onionbagblog

I knew that I had hit hyperlocal oral history gold when I first heard about the possibility of talking with Victor Williamson. Vic is a very proud, dignified member of the local Wivenhoe community.

He has a tremendous history associated with Wivenhoe Town Football Club throughout the 60′s and 70′s. He is also very humble, and so his story isn’t out there perhaps as much as it deserves to be.

How then to approach a recorded interview with a gentleman who has so many stories to tell, yet maybe wants to be rightfully guarded about his fine achievements within the town?

I needn’t have worried. We sat down, pressed the record button and then took if from there. It turns out that there was a completely different story also to explore, going back to wartime Wivenhoe and the tale of an evacuee from the East End of London.

I wasn’t expecting this, and so just went with the flow and allowed Vic to explain his own tale. We hear about the fourteen year-old Bethnal Green boy arriving in Fingringhoe, a distaste for country dancing at the KGV (!) and then after two decades back in London, Vic ends up back in North Essex for another four decades.

This is where the real value in Vic’s Wivenhoe story starts to be told. He was promoted almost by default to the role of Chairman of Wivenhoe Town Football Club. Despite offering to take on this job for a couple of weeks, twenty years later and he was still working behind the scenes during perhaps the most successful era in the history of the Dragons.

Vic explains during our chat about how the move to Broad Lane came about, and how this coincided with an all-conquering team on the pitch that rose up the non-league pyramid ladder.

There is a hint of sadness at the end of our conversation, with Vic explaining how “no one knows him” now. Times change and people move on, but I really hope that there is still a place for Vic at Wivenhoe Town FC. A certificate awarded to him by the Essex FA in recognition of his fine achievements is still on display in the clubhouse at Broad Lane.

Many, many thanks to Vic for also allowing me to publish the private photos below, appearing I believe for the first time in public. It is fascinating how little has changed up at Broad Lane, yet equally everything *has* changed.

The gates to the ground remain the same now as they were when Dave Poore, Vic Williamson, Ian Saunders and Bill (Jock) Hill posed for the picture ahead of the opening.

It strikes me that Broad Lane Future could do with the energy and commitment that Vic devoted to the Dragons to help the club through the next successful stage of transition.

It’s quite some story Vic - many, many thanks for sharing.