WEB PAGE NO. 30004 28th September Wendy Richard First Picture: Publicity Picture

Second Picture: Are You Being Served

Third Picture: Blue Plaque

Forth Picture: From the Come Outside days

Wendy Emerton – later to take the stage name Richard – was born in Middlesbrough on 20 July 1943. Later, her parents moved to London to manage a Mayfair pub, and she attended St George’s school in Mount Street. Her father, who had been a master mason, committed suicide when she was 11. With Masonic assistance, she went to the Royal Masonic School for Girls at Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, which she found “strict” rather than congenial. The art mistress called her paintings and drawings “affected, rather like herself”. Her ambitions took her to the Italia Conti drama school, where she helped fund her tuition by working as an assistant in the great London stores, Selfridges, DH Evans, Dickens & Jones, Fenwicks and the fashion department of Fortnum & Mason. Her looks and enthusiasm meant that she did not have to wait long for jobs. While at the Italia Conti, she appeared on television with Sammy Davis Jr in the ATV programme Sammy Meets the Girls, and also in No Hiding Place. In 1960 she had her first speaking part, in the popular television police series Dixon of Dock Green, as a runaway teenager. She then made a pop record with Mike Sarne, Come Outside, that hovered in the Top 10. The single sold over half a million copies but Wendy was paid just £15. The first television series in which she regularly appeared was Harpers West One, in which she played an office receptionist in a West End store for two series, ending in 1963 when she made another record, We Had a Dream. Her first comedy TV series was Hugh and I with Terry Scott, Hugh Lloyd and Mollie Sugden, through whom she met the director David Croft, who was to employ her throughout her career. Her early film career was not so fortunate. Her small part in the 1964 Beatles film Help! (1965) ended up on the cutting room floor and she had to wait until 1966 for her big screen debut in Doctor in Clover. In 1970 she was in two episodes of Dad’s Army as the cinema usherette girlfriend of the spiv Walker and appeared with Frankie Howerd in Up Pompeii and in Thames TV’s Carry On Again Christmas. In 1971, Wendy played a semi-competent conductor in On the Buses. She was given a role in the film version in the same year. She also appeared in Both Ends Meet, a sitcom that centred around a sausage factory, in 1972 – a year that was to prove especially significant for her. The pilot program for Are You Being Served? was screened in September, and early in 1973, the BBC decided to make it into a series. As the bewildered but spirited Shirley Brahms, the junior shop assistant, Wendy played a cockney girl who seemed rather lost amid the well-bred accents and office politics in the genteel department store founded by the Grace brothers. She was a sympathetic foil to the high-pitched campery of Mr Humphries (John Inman), the inadvertently suggestive ramblings of Mrs Slocombe (Mollie Sugden) about her “pussy”, and the constipated efforts of the decorous floorwalker Captain Peacock (Frank Thornton) to keep a semblance of order in front of the shopping public. The 1977 cinema version was largely seen as unsuccessful, probably because the plot involved the Grace Brothers taking all of their employees on holiday on the Costa Plonka, leaving behind the in-store tensions that had given rise to most of the comedy. In 1973, Peter Rogers (producer of the Carry On films) asked her to play a girl entering a beauty contest that ended up being wrecked by women’s rights demonstrators in Carry On Girls. It seemed as if she might become a regular member of the Carry On team, but it was not to be. The women’s rights demonstrators were so realistic in hurling bags of flour and creating mayhem that Richard fled from the stage, a breach of professionalism that ensured she never heard from Rogers again. A provincial tour of Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit, in which she played the maid, and some work in pantomime, beginning with Dandini in Cinderella at Dartford, Kent, convinced her that she would not be able to stand long theatrical runs. With the invitation to play Pauline Fowler in EastEnders she was able to put such reverses out of her mind. She stayed with the show for more than 20 years – during which time she bore the screen deaths of her husband, mother and brother, and supported her HIV-positive son and pregnant teenage daughter – until script disagreements and illness led her to leave in 2006. “Looking back on my career, I’ve virtually no regrets,” she wrote in her autobiography, Wendy Richard No S: My Life Story (2000), adding: “I’ve had more than my fair share of problems in my personal life.” This was no exaggeration, for she seemed to have a genius for being exploited financially and emotionally, and her relationships were often marred by alcohol abuse or violence. Wendy Richard was first married, in 1973, to Len Black, an importer. The marriage lasted only a matter of months. She married the advertising executive Will Thorpe in 1976, which lasted for three years, after which she married Paul Glorney, a carpet fitter, only to divorce again in 1994. She lived with John Burns for 12 years before marrying him on 10 October 2008, just after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Wendy Richard died on 26 February 2009, aged 65. Stay in Touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com

WEB PAGE NO. 30002 21st September Brown and Poulson First Picture: Cornflour packet

Second Picture: Vintage Packaging

Third Picture: Worker’s housing

Forth Picture: Packaging

Do you remember Brown & Polson in your mother’s kitchen cabinet? The comany was established in 1840, when two muslin manufacturers (John Polson & Co and William Brown & son of Glasgow) collaborated and opened their first factory in Thrushcraigs, Paisley. Together they worked on the process of bleaching, scouring and scratching of muslin cloth. It was here that John Polson discovered an ideal starch that could withstand bleaching. After many experiments, he succeeded in making a starch for household use. This was marketed in 1842 as ‘powder starch’ and was sold to housewives. After the death of his father in 1843, John Polson Jnr took over the business. He invented the process of making pure starch from maize. and in 1854 he took out a patent to market it as foodstuff. It was to become a household name throughout the world as ‘Brown & Polson’s patent cornflour’ and made the company world famous. Even nowadays cornflour remains a standard store cupboard item. John Polson was greatly concerned about the welfare of his workers. In the 1870’s he began a profit-sharing scheme. He also built a row of cottages and a recreational institute for the workers. The building was used for the workers to meet and socialise. Outside the building, the grounds had bowling greens and tennis courts. John Polson Jnr died in 1900. By then, Brown & Polson’s were the largest manufacturer of starch products in the UK. In 1962 the factory became the home of Knorr, making soups, stock cubes, sauces and Hellmans mayonnaise. Penicillin was also made for the pharmaceutical industry. Baby food production also began production in 1964. The blackest event in the history of Brown & Polson took place at 6.40am on the 5th June, 1964, when the animal feed plant, a large building to the rear of the rear in Braids Road, was completely destroyed in a huge explosion. Workers who had arrived for the 6.45am shift had to run for their lives. Local firemen, ambulance men and workers tore at the rubble in the search for casualties, while anxious relatives stood waiting for news. Four men were killed and four badly injured. A local policeman described the disaster, “I have seen terrible things during the war, but never anything like this”. Over the years the company was greatly reduced. In 1996, the company finally closed its doors and the Knorr soup factory was demolished. All that remains of the huge imprint of Paisley is the office block at the corner of Braids Road, housing has been built on the remaining land. The old tennis courts were refurbished in 2011 and can still be used today. Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com

WEB PAGE NO. 3000 7th 2022 September Wall of Death First Picture: Wall of Death

Second Picture: Outside of the Wall of Death

Third Picture: Three on the wall

Forth Picture: Guy Martin At the wall

Wall of Death I have only seen the Wall of Death twice in my life. The first time when, as a family, we visited Southend on Sea and for some reason we visited the funfair and it was here that my father and I visited this sideshow and I was hooked. My second visit to a Wall of Death was when a travelling show visited Billy Mannings at Southsea and there was a Wall as one of the attractions and I visited several times. The Wall of Death has been synonymous with speed and danger since it's conception back in the early part of the 20th century. The Original Wall of Death harks back to those early days, with the Wall being constructed in 1928, and the bikes, Indian Scouts, made in 1921. There are only three Walls of Death in the United Kingdom today, and these are travelled by Graham Crispey, Ken Fox and Allan Ford. The Fox family have been touring and entertaining since the 1920's. With their vintage Indian Scouts and 20ft high vertical wall it is a show that needs to be seen to be believed! All those who see the show will remember it for the rest of their life. The noise, the speed, the smell, the proximity of the bikes ridden to the top of the wall, barely 6 inches from the audience - an experience never to be forgotten!Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com