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Top Picture: The 148a outside Hilsea bus garage.






Bottom Picture: A 1950’s Hopalong Cassidy Comic











Happy Easter to you all

Good Old 1957

Some weeks back I was given three copies of the Daily Sketch from April 1957 and one copy of the Evening News of the same time. They make fascinating reading! So I have decided to note down some of the stories in the hopes that you will find them interesting as well. What was happening in April 1957, the Queen was crowned four years earlier, I was 11 d one a bit months old and still at Solent Road Junior School and just about to take my 11+; so life was about to change. So now on to the papers and on this page the Evening News of 3rd April 1957.

Actually there was very little local news in this edition (who said it is still like that?). The headline on the front page was the murder trial Dr John Bodkin Adams at the Old Bailey, a case which was centred in and around Eastbourne. There was a petition by the residents of Leigh Park against the increase in Council Rents, a photo article about a US General arriving in England and another showing Frankie Vaughan with the fish bone he had had removed from his throat in the London Clinic. The Queen Mary passengers had eventually arrived in London by train after having to run the gauntlet of striking dockers in Southampton and Cherbourg, a local MP asked in the House of Commons if the Prime Minister was aware that the present Hire Purchase restrictions were causing firms to closedown and Sir Anthony Eden the PM had seen a doctor before his trip to the US.
There was an article about Socialists being split over H Bomb tests an advert for the LDB who were selling quilt covers for £2/17/6d and lastly on the front page an article which I wished I knew the end of. HMS Protector had just returned from an Antarctic commission and had brought back six king penguins with it to be take to London Zoo. I wonder if they all arrived? And all this was on the front page.

Inside we are told that thousands of Portsmouth families were delighted to learn that the dockers strike was coming to an end. Portsmouth had a new General Registrar Mr HJ Kent, four members of the City Council had been appointed to the Hampshire Rivers Board and a Mr WW Keat (wrongly spelt Keats) left the Portsmouth Corporation Tramways Service after 38 years service and was going to work on a farm with his son at Soberton. He was actually a distant cousin of mine; hence I picked up the spelling mistake.

Some of the trees in Widley Road were in danger of being felled for safety reasons and the residents were objecting and the Admiralty Constabulary had a new Chief in the person of Mr JJE Fry.

The small ads make fascinating reading, I will not go through them now but if any one would like a scan of the page just let me know and I will send you one. Another thing that I had forgotten about The Evening News was the cartoon strip ‘Uncle Charlie’ drawn by Laing, mind you it was not very funny.

On the back page of the paper is an article about a Royal Naval Captain and his wife being accused on drink charges. This happened in Gosport when the Captain, who lived in Hambledon, drove his car along Palmerston Way, over a front lawn, through a hedge, onto a rockery and stopped very near to the edge of the moat. There was no result in the paper as the case was adjourned.

The residents of Southampton had published a plea to retain the Southampton to Le Harve steamship service but to no avail, as the plea fell on deaf ears and the service was withdrawn. HMS Kenya had been recommisssioned and Tom Finney had been selected as footballer of the year.

The weather forecast was rather cloudy with some coastal fog at times and the outlook was mainly dry and rather warm!!!

Now in the Stop Press section we learn that the police had seized 200 pounds of Indian Hemp on the freighter Worcestershire in Tilbury Docks. It was announced that HMS Ark Royal might visit the United States and 80 Portsmouth doctors had voted to withdraw from the National Health Service, I wonder what happened there? I suppose I will never find the follow up article to this one.

As I said there was not a vast amount of local news in the Portsmouth paper but all very interesting. In a later article I will take a look at copies of the Daily Sketch but from a quick look there are several photographs of Sophia Loren and an article I must go and read now, it is by Joan Collins and is entitled ‘ Let’s get back to honest sex’ the mind boggles and all this before she married Anthony Newley, I will let you know what it is all about on a later page.

Take Care and keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.com


You Write:

Peter G Writes:-

I am not sure our paths ever crossed at Manor Court but having read your pages re the teachers we had, I felt I must congratulate you, shivers ran down my spine literally well done


News and Views:

Now can you wait for this?

A long-awaited side of the Beatles saga will be coming to print in the near future. John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono has confirmed she plans to write a memoir "in the next five years...I just have to find the time." She has said in the past that she wouldn't write a book for fear of hurting those close to the group, including families, friends and surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. She is expected to address not only her life with John Lennon but also rumours and myths about her role in breaking up the Beatles. When it's published, she will become the third Beatle wife to write their memoirs. John Lennon's first wife, Cynthia Lennon, has written two -- 1978's "A Twist of Lennon" and 2005's "John" -- and George Harrison's first wife, Pattie Boyd, published "Wonderful Tonight: George



On this day 3rd April 1960-1965


On 03/04/1960 the number one single was My Old Man's a Dustman - Lonnie Donegan and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Wagon Train (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions

On 03/04/1961 the number one single was Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 03/04/1962 the number one single was Wonderful Land - The Shadows and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was First military satellite TV broadcast.

On 03/04/1963 the number one single was Foot Tapper - The Shadows and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The top rated TV show was The Budget (All Channels) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 03/04/1964 the number one single was Can't Buy Me Love - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was British troops in Cyprus fist fights.
On 03/04/1965 the number one single was The Last Time - Rolling Stones and the number one album was Rolling Stones Number 2 - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.