Thursday, 27 January 2022
Forth Picture: BRM Racing Car
Norman Graham Hill OBE (15th February 1929 – 29th November 1975) was a British racing driver and team owner, who was the Formula One World Champion twice, winning in 1962 and 1968 as well as being runner up on three occasions (1963, 1964 and 1965). Despite not passing his driving test until 1953 when he was already 24 years of age, and only entering the world of motorsports a year later, Graham Hill would go on to become one of the greatest drivers of his generation. He is most celebrated for being the only driver ever to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport, an achievement which he defined as winning the Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Formula One World Drivers' Championship. Graham Hill is still the only driver to have ever won the Triple Crown, winning at Monaco in such frequency in the 1960s (5x; 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1969) that he became known as "Mr. Monaco". He crashed at the 1969 United States Grand Prix and was seriously injured, breaking both his legs and ending his season. Although he would recover and continue to race until 1975, his career would never again reach the same heights, and the Monaco Grand Prix victory earlier in 1969 would be his last victory in Formula One.
Upon leaving the Brabham racing team he set up his own team in 1973, operating under the name Embassy Hill. He continued to race, however after failing to qualify for the 1975 Monaco Grand Prix he retired from driving in order to concentrate on the day-to-day operations of the team. Tragically that same year he and five other members of the Embassy Hill team were killed when the aeroplane he was piloting from France crashed in fog at night on Arkley golf course while attempting to land at Elstree Airfield in north London.
With his son Damon they were the first father and son pair to win Formula One World Championships Damon's son, Josh, also raced his way through the ranks until he retired from Formula Three in 2013 at the age of 22.
Before taking up motor racing, Graham Hill spent several years actively involved in rowing. Initially, he rowed at Southsea Rowing Club, while stationed in Portsmouth with the Royal Navy and at Auriol Rowing Club in Hammersmith. He met his future wife Bette at a Boxing Day party at Auriol and, while courting her, he also coached her clubmates at Stuart Ladies' Rowing Club on the River Lea.
In 1952 he joined London Rowing Club, then as now one of the largest and most successful clubs in Great Britain. From 1952 to 1954, he rowed in twenty finals with London, usually as stroke of the crew, eight of which resulted in wins. He also stroked the London eight in the highly prestigious Grand Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta, losing a semi-final to Union Sportif Metropolitaine des Transports, France by a length.
Through his racing career he continued to support rowing and London. In 1968 when the club began a financial appeal to modernise its clubhouse, Hill launched proceedings by driving an old Morris Oxford, which had been obtained for £5, head-on into a boundary wall. He made three runs to reduce the wall to rubble, and the car was subsequently sold for £15.
Graham Hill died on 29th November 1975 at the controls of his Piper PA-23 Aztec twin-engine light aircraft when it crashed near Arkley.
The subsequent investigation revealed that the aircraft, originally registered in the US as N6645Y, had been removed from the FAA register and at the time of the accident was "unregistered and stateless", despite still displaying its original markings. Furthermore, Graham Hill's American FAA pilot certification had expired, as had his instrument rating. His UK IMC rating, which would have permitted him to fly in the weather conditions that prevailed at the time, was also out of date and invalid. He was effectively uninsured. The investigation into the crash was ultimately inconclusive, but pilot error was deemed the most likely explanation.
His funeral was held at St Albans Abbey, and he is buried at St Botolph's graveyard, Shenleybury. The church has since been deconsecrated so the tomb now sits in a private garden.
After his death, Silverstone village named a road, Graham Hill, after him and there is a "Graham Hill Road" on The Shires estate in nearby Towcester. Graham Hill Bend at Brands Hatch is also named in his honour. A blue plaque commemorates t 32 Parkside, in Mill Hill, London NW7. In Bourne, Lincolnshire, where his former team BRM is based, a road called Graham Hill Way is named in his honour. Also a nursery school in Lusevera, Italy, was named in his honour.
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Wednesday, 19 January 2022
WEB PAGE NO. 2876
21st January 2022
First Picture: Captain Pugwash
Second Picture Cut Throat Jake
Third Picture: The Crew
Forth Picture: Jim the Cabin Boy
Captain Pugwash
By special request from a reader in New Zealand a look at Captain Pugwash
Captain Horatio Pugwash made his debut in a comic-strip format in the first issue of The Eagle in 1950, then appeared regularly as a strip in Radio Times and was created by John Ryan. In 1957 the BBC commissioned a series of short cartoon films produced by Gordon Murray. Between 1957 and 1966, John Ryan produced a total of 58 five-minute-long episodes for the BBC, made in black-and-white. Between 1974 and 1975, a further 30 were made in a new series made in colour. He used a real-time technique of animation in which cardboard cutouts of the characters were laid on painted backgrounds and moved with levers. The characters' voices were provided by Peter Hawkins. The last series of Pugwash shorts by John Ryan was produced in 1975.
A number of spin-off books were written by John Ryan, who in the 1980s drew three new Pugwash comic-strip storybooks: The Secret of the San Fiasco, The Battle of Bunkum Bay and The Quest for the Golden Handshake.
A related book by John Ryan was Admiral Fatso Fitzpugwash, in which it is revealed that Pugwash had a medieval ancestor who was First Sea Lord, but who was terrified of water.
Captain Pugwash was also sold to various overseas TV stations, including Australia's ABC Television. There the show was screened during weekday afternoons in the 1970s and 1980s. The rights to Captain Pugwash were purchased by The Britt Allcroft Company, which since 1997 has issued a number of digital and part computer-animated cartoon films based on the Pugwash character, set on the island of "Montebuffo", "somewhere in the Spanish Main".
In 2005, a black and white episode of Captain Pugwash was repeated on BBC4 as part of the Animation Nation season. A DVD containing "All 30 heroic high sea adventures" from the second-generation colour 1974–75 series (156 minutes running time) was given away with the Sunday Times on 20 January 2008. The 1974-5 series was made available for streaming on BritBox in the United Kingdom in July 2021. Although the accompanying text claims the series is "digitally remastered", little or no restoration work seems to have been applied to the film prints.
Characters
Captain Pugwash
The pompous but likeable captain of the Black Pig. Although he boasts of being the "bravest buccaneer", he is actually quite cowardly and stupid. His greed often gets him into trouble. Nevertheless, he usually wins the day – either with the help of Tom the Cabin Boy or by sheer luck. Despite being a pirate, he is rarely seen committing any acts of piracy.
Master Mate
A dopey character, who has a tendency to mispronounce common words. He has a teddy bear in his bunk and is quite mild-mannered. It is not entirely clear why he is the mate, as he does not appear to have any authority over the rest of the crew. He was present in the first ever Pugwash story, in which he was depicted as being constantly sleepy
Barnabas
The most aggressive of the pirates, but in reality just as harmless. He is quite rebellious and grumpy, and is perhaps marginally more intelligent than Willy, the Mate or the Captain. He was not present in the 1997 series.
Willy
A simple sailor from Wigan. He appears to be the youngest crew member (apart from Tom). He is gentle and is against using violence. He does, however, have the occasional brainwave and has been the crew's saviour "Just you wait till we get back to Wigan – we won't half have a 'tail' to tell!"
Tom the Cabin Boy
It might be argued that without Tom, Pugwash would have been sunk long ago. He is the most intelligent and resourceful member of the crew, the only one who can cook and the only one who can actually sail a ship. Although Pugwash would never admit it, Tom's ability to think up schemes is probably the only thing that prevents him from being a total failure as a pirate. The rest of the crew also found they were unable to operate without Tom, after he left with the captain when the crew mutinied. Tom is an expert concertina player.
Cut-Throat Jake
Captain Pugwash's fearsome arch-enemy, captain of the Flying Dustman . When he is not scheming to bring about Pugwash's downfall, he is a rather more competent pirate than his enemy, and always seems to have plenty of treasure. He speaks with a West Country accent, and is easily recognisable by his eye patch and enormous black beard.
Pugwashisms
Captain Pugwash is renowned for his exclamations, owing something to the style of Captain Haddock in The Adventures of Tintin:
• "Dolloping doubloons/dolphins!"
• "Coddling catfish!"
• "Lolloping landlubbers!"
• "Suffering seagulls!"
• "Staggering stalactites!"
• "Nautical nitwits!"
• "Plundering porpoises!"
• "Kipper me capstans!"
• "Tottering turtles!"
• "Dithering dogfish!"
• "Scuttling cuttlefish!"
• "Stuttering starfish!"
• "Blistering barnacles!"
• "Shuddering sharks!"
Cut-Throat Jake has occasionally been known to utter the similar exclamation, "Scupper me skull-and-crossbones!"
Theme
The signature tune was the "Trumpet Hornpipe", a folk dance that dates to at least the early nineteenth century. The original black and white episodes of Captain Pugwash used a solo rendition by accordionist Tom Edmondson, who had learned the tune from watching Jimmy Shand's band in Northumberland as a teenager. Edmondson's version was recorded in the front room of his home in Harbottle, Northumberland, on 12 July 1954. The recording was made by folklorist Peter Kennedy as part of the BBC's 'Folk Music and Dialect Recording Scheme and Edmondson was paid £1.50 (30s) for his efforts.
For the colour Captain Pugwash episodes, a new recording of the "Trumpet Hornpipe" was commissioned from Johnny Pearson in 1973. This version utilised accordion, bass and acoustic guitar, and the finished piece was retitled "Shipshape" .
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Peter
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Thursday, 13 January 2022
WEB PAGE NO. 2874
14th January 2022
First Picture: Model Trebor Van
Second Picture Refreshers
Third Picture: Gift tin from Trebor
Forth Picture: Trebor Extra Strong Mints
Trebor Refreshers
Here is a name from the Tuck Shop Trebor Refreshers. The company had quite a history as you will see.
Trebor was founded on 4th January 1907 in south west Essex by W.B. Woodcock, Thomas Henry King, Robert Robertson, and Sydney Herbert Marks from Leytonstone and was located on Katherine Road in Forest Gate, London E7. The name Trebor, which is “Robert” spelled backwards, was registered as a trademark four days after the end of World War I. On 18th April 1944, the factory in Katherine Road was hit by a German bomb. But the company went on to buy Moffat toffee in 1959, and Jamesons Chocolates in 1960.
By the end of the 1960s, the company was exporting to over fifty countries; 20% of its output from its three factories was exported. The largest export market was the United States. Up to 1966, it had doubled its exports in four years. In the 1967 Birthday Honours, the Chairman John Marks (son of the founder, and who died in December 1980) was appointed a CBE for the company's exports; he was president from 1956 to 1959 of the Cocoa, Chocolate and Confectionery Alliance.
y the end of the 1960s, it was the fourth largest confectionery manufacturing group in the United Kingdom; its main competitors were Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery and Cadbury. Early advertising for the Trebor Mints brand used the famous jingle "Trebor mints are a minty bit stronger".
In January 1969, it bought the confectionery interests of Clarnico. In 1970, John Graham Marks, the grandson of the company's founder, became chairman of the company, and owned the company with his brother Ian; the company was family run and also had a Christian paternalistic ethos. In 1981, the company discontinued night shifts, as it believed that night shifts were possibly damaging to family life.
In December 1985, it bought Maynards for £7.5m. In the middle of the 1980s, the company was the British market leader in branded mints and boiled sweets.
On Thursday 14th September 1989, Cadbury Schweppes bought the company for £147m. The company was run as a subsidiary company of Cadbury. At the time, the company employed around 3,000.
From 1st March 1990, the company was known as Trebor Bassett, a division of Cadbury. Production would eventually move to North Sheffield, off the A61.
The company was headquartered in what was south-west Essex, in Woodford, Greater London. It initially had a factory at Forest Gate called the Trebor Works from 1935 between Upton Park tube station and East Ham tube station in what is now the London Borough of Newham, north of the former ground of West Ham United F.C. and west of Plashet.
Its main headquarters were at Clayhall, next to the southern terminus (Junction 4 or Woodford Interchange) of the M11 on the Southend Road Industrial Estate on the A1400 (former A406 or North Circular Road).
In 1939, a factory on a five-acre site was opened on Brimington Road in Chesterfield, on the site of a former brewery next to Chesterfield railway station; the factory in Chesterfield closed in 2005. The Trebor Bassett national distribution centre was off the A6175 in Holmewood, North East Derbyshire, off the M1 Heath Interchange; this is now the NDC of Tangerine Confectionery.
In 1978, a £15m factory was opened in Colchester, which eventually closed in March 2000.
Current manufacture site is on Beulah Road in Sheffield
Awards[edit]
In April 1966, Trebor won the Queen's Award to Industry.[7]
• We all remember Refreshers, launched in 1935
• And the Extra Strong Mints, known as Extra Strong Peppermints when launched in 1937
• SoftMints, peppermint or spearmint flavours
• SoftFruits, orange, lemon and strawberry flavours
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Peter
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Thursday, 6 January 2022
WEB PAGE NO. 2872
7th January 2022
First Picture:
Wimpey Bar
2nd Picture: Drinking from the tap
3rd Picture: Den building
Growing Up
STEVE WRITES
I grew up in Portsmouth and I walked to school and back with friends of all colours. There was no taking or picking you up in the car, you walked or rode your bike rain snow or sunshine.
Our dinner time at home was always at 5pm. Eating out at a restaurant NEVER EVER happened. It just wasn’t a thing that we did.
Fast food was a Wimpy hamburger, if you could find a Wimpy Bar and having a bottle of Coca-Cola was a real treat.
You took your school clothes off as soon as you got home and put on your play clothes. We had to do our homework before being allowed outside to play. We always ate dinner at the table never on our laps.
Our rotary dial phone sat on our ‘phone table’ in the sitting room and had a cord attached, so there was no such things as private conversations, mobile phones didn’t exist
TVs didn’t have remotes, we had to actually get up to change the channel - and there were only a few to choose from! 3 actually
We played Cops and Robbers, It, Red Light-Green Light, Stick in the mud, french skipping, Hide & Seek, Tag, Football, 40/40 British bulldog and rode bikes with cards in the spokes and tassels hanging from the handlebars.
Girls could spend hours playing Sindy, house and dress up. Boys played Football on the street.
Staying in the house was a PUNISHMENT and the only thing we knew about "bored" was --- "You better find something to do before I find it for you!"
We ate what mum made for dinner or we ate nothing at all and if we didn’t eat our vegetables we had them waiting cold for us the next meal. Everyone was welcome and no one left our house hungry,
We had no microwave.
There was no bottled water we drank straight from the tap or from the garden hose outside.
We watched cartoons on Saturday mornings, and rode our bikes for hours, ran around and went on our roller skates that attached to our shoes.
We weren't AFRAID OF ANYTHING. We played till dark...sunset was our time to go home
If someone had a fight, that's what it was and we were friends again a week later, if not SOONER.
We watched our MOUTHS around our elders because ALL of our aunts, uncles, grandpas, grandmas, AND our parents' best friends were all extensions of our PARENTS and you didn't want them telling your PARENTS if you misbehaved! Or they would give you something to cry about.
These were the good ol' days. So many kids today will never know how it feels to be a REAL KID. I loved my childhood
Building dens was a favourite pastime. The tricky bit, after finding a suitable venue for the den, was hunting around our parents sheds, garages, gardens and the local neighbourhood for items to build a den. Corrugated iron for the roof was the favourite, an old carpet for the floor, someone’s old arm chair to sit in and jam jars to put candles in to provide lighting. Some old bricks to build a fireplace and a metal grid to put our frying pan on to cook our sausages in. These were the days of adventure!
Good Times ❤️
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Peter
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