Longwave.

Over the past few months I've written it some length at what appears to be the slow but managed demise of the Morrisons supermarket chain, with special reference to the large branch in Erith, which was one of the first to open in the Southeast of England back in 1999, when the chain was still family owned and headed by Sir Ken Morrison. Since the company was sold to an American private equity company called Clayton Dubillier and Rice, It has been relegated from 4th to 5th Place as the UK's largest supermarket chain after being overtaken by Aldi. It has been saddled with approximately £7 billion in debt, and although its profits have increased somewhat in the meantime, these have been swallowed up by interest payments on the huge loan. The recent increase in commercial loan interest rates has certainly not helped this situation. Many former customers have abandoned shopping at the store due to regular lack of stock, the removal of in-store cafeterias in many shops, and the closure of dedicated fish counters, butchers and delicatessens in many as well. The latest news is that Morrisons are about to instigate a further round of job losses. Back in 2021, the store chain employed approximately 110,000 people around the UK. At present it employs around 90,000 people, and this is set to reduce further, starting with the redundancy of around 200 people in its Bradford head office. Morrisons have said that this is due to the phasing in of artificial intelligence to replace human workers. This is somewhat doubtful in my opinion. On top of this, there are strong rumours to suggest that that further staff cuts will be made in the supermarkets themselves. Customers have complained about the large proliferation of self-service, tills, and the lack of staff on the floor, this is especially problematic in the evening after 7:00 p.m until closing time, the Erith store it's staffed by only a handful of people, and there is no option but to use the self-service tills. As a result of this, even regular dedicated customers are leaving the store without purchasing anything. In essence, customer service has been practically destroyed. I can only see this situation worsening over time. There has been a huge migration of customers away from Morrisons and towards Aldi and Lidl. Not only are these two German supermarket chains substantially cheaper than Morrisons, but in the opinion of many, the quality of the food on offer and variety displayed is far greater. I think from a local perspective, Morrison's situation is going to get substantially worse, even if the national chain improves, although I find this somewhat unlikely in the current climate. The reason for the fortunes of Erith Morrison's supermarket the being highly likely to get worse is because historically we have evidence of this. When the Asda supermarket opened in Lower Belvedere, next to the B&Q, on the former site of Erith & Belvedere Football Club, the footfall at Erith Morrisons dropped by something like 20% overnight. Whilst it did partially recover after a few months, it still took a large hit on its predicted turnover. In my opinion when the Lidl store opens in Fraser Road, Erith on the former Atlas Chemicals factory site, It will take a great deal of business away from Morrisons. The Lidl supermarket will be located directly adjacent to the Erith Park housing development which is home to over 500 families, and I feel that many local shoppers will defect to Lidl, not only due to substantially cheaper prices, but greater choice and in many cases, better quality. The only long term future I can see for the Morrisons supermarket is if it was purchased by rival supermarket chain Aldi and converted into one of their stores. There is local historic precedent for this. The Waitrose store in The Orchards Shopping Centre in Dartford was purchased by Aldi and converted into one of their supermarkets over a decade ago. It would be far cheaper for a rival supermarket chain to purchase Morrisons stores and convert them into their own than it would be to to build from scratch, with all the delay in planning regulations this would cause. What do you think? Email me at  the usual address - hugh.neal@gmail.com.

As I'm sure that's regular readers will be aware, I do try and feature guest contributors on a regular basis. This week I have some absolutely fascinating local historical memories from long-time reader and contributor, Bob. He has lived in the local area for a substantial amount of his life, and has a unique view on the past in the areas covered by the Maggot Sandwich. I regularly try to cover as much local history as possible, and in his guest article, Bob writes extensively about social history and his own experiences:- "A couple of your Blog editions ago, you mentioned TAC which made me think about a connection I had in the 1960's. My first career from school started in 1961 working for  a major High Street Bank in Bexleyheath and after some training in London, I was transferred to Erith.  As a junior there it took me a couple of years to get put on the counter.  Here I met lots of people that I still remember to this day, especially people from the wages offices from Companies such as Atlas Preservative, General Electric Company, Bee Chemical - all from Fraser Road.  Additionally, the company Turners Asbestos  was known during my time there.  It was in a period of Erith's history that saw many Mr Singh's working at Turner's as they would visit the bank to pay in wages into their accounts and families in India.  You could always tell where they worked as they were covered in asbestos dust.  The bank staff were fortunately very aware even then of the health issues and handling their bank notes became a worry and once they had left we would retire to the toilets to wash our hands and clean the counters.  I always knew that the factory was in Manor Road, but I never viewed it as there was never a reason to go that way.  My lunchtimes were spent in the summers on the water front benches eating my sandwiches and sometimes meeting up with some office girls from Atlas.  One became my wife and we have just celebrated our 60th Wedding Anniversary with a card from King Charles and Camilla.  Sorry I went off topic there! Of course one of the bank clauses was a declaration of customer secrecy but as the bank is no more and I left for health reasons in 1967 (not related to dust!) I will share it just with you for your interest. One of the customers at Erith was the Thatcher's twins who had saving accounts (Atlas connection) and the other was a previous owner/director of the British Fibrocement Company, later Turners Asbestos Company (TAC) and then Turner & Newall The securities clerk at the bank always complained about the storage of share documents of a Mr George Henry Buxton.  He was very wealthy indeed and I still remember his home address to this day as I used to take the post to the post office late in the afternoon after leaving the bank. George Henry Buxton was a son of Cornelius Buxton a Barrister' Clerk, George was a Director of British FibroCement and during the 1930's lived in Erith, and lived at “The Elms” in Park Crescent but I am not sure if the house is still there. He passed away in 1971 leaving close to half a million. His wife passed away a few years later leaving a million. Just to add during my time at Erith I spent a few months in hospital and at home recovering from a hip operation. During my time away from the Bank they doubled the size of the branch, which made it a better place to work. In 1965 I was transferred to Lewisham but only stayed there until 1967 before changing career first at Atlas and then 35 years at Coates Bros, St Mary Cray. I retired early in 2003, and did some Consultancy there before doing Voluntary work at Age Concern (Silver Surfer training and Access Database creation).  While my wife was still working I did Examination Invigilation at various local schools".

There are many local residents who are unaware that the leafy and sleepy housing estate located in Heathdene Drive, off Upper Park Road in Upper Belvedere was for over a century the home to a very important charity – and the site of a former stately home called Belvedere House, base of the Royal Alfred Merchant Seamans Society. The origins of the Royal Alfred date back to a meeting held in July 1857 in Mansion House, London, when a group of influential and well-disposed people voted unanimously to establish a hospital for “worn-out and disabled merchant seamen”. That day, it vouched to open its doors to over 500 people in need. A hundred years ago there wasn't a family in England that didn't know somebody or had a relative who was a seafarer. In those days, when the shipping companies didn't employ them anymore, they were just left on the dockside or on the City streets with no pay. And because they were away for years at a time, rather than months, the family they had would, on the most part, disintegrate. So they didn't have homes to go to, or any support mechanism, and there were a great deal of homeless merchant seafarers in desperate circumstances nationally. In the beginning, the place was run by a warden and the seafarers themselves, who used to do their own cooking, cleaning and gardening. Over time, as the residents became older and frailer, an infirmary was built in the grounds of the old stately home, followed by a new house where people could be nursed, should they need it. In the post – war years, it was determined that the old Belvedere House was no longer fit for purpose, and a new building needed to replace it. The new high tech home opened in 1958, it was designed by architect A.E Symes and cost £228,000 – a considerable fortune at the time - you can see a photo of that building above - click on it for a larger view. The home looked after its residents on the Upper Belvedere site until 1977, when it was sold off to a commercial developer; the building was eventually demolished in 1980. The charity then relocated to a brand new, purpose built facility, also called Belvedere House, located in Banstead, Surrey, where it is to this day. The Royal Alfred runs a state-of-the-art nursing home and specialised dementia care unit that houses up to 68 residents, 23 tenants and is supported by 107 staff members. As an island nation whose vast majority of goods arrive by sea, the UK has a longstanding seafaring tradition that continues to this day. In 2022, the estimated total number of British seafarers active at sea was 21,060, according to government data. Due to the unique trials and tribulations of those who spend the majority of their lives at sea, resettling back on shore can be extremely difficult. Finding like-minded companionship and understanding from someone who has experienced a similar lifestyle is another challenge. Today, the retirement age for seafarers is between 63 and 68. You can see the modern Royal Alfred Seafarers Society website by clicking here.

Saturday the 18th of April marked World Amateur Radio Day 2026. Since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the worldwide lock downs and personal isolation that ensued, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of qualified amateur radio operators going on air, and also a marked increase in people enquiring as to how to get involved with amateur radio, and wanting to learn about how to study for the exams in order to get qualified for their licence. Every April 18th, radio amateurs worldwide take to the airwaves in celebration of World Amateur Radio Day. It was on this day in 1925 that the International Amateur Radio Union was formed in Paris, and this year marked its 101st anniversary. Amateur Radio experimenters were the first to discover that the Shortwave spectrum — far from being a wasteland — could support worldwide signal propagation. When radio was first invented, it was thought that the only bands technically possible to use for communication were the Medium Wave and Long Wave bands; any frequencies higher than these were thought to be useless. It was only as Amateur Radio experimenters developed new, more sophisticated transmission and receiving technology that the use of Shortwave, followed by Very High Frequency (VHF) then Ultra High Frequency (UHF) and finally Microwave frequencies became possible. In the rush to use these shorter wavelengths, Amateur Radio was “in grave danger of being pushed aside,” the IARU’s history has noted. Amateur Radio pioneers met in Paris in 1925 and created the IARU to support Amateur Radio worldwide. Just two years later, at the International Radiotelegraph Conference, Amateur Radio gained the radio communications band allocations still recognised today — 160, 80, 40, 20, and 10 metres. Since its founding, the IARU has worked to defend and expand the frequency allocations for Amateur Radio. Thanks to the support of enlightened administrations in every part of the globe, radio amateurs are now able to experiment and communicate in frequency bands strategically located throughout the radio spectrum. From the 25 countries that formed the IARU in 1925, the IARU has grown to include 160 member-societies in three regions. IARU Region 1 includes Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Northern Asia. Region 2 covers the Americas, and Region 3 is comprised of Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific island nations, and most of Asia. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has recognised the IARU as representing the interests of Amateur Radio. Today, Amateur Radio is more popular than ever, with more than 3,000,000 licensed operators around the world. The IARU Administrative Council has chosen “Amateur Radio: Home but Never Alone” as the theme for World Amateur Radio Day, Sunday, 18th April 2026. Faced with a pandemic that forced the adoption of extreme physical isolation to reduce the spread of the virus, the worldwide amateur radio community responded positively to overcome the resulting social isolation. In the days and weeks following the onset of the pandemic, radio amateurs reached out spontaneously to one another via the airwaves at the local, national, and global levels. Local “wellness nets” provided friendly voices and regular status checks to those, especially the elderly, who are confined to their homes. Since the end of the pandemic, many of these groups have continued, bringing companionship and support to the housebound and lonely.

Now for another, completely unrelated radio story that is likely to affect many more people than licenced amateur radio operators. Last week, the BBC formally announced their plans to close the 198 kHz BBC Radio 4 Long wave service. I've written about this in the past, but details were quite vague at the time, although closure has been on the cards for a number of years. According to the BBC, the Long wave transmitter system which is operated by an external provider, has now reached the end of its operational life. They say that listeners are moving to listening online, on FM and DAB. In reality, whilst some migration to these other formats has been undergoing, I feel that the real reason is actually due to the BBC and its current policy of financial cutbacks. The reality of the situation is, to provide a national AM broadcast service on Long wave requires a phenomenal amount of electricity. As we all know, the price of energy has skyrocketed over the last couple of years. This was one of the reasons that the commercial Irish top 40 music station Atlantic 252 closed down as uneconomic, due to the power consumption that Long wave transmitters require. As far as the 198 kilohertz BBC Radio 4 long wave service is concerned, the BBC state that they will give at least 2 months prior notice before the service is terminated, and provide daily on-air reminders advising listeners to migrate to FM, DAB or streaming. This does not assist ships masters and crews at sea, with the twice daily vital shipping forecast, as for obvious reasons, streaming at sea is not available without an expensive satellite connection, and DAB and FM signals lack the range to travel far out from the shore. It is also unclear if there is any kind of backup system in the event of an emergency. One cannot rely on streaming over a network when this could be attacked and sabotaged. DAB multiplexes could also be hacked by an attacker, and FM has limited range. In the event of a war, a major terrorist attack or some kind of natural disaster such as happened during the 1987 hurricane, BBC Radio 4 Long wave service would be a vital communications tool. I feel that when it is shut down it will be a very short-sighted and possibly regretted in the medium to long term decision by the BBC.

The end video this week features the 2026 Erith Model Railway exhibition. All comments and feedback should be sent to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.