Play days of Mayor Mary

She was born a few yards from the 900-years-old building at a house in Castle Place, close to Edgar Tower, and, as a small girl, would practice handstands against the Cathedral's rear wall - "hardly the most elegant pose for a future mayor of Worcester".

Leap-frogging regularly over a post which stood at the end of College Precincts was also part of a happy childhood in the late 1930s and through the 1940s for the girl born Mary Parker.

She had a wanderlust from the time she was a toddler. It began with ventures into the adjacent grounds of The King's School, where she could sometimes be found in the headmaster's garden helping herself to mulberries off his tree.

But a wider world opened up for young Mary as soon as she was given a child's scooter.

"I set about exploring Worcester at an early age and would propel myself by scooter to all sorts of places such as the riverside, Diglis Docks, Cripplegate Park and as far afield as Perdiswell and Norton Barracks.

"I would have been a nightmare to any parent nowadays, but it was much safer in those times," says the Mayor.

But her constant travels by scooter meant she kept wearing out one of her shoes far more quickly than the other as she vigorously propelled herself along by foot!

She was clearly quite a tomboy because she also remembers scaling a tree in St Peter's churchyard, only to find she couldn't get down again without help.

"I was an only child, and there were no girls nearby of my own age, so I sometimes played with some rough boys from Severn Street and Diglis. I used to get into trouble from my mother, but I suppose it was excellent training for becoming a member of Worcester City Council!"

The Mayor well remembers being given a large doll's pram as a present - quite an expensive one in those days.

"The only trouble was that I took it out and started using it with the other kids for rides along Severn Street. We would push each other along, hurtling down the street because the pram had no brakes. About 10 youngsters had rides and, by the time we'd finished, the prized pram was in an utter shambles. You can imagine the reaction of my mother when I got home."

Mediaeval Lich Street was close by too for young Mary, who occasionally went to a shop alongside the historic Lich Gate to buy sweets.

"It was open from 6.30 a.m. until 11 p.m. There were also trips to butchers, fishmongers and fruit and vegetable merchants who once filled The Shambles and to the Co-operative stores in Sidbury, with their big slabs of butter and cheese. A friend, Pat Fairbairn, also lived nearby above the Bladders' cycle shop and was of the family of past MP and Mayor of Worcester, Dickie Fairbairn."

The Mayor traces her family tree in Worcester back through several generations on the maternal line with the surnames Tyler and Price. Her grandmother, Flora Price, was married at Hallow, in 1898, to a colourful character named Alfred Meddings, whose occupation was listed as "professional conjuror".

He performed a stage act as "Count Cristo, the Royal Magician" and was later able to boast on his handbills that he had been invited to give performances before the Duke and Duchess of York, Lord Windsor, Earl Beauchamp and other members of the nobility. Alas, he died of TB while touring in South Africa. He was only in his 30s and by then had a small daughter, Violet Mercia, who became the Mayor's mother.

"Count Cristo's" widow, Flora, re-married some years later to insurance agent Charles Tombs, and they set up home at 3 Castle Place. Flora's daughter Violet, a milliner at a shop in Pump Street, fell in love with a British Canadian engineer, William Ernest Parker, and was married in Toronto, though the couple moved back to Worcester.

And it was at No.4 Castle Place that their daughter Mary arrived in the world.

"To be born beneath the shadow of the Cathedral - you can't be more a Worcester woman than that! I'm happy to say too that the house still stands and now belongs to The King's School," says the Mayor.

However, not long after she was born, the family moved in with her grandmother at No.3 Castle Place, a property which no longer survives. Mary was christened at the former St Peter's Church, which was only yards from her home.

During the last war, her mother, Violet Parker, was called up to work in a munitions factory set up in buildings off Castle Street and Love's Grove.

"I can still picture her in the blue uniform she wore." For some years too, Mrs Parker keenly cultivated an allotment off Wyld's Lane, near Fort Royal.

The Mayor's grandmother, Flora Tombs died in 1968, to be followed in 1980, by Coun Drinkwater's mother.

Education for the Mayor was at four schools - St Peter's in Severn Street, St Mary's at Battenhall, a village school near Salisbury when the family moved away for two years, and St George's Roman Catholic School at Worcester.

Young Mary had always been musical and by the age of 10 was singing in local choirs.

"I would sometimes wander inside the Cathedral and sing with the choirboys and, at 12, I began nearly a decade as a member of the St George's Roman Catholic Church Choir, finishing at the age of 21."

However, Mary never became a Roman Catholic despite her mainly Catholic education. She also sang in the Pump Street Methodist Church Choir and in the Co-operative youth and senior choirs.

And, as a very competent high soprano, she was also regularly invited to sing solos at concerts and other events in the city and once won the local round of a national talent spotting competition in the Catholic Hall, though promised advancement to further rounds did not materialise.

It was at one of her solo singing assignments in Worcester's former Public Hall that Mary first met the man she was to marry - Peter Drinkwater. He was at university and she was 16. "She had just sung a solo and I was bowled over by her gorgeous long auburn hair," recalls the Mayor's Consort.

But all the circumstances surrounding that first meeting are something of a revelation as far as the Drinkwaters are concerned as long-standing and ardent Conservatives.

"Politics have always interested me, and I took an active part in them even before leaving school," explains the Mayor.

But it was the Labour Party that she first turned.

"I used to go round knocking on doors and collecting monthly membership subscriptions, and at the age of 16, I was awarded a prize for signing-up more new members in a year, than anyone else. I still have that silver badge today."

The Public Hall event at which Mary had sung solo was a Labour Party social evening. Peter Drinkwater was there because his father, Herbert Drinkwater, was a leading figure in the Labour movement nationally, having been for many years Midlands Organiser for the Labour Party, covering 13 counties.

He had also been a close friend of Clement Attlee, Herbert Morrison and other Labour figureheads and was editor and publisher of the journal, The Labour Organiser.

Herbert and his wife Mary lived in various parts of Worcestershire, but eventually settled at Fernhill Heath, living first at Heathside, a property alongside the A38, and then in Station Road. For a few years, Herbert also ran a tobacconist and confectionery shop on the westside of Deansway, together with an adjacent caf. The premises also served as his offices for his continuing role as publisher of The Labour Organiser.

Labour called him out of retirement in 1950, to be chairman of the Party in Worcester and to head the campaign of Labour candidate Jack Evans for the Worcester Constituency at that year's General Election.

Peter Drinkwater, who was born at Ladywood, near Salwarpe, went to Hindlip School and then to Worcester Royal Grammar School. He had not long started at Exeter University reading geography when he met Mary Parker.

It was around the time of their first meeting too that Mary's voice so impressed two masters at The King's School that they enrolled her at the Birmingham School of Music so that her voice could be properly trained. It meant her travelling up to Birmingham two or three evenings every week for months, but she "enjoyed it so much" and it all stood her in good stead later, enabling her to give music and drama lessons.

From St George's RC School, she went to Dykes secretarial college in Foregate Street and later became secretary to the works manager at the Frank Bryant glove and sportswear manufacturing company in Bromyard Road.

She also helped out voluntarily with secretarial work for the Bursar of The King's School and for an orphanage in Severn Street.

Mary and Peter Drinkwater were married at All Saints Church, Worcester in 1954, by Bishop Stuart, the former Bishop of Uganda.

Peter, who graduated in geography, was by this time teaching at Redditch, and they lived first at Inkberrow, then in Claines Lane and finally in Ombersley Road, near the Cornmeadow Lane junction. Peter moved to a teaching post at Ombersley School but in 1959, the Drinkwaters left Worcester, for what turned out to be an absence of 30 years!

Peter was appointed to the teaching staff of Gillingham Grammar School and they lived in Gillingham , where their first two daughters, Rosemary and Julia were born. Mary continued her singing, now as a member of the Rainham Ladies Choir.

The next move, in 1964, was to Hertford, when Peter became a teacher at Hertford Grammar School. Mary began voluntary work with the British Red Cross and was a VAD detachment officer in Hertford.

In 1968, Peter was seconded from his Hertford post to the Mbale Senior Secondary School in Uganda. Mary and family went with him, and it was in Uganda that their third daughter, Diana, was born.

"We thought nothing of going out for long drives in the bush in our Ford Cortina with a baby and two small children in the back," recalls the Mayor, who continued her Red Cross work in Uganda.

Here too, her singing talents were once again brought to the fore. She was invited to sing to a packed hall at a concert sponsored by Pepsi Cola. "She sang Some Enchanted Evening, and I've regarded it as our song ever since," says Peter.

His Uganda posting lasted two years, and on the day they arrived back in Britain, news came through that the infamous Idi Amin had led a bloody coup in Uganda and begun his butchery.

Peter returned to his post at Hertford Grammar School but, in 1973, was appointed to the staff of Chesterfield School in Derbyshire. The family moved to Chesterfield, making their home in the substantial house which is now the residence of the vicar of the town's church with its famous crooked spire.

Mary was appointed to teach music, singing and drama at a local convent school attended by her daughters, and it was in Chesterfield that she and Peter became actively involved in politics again - now as fervent Tories.

"I was obviously weaned on politics as a boy but after a year as treasurer of the Labour Club at university, I became disenchanted with Labour and began to have Conservative leanings," said Peter.

The Mayor says the political activities of her mid-teens gave way then to her music and singing interests and, over the years, she gradually became a strong Conservative, first joining the party in Hertford.

She was elected as a Tory to Derbyshire County Council in 1977, and served on the authority for 12 years, being social services committee vice-chairman for four years. During the same time, Peter served as a Tory member of Chesterfield District Council.

In 1988, the opportunity arose for Peter to take early retirement, and the Drinkwaters pursued their long ambition to return to the Worcester area. In October 1988, they bought their present home in Northwick Road and moved back to the Faithful City, though Mary's term on Derbyshire County Council still had about nine months to run. This involved her commuting back and forth for meetings.

In 1992, Mrs Drinkwater was persuaded to stand for Worcester City Council and was elected. She became Mayor this May, as she entered her ninth year as a city councillor.

Peter is chairman of the St Stephen's Conservative Branch and also serves on the executive of Worcester Conservative Association.

Their eldest daughter Rosemary, now a chartered accountant at Warwick University, lives with her husband in Coventry, and has two children.

Middle daughter Julia, who was a nurse, is married, lives in Doncaster, and has five children including twins.

Youngest daughter Diana lives in Harrogate, and is personnel officer for a large banking concern in Leeds.

* Worcester 'missing' landmarks

THE devastating loss of so much of Worcester's historic heritage during the redevelopment-crazed 1950s and 60s is much mourned by the Mayor, Councillor Mary Drinkwater.

She considers it tragic that so many old and familiar features of the townscape which formed the backcloth to her own childhood and teens were uncaringly swept away.

"The Lich Gate was unique and, though Lich Street was rundown, the centuries-old black-and-white properties there would be worth a fortune today if only people had thought to the future and saved and restored them. They would also have contributed so much to the city's heritage."

The Mayor also grieves over the loss of the Market Hall which stood opposite the Guildhall. "It was a wonderful place with its gorgeous smell of flowers, its high glass domed roof and its flagstones.

"And why did Worcester also allow the demolition of the Public Hall which had very good acoustics and had played host down the years to Charles Dickens, Sousa and to Three Choirs concerts conducted by composers Sir Edward Elgar and Antonin Dvorak?"

On a personal note too, it was in the Public Hall that "high soprano" Mary Parker (later Mrs Drinkwater) was sometimes invited to sing solos at concerts. It was at one such event that she first met her husband.

Another disaster, she believes, was the demolition of Halls, the ironmongers' black-and-white shop which stood at the corner of The Shambles and Church Street.

The Mayor believes Worcester of today is "better than it has been" and now has an excellent shopping centre, but she is convinced the Faithful City still needs to revive some of its lost character, particularly around the Cathedral area.

"We need to preserve our heritage vigorously and to fight for our traditions which I feel a lot of people undervalue," stresses the Mayor.

745 The Mayor much mourns the mid-20th Century tearing down of this trio of significant historic buildings in Worcester - the Lich Gate with its shop on one side, the Market Hall with its glazed dome roof, and the Public Hall in the Cornmarket.