Web Page 3083 30th June 2023 First Picture: Drayton Manor

Second Picture: Farlington station

Third Picture: Cosham station 1966

Forth Picture: St Philips Highbury

Richard Newman’s Drayton Memories Part One Homelife and Schooldays My parents purchased what was to become the family home in Dysart Avenue for £325 in 1939. The houses on the north side were built in 1938 but our property was not completed until 1940 because of wartime building materials shortages. The Dye (Ernie was the father) constructed these houses which was part of the Drayton Manor Estate – a name only used in the planning stages They rented out a number of houses in the road retaining ownership until the last 1960’s .My parents had married in 1939 so had to live with my grandfather in North End until their house was ready for occupation, although my father, working for the Admiralty in Southampton rented in Portswood because the train services were frequently disrupted by air raids. When built, the houses in Dysart Avenue had an uninterrupted view across undeveloped land to the railway line (between Cosham Junction and Farlington Junction) and my father had an allotment on the land later developed as Braemar Avenue. A bomb dropped near the railway and the blast blew in the French Doors and at the back of the house and blew out the front door. The bathroom wash basin was broken by a stone hot water bottle being blown into it. The only other incident recollected by my parents was the dropping of an incendiary onto the flat veranda of the house next door but one. My father and his neighbours, fire watching, managed to extinguish the fire before it got control. I was born in 1948 and grew up in Dysart Avenue. By then the wartime Andersen shelter had been removed but a slight dip in the back garden lawn indicated where it had been. In those days a trip to Drayton shops necessitated walking via Tregaron Avenue and the Havant Road as access was not permitted through the grounds of the empty Drayton Manor which had bee requisitioned during the war. In the early 1950’s part of the manor was demolished (creating a woodworm problem elsewhere) and the main house and stables became inhabited again. New houses were built in the grounds and Dysart Avenue extended into Lower Drayton Lane with the removal of some lofty trees. A regular Sunday walk was to see the electric trains from the wartime girder bridge spanning the tracks at the site of (closed in 1937)/ En route we would follow the lane passing the derelict Flint House and on the other side the Coop Sports Ground behind the Bakery complex. Plenty of blackberries could be found in the lane come autumn. In later years I watched the trains, with school friends from Cosham Junction (opposite St Phillips church) from the scrubland behind Kinross Crescent. I started school in April 1953 installed in the old chapel at the end of Mulberry Path but in the next academic year I was one of the first pupils in the new infants school constructed at the junction of Court Lane and Hilary Avenue (then unadopted and full of potholes). The teachers at the chapel were Mrs Pattern, Miss Box and Miss Habershaw-the latter could be slightly frighting to a five year old but we contributed to her retirement gift of an umbrella. Miss Waters, who lived in Carnarvon Avenue, was the headmistress of the new school, T the age of seven I moved to the junior school which was situated in the prewar buildings further down Hilary Avenue. However during the first year we occupied an overflow annex in the Goodwyns Youth Club near the Old Lamplighters’ cottage at the end of Salisbury Road. Form 1 boys was a happy class taught by Mr Jones an accomplished artist who was eager to encourage and educate his pupils. The building was adjacent to the railway line and Mr Jones raise no objection if we looked out of the window at the trains during class. We moved back to the main school for the next three educational years and were well taught by Messrs. Butler, Woodall and Ternooth. Next time shopping in Drayton Richard Newman’s Drayton Memories Part Two Shopping in Drayton

Web Page 3081 23rd June 2023 First Picture: Kit Kat

Second Picture: Orange Kit Kat

Third Picture: Chunky Kit Kat

Forth Picture: Vegan Kit Kat

Kit Kat Kit Kat the chocolate covered wafer was created by Rowntree's of Yorknand is now produced by Nestlé (which acquired Rowntree's in 1988, except in the United States, where it is made under licence by a division of the Hershey Company . The standard bars consist of two or four pieces composed of three layers of wafer, separated and covered by an outer layer of chocolate. There are many flavours of Kit Kat, including milk, white, and dark chocolate. The original four-finger version was developed after a worker at Rowntree's factory put forward a suggestion for a chocolate bar that a man could take to work in his lunch pack. It was launched in September 1935 in the UK as Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp, and the later two-finger version was launched in 1936. It was renamed Kit Kat Chocolate Crisp in 1937, and just Kit Kat after World War II. Since making its first television appearance in a UK commercial in 1958, the slogan for the Kit Kat in the UK and elsewhere has been "Have a break... have a Kit Kat". Use of the name Kit Kat goes back to the 18th century, when mutton pies known as a Kit Kat were served at meetings of the political Kit-Cat Club in London owned by pastry chef Christopher Cat. The origins of what is now known as the Kit Kat brand go back to 1911, when Rowntree's trademarked the terms Kit Cat and Kit Kat. The names were not used immediately and Kit Kat first appeared in the 1920s, when Rowntree's launched a brand of boxed chocolates entitled Kit Cat. This continued into the 1930s, when Rowntree's shifted focus and production onto its Black Magic and Dairy Box brands. Kit Cat decreased and was eventually discontinued. The bar was officially launched on 29 August 1935, under the title of Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp (priced at 2d), and was sold in London and throughout southern England. Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp was renamed Kit Kat Chocolate Crisp in 1937. The colour scheme and first flavour variation came in 1942, owing to World War II, when food shortages prompted an alteration in the recipe. The flavour of Kit Kat was changed to dark chocolate; the packaging abandoned its Chocolate Crisp title, and was coloured blue. After the war the name became Kit Kat, with the original milk chocolate recipe and red packaging[. Following its success in the UK in the 1940s Kit Kat was exported to Canada, South Africa, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. In 1957, Donald Gilles, The brand further expanded in the 1970s when Rowntree created a new distribution factory in Germany to meet European demand and established agreements to distribute the brand in the US through the Hershey company, and in Japan through Fujiya In June 1988, Swiss company Nestlé acquired Kit Kat through the purchase of Rowntree's, giving Nestlé global control over the brand, except in the US, and production and distribution increased with new facilities in Japan and additional manufacturing operations set up in Malaysia, India and China. Variants in the traditional chocolate bar first appeared in 1996 when Kit Kat Orange was introduced in the UK. Its success was followed by several varieties including mint and caramel, and in 1999 Kit Kat Chunky was launched and received favourably by international consumers. Kit Kat bars are produced in 16 countries. 2003 was a turning point for the Kit Kat bar. The popularity of low carb diets, and healthier eating stifled sales in many parts of the world. In addition competition from Cadbury's newly formed Dairy Milk superbrand contributed to Kit Kat sales decreasing considerably in its home market. . In September 2006, Nestlé announced that they would be cutting 645 jobs in their York factory and moving all Smarties production to their Hamburg factory. In 2010, a new £5 million manufacturing line was opened by Nestlé in York, to produce more than one billion Kit Kat bars each year. As dark chocolate has seen increased demand in September 2006 the four-finger Kit Kat Fine Dark was launched in the United Kingdom as a permanent product. Nestlé now manufactures two-finger Kit Kats with natural flavourings, and in February 2021 announced the rollout of the first vegan Kit Kat, called "KitKat V". Sometimes considered a biscuit, in 2020 sales of Kit Kats were second to McVitie's biscuits in the UK in the biscuit category. Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com

Web Page 3077 16th June 2023 First Picture: Gardeners World

Second Picture: Percy Throwers Garden Centre

Third Picture: Percy Thrower Memorial

Forth Picture: Percy Throwers Garden

Percy John Thrower MBE was born on 30th January 1913 and died on 18th March 1988 and he was a gardener and horticulturist, broadcaster and writer born at Horwood House in the village of Little Horwood, Buckinghamshire. He became nationally known through presenting gardening programmes, starting in 1956 with the BBC's Gardening Club, then the BBC's Gardeners' World from 1969 until 1976. The surname Thrower is peculiar to East Anglia, where Percy's father worked as a gardener at Bawdsey Manor, Suffolk, before moving to Horwood House near Bletchley, as head gardener. Percy Thrower was determined from an early age to be a head gardener like his father, and worked under him at Horwood House for four years after leaving school. He then became a journeyman gardener in 1931, at the age of 18, at the Royal Gardens at Windsor Castle, on £1 a week. He lived in the bothy at Windsor, along with twenty other improver gardeners and disabled ex-servicemen who were employed on full wages. He spent five years there under the head gardener, Charles Cook, who was subsequently to become his father-in-law. Percy Thrower left Windsor on 1st August 1935 for the City of Leeds Parks Department as a journeyman. There he passed the Royal Horticultural Society's General Exam. In 1937, he moved to Derby Parks Department, initially as a journeyman, but was promoted to be a foreman, General Foreman and finally the Assistant Parks Superintendent. At Derby, he met John Maxfield, whom he considered to be the best gardener he ever worked under. Percy studied and passed the National Diploma in Horticulture at the second attempt He also became a lecturer at Derby Technical College. He became engaged to Connie (Constance Margaret Ina) Cook, the daughter of Charles Cook, now the head gardener at Sandringham, having moved from Windsor, where Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson had interfered with the running of the gardens. In order to help him, Queen Mary, in residence at Sandringham after the death of her husband George V, instigated his move from Windsor to Sandringham. On 9th September 1939, at Sandringham, Percy and Connie married. The couple received a wedding gift of a set of Burslem china dishes from Queen Mary While at Derby, Thrower became a leading light in the "Dig for Victory" campaign in the Second World War, carrying out educational visits to many of the local parks and even Derby Sewerage Works. Percy became a Special Constable on fire-watching duties after twice being turned down for active service after volunteering. A football pools win of £52 enabled him to buy his first car, a Morris Eight. His final career move was to Shrewsbury where on 1st January 1946, he was appointed Parks Superintendent, becoming the youngest parks superintendent. He had a staff of 35. He had reached the top of his profession at just 32 years of age and it was his sole ambition in life. He remained in post until 1974 though he expected to stay only four or five years. From his first year in Shrewsbury he helped the post-war revival of the Shrewsbury Flower Show. In 1951, he was asked to design a garden in the Tiergarten area of Berlin on the lines of an English garden. He did this and the foreign Secretary Anthony Eden opened the garden in May 1952. Percy made his first TV appearance in 1951 in a programme about this garden. For many years he was the leading face and voice of British gardening on television and radio. Godfrey Baseley, the presenter of a Midland regional BBC radio programme, Beyond the Back Door, spotted his enthusiasm and he was offered a regular slot. The first TV series with which he was associated was Country Calendar, followed by Out and About. When colour television came along, this programme was renamed Gardeners' World. He became nationally known through presenting these programmes and regularly presented Gardeners' World from 1969 until 1976. He was also the gardener on Blue Peter from 1974 until 1987, appearing in over a hundred broadcasts and establishing the Blue Peter garden at BBC TV Centre. In 1983, the Italianate garden was destroyed by vandals, ruining all of his work and leaving him desolate. Percy Thrower's work for the BBC was not restricted to gardening. In the 1960s, a habitual pipe smoker, he was asked by the radio producer Tony Shryane to provide sound effects for The Archers. He gave up smoking after a heart attack in 1985. In 1963, he built his own house, "The Magnolias", near Shrewsbury, on land he acquired with a friend in the small village of Merrington,. This gave him a garden of about one and a half acres to "play with", something which he had never had before. The garden subsequently became the location for some of the episodes of Gardeners' World. He opened the garden to the public in 1966, and this became an annual event to raise money for charity. The Magnolias was demolished in 2014 as a result of structural damage. In 1967, he became involved with the development of what was one of the first garden centres, Syon Park, near Brentford, owned by the Duke of Northumberland and backed by Plant Protection, a division of ICI, who had leased 50 acres from the Duke. The centre was a success at first, but then sales tailed off and he left the project. He retired in 1974 from the post of Superintendent of Parks as Shrewsbury and started a weekly column for the Daily Mail in 1975. He also wrote for several other papers, he wrote for the magazine Amateur Gardening and also wrote many books. The BBC dropped him in 1975 when he agreed a contract with Plant Protection, for a series of commercials on independent television. He did this in the full knowledge of what the repercussions would be with the BBC, and later said it was the best contract he ever signed. As a television personality he appeared with Morecambe and Wise (1971) and Benny Hill. He was also the subject of a This is Your Life programme in 1976. |He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1984. He became involved in hosting gardening tours in Europe, and established the Percy Thrower Floral Tours Company, chartering ships for lecture cruises and he was also involved in English Gardening Weekends. On one of these he was taken ill, and a decline in his health set in. He never fully recovered from a heart bypass operation in 1987 and eventually Hodgkin's disease was diagnosed. He made his last recording for Blue Peter from hospital one week before he died. Percy and Connie had three daughters: Margaret, born 1944, Susan, born 1948, and Ann, born 1952. They were all involved with the Percy Thrower Garden Centre. Percy had a succession of black Labradors, and was a fan of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. Maureen Remembers{- A little story about another Harry Worth. A gentleman called Harry Worth probably father of Brian Worth lived between Drayton and Cosham and frequented The New Inn. He bought a brand new Mini, when Mini’s were mini, and visited the launderette in Drayton, parked the car outside, popped the laundry in the machine and continued to the New Inn for a pint. Later he returned, collected his laundry, popped it in the car and started to drive home. He was stopped by the Police who accused him of stealing the car, when they asked his name he said “ my name is Harry Worth” and the police were not amused. It all got sorted when the police discovered his car still outside of the laundrette next to where the other mini had been parked and surprisingly his car keys fitted both cars. I understand it was common practice in the early days for more than one car to have the same key. Loved Griff’s memories of the Coronation. I have few recollections of the Coronation except we were part of the Fleet Review. Father (RN) was on his ship in the review, probably in the engine room as that is where he was most comfortable and Mother, Maurice and I were bobbing on one of the tiny boats that made up the flotilla weaving in amongst the ships. I don’t know how but Father managed to get us tickets. I also recall lining up in the playground of Solent Road School to be presented with the blue covered book “Our Queen” and a plastic beaker with the Coronation crest printed on it. I believe all school children received these gifts. Stay in touch Peter

Web Page 3075 9th June 2023 First Picture: Harry Worth

Second Picture: Typical scene

Third Picture: This is Your Life

Forth Picture: Blue Plaque

Harry Bourlon Illingsworth (20 November 1917 – 20 July 1989), professionally known as Harry Worth, was a comedy actor, comedian and ventriloquist. He portrayed a charming, gentle and genial character, totally bemused by life, creating confusion wherever he went. He was born in Hoyland Common, Yorkshire, the youngest child of a miner. He had ten siblings. When he was only five months old, his father died from injuries resulting from an industrial accident. He left school at 14 and was a miner for eight years. He earned 2 shillings 2½ pence a day and worked near the lift in the mine; he said he hated every minute of it. He joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1941. As a teenager, he was in the Tankersley Amateur Dramatics Society and taught himself ventriloquism from a book he borrowed from the library, buying his first dummy in 1936. During the Second World War, he performed in an RAF variety show in India. He warned his audience beforehand that he was not very good andthis was the start of his apologetic and inept style. He was a variety act for many years before he became well known and was often at the bottom of any 'bill'. Having left the RAF, and adamant he would never go down the mines again, he started in show business with his first booking at the Bradford Mechanics' Institute in 1946. In 1947 he married his wife Kay and in 1948, like many other comedians from the forces, he got an audition at London's Windmill Theatre. He passed, along with Morecambe and Wise and Tony Hancock. He did six shows a day as comedian between fan dancers. In 1948 he also made his first radio appearance in a show New to You. He now had two dummies for his ventriloquist act, Fotheringay and Clarence, but meanwhile developed his performing voice. He toured for two years with Laurel and Hardy towards the end of their careers. He said he could always go in and talk with them and they told him about Hollywood and their work there. When Oliver Hardy watched his show in Nottingham in 1952, he persuaded him to drop the ventriloquist routine and concentrate on becoming a comedian, which he then did. His first stage act without ventriloquism was in Newcastle. He continued to include ventriloquism in his cabaret act through his career, performing much of the material that he had used during the war. This included three appearances in the Royal Variety Show. After appearing a number of times on Variety Bandbox, he gained his own radio show, Thirty Minutes Worth. He took his scripts seriously and did not ad lib. He said he built a style of dithering in his shows without even realising it. His first television appearance was a five-minute standup on Henry Hall's Guest Night in 1955. He became well known to the public and even appeared at the London Palladium. In 1960, the television programme The Trouble With Harry was broadcast. He made this style his own by creating a character with whom the public could connect. He once said, "If Harry (the character) ever looked directly at the camera, or the audience, it would all be over". The character was Harry and everyone saw Harry as Harry. He is now best remembered for his 1960s series Here's Harry, later re-titled Harry Worth, which ran for 10 years and over 100 episodes. The opening titles of Harry Worth featured him stopping in the street to perform an optical trick involving a shop window: raising one arm and one leg which were reflected in the window, thus giving the impression of levitation. Reproducing this effect was popularly known as "doing a Harry Worth". The shop window sequence first used in Here's Harry was filmed at St Ann's Square, Manchester, at Hector Powes tailor's shop. One famous comic sketch involved Worth and his family preparing for a royal visit to the area, during which the Queen was to visit his house. His fussing about the house drove his family mad. Just before the Queen was due to arrive, a beggar arrived at the door and kept coming back as an increasingly frustrated Harry Worth tried to get him to go away. When a knock came on the door one more time he grabbed a bucket of filthy water and threw it out of the door at the caller, only to find that it was not the beggar but the Queen standing there, and he had just soaked her. Although never scripted, his catchphrase was generally known as "My name is Harry Worth. I don't know why – but, there it is!". One running joke in the television show involved references to Harry's never seen aunt known only as "Auntie. He was the subject of This Is Your Life in October 1963 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at Manchester's Gaumont cinema. By the early to mid-1980s he was forced by health problems to retire early from his shows, but he continued working in radio until a few months before he died. Among the last regular appearances of his career were leading roles in the sitcoms How's Your Father? ) and Oh Happy Band! (BBC TV 1980). His last TV appearance was on Comic Relief in 1989 where he appeared with Melvyn Hayes in the BT Tower taking donation calls. He married Kay (Daisy) née Flynn who was a Principal boy. They decided early on that he would continue with his act whilst Kay became a housewife. They had a long and happy marriage and she cared for him during his long illness with cancer. After several short-lived recoveries, He finally succumbed to spinal cancer. He died at his home in Berkhamsted with his wife, daughter (Jobyna) and grandchildren (Dane and Emma-Jo) at his side. Kay lived on for another 10 years. Harry Worth resisted attempts by publishers to write his biography; it was over 16 years after his death before a book, My Name Is Harry Worth, was published. At his memorial service, Sir Harry Secombe said "Harry has left a legacy of laughter and we have all been enriched by his presence here on Earth". On 20 July 2010 a British Comedy Society blue plaque was unveiled by comedian Jimmy Cricket, a friend of Harry Worth, on the house where he was born in Hoyland Common. He has also been commemorated by plaques elsewhere, including those at Teddington Studios, BBC Television Centre and Blackpool Comedy Carpet. Griff remembers the Coronation:

I was living in Purbrook for the 1953 Coronation where a big street party was laid on for us Kid's including a Magician who pulled a bright new shiny 1953 penny coin from behind my ear and gave it to me. Now that's magic to a 7 year old Kid with no money. There was a band and a Punch and Judy show which made the afternoon and early evening turn into a big event. The Kid's fancy dress competition was very well supported and my Mum decided that I had to go in dressed as Robin Hood. I had no idea who he was but as I had a bow and arrow set and a side sword and dagger it was okay by me. Cute picture eh! No, I didn't win which is hardly surprising. I now know my Robin Hood hat looked more like a flying saucer from War of the Worlds than a proper Sherwood Forest side cap with a big feather to the side like Errol Flynn wore in the 1938 movie. I probably got marked down for that dress error. At least I was dressed correctly in Lincoln Green and had my photo taken! I remember Dad (ex RN) took the family to the top of Portsdown Hill when the Queen's Royal Coronation Fleet Review took place. What a glorious and magnificent sight that was and I remember it so very well especially the fireworks display afterwards. The RN Fleet was all lit up and there were row after row of Royal Navy ships. Could never happen today on that scale. Take Care Everyone Melvyn ( Griff ) Griffiths. Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com