Little Billy Lloyd: The Shropshire character everyone remembered

Billy Lloyd in front of Dawley’s Captain Webb Memorial with two unidentified children. | Freda Goucher/Shropshire Star

placeholder image — Billy Lloyd in front of Dawley’s Captain Webb Memorial with two unidentified children. | Freda Goucher/Shropshire Star

Dawley’s Billy Lloyd was a little chap with a big heart

Little Billy, they called him. You might well hear the approach of Billy Lloyd before you saw him, because one thing that everybody remembered about him was his laugh.

For somebody who stood just 4ft 4ins tall, he had a loud and distinctive laugh and, being full of fun, he was always laughing.

Little Billy was one of Dawley's great characters of the 20th century. He died aged 80 in October 1968, but would leave behind a wealth of memories.

Little Billy in the 1940s. The dog is thought to have been called Nip. | Submitted

During the Great War he had attempted to join up. But the British Army decided it didn't need Little Billy.

He threw himself into local events, appearing at many carnivals in the Dawley area, often carrying the bucket collecting coins for charity, and at Ironbridge and Shrewsbury. He was a mascot for various football clubs, and at one time was a member of an entertainment group called "The Granny Dears" - a play on Grenadiers.

He had at least three brothers and two sisters. His brother George Lloyd, nicknamed for some reason Banger, was a bit of a local character himself.

Sparring with his nephew, Cyril Bowyer. | Shropshire Star/Freda Goucher

Billy would walk everywhere, and always seemed to have a canvas bag with him which, because he was so small, would trail on the floor.

A bachelor, he was a lifelong member of Lawley Bank Methodist Church, and lived most of his life at 10 Station Road, Lawley Bank.

Billy never seemed to travel far afield, and would joke about his one and only trip to America - before he was born, when his pregnant mother had been there.

"I've been over the water and back and have never seen it," he said.

He made a living delivering newspapers on a trolley - perhaps they were what were in that canvas bag - and meeting trains at Lawley Bank station and taking luggage for passengers.

With a group outside Lawley Bank station, where they would play cards. Front, from left, Billy Lloyd, Billy Sumnall, Mr Garbett, and John Simmonds. Back, from left, Bernard Bowyer, Cyril Plant, and Charlie Plant. The photo is one of a number which were shared with us by Billy’s niece, Mrs Freda Goucher, nee Bowyer. Bernard was her brother, and John Simmonds was her brother-in-law. | Freda Goucher

Here are just some of the ways folk remembered him.

Harry Bithell: "Billy was a big football fan - I think he was an Everton supporter. He used to sit on the grass bank under two big trees opposite his house by the side of the road in the warm weather.

"When he saw me walking down Station Road he would shout with a very loud voice: 'Up the Potters'. He knew I was a Stoke City fan. Everybody knew Billy - he truly was a larger-than-life character."

Malcolm Jasper: "I remember him asking a bus driver why he had arrived late as he had walked from Madeley to Dawley and 'had worn his legs away making the journey.'"

Margaret Millman: "I remember him saying to me, 'you want to put some horse manure in your shoes to make you grow.' I had to laugh, knowing how small he was. But everyone liked him. I never heard anyone making fun of him."

And Maureen Williams: "He had a smile that lit up his whole face and I remember my mother saying no matter how down you felt or whatever life threw at you, five minutes in Billy's company would brighten even the dullest day."