Web Page 1152
2^nd June 2013

Top Picture: The George in the 1930’s

Bottom Picture: The building of Paulsgrove estate late 1947

Things Best Forgotten

After chatting to a couple of contemporaries recently two or three incidents or escapades that we got up to as mid to late teenagers were remembered, laughed over and after this period of time maybe best forgotten. But I will let them surface just one more time.

One of our favourite locals in the early 1960’s was The George on top of the hill. One evening, after spending a couple of hours testing the ale we set off to walk home as usual. The route we always took was across the slopes of Portsdown Hill, through an alley which took us into the Cosham end of Seaview Road and from thence we would make our separate ways homeward, in my case to Farlington.

This particular evening we were walking along Seaview Road when part way along we came across a neatly stacked pile of new bricks on the grass verge, obviously they were destined to become a garden wall or maybe house extension, there were a lot of them!

Well the sight of these bricks was far too tempting for us, I think there were about six of us, I cannot remember who had the original idea, but I know that we spent the next hour or so quietly moving these bricks, one by one, from the verger, into the road in the form of a dry brick wall. When we had finished about one o’clock in the morning there was this perfectly formed brick wall about three feet high right across the road. Having completed the wall we made our way to our respective homes. We somehow expected to see the headline in the following days Evening News “vandal’s built brick wall across road in the middle of the night” but that never happened although I really did hope the milkman was wide awake a five in the morning as he came along Seaview Road on his early morning deliveries!

Later in the day I cycled up to Seaview Road to take a look but the bricks were once again stacked neatly on the grass verge. I bet there was some swearing and cursing when the builders arrived in the morning and found their bricks moved!

There is a rider to this story. The builders had a name board on the pile of bricks, RJ Winnicott and he was my great uncle so fifty years later I have to say to my late Uncle Bob, sorry uncle.

Something else from that time that the three of us remembered involved courting couples. On several occasions after other testing sessions in The George and when we were on our way back across the hill we would look for a parked car, in those days you could drive a car right down the hill to the quiet spots behind the hillocks and bushes, and then to look for a car with steamed up windows. At that time we found it great fun to quietly creep up to the car and then all of a sudden, and all together, bang on the roof and bonnet of the car. I think that we must have stopped many unwanted pregnancies, or had been the cause of several hernias in our teenage years! All we knew was that a man with his trousers round his ankles could not get out of a car very quickly or run very fast for that matter! 

The George was the venue for my stag night, which brings me to one final memory. This was 1967 when the council were redeveloping and redesigning the A3 and building new roads around the pub. This involved carving great holes, rather like mini chalk pits just alongside the road passing the front door of The George. Wel,l when it came to closing time what was left of my stag group decided to walk home the old way (I will add here that I had not been into The George for some time as I had spent the last year working away in Worcester). We left the pub crossed the road and I, not realising that there were road works, walked straight off the edge of the earthworks and slid down a 20 foot hole successfully ruining my trousers, shirt and jacket and really upsetting my mother when I walked in covered in chalk looking like a snowman!

Still I like to think that we have all grown up since those days but we still have a laugh remembering them.

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Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

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Nothing this week

News and Views:

Heard this week of the death of a friend Bill Pertwee, the Warden in Dad's Army. We were not close but until his last illness we rang each other regularly. We became friends when he came along 15 years ago as a speaker to a Railway Society I run. RIP Bill.

Also:-

The TV wrestler 'they all loved to hate' Mick McManus, died on 22nd May in Kent at the age of 92.

On this day 2nd June 1960-1965

On 02/06/1960 the number one single was Cathy's Clown - The Everly Brothers and the number one album was South Pacific. 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 02/06/1961 the number one single was Surrender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was 101 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 02/06/1962 the number one single was Good Luck Charm - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street 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.

On 02/06/1963 the number one single was From Me to You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street 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 04/06/1965 the number one single was Long Live Love- Sandie Shaw  and the number one album was Bringing It All Back Home - Bob Dylan. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street 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.

 Web Page 1150
25th May 2013

Top Picture: Sir Peter Scott

Bottom Picture: Another naturalist George Cansdale

 

 

Peter Scott

It would be really hard to imagine the early days of television without in input of Sir Peter Markham Scott, CBE, DSC and Bar, MID, FRS, FZS an ornithologist, conservationist, painter, naval officer and sportsman.

He was born in London, the only child of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott and sculptor Kathleen Bruce. He was only two years old when his father died. Robert Scott, in a last letter to his wife, advised her to "make the boy interested in natural history if you can; it is better than games." He was named after Sir Clements Markham, mentor of his father’s polar expeditions, and his godfather was J. M. Barrie, creator of Peter Pan.

He was educated at Oundle School and Trinity College, Cambridge, initially reading Natural Sciences but graduating in the History of Art in 1931.

Like his mother, he displayed a strong artistic talent and had his first exhibition in London in 1933. His wealthy background allowed him to follow his interests in art, wildlife and sports, including sailing and ice skating; in fact he represented Great Britain at sailing in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, winning a bronze medal in the O-Jolle class dinghy.

During World War II, he served in the Royal Navy, emulating his father. He served in destroyers in the North Atlantic but later moved to commanding the First (and only) Squadron of  Steam Gun Boats against German E-boats in the English Channel. It was here he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for bravery.

He is credited with designing the "Western Approaches" ship camouflage scheme, which disguised the look of ship superstructure. In July 1940, he managed to get the destroyer HMS Broke experimentally camouflaged, differently on the two sides. To starboard, the ship was painted blue-grey all over, but with white in naturally shadowed areas as countershading, following the ideas from the First World War. To port, the ship was painted in "bright pale colours" to combine some disruption of shape with the ability to fade out during the night, again with shadowed areas painted white. He later wrote that compromise was fatal to camouflage, and that invisibility at night (by painting ships in white or other pale colours) had to be the sole objective. By May 1941, all ships in the "Western Approaches" were ordered to be painted in Scott's camouflage scheme. The scheme was said to be so effective that several British ships including HMS Broke collided with each other. The effectiveness of Scott's ideas was demonstrated experimentally by the Leamington Camouflage Centre in 1941. Under a cloudy overcast sky, the tests showed that a white ship could approach six miles closer than a black-painted ship before being seen.

He stood as a Conservative candidate unsuccessfully in the 1945 general election and in 1948, he founded the organisation with which he was for ever closely associated, the Severn Wildfowl Trust (now the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust) with its headquarters at Slimbridge . In the years that followed, he led ornithological expeditions worldwide, and it is here he became a television personality, popularising the study of wildfowl and  wetlands. His BBC natural history series, Look, ran from 1955 to 1981 and made him a household name. It included the first BBC natural history film to be shown in colour, The Private Life of the Kingfisher (1968). He wrote and illustrated several books on the subject, including his autobiography, The Eye of the Wind (1961). In the 1950s, he appeared regularly on  radio's Children's Hour, in the series, "Nature Parliament".

He took up gliding in 1956 and became a British champion in 1963 and was chairman of the British Gliding Association (BGA) for two years from 1968 and was president of the Bristol & Gloucestershire Gliding Club. He was responsible for involving Prince Philip in gliding; the Prince is still patron of the BGA. From 1973 to 1983, he was Chancellor of the University of Birmingham. In 1992, he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Science) from the University of Bath. He was the founder President of the Society of Wildlife Artists and President of the Nature in Art Trust. He continued with his love of sailing, skippering the 12 metre yacht Sovereign in the 1964 challenge for the America's Cup . Sovereign suffered a whitewash 4-0 defeat. From 1955 - 1969 he was the president of the International Sailing Federation.

He designed the WWF panda logo and also contributed greatly to the shift in policy of the International Whaling Commission  the latter inspired by his visit to his father's base on Ross Islandin Antarctica.

One other thing he is remembered for is giving the scientific name of Nessiteras rhombopteryx (based on a blurred underwater photograph of a supposed fin) to the Loch Ness Monster so that it could be registered as an endangered species. The name was based on the Ancient Greek for "the monster of Ness with the diamond shaped fin", but it was later pointed out to be an anagram of Monster hoax by Sir Peter S. In 1962, he co-founded the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau. He was a long-time Vice-President of the British Naturalists' Association, whose Peter Scott Memorial Award was instituted after his death, to commemorate his achievements.

In 2006 he became the subject of a BBC Four documentary called "Peter Scott - A Passion for Nature"Scott's life was also produced in 2006 by Available Light Productions, Bristol.  

 Peter Scott married the novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard in 1942. They had a daughter, Nicola, who was born a year later. The marriage was dissolved in 1951. In 1951, he married an assistant, Philippa Talbot-Ponsonby, while on an expedition to Iceland in search of the breeding grounds of the Pink-footed Goose. A daughter, Dafila, was born later in the same year. (Dafila is the old scientific name for a pintail). She, too, became an artist, painting birds. A son, Falcon was born in 1954.

During his lifetime Peter Scott received many honours and decorations. On 8th July 1941, he was Mentioned in Dispatches "for good services in rescuing survivors from a burning Vessel" while serving on HMS Broke On 2nd October 1942, he was further Mentioned in Dispatches "for gallantry, daring and skill in the combined attack on Dieppe". On 1st June 1943, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross "for skill and gallantry in in action with enemy light forces". He was appointed an MBE in the  1942 King's Birthday Honours, promoted to CBE in the 1953 Coronation Honours and in the 1987 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) for services to conservation.

He was knighted by at Buckingham Palace on 27th February 1973 for his contribution to the conservation of wild animals.

He died of a heart attack on 29 August 1989 in Bristol, just 2 weeks' before  his 80th birthday      

 

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Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

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Peter Writes:

I left school at the end of the 5th year in 1958.  It was the last year at Court lane when it moved to Manor Court.  We were only about the second or third 5th year, as up to then everyone left at the end of the 4th year.  Our form master was Norman Folland.  I distinctly remember our last day with him making us all sandpaper our desks to get rid of all the graffiti and woodcarving that we had put on them in the last Year.

News and Views:

Judith Durham, lead singer of the Seekers, suffered a brain hemorrhage Tuesday (May 14) while the group was on tour in Melbourne, Australia. She was hospitalized, but was described as "lucid and comfortable" as she undergoes further tests. The group's 50th anniversary tour has now been scrapped.

On this day 25th May 1960-1965

On 25/05/1960 the number one single was Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers 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 25/05/1961 the number one single was You're Driving Me Crazy - The Temperance Seven and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) 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 25/05/1962 the number one single was Good Luck Charm - Elvis Presley 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 week was Panic on Wall Street.

On 25/05/1963 the number one single was From Me To You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (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 25/05/1964 the number one single was Juliet - Four Pennies and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. 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.

On 25/05/1965 the number one single was Where Are You Now (My Love) - Jackie Trent and the number one album was Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. 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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Web Page 1148
18th May 2013

Top Picture: Nearest and Dearest Cover

Bottom Picture: Holiday on the Buses Poster

Hammer House of Horror

Britain's most successful film-maker of the 1960s

Founded in 1934, Hammer Film Productions became, in the 1960s, synonymous with the gothic type of horror film. During its most successful years, Hammer dominated the horror film market, enjoying vast worldwide distribution and considerable financial success due, in no small part, to distribution partnerships with major the United States studios, such as Warner Bros. Hammer's first significant experiment with the horror film came in the form of a 1955 adaptation of Nigel Kneale's highly successful BBC Television science fiction serial The Quatermass Experiment (that’s the one when we all hid behind the sofa in the scary bits!). The film was an unexpected hit, and as a result a sequel, Quatermass 2, went into production.

At the same time Hammer were looking to increase their profile in America and when they were offered a script for Frankenstein by Max J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky they entered into talks with Associated Artists Productions in the USA. The film was an enormous success, not only in Britain, but also in the USA and all over Europe The huge box office success of the Frankenstein movie led to Hammer acquiring yet another horror icon. Dracula, like Frankenstein, had been a hugely successful film character for Universal Pictures in the past. Dracula began principal filming in November 1957. The original stars were Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee (as Count Dracula) and they were teamed up again. Dracula was an enormous success, breaking all box-office records in the UK, North America and right across the world. The 1960s proved to be a golden era for Hammer horror films but they also produced a series of 'cave girl'-themed films such as One Million Years B.C. and When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth as well as psychological thrillers which became known as 'mini-Hitchcocks

However the studio did not move on and by the 1970s, it struggled to maintain its place in the market as leaders in gothic horror produced films, mainly due to changing public taste. The cult for vampire and monster movies had peaked and died and audiences seemed to be more interested in Kung Fu movies of the type Bruce Lee was making. Hammer tried to marry the two subjects together with The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires but found it could not compete with the Lee films.

It then briefly flirted with comedy with some degree of success adapting for the large screen television sitcoms such as On The Buses, Love Thy Neighbour and Nearest and Dearest. These films apart from the Buses films they were not a great success. Here I have a personal interest as one of my ex girlfriends, Sue Hinds who I only lost touch with a few years ago, became an actress and worked for Hammer films (she was also related to the Hinds Jewellery company). She had a very brief part in Nearest and Dearest as Scarlet O’Hara and it took me years to get a copy of the film. It is the only work of hers that I have ever seen. She appeared under the name of Sue Hammer and this is the only film she made! I wonder where she is now.

In 1979, Hammer remade Hitchcock's 1938 thriller The Lady Vanishes, starring Elliot Gould and Cybill Shepherd. The film was a failure at the box office and all but bankrupted the studio. In the early 1980s a series was created for British television, Hammer House of Horror, which ran for 13 episodes. A second series, Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense, was produced in 1984. This series was Hammer's final production of the 20^th Century.

.

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Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk


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Re Cosham Cottage Hospital

Background to this tale:  In the early 1950's, my parents John and Mary Barlow my brothers and sister lived over my fathers Chemist shop in Cosham High Street "Bakers of  Cosham".  Wednesday afternoons were early closing day. I was about 10 years old.  Every Wednesday afternoon my parents used to pick up a little orphan girl from the Cottage Homes called Gillian and brought her home to spend the afternoon with the family to give her a bit of family life.  This went on for a long time, months possibly a year or two.

One day, my parents were told they couldn't see Gillian any more; they were given no reason and couldn't find out.  She was a lovely girl and that was the last we saw of her.

Roll the story on to June 2009, about two months before my  mother died five weeks before her 90th birthday.  I was talking to her about this and that, and I happened to say to her "Do you remember the little girl that you and your dad used to have out from the Cottage Homes".  She said she did but could not remember her name.  I could remember quite clearly it was Gillian.  My mother said, I wonder what happened to her, she suddenly disappeared and we never did find out.

Move on to late August 2009 and we were all waiting to go into Portchester Crematorium for my mothers’ funeral.  A lady who I had never met came over to me and asked if I was Peter Barlow. I said yes and she said "I am with a friend who used to know your family and she  has got a photograph with her of us all out on a family picnic with her, would you like to see it".  I went over with her and instinct immediately     told me it was Gillian.  She said that she thought my parents had died long ago otherwise she would have tried to make contact. The only reason she was at the funeral was, she had seen a half page Obituary in the Portsmouth News.

We invited her back to tea after the funeral and she told us what had happened to her.  She had been fostered out to some people and she was forbidden to have any contact with our family. She said the people were not nice to her and she didn't  like it. She told us about the Cottage Homes and she said they were very badly treated. They were made to believe that they were nobody, useless and that they had no future for anything.   So much so, that she didn't bother to work at lessons and her life was a complete misery with absolutely no ambition for anything. The whole place was like a prison.  She said that she thoroughly looked forward to     those Wednesday afternoons and the occasional Sunday picnic with the family. I am pleased to say that as she got older life had turned out much better for her.

News and Views:

The Revd. Little Richard received an honorary Doctorate of Humanities degree from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia on May 11. Meanwhile, Macon officials announced that his boyhood home there will be moved to avoid being demolished by a highway construction project. In its new location, the home will become a neighbourhood resource centre.

On this day 18th May 1960-1965

On 18/05/1960 the number one single was Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers 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 18/05/1961 the number one single was Blue Moon - The Marcels and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) 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 18/05/1962 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.

On 18/05/1963 the number one single was From Me To You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Liberal Party Political Broadcast (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 18/05/1964 the number one single was Don't Throw Your Love Away - Searchers and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 18/05/1965 the number one single was King of the Road - Roger Miller and the number one album was Beatles For Sale - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street 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.

Web Page 1146
11th May 2013

Top Picture: The toiletries counter in Woolworths in Commercial Road 1950

Bottom Picture: Bottom left Cosham Cottage Childrens Home.

Back to the 1950’s

When we look back to our early childhood most of us do so with rose tinted glasses and we try to ignore the less than pleasant things. So do you remember some of the things below?

Cod liver oil capsules; we were forced to take one each day, Pam also remembers having to take a spoonful of malt extract each day as well! Our houses being cold in the morning with frost on the inside of the windowpanes, frozen pipes, frozen toilets at school, no fitted carpets just very cold lino and rugs. On the food front we still in the aftermath of wartime Britain and many things were still rationed. However some strange products graced our tables such as dripping toast or tinned Snoek from South Africa. This was a variety of tinned fish intended, by the Ministry of Food, to replace tinned Salmon but despite much pushing by the Ministry the British people refused to accept it. Here I must admit do not remember eating it but I do remember eating whale meat! Whale was off the ration and looked like a cross between liver and beef. My mother used to buy it from Sidney Slape the fishmonger in Drayton and as far as I can remember it came in very square joints and when raw it had a distinct fishy smell, which seemed to disappear when it was cooked normally. Most mothers would braise it when it became almost acceptable! But what was most acceptable was a product that was invented in the USA in the 1920’s but was not introduced into the UK until the early 1950’s and that is the Fish Finger. Even today Birds Eye claim that even though the product is aimed at children at least 66% of all Fish Fingers sold are eaten by adults! Birds Eye frozen peas did not appear until 1956.

Changing the subject entirely, one area that I have not covered over the last few years is to look at the Children’s Home in Cosham called the Cosham Cottage Homes. I have only a vague recollection of the buildings and the picture above is the only photo that I can find of it. But to discover, many years later, what went on there is very disturbing and it was probably a very good thing that we, as children, knew nothing about it at the time, although I understand that some of the children who were fostered out in the area did attend our schools.

Former residents of the Cottage Homes in the 1950′s and 60′s alleged that they were abused and campaigned for justice for many years. Eventually in June 2008 nineteen victims received undisclosed damages as compensation. Some spoke of abuse, bullying, and neglect. Their allegations went back to the 1940′s up into the 60′s and were concerned with physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect at the hands of some of the staff employed at the home and their foster carers. Many ran away and reported the abuse but no action was taken. The home was owned and run by the Portsmouth Corporation and housed children of all ages who were homeless.

This is an area that we as kids luckily knew nothing about and I must admit that when several years ago I learnt of the problems in the home I was really shocked, I had no idea that things like that occurred so close to home.

The buildings now have been swept away with the redevelopment of the QA hospital, a blot on Portsmouth’s record, which I expect; the council are very embarrassed about.

But for most of us the 1950’s were a great time, a wonderful time to grow up in and a time when we made many lasting and good friends.

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Peter

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Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

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Griff Writes:-

From a Pan Yan Jar.

Rutabagar (swede), sugar, apples, carrots, vinegar, thickener (modified starch) gerkins, acetic acid, peppers, onions, spices, colour (caramel), flavourings.

Dead easy to make and Sally has been making this type of mild curry pickle for years. Don't need Pan Yan anymore. I think people just liked the name on the jar as it is very quirky and different.

I liked Jonathan's expelled from school story 

News and Views:

On this day 11th May 1960-1965

On 11/05/1960 the number one single was Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers 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 11/05/1961 the number one single was Blue Moon - The Marcels and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. 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 11/05/1962 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 Film star Emilio Estevez born

On 11/05/1963 the number one single was From Me To You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Labour Party Political Broadcast (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 11/05/1964 the number one single was Don't Throw Your Love Away - Searchers and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 11/05/1964 the number one single was Don't Throw Your Love Away - Searchers and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 11/05/1965 the number one single was Ticket to Ride - The Beatles and the number one album was Beatles For Sale - 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 Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.