Mabel Elizabeth Edwards
1873 - 1957
Elizabeth Mabel Edwards was born in Knighton on 12th May 1873, to parents George Benjamin & Sarah Ellen Edwards (nee Tudge).
It appears that although she was baptised with her first name Elizabeth she chose instead to use the name Mabel.
George Benjamin Edwards, of the Farm Brampton Bryan, had married Sarah Ellen Tudge in Knighton in 1865. Sarah Tudge was the sister of Jane, Margaret & Elizabeth P Tudge who ran the THE FARMERS' CLUB-HOUSE AND COMMERCIAL HOTEL KNIGHTON (also known as the New Buildings and Assembly-Rooms) Sarah had been a school teacher at the National School, Knighton.
On the 1871 census the family are living in High Street, Knighton.
George is a Draper and Sarah is bringing up her first 4 children :- George R, 1866
Charles Edward, 1868, Allen Clement. 1869, Frederick Lennox, 1871
They can be found on the 1881 census living at Garth Road Villa, Knighton.
Mabel's father, George, has now become an Auctioneer & Valuer.
In 1891 Mabel and her mother are living in Western Road, Bexhill, Battle, Sussex and Mabel has become a journalist. George, her father, is visiting his family at the Farm in Brampton Bryan.
George’s death is registered in Knighton in 1894.
Mabel Elizabeth EDWARDS married Arthur WEBB at St Nicholas Cole Abbey church, 114 Queen Victoria St, London on 27th February 1899
St Nicholas Cole Abbey
Arthur Webb was the son of Thomas Edward Burgess and Catherine Webb (nee Young).
Thomas Edward Burgess Webb was the founder and first president of the Co-operative Permanent Building Society in 1884.
In 1901 Mabel and Arthur were living with her mother-in-law, Catherine, at (Normanhurst), 9, Durham Road, Wimbledon, Kingston, Surrey, with their baby daughter Gwenyth 6 months old, and sister in law, Catherine and a servant Emily. Arthur is the secretary of the Co-Op Building Society.
Mabel and Arthur lived in Wimbledon, Surrey, and had 4 children:-
Gwynneth Margaret Burgess Webb, 1900 - 1st August 1982
Rhona Catherine Burgess Webb, 24th May 1902 - 28th February 1990
Thorold Arthur Burgess Webb, 1904 - 9th February 1988
Seymour Bryan Burgess Webb, 1905 - 25th April 1977
1911 finds them living at Kootenay, Durham Road, Wimbledon, Surrey
On 12th December 1923 Rhona Catherine Burgess Webb married Arnold William Cadbury Butler, a Gentleman Farmer, in St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, London. Arnold was the grandson of the founder of Cadbury's Chocolate.
However, this marriage was not to last long as Rhona petitioned for divorce, which was granted in 1932. Three years later in 1935 Rhona married Edward Grist Cash.
In 1939 Rhona and Edward are living in Brockhill, Redditch. With them is Catherine Webb, Rhona's grandmother.
Mabel, besides being a journalist also wrote cookery books. Being a journalist she had connections as well at the newly formed British Broadcasting Corporation. The BBC asked her if she would do a 15 minute slot on their national radio, giving instruction on recipes. So it was that the BBC produced a pamphlet - 'Recipes and illustrations for the new series of cookery talks to be broadcast by Mrs Arthur Webb at 10.45am every Tuesday from 3rd January to 25 July 1933.
Western Morning News 03 January 1933
Mrs Arthur Webb will inaugurate a new series of cookery talks at 10.45 this morning. She is dealing first with 'Meat from stove to table.' and her subject this week is 'Bones.' Mrs Arthur Webb is well known in the Women's Institute movement for her lectures and advisory work on the preservation of fruit and vegetables, food value in cookery, and the preparation of diet for the sick-room.
Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette 19 January 1933
COOKERY HINTS - Tremendous interest has been aroused among housewives by the series of morning "economy" talks inaugurated by Mrs Arthur Webb this week. These talks are given every Tuesday at 10.45 a.m.--a time which has been chosen for the convenience of a woman in the home. It has been decided by the B.B.C. that actual recipes will not be given over the radio. The talk will consist entirely of hints and advice.
Arising out of this it is worth noting that the Australian Government, Australia House, Strand is offering a cookery book free to any woman listener who applies for it.
This was supposed to only be a 30 week run of programmes, but it seemed to take off. The programme ran well into the 1950s
The first UK televised cookery programme presented by a woman was aired on 30th August 1938. It had the catchy title of "Sulphured Plums and Potted Damsons" and was presented by none other than Mrs Arthur Webb (Mabel).
In 1939 Arthur, Mabel and their daughter Gwynneth are living at 127 Durham Road , Wimbledon. Arthur is now a Building Society Officer (Co-Op)
Mrs Arthur Webb was a regular on the radio, before, during and after WW2.
A typical morning's listening from 16th April 1940
HOME SERVICE
7.00—Time; News; Summary of programmes for the Forces.
7.15 app.—lris Greep (piano).
7.30—Thought for to-day.
7.35— Physical exercises for women.
7.45— Foden's Motor Works Band.
8.00—Time; News; Summary of Home Service Programmes.
8.15 app.—English Songs; Gladys Parr (contralto), John Turner (tenor).
8.45—Rhythm on Reeds, presented by Phil Green.
9.15—Dudley Savage (organ).
9.45—B.B.C. Northern Orchestra.
10.15—Time; Service.
10.30—Ena Baga (organ).
10.45—The Kitchen In War-time—Keeping food fresh in hot weather, by Mrs. Arthur Webb.
11.00 - For Schools; Physical training; Interlude; Junior English (ages 9-12).
11.40—Music in the Kitchen (records).
Here are just a few of Mabel's recipes:-
TASTY STEW
1 lb. stewing steak
1 large onion in slices
2 carrots, cut up
½ pint water
I level tablespoonful flour
Pepper and salt
Fry the steak in a hot pan for 5 minutes on each side, add the onions in slices, and fry to a light brown. Pepper and salt them, cut the steak in pieces, pack with the onion into a 3-lb.-size jam jar. Dredge the flour into the frying-pan, brown a little, gradually stir in the ½ pint of hot water and make a smooth gravy, then pour over the meat and onion in the jar, and cover with grease-proof paper tied securely. Fill the second jar with potatoes, sprinkle in a little salt, add 4 tablespoonfuls of water. Tie on a grease-proof paper cover.
TREACLE PUDDING
½ lb self-raising flour
3 oz. shredded suet
1 teaspoonful salt
1 tablespoonful sugar
2 tablespoonfuls golden syrup
Blend the ingredients, then mix with sufficient water to make a very thick batter which will just slip out of the basin when ready. Grease the jam jar thoroughly. Put in golden syrup, then the mixture. Cover with grease-proof paper — 2 layers of it—and secure with strong tape Have the saucepan or pot ready with boiling water, which will reach half-way up the sides of the jars when all are in position.
Allow 2 hours for steaming. All the jars can be put in at the same time, and the time of cooking starts when the water in the pot is brought again to the boil. Don’t remove the pot lid once, unless more boiling water has to be added from a kettle.
THE PACKED LUNCH FOR SCHOOL AND WORK
THE SCHOOL LUNCH
What the schoolboy or schoolgirl is to take for lunch depends upon whether they will actually have to make it their chief meal. Fish, eggs, cheese, and milk are valuable, and can be reckoned as “meat” foods, where meat is difficult to get, or variety is desired.
Butter or dripping or suet should form some part of the meal, and fruit or fresh vegetables should have a place. Boiled garden peas and grated cheese go well with brown bread and butter, and lettuce and a large tomato are good thirst quenchers.
Or there is potted meat or little ham rissoles or fish-cakes, all simple to prepare and very appetizing.
Radishes, spring onions, apples, give the schoolboy or schoolgirl something to bite and chew. Bananas sliced lengthways and fried, sprinkled with sugar, and allowed to cool, make a good sweet filling for sandwiches. Figs put through the mincer and mixed with minced peanuts will form a paste to lay on bread and butter. Cooked prunes, well-drained from moisture, and cut small, go well with cheese sliced or grated.
That small piece of ham-like lean on the end of cheap bacon flank, when boiled, will provide 6 oz. of delicious sandwich filling, or, if minced, will make half a dozen tasty rissoles in place of other meat. Half a pint of boiled milk should be arranged for at school each morning.
Do your children like dates and raisins?
A small lunch may consist of chopped-nut sandwiches, apple, lemonade. Peanuts are cheap: 2 oz. of them fried for 5 minutes in a teaspoonful of salted butter made hot in a saucepan are easily chopped when cold. Spread the butter on 4 rounds of wholemeal bread, sprinkle the chopped nuts over the slices, and make into sandwiches, 1 pint of lemonade is heavy to carry, so strain the juice of a lemon into a small bottle; then sugar also can be taken ready to mix with water at the school.
THE WORKERS LUNCH
What shall be put in the attaché cases that contain lunches for office and factory, for farm and works?
Cold fried-bacon rashers, laid between brown bread and butter with watercress and a scrap of mint, take only a few minutes to prepare.
Dripping, in the proportion of 4 oz. to ½ a lb. of self-raising flour, is easy to make into thin pastry to line the small basin for meat puddings, or cover the little dish containing the meat or fruit pie.
By the way, when making meat pies to be carried some distance, you will find it safer actually to line the little pie dish with pastry and so surround the meat or fruit or other filling.
Cook the meat before making the pie, and cut it into small pieces. 6 oz. of meat with 3 or 4 sliced potatoes, and 2 small onions or tomatoes, all stewed lightly together with a little water and seasoning, and covered in a pastry-lined dish, taste very good. Bake for 40 minutes.
Fish or meat puddings baked in small dishes, dried fruit and bread puddings, with little jars of custard, are light to carry, and cheese, biscuits, and an orange, make a good finish. Small meat puddings are more savoury if the meat is cut small, rolled in flour, and put in uncooked with chopped onion and other vegetables, and ½ a cup of water and seasoning.
Even a small meat pudding should be boiled or steamed for 2 hours.
SUGGESTIONS FOR SANDWICH FILLINGS
Very thin slices of bread are not necessary nor are they economical for use in preparing sandwiches for a fairly satisfying midday meal. Sometimes you will find it better just to soften the butter and cream it in with the other ingredients. Haricot beans well boiled, mixed with a tablespoonful of minced and seasoned meat, make an excellent filling. Horseradish, scraped into tiny shreds and slightly salted, will blend with the butter for spreading on sandwich bread. Sardine butter, too, is quickly prepared: bone and remove the tails from 4 sardines, mash them into the butter, with just a sprinkle of vinegar and pepper. Spread thick on the bread.
TOMATO CRISPS
I lb. tomatoes
1 teaspoonful sugar
I egg
Pinch of salt, pepper to taste
1 teacupful flour
2 tablespoonfuls water
I salt-spoonful bicarbonate of soda
Skin and chop and season the tomatoes, dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the water, beat the egg, mix all the ingredients together, and stir until smooth. Drop in spoonfuls into deep fat in frying-pan. Fry quickly to a crisp brown, and serve very hot.
BANANA TART
4 large bananas
1 teacupful milk
4 oz. castor sugar
1 egg
Rind and juice' of half a lemon
Salt and nutmeg
Short crust pastry
Peel and beat the bananas to a cream. Add the castor sugar, lemon-juice and grated rind. Beat the egg lightly, mix with milk, a tiny pinch of salt and a grating of nutmeg.
Have ready a shallow tin or plate lined with a simple short crust, pour in the banana mixture, cover with tiny pastry strips to form pattern, bake for 10 minutes in a hot oven and then in a more moderate heat for 25 minutes.
RHUBARB CUSTARD TART
1 lb. rhubarb
2 tablespoonfuls flour
6 oz. sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoonful butter (melted)
Short crust pastry
Choose nice fresh red rhubarb. Cut it in half-inch lengths. Beat the egg yolks to a froth. Add the sugar and flour, mix together, then the rhubarb and lastly the melted butter. Stir well together. Have a shallow pan lined with short pastry. Pour in the rhubarb custard and bake about 12 minutes in a hot oven and about 25 minutes in a moderate oven.
I've managed to find 7 books written by Mrs Arthur Webb.
Farmhouse Cookery - Newnes Publishing
Invalid Cookery. The Doctor in the Kitchen - Newnes Publishing (1930)
(New book published by Newnes at 2s 6d, is by Mrs Arthur Webb, whose books on health and home are so well known and appreciated. The title is "The Doctor in the Kitchen," and the entire volume is devoted to recipes for the invalid. This is one of the best hooks of the kind we have seen published; pile of Sensible ideas and suggestions and every recipe to be relied upon.)
Economical Cookery - (1934)
The New Herring Book-Scores of Simple Recipes - Herring Industry Board, London, (1938)
Liverpool Daily Post 25 July 1940
The Ministry of Food is not behind hand with information regarding "things to come" in the way of nourishment. Women are told in advance what fresh foodstuffs are likely to be available during the next month or two, and can arrange their stocks of preserved food accordingly. The Ministry is to issue fourth edition of the Herring Book, with a foreword by Mrs. Arthur Webb, the well-known cookery expert, and this will be useful when the English herring fishery season begins about the second week in September, the fish taking the place of the Scottish "catches" we have been using during the .summer. There are said to be over 150 ways of using herrings, fresh or salted, and the book gives recipes for many of the most appetising.
War-Time Cookery - J. M. Dent & sons, Publishing, London (1939)
Farmhouse Fare - Country Recipes Collected By Farmers Weekly - An Economy Edition Of Country Recipes (1944)
Preserving - J. M. Dent & sons, Publishing, London (1947)
Mrs. Webb's books mostly sold for between 6d. and 2s. 6d. but today the books sell for as much as £225
Yorkshire Post 28 December 1939
Advice on War-Time Cookery Books that Will Help the Housewife By Joyce Mather
CEREALS in quaint company: vegetables and herbs which can be grown In the flower garden without loss of charm: sunshine-saturated herrings and a selection of potato dishes of surpassing attraction are items of interest gained from three recently published books on food to which I would draw your attention. Simple, practical directions for making the best uses of the various foods available and a limited amount of fuel are contained in "War-Time Cookery," by Mrs. Arthur Webb, Published by Dent's at 2s. 6d.
CANDID COMMENTS
Besides many helpful and appetising recipes given with engaging candour, such as ". .. margarine (I'd rather say butter)" Mrs. Webb has a chapter on the housewife's garden, which is particularly useful. Mrs. Webb understands the growing of foodstuffs as well as the cooking, for during the last war she helped in the control of 800 allotments, studying exactly which were the most valuable vegetables and the best salads to cultivate to help out the housekeeping. She recalls that many of the Belgian refugees living here during the Great War had never eaten scarlet runners, but they had grown the plants for their foliage and blossoms.
PRETTY VEGETABLES. SCARLET FLOWERS, SCENTED LEAVES
Mrs. Webb suggests planting them in groups of three, conveniently near a path, and letting them grow up stout sticks held together at the top in much the same way that gipsies hang their pots. From the moment the plants start their vine-like climb up the poles or sticks they look quite decorative, she says. I like her idea of edging a bed with the savoury marjoram. Its scented blossoms and foliage make pretty clumps in the rockery too, or it will grow quite cheerfully in a pot. Parsley borders she advocates, too, pointing out that it does not resent, at least not for long, being trodden on. Fresh, it can be added to the friendly bunch of flowers, or used as a garnishing for the cold joint, or its substitute corned beef. Some of the homeliest meats and the lordliest "are all the better if parsley sauce is present to cover their nakedness."
ON HANDLING A HERRING
Introducing "The New Herring Book," which has been sponsored by the Ministry of Food, Mrs. Webb describes how the herring lives on plankton, the tiny animal and vegetable organisms floating near the sea's surface. Plankton is saturated with sunshine and its life-giving properties pass directly into the herring which accounts for its richness in vitamins. For fourpence this illustrated booklet tells you everything there is to know about the herring, from the part it has played in British history to the simplest way of tackling that tasty fish when it is ready on the dish.
FADGE AND FLODDIES
The companion booklet on potatoes (price 3d) includes illustrations in colour of potato dishes which make the mouth water. Ample supplies of potatoes are available. If you think these can only be used for savouries read how they can be used as a basis for iced chocolate cake, doughnuts, flaky pastry and such intriguing dishes as fadge and floddies.
Fadge (Irish Potato Bread)
Peel and boil a saucepan full of potatoes. Drain and dry over a low heat. Mash. Allow to cool until little finger can bear the heat of the potato. Add salt and work in enough flour to make a pliable dough. Knead well for about five minutes on a heavily floured board. Roll into a large round about ¼ inch thick. Cut into wedge-shaped pieces. Cook each piece on a griddle until brown. Turn and brown the other side. Serve hot and buttered for tea or fry with the bacon for breakfast.
Floddies (Potato Pancakes)
6 raw potatoes
Flour
Salt and pepper
3 teaspoons dripping
Peel potatoes. Grate with a coarse grater over a bowl. Then add sufficient flour to form a batter. Season. Heat fat very hot in a frying pan. Drop mixture into pan. When brown on one side, turn over and brown on the other side. Serve with butter or sugar and lemon as desired. Grated cheese and a small amount cayenne pepper may be added to the above recipe.
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In 1947 they were living at 6 Blenheim Road, Raynes Park, London
Arthur Webb died on 16th October 1952 at 6 Blenheim Road, Grand Drive, Wimbledon, London. He left his estate, which was valued at over £16,000, to be dealt with by his executors, Mabel Elizabeth Webb, widow, Thorold Athur Burgess Webb, Company Director, and Gwynneth Margaret Burgess Webb
Mabel Webb died on 24th October, 1957 in Briarwood Nursing Home, The Avenue Worcester Park, Surrey. She left her estate, which was valued at just over £6,000, to be sorted by 3 of her 4 children, Thorold Arthur Burgess Webb company director, Gwyneth Margaret Burgess Webb spinster and Rhona Catherine Cash (wife of Edward Grist Cash). I have no idea why she didn't include her fourth son Seymour Bryan Burgess Webb
In Supplement to the London Gazette dated 15th June 1974 Rhona Catherine Burgess, Mrs. CASH, Board Member of the Redditch Development Corporation, was awarded an O.B.E.
Gwynneth continued to live at 6 Blenheim Road, Grand Drive, Wimbledon, until her death on 1st August 1982.
Thorold Arthur Burgess Webb died on 9th February 1988 at Three Ways, Upper Bentley, Redditch.
Rhona Catherine Burgess Cash died on 7th January 1990 at Three Ways, Upper Bentley, Redditch.
Fred Lennox Edwards (Mabel's brother) married Caroline NASH on 2 Dec 1897 in St Mary's Church, Sunbury, Middlesex
Fred and Caroline emigrated to NSW, Australia in 1911
Caroline died there on 11th December 1918 aged 45
Fred died on 8th December 1948 in The District Hospital, Coonabarabran, NSW aged 77 years and was buried with his wife.