Web Page 2016

11^th January 2014

 Top Picture: The Knife Grinder

Bottom Picture: A pattern for a 1950’s sundress

Firstly welcome to Michele Laviers 

who joins   us this week.

Bits and Pieces

This week’s page will just be a few random ramblings, some memories that have dropped into my mind over the last few weeks and I have not been able to write a complete page on any of them. So we start off with clothing not the fashion of the 1960’s but everyday clothes but not the terrible school cap or beret. With the sun shining a lot this last summer l spent a lot of time in shorts. Please don't scream! But I got to thinking whereas today we readily accept men and women of any age in shorts and sandals (no socks please) but I cannot ever remember seeing my own father or my mother wearing shorts, it was not the done thing! The only time that adult men wore shorts during the days of our youth was when they were in the tropics and then they wore long shorts below the knee, long white socks and white shoes. It must be a generation thing because, thinking back even further, I cannot remember ever seeing my paternal grandfather not wearing a collar and tie and waistcoat and a trilby hat whenever he went outdoors. He died in 1958.     

I expect you all remember the amount of clothes that our fathers wore when, as a family, we spent a day on the beach. Pam tells me that her father would not dream of going onto the beach unless he was properly dressed; a suit or grey flannels, collar and tie, jacket or blazer, a hat and sensible lace up shoes. The only consolation he would make to the holiday spirit would be to unlace his shoes and remove them and his socks, but this would involve not only taking off the socks but removing the sock suspenders as well!!! He also sometimes resorted to the knotted hanky on the head. As for my father I can only ever remember him in a bathing costume one and that was on holiday in Guernsey and my mother never. 

Talking about our mothers, clothes wise they had it a little easier with summer or sun dresses, skirts and blouses, and if it was very warm, the leaving off of stockings and the wearing of a sun hat!  There was never a panic about high factor sun cream and if you got sun burnt Camomile Lotion smothered all over the affected part was the cure! 

One of the other things that I remember from those times is how mother and father would take along their own portable kitchen to make tea on the beach. I say a portable kitchen but it was only a biscuit tin with a lid on it and inside would be a small mentholated spirit stove with camping kettle with a folding handle in it. There they would sit in their deck chairs boiling water and stinking the beach with meths smells. I am tempted here to talk about 1950s bathing costumes but I covered that subject two or three years ago. 

Now onto other things. Who remembers scrumping? All of us, especially the lads, must have bunked into someone's back garden to grab an apple or pear at some time or other. Why I bothered I really cannot imagine as we had a large garden that was rich in apple, plum, damson, pear and cherry trees. Plus there were blackberries, red and white currants and hazel nuts. I need never have gone hungry! I suppose it was the thrill of doing something naughty.  

With all that fruit in the garden, come the summer our larder at home always seemed to be filled with row upon row of jars of home made bottled fruit which would last us all winter. Our next door neighbour had a large brick and concrete air raid shelter in the back garden and come the autumn she used to collect all the apples from her garden, clean them off and then carefully lay them out on the concrete floor of the shelter on newspaper and store them all winter.

Changing the subject entirely, outside our back door we had a concrete step that always came in very handy whenever my father wanted to sharpen the carving knife. In the cutlery draw was a short, bone handled, sharpening steel and I think that no one in the house knew how to use it properly, so the back step was always pressed into service. I wonder how many of you can remember your parents sharpening their knives on their back steps?  This would have to suffice until the knife grinder came round. 

Just a few random jottings as I said at the beginning, are there any odd memories lurking in the back of your brain that you could share with us?

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

News and Views:

Phil Everly, the youngest of The Everly Brothers has died in California from lung disease complications caused by a lifetime of cigarette smoking. He last performed in public in 2011, but had been actively writing songs. The Everly career spanned five decades, although they performed separately from 1973 to 1983. In their heyday between 1957 and 1962, they had 19 top 40 hits. But the two broke up amid quarrelling in 1973 after 16 years of hits, then reunited in 1983. Their break-up came during a concert at Knott's Berry Farm in California. Phil Everly threw his guitar down and walked off stage. During their break-up they pursued solo singing careers.

On this Day 11^th January 1960-1965

On 11/01/1960 the number one single was Why - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was not listed and the box office smash was North by Northwest. 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 price of large eggs cut to 3/- a dozen.

On 11/01/1961 the number one single was Poetry in Motion - Johnny Tillotson and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV) 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 11/01/1962 the number one single was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard. 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. he big news story of the day was Van Doren guilty in US quiz show fix.

On 11/01/1963 the number one single was The Next Time/Bachelor Boy - Cliff Richard & the Shadows 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 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 11/01/1964 the number one single was Glad All Over - Dave Clark Five and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Steptoe & Son (BBC) 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 11/01/1965 the number one single was Yeh Yeh - Georgie Fame 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.

Web Page 2014

4^th January 2014

Top Picture: Portsdown Hill 1922

Bottom Picture: Top of Cosham High Street 1915

I know that this is well out of my usual timescale but I eventually managed to get my uncle, who has just had his 96th birthday, to write down his earliest memories of Cosham and Drayton. I hope you find them interesting and eye opening

Memories of 114 Havant Road a house called ‘Croslands’ and the area.

         

1925. I remember the moving day from our house on the Copnor Road to the Havant Road, which was then on the extreme northern boundary of Portsmouth. I was sent to stay with my Uncle and Aunt (the Winnicotts) at their house in the London Road opposite Ophir Road. That evening I was picked up and taken to our brand new house. Imagine my amazement to be introduced to electric light in OUR house after being used to gas lighting.

I shared a bedroom on the west side of the house with my sister (9). Being young (5) and carefree my memories are happy ones. Among those are coming downstairs for breakfast to find that the maid had lit a nice warm fire in the breakfast room. But there was the night that my father looked out of an upstairs window and spotted her and her boyfriend kissing outside the side gate (what ever next!) the result was “pack your things and leave in the morning”. I later learned to do my courting away from home.

I remember a tree on the Cosham corner of Lendorber Avenue where the family gathered to wait for the king (George V) and Queen to drive by on their way from Goodwood Races to join the Royal Yacht for Cowes Week.

The front lawn was quite full of weeds and we got 1d for every 50 we dug up. I also remember my father digging a trench next to the fence into which every stone was put ready for a concrete path.  Whether one was ever built I don’t know.

My sister and I had little plots of grass, about 2ft x 1ft  on which we made our own gardens with paste pots as ponds and little stones as paths etc. At the bottom of the garden was a garage into which our cat would run when he heard the car arriving – with tragic results.

The houses next door were occupied by the Jones and Rowes. The Jones garden was L shaped with land beyond our garage and was overgrown with stinging nettles into which I was frequently pushed by the Jones boys. The large chestnut tree in the back came in very welcome for the nuts

at Christmas  despite brown fingers preparing them.

Lendorber Avenue was gravel with no surfaced footpaths. Turning right towards Drayton on the south side were several new houses. On the first corner (Court Lane) was a very old thatched cottage, which was knocked down when the road was widened. On the opposite corner was the Gammons estate. Turning left beyond our three houses was a paddock extending to Mulberry Lane. In the top far corner was a barn used for milking cows and housing them for the night.

A nursery occupied  the site of St Colmans church. From there to East Cosham Road were only three houses on the north side of the Havant Road. Each had extensive grounds. My Uncle purchased the first –Cosham House- and proceeded to vandalise the grounds by making a new driveway to the house – which he occupied- and cutting the rest up by making Padwick and Burrill Avenues. The original driveway can still be seen (I think) at the end of Widley Road. The extent of the original property can be seen by the length of the brickwall on the frontage.

The second property extended from the eastern end of the wall to the eastern boundary of Lodge Avenue. It consisted of a large house with a lodge at the end of the driveway. The entrance, nearly opposite Croslands can, I believe, still be seen by a small curved section of the entrance wall. The lodge was the home to the chauffeur/ gardener and his wife and two sons. Immediately opposite Croslands was a field where the cows mentioned earlier were kept during the day before being

driven down the road to the farm mentioned earlier. If we were luck the gardener would mow a wicket in this field for us to play cricket. The house and lodge were eventually demolished to make way for Bernard and Lodge Avenues to be built.

I hope you enjoyed that, if so I will try to get some more memories from him.

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

News and Views:

On this Day 4^th January 1960-1965

On 04/01/1960 the number one single was Starry Eyed - Michael Holliday and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was not listed and the box office smash was North by Northwest. 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 Boeing 707s to be tested by UK pilots.

On 04/01/1961 the number one single was I Love You - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was The Russ Conway Show (ATV) 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. The big news story of the day was Millionth Morris Minor produced.

On 04/01/1962 the number one single was Moon River - Danny Williams and the number one album was Another Black & White Minstrell Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. 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 Pope ex-communicates Fidel Castro.

On 04/01/1963 the number one single was The Next Time/Bachelor Boy - Cliff Richard & the Shadows 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 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 04/01/1964 the number one single was I Want to Hold Your hand - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - The 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 04/01/1965 the number one single was I Feel Fine - 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.

Web Page 2012

28^th December 2013

Top Picture: Blocks of ice floating in Portsmouth Harbour.

Bottom Picture: An isolated farm in Lancashire, and this was in April!

Firstly Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year to all of you. But do you remember the Christmas fifty one years ago?

The Big Freeze

It was Boxing Day in 1962 when the skies darkened and it started to snow and at the age of 16+ it was the nearest that I had come to remembering a real White Christmas. Come to think of it I cannot think of another since either. None of us actually believed that a) it would lay and b) if it did lay it would not last long, little knowing that it was going shroud the whole of country in snow well into March 1963 and in some places into April.

Life had to change as the freeze continued past the first few days. Like many other people we had no central heating in the house only coal fires, electric fires and paraffin heaters. Our coal bunker was just outside the back door and was full of coal all bought at the summer prices. Very soon a mini snow drift blocked the access hole on the bunker and so my father and I dug it out and filled every bucket, scuttle and box we could find with coal and brought it into the small conservatory on the back of the house, just in case. Little did we know how long this situation was to last. The other mode of heating apart from a couple of two bar reflector heaters (one was a wedding present to my parents from my uncle) were paraffin heaters, one in the bathroom, one in the hallway and one in the back room and after a few days of the snow I remember my father diligently going round to each heater and trimming the wicks and topping the tanks up and desperately hoping that the paraffin delivery man would manage to do his round and deliver more supplies. Which he eventually did!

Despite all these precautions and plenty of hot water bottles and blankets on the beds, the nights were cold and we still woke up in the mornings with ice on the inside of the windows. My father had to travel by bus from Farlington into the Dockyard to go to work each day and he had to allow at least an extra hour each way to complete his journey. I remember him coming home very late as the bus was delayed and telling us that there were great lumps of ice to be seen floating around Portsmouth Harbour.

Transport really suffered during this spell of bad weather, especially the railway network. It was interesting to note that the main line through Cosham, which was still steam hauled with some diesel units occasionally was still running a fairly regular service, whereas on the Portsmouth Direct route to London which used the third rail electric system of traction, there were tremendous hold ups as the conductor rail and pick up shoes on the trains froze over causing either violent sparking and flashing or the complete failure of the trains. I remember standing in my parent’s bedroom window looking down over Farlington and seeing enormous sparks and flashes, which originated along the railway line it looked just like a raid in wartime someone said.

 

One of the other major problems was the A3 road over Portsdown Hill, the movement of heavy lorries and buses was very dangerous, going up was a problem but coming down was even worse with every chance of slipping and skidding on the compacted ice and snow. But cars travelling northwards were a great source of revenue to us. A friend and I, once we realized there was a problem with them climbing the hill, made our way to the hill road and by offering ourselves as pushers we invariably got the car to The George where the grateful motorist, more often than note gave us at least half a crown for our trouble. Easy, but cold, money and this went on for days! 

The funny thing is I really cannot remember missing one day’s schooling despite the frozen roads and terrible weather. We, and our teachers, must have been a hardy lot because today it seems that there just has to be a light flurry of snow and my grandson’s school closes and all the kids are sent home for the day.

Do you remember the Big Freeze? Maybe you have some memories you could add. If so please get in touch.

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

News and Views:

On this Day 28th December 1960-1965

On 28/12/1960 the number one single was I Love You - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was Tottenham Hotspur. The top rated TV show was The Arthur Haynes Show (ATV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £not very interesting and 13.68 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada).

On 28/12/1961 the number one single was Moon River - Danny Williams and the number one album was Another Black & White Minstrell 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 Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 28/12/1962 the number one single was Return to Sender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Everton. 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 £Worst snowstorms in UK for 20 years and 12.89 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was Take Your Pick (AR)".

On 28/12/1963 the number one single was I Want to Hold Your hand - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - 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 28/12/1964 the number one single was I Feel Fine - 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 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. The big news story of the day was East End shooting linked to Krays.

On 28/12/1965 the number one single was Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out - The Beatles and the number one album was Rubber Soul - 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 2010

21st December 2013

A very Happy Christmas to you all from Pam  and me.

Top Picture: Liz Fraser in typical pose in what she calls her Bra and Panites days

Middle Picture: Carry on regardless poster, this is Liz’s favourite Carry on film.

Bottom Picture: Liz Fraser today

Liz Fraser.

Liz Fraser was never a top of the bill actress but during our youth she was always there, whether be supporting a top line comedy star or appearing in Carry On Films and The Confessions of Films.

She was born above a South London corner shop and was Christened Elizabeth J. Winch in 1930 but she   gave the date of 1933 when auditioning for her role in I'm All Right Jack, as the producers the Boulting Brothers wanted someone younger for the part and this date stuck with her until she wrote her "Liz Fraser and Other Characters" when she revealed her real DOB. Her father was a travelling salesman for a brewery and her mother owned a shop just off the New Kent Road in London. Naturally her family life was disrupted greatly by the Second World War when she was evacuated, initially to Westerham in Kent but even there after a time it was deemed to be vulnerable to the bombs. She was moved to Chudleigh, a village in Devon. During this period of time her father died in, aged just 40 when she was only 11.

On returning to London after the war she attended St Saviour's and St Olave's Grammar School for Girls until she was 17, she also attended Goldsmiths College in the evenings, where she had joined a drama group. On leaving school she attended the City of London College for Commerce, Book-Keeping, Shorthand and Typing and won an evening scholarship to the London School of Dramatic Art.

We all know her for her many appearances in British films and television series, including Hancock's Half Hour, Citizen James, Last of the Summer Wine and in one episode of The Avengers entitled "The Girl from Auntie".

Over a period of nearly six months, she appeared in numerous editions of the Associated-Rediffusion long forgotten soap opera Sixpenny Corner (1955–56). For a time she was very rarely off our screens in a variety of roles, not always appearing as the voluptuous girl in the Basque. She moved on to play Mrs Brent, a dead/missing girl's mother, in one of the Joan Hickson Miss Marple episodes for the BBC in 1987. Then came a strong and very memorable performance in  The Professionals episode "Backtrack" as a fairly glamorous lady that fenced stolen property in her shop.

Needless to say she appeared on Benny Hill's late-1950s TV shows and in one single sketch in 1970 on his Thames TV series. As this episode was in black & white (due to the "colour strike" by TV technicians, who wanted to be paid extra for working with the then-new colour TV technology), the sketch was not included in any of the half-hour later distributed world wide. However, it is included in the Volume 1 box set of the complete "Benny Hill Show.

Her film appearances started with I'm All Right, Jack (1959) for which she received a BAFTA nomination as Most Promising Newcomer, Two-Way Stretch (1960), the comedies Adventures of a Taxi Driver (1975), Confessions of a Driving Instructor  (1976), Adventures of a Private Eye (1977) and Rosie Dixon- Night Nurse (1978), and four of the Carry On films, Regardless (1961),Cruising (1962), Cabby (1963)and Behind  (1975). Her other television work has included Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Crown Court, The Bill, Foyle's War, Birds of a Feather, Minder and Holby City. She was also Compo’s ‘bit on the side’ in Last of the Summer Wine.

She had married Peter Yonwin, a travelling salesman, in November 1958 but the marriage soon broke down and they divorced. She married her second husband, Bill Hitchcock, a TV director, in January 1965 at Harrow Registry Office. They agreed not to work together, but this 'pact' was broken in 1972 when she appeared in the Rodney Bewes sitcom Albert! and again later in the same year, when she acted in Turnbull's Finest Half-Hour a comedy series starring Michael Bates. Bill Hitchcock died in February 1974. In her autobiography she mentions also an affair with Tony Priday, captain of the England bridge team and bridge correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph. She also has a half-brother, Philip, 11 years older, the son of her mother from a previous marriage.

She, at one time, owned three greyhounds and still owns a watch, once owned by Princess Margaret, which she bought at auction. Apart from Acting, has made a living out of being a professional landlord.

At 83 she still has the cheeky, forthright sparkle in her eyes and voice that made her such a sought after actress long after she had stopped being hired merely for her blonde hair and busty sex appeal. She has worked steadily for more than half a century in the entertainment industry from the day she first stepped on to a repertory stage in 1952 at the age of 22, right into her 70s.

While she was bang in the front row of a generation of British actresses who turned the word “blonde” into an adjective that meant brainless there was always steely intelligence beneath that platinum froth. Unlike so many exploited actresses of her generation, she managed her own money and played the stock market, translating her winnings into a healthy income from an extensive property portfolio.

When her fellow Carry On star Joan Sims found herself in financial straits in her later years Liz was able to stop Joan being evicted from her home. She agrees that her business sense probably came from her mother Bessie, widowed when Liz was  11 but single-handedly running her corner shop through the war years and beyond, earning enough money to pay the fees for the grammar school. Her family made it clear that she had to support herself so, after making sure she’d come top in shorthand and typing, she paid her own way through drama school by working as a temp.

She readily admits that her bust did become the focal point of her career but she declares that she ran her life from her head rather than her chest.. She has a good business head and  from her first purchase of shares in a greyhound track that later became the site of London’s Brent Cross shopping centre, she has rarely lost money.

She now lives in an apartment overlooking the Thames.

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

Carry On Christmas !!!!!!!!! 

News and Views:

Bobby Rydell’s forthcoming tour of Australia in February is a sell out already

On this Day 21st December 1960-1965

On 21/12/1960 the number one single was It's Now Or Never - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Tottenham Hotspur. The top rated TV show was The Army Game (Granada) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £not very interesting and 13.68 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada).

On 21/12/1961 the number one single was Tower of Strength - Frankie Vaughan and the number one album was Another Black & White Minstrell 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 Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 21/12/1962 the number one single was Return to Sender - Elvis Presley 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 21/12/1963 the number one single was I Want to Hold Your hand - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - 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 21/12/1964 the number one single was I Feel Fine - The 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 21/12/1965 the number one single was Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out - The Beatles and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. 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 2008

14^th December 2013

Top Picture: Tommy Cooper on a baby elephant.

Bottom Picture: Mike Hawthorne

1959

This is just a year outside my normal time frame but a lot happened in 1959 which affected our lives in the 1960’s; so here a few short snippets of news from 1959.

It was a funny year and here are some of the highlights from the press some you will remember, some you will have forgotten and others will come as a surprise.

To start with one country magazine reported that Mr Ted Smith, a stockman on the Earl of Bathurst's estate, Cirencester Park, Gloucestershire, reportedly had the last two working oxen in Britain, they were called Jim and Joey,

This was the era of protests and Canon Lewis John Collins and Jacquetta Hawkes writer wife of novelist J B Priestley, headed a column of anti H-bomb demonstrators from Aldernaston to London and CND was born. Also campaigners, who believed they were helping to save the world from a modern form of crucifixion, gathered on Good Friday outside the gates of the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston for a rally.

The all-British prototype the SRN1 hovercraft, which had been designed by Christopher S. Cockerell and made by the Saunders Roe factory on the Isle of Wight undertook its first trials and demonstrations to the public at Cowes.

That summer was very hot and every London based newspaper seemed to feature a pretty girl in a bathing costume in or around The Serpentine in Hyde Park. 

Now two unusual official visits. Firstly the Queen Mother went into 174 Villiers Road in Willesden, London, where she visited it's garden. This was one of many gardens she visited that day all of them being within the Marylebone and Willesden areas of London. This particular garden was chosen as one of the brightest and best in the district by the London Garden's Society.

Another odd Visit was by President de Gaulle of France who donned specially prepared miners clothing (no coal dust in them!) to inspect the underground workings of a British coal mine. I am not sure why.

Now some news from the entertainment world.

One newspaper that year made a feature of Tommy Cooper riding a baby elephant outside the offices of the Pearl Assurance Company.

Brigitte Bardot arrived at a London Hotel and posed seductively on a four poster bed during a photocall. She had just arrived from Paris to start location shooting for her latest movie "Babette Goes to War".

Another entertainer from abroad was also in the news Liberace arrived at the Law Courts in London where he was suing the Daily Mirror. The Daily Mirror had implied that Liberace was gay. The Mirror denied that's what they were saying, Liberace denied that he was gay. Liberace won. 

Tommy Steele performed a traditional Russian Cossack dance on the tarmac at Heathrow Airport, on his arrival back from a tour in Moscow.

Hollywood actress Jayne Mansfield cut a tape as she opened the Chiswick Flyover, the last section of a £6 million trunk road scheme in London - the Cromwell Road Extension.

Talking about roads and motorways Ernest Marples, the Minister of Transport opened Britain’s motorway the M1. The first section was 72 miles long and stretched from London to Birmingham and was built by the construction company Marples Ridgeway a company owned by the Ministers wife!!

A vast circular building which was to form the main block of the British Broadcasting Corporation's 10 million Television Centre in Wood Lane was opened. The building, shaped like a giant question mark was designed by Mr Graham Dawbarn, FRIBA, and would become Europe's biggest TV centre. And now it is up for sale!!!!

Donald Campbell was watched by his wife, Belgian-born singer Tonia Bern, at Lake Coniston when he made his run of 265mph in his jet boat Bluebird. His run was nearly 17mph faster than his existing world water speed record.

On 9th October Harold Macmillan was returned as Prime Minister in a sweeping election win Mr MacMillan himself being returned for Bromley, Kent, with a majority increased by over 2,300.

Dense fog paralysed much of Britain

Cyprus was given independence.

Ballerina Margot Fonteyn was released from prison in Panama having been suspected of involvement in a planned coup against the government of president.

 Barclays become the first bank to install a computer.

 The first Mini goes on sale

Health enthusiast Dr. Barbara Moore walks from Edinburgh to London.

The iconic Bush TR82 transistor radio, is launched.

Well I told you it was going to be a round up of odds and ends.

Hope they stirred a few memories.

To end with who did we loose in 1959.

Jan 21st - Cecil B. DeMille, American director (b. 1881)
Jan 22nd - Mike Hawthorn, English race car driver and one-time F1 world champion (b. 1929) The evening he died he met his girlfriend from the IOW at Portsmouth and they drove to London. He went so fast that she refused to travel back with him so he decided to race the train to Portsmouth and meet her. He never made it!

Feb 3rd - Big Bopper dies in plane crash at 28
Feb 3rd - Buddy Holly  (That'll be the Day), dies in a plane crash at 22
Feb 3rd - Richie Valens,, killed in plane crash at 17
Mar 3^rd   Lou Costello, comedian/actor (Abbott & Costello), dies at 52
 Mar 26th - Raymond T Chandler, US detective writer (Long Goodbye), dies at 71
 May 14th - Sidney Bechet, US jazz clarinetist/saxophonist/bandleader, dies at 62
 May 24th - John Foster Dulles, US Secretary of State (1953-59), dies at 71
Jul 17^th     Billie Holiday, jazz singer, dies at Metropolitan Hospital in New York of cirrhosis of the liver at 44
 Sep 6th - Kay Kendall, British actress (Genevieve), dies of leukemia at 32
 Sep 28th - Gerard Hoffnung, artist/humorist/musician, dies
 Oct 7th - Mario Lanza, opera singer, dies at 38 of a heart attack
Oct 14th - Errol Flynn, US actor (Captain Blood), dies of heart attack at 50
Dec 18th - Dorothy L Sayers, writer, dies at 66

Quite a year!

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

News and Views:

On this Day 14th December 1960-1965

On 14/12/1960 the number one single was It's Now Or Never - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was The Army Game (Granada) 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.The big news story of the day was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada).

On 14/12/1961 the number one single was Tower of Strength - Frankie Vaughan and the number one album was Another Black & White Minstrell 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 Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Grandma Moses dies.

On 14/12/1962 the number one single was Return to Sender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was On Stage with the Black & White Minstrels - George Mitchell Minstrels. 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 14/12/63 the number one single was I Want to Hold Your hand - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - 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 14/12/1964 the number one single was I Feel Fine - The 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 14/12/1965 the number one single was The Carnival is Over - Seekers and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. 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.