A Wolverhampton widow was the inspiration for Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech. But as the 40th anniversary of the speech approaches, Peter Rhodes asks - was it all simply made up?
Almost 40 years ago Enoch Powell told the then Express & Star editor Clem Jones that he was about to make a very special speech.
Powell compared it to a firework. But while the sparks from an exploding rocket usually fell back to earth, the Wolverhampton MP said these sparks would light up the sky for a long time.
He was right - 40 years on, everyone knows about Enoch Powell, his “Rivers of Blood” and his story of an English lady tormented by immigrants.
But today comes new evidence. It suggests the most controversial speech in post-war British politics was a web of lies, involving a vulnerable, mentally-ill woman, Druscilla “Trudy” Cotterill.
* A friend says Mrs Cotterill could not possibly have suffered as Powell claimed.
* Mrs Cotterill’s next-door neighbour insists there were no racist incidents in the street.
* The BBC researcher who first identified Mrs Cotterill now says Enoch Powell totally misrepresented her.
If anything, as he chatted with Clem Jones in 1968, Powell underestimated the power of his speech which was delivered to Conservative Party faithful in Birmingham’s Midland Hotel on April 20.
His language was vivid and unkind. He talked about the black man getting the whip hand.
He referred to an English widow being followed through the streets of Wolverhampton by “wide-grinning piccaninnies.”
After the speech Powell was sacked from the Shadow Cabinet by Tory leader Ted Heath.
He served at Westminster for a few years as an Ulster MP, was denied a peerage and died 10 years ago.
But throughout the “Rivers of Blood” debate, one question was unanswered.
Who was the widow whose alleged treatment at the hands of immigrants inspired the speech? Powell always refused to name her.
In January last year the BBC Radio Four programme Document reported a breakthrough.
It commissioned Dr Simon Burgess to trawl through Wolverhampton’s electoral records, old phone books, newspaper cuttings and boxes of city archives to find the elusive street.
By a process of elimination, Burgess came up with Brighton Place, in the MP’s old constituency of Wolverhampton South and close to his former semi-detached home.
The only woman fitting Powell’s description was Druscilla Cotterill, who died in 1978.
But in a new investigation Burgess says the MP was “dealing in trumped-up hearsay” when he alleged Mrs Cotterill had suffered racial abuse. That allegation is supported by two of Mrs Cotterill’s former neighbours.
Colleen Moore, now 70 and living in Wales, lived with her family in Brighton Place. She says she never believed Trudy Cotterill, who had a drink problem, suffered any abuse.
“The families from Jamaica were lovely. We got on very well. They were warm-hearted people and we had nothing but friendship from them.”
“Mrs Cotterill was not well,” says Mrs Moore.
“She was a sad, poorly little person, often in tears. She had been sectioned several times.”
Another neighbour, George Garwood, of Goldthorn Park, Wolverhampton, grew up with his deeply-religious West Indian family who lived next door to Mrs Cotterill from the 1950s to the 1970s.
“In all the years I lived there from the age of 11 until an adult, there was never any trouble, never any racial abuse,” he says.
“Mrs Cotterill baby-sat my sister, Lily.
“There was no racial hostility displayed to anyone in Brighton Place, least of all to Mrs Cotterill. Those were days when people behaved civilly towards each other.”
His sister, Jean agrees: “I was born in 1957 and lived there until about 1978.
“We were Christians and it was a very friendly place. I don’t recognise what Powell was talking about.”
Mr Garwood, a teacher currently working in Florida, says Enoch Powell’s reference to a telephone is a clear fabrication.
“I don’t believe anyone had phones then. Certainly Mrs Cotterill didn’t have one,” he says.
“Burgess is way off the mark even to suggest that it was Mrs Cotterill who had those terrible things done to her.”
Even his enemies admitted that Enoch Powell was a hugely intelligent man. Would he have risked his career on making a speech based on fantasy?
There are certainly inconsistencies in his account. Why, for example, would Powell’s “wide-grinning piccaninnies,” presumably West Indian children, not speak English?
“It is ridiculous,” says Colleen Moore. “None of the children spoke anything except English.”
Interestingly, the MP’s credibility had been called into question before his infamous speech. Express & Star editor Clem Jones believed Powell was a sucker for National Front propaganda.
The MP had repeated the NF claim that a Wolverhampton mother was worried because her little daughter was the only white child in the class.
The editor ordered his reporters to check virtually every school in the constituency to find either the class or the child.
They drew a blank.
Was the suffering of Powell’s mysterious widow just another fantasy? George Garwood, Colleen Moore and Simon Burgess all believe so.
“If such a pensioner exists, it might be someone else - not Cotterill,” says Mr Garwood.
“Then again, it might just be a figment of Powell’s imagination.
“It is a slander on a dead woman’s memory, and an affront to all decent folk like my parents and me who once lived in Brighton Place.”
The speech in full:
“Eight years ago in a respectable street in Wolverhampton a house was sold to a negro. Now only one white (a woman old-age pensioner) lives there. This is her story. She lost her husband and both her sons in the war. So she turned her seven-roomed house, her only asset, into a boarding house.
“Then the immigrants moved in. The quiet street became a place of noise and confusion Regretfully, her white tenants moved out. The day after the last one left, she was awakened at 7am by two negroes who wanted to use her phone to contact their employer. When she refused, as she would have refused any stranger at such an hour, she was abused and feared she would have been attacked but for the chain on her door.
“The telephone is her lifeline. She is becoming afraid to go out. Windows are broken. She finds excreta pushed through her letter box.
“When she goes to the shops, she is followed by children, charming, wide-grinning piccaninnies. They cannot speak English, but one word they know. ‘Racialist’, they chant.”
33 Comments
Well you can only go on what you know because neither of the people in question are here to ask… But, although he speech pattern was harsh,and he may have embroidered the truth - and tell me what polotician doesnt? Its called ’spin’ now I believe! This man was ahead of his time, because lets face it, the rivers of blood have already begun havent they? Terrorist attacks are here… Now I sound harsh but hey, its true - unfortunatly…
So, on the basis of ‘research’, long after the event, you would have us believe that the widow is identified and then you produce ‘evidence’ that the events never happened.
There is no concrete evidence that the women you identify is the one Powell was referring to.
We have had rivers of blood. Ask PC Blakelock’s family-he was decapitated in London. Ask the Bishop of Rochester about areas that white people dare not walk. Ask the priest beaten up in London in a race hate crime just three days ago.
Powell was wrong about the scale of the events but not about the events themselves.
history has proved this guy to be correct
Funny how Enoch’s close friend Clem could not locate the person at the time. Funny how all the might of the National Press could not either. Funny how people like to airbrush history and make out their role in the affair to have been so saintly.
Virtually everyone in Wolverhampton, at the time, new who Mr. Powell was talking about. Virtually everyone new of the truth of the content.
I never was a supporter of Enoch Powell but what he described is what most of us lived through and witnessed. We saw the destruction of our town. We saw whole areas turned from pleasant suburbs into disgusting slums.
It was not the fault of those who arrived. It was the fault of those who deliberately recruited them, on false premises and for the purpose of obtaining cheap labour. It was the fault of those who ignored the impact of uprooting people from relatively primitive environments and transplanting them into the middle of a civilisation separated from their circumstances by hundreds of years-worth of development.
Mr. Powell descrbed what was happening and the consequences that would accrue. He used illustrations and he made it plain these were “hearsay”. Hearsay is valid. It should have led to an investigation into the validity of it. The press were too chicken and the traitor Heath was too consumed with personal ambition and hatred of his principal rival Enoch Powell.
no no no ,just look at the evidence,early 80’s rioting in brum london liverpool,bradford burnley oldham,
terrorist attacks 7-7 london,islamic terror cells living here in britain,but if enoch powells speech was
a false statement,how come its only being dragged up now is it because these looney lefties know mr powell was right all along,people will try to cloud over the speech but the truth we can all see is real,and before the pc lot say im being racist no im not i’ve got loads of asian jamaican friends,but what we’re all witnessing
on our streets can’t be a lie,we’re a soft touch now and everyone knows that.
Whatever anybody thinks of Powell, and I was brought up in his constituency and remember him coming round to canvass, he was a giant amongst pygmies politically then and now. He makes the present political elite today look like a bunch of idiots.
I remember he was a neighbour of Barbara Whitehouse for some time on the Merridale Rd in Wolves. What a dynamic duo that must of been !!
WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP GOING ON ABOUT WHAT WAS SAID,INSTEAD PEOPLE SHOULD BE GOING ON ABOUT THE FACT THAT WHAT WAS SAID IS COMING TRUE(BUT IF YOU DO SAY ANYTHING LIKE THAT YOU ARE BRANDED A RACIST )
just look around, if we don’t all get a grip and sort this out our country will descend into civil war.
Only the deluded nutters want that. things need to change.
I went to St Judes Junior School near Newbridge Tettenhall in 1967/68 when immigrants were coming into the country just like they are today. There were many ‘new’ immigrants from India and Pakistan at that school when I was there and I have to say there was no trouble, discipline was maintained and my education never suffered whatsoever. Infact everybody got on very well indeed.
Perhaps myths tend to get around everywhere after a while and abound when historians like to edge their bets.
The ‘present political elite today’ do not need anyone to make them look a bunch of idiots, they do that quite easily themselves.
We need someone to stand up and say what is really going on so that the whole of the UK can stand together as one and say enough is enough. This is not about race, but about our country, belonging to its people, whatever colour they may be.
Unfortunately, the left wing would not listen to what the truth was. Look at our country today - destroyed because of them.
Anyone from any country who choose to live in England, should be made to live and dress like us and only speak the English language, not there own, which I find very ignorant. Also why are they allowed to build temples and mosques, we don’t need them. LIVE OUR WAY OR GO HOME.
I am sure I wrote knew… It came out new!
12 martin , just what i think too.
how can our children have a good education when the teachers are trying to teach basic english to 20PLUS DIFFERANT SPEAKING CHILDREN,soon they will be taught polish .around here and you can guess where from my name every day i see poles & latvians in 2005 audi’s i mean £30′000 plus models, no jealousy on my part before anyone calls me it -but i see them mostly all day and every day so please dont dare anyone tell me they work hard as they dont have the time in the day to work at all , 20% do work over here and work well BUT 80% steal ,prostitution,drugs and i read last week in this paper they have started hijacking HGV’S, so all the human rights people need to live on an estate not a village or suburb .
Enoch was right and we will all see this no-doubt in my mind.
What was wrong with my parents and most of the early newcomers from the Caribbean? After all they were invited to help rebuild the country; it would never have crossed their minds to arrive uninvited. As with every other racial groups they were ‘rude boys’, but the majority were far more God-fearing than the indigenous population and churchgoers; they believed in and would fight for the Motherland (Great Britain to them), Queen and judicial system. In the ’50s we listened to The Archers, Children’s Hour and so on. We waved the Union Jack flag on special occasions. My father would tip his hat as a friendly gesture and give up his seat to a woman. They never expected, nor did they receive, social housing or welfare handouts. It’s commendable how people used to day in day hot, sunny weather, adjusted to the drudgery of 6-7 days a week labour, often doing very long hours, waking up in a cold house and leaving early in the morning or for night shift in factories and elsewhere; having to catch buses that didn’t run as often as they do now; coping with winters that did bring heavy snow and dragged on for months. Despite all this, most put on their best clothing and attended church. Somehow they managed to save money from their ‘lower’ wages to send for their families. No complaints, no demands and no translation/interpreters. I’m not here to discuss whether it’s right or not that their descendants, mainly two generations down the line, appear to despise this meekness, turn the other cheek attitude, work hard and long for what you need. However, I believe Mr Powell, with his intellect and having lived in former colonies, should have tried to prevent the racial problems that began during the the ’60s by putting into place measures to alleviate the hardships and prejudices the immigrants still faced by then, rather than throwing fuelling tension.
By the way, my parents left me in the care of Mrs Cotterill while they were out working.
I think perhaps good old Enoch missed the boat with his rivers of blood speech. The rivers have become oceans across the globe where the equally good old Europeans visited to bring their ‘civilised’ ways. The posts thus far show how the ignorant classes remain a distinct reality for the ethnic minorities of this country. Why don’t you all get together and publish your BNP pamphlets with your combined intellectual prowess. Surely you have all the answers to the worlds problems. Bring back Apartheid to South Africa, resume the lynchings in Southern US states. Hell, why not go the whole hog and restore the British Empire at the small cost of a few hundred thousand more poor souls lives and bring back slavery.
Oh dear I must have a chip on my shoulder. You’re not racist are you. Some of your best friends are black!!
E & S - why do you choose to print articles that will incite racial hatred???? - suppose you wont print this now!!!
PJW Holland - I am offended by your comment. My parents came from the West Indies - not a primitive place where there was no running water or relative means of subsistence. But they came over here to get work - (as they were invited to do so) by GREAT BRITAIN!!!! (lol). They were then treated like scum (rememebr the signs - NO DOGS, NO IRISH NO BLACKS) - over doors of most boarding houses.
Oh Yes this is your country - (should say its mine seeing as I was born here - but dont feel like i’m wanted). But think about this India and Jamaica were British Colonies. Jamaica is an English speaking country. You tell people to GO HOME!! WHERE IS HOME WHEN THIS SO CALLED GREAT BRITAIN FOUGHT AND ROBBED MANY COUNTRIES OF THEIR HERITAGE AND CULTURE - then youve go the cheek to say go home, we want our country back????
Kibby I commend your comments and your cynism.
To the Posters - DONT EVER START YOUR SENTENCE WITH - MY BEST FRIENDS ARE JAMAICAN/INDIAN - so i’m not racist…pllllleeeeeeasseeeeeee!!! Am I Jamaican??? - Never been there - so what does that make me???
Your comments are ignorant and overtly racist. Just think about the postive things ethnic minorities have done for your country - Builsing the country back up to standard, industry, building businesses, health care, transport etc…….Nuff said - for now!
Kibby, you are being deliberately obtuse and willfully ignoring or mis-understanding the points that other people have made. You have done this because you have a different opinion to them and you want to ridicule their opinion without even acknowledging the validity of any of their points.
You are obviously a socialist. You obviously care far more about your ideology than what is happening in the real world. Why don’t you try listening to people rather than ridiculing them. You are not morally superior to other people because of your views.
there was never anything wrong with britain inviting workers over but then they left the floodgates open for illegal immigrants and refugees
what is so good about britain anyway … oh yeah these newer immigrants are getting social housing, food coupons and vehicles when people born and bred in this country (regardless of colour or religion) are getting squat
the benefits system has done nothing but annoy me since i have been claiming (not just for me but for my son too) and find that immigrants are wearing nice clothes, driving a car (i couldn’t afford that), looking like they’ve had enough to eat and to top it all off enjoying the nightlife!
i have nothing against immigrants but i think britain should clamp down on immigration as there is simply not enough jobs to go round and also there are too many illegals coming through
i empathise with everyones comments and just posting shouting about others comments is rude everyone has opinions that’s not illegal yet is it?
Ah, Miss Opinion is back again sailing the good ship “everyone else is racist expcept for me” at us again,
Well lets just say on one hand you say you were born here hence therefore you are british - quite correct! and on the other hand you disrespect the English ” culture and history - make your mind up which is it to be ??? anti English or bloody English??? Anyway that off my chest, Enoch may, by today’s society be deemed racist but whether he is or not his speech was an incredibly insightful one. Our society has incredible difficulties coexisting with each other perhaps because of the huge diffrerences in culture and values, which do not afford coexistence, like trying to mix oil and water perhaps,but hey who knows. Living in our current society, its almost impossible to live life according to the PC & do-gooders ideals, and the utopia of coexistence as prescribed by these idiots is unrealistic at best and a complete folly at worst. Everyone thinks their own race or culture is the the ideal, so how the hell can numerous ones, forced to occupy the same space not go without unrest. How can freedom of opinion or even speech be allowed when the fear of being “branded” a racist suffocates it!
A final message - This is my “opinion” and is in no way a racist, culturist, ageist, sexist or homophobic one. hopefully my opinion, and thats all it is can be read without prejudice or any malice intended, and if any is taken I most sincerely apologise beforehand, and for the pedantic, any spelling errors are human ones for which I also apologise! (Disclaimer hopefully covering everything)
Here here Ozpat, I am glad that someone else agrees with me.
Ozpat - my comments are not or neither intended to be anti-English at all - how have i disrepsected the English history or culture?- I was stating fact - Was the caribbean and parts of Asia not British ruled? - were there no racist signs above boarding houses in the 50’s and 60’s?!!! - like you I’m an stating an opinion, most of whcih is fact….To some extent I do adpot an english culture after all I was born here, my accent gives me away for starters. However when E & S posters make these comments and from experiences i’ve had - I dont feel like I am British - after all society tells be I am Black Caribbean (just look at the tick boxes on forms etc). I do a lot of work community work and have researched into both my parents heritage and that of the area i live in Wolverhampton, and in some respects i am prud of where i come from - But yes I then get bemused when I am told “you’re a Jamaican” “You lot should go back to your own country”.
And as for accusing others of making racist comments - I am referring to those ignoranus’ who start or finish sentences like “my friends are black and Asian”, “I have asian Friends”, “my neighbours are black and we get on great” etc, etc - Basically using the fact that they have Black friends as an excuse for not being racist or ignarant then making ignorant comments. Furthermore - I am not stating everyone is racist except for me - Like Lily Griffiths said, Enoch Powell was adding fuel to the fire - and most of you appear to have taken his bate. Yes there are issues regarding immigration in today’s society - why take it out on the immigrants? I agree policies need to be more regulated. But the attitudes of SOME are having an impact on other cultures.
F.A.O Miss Opinion,
One could certainly quote and re-quote each paricular “fact” that you have seen fit to lay before us, however, I shall not. You have taken “Fact” as an almost eloquent method of portraying the wrong doing and done by the british throughout history and I would not doubt your “facts”. The accuracies you have pointed surrounding the atrocities performed in the English historical colonial past were and should remain just that “past” and history, something from which we have learned and no longer continue , alas however, for how much longer do we “reddress” the balance Miss Opinion. Are we to never learn and accept our past wrongdoing and do right by it by changing our society ? Why then do you continue to harbour the resentment that precludes change? why not stop pointing out how “bad” the English people were historically and consider how good they are ? Our history doesn’t make us eternally racist does it? I can not explain why a small minority of ignorant people would use the term “go back to your country either but that said not everyone is ignorant to think or say that? Yet by applying the same “logic” that a small ignorant number of people make us all racist and ignorant - a little of a sweeping generaisation I think. As for Mr Powell I believe his speech to be insightful and interesting considering the social arena at the time. As for having and mentioning the fact that I have black friends then I am proud to say I do! and I’m pretty sure they don’t consider me a racist because of my past or present in fact I would be so bold as to say they couldn’t care less. Just a note my friend believe me racism cuts both ways even in todays society so I say to you what has really changed? (Disclaimer as previuosly still stands).
Ozpat - I respect your opinion’s and apart from one or two - you are the only one who MAY have thought about their arguements before posting on this site. However, can you please note that I emphasised on the attitudes of SOME people. I did not state that all British people are racist, but a majority of people in today’s society are still fairly prejudiced whether they like it or not (me and you included. We have all made comments about religion, football teams, social classes, left, right, the list goes on, and if you can tell me you are not prejudiced in any way then you must be perfect (or God!).
Anyway - I still disagree with your argument about Enoch Powell’s speech. Furthermore with regard to what has happened in the past - I brought it up into the argument as SOME people (see pervious post by others) seemed to have resurrected the old attitudes that SOME people had in the 50’s and 60’s regarding immigration. Also I bring uo the British Empire and people losing their heritage because some people do not seem to realise what had happened in the past - and they need to know - what’s the point in having history lessons on the school cirriculim - Ozpat when you have racist stereotypical remarks made against you, its not nice particularly when people refer to you as coming from some primative country with no relative subsistence and not being able to speak the language…….I constantly hear people still stating they need an interpreter for a “Jamaican” person - yet their national language is english - patois is a dialiect spoken by locals. Do we need interpreters for folk from Dudley, Newcastle, Liverpool (no offence intended to those who come from there, but i’m using you as an example, because i find your dialect hard to understand).
Anyway I digressed a little Maybe I have adpopted this attitude beacuse of the pbad experiences I had. As for your Black friends - well good for you for having Black friends, I have Black and white friends too. But I think you may have missed my point. SOME PEOPLE USE THE “I HAVE BLACK FRIENDS BUT…….” speech, just before they make an ignorant comment and they use it as a defence for not being racist.
Have attitudes changed???? - they have a little - but lets face it politicians, government neanderthals sitting in their offices have caused attitudes to change. All thi PC correctness gone mad - not being able to sing baa baa black sheep, not being able to call christmas christmas (instead winter fest) as to not offend. This is not the working of ethnic minority groups, this is the working of mindless government individuals who have nothing better to do that to think up some more S*** stirring. Anyway i disgress again, what’s Great about Britain hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I have a good job, car, own house. Instilled good values into my children and received good morals from my parents…..But to tell you the truth, this country is not GREAT anymore - it has become a Nanny state which is set to worsen, which is why many British people are leaving……..
Miss Opinion, .. You have much to say about what you are and why you are! .. and in many ways I agree with you! …….. You say you feel discriminated against .. although you have been born in Britain albeit of West Indian parentage …. Good on ya Gal! … there is nothing wrong with that! … Well let me present my case!! ………..
I no longer live in the UK but I was born in England of English Parentage and I was Educated as an Englishman … I speak the English Language … I earned my living as an Englishman … … I fought for my Queen as an Englishman … In short Miss Opinion I am an Englishman and to my Dying day I will always be an Englishman … and do you know what Miss Opinion I do truly feel Discriminated against!!.
So don’t cry the blues so much Gal! … You are in Good Company!!……………..
Miss opinion……Hence the name ozpat I hav e already left and exactly for the reasons you have mentioned Nanny state PC control. Nice chatting with you though Mate! G’day.
Ozpat - I gathered you lived in Oz. G’day to you too. Woolibuga, assume you may have moved to the same country as Ozpat. I am not going to respond to your comments as I now have RSI from too much bloody typing, lol!!
Socialists don’t debate they just shout back at you, and don’t believe anyone else has a view.
I don’t mind Powell being questioned, but when I see that it’s the BBC doing the questioning..well, I have reservations regarding the intent. I do not feel that corporation is impartial and in fact I detest some of the propoganda it churns out which is obviously geared towards portraying certain races and cultures, as evil.
Apart from which its not about colour! nor is it about the 50’s and 60’s anymore - its about now and our future, raking over the coals does nothing to move us forward. The fact of the matter EP was ahead of his time, we a tiny island compared to the rest of the world and we are full to bursting, we have many british born people of different origins whats the problem there? we are not being racist - we are being realist’s! But we have to slow down on immigration that is simply a fact.
Can I just say, the majority of people coming over are coming over as EU nationals.. Surely legislation should be tightened up to prevent this?
Hello all.
This is just a thought, but the English, as I understand it are generally descended from people who actually invaded the country over several centuries and pushed the native ‘Celts’ to further climates such as Wales and Scotland.
The true inhabitants of England are rarely found here. Doesn’t that make us all descendants of immigrants?
I am only 27 but know all about mr powell’s speech,and have always believed that what he said was correct. Mr powell may have been heavily criticised for his speech but my god was he right.