DENISE O’BRIEN
Denise O’Brien was a Quaker and one of the moving spirits of the founding of the Association. She was a social worker for the hostel of the Good Shepherd in Colchester and also a member of the Diocesan organization called “Moral Welfare”, concerned with the plight of single mothers and babies. However, she felt that a less judgemental approach was needed towards single mothers than that held by the general public and church’s Moral Welfare hostels, where men were excluded. She helped to found Hythe House which always took a much more realistic and supportive approach to the young mothers and their relationships.
An article in ‘The Announcer’, a joint magazine of local Anglican, Congregational and Presbyterian congregations (1969), describes what this remarkable women achieved, ‘She gathered support, first from Quakers, then from other Christian churches until two years later, after much red tape, fund raising to pay for purchase, architect and builder plus a good deal of hard physical work, mostly voluntary, a beautiful Georgian House to be known as ‘Hythe House’ was converted into seven flatlets, each for an unsupported mother and child and each containing a separated-off kitchen.’
She died young, in the early 1970s, leaving 92 Coppins Road in Clacton to the Association, which provided flats for two homeless families.
DEREK H. CROSSFIELD
Derek’s strong commitment to making a difference to people’s live was driven by his deep religious conviction. As well as being involved in the local Quaker Meeting, he became clerk to the London Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends, the most senior position in the country, often described as the Quaker equivalent of the Archbishop of Canterbury!
This background affected the way that CQHA meetings were run. Rather than having divisive votes on issues, the Committee discussed a topic until a common view emerged on which they could work together. Derek had strong views but was a good listener and the feeling of the meeting always directed the outcome. He was chairman until the early 80s, but remained on the Committee till the later 80s.(??)
JOHN COLE
John Cole was another early committee member, being Treasurer and organising the purchase or rental of the family housing. He had also been a conscientious objector during the war, and served in the Merchant Navy as a radio officer, taking part in the hazardous convoys supplying the USSR via the Arctic Circle port of Archangel. In peacetime he was a solicitor for a prestigious London firm. Though modest and self-effacing, he was a very active, determined yet open-minded Committee member.
John became a great friend of Bernard’s, and acted as his voice, not only in CQ meetings, but also on many of his expeditions when Bernard was working for his degree at Essex University. With his legal background, together with Denys Rendell, he dreamed up the “self-repair” scheme. This provided squatters, who had taken up residence in some of the semi-derelict houses owned by the borough (emptied prior to various redevelopment schemes) to remain legally in the house, paying half the rent in return for contributing to the maintenance of the property. This rarely worked out as planned, but John, with his acceptance of the frailties of human nature, stuck with his support for both the tenants and the scheme until the properties were pulled down!
THOMAS EDWARD DUNN
Ted Dunn was another of the founding members of the Association, with a particular concern for the housing of ex-offenders. As a Quaker, he was very involved in the International Peace Movement, and also very interested in the use of alternative technology for renewable energy. His thinking and concern for disadvantaged people was typical of the approach of the early committee members. He was a horticulturalist and helped with maintenance and gardening, cutting the grass in the huge garden at Coppins Road for many years.
DENYS RENDELL
Denys Rendell, Quaker, was a founder member finally retiring in 2001 after 36 years on the Committee. He was an engineer with Paxmans, using his practical skills as the Association’s maintenance worker in his spare time. Some of his repairs were both ingenious and economical – essential for the short-life houses which we didn’t expect to have for long – for example, holes in floorboards were covered with flattened baked bean tins. One family used the banister rails as fuel: Denys replaced them with chicken-wire. Ahead of his time, he was interested in energy saving systems, and much committee time was spent discussing the installation of a heat sink at Hythe House, whereby the heat that was thrown away, say, in the bathwater, was somehow extracted and used to heat the house. Sadly it was never installed!
JOHN LONGHURST
John Longhurst was an early member of the Committee deeply committed to the Association. He was a probation officer working in London. When his job moved to Clacton, he chaired the Clacton sub-committee with wisdom and a great sense of humour until the late 1970s. His job then moved back to London where he pioneered a scheme to get companies to “employ” supervised groups of probationers to do their painting and decorating etc. He continued to work on the Executive Committee until the tragic car crash which killed both him and his wife Sally in 1986.
John Longhurst was an early member of the Committee deeply committed to the Assocication. He was a probation officer working in London. When his job moved to Clacton, he chaired the Clacton sub-committee until the late 1970s. The Committee were responsible for every aspect of housing management; tenant selection, rent collecting, tenant support, maintenance and gardening. Starting with the gift of Coppins Road, the Tendring Committee went on to purchase 5 more units of accommodation with Local Authority grants and loans.
Colchester Quaker Housing Association
Draft text for reflection on and celebration of the history of CQHA
FOUNDING MEMBERS
KATHLEEN TUFNELL
At the founding meeting on July 1st, 1965, Kathleen Tufnell was apponted as Treasurer of the Christian Action (Colchester Quaker) Housing Association.
Kathleen was a member of the Religious Society of Friends meeting in Sudbury. Suffolk. She was a small woman who lived in an originally thatched cottage in the village of Bulmer. The thatch had so deteriorated that the thatch had been removed and the roof had been covered with corrugated iron sheeting painted red and her house was aptly named 'Tin Tops'. Molly Watson , now 93 (2008) and a Friend member of Sudbury Meeting, recalls that those remembering Kathleen do not recall any signs of obvious wealth but Ted Dunn, writing in 1995, recalls that Kathleen later gave 'a generous gift' towards the purchase of Hythe House for the new Christian Action (Colchester Quaker) Housing Assocaition, the first property owned by the Association.
For some years before CAHA was founded, Kathleen had taken in and befriended young unmarried mothers and their babies, who would otherwise have been in dire straits in the 'swinging' 1960s. Kathleen knew and was closely associated with Denize O'Brian, a Friend meeting at Colchester Meeting, who was a social worker at the Hostel of the Good Shepherd in East Hill, Colchester. From time to time, Denize would have needed overflow accommodation and it is thought that Kathleen became involved with needy young mothers at that time. The financial gift from Kathleen that helped with the purchase of Hythe House, a project for unmarried mothers, would have flowed naturally from this concern.
The initiative to form a Quaker Housing Association probably came from Kathleen, Denize and Bernard Brett who together inspired Colchester Quaker Meeting to form the Housing Association with the help and support of Christian Action. It is not known what experience or qualification Kathleen had to be Treasurer but the challenge was enormous. Funds were obtained from numerous sources and general support given from the local council, central government and voluntary work camps.
A Sudbury Friend, Tom Watson, writing in 1995, said 'I remember her as a person of extraordinary tenacity and grit'. Kathleen had regularly and punctually attended the Sudbury Meeting right up to her death. Kathleen died in January 1970 still sharing her cottage with young mothers and their babies.
Alex is remembered by a number of Friends as being interested in and one of the founding fathers of the Association. Dr. Alex Robertson was working as a researcher at Essex University from 1965 before moving to Edinburgh in July of 1968. Alex remembers taht the project all started in a very small, though not unambitious, way. There were plans for a block of purpose built flats for single mothers and their children which later materialised into Hythe House but this was after Alex moved to Edinburgh. Alex has hazy memories of meetings in Bernard's drawing room attempting to thrash out their early ideas. Those were exciting times. Alex taught at Edinburgh University until he retired in late 2006. He is still living in Edinburgh but leading a busy life still associated with current research at the university.
Following the creation of the new housing association and the setting up of Hythe House by a small group of visionary people, its legal status required it to have a Committee of Management. The first chairman was Derek Crosfield, a Quaker, a local farmer, JP, and local councillor in the Tendring District Council. He had started life as a Social Worker in the South Wales valleys before the war. He was a conscientious objector but spent the war in the East End of London during the Blitz, running a hostel for families bombed out of their homes. After the Blitz he worked on the land in Hampshire, and from 1946 he farmed at Frating Hall, becoming very involved in the local community. He was chair of both Frating Parish Council and Tendring District Council as well as Labour Member for Wivenhoe on the Essex County Council. Other local involvements included service as a school governor, a member of the Essex University Court, and a hospital board member.
