'Our Gracie' & her love for Rochdale

Much has been written over the years about Dame Gracie Fields – the Rochdale Mill girl who went on to become the world’s highest paid film star of the 1930s; highest paid concert star of the 1940s and radio star of the 1950s. She appeared in ten Royal Command Performances, was conferred a CBE in 1938 and a DBE in 1979 and whose professional career lasted over an incomparable sixty years.

In this article, Sebastian Lassandro – her biographer and archivist, gives us a little snapshot of what her home town, Rochdale, meant to 'Our Gracie'.

When interviewed in 1956, Gracie Fields explained:

"To me, Rochdale means 'first'. In Rochdale I first opened my eyes. In Rochdale I first cried, first laughed, heard birds sing for the first time. I sang, too, for the first time in my life. I was even spanked for the first time in Rochdale. And in Rochdale I wore my first pair of clogs. My first, and almost only, schooling took place in Rochdale at the Parish Church School. My first tram ride around the town, my first swimming lesson in the baths, and, when very young, slipping into the ship canal along with the other children for an extra swim during the hot summer days. My first job was an errand girl for a confectioner’s shop [...] my first song on a stage was sung at the Old Circus, where now stands the Hippodrome.

"My work since then has meant travelling the world over to great places and small, but ‘home’ to me always means Rochdale and its gradely folk. My memories are ever sweet and homely. I see all Rochdale’s lovely parks and gardens, the beautiful walks all so near - Healey Dell, Hollingworth Lake, and all the rest. On my travels, too, I am reminded so often all over the world of home whenever I see the machinery and products of Rochdale proudly stamped with the names of her great manufacturers."

For Gracie, the town really was home. She felt she belonged here and often joked she would move back to the town "if only it was by the seaside!" On more than one of her many return visits to the town, Gracie exclaimed that although she didn’t have a house in Rochdale she could go to any front door and be offered a cup of tea or a bed for the night, which she knew was absolutely true. Whenever she visited, crowds of thousands turned up to cheer their favourite daughter in the Town Hall square and to offer a civic welcome to the Freeman of the Borough – which she was awarded in 1937 and explained was the "proudest day of my life because it comes from my own home and my own folk."

Her humble beginnings instilled in Gracie a sense of nostalgia for her hometown, which she was to keep for the remainder of her life in creating and maintaining the persona of a Lancashire mill girl, unchanged by fame and fortune. She was one of and all for the people - summed up by the intensely personal pronoun which was afforded to her, recognisable all the world over, simply: "Our Gracie".

Rich people sent Gracie roses, poor people knitted her tea-cosies – and Gracie treated them all the same. She was able to rub shoulders at palaces and hotels, going "proper posh" and living the high life in Hollywood and in Capri, but she was equally at home singing in a tea room, opening a church fete or even on a set of ladders singing to workers on a building site. In an article in 1939, the film critic C. A. Lejeune described Gracie, "As much a part of English life as tea and football pools, our green hedged fields, and the Nelson Column" – and that is absolutely true.

At the pinnacle of her career in 1939, Gracie underwent life-saving cervical cancer surgery, given only a 25% survival rate. The public sent in over half a million cards, telegrams and letters to her hospital ward and Parliament closed their session early when it was announced she was going to broadcast her 'thanks' on the air. Much was the appeal, draw and love that the public had for Britain’s first superstar.

Throughout her career, her songs (originally issued on 78rpms) often featured a 'serious' song on one side and a 'comedy number' on the other. It’s these numbers that often feature direct references to Rochdale, such as the famous 'The Rochdale Hounds', which describes a comedic hunting outing based on the real Rochdale Hunt, and a parodic line in 'There’s A Lovely Lake in London', in which she extolls the virtues of Hollingworth Lake as a "gradeley place for courtin' at the right time of the year!"

Prophetically, her recording 'In A Little Lancashire Town' describes how "they’ve mucked up me Lancashire home", with "chromium everywhere and neon lights an all", and "where the rubbish pit once used to be, they’ve bunged up a statue to me"!

Gracie’s down-to-earth songs often conveyed a sense of nostalgia for the industrial environment in which she grew up, such as 'Clogs and Shawl' and 'Lancashire Blues', and she generally always performed her comedy songs with her native Rochdalian accent and dialect. Even well into later life, her comedic performances were done with that unmistakable Northern accent.

Many of Gracie’s Rochdalian fans were not happy, however, when in 1931 her recording of what was the first ever song about football committed to disc, "Pass! Shoot! Goal!", she is distinctly heard cheering on Oldham Athletic, and not Rochdale! Nevertheless, in interviews and in private, Gracie fondly remembered the "quietness of the cobbled streets" as a wonderful memory of her childhood and the "tiniest, smelliest, dingiest little fish shop in the North of England", which she was born above.

Previously a barber’s shop, her paternal grandmother, Sarah Stansfield, installed chip fryers to the property at 9 Molesworth Street, in whose upstairs room Grace Stansfield was born on January 9th 1898. She was christened a few weeks later, on February 2, at St Chad’s Churchthe same church where her parents were married less than five months previously. Gracie recalled in later life that this is where her musical career began, "with a good smart top C from my cradle. They tell me it was a striking note, a compelling note that brought me what I wanted".

The Stansfield family would regularly 'move oop' in the world and lived in various properties around Rochdale, every time that Gracie’s father Fred (a mechanic) got a pay rise. She remembered, "My mother was so bad she used to forget to tell my father where she’d gone. He’d arrive home and find nobody there - everybody else had moved!" The Stansfields, during their years of "movin' oop", are known to have lived in Hughtrede Street (1901); at 10 Baron Street (1902-1910); 45 Kenion Street (in 1911); 16 Watmough Street (1914); and they are also known to have spent time on Lyland Street, off Milnrow Road in the time between censuses. It is highly likely that the everflitting family spent time in other properties whose details have been lost to time.

Gracie remembered in later life that: "Sometimes in summer Dad took us on a penny tram ride from Rochdale to Hollingworth Lake. He lifted us on a high wall to sit and eat our sandwiches and share a bottle of lemonade. I’ve seen a bit of the world since those days, but I’ve never tasted champagne better than lukewarm fizzy lemonade that we passed from hand to hand, with sticky little earnest fingers marking the next share, looking out at the beautiful lake stretching out in front of us. It was Heaven!"

When Gracie became a 'star' she never forgot Rochdale – and the town never forget their favourite daughter. Throughout her life, she regularly gave her time and money to various local charities, free concerts, visits and would patronise many charitable events – in public and in private. As thanks for all her efforts, in 1938 the people of Rochdale clubbed together over 15,000 shillings to commission a painting by Sir James Gunn – which Gracie gave back to the people of the town to be proudly displayed forever. Perhaps it might again find a permanent home in the newly refurbished Town Hall?

Gracie Fields truly was Rochdale and the world’s 'First Lady of Song', the greatest female British artist ever to grace the Variety stage and someone who always explained, "I am never so happy as when I am telling people how proud I am of Rochdale, and of its gradely folk."

Sebastian Lassandro

Gracie’s main return visits to Rochdale:

1915: ‘Yes, I Think So!’ revue, week at the Rochdale Hippodrome. (November 30th)

1922: ‘Mr Tower of London’ revue, week at Rochdale Hippodrome. (24th July)

1924: Return visit of ‘Mr Tower of London’, week at Rochdale Hippodrome. (March 26th)

1927: ‘By Request’ revue, week at Rochdale Hippodrome. (April 5th)

1928: Opening ceremony of the Rialto Cinema. (August 18th)

1931: ‘Gracie Comes Whoam’ week of charity events and concerts. (January 26th)

1931: Guest at Rochdale Amateur Operatic Society’s ‘Katinka.’ (November)

1932: Appointed Life Governor of Rochdale Hospital.

1933: ‘Gracie’s Back Again’ week of charity events and concerts. (February 27th)

1934 ‘Hello, Here I Am Again!’ week of charity events and concerts. (December 3rd)

1935: Opens St Chad’s Church Bazaar on a day trip. (October 19th)

1937: Freedom of the Borough of Rochdale ceremony. (May 19th)

1938: One-off afternoon concert at the Hippodrome. (February 6th)

1938: Concert at Regal Cinema and presentation of James Gunn portrait. (November 6th)

1941: Town Hall and factory concerts at start of UK War Tour. (12th July)

1943: Town Hall and factory concerts at start of UK War Tour. (13th August)

1947: ‘Our Gracie’s Working Party’ BBC concert from Champness Hall. (23rd July)

1949: Concert at the ABC Regal Cinema. (24th April)

1954: Harold Fielding UK Concert Tour at the Hippodrome. (22nd October) and laid the foundation stone of the new Rochdale Observer offices on Drake Street (23rd October)

1954: Day trip to see the burned out shell of Rochdale Hippodrome. (November 24th)

1956: Rochdale Centenary charity week at the Hippodrome. (29th October)

1957: Attended Police charity ball and presented trophies at the event. (November)

1963: Opened Rochdale Infirmary’s new outpatient department. (29th October)

1970: Opened the Vitool Factory on Molesworth Street. (28th October)

1978: The opening the Gracie Fields Theatre and visit to the Wheatsheaf Shopping Centre and exhibition.