Web Page 2030

1^st March 2014

Top Picture:  Advert for the fun fair area

Middle Picture: Eastney beach on a hot day

Bottom Picture: Southsea beach in the snow

Holiday Souvenirs

Whilst we are still in the middle of winter lets just take a look at the summer holidays we had as kids just to cheer ourselves up and to remember those days when it was always sunny and the temperature was always just right!

If we went away we stayed in various places was it in a boarding house, guesthouse or maybe a caravan or very, very occasionally a hotel?

Wherever it was we always came home with various different souvenirs for all the family and always just a few for ourselves. A ‘Present from xyz’ ashtray for Uncle George, seaside rock or maybe Edinburgh rock for the cousins, a printed scarf for Auntie May and naturally if the holiday was on the Isle of Wight a coloured sand ornament from Alum Bay for everyone and that was a gift that everyone made yourselves!

If the family had a car it was almost an obligation to fill the side windows with little plastic pennants with the names of various town or resorts on them. Most towns and cities and some villages sold them and if the family managed to collect enough it was then possible to arrange them in a complete circle.

Badges of various sizes and shapes were on sale everywhere, whether they were sew on ones or those with an adhesive already on the back so you could stick them straight onto your anorak or more than likely your duffle bag.

Goss ware was another seaside favourite but whoever actually wanted a miniature white chamber pot with a Lyme Regis crest on it is beyond me; but I do know that there were, and still are, avid collectors of this ware.

There were always the selection of saucy seaside postcards  but my folks were not the sort to send this type of card so we never stopped at these stalls or displays.

But the typical seaside resort was right on our door steps, Southsea with its large variety of amusements.

Here the beachside stall seamed to sell items that could only be bought at the seaside. Lilo’s, flippers, goggles, rubber flip flops and sand shoes, beach balls and raffia mats to lie on. Water wings, swimming rings, bathing caps, wind breaks, travelling rugs  and snorkels were all the basic stock in trade to the seashore dealer. (Little did I know at that time, that for six weeks in the summer of 1965, I would be working, part time, during the evenings, in a seaside stall on the landward end of Shanklin Pier selling items such as these and spending a lot of time round he back of the stall with an ink rubber busy erasing the word ‘seconds’ off the bottom of shoes and sandals etc!

The was also a different type of food available at the seaside (and sometimes in travelling fairs), Toffee Apples, Candy Floss, Hot Dogs, hot doughnuts and weak tea served in china cups, placed on a tray so that it could be taken onto the beach as a ‘beach tray’. To let our mothers have these trays the stall holder would charge a deposit which mother would get back when she returned the complete tray later in the day.

Piles of deck chairs, with its attendant selling tickets for the use of the chair by the hour, half day, or complete day were stacked all over the beach. Mind you, later in life these piles of chairs could be used, if properly and carefully re-arranged as a cave for use as a cosy nest for courting being well away from prying eyes. Mind you the stones on Southsea Beach were still just as hard and lumpy in the cave so a thick coat to lie on was certainly and advantage, no a necessity!

Ice cream stalls (Walls, Eldorado or Lyons Maid), bikini’s and sun hats. Plus beach photographers (1962 was the only time that I ever used a beach photographer. Jenny and I had our pictures taken by the Rock Gardens, I must have been feeling flushed at the time! I still have my copy and I believe she still has hers!)  

Full day and half day coach tours, or mystery tours were on offer at the kiosks on the Eastney side of South Parade Pier as were boat trips into Portsmouth Harbour and speed boat trips towards Eastney, adventures in the Model Village could be had or a paddle around Canoe Lake were all there for the holiday makers, not forgetting Lumps Fort and the miniature golf course.

If travelling the other way passed the illuminated Rock gardens, there was always the miniature railway that was sited where the Sealife Centre is now. Or if you were feeling particularly brave a trip to the Roller Skating Rink opposite the floral clock and an essential trip.

Ah! So many memories and so long ago.

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

Christine Writes:-

I remember dancing almost every weekend at either The Savoy, The        Rendezvous or The Birdcage. We saw amazing groups live and up close    including "Rod the Mod Stewart and the Brian Auger Trinity with Julie   Driscoll (spelling maybe incorrect!) Lulu, John Walker of the Walker        Brothers, Unit 4 plus 2, The Animals, Spencer Davis and of course           Manfred Mann many times and others I have forgotten........ .......however........I have never forgotten the Manor Court Youth Club on a Friday night (you have published the photos to prove it) where I particularly recall       "The Sons of Man" being very good and another group called The Black Cats.....where are they now? Did they ever make the big time?

Those were the days, when you just rocked up, paid at the door and           danced the night away........none of this online scramble for highly priced tickets for Wembley Arena or the O2!.........where you have to sit down!

News and Views:

On this Day 1^st March 2014

On 01/03/1960 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 Some Like It Hot. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the eason's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was BBC asks for second TV channel.

On 01/03/1961 the number one single was Sailor - Petula Clark. The top rated TV show was The Army Game (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25. The big news story of the day was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada).

On 01/03/1962 the number one single was Rock-a-Hula Baby/Can't Help Falling In Love - 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.

01/03/1963 the number one single was The Wayward Wind - Frank Ifield and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. 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 01/03/1964 the number one single was Anyone Who Had a Heart -Cilla Black and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Labour 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 0/03/1965 the number one single was I'll Never Find Another You - Seekers 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

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22nd February 2014

Top Picture:  1960’s record shop

Bottom Picture: 78 rpm needles

Entertainment in Portsmouth in 1963

Throughout Portsmouth there were many, many music venues, some were seven days a week others one or two evenings. Some of the larger venues had resident bands. For example the Clarence Pier Ballroom always featured Arthur Ward’s band on a Saturday night. These were the days when unknown ‘live’ acts would perform all over the south coast, some made it into pop history but most were totally forgotten. What happened to ‘ Four Hits and a Miss’, the Southern Sounds and Rory Storm (I the Cadillac’s. Probably the best known group, apart from Manfred Mann, to make it at the time was Dave Dee & the Bostons, later to become Dave Dee, Dozy, etc, etc.

To dress right for these evenings out at the local dancehalls the lads of the time would make their way to one of the “Shirt King” men’s fashion shops either the one in Charlotte Street or the one in Cosham High Street which is the one I used to frequent. I remember clearly buying a Black Watch Tartan tab collar shirt. This, of course, was before the popularity of Combat Jackets and Parka’s from Ben Grubbs.

One of the other major venues in the area was the Savoy, a first floor dance hall that hosted the likes of Eden Kane, Marty Wilde, Kenny Lynch, Mike Berry and later on with the popularisation of Trad Jazz the likes of Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz Band, the Clyde Valley Stompers and Bob Wallis and his Storyville Jazz Men. Most of these concerts I was in the audience. I was also a regular at the Railway Jazz Club in the Railway Hotel, Walmer Road in Fratton. The big problem with the Savoy for me was that if I was not quick off the mark at the end of the evening I stood a very good chance of missing the last bus back to Farlington which meant that I would have to get the only bus that was left, and this went to the North End Bus Depot in Gladys Avenue and from there I would walk home. If I missed that bus it was either a very long walk or a cold night sleeping under South Parade Pier, especially in the winter at high tide! Then catching the first bus home in the morning.

But many other sites have covered all this many times before but one thing does come to mind was the trade in second hand records. In Arundel Street there was a very strange shop, The House of Wax which was run by Mrs Florence Titmus. This was originally opened in the days of 78rpm records, hence the name. However over the years they progressed to 45’s and LP’s. I was a regular visitor and actually remember buying a couple of second hand LP’s in there many years ago. It was a double fronted shop with rows and rows of record racks all marked out in the different genres. Not only did they sell second hand records they bought them too but for Mrs Titmus or her manager to even entertain buying a record, it and its cover had to be in almost pristine condition. Something that my records never were, they were too heavily used!

Whilst a little further along Commercial at number 243 Lake Road was another such dealer, the well-known shop called  Haskell & Green, they always seemed more expensive to me so I rarely visited there.

Both the House of Wax and Haskell & Green were Mecca’s for all things audio. It was here you could buy a new stylus or even a new disposable needle for your 78’s rpm. Record cleaners and cloths, record cases and racks, audio plugs and stylus cleaners, in fact as I said anything audio.

Within this area bounded by Lake Road and Arundel Street, Commercial Road and Kingston Road in the early sixties there were dozens of radio dealers, second hand shops and general dealers all of which were swept away when the modern City Centre development began when the old bomb sites and poor housing were replaced by tall flats and what is today called Social Housing.

I always enjoyed wandering, as a teenager, in and out of these shops rooting through the piles of objects for sale. You never knew what you could find. But, however I looked, I never found any thing of value lots of pieces of interest but never anything of value.

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

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Anida Writes:-

Hi Pete

Hope you are staying safe and dry, another day another storm!

Your blog this week got me thinking about the weather and smells!  I do remember the smell of the milk, rubber mats and the very peculiar smell in the dinner hall which, at Court Lane, was at the back of the school.  I didn't have school dinners very often but when it was necessary the money went to school in an Oxo tin.

Smells, of course, are very evocative, my earliest school days were in the Congregational Church where the smallest children were taught.  The coat pegs were in the toilets and every day started with the smell of damp wood, the building was entirely wooden, with an over tone of drains.  Clearly not the best of starts for a five year old and strong enough to have stayed with me for a lifetime!

I am sure the weather was much colder than today, I have a photograph of me ready for school as a five year old and I am wearing a big thick woollen coat, gloves on a long elastic threaded through the sleeves of course, a long black and gold scarf (the original colours of the infant and junior school) wound around my neck several times, and a gold and black striped woolly hat complete with bobble.  No outfit would be complete without the thick knee length socks and Start Rite shoes.  Did we really need all this clothing, the heating was probably not that bad as when we got to school all this outer clothing had to come off - no wonder we needed coat pegs. Looking at the youngsters today going back and forth to school, they are either made of tougher stuff than we were or the weather is significantly warmer!

News and Views:

On this Day 22nd  February 1960-1965

On 22/02/1960 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 Some Like It Hot. 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 weekwas USSR wins Winter Olympics

On 22/02/1961 the number one single was Sailor - Petula Clark and the number one album was Tottenham Hotspur. The top rated TV show was The Army Game (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £not very interesting and 13.25 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada).

On 28/02/1962 the number one single was Rock-a-Hula Baby/Can't Help Falling In Love - 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 weekwas John Glenn is 1st US astronaut to orbit earth.

On 22/02/1963 the number one single was The Wayward Wind - Frank Ifield and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. 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 22/02/1964 the number one single was Diane - Bachelors and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Labour 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 22/02/1965 the number one single was I'll Never Find Another You - Seekers and the number one album was Rolling Stones Number 2 - The Rolling Stones. 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.The big news story of the day was Goldie the Eagle escapes London Zoo.

Web Page 2026

15^th February 2014

Top Picture:  School Register

Bottom Picture: School Milk

Before the start of the day, while we were all happily still playing in the playground the teaching staff in our schools were all busy preparing for a busy start of the day but nothing to do with teaching.

I sometimes wonder how our teachers, especially those in the Junior and Infant schools had the time to teach us when we first arrived in the classroom in the morning. After making sure all the 8 or 9year olds had hung up their coats, scarves and hats on the right peg in the cloakroom it was then time to march the pupils into the classroom.

The first thing the teacher had to do in the classroom was to call the register and mark down all those who were there and read the notes from the parents of those who were away sick. I wonder what happened to those registers that were diligently called twice a day, are they gathering dust somewhere in a huge pile in some departments archive somewhere, or have they been digitalised or have they just been dumped? That’s our history!

Then came the job of allocating the jobs of the various monitors for the day. The least popular of these classroom jobs was ink monitor. I remember carrying this long spouted type of watering can with the made up powdered ink in it around the classroom and topping up the inkwells on the desks. We all had to use nibbed pens and blotting paper in those days no biro’s or gel pens were allowed,  although we were permitted to take our own fountain pens in with us to school. It didn’t seem to matter what I wrote with it still looked like the trail of a blotchy drunken spider wandering across the page!

Being ink monitor was the least popular job BUT being milk monitor was a job to be craved after because if there was ever any milk left over after the bottles had been distributed the monitor got a chance to empty the crate and have another bottle but when you are eight or nine a third of a pint seems a great deal of milk!

Depending on the day the teacher had various other tasks to perform before the school assembly and prayers and the first teaching class of the day. Mondays was always Dinner Money Day. Those children having school dinners would line up with their respective envelopes or tins with the Dinner Money safely held  inside. So after marking the register and taking the Dinner Money it was time to walk over to the school hall for the daily assembly with prayers, hymns and notices led by the Headmaster and all this before the first class started!

One morning a week it would be National Savings morning when those who had enough spare cash bought a sixpenny savings stamp from the teacher and stuck it into a Savings Book which was eventually paid into your Post Office Savings Account, but I know I have talked about this before.

All this before a lesson could be started!!!

Life seemed to revolve around monitors of all sorts, not only to two mentioned above but there were also pencil monitors who had to make sure that all the class pencils were sharpened and that no one had pinched the erasers. Another of those jobs that the pupils had to do involved PT. Before these lessons all the equipment had to be got out of the cupboard and placed in the playground if fine or in the hall if wet and afterwards it all had to go back again. Those pieces of equipment that I can remember are bamboo hoops, bean bags, rubber balls and those black rubber mats that always smelt so strongly of rubber when you lay down on them.

What else do you remember from your Junior School days? School satchels, school caps and berets, long socks and garters and gabardine Macintoshes. Finally at Solent Road school at the end of term, on the last day, we were expected to take some wax polish and a duster into school. What was the point of this? We were expected to settle down with the tin of wax polish and polish the tops of our desks! Luckily the Bettawear door to door salesman would often give away free samples of wax polish in very small tins and so these were diligently taken into school for the desk polishing day. Slave labour I call it! 

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

Christine Writes: I am not surprised that Pete Sexton is still about, he always looked younger than any of us!

Geraldine writes: I got a lot of leg pulling when Terry Dene brought out the record ‘Geraldine’!  

News and Views:

On this Day 15^th  February 1960-1965

On 15/02/1960 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 Some Like It Hot. 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 15/02/1961 the number one single was Are you Lonesome Tonight? - 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 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 15/02/1962 the number one single was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard & 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 15/02/1963 the number one single was Diamonds - Jet Harris & Tony Meehan and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. 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. The big news story of the day was Liz Taylor films Cleopatra.

On 15/02/1964 the number one single was Needles & Pins - Searchers 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 15/02/1965 the number one single was Tired of Waiting For You - The Kinks and the number one album was Rolling Stones Number 2 - The Rolling Stones. 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 2024

8^th February 2014

Top Picture:  Terry Dean

Bottom Picture: Edna Savage

Terry Dean

Terry Dene was born Terrance Williams in Lancaster Street, Elephant & Castle, London and was discovered by Paul Lincoln at the famous 2i's Coffee Bar, the London club in Soho in the late 1950s it was this coffee bar that helped launch Tommy Steele, Adam Faith and Cliff Richard. Jack Good, producer of Six-Five Special and Dick Rowe heard him at the 2i’s and helped him get a recording contract with Decca. At the time he was regarded as the British Elvis and recognised as one of the best voices of the rock and roll era of pre-Beatles Britain.

His first single "A White Sport Coat" in the first seven weeks sold in excess of 300,000 copies, together with "Stairway Of Love", which remained in the chart for eight weeks and his own version of "Start Movin'" at number 14, put his records in the Top 20 twice in the same year UK Singles Chart and secured his name in the Guinness Book of Records. He toured Britain, was one of the first artists to appear in the BBC Television's Six-Five Special he and appeared in a film, The Golden Disc.

However Terry Dene was soon branded as a 'bad apple' and an example of the 'evils of rock and roll' by the press after being arrested for public drunkenness and breaking a shop window in 1958, and ripping out a telephone box from the wall whilst claiming his passionate love for Edna Savage. 

Her was conscripted in 1958 into the Army for National service where he was originally expected to report to Winchester Barracks, where he was due to join the King's Royal Rifle Corps on 7 July 1958, but his call-up was deferred until contractual commitments had been completed. When he finally did go in, it was so badly handled by the press (who filmed and publicised his arrival at the barracks) that after two months he had to be discharged on medical grounds as he received threats from his fellow conscripts. By that time the press had almost ruined his career and the Army offered him a pension as a form of compensation which he refused.

Disheartened by the bad publicity in 1964 he turned his back on the British pop scene and became an Evangelist singing and writing spiritual and gospel music and recording three gospel albums. He travelled abroad as an itinerant preacher playing in churches, prisons and other venues and preached in the Lutheran Church for five years in Sweden.

In 1973, he released a book, I Thought Terry Dene Was Dead, and in 1984 reformed his group, the Dene Aces and released an album, The Real Terry Dene, in 1997 which was voted as one of the top 40 best listening CDs. His Decca compilation was released in December 2004 and in October 2007, he created his own company and label with his partner, Countess Lucia Liberati and in December 2012 released his new CD, The Best Of Terry Dene, featuring a compilation of 12 tracks of his own choice including his own version of "Mystery Train", a remix of "Com'in And Be Loved, So Long", which was written by Terry himself.

On a personal basis he was married in 1958 to, and subsequently divorced from, fellow pop singer Edna Savage, who died in 2000 at the age of 64. He married and divorced another three times and he is now settled with an Italian countess, Lucia Liberati, 21 years his junior, whom he met in London in 2000.

He has appeared on Juke Box Heroes in 2011 and played in September 2004 at the Rock 'n' Roll Weekend Festival in Chippenham alongside Little Richard, the Comets and Charlie Gracie. In February 2005, he appeared in the Best of British magazine and on 2 November 2006, as a 'mystery guest' on series 19 episode 2 of Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

He performed at the 100 Club in London in October 2007, January 2008 and January 2010, in comnemoration of the first Six-Five Special, where he was a regular guest. He is also featured in The British Music Experience at The O2 Arena in Greenwich, an exhibition which is dedicated to the history of British popular music in the UK over the past 60+ years.

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

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On this Day 8^th February 1960-1965

On 08/02/1960 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 Some Like It Hot. 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 Margaret Thatcher had given her first Commons Speech.

On 08/02/1961 the number one single was Are you Lonesome Tonight? - 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 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 08/02/1962 the number one single was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard & 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 week was US bans imports from Cuba.

On 08/02/1963 the number one single was Diamonds - Jet Harris & Tony Meehan and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. 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. The big news story of the week was Liz Taylor films Cleopatra

On 08/02/1964 the number one single was Needles & Pins - Searchers 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 08/02/1965 the number one single was You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' - Righteous Brothers 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 2022

1^st February 2014

Top Picture:  Sainsbury’s steak and Macaroni Cheese!

Bottom Picture: Original Swanson TV Dinner Advertisement.

The TV Dinner

The TV dinner when it arrived in Britain was really an invention of the 1950’s and 60’s in this country. The concept of a ready meal, frozen dinner, frozen meal in a prepackaged frozen or chilled form with all the different constituent parts in separate little containers all pressed out of a single foil container was something entirely new to us in the British Isles. The idea that it required very little preparation and contained all the elements for a single-serving meal was a system that had to be learnt; for better or worse! A 1960’s TV dinner usually consisted of meat, usually beef or chicken in gravy, with a vegetable, such as peas or sweet corn with a portion of potato all in one portioned dish.

The term TV dinner was used for a brand of packaged meal developed in 1953 by C.A. Swanson & Sons (the name in full was TV Brand Frozen Dinner) in the United States. Swanson’s stopped using the name "TV Dinner" in 1962; but even today in the US the term remains synonymous with any prepackaged dinner purchased frozen in a supermarket and heated at home. The original TV Dinner came in an aluminum tray and was heated in an oven. Most frozen food trays we see around today are now made of microwaveable material, usually plastic.

Several smaller companies had conceived of frozen dinners earlier, but the first to achieve success was Swanson. The first Swanson-brand TV Dinner was produced in the United States and consisted of a Thanksgiving meal of turkey, with cornbread dressing, frozen peas and sweet potatoes packaged in a tray like those used at the time for airline food service. Each item was placed in its own compartment. The aluminum tray could be heated directly in the oven without any extra dishes; and one could eat the meal directly from the same tray. The original TV Dinner sold for 98 cents. The name TV dinner came from the shape of the tray it was served on, the same shape as a TV screen.

In the United Kingdom, pre-prepared frozen meals first became widely available in the late 1950s. Since then they have steadily grown in popularity with the increased ownership of home freezers and microwave ovens. Smaller households have influenced the sale of this and other types of convenience food. In 2003, the United Kingdom spent £5 million a day on ready meals, and was the largest consumer in Europe.

The identity of the TV Dinner's inventor has been disputed. In one account retired Swanson executive Gerry Thomas said he conceived the idea after the company found itself with a huge surplus of frozen turkeys because of poor Thanksgiving sales. His version of events has been challenged by the Los Angeles Times, members of the Swanson family^, and former Swanson employees; they all credit the Swanson brothers with the invention.

Either way, Swanson's concept was not original. In 1944, William L. Maxson's frozen dinners were being served on airplanes. Other prepackaged meals were also marketed before Swanson's TV Dinner. In 1952, Quaker States Foods introduced the first frozen dinners on oven-ready aluminum trays under the One-Eye Eskimo label.

The freezing process tends to degrade the taste of food and the meals are thus, even today, heavily processed with extra salt and fat to compensate. The dinners are almost always significantly less nutritious than fresh food and are formulated to remain edible after long periods of storage, thus often requiring preservatives.


It is claimed that a benefit of these frozen dinners was that they are usually fully cooked during preparation, and only need to be reheated by the consumer. This eliminates the possibility of undercooking.

Now as I spent most of my working life as a caterer I have to say that I have yet to come across a frozen TV meal which has taste, flavour and looks appetising when it has been heated, despite the picture on the front of the box. I am reminded of an exhibition I attended in Brighton 20+ years ago, where a young salesman was trying to sell me frozen omelettes, claiming that they were faster to prepare than the traditional method of making an omelette. At one time in my career, when I was in the luxury trade I was making upwards of 45 omelettes per evening, so I challenged the salesman to an omelette duel! I would use the tried and tested method and him the frozen product. Shall we just say that I had mine completed and on the plate ready for eating whilst the salesman was still getting his out of the packet. QED as Bert Ray would put it!   You cannot beat fresh food!

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

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I was sad to read of the death of Pete Seager at the age of 94. He always seemed to be there in the background through most of my teenage years. His lasting legacy must surely be his protest song 'We shall overcome' which over the decades must have been sung millions and millions of times.

On this Day 1^st February 1960-1965

On 01/02/1960 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 Some Like It Hot. 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 week was Margaret Thatcher gives her first Commons Speech.

On 01/02/1961 the number one single was Are you Lonesome Tonight? - 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 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 01/02/1962 the number one single was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard & 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 week was US bans imports from Cuba.

On 01/02/1963 the number one single was Diamonds - Jet Harris & Tony Meehan and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. 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. The big news story of the day was Liz Taylor films Cleopatra

On 01/02/1964 the number one single was Needles & Pins - Searchers 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 01/02/1965 the number one single was You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' - Righteous Brothers 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.

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25^th January 2014

Top Picture:  The Tricorn

Middle: Charlotte Street before the Tricorn

Bottom Picture: Goodbye to the Tricorn

The Tricorn

Having been heavily bombed during the 1940s, much of Commercial Road had to be rebuilt in the post-war years. The Debenhams store (formerly known as Landports and then Allders) was built in the early 1950s. A proposed extension onto the site of the adjacent surface car park was never built.

In the early 1960's, Portsmouth City Council had studied the estimated future shopping needs of the City and held discussions with various developers. One of the areas under intense discussion was the Charlotte Street area. In October 1962, outline planning was submitted and permission was granted for the comprehensive development of land for shopping, wholesale market and a multi-storey car park. Seven roads affected by the scheme were to be subject to road closures which included the closure of the Charlotte Street market which had served the populace for decades. Discussions continued and detailed plans were released in February 1964 and the Tricorn was born.

The construction company Taylor Woodrow began work on the first Stage of the development later that year. The Centre was to be built so that the general public could walk through it to reach Commercial Road. On the first floor there was to be a 2,000m² supermarket (this was very large for mid-1960s). The development also included eight flats and 490 car parking spaces. The building continued much to the dismay of many of the local residents and it was opened in 1966 and cost £2 million to complete the much heralded and architecturally controversial development. In 1967, the City Council were very proud when the Tricorn won a Civic Trust award for its "exciting visual composition". However this euphoria was short lived as in the following year it was voted Britain's fourth ugliest building in a poll of 500 designers. Its success was never assured and when it came to use it the public did not like it. The supermarket never appeared, the first floor wholesale fruit and veg market failed as did the nightclub on the ground floor. The only notable outlet in the development was the first ever Virgin Megastore. But even that did not last. The place became rundown, a home for crime and unsavory behaviour.

In 1994, Taylor Woodrow put the Tricorn up for sale for £3 million. In April 1995, Ashcroft Retail Centres Ltd submitted proposals for an 8,000m² "in-town retail park", comprising nine 'high street' shops in three blocks. The application also included leisure facilities at first floor level, surface/multi-storey car, landscaping, market stores/offices and wall/railing features to the Marketway/Cascades Approach. The City Council's Planning Committee on 11 October 1995 refused permission for the scheme because of its unsatisfactory design and its conflict with existing policies on shopping and leisure facilities in the city centre. As a result, Ashcroft withdrew their interest in the site.

The Planning Committee granted Taylor Woodrow outline planning permission for a proposal on the Tricorn site on 9 October 1996 this was for a development of retail shops and food & drink outlets with part surface and part multi-storey car parking. The scheme presented a crescent shape onto Marketway with two storeys of development, accommodating the leisure element at first floor level.

The newly adopted City Local Plan identified the Tricorn as a new retail floorspace. An approved brief, published in May 2000 preferred and amended the option providing for extensive additional retail and leisure floorspace, car parking, and the re-alignment of Marketway. This meant the destruction of the existing buildings. Planning permission was secured in March 1999 for the demolition of the Tricorn and the construction of a surface car park on the site as an interim measure.

In 2001, BBC Radio 4 listeners voted it the most hated building in the UK, and Prince Charles described it as "a mildewed lump of elephant droppings", although it was much admired by others, who saw it as an irreplaceable example of Brutalist architecture. Demolition of the Tricorn began on 24 March 2004 and lasted approximately nine months. Opponents of demolition argued that the structure, while sadly undermaintained, was still salvageable with the work of ingenious designers and a long-term city plan. However, the government and public opinion was that the building had decayed too far and had attracted such a bad reputation that the only option was to replace it. The Tricorn was the subject of such strength and diversity of public feeling that opinion boards were placed around its boarding for the public to write their comments on.

Since then little has happened on site apart from the demolition of the entire Tricorn Centre. The area being flattened and being laid to Tarmac and opened as a car park, which by looking at it today is very little, used and is almost a big an eyesore as the original building was.

As if this was not enough who remembers the fiasco that was Portsdown Park?

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

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Jonathon Writes:-

Hi Peter,

Thanks for today's blog.

In Michelle Leviers second photo of the school prefects my Carol (nee Winter) is middle row third from left with Dame Edna glasses.

News and Views:

On 2nd January Geoffrey Wheeler the presenter of Songs of Praise and Top of the Form died. He was 83. He spent 21 years presenting Songs of Praise which is now the worlds longest religious programme.

On this Day 25^th January 1960-1965

On 25/01/1960 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.

 On 25/01/1961 the number one single was Are you Lonesome Tonight? - Elvis Presley. 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 £not very interesting and 13.25 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada).

 On 25/01/1962 the number one single was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard & 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 25/01/1963 the number one single was Dance On - The Shadows and the number one album was Out of the Shadows - Shadows. 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 25/01/1964 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 25/01/1965 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

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