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A Miscellany of This & That & Things Gone By SPRING 2015 Front cover single pages sp15.indd 1
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Contents
Spring 2015
The Magic of Spring . . . Margaret Curtis 4 Rural Rides . . . . . . . Bernard Bale 12 Then & Now . . . . . . Henry Spencer 18 Music Makers . . . . . Daisy Drummond 20 Percy’s Postbag . . . . . Percy Bickerdyke 24 Tommy Mundon . . . . . . John Sparry 30 Famous Names in Football . . Alan Robinson 33 The Literary Pilgrim . . . . John Hammond 34 Whatever Happened to...? . . . Angeline Wilcox 40 Hey Diddle Diddle! . . . Charles Meredith 42 Gleanings . . . . Seren Evans-Charrington 46 Watching the World go by with ‘Wayfarer’ . — 54 TV Memories . . . . . . . Ray Martin 56 Bookworm . . . . . . . Stephen Garnett 62 Remembering Radio Caroline . . Jack Jakeman 64 Feast of Family Favourites . . . . . . . — 68 Home Town . . . . . . Dorothy Hamilton 70 Rib-Ticklers . . . . . . . . . . . — 76 Almanac . . . . . . . David E. Norris 78 Castles & Cottages . . . M. Durnan/G. Gough 82 A Circle of Friendship . . . . . Ruth Spencer 84 Munros and Marilyns . . . Charles Meredith 90 The Blitz Spirit . . . . . . Bob Chaddick 92 From the Deputy Editor’s Desk . Angeline Wilcox 96 Clippings . . . . . Letters to the Editor 98 Hit Parade . . . . . . . . Bill Baxter 110 Juke Box . . . . . . . . . Bill Baxter 114 Raise a Glass . . . . . . Stuart Millson 116 Our Christian Heritage . . . David Hunter 120 The Evergreen Prayer . . . Arthur S. Magee 123 Byways . . . . . . . . Christian Green 124 The Past in Colour . . . . . . . . — 129 Scrapbook . . . . . . . . . . . — 130 Bookshelf . . . . . . Henry Hardcastle 134 Spring’s Return . . . . . Elizabeth Gozney 148 Front Cover: Spring has sprung! Green shoots and golden daffodils line the river bank at Eastleach in Gloucestershire. PAUL FELIX
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The Evergreen Prayer Morning has Broken
When I see the sunrise Reflecting in the golden sky, The glory of a new day dawning, We praise the Lord For the joy of morning. Every day is a miracle The joy of God’s creation, So many wonders known And unknown, beyond imagination. Thank you Lord we pray, For the miracle of the new day. ARTHUR S. MAGEE
A Suffolk sunrise by the River Gipping at Bramford.
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MARC BEDINGFIELD
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here was a time when you would pop into a Keymarket store and buy a jumbo loaf of bread wrapped in waxed paper, get a quarter of ham from George Mason’s, before popping to Timothy Whites (the chemist) to buy a bottle of milk of magnesia (in its blue glass bottle), and then on the way home you might nip into the gas showroom to pay your bill. All of these places have vanished from our high streets along with many more and it’s only when you start thinking about where we used to shop that the memories come flooding back. For many years following the Second World War, the small traditional high street shops reigned supreme and just as in the Peter and
Jane books we were all nipping in and out of the independent butchers, bakers and greengrocers for our daily, or weekly, shop. The Co-op van used to call round delivering fresh fish on Fridays, and milk and bread were delivered daily to your door. In a conveniencedriven culture where Sunday opening is now the norm and 24-hour supermarkets are common, it’s hard to recall Wednesday half-day closing, or the time when most shops were shuttered up by 5.30pm and were always shut on the Sabbath. Nobody then could have thought that, within a lifetime, there would be shops the size of a small village where you could buy anything from a cake to a cooker and a packet of tea to a television.
High Streets of Yesteryear
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A branch of Woolworths at Marlow in Buckinghamshire. RONALD GOODEARL
Probably one of the biggest changes when it comes to high street names concerns grocers. After the demise of the small grocer’s store I remember a time when it wasn’t Tesco, Asda and Morrison’s that you did your supermarket “big shop” at, instead it was the small supermarkets such as Liptons and Lo-Cost. Other names that have vanished are International, Presto, Normid, MacFisheries, Food Giant, Cordon
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Bleu and Fine Fare along with the more recently retired stores of Kwik Save and Safeway. There was also Gateway which is now a relic of the past. This store was started by a family grocer called Mr. Mills back in 1875. By 1900 he had opened a dozen shops and the business had become a limited company. Half a century later, J.H. Mills evolved into Gateway, a self-service store and by 1965 there were 35 stores, but just like Kwik Save its halcyon days
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Popular programmes from the golden age of television
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tarring Reg Varney as bus Bachelor Stan lived with his driver, Stan Butler, On the widowed mum, Mabel, played firstly Buses was first televised by Cicely Courtneidge and then by between 1969 and 1973. The Doris Hare. His frumpish sister Olive viewers, although not all the critics, (Anna Karen), and her layabout immediately loved husband Arthur it and three spin-off (Michael Robbins), films were made. were also in residence. On the Buses The writers, Mischievous, workshy, Ronald Wolfe but lovable rogues, and Ronald Chesney, combined Stan and Jack ridiculed Blakey two earlier comedies, The Rag Trade and always did their best to ruin and Meet the Wife, thus weaving his schemes. Passengers were seen together both home and workplace. as a hindrance and their bus was Stan’s conductor pal and partner nearly always late. Although Blakey in crime, Jack Harper, was played tried to keep them in order he was by Bob Grant and together they invariably reduced to screaming “Get worked the Number 11 bus route to the bus out!” In a time and motion the Cemetery Gates for the Luxton study he also claimed that hearses and District Traction Company. were faster arriving at the Cemetery Inspector Cyril “Blakey” Blake Gates! (Stephen Lewis) was their superior Rarely seen out of uniform, based at the depot. with his toothbrush moustache he
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This 1971 film was the first of three based on the television series. The others were Mutiny on the Buses (1972) and Holiday on the Buses (1973).
resembled an emaciated Adolf Hitler and revelled in short-lived victories over Stan and Jack by shouting “This has made my day”. They, meanwhile, were busy chasing the opposite sex (“birds”), mainly the mini-skirted clippies at the depot. Lecherous Jack preferred short-term relationships but Stan hoped to get married. Each episode was based around flirtatious goings on but Mabel ruled the roost and often demanded extra housekeeping money from Stan and Arthur. She also insisted that there were to be “no goings on” and although Stan did his best to outfox her, he never succeeded.
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After 10 years of a miserable marriage, Arthur and Olive’s relationship was little more than bickering and insults. She was obtuse, suffered from chilblains, bad eyesight and her voracious appetite made her plump. Arthur, meanwhile, flirted with other women and mocked her with a stream of sarcastic remarks. When Olive announced “I’ve had a glamour bath, it’s made my skin all soft and smooth”, Arthur replied with “Yeah, it’s brought out the exotic radiance of your chilblains!” For Stan, living with his possessive mum along with Arthur and Olive
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Pirates of the Airwaves
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he hand-held transistor radio was tiny, but, like a bank robber in the Wild West searching for the correct combination to open a safe, as I slowly turned the dial and reached the magic number the crackles and whines suddenly ceased, the air seemed to clear, and the riches came pouring out of the small speaker… pop songs by the top singers and groups of the day which couldn’t be heard anywhere else. To a boy growing up in the 1960s whose only diet of music consisted of hymns at school and church, my parents’ small record collection and the output of the BBC Light Programme, the arrival of pop music with drums, electric guitars, catchy tunes and new personalities with their modern fashions and outlook on life was like a sunburst in a grey sky. Having enjoyed Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Errol
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Flynn in Captain Blood and television’s Sir Francis Drake (with Terence Morgan as the hero), the knowledge that what I was listening to was a “pirate” radio station on a ship added to the excitement and intrigue. “This is Radio Caroline on 199, your all-day music station”…as the jingle emerged from the surrounding hiss and noise (Was it the sound of waves pounding the vessel?) I knew nothing about anything so dull as the legal limitations that were in force on the amount of recorded music allowed on air, the concern over the lack of royalties paid to artists, publishers and record companies, or the claim that the broadcasts interfered with ship to shore radio: all factors that made Radio Caroline anathema to the Government, the BBC and large sections of the music industry. Engaged in my own private “piratefest”, often clutching the radio to my ear while snug and safe from far-off stormy seas beneath the blankets of my bed, I was also unaware of how many other people were tuning in to Caroline. Indeed,
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65 Caroline at sea in 1964 and (inset) one of the station’s most popular and flamboyant disc jockeys, Emperor Rosko.
within the first three weeks of its launch, on 28th March 1964, it is estimated that there were six million regular listeners. At a time when the only other commercial radio station playing pop music was Radio Luxembourg, and then only in the evenings, and with British bands set to conquer the world, it is clear why there was such high demand for Radio Caroline. During the first few years of the 1960s there were one or two radio stations transmitting from ships outside territorial waters off the coasts of Scandinavia and the Netherlands, and it was these that provided the inspiration for the two
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entrepreneurs who first brought pirate radio to the United Kingdom. Allan Crawford and Ronan O’Rahilly were as different as chalk and cheese (Or should that be soul and heavy metal?) Crawford, an Australian music publisher, had his own record company, Merit Music, with labels which featured cover versions of pop hits by session musicians and singers. Discovering the arrangement that Radio Luxembourg had with the major record labels, which meant that their artists and records were promoted at the expense of others, he sought backers for his own offshore station, Radio Atlanta.
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Beautiful Bala
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he small, remote town of Bala lies within the Snowdonia National Park and on the edge of the largest natural lake in Wales. Surrounded by hills and mountains, Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid in Welsh) is four miles long and 140 feet deep in places. In recent years it has become popular with water-sports enthusiasts, and canoes,
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rowing boats and small sailing boats grace its waters in the summer months. The lake is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and the deepest parts are home to the gwyniad, a species of fish imprisoned here since the last Ice Age, which is found nowhere else in Wales. Another interesting inhabitant of the lake,
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2015 EVERGREEN 71 A lovely Welsh beauty spot — Bala Lake. PETER HERRING
although only a few local people have spotted him, is Teggie, an eightfoot-long legendary monster, said to resemble a crocodile. Wales is rich in legends and, according to one, a cruel prince who once lived where the lake is now treated his subjects with contempt. One night, during a banquet, his palace and township were engulfed
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as punishment for his wicked ways. The site of the Roman fort, Caer Gai, speculated to be the home of King Arthur’s foster father, lies above the west end of the lake. After Wales lost its independence to English rule, Roger de Mortimer developed the town as an administrative centre and built the streets to a grid system. Bala was
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I took my seat early but still t’s unusual to take your dog to had to squeeze past the trademark church. It’s even more unusual passive labrador lying in the aisle for 200 other people to do it on next to the owner’s chair. Soon two the same day at the same church, but members of the choir that is what happens came across to natter at Ely Cathedral in Every dog with a couple who Cambridgeshire. In has his day had brought along 2013 I watched as the their canine family dogs strained at the of a Bedlington terrier, a Yorkshire leads of their owners to attend the terrier and a husky. Good-natured 27th annual pet service run by the friendship was the order of the day; Wood Green Animal Shelter (601 Lordship Lane, Wood Green, London the opposite of what these dogs had experienced as puppies. N22 5LG. Tel:0844 2488181). Here There is something quite bizarre was that special love affair that the about sitting in a church pew English have with their pets, writ alongside four dogs, but once I had large. Ninety years ago they first yapped adjusted to the mindset it seemed onto the world stage at Lordship perfectly appropriate that the Lane in North London, caring for verger should come round offering sick, injured and abandoned animals. blankets for the dogs to lie on Nowadays they rescue and find (because the stone floor was cold) homes for 5,000 animals annually. and to direct our attention to the
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bowls of water placed next to each column. The husky sniffed me out and rested its head on my thigh. At least I had the seal of approval from one member of the congregation. An astonishing array of pets gathered in the cathedral. A large Mother Earth figure sat behind me, lavishing adoration on a chihuahua which was curled up in a wicker basket on her lap. Across the aisle a lugubrious dachshund cast a quizzical eye over the New Age teenager leading a large grey poodle and a pet ferret purposefully down the aisle to the altar rail. A sprightly middle-aged woman in a summer
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dress and hair clipped up to form a fountain of loose curls defied the cliché about owners growing to look like their dogs. She was spreading out a duvet blanket for her King Charles spaniel to lie on. Right in the middle of the congregation a ruddy-faced man sat with his collie obediently warming his feet. They were both motionless. He was a shepherd and his crook looked like a bishop’s crosier marking out faith in traditional values amid a sea of idolatry. The service didn’t have a proper opening. How could it? All the dogs had their own conversations to exchange. Canon Hargrave simply
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EVERGREEN Spring Allan Fosbrook who owns The Blitz Tea Rooms and Jazz Lounge.
rooms of the 1940s...but this one is complete with a hole on the roof where a bomb has come through! The venture is the idea of Allan Fosbrook, who decided to change his career direction after working in a senior role for a major international business. “I have always been fascinated by the 1940s and the spirit that got the country through the terrible years of the war,” he explains. “When I had the chance to realise a dream I grabbed it and have invested about £30,000 into making the tea rooms as authentic as possible.”
The Blitz Spirit
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adies who lunch can now step back in time at a wonderful tea room at Kettering, in Northamptonshire. The Blitz Tea Room and Jazz Lounge is themed around the traditional tea
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Glenn Miller music plays through the period speakers — sometimes interrupted by news from the BBC, or an extract from a Churchill broadcast — whilst Vi, the cook, prepares delicious teas, using modern ingredients, of course. No powdered egg or Spam here! Among the delicious offerings on the menu are the Churchill and Vera Lynn cream teas. True Forties style can be seen everywhere from the furniture to the staff uniforms, and it is great fun to turn back the clock as you partake of your afternoon tea. This family-run business opened in September 2013 and has since attracted a loyal and enthusiastic following. On Friday and Saturday
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ho were the British most durable of home-grown “supersuperheroes? doers”. But he certainly wasn’t the Ask only one, and by no anyone who grew means the first. There Britain’s Lost up reading comics in were many others. Superheroes the Fifties and early Obscured now in the Sixties who was the mists of time, they most successful are Britain’s lost British superhero superheroes. and the answer In the late would surely be Thirties the new Marvelman (see American comicEvergreen, Spring books began to 2010). Published find their way into by L. Miller & Son the British market, and running for 10 chiefly as ballast years from 1954, on transatlantic this blue-and-red shipping, reaching clad mightiest of outlets such as mortals was by far Woolworths. the best-selling and These colourful periodicals Streamline Comics had begun were published by a Manchester company. by reprinting
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newspaper comic-strips, but quickly progressed to new material. One of these original works, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two youngsters from Cleveland, Ohio, had given birth to a new breed of hero inspired by the pulp magazines, films, and teenage wish-fulfilment. He had become a runaway success, inspiring numerous imitators. His name was Superman (see Evergreen, Summer 2013). Many young British comic readers were enthralled by the crude but effective dynamics of the “Yank comics”, and took to their hearts the exploits of the superheroes, those colourful costumed adventurers with outlandish powers and outrageous names — Batman, Amazing Man, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel... To the fans’ disappointment, however, the supply of such exotic four-colour fare became severely restricted after the outbreak of war in September 1939. To feed the continuing demand some enterprising British publishers, such as T.V. Boardman, arranged to reprint American strips in the comics they produced, whereas others, such as Gerald G. Swan, elected to launch their own superheroes, written and drawn by local talent. Swan issued various one-shots in 1940. Thrill Comics and Extra Fun featured the adventures of William A. Ward’s “The Bat”, a costumed vigilante whose uncompromising motto was “Ten lives for a life!”
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Captain Crash appeared towards the end of the 1940s in Crash Comics.
Clearly based on the early, brutal Batman, this ruthless avenger was not someone a criminal would be happy to meet in a dark alley at midnight. Looking to try the waters of this obviously popular new genre, Dundeebased publisher D.C. Thomson decided to create an American-style super-powered adventurer of their own. Thus the first traditional British comic to boast the presence of an indigenous superhero in its pages was The Dandy! The 5th August 1944 issue showed mild-mannered privateeye Len Manners exchanging his spectacles for a black mask, tight black trousers, and a white shirt emblazoned with a red “X”, to fight injustice as “The Amazing Mr. X”. Somewhat
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Tenants’ Requests Regular readers might recall the “Message in a Milk Bottle” item, which was in our Autumn 2014 “Scrapbook”. Seeing these humorous notes for the milkman prompted Gwili Lewis of Northwich, Cheshire, to send us some similar examples from council house tenants’ letters, which he came across during his 40 years in local government. Can I have a plumber? I woke this morning to find my water boiling. I am sorry I could not keep the appointment with you at your office as I have been a week with the doctor. My husband wouldn’t come and leave the house in case something happened. Will you please send someone to the above address to inspect the shocking condition of the footpath. I have three small children who are always tripping
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on the broken surface.Yesterday my wife tripped and fell. She is now pregnant. The hearth has pulled away from the wall. Please can we have this repaired while my husband and I are stripped for decorating.
Change at Crewe Derek Newsham from Harvington, in Worcestershire, thought that the following story would amuse Evergreen readers. It was a Friday at Euston Station when a businessman was travelling to attend a very important meeting in Crewe. He boarded his train and took his seat. After a while the ticket inspector came along. When the businessman showed his ticket to the inspector he was told that the train was going non-stop to Manchester and not stopping at Crewe. The businessman explained that he had to attend a very important conference in Crewe and
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2015 EVERGREEN 131 What great wings you have! A European Eagle Owl photographed by one of our readers. See “Animal Magic”.
he pleaded for help. The inspector said he would ask the driver to go very slowly through Crewe to give the man chance to get off the train. He told him to start running when he got off to avoid breaking his ankle. When the train got to Crewe it went very slowly as promised. The businessman got out and started to run. Suddenly, another passenger on the train saw him, grabbed him off the platform and pulled him back inside. He told him: “You’re very lucky because this train never stops at Crewe on a Friday.”
Animal Magic The amazing picture of the European Eagle Owl (see above) was taken by Peter Gaston of Hawarden, Flintshire, when he was on a visit to the Cotswold Falconry Centre at Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire. Did you know that a group of owls is called a parliament and that there are more than 200 different species? Do you have any interesting, funny or
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gorgeous pictures of animals — whether they are wild, or much-loved pets who are part of the family? If so, and you think they deserve to be seen by a wider audience then send the picture, together with brief details of the furry, feathered, or scaly subject to “Scrapbook”, and we’ll publish them in a future issue.
Prayers Answered Australian reader Ian Laing came across this tale which demonstrates how your prayers are often answered at the most surprising times! During the minister’s prayer one Sunday, there was a loud whistle from Tommy sitting in one of the back pews. Tommy’s mother was horrified. She pinched him into silence and, after church, asked, “Tommy, whatever made you do such a thing?”
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Spring’s Return The gentle breeze — it must be spring, For gone sharp gusts, and driving rain. This special air brought spring today, The birdsong sounds so different too. The season’s welcome that we know, With sunny skies, to gild each hour; A time in which we can delight — For yes! It’s spring, and here to stay! ELIZABETH GOZNEY
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