennings says Shepperton Lock.

Andy Cradock Shepperton Lock for me. Gene Davies Church Square by the river is a special place for me. Alison Clark Allen none exclamation mark. Okay, Alison, come on then.

From the Red lion, roughly on Russell Road, looking towards Sunbury, the bend in the river is the best view. Yeah, can't argue with that. That's. That's a good one. Kim Hughes says Church Square. Julia Van Gogh says the Lock and the river on a sunny day.

Why don't you let me know what your favorite Shepperton View is? You can get in touch via the website at thesheppertonian.uk, where you'll also find links to the Instagram and Facebook pages.

Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the Sheppertonian. Don't forget to sign up for the newsletter if you want links to anything you've heard in this show. And until next time, I'll see you around.