I came to work in Bracknell in 1974 as a Housing Assistant for the Bracknell Development Corporation. My first management ‘patch’ covered the “A’s”, “H’s”, “U’s” and Ringwood in Great Hollands and my duties included a fortnightly rent collection service to OAP tenants. The rent man was the only human contact with the Corporation and I was often asked to help out with such things as changing light bulbs, posting letters, etc.
One day there was a disastrous fire in one of the bungalows in Abbotsbury and my tenants had to be rehoused in a nearby bungalow, which had fortuitously just become ready for re-letting. When I visited my tenants to see how they were settling in to their new home I found them in great distress as they had been told by the insurance loss adjuster that they would be responsible to clear and dispose of the charred remains of their personal effects which had been deposited by the Fire Brigade on the grass verge outside the fire damaged bungalow. I could see that they had no means of coping with this situation so I volunteered to deal with the matter for them using my own vehicle to transport the items to the tip.
I arranged to do this job the following Saturday morning and I arrived, with my brother-in-law to assist, in my battered old Ford Anglia estate, to find my tenants looking very worried as they surveyed the burnt remains of their former home. The fire had broken out in the bedroom and they said that they thought that a ring, which was of great sentimental value to them, had been thrown out with the burning dressing table and other bedroom contents. We were asked to look out for the ring which we agreed, not having much hope of finding it amongst the huge pile of burnt items, the ring being the proverbial “needle in the hay stack”. Nevertheless we diligently sorted through the pile as we bagged it up and loaded it into the car. We were almost to the bottom of the pile when my brother-in-law shouted out he had seen something shining in the blackness, it was the missing ring! My tenants were absolutely delighted with this discovery and it became a symbol of hope for them, lifting them out of the depression that followed the fire and giving them the encouragement for their future life in their new home.
They never returned to their original bungalow and soon settled down to a peaceful and happy life in their new home, this being the “turning point” for them to put behind them the trauma of the fire.
David Cullis