August 9 Of all my Tea Encounters so far Clifford Baskerville was the first to render me speechless at his hobby that has turned into a valuable piece of living social history. Clifford has devoted his life - since he was aged 19, he is now 87 - to keeping a diary. A unique record of world events from the perspective of the Northwest of England. Begun in the days approaching World War II, Clifford still devotes hours to his detailed daily entries. Yes, every day since August 1939.
"Off to South Africa? That’s quite a run!
Putting it from the start as regards the diary … this is it. From
that wall right across to here. All hand written. 268 volumes, so far. 55,000
pages and must be over 10 million words in it and I’ve had it going right back
to a fortnight before the war started. They’re in loose backs all made
specially and titled and the dates put on. Have a look at number one. The
bookcases usually have locks on.
To start with in the early days of course one didn’t know the war
was going to begin but you had the feeling of the war, there wasn’t so much
written. I was only 19.
My father had his own engineering company of scientific research and
my brother joined in 1930 and I joined it in 1935 and we carried right through
until 1989 working together all that time. Baskerville and Lyndsay Ltd.
Everything we made was pretty well one-off, designing and making the equipment
to the requirements of the research people and quite a lot for the military.
There’s an entry for every day. Is that the date of your birthday?
I’m sorry I didn’t make a record of it at the time."
What did you do when you
went on holiday?
"I took the diary with me. Right through the war, being on reserve
occupation on government work, I was able to carry on writing right through the
war. It’s mainly about world affairs, not personal at all except for special
occasions, my wedding, and daughter’s birthday and things like that. It’s the
only one apparently in the United Kingdom as far as I know. There’s the certificate
from the Guinness Book of Records on the wall. The Imperial War Museum
is very interested in it, Manchester and London, several
universities and different archives are interested in it. Lancashire archives
at Preston are interested and are hoping I’ll
leave it to them. I haven’t decided yet.
I was in Piccadilly when it was bombed in the blitz. It was a mass
of flames from one end to the other. Manchester
always got it at Christmas. I don’t know why [Hitler] had it in for us at
Christmas but he always did. It was quite a hectic time.
I was on the rockets at the gun site. There were 16 rockets per gun
site and each one fired two rockets, so 32 up at a time, I was on those as a
gunner and then I was in the control room on the same site for two to three years
and that was extra to doing the fire watch and
working … and trying to do some courting. There wasn’t much time spare.
It’s got all the air attacks on Manchester as they were happening. As the
raids were on I was writing it at the same time. If you look at number 5 you’ll
see that’s the one with the air raids in. Christmas 1940 was the blitz.
The house next door but one from us in Chorlton-cum-Hardy was
flattened, two houses away. I was on fire watch that night. There was a big
field behind the house and the bomb landed on the valve house belonging to
Manchester Corporation water works and there were three 36-inch water mains
punctured and the water flooded the field, the railway line, it was like a
canal. I think the newspaper cuttings bring it to life doesn’t it? It backs up
the history that I wrote about.
The first book cost me one and sixpence, the same book today is
nearly £7, so I’ve spent a lot of money on books! In [volume] 22 there’s a
signature of Sir Winston Churchill. I met him at Belle Vue at Manchester. They made me a steward so that I
wouldn’t be moved away from where I stood. He was there to make an election
speech. I wrote about 20 pages on that event.
Ever since that one, all the other Prime Ministers wouldn’t be
beaten. So I’ve got 17 other signatures of Prime Ministers ever since. One or
two are repeats when they got re-elected. They either signed the book or sent
me a card or letter which they signed. Gordon Brown is next. Give him a chance
to settle down a bit!
I read the Manchester Evening News and Daily Telegraph, if there’s a
special event I would buy 10 or 15 newspapers. When Churchill died I got the London newspaper people to send me up every edition of the London papers.
I’ve been on television about five times. It’s quite a life isn’t
it? I spend anything up to a couple of hours every day writing.
We’ve been married since 1943, 64 years. I was already writing the
diary when I met Eunice. I even took it on honeymoon with me. She’s got used to
me doing it now.
I’ll just get volume 41 … it’s hard to say but I think going back I
think Africa has been taken advantage of, especially by England. England has
taken advantage of a lot of its colonies hasn’t it and taken out of it what it
could and put very little back but it’s starting to [change] now. Especially in
the Victorian period they just took what they could and ran off with it you
might say. Gold and all those things, they’re starting to pay for it now."
Advice for the trip?
"Take care, and take a few spares. A couple of spare inner tubes - and some air, in case the air isn't the same over there! Shall I follow you and make a few notes?"
September 26 It was a busy day. 
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