Web Page No 866

The final three from the Barlow Family Album, all showing Cosham High Street, see if you can spot where the Building School was and where Tesco’s is now!!!

When Peter sent me these photographs he asked why I did not talk about Court Lane Secondary School, so here goes.

But first a welcome to two new old school pals John Lockwood and Phil Wheaton who tells me that he still has an outstanding detention to serve for Reg Davis !!!!

Court Lane School

I suppose that I was like most children in the late 1950’s I thought that if I did not get into one of the Grammar Schools or the Tech. I had failed the 11+ and was doomed to a life at Court Lane.

But once I got over the nervousness of going to a new school, wearing an overlarge new school uniform (it’s got to do you for at least two years dear, I was told), I slowly began to enjoy ‘big school’.

To start with the new school was a bus ride away and if you were crafty you could run down the stairs of the bus and off the platform without paying and so manage to gain extra money in your pocket. The other way was to walk the couple of miles or so, this was fun with your mates on a fine day but I have to admit that on a wet and windy day we resorted to the bus unless there was a cute little lass that you wanted to talk to on your own!!!

Court Lane itself was a bit of a shock. One long corridor with classrooms off, and a two storey building In the middle which housed the headmasters office, his secretary and the holy of holies, the Staff Room. Talking of the Headmaster, he was Wally Dunstan and if you look lower down on the side bar of this blog you will see a photograph of Anida Folland presenting Wally and his wife with a leaving gift. The one thing I cannot remember is his Secretary’s name. Can anyone help?

That long corridor was quite daunting at the east end the first class room was that of Miss Curtis, Flossy as she was known to us! Moving down there was Harry Harrison, Miss Fields a motorcycle riding science terror that we were all terrified of. The George Pledger, the technical drawing expeteacherrt how he ever managed to make such neat drawing on the blackboard with those enormous set squares and rulers I will never know. Further along came June Blitz and her French class, then Ray Dopson who taught English, and finally Mick (Chalky) White another English teacher. Now who remembers these last two collecting the little plastic guards bandsmen from the Corn Flake packets? They encouraged us all to bring in ours from home so that they could race to see who could get a full band first! These were the classrooms where our drama presentations were planned, see the side bar for a programme of three plays from that period. These were the rehearsal rooms, dressing rooms and props rooms whilst the main hall in the Junior School was used as the theatre.

Opposite the headmasters block was the main hall with its two separate entries from that long corridor. Oh, how I remember sitting on the floor in there on my first day as we nervously waited to hear to which classes we were assigned. This hall, as most school halls at the time doubled as a gym hall and a dining hall, I experienced the first but never the second. Off this hall were two classrooms one the music room ruled over by Mr John Stephens, what a production the Messiah was a few years later in Manor Court! The other room was the domain of Bob Coulthard and his Geography students.

Over the years the school had grown and outer building were added, again see the side bar. Here on the east end of the site was the Domestic Science Room of Enid Tuffin and the Needlework room of Miss Crocker. ( I remember Anida telling me that she was never very good at needlework and one day Miss Crocker said in a loud voice Anida Folland I am sure that I would be able to see those stitches from the top of Portsdown Hill. Some eyesight Ehh!!!). Right down by the school fence were the two workshops , the metalwork room of Ken Wells who only passed away in the last couple of years and the woodwork shop of Harold Bennett, I do have to say that I never did well in either of those workshops.

I have left the double ended hut at the west end of the site to last as that is where any red blooded boy really wanted to go as in one end was the class room of Miss Burden and the other the room of Jill Coggan, both well worth staring at for a complete lesson!!

Finally we did not have any playing fields so on sports afternoon it was time to crowd onto a double decker bus as it made its way to the playing fields at East Lodge. The worse thing was there was no time to change before we left either end so we had to change on the bus, very unhygienic. The other sports trip we had was to the original Victoria swimming baths which were right next to the City Mortuary (bet you did not know that!). This was even worse changing wise as three of us had to crowd into a poolside booth and attempt to either put on a woollen bathing costume or afterwards trying to get socks onto damp feet.

On reflection I enjoyed myself at Court Lane with its big playground out the front and what we all thought of as old buildings 53 years ago and they are still going strong!

I also remember the move from Court Lane to the brand new Manor Court, did you know it was originally going to be called Court Manor, doesn’t have the same ring does it? I also remember at the end of the Summer Term of 1960 pushing several four wheeled trolleys loaded with chairs and desks from one school to another, Ah well So much for memory.

Keep in touch

Peter

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

You Write:

John Asks:-

The 4 distinct different area's that Manor Court pupils came from in the Schools catchment area were
· Highbury
· East Cosham
· Drayton
· Farlington
Was there any rivalry, did some kids look down on some of the others, I think they did and I was aware of a few fights and stand off between these groups. Hopefully things have changed since them times or have they?

News and Views:

Jack Parnell the man who provided the music for shows such as Sunday Night At The London Palladium and wrote the theme tunes to programmes including The Golden Shot during his time as musical director at ATV died a couple of days after his 87th birthday. In 1951 left the Ted Heath band to lead 12-piece and then a 16-piece band. When ITV launched, he landed the role of musical director for ATV. During his decades at the broadcaster, he worked with legends such as Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr, Lena Horne and Nat King Cole. He also made series with Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck, acted as a panellist on TV talent show New Faces and was musical director for programmes such as The Benny Hill Show and a production of Peter Pan starring Mia Farrow, Sir John Gielgud and Danny Kaye. He also composed signature tunes for programmes such as Family Fortunes. In the late 1970s he began his association with The Muppet Show, for which he conducted the orchestra and frequently appeared on screen. He retired from ATV in 1982, when it became Central Television, moving to Southwold but continuing to perform with the all-star veterans group Best Of British Jazz with trumpeter Kenny Baker and trombonist Don Lusher. He also played with his small group for weekly shows at the Green Man in Rackheath. Jack Parnell died

On this day 28th August 1960-1965.

On 28/08/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows 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 Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 28/08/1961 the number one single was You Don't Know - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Blackpool Tower Circus (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.


On 28/08/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield and the number one album was Pot Luck - 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 Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.


On 28/08/1963 the number one single was Bad to Me - Billy J Kramer and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Martin Luther King gives I Have A Dream speech

On 28/08/1964 the number one single was Have I the Right? - Honeycombs and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Labour Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 28/08/1965 the number one single was I Got You Babe - Sonny and Cher and the number one album was Help - The Beatles. 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

Web Page No 864

First Picture:

Norman Folland at Court Lane in the 1950’s

Second Picture:

The other end of the motorcycle world the AA bike



This week’s page comes from Steve Timms and in the News and Views section a suggestion from Griff about our corporate 65th birthdays. See what you think and let me know.

Rockers’ Revenge_

‘Dixon of Dock Green’ wasn’t exactly ‘The Wire’. But, back in the fifties, a big percentage of Britain’s population would tune in each week to see wrongs righted and bad ‘uns brought to justice.

One episode concerned itself with the menace of tearaway teens taking to the newly-built bypasses on powerful motor­cycles and treating them like their own private racetrack. These delinquent youths clad in the rebel uniform of blue jeans, boots and black leather jacket, would gather at transport cafes where the neon lights never went out and a truck driver headed north could fill his fuel tank and his belly and perhaps satisfy less salubrious desires any hour of the day or night. As well as a relaxed attitude towards the age and attire of their clientele and their geographic location, most often out-of-town, at the end of invitingly fast and open arterial roads.

One other fixture made the 24hrs transport caffs the spiritual home of the café racers; the jukebox in the corner blaring non-stop raucous rock n roll. It was the jukebox that formed an essential part of the plot, someone would stick a sixpence in the slot and the second the hiss of needle on vinyl came out the speaker, boots would scuffle on linoleum in a mad scramble for the door. The bikes would be quickly kicked into life and roar off into the night headed for a prearranged turning point a market square statue, a bridge or a boozer then it was the speed thrill of a flat to the tank, hell for leather tilt to get back to the caff before the music died .

The programme illustrated with perhaps more melodrama than was necessary the inevitable consequences of such reckless bravado acted out within the confines of the Queen’s Highway. Broken bones, mangled motor­cycles, a young life snuffed out too soon and a heartfelt homily from the silver haired Sergeant on the foolhardiness of youth.

The thing about record racing was that no one could actually remember it actually happening before that broadcast. Because of course it was an invention of the scriptwriters.

There may have been no account of it before but there was certainly plenty of it afterwards. Life imitated art and the consequences were quite often, death. ‘Suicide Club!’ screamed ‘The Daily Mirror’ on its front page and accompanied it with a fantastic photograph of one of these ‘Coffee Bar Cowboys’. He’s cornering hard on a big, British twin-cylinder motor­cycle, urging it on to 100mph the mythical ‘ton’ and looking very cool indeed in a road racer’s crash helmet, skin-tight black leathers and a white silk scarf fluttering like a pirate flag in his wake.

The fastest and best-looking bikes had always been British bikes. Methanol burning Matchless V-twin racers had thrilled and terrified audiences. Between the wars and for a decade after the second great conflict the peerless Brough Superior and then the invincible Vincent had ruled the roads. But these were thoroughbred motor­cycles intended for adventurous chaps of independent means. An ordinary working man might as well have aspired to an invite for cocktails at the Savoy with Noel Coward. Anyway it wasn’t just that the purchase price was beyond the means of those who had to actually work for a living. There was also the small matter of coming up with the full amount upon delivery. Hire Purchase had been around since before the war but it was Harold Macmillan’s Tory govt. that really encouraged it in the late fifties. ‘You never had it so good’ said Macmillan. The truth for most ordinary working people was that they’d never had it all. Never mind so good.

Britain embraced ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ with gusto. Now Dad could have the Ford Anglia he’d lusted after (yes, people really did lust after Ford Anglias) Mum could trade her Eubank for a Hoover. And, if he was in work and could persuade his parents to sign the papers, then perhaps their teenage son could get himself a Triumph Bonneville or a BSA Gold Star. Both had been designed to separate cash rich North American buyers from their dollars. So lashings of chrome plating, two-tone paintwork and hand painted pinstripes replaced the staid livery that most British built motor­cycles had been previously offered in. But that wasn’t enough for the Café Racers. They modified their machines so that they would take on the long and low look the race bikes they saw parked up still steaming in the paddock after a thrash around Brands Hatch.

Race bikes were built with a single purpose speed. Riders were laid out along the bike to spread their weight and present a low profile to cut through the air. To achieve this racing stance foot pegs were shifted right back along the bike and the handlebars were either lowered or dispensed with altogether in favour of lightweight ‘clip-ons’ that attached directly to the front forks. A tiny fairing might be fitted for the rider to tuck in behind. Anything designed with comfort or weather protection in mind was either got rid of or cut back to a bare minimum. Essential items like frames or foot pegs were drilled full of holes to reduce weight (it also looked good) and big comfy saddles were replaced by Spartan racing perches, which had the added advantage of enforcing intimacy with any female brave enough to ask for a lift home from the caff. Lightweight alloys replaced heavyweight steel where possible. Although a long range endurance racing fuel tank would often actually weigh quite a bit more than the item fitted at the factory but with a its quick release strap fixing and pop off fuel cap it didn’t ‘arf look fast. Before the war German race car engineers had scraped the paint from their cars to reduce weight. Or so the story went. Shame it’s not true. But keen to incorporate any performance enhancing modification in their machines café racers stripped away the paint and polished parts to within an inch of their existence… It may not have made their bikes go faster. But….yes, that’s right, you’ve got it, it made them look faster.

The ultimate Café Racer was the Triton. It was a hybrid, but not in the modern sense. Those who built and owned Tritons were more interested in ruling the road than saving the planet. So they took the rather under powered engines out of Norton motor­cycles famed for their road holding and handling of rigid chassis nicknamed ‘The Featherbed’ for reasons that have never really made much sense and inserted the twin cylinder and twin carburettor motor from a Triumph Bonneville. Best not to ask where so many Triumphs willing to donate their engines came from.

The idea that Rockers were scruffy and didn’t care about how they looked is ridiculous and has been put about by the Mods. Anyone who ever owned a copy of Johnny Stuarts ‘Rockers!’ Which boasted on the cover that it was the most shop lifted book in London could see for themselves. ‘The Look’ was Ashman Gold Top racing boots with white fisherman’s socks tucked in over the top, leather trousers and a black leather jacket the best quality and also the best looking had the distinctive red satin quilted lining synonymous with Lewis Leathers of London. A white silk scarf has always looked rakish. And, if you could afford it, you’d top it off with a crash helmet and goggles. And when I say crash helmet I don’t mean the ridiculous ‘Corkers’ worn by scooter types. Proper ‘Jet’ style helmets as worn by the six-time world champion Geoff Duke. The truth was that Ton up Boys and Café Racers cared about the way they looked as much as any mod.

No modern bike will ever look as good as the Café Racers of the late fifties and early sixties for the same reason that no modern train will ever look as good as Mallard, no plane will ever look as good as Concorde and no car will ever look as good as a ‘55 Mercedes SL, a‘61 E-Type or a ’67 Mustang. The difference between everything else I’ve mentioned is that almost all of us could aspire to a Café Racer. There are modern motor­cycles from the likes of Ducati, Triumph and Moto Guzzi trying to pass themselves off as café racers. But why not go for the genuine article instead? A Gold Star or Bonneville can be had for five grand and I just say an immaculate Triton sell at auction for eight thousand including commission. Go on, you’ve got the leather jacket– now get the bike to go with it.

Keep in touch

Peter

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

You Write:

Colin Writes:-

I left Manor Court (Then Springfield) in 1972. Recently I met up with Andy Spenceley (Classmate from 72) who now resides in Johannesburg. Amazing after 38 years.

News and Views:

Hello Gang!
Well, it won't have escaped your notice I reckon that you have realised that we are all 65 in the early part of next year which is a real milestone birthday and event which should be celebrated if only in the knowledge that we all get a pay rise with the Senior Citizens Pension ( I hate the expression Old Age Pensioner ! ) and a rise in taxable allowances and judging by our present government's intentions we have just clipped in for it as well.
Now personally I am not " retiring" and provided I can remain in good working health I shall carry on until I am around 70 as a self-employed renovator of houses with my own working hours though and still carry on doing something which I actually enjoy doing, in fact, I have taken on another house renovation project right now in order to keep the brain cell occupied and from not seizing up !

So.... here is the important bit coming up..........

The De-Vere hotel in Swindon hold some very good dinner/dance cabaret nights on or around February and March and on my last Birthday I took the family to a Beatles Dinner Night which I have to say was excellent and the food & service was also excellent. We all had a thoroughly good night. Tickets were around £28 each which I thought was good value considering the evening's entertainment and standard of cuisine.

So what I am suggesting is why don't we have own large round table for a suitable venue around that time to celebrate our Birthdays. You may stay at the hotel as well on a big discount for a standard room. On the Sunday everyone can come back to my place in the afternoon for tea, sandwiches and a sticky-bun before departing for home.

I will organise the bookings for the evening dinner dance and enquire about room rates etc. for everyone.
It will require monies up front about 6 weeks prior to the chosen event because these evenings sell out very quickly indeed and you have no chance of booking anything 2-3 weeks before because they are all sold out. You have a choice of menu which is also required from you at the time of paying.
There are quite a few things to do if you make a weekend of it as the De-Vere is situated on an entertainment complex or you might like to visit the Great Western Designer Outlet Village which is about a mile or so away. The ASDA shopping Mall is also directly opposite the De-Vere

To get the ball rolling I will need to know who is up for it (and who is not) and would like to come along so as I can do some planning. So please give me an indication of your intentions as soon as you can.

http://www.devereshawridge.co.uk/index.htm Click on link................

Regards Griff.

On this day 21st August 1960-1965.

On 21/08/1960 the number one single was Please Don't Tease - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 21/08/1961 the number one single was You Don't Know - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was Black & White Minstrel Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.



On 21/08/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. 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 Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 21/08/1963 the number one single was Sweets For My Sweet - Searchers and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 21/08/1964 the number one single was Do Wah Diddy Diddy - Manfred Mann and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 21/08/1965 the number one single was Help - The Beatles and the number one album was Liverpool. 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 £not very interesting and 11.69 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Riviera Police (AR)".

Web Page No 862.

Top Picture: Pompey group The Cadilacs




Bottom Picture: Ricky’s Club in Goldsmith Avenue





What a Great Exhibition.


An exhibition in Portsmouth City Museum ( I remember it as the Duchess of Kent Barracks, the Wrennery!) entitled The Birth of Pompey & Southsea Pop & Rock has just ended. Imagine the year is 1960 and a 20-year-old Cliff Richard is leading the way as British rock 'n' rollers burst onto the scene with their revolutionary music and leading showbiz photographer Harry Hammond was there and it was his pictures that formed the basis of this exhibition – along with clothes, instruments and other memorabilia from the 1950s and 60s.

Harry Hammond photographed virtually every leading British musician, as well as many visiting American artists. From Tommy Steele to the Beatles, Shirley Bassey to Dusty Springfield, he captured the emergence of rock 'n' roll and the stars of the time. As well as the Hammond photographs, the exhibition featured a period soundtrack and an interactive quiz with film clips. But any local music fans were certainly fascinated by one special collection of items as part of the exhibition. This included a red drape suit worn by Colin Quaintance, lead singer of the Portsmouth rock 'n' roll band The Cadillacs, the drum kit played by fellow band member Bryan Hatchard was also there. Then there was a brightly patterned shirt which was worn by Chris Harvey of Portsmouth group The Live Five when they appeared in the 1959 Cliff Richard film Expresso Bongo, the display also featured his guitar.

Another item was a washboard signed by skiffle stars, a signed Manfred Mann LP, fascimiles of autographs of stars such as The Beatles and Rod Stewart, these were collected in the 60s by a local fan and there were posters from the Birdcage club in Southsea (they brought back some memories).

A recorded oral history featuring local people talking about the 50s and 60s was interesting and there was an area where people had brought in pictures of themselves and items such as concert tickets and posters from that era. Imagine my surprise when I saw not only tickets for the Manor Court Youth Club (a little after my time, these were 1968) and a membership card. I remember having one of those and Steve and I also remember being there in the Youth Wing on the very first night, actually if you look at the side bar there are three pictures of the opening night courtesy of Steve. One other very clear memory I have of the Manor Court Club is of Friday 22nd September 1963 just after 7.00pm. It was then that the news of President Kennedy’s assassination came through. The whole club went quiet and every one slowly drifted away. There was no music or dancing that night as the club was deserted by 7.30pm

In a 10-year period popular music was transformed in terms of style and instruments; it changed from crooners with dance bands and ballad singers to electric guitar based music.

In 1956, British jazz drummer Tony Crombie formed what was reputed to be the very first professional British rock 'n' roll touring and recording act, Tony Crombie & his Rockets. Their debut was on a variety bill at the New Theatre Royal on September 10th of that year.

One other thing that I found interesting was the list of music venues in Portsmouth. Many I have mentioned before on other pages but here are a few I had forgotten. The Cambridge Hotel in Southsea, the Cobden Arms in Portsmouth for traditional jazz, Ricky’s in Goldsmith Avenue which eventually became one of the first Disco’s in town. The Bottle in the Wall in Hampshire Terrace featured folk music with artists such as Caroline Hester and Jon Isherwood as did the Talbot Hotel in Fratton; and then of course there were the many homes of the Rendezvous Club.

There were local bands in abundance The Cadillacs, Tangerine Slyde, The Four Tunes, Southern Sounds, The Classics who broke up and formed the basis of Simon Dupree and the Big Sound, Manfred Mann, The Saints Skiffle Group, The Rivals and the vocal group The Honeys. The list seems endless, but it was all live music played by real musicians.

One point of interest is that Frank Kelly who now lives in Titchfield was Portsmouth’s first recording pop singer. He recorded with a group called The Hunters and only ever recorded on the Fontana label in 1962 Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On/ 'Cept Me, in 1963 I Saw Linda Yesterday/ Good And True and What Do You Wanna Do/ She Loves Me So and in 1964 Some Other Time/ Why Baby Why. The Hunters were a similar sounding group to the Shadows but had only one chart entry which was as the backing group on Dave Sampson's self penned song 'Sweet Dreams'.

Keep in touch

Peter

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

You Write:

Smoking response:

Steve Writes:-

Re have a fag, you know me as the non P.C. type and (all round rebel) and as you know still smoke rollups. So can comment on some of this, yes the Liquorice papers are still out there and both Christine and I prefer them. I have probably tried most of the brands of manufactured fags from those days, Passing Clouds, Joysticks (Super Kingsize and sold in singles), Players Weights (my first taste) of the devil sticks! Then the ones that almost put me off smoking forever, Solbrany 'Black Russian' Black paper with a gold filter tip I believe? Only had the one and it made me feel sick for hours after! Zippo lighters are still sold, in fact I am still using one now, but our local Tobacconist shop like most has gone.

'Cool as a mountain stream' I think that was the ad for Consulate Menthol fags? That seemed to be a favourite brand for Women, my late Mum smoked those until she packed in her mid 40s, Christine also started to smoke them.

I also started off with the Rizla machine, until a friend taught me how to roll by hand and actually found it easier once I got the hang of it. Plus I had less accoutrements to carry around with me. Tried the other filthy habit of snuff a few times, trying to be like my Granddad who was probably addicted to it. Also tried a pipe but never got on with that, it burned my throat plus I couldn't keep it from rattling about in my clenched teeth.

Melv writes:-

Peter was talking about smoking recently which has brought back a few memories for me of the dreaded weed. I too gave up smoking years ago, about 38 years to be precise but whose counting eh! Probably the most difficult thing I have ever had to do and I still get a whiff of nostalgia when someone lights up a fag so it just goes to show how addictive nicotine can be. I had been a smoker albeit a social smoker really since the age of 14 when I use to pinch one or two of my Mum's Craven 'A' ciggies and puff away behind a bush in the grounds of the deserted Flint House ( remember that place! ). If my Mum was short of ciggies and she would notice them missing then it would 5 Woodbines from Taylor's shop and a cough as it was just about all I could afford in those days.

The "Posh" cigarettes that Peter refers to were called Sobranie Black Russian and were considered to be the luxury end of the smoker's market and the multi coloured ones with the gold filter tip were Sobranie Cocktail for the Ladies as they were considered to be the height of coolness. I didn't know any Girls who smoked those cigarettes....lol

Smoking is now in such a minority with people now which can only be a good thing in my view when you see the harm that prolonged smoking does to your body and in particular the lungs. I have not had a puff now for nearly 40 years but I swear if nuclear WW 3 does break out I will be forced to reach for a fag and a bottle of 12 year old malt whisky and utter those immortal words.......anyone got a light?

News and Views:

Ray Davies of The Kinks has put his Konk Recording Studio in London up for sale. The asking price is £2 million. The sale is not expected to go through until September.

On this day 14th August 1960-1965.

On 14/08/1960 the number one single was Please Don't Tease - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 14/08/1961 the number one single was You Don't Know - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was Black & White Minstrel Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Harpers West One (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 14/08/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. 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 Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Mont Blanc tunnel completed

On 14/08/1963 the number one single was Sweets For My Sweet - Searchers and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Great Train Robbery.
On 14/08/1964 the number one single was Do Wah Diddy Diddy - Manfred Mann and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - 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 Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 14/08/1965 the number one single was Help - The Beatles and the number one album was Help - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Riviera Police (AR) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

Web Page No 860.

Top Picture: The very first Hovertravel poster





Bottom Picture: The Hovergirls. L to R: Jilly Jacobs, Jenny Caparnie, Linda Lever, Mary Sexstone (now I bet she had trouble with her name at school!!!).

Ticket to Ryde (Ride)

The Inauguration of Hovertravel in 1965 just brings it into the brief of this blog. The six men that started the company all admired Sir Christopher Cockerell's invention, but to make it viable they needed to offer passengers a service that they couldn't get from a ferry; the beach at Ryde provided the answer. The low tides in the area take the sea out far beyond the town's esplanade, and it has always been impossible for any ship to berth anywhere near roads or bus routes. Until 1965 the only passenger ferries from Portsmouth stopped at the end of Ryde's half mile long pier.

Obviously ferries still have to use the end of the pier today. But the Hovertravel entrepreneurs seized on the hovercraft s ability to travel across both water and land. No matter what the tide was doing, passengers could embark and disembark in exactly the right place, with no need to trundle up and down the pier by foot, tram or train as an additional requirement of their journey.

So the Hovertravel route was born, adapted over the years, but always operating to use the unique advantage that the hovercraft has over all other forms of transport.

The partners that created Hovertravel shared a love of sailing, pioneer ventures, and a certain daredevilry. They were Desmond Norman and John Britten, who had founded the Britten-Norman aircraft company on the Isle of Wight; Don Robertson, an outstanding pilot who had flown pre-war mail planes in the Arctic and served as a Spitfire test pilot; Edwin Gifford, a civil engineer; Frank Mann, Desmond Norman's partner in an aerial crop-spraying company; and David Webb, a chartered accountant.

The first Ryde terminal was a very basic affair on the seafront and there were two mainland terminals one at Southsea which still exists and one on Stokes Bay in Gosport.

The company's first hovercraft, a 38-seater Westland SR.N6, arrived on 24th July 1965, and Hovertravel went straight into business, making its first passenger crossing from Stokes Bay just before noon on that day.The company's Senior Captain, and initially its sole pilot, was Peter Ayles, who gave the Governor of the Isle of Wight, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, his first hovercraft trip when he inaugurated the service on 4th August 1965.

Unsurprisingly, the public initially regarded Hovertravel and its workings with some hilarity in 1965. The bureaucratic farrago that was involved in dealing with numerous legislative bodies while everyone debated whether the hovercraft was a plane or a ship (or possibly neither) caused particular merriment and the arrival of a pair of caravans to use as terminals added greatly to the fun.

Within a few weeks, the SR.N6 had carried over 30,000 passengers. Hovertravel celebrated with champagne when over 1,000 passengers used the service in a single day. Less than six months after the inauguration, 116,000 passengers had discovered the joys of the hovercraft.

The first timetables were a byword of easy-going enterprise. Initially there were no fixed schedules, with the hovercraft running on demand until more practical methods were devised. The Senior Captain, Peter Ayles, once set a personal record of 77 crossings in a single day, later he had his workload eased when Tony Smith and Peter Atkinson were recruited as pilots. Highly qualified as they were, they still did their stint on the ticket desk when the need arose.

The fares were 7s 6d (37'/ip) for early morning journeys, and a 10s (50p) for crossings made after 10.30am. Much excitement was aroused by the arrival of an exotic team of cabin crew. These sensational females, known as the Hovergirls, will be remembered forever by all who had the good fortune to encounter their daring fashion sense and their willingness to expose their knees.

The Stokes Bay service closed in 1967, but the Ryde-Southsea service became increasingly popular. In 1968, Hovertravel carried its millionth passenger.

The Solent service began operating a regular timetable and by the end of 1970 had achieved a total of 15,000 running hours, with 17,000 crossings made in that year alone. The company's finances, initially somewhat precarious, improved enormously.

Hovercraft technology and commercial requirements have changed greatly in the past forty years, and Hovertravel is in many ways very different from the company that those six partners set up in 1965, but it has always been inspired by their founding principle. For forty years, the hovercraft has been the fastest and most convenient way to cross the Solent, and Hovertravel is proud that it still serves to provide its customers with this unique service.

In 1965 the hovercraft took less than ten minutes to cross the Solent, and that efficiency remains today, although not on the scale achieved in 1970 when the SR.N5 achieved a record crossing time of 4mins 53secs - albeit with no passengers aboard to experience this invigorating trip.

Hovertravel's cross-Solent service was inaugurated in the same year as The Beatles had a hit with Ticket to Ride. Although the title had distinctly less salubrious connotations, it also contained a double - meaning that referred to the visits Paul McCartney had made to Ryde, where his cousin once owned a bar.


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Peter

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Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

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Martin replies to Melv’s question about the School Secretary

Tell Melv her name was Mrs. Richardson..............and I do believe she came to Manor Court for a while............Nice lady....always a smile on her face..........

So does Peter.

Mrs Richardson was the school secretary at Court Lane For as long as I can remember.

News and Views:

You will not be surprised to know that there are a number of Beatles songs in the top 20 for the 60s, but also included is Ken Dodd (Tears), The Seekers (The Carnival Is Over) and Engelbert (Release Me). Rock and Roll!

On this day 7th August 1960-1965.

On 07/08/1960 the number one single was Shakin' All Over - Johnny Kidd & the Pirates and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (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. The big news story of the day was Castro nationalises all US property.

On 07/08/1961 the number one single was Well I Ask You - Eden Kane and the number one album was Black & White Minstrel Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Top Secret (AR) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 07/08/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. 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 Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 07/08/1963 the number one single was (You're the) Devil In Disguise - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was Fears over Washington Freedom March.

On 07/08/1964 the number one single was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - 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 Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 07/08/1965 the number one single was Help - The Beatles and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Riviera Police (AR) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.