The Nick Butler Interviews

Nicholas Butler Esq

Nick Butler was already well known in Wivenhoe from becoming Secretary of the Wivenhoe Society within a few years of its founding in 1966 until some time in the 1990s.  His lasting legacy for anyone who wants to know Wivenhoe and much of its history up at least until the mid-1980s was to write a book entitled ‘The Story of Wivenhoe’.  This book was published in 1989.  For more details about his book click here.

Nick left Wivenhoe in 1999 not too long after his mother, the actress Joan Hickson, although known to everyone in Wivenhoe as Joan Butler, sadly died.  He settled in a lovely village in the Cotswolds and succeeded in establishing himself in that community.

In September 2016, I had reason to be in that part of the world as was able to take up the offer by Nick of donating to the Wivenhoe History Group all the many files containing the research he conducted into the writing of that book ‘The Story of Wivenhoe’.  It was very good to see Nick once again and looking so good now that he is approaching his eightieth year.  This research contained type-written notes of the interviews he conducted with local people about what they knew about Wivenhoe.

All these notes have been faithfully re-typed by Ann Jones and can be found by clicking on the name in the list below.

Peter Hill, Chairman, Wivenhoe History Group – September 2016

List of people interviewed. Click on the name to go directly to the notes Nick Butler made. Note:  This list will grow as the interview notes are re-typed and uploaded to this community archive.

• Mr V. E. Annis
• Mr E. Barnes
• Mrs Margaret Britton
• Mr Paul Brown
• Mr Dan Chapman
• Mrs Marguerite Cole
• Dr William Dean and Mrs Dorothy de Muth
• Mrs Ann Dowden BA
• Mr C.J.M. Dunn
• Mr P.J. Edwards
• Mrs Winifred Ellis
• Mr E.G. Everitt
• Mr J.M. Fieldgate
• Roger Finch
• Malcolm Goodwin
• Miss Gould
• Prof. R.H Graveson
• Guy Harding
• James Harvey
• Miss M.L Harvey
• Mr E Hatch
• Captain R J Husk R N
• Mr Glendower Jackson
• Richard Jacobs
• Mr Leslie Kemble
• Mr and Mrs Knappett
• Mr and Mrs Le Poer Power
• Mr John Leather
• Mrs Le Poer Power
• Mr and Mrs McEune
• Mr P McEune
• Mrs M Marshall
• Police Sergeant L H Martin
• Mr Don Mason
• Mr Don Mason (2nd interview)
• Mrs Millie Goodwin
• Mrs Ruth Munson
• Mrs Violet Page
• John Partridge
• Mr George Paul MFH
• Mrs Maud Prior
• Dr Walter Radcliffe
• Mr F P Reed
• Mr John Revell and Mrs Ryder
• Mr Cecil Riches
• Mr Albert Scales
• Mr and Mrs Robert Skilton and Miss Dorothy Skilton
• Mr E H C Squires
• Miss J A Stark
• Mr Alfred Wakeling
• Mrs F E Watsham
• Mr Walter Wix
• Mr Lewis Worsp