{"id":1737,"date":"2017-01-04T20:20:36","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T19:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hhfs.org.uk\/hhfs\/?p=1737"},"modified":"2017-01-31T17:46:42","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T16:46:42","slug":"newsletter-december-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hhfs.org.uk\/hhfs\/?p=1737","title":{"rendered":"Newsletter – December 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Has there been a Teddy Bear in your life? Maybe there still is. I was reminded recently by a long time resident of Hagley that in 1944 an American Field Hospital was briefly based at \u2018Oldfield Hollies\u2019 before moving to France shortly after D-Day. \u2018Oldfield Hollies\u2019 was a large house off Middlefield Lane which now no longer exists. A few of the American staff were billeted with Hagley families. Two such were billeted with this resident\u2019s family. Wartime hardships meant that there were few new toys around and certainly no Teddy Bear for this young girl. After the war one of guests sent a parcel to the family which contained a Teddy Bear as a \u2018thank you\u2019 for the kindness shown during his stay.<\/p>\n

\"53rd<\/a>

Site of 53rd American Field Hospital at Oldfield Hollies, off Middlefield Lane<\/p><\/div>\n

The \u2018Teddy Bear\u2019 is an American invention, named after President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, but as our speaker this month Dr Gillian White told us, it was not the first toy bear. The first toy bear with jointed arms and legs was made in 1902 by the Steiff company in Germany. It had a now familiar trade mark. So, have a look in your loft for a bear with a \u2018button in the ear\u2019. It may be valuable. In 1994 one fetched \u00a3110,000 at auction.<\/p>\n

In the interest of fairness I should tell you that \u2018other bears are available\u2019 and were mentioned. With nostalgia you may remember: Winnie-the-Pooh, Rupert, Sooty, Biffo (Beano), Paddington, Yogi and Aloysius (Brideshead Revisited). We always have a soft spot for a bear.<\/p>\n

Our next meeting at St Saviour\u2019s Church Hall is on Tuesday 7th February 2017. There will be a presentation entitled \u2018A Journey Through Time – The Parish Church of St Thomas, Stourbridge\u2019. St Thomas is an attractive Grade I listed Georgian Church built in about 1736 and situated in the town centre. It is affectionately known locally as “St Thomas’s opposite Waitrose”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Has there been a Teddy Bear in your life? Maybe there still is. I was reminded recently by a long time resident of Hagley that in 1944 an American Field Hospital was briefly based at \u2018Oldfield Hollies\u2019 before moving to France shortly after D-Day. \u2018Oldfield Hollies\u2019 was a large house off Middlefield Lane which now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-letters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hhfs.org.uk\/hhfs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hhfs.org.uk\/hhfs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hhfs.org.uk\/hhfs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hhfs.org.uk\/hhfs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hhfs.org.uk\/hhfs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hhfs.org.uk\/hhfs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hhfs.org.uk\/hhfs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hhfs.org.uk\/hhfs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hhfs.org.uk\/hhfs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}