Web Page 884

First Picture:

Spotted in a Museum in Oxfordshire Tiger Tim Annual 1950

Second Picture:

A 1950’s sweet shop, which sweets do you remember?






The big news of the day is that this is my last official day of gainful employment, I retire today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Good Read

When we were young we all received an impressive grounding in reading and writing, reading has always been a favourite pastime of mine but if you saw the standard of my writing I think you would despair because even after 60 plus years it is still absolutely terrible!

I think that we were all read to at bed time when we were young children but once we started at infant school we soon started to learn our letters and the alphabet. Having eventually mastered these we then progressed onto early simple readers such as the well known Janet & John Books and then we moved on to more progressive reading. Once we had learnt to read for ourselves this soon opened up a brand new world of discovery to us, it was also a new avenue for Uncles, Aunts and other relatives to explore in the way of Christmas and Birthday presents. I know I got some really good books as presents as a child, but I also got some really terrible ones!

I know, as a child, I progressed my way through the whole gambit of children’s books. Starting with Noddy and Big Ears, Toby Twirl, Tiger Tim, Mr Turnip, Thomas the Tank Engine, Sammy the Shunter and the like. But I was soon introduced to the Famous Five and the Secret Seven books by Enid Blyton, books that both I and Pam (so she tells me) relished. These led onto books such as the Wind in the Willows, Huckleberry Finn and others. However some of my favourites were the Swallows and the Amazons, Peter Duck and Swallowdale, in fact, all the twelve books in the Swallows and Amazons series written by Arthur Ransom. (it always amazed me how he actually got away with calling one of the girls Titty!!).

But having got to grips with reading, when I reached the age of 10, I was allowed to become a member of the public library in Cosham, but, at this age, only the Junior Section. My mother and I used to take the bus into Cosham and we would walk across Spur Road and enter the hushed portals of the Portsmouth Libraries Service, Cosham sub branch. Having got my junior library tickets I was only allowed into the Junior Library section which was in a separate room to the left of the Reception Desk. Here I could wander around for ages choosing my books for the week whilst my mother was in the main section of the library. Having picked my books I waited for her so when she had selected hers we met me at the desk to have my ticket stamped. After a while, and when I had a bike, I was allowed to visit the library on my own and joy of joys when I was 14, I was promoted from the Junior Library to the Main Library and so could explore the main bookshelves.

Off to one side of the reception, opposite the Junior Library, was the Reading Room which, to me always seemed to be full of elderly men (they were probably younger than I am now) closeted behind the free newspapers and magazines. But Libraries in the 1950’s and 60’s were very different places to the ‘Discovery Centres’ of today. The whole of the business was conducted in hushed or whispered tones and talking was definitely not allowed. The other lasting memory of Cosham Library was the heavy smell of the furniture polish which was used to buff up the shelves and reading desks.

Then of course once we arrived at Manor Court School the Cosham Library was abandoned as we had a fully fitted library within the school. This was vital resource for our studies and there was a rota of pupils who actually ran the library. One of the most popular sections of the school library was the magazine section and there were always pupils thumbing through the Illustrated London News. It really summed up the news and it was a great shame when it ceased publication in 2003

Thinking back I do not remember a library at Court Lane School, maybe someone can tell me if this is something that I have forgotten, and as far as Public Libraries went the one at Cosham was the only one I ever visited during my years at school.

But over the years books have always been in my life, I really hate to think how we would all live if we never learnt to read.


So much for memory!

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

Steve Writes:-

Hi Peter, like Mary we also had an Anderson shelter in St Andrews Road Farlington when we moved there in the early 60s and likewise it was then doubling as a garden shed.
I think my Father soon demolished it though.

Regards the prefab article, I had my first home in one at Fawcett road Southsea (long gone). Possibly the only prefab there on that plot and adjacent to the Fawcett Inn. I think I sent you the photo copy of it sometime ago?
Now a question to you or possibly some of your readers might know? A betting shop run by a Mr Staley maybe in Cosham, I don't remember one in Drayton but maybe? He was previously our Butcher in Fawcett Road but moved up to Drayton (South road) shortly after we came to Copsey Grove in the very early 50s??

Just in case you don't still have the photo of the prefab here is another, you may use it if you want. That is my Parents in the doorway with my older Brother Ronald, I think my Mother was pregnant with me here.

News and Views

Elton John's mother auctioned off her collection of memorabilia from her famous son. Sheila Farebrother sold more than 100 gold and platinum discs, tour jackets and backstage passes she used at his concerts. More than 200 items went be up for auction on October 19th in Sussex. Not everything is autographed. However, as she put it, "Why would he sign it for me? I'm his mum."

On this day 31st October 1960-1965

On 31/10/1960 the number one single was Only the Lonely - Roy Orbison and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (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 First vertical take-off aircraft tested in Surrey

On 31/10/1961 the number one single was Walkin' Back to Happiness - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was The Shadows - Shadows. 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 31/10/1962 the number one single was Telstar - The Tornadoes and the number one album was Out of the Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was The Royal Variety Performance (BBC) 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 31/10/1963 the number one single was You'll Never Walk Alone - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was Please Please Me - 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. The big news story of the day was Beatlemania born.



On 31/10/1964 the number one single was (There's) Always Something There to Remind Me - Sandy Shaw 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 31/10/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd 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 NO 882

FIRST PICTURE

: An Early picture of Norrie Paramor and Helen Shapiro

SECOND PICTURE:

Part of the old Cosham bus shelter now in Gunwharf Quays.

Norrie Paramor

Norrie Paramor was one of EMI's top producers in pop music and rock & roll through to the end of the '60s. For a time in England, he was the only record producer whose name teenagers might recognize because of his work for more than a decade with Cliff Richard and the Shadows. He was almost single-handedly responsible for giving EMI's Columbia label the biggest stake in rock & roll of any record company in England where it had no previous presence in the field and he was the discoverer of Cliff Richard & the Shadows. Before that, he was responsible for recording such Top 50 English pop stars as Ruby Murray and Eddie Calvert and meantime he made best-selling records of instrumental pop and mood music that sold on both sides of the Atlantic.

Born in London and trained as a pianist, Norrie Paramor became a piano player and arranger for dance bands. He served in an RAF entertainment unit starting in 1941, providing music for performances in Blackpool. He began his career as a music director with the Ralph Reader Gang Show, and later in the war years became an arranger for Noël Coward, Jack Buchanan and Mantovani. He spent the period immediately after War playing piano with the Pieces of Eight band led by Harry Gold. Life as a performer didn't appeal to him and after five years he gave it up to concentrate on studio work, with an emphasis on arranging and conducting. His first work as a studio musician was playing accompaniment on various singles. He initially joined EMI Records as a conductor leading his own pop orchestra.

In 1952, he began producing records for EMI, as the head of A&R for its Columbia label. Late the following year, he chalked up his first major hit with Eddie Calvert's single "Oh Mein Papa." Another of his discoveries was Ruby Murray, who was important to the label, scoring a huge hit in 1955 with "Softly, Softly" and numerous other chart successes during the mid-'50s. For most of the '50s he was associated with pop music, including two good-selling studio orchestras that he created, the Big Ben Banjo Band and the Big Ben Hawaiian Band. He also scored well with the pop recordings of Michael Holliday and the Ken Jones Orchestra. He could not possibly have guessed, however, that his biggest discoveries were still ahead of him, and lay in a brand of music that was as new to him and to EMI as it was to most of England. By 1955, changes started overtaking popular music in England. A teenage audience emerged with its own tastes, it started with skiffle, initially the records of Lonnie Donegan on Decca and Pye but later including others. By 1957, skiffle gave way to rock & roll and the British recording industry looked for bands that sounded like Bill Haley but other influences like Buddy Holly were also felt. By 1958, British record labels were looking for homegrown talent.

Norrie Paramor won a recording competition for EMI, when in 1958 he signed Cliff Richard and the Drifters (the Shadows). It had been his original intent to sign Cliff Richard as a solo act, backed by the Ken Jones Orchestra, but the Shadows impressed him sufficiently with their clean, professional sound and their serious attitude toward music. Beginning with "Move It," Cliff Richard inaugurated a career of 40 years and decades of stardom for the Shadows.

The relationship between artist and producer was ideal. Paramor, a lanky, graying man with glasses, wore suits, was no rock & roller, but that wasn't what was needed. His judgment wasn't always perfect. On their debut single he was trying to push a romantic rocking number called "Schoolboy Crush," until music impresario Jack Good persuaded him that the other side "Move It," would be the hit. Once it was a hit, he lost no time in recording Cliff and the band doing lots of hard rock & roll. When it came time to record Cliff’s first album, Paramor did something unheard and made it a live album in front of several hundred screaming fans in February1959, albeit in the relatively controlled conditions of EMI Studio Number One. That album proved a landmark in the history rock & roll, it was the first major live album by a white rock & roll performer and was the blueprint for an idea that Parlophone Records' George Martin, had four years later, when it was time to record the Beatles' debut album -- just get them to play the set they did at their shows.

In the early '60s, as Cliff’s sound evolved, some tracks were cut with the Norrie Paramor Strings and other studio groups under the direction of the producer and Paramor also played piano on some Cliff Richard and Shadows recordings. EMI found that Cliff’s rock & roll sides didn't sell as reliably as they'd hoped and ultimately did their best to move the singer in the direction of a more romantic, pop-oriented sound ("Living Doll," etc.), similar to that of Ricky Nelson. The results didn't please the rock & roll fans, but yielded millions more sales. And when Cliff and the Shadows started recording separately, EMI-Columbia ended up with two top-selling artists.

Norrie Paramor continued to produce Cliff and the Shadows for more than a decade and at this time he discovered other performers including Helen Shapiro and Frank Ifield. He produced recordings by Judy Garland, Gene Vincent, and Al Martino and his work overlapped his success as a bandleader with his own recordings of mood music, some of which did extremely well, especially in America.

EMI in the '60s wasn't the same organization that it had been in the '50s, nor was the record business the same. Sales were soaring astronomically, especially in England, as the music business boomed thanks to the Beatles, James Bond, and the Avengers, among other cultural icons, it seemed to be at the centre of the world. The company was losing many of its best producers, including George Martin.

Paramor was considered one of the company's major assets, a successful recording artist as well as a producer who'd generated many millions of dollars. EMI treated him well, but even he left in early 1968, to become an independent producer with his own company. That same year, he scored a number one hit with the Scaffold's "Lily the Pink." He became the music director of the BBC Midland Radio Orchestra in 1972, and held the post through 1978. He died the following year -- he'd continued working with Cliff Richard as a producer, advisor, and publisher all along, and Cliff dedicated his next album to Norrie Paramor's memory.

Take care
Yours
Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.com

Jonathan Writes:

Thanks for the great job you are doing I always enjoy reading the Manor Court Update.

Yes I have a very vivid memory of how I aquired my own Meccano Set. In the early 50's there used to be a low budget rather flimsy Woman's Magazine called Red Letter, published by Thompsons, I wonder if you remember it. My mum used to get it and in fact she wrote short stories that were sometimes published in it. There was a competition section in it and one week I entered a competition that comprised interpreting pictures and symbols and making well known phrases. I was only six and I strove to be as neat as possible as this was a criteria for the judges.

I won, and my prize was ....wait for it....a set 6 Meccano. It was delivered parcel post by the GPO to our house which at the time was in Warwick. I can remember to this day the excitement I felt at opening this enormous parcel. It was as big as me.

I was transported with delight at the things I could make with it and I am certain this was a directing force in my life and the reason I became a Mechanical Engineer.

Congratulations on both your retirement and your 43rd anniversary. Carol and I have had our 41st and have in fact been an item since we met at a Manor Court net ball match 45 years ago.

We went to the pub afterwards (under age as we were) Carol had a Babycham (do they still make them??) and I had a pint of bitter with a lemon top. We discovered that we were both Aquarians and of course I asked her what day she was born......it was the exact same day as myself....18th February 1948. The rest as they say is history.

News and Views:

English Heritage put up a "blue plaque at the London flat John Lennon shared with Yoko Ono in 1968. Yoko will be on hand for the unveiling yesterday.

On this day 24th October 1960-1965

On 24/10/1960 the number one single was Only the Lonely - Roy Orbison and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Take Your Pick (AR) 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

On 24/10/1961 the number one single was Walkin' Back to Happiness - Helen Shapiro 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 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 Britain grants Malta autonomy.

On 24/10/1962 the number one single was Telstar - The Tornadoes and the number one album was Best of Ball Barber & Bilk. 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. The big news story of the day was Cuban Missile Crisis

On 24/10/1963 the number one single was Do You Love Me? - Brian Poole & the Tremoloes and the number one album was Please Please Me - 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 24/10/1964 the number one single was (There's) Always Something There to Remind Me - Sandy Shaw 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 24/10/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd 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 NO 880

FIRST PICTURE:

The building of the Woolworth’s store in Commercial Road in the 1950

SECOND PICTURE:

A look down Commercial Road, Portsmouth again in the 1950’s this time the late 50’s and the new Woolworth’s store can easily be seen on the right.

Re-building Portsmouth

Most of us are of a funny age!! I know getting old! We are too young to remember the war but are old enough to remember the aftermath of it, ie bomb sites, gun emplacements, rationing and the austerity of the time.

What we did not realise as we grew up was that after the war the most pressing need was in Portsmouth was for new housing. During the War 930 people were killed in Portsmouth by bombing, also 6,625 houses were destroyed (which was nearly 10% of the total) and a further 6,549 were severely damaged. At first the council erected prefabs which were supplied throughout the country from a central depot somewhere. Some of the prefabs were erected on bomb sites. Others were erected on the slopes of Portsdown hill, on the left hand side as you travelled up the A3 above Cosham. But some where put up in King George V’s playing fields where the Income Tax office of Lynx House is today. Some went to a site at the end of the Highbury estate, I understand that Griff lived here for a time. In fact more than 700 prefab houses were built in 1945-47.

In February 1946 the council began to build more permanent houses, most of them were built off of Portsea Island. A new estate was built at Paulsgrove and the first houses being built in 1946. The estate was complete by 1953. The population of Paulsgrove now stands well in excess of 15,000.

Another estate was built at Leigh Park. The first houses here were ready in 1949 but building went on until 1974. By then the population of Leigh Park had risen to 40,000 and West Leigh had not even been thought of then.

Apart from wartime bombing another reason for building new houses on Portsea Island was slum clearance. In 1955 a Council survey showed that over 7,000 houses in Portsmouth were classed as being unfit for human habitation. In the 1960's and early 1970's the whole section of central Portsmouth was rebuilt including areas such as Landport, Somerstown and Buckland. As well as demolishing slums the council gave people grants to improve their homes if they were of a reasonable basic standard.
Several new council estates were built in the early 1970's. The worst of these being Portsdown Park, a mixture of flats and houses built on Portsdown Hill above Cosham. But Portsdown Park soon began to suffer terribly from the ingestion of damp. Efforts to cure the damp failed and in 1987 the estate was demolished. It was replaced by private housing. Other council houses were built some miles north of the city at Crookhorn and Wecock Farm.

From the late 1970's many new private houses were built in Portsmouth. An estate was built at Gatcombe Park in Hilsea ( we had our wedding reception here in 1967 Gatcombe House which was the official home of the Commanding Officer who was a friend of my father in law). In the 1980's a another estate was built at Anchorage Park on the North East corner of Portsea Island. In the 1990's a new estate and marina was built at Port Solent North West of Portsea Island. In the 1980's shopping malls were built, the Bridge Centre in Fratton and the Cascades Centre in Commercial Road which meant the loss of Charlotte Street market after centuries of trading.
In the early 20th century the main employer in Portsmouth was the dockyard. It employed 8,000 men in 1900. During the First World War the number rose to 23,000 but it fell to 9,000 when the war ended. From the 1930's the threat of another war led to an expansion of the dockyard workforce. Meanwhile other industries like brewing and corset making prospered. A new employer was the Airspeed factory, which made parts for aircraft. It opened in the North East of Portsea Island on the airfield.
After World War II the city council tried to diversify industry in Portsmouth. An industrial estate was built in Fratton in 1946-48. Other industrial estates were built in the 1950's at Paulsgrove and Farlington. In the 1960's a new industrial estate began at Hilsea north of Burrfields Road. In the 1980's new industrial estates were built at Cosham and at Hilsea. The pattern of employment in Portsmouth changed rapidly. In 1951 46% of the manufacturing jobs in the city were in shipbuilding. By 1966 this had fallen to only 14%. The dockyard workforce was drastically reduced.

Traditional industries like brewing and corset making vanished but electrical and electronic engineering became a major employer. There was also a large increase in the number of jobs in service industries. In 1968 Zurich insurance moved their headquarters to Portsmouth. In 1979 IBM UK moved their headquarters to the city. Both have since moved again!

Tourism also became a major industry. The Mary Rose was raised from the seabed in 1982 and became a museum and compliments HMS Victory. The D Day museum opened in 1984 and in 1987 HMS Warrior, Britain’s first iron warship, was moved to Portsmouth.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg as to what has happened in Portsmouth during our life times!!!

Take care
Yours

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.com

Mary Writes:

On the subject of washing up could it be Sunlight soap? I remember my inlaws had an Anderson shelter in their back garden. It was still in use in 1985 as a garden shed, and in perfect condition. I wonder if it`s still there, in Shirley Avenue, Milton.

News and Views:

It has been released that David Essex was secretly married under his real name of David Cook Monday on September 20th at a church in Bangor, North Wales. He met his bride when they appeared in the West End stage musical production of "All The Fun Of The Fair" two years ago and were engaged at Christmas. It's David's third marriage. He's 63. She's 37.

On this day 17th October 1960-1965

On 17/10/1960 the number one single was Tell Laura I Love Her - Ricky Valance and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) 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.

On 17/10/1961 the number one single was Michael - The Highwaymen and the number one album was The Shadows - Shadows. 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 Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 17/10/1962 the number one single was Telstar - The Tornadoes and the number one album was Best of Ball Barber & Bilk. 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. The big news story of the day was Hyde Park Underpass opens.

On 17/10/1963 the number one single was Do You Love Me? - Brian Poole & the Tremoloes and the number one album was Please Please Me - 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. The big news story of the day was Macmillan resigns as Prime Minister.

On 17/10/1964 the number one single was Oh Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison 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. The big news story of the day was Brezhnev replaces Krushchev.

On 17/10/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd 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. The big news story of the day was Lesley Ann Downey's body found on Pennines.

Web Page: No 878

Top Picture:

The motorcycle set, The Rockers.

Bottom Picture:

Cosham railway gates in 1959 showing the concrete tank traps still in place.

This week we welcome Dave Milton into our little group. Also this weekend I retired and celebrated our 43rd wedding anniversary, I really must be getting old!!!

Post War

When I look around I cannot help but wonder just how much longer will they last. What am I talking about? The relics of the last war which are still around on our streets if we look carefully even though it is over 65 years since the end of hostilities.

For example very near to my sons house is an almost perfect Anderson Air Raid Shelter. It is painted dark green and has doors attached to each end and is actually in superb condition. It looks as though at one time it was used as a garage for a very small car but is now in service as a garden shed. This is a remarkable survival if you take into account its history. In November 1938, the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, placed Sir John Anderson in charge of Air Raid Precautions. He immediately commissioned the engineer, William Patterson, to design a small and cheap shelter that could be erected in people's gardens. Within a few months nearly one and a half million of what became known as Anderson shelters were distributed to people living in areas that expected to be bombed. Made from six curved sheets of corrugated iron bolted together at the top, with steel plates at either end and measuring 6ft 6in by 4ft 6in the shelter could accommodate six people. These shelters were half buried in the ground with earth heaped on top. The entrance was protected by a steel shield and an earthen blast wall. Anderson shelters were given free to the poor but men who earned more than £5 a week could buy one for £7 but whether bought or given the householder had to erect the shelter themselves. By the time of the coming of the Blitz two and a quarter million shelters had been built. They were dark and damp usually with a pool of muddy water in the bottom and people were reluctant to use them at night and in low-lying areas they tended to flood badly and sleeping was difficult, so the survival of this one is all the more remarkable. But as kids we had a great time playing in them.

Elsewhere on the streets other wartime items can still be found. For example in several place in Portsmouth on houses and walls can still faintly be seen painted letters SWS with an arrow and a distance painted in on them. These were the signs to direct the fire service to the specially built Static Water Supply. These large temporary water tanks were erected on any area of open space and were specifically for providing a constant supply of water to fight the fires caused by the bombing. The surviving signs are normally found on north facing walls where they did not fade in the sun light.

So many other little things are left around; on the hill we can still see pillboxes and gun emplacements and Deadmans Wood, whilst on the Marshes and along Portscreek bits and pieces from Operation Starfish and other defences are still evident. During the blackout many of the lampposts and other street furniture were painted with horizontal white strpies so they could be seen in the dark. This practice continued way into the 1960’s and I expect we can all remember the posts of Zebra Crossings and Traffic Lights having these stripes on them.

Probably one of the most numerous reminders of wartime are the many War Graves that are around, there is at least one in each cemetery in town and in the graveyard at Christchurch, on top of the hill, there is a whole section of War Graves of about one acre which is managed by the War Graves Commission. And of course there are the many War Memorials and Tablets within the City.

Other things really have to be searched out, in some areas one can spot an isolated post about 20 ft tall serving no useful purpose at all; these were the support posts for the Air Raid Sirens. I remember the one behind the New Inn on the Havant Road in Drayton and here in Gosport the last remaining one was only dismantled two years ago.
Looking around in central Portsmouth the route of the old Dockyard Branch railway from Portsmouth High Level station and along Edinburgh Road, although long gone, is still very much in evidence. It was along this line that much of the essential freight and personnel travelled into the Naval Base during the wartime period. One amusing tale relating to the movement of sailors, especially new recruits during the wartime period is that fact that they were locked in until they could be processed. The section of track along side Edinburgh Road approaching Unicorn Gate was walled in on both side with a platform built on the wall attached to the barracks. This section of line had tall grey lockable wooden gates at each end effectively isolating this part of the line. When a troop train arrived it was parked between the two sets of gates and the gates both ends were locked before the sailors were let out of the carriages. The drill then was for them to line up on the platform, undertake the joining paperwork and when all this was done the gates at Unicorn gate end were unlocked and the men marched directly into the Dockyard. There was no escape!!!

So much for memory.

Keep in touch

Peter
DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

I write or ask: What did our mothers washup in before Fairy Liquid or Squezy?

News and Views:

Sad to see the death of Sir Norman Wisdom at the age of 95 a real icon from the past.

Singer Eddie Fisher, one-time husband to Debbie Reynolds, Connie Stevens and Elizabeth Taylor, who charted 60 times from 1948 to 1967, died on Wednesday September 22 of complications from hip surgery at his home in Berkeley, California. He was 82. He married Debbie Reynolds (his co-star in the movie, "Bundle Of Joy") in 1955 but scandalously dumped her for the newly-widowed Elizabeth Taylor in 1958. That led to the cancellation of his two year-old NBC-TV series. He was dropped from RCA a year later (though he returned in 1966) and never had another top 40 hit. In 1967 he married Connie Stevens. The marriage lasted but two years, but produced two daughters-- actresses Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher. Eddie wrote two autobiographies.

On this day 9th October 1960-1965.

On 09/10/1960 the number one single was Tell Laura I Love Her - Ricky Valance and the number one album was Tottenham Hotspur. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68. Worst flooding in Southern England since 1953. The big news story of the day was No Hiding Place (AR).

On 09/10/1961 the number one single was Kon-Tiki - The Shadows and the number one album was The Shadows - Shadows. 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 Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 09/10/1962 the number one single was Telstar - The Tornadoes and the number one album was Best of Ball Barber & Bilk. 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 09/10/1963 the number one single was She Loves You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - 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. The big news story of the day was Dam malfunction kills 2000 in Italian flood

On 09/10/1964 the number one single was Oh Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison 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 09/10/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd and the number one album was Help - 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: 876

Top Picture:

Every boy’s dream a Meccano Set

Bottom Picture:

The BSA Bantam, an underpowered, uncomfortable machine much beloved by the GPO for putting Telegram Boys on.






Firstly a big welcome to Richard from Craven Arms, he is not an old school mate but loves Nostalgia.

Play and Present

When we were kids there were two distinctive forms of play, In doors and Out doors and very often those friends that you played with in doors were different from the friends you played with out doors.

INDOORS

For us toys were something you got at Christmas and on your Birthday, possibly when you were ill or had done something really good or maybe when a relation came to stay and that was it. These presents were often treasured items, which you would carefully look after as if life itself depended on it!

As a lad I remember playing with toy soldiers or model cowboys. I would scrounge an old Corn Flakes Box from my Mum and cut out a few turrets and towers I would then stack cushions all around this homemade cardboard fort to represent hills and valleys and I would play like that for hour after hour.

Around the mid 1950's I was given my first Meccano Set as a Christmas present. I cannot remember the size or number set it was but I do know that it was a large enough to build a crane with working lifting gear and a bucket.

For Christmas one year I had a clockwork Hornby Train Set with two locomotives, one green and one black but both always seemed to go so fast they kept coming off the tracks. I also remember that someone, an uncle I think, at sometime bought me an electric train set that ran on batteries with screw terminals on the top of them. This set had a London Underground profile so that once the line was laid and working enormously elaborate tunnels made out of books had to be constructed.

I had a bay window to play in the front room at home. There was space enough between the sofa and window big enough for me to manoeuvre myself around in quite easily. This area kept me occupied for ages. It became my ship’s bridge, the cockpit of a spacecraft or an international space station or even a pirate ship sailing the Spanish Maine. Most of us around that period of time simply didn't have the distractions of the other things that are around today TV, electronic games etc, We had fewer toys but a lot more imagination!

OUTDOORS

Outdoors, whether it was your own garden, someone else’s or a piece of common land just down the road, consisted of an endless list of play things. The tree's in my own garden were about the best thing for me. They became houses, mountains, castle's and hideouts and dens. The other, most important, thing was that they became the supplier of twigs in the shape of a Colt revolver or a bow to fight off the nasty Sheriff of Nottingham's men, a stave for Little John, or even the basis for a catapult. Sometimes if we could find a piece of wood and some old rope we would make a swing! And there was always conkers, sticky buds and apples and pears to scrump.
Normal things became, by necessity something else; the wheelbarrow was the 31 bus to Brighton or a massive steam locomotive speeding it's way from Portsmouth to Plymouth. Yes, the wheelbarrow could be transformed into almost any thing!
As the 50's progressed I, and my contemporary’s ,started to get fewer and fewer smaller presents but these were swapped for a few 'larger presents'. My first bicycle being one. This was a Royal Enfield Bermuda which was purchased from the toy and bicycle shop run by Mr Wynn in Drayton. This was a prized possession and was something I cleaned once a week or got my ears clipped. This substituted the Wheelbarrow and before long the imaginary journey's of the garden were transferred to the pavement.

Every Christmas and Birthday wish was for quite some time was for something new to do with the aforementioned train set or bike although Airfix Kits were popular and I soon built up a collection of aircraft, ships, car and buildings.
The 1950's were hard years for our parents, we knew little of their struggles, they had come out of a War in which they lost some of the most important years of their life and it couldn't have been easy for them.
But, as we found out as kids if you couldn't find happiness in reality, you could in your imagination!

Keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

Martin Writes:

To answer Keith's (actually his name was Chris, my mistake last week, Peter) question.........His name was William (Bill) Ternouth..........and Tin Tack was his nom de plume......he was well known by the the lads in Court Lane......any infringement he would haul us to the front of the class take an open palm hand in his left and bring down his right hand on it........at some point (when we all had Dinky Toy race cars in our pockets) we would cover our palm with 3 in one oil....Thought we had him........ but the oil only made the sting harder......and he sent us off to wash our hands..........Ken Milne hated him He actually was a good hearted soul....He drove and upright Green Ford Prefect and moved his wife and two kids into a new housing development off of Court Lane........as I recall that street was fairly close to Stephen Long's house..............Whenever we saw him out and about he would always say hello Vale and shake hands with my Mum and Dad........I had no idea dear old Florence lost it in her later years........I still have crystal clear visions of her walking around the school corridors and classrooms in the summer with our family pet cat (Rosalind) under her arm............Perhaps that was the writing on the wall........



News and Views:

A London judge ruled that Gary Glitter still poses a "significant danger to children here and abroad" and extended the ban on Gary travelling from England for another year. Gary was deported from Vietnam to England two years ago after serving three years in prison for child molestation.




On this day 2nd October 1960-1965.

On 02/10/1960 the number one single was Tell Laura I Love Her - Ricky Valance and the number one album was Down Drury Lane to Memory Lane - A Hundred and One Strings. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) 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.

On 02/10/1961 the number one single was Johnny Remember Me - John Leyton. 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 Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV)".

On 02/10/1962 the number one single was She's Not You - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Best of Ball Barber & Bilk. 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 02/10/1963 the number one single was She Loves You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - 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.The big news story of the day was US predicts Vietnam victory by 1965.

On 02/10/1964 the number one single was I'm Into Something Good - Herman's Hermits 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 02/10/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd and the number one album was Help - 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 874

Top Picture: The Singing Postman, Allan Smethurst






Bottom Picture: The top of a Court Lane School Report Sheet. I had not realized that when we moved to Manor Court we took the motto with us.

Allan Smethurst

The early 1960’s was a strange time for the music industry. Roll & Roll was still hanging on and the Liverpool Sound was up and running and colouring everything in sight. But from this mish mash of music somehow the comedy record still had a place. Charley Drake had several comedy hits as did Bernard Breslaw and believe it of not Arthur Mullard, but one of our home grown talents who was a cross between a folk singer, a comedy performer and a pop star was The Singing Postman, Allan Smethurst.


The Singing Postman came to fame for a short time in the early 1960’s as a novelty pop star with songs like the 1965 hit ‘Hev Yew Gotta Loight Boy?’, which won an Ivor Novello award for best novelty song in 1966. Allan Smethurst recorded some 80 songs, all in his broad Norfolk dialect, including ‘I Miss My Miss from Diss’ and ‘Oi Can't Get A Noice Loaf of Bread’.

He was actually born in Bury in Lancashire on November 18th, 1927 - but at the age of two his family moved to Sheringham in North Norfolk, his mother was a Norfolk lass and so he grew up in the area and developed a broad Norfolk accent. In 1953 he joined the Post Office as a postman a position he held for twelve years. He had no musical training and was often to be heard out on his rounds singing to himself. Musically he was inspired by the likes of George Formby and Jimmie Rodgers but it wasn't until he was over 21 that he decided to teach himself to play the guitar.
Having mastered the guitar an written a few songs he sent a demo tape to Ralph Tuck who, at that time, compered a regional radio programme called 'Wednesday Morning'. This was fortunate for Allan Smethurst as within a short space of time Ralph Tuck set up his own recording company and produced Allan Smethurst's first record - which appeared in 1964.

That song was ‘Hev Yew Gotta Loight Boy?’ and on it’s release it rose to number 7 in the national charts and for a brief period the Singing Postman was outselling both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

In 1965 he gave up his day job at the Post Office (earning £12 a week) and embarked on a full time musical career. He always performed in his Royal Mail uniform and in fact the Royal Mail objected to him doing this and after he left their service, they demanded their uniform back so he had to have one especially made. At the height of his fame he appeared on the same edition of Top of the Pops as the Rolling Stones. But his let down was that he suffered badly from stage fright and could not cope with fame, he began to rely on drink and eventually became an alcoholic and appeared regularly in the local courts.

He never defeated his alcoholism and in fact spent the last 20 years of his life in a Salvation Army hostel in Grimsby.
By 1970 he was on the dole and said of his showbiz earnings: "I've been foolish and spent the lot. It's gone on hotel bills, travelling, entertaining and a few pints here and there." By this time he was also suffered from arthritis which stopped him playing the guitar.

There were several promises of a comeback but the closest he came to the limelight was when ‘Hev Yew Gorra Loight Boy?’ was used as on a TV commercial for Ovaltine in 1994, which for a time game him a small amount of royalties. Rolf Harris had recorded some ofhis songs and on hearing of the situation that Alan Smethurst was in, started to visit him but he broke his hip in a fall in 2000 and his health rapidly deteriorated and he died just before Christmas 2000.

The woman who was the inspiration behind one of his most famous characters said she was saddened by news of his death although she had not seen him for years. Mollie (Windley) Bayfield was immortalised in the song ‘Hev Yew Gorra Loight Boy?’, she was the chain-smoking Norfolk girl, if you remember the words of the song they went ‘Mollie Windley, she smoked like a chimney, but she’s my little nicotine gal’ .
But there is no denying that the Singing Postman was most certainly a one off; and one of those glorious British eccentrics which make life interesting as can be seen from the list of song titles below:-

Bin Born A Long Time
I Wear Horn Rimmed Glasses
When The Moon Peeps O'er The Hill
Hev Yew Gotta Loight Boy?
Followin' Th' Binder Round
The Devil's Hoofprints
Miss From Diss
Moind Yer Head, Boy
You'll Hatta Come Along a Me
Ha' Yer Fa'er Got a Dickey, Boy?
And

Oi Shot a Rabbit Up a Tree

They don’t write songs like that any more !!!!!!!!

While Allan Smethurst was afraid he would be remembered for just the one song, like the man himself it has become a metaphor for a fast disappearing way of life.

Keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk


Sad News from Gill:

Hi Peter Just want to say I lost my husband a few weeks ago to a massive brain haemorrhage, the cancer had spread to his spine but I am in total shock, one day at Farnborough and next night gone. Still enjoying the website and have contacted a few people don’t mind if you put it on the School site, kind regards Gill(brewer).

Keith Writes:

By way of reply to your "Who remembers Fishy Frances' Chip shop".
In my last year at Court Lane before going to Manor Court I well remember sitting on the wall outside that shop eating a penny (1d) bag of chips, while my parents spent an hour or so in the New Inn.
Does anybody know what happened to Michael Harrison, Richard Coppin, Keith Ware or Brian Longland (4th year, Court Lane, 1961). They were in Mr. Sterries (? spelling) class with me, a rather unpleasant teacher if memory serves me well. I seem to recall we had some occasional lessons with Mr. Tennouth (again ? spelling), we called him 'Tin Tack'.
Court Lane head, Miss Henderson, started to 'lose her marbles' while I was there. She was regularly found at night by the police, wandering the streets in her nightdress!

News and Views:

A rediscovered haul of television dramas that has been lost for 40 years is set to change the way we think about many of Britain's biggest acting stars. The extraordinary cache of televised plays –features performances from John Gielgud, Sean Connery, Gemma Jones, Dorothy Tutin, Robert Stephens, Susannah York, John Le Mesurier, Peggy Ashcroft, Patrick Troughton, David Hemmings, Leonard Rossiter, Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith and Jane Asher. The tapes have been unearthed in the Library of Congress in Washington DC. After months of negotiation, the library and the New York-based television station WNET have agreed to allow the British Film Institute in London to showcase the highlights in November. The tapes are understood to have been sent out to WNET for broadcast and later stored in the TV station's collection inside the Library of Congress, where they were recently catalogued. They were originally broadcast between 1957 and 1970.

Jane Asher appears in a 1962 schools production of Romeo and Juliet, along with another 1967 Play of The Month staging of the same Shakespeare play, starring Kika Markham as Juliet, Hywel Bennett as Romeo and John Gielgud as the chorus. Among the bit players are Thora Hird and Michael Gambon, while Ronald Pickup plays Mercutio.

On this day 25th September 1960-1965.

On 25/09/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was Down Drury Lane to Memory Lane - A Hundred and One Strings. 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

On 25/09/1961 the number one single was Reach for the Stars / Climb Ev'ry Mountain - Shirley Bassey and the number one album was The Shadows - Shadows. 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 25/09/1962 the number one single was She's Not You - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Best of Ball Barber & Bilk. 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 25/09/1963 the number one single was She Loves You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - 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 25/09/1964 the number one single was I'm Into Something Good - Herman's Hermits 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 25/09/1965 the number one single was Make It Easy On Yourself - Walker Brothers and the number one album was Help - 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 872

The School is 50 years old this month, see the News and Views section.

Top Picture:

A 1950’s Dinky Collection

Bottom Picture:

An Ian Allan Combined Region train spotters Companion

Collections

Now lads this is a page for you, I expect most of you will remember some of the items mentioned below from the days of your youth. What is it about boys, I wonder, that make them collect so many different things?

So here are just a few of the things that I and other boys can remember collecting when we were lads.

In junior school, come the Autumn, conkers was the great thing and here I was lucky as in the garden next door, and overhanging into my garden, was a massive conker tree. So, as you can imagine, when the conker season came round I was never short of conkers in fact I remember bagging them up and taking them to school and selling them until Mr Hawkins the headmaster at Solent Road Junior School heard about this bit of trade and stopped me. Do you remember all the various schemes for making you conker harder? Pickling it in vinegar was one and baking it in an oven was another, but whenever I tried to do this the first method gave me a soggy conker and the second make the item so brittle that it shattered at the first blow!

When the conker season was done it was then time for marbles and we all had our own little bag in our pockets with a dozen or so marbles in it, some small and some large glass alleys. These were collected and swapped with great seriousness in case you swapped away a good one by mistake. I seem to remember that we used to buy our marbles from the strange tuck shop run in the back of his house by Mr Shaw. The shop was actually a version of Arkwrights and was opposite Solent Road School on the corner of Solent Road and Highlands Road.

Once we got tired of marbles it was the season for Dinky Cars. Those were the days when you had to have a racing car in British Racing Green, ‘cos they were the best. Who would have thought that the cars we used to collect, race across the playground and down the pavement and swap are now worth in excess of £250 each if they are in good condition. Mind you if you were lucky enough to have kept certain Army Tanks or a Tank Transporter it would probably be worth well over £1250 by now!!!!!

Back to more mundane things, Chewing Gum Cards. These cards featured scenes from popular films Quo Vardis with Charlton Heston or any of the John Wayne classics. There was also a series I remember featuring female film stars and it was nothing to hear two boys deep in conversation, ‘I will swap you one Kim Novak and one Sophia Loran for one Diana Dors’, If only it were true!!! I never collected cigarette cards they were too early for me but I did collect the cards which came with the packets of Brooke Bond Tea and I had quite a collection of completed albums. I found out after he had died that my father kept my collection of Tea Card Albums for some reason, I am grateful he did otherwise they would have been lost like so many other things.

Most of us collected stamps of some description, this was in the days before the First Day Cover market, we all got our stamps in little Stanley Gibbons packets that we bought, along with the hinges, in the tuck shop or via the system of approvals. Stamp approvals were strange as they enabled us to see a choice of stamps at home with no obligation to buy. I understand the system still carries on to this day.
One of the main hobbies for boys was train spotting. There were always a group of boys hanging around Cosham station and the local footbridges. They all carried notebooks and a copy of the Ian Allan ABC Spotters Companion for the Southern Region and some also carried a copy of the Western Region version as two GWR locomotives ran through each day. There was much excitement if a locomotive with a name came through, if a King Arthur or Lord Nelson was spotted great joy ensued but gloom and doom was the order of the day when a West Country Class turned out to be Bodmin or Ottery St Mary yet again.

With the Ian Allan train-spotting books came the membership of the Ian Allan Train Spotters Club, which entitled one to wear a special button badge. Now badges were another thing that was avidly collected and they varied from the Tufty Road Safety Club to Golly badges and everything in between. It seemed to me that practically every product was happy to give away badges in those days.

Some boys would meet on top of Portsdown Hill on a fine day and collect the names on the sides of the coaches as they brought the excursion day trippers into town. Other items of collecting mania were matchbox labels, toy soldiers, cowboy comics and allsorts of items that to a young boy were very important treasurers.

Well I suppose I must admit it, I was a train spotter, did collect coach names, had a stamp collection and a lapel full of button badges but I did not collect Cowboy Comics!

Hey! How about one of you girls writing about the things you collected?


Ah well back to today,

Keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

Peter B writes:-

The School Motto "Truth is Strength" was always the Motto of Court Lane School as long as I was there and I think the school badge was the same as at the top of your blog. I don't know where it came from but to my knowledge, "Truth is Strength" was a well known phrase or saying.

School News and Views:

A few memories of the opening of the School
I remember that in the first week of the life of Manor Court,(which was originally going to be called Court Manor but had the name reversed at the last minute as the senior Maths master Norman Folland pointed out that Manor Court flowed better) we spent a lot of time manhandling desks, chairs and cupboards( Child Labour?) along the roads on flat trolleys from Court Lane to Manor Court. We then had to haul the furniture into the classrooms. In fact the whole school did not open in September 1960 as the week before the official opening date the building was vandalised (there is nothing new in his world is there?) and the hall and some of the classrooms were damaged. As far as I remember it was just the 'A' streams that moved in first as they were starting on their GCE courses and the other classes moved in some five weeks later. However whilst I was there the metalwork, woodwork and domestic science classrooms remained at Court Lane so it meant a wander from one building to another which was always fun. We also had our own playing fields so the dreaded bus journey to Farlington came to an end.
Where did the name come from? Again my source of information was the late Norman Folland and his explanation was this:- the powers that be wanted to include the name of the previous school in the title of the new school so that is where Court came from. Manor referred to the manor house which lay just off Lower Drayton Lane and so Court Manor or later Manor Court !!!

Pop News:

Reg Presley, lead singer with The Troggs, has suffered a stroke.His family said Reg, 68, was playing with his grandchildren on holiday in Spain when he had to be taken to hospital in Malaga. Brenda, his wife for 48 years, said: "It was very frightening. He had a serious stroke and was in hospital for a week.He is recuperating and is back in our house in Spain, but he won't be back in the UK for a while. "Reg is still very unsteady on his feet and he has double vision and his speech is still a bit slurred. We are taking one day at a time." Reg, whose biggest hits with The Troggs were Wild Thing and Love Is All Around, was still active with the band. A gig scheduled for a few weeks' time at Liskeard, Cornwall, has been cancelled.

On this day 18th September 1960-1965.

On 18/09/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was Down Drury Lane to Memory Lane - A Hundred and One Strings. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) 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.

On 18/09/1961 the number one single was Johnny Remember Me - John Leyton and the number one album was Ipswich Town. 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 UN Sec General killed in plane crash. The big news story of the day was Take Your Pick (AR)".

On 18/09/1962 the number one single was She's Not You - 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 18/09/1963 the number one single was She Loves You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - 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 18/09/1964 the number one single was You Really Got Me - Kinks 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 18/09/1965 the number one single was (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - Rolling Stones and the number one album was Help - 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 870

Top Picture: Handbill for the Beat Championships at the Savoy Ballroom, mind you 5/- does seem a bit expensive!








Bottom Picture: A Southdown Leyland Tiger Cub rests in the coach park after bringing and excursion into Southsea.






Fifty Years

Do you realise that when we went back to school in September 1960 some of us started at the new Manor Court building whilst others did not move in until one or two months later. This makes the old school 50 years old this month, maybe they should have a party? For those of you who do not remember or maybe did not know the population of the school was in stages, the senior classes moving first having physically moved chairs, desks, books etc on trolleys from one school to the other. However the complete opening being delayed by some form of vandalism in the main hall I cannot remember what it was.

One small aside; how many of you know where the name Manor Court came from? Well the original plan was to call the school Court Manor School being taken from Court Lane and Old Manor Way but at a Governors meeting Councillor Mrs Kerr and Norman Folland persuaded the meeting that Manor Court would sound far better, and so the school was named. Mind you where the name Springfield came from I have no idea, it was certainly built on a field but I know of no spring in the immediate area, maybe someone can enlighten me. The school badge was based on the old road traffic sign for a school, a flaming torch, but again I have no idea where the motto ‘Truth is strength’ came from!

Now lets really put the memory banks on rewind. What was on the site before the school was built? When we were kids the area was a large plot of wild ground covered with undergrowth and brambles, with an old abandoned Civil Defence building at the bottom on Old Manor Way. There was a large area of neglected allotments which were left over from the wartime “dig for victory” campaign and some iron rings which were cemented into the ground; these were the tethering points used for the barrage balloons which were flown from here during the wartime air raids.

The area was a great play ground of all the local children with many paths and tracks leading all over the site it could accommodate lots of groups of children in little independent areas. Many of us lads spent hours and hours on our bikes dirt tracking around the site. Most of us had more than one bike in those days; one decent one for school and proper cycling and another hand built one for dirt track racing. I know I had two tracking bikes, one dark gray and one dark blue both were stripped to the bare minimum with no mud guards and with having fixed wheels with different combinations of sockets and cogs for different conditions it meant that they only had to have affront brake, so saving even more weight.

The actual field was rather rough underfoot and most of it was definitely not suitable for the odd romantic meeting but I have been made aware of one quiet area which one couple from the Twilfit corset factory down the road used most lunchtimes for what is euphemistically known as horizontal recreation. Little did they know that they were regularly watched by two of the local 13 year olds!!!!

The strange thing about this new school is that it just seemed to appear. No one that I have spoken to can remember the place being built, no one remembers lorries with building materials moving on and off the site and no one can remember being thrown off the site with our dirt track bikes ( now you would have thought that would have made an impression). But I cannot help but wonder what happened to the lunchtime couple fro Twilfits!!!

I can find no photographs of the site before it was built on and likewise I can find now pictures of the building of the school but I do know that the opening featured in a nation newspaper at the time and there were pictures taken when the new science wing was opened.

One of the things that really amazed us when we moved into the school was that the school caretaker, Bill Foster, have his own house built just inside the school gates on Scholars Walk. Then almost behind this house a few months later the original Manor Court Clubhouse was built and for picture of the opening night just take a look at the side bar of this blog.

Ah well! 50 years ago and in some ways it only seems 10 years since we knew the school, we must all be getting old!!!

Keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

I Write:

Having read Griff’s piece about handicrafts, I have to say that I too have still got something from Harold Bennetts woodwork classes and that is my wooden coffee table. It resides in the loft as I cannot bring myself to throw it away. I have never been clever with my hands which is why I am not publishing a photograph of the table, but it’s mine and I’m keeping it, warts and all!!!



News and Views:

The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame have announced their 2010 inductees. Steve Cropper was a member of Booker T & the MGs and co-writer of such hits as "Green Onions," "Dock Of The Bay," "Knock On Wood" and "In The Midnight Hour.

On this day 11th September 1960-1965.


On 11/09/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was Down Drury Lane to Memory Lane - A Hundred and One Strings. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) 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.

On 11/09/1961 the number one single was Johnny Remember Me - John Leyton and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. 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 First Mothercare shop opens in Surrey and Manor Court School opens.

On 11/09/1962 the number one single was She's Not You - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Pot Luck - 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 Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 11/09/1963 the number one single was She Loves You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - 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 11/09/1964 the number one single was You Really Got Me - Kinks 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 11/09/1965 the number one single was (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - Rolling Stones and the number one album was Help - 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 868

Top Picture: Griff’s Coffee Table, see the You Write section













Bottom Picture: The Great Train Robbery robbers.


The Great Train Robbery 1963

In the year that saw Kennedy assassinated, the birth of The Beatles, Martin Luther King deliver his ‘I have a dream’ speech and British politics rocked by the Perfumo affair it was going to take a big crime to steal the headlines.

At 6:50 p.m. on Wednesday 7 August 1963 the Travelling Post Office "Up Special" train left Glasgow en route to Euston. The train consisted of 12 carriages and carried 72 Post Office staff who sorted mail.The mail was loaded on the train at Glasgow and at stops en-route, as well as from line side collection points. The second carriage behind the engine was known as the HVP (High Value Package Coach) where registered mail was sorted and this contained valuables including large quantities of money, registered parcels and packages. Usually the value of these items would have been in the region of £300,000, but because there had been a Bank Holiday weekend in Scotland, the total on the day of the robbery was £2.6 million -- worth a little over £40 million in 2010.

At just after 3 a.m. driver Jack Mills stopped the train at a red signal at Ledburn, at 'Sears Crossing'. However, unknown to him, the signalling equipment had been tampered with by members of the 15 strong gang of robbers from London led by Bruce Reynolds and included Ronnie Biggs, Ronald ‘Buster’ Edwards, Gordon Goody, Jimmy Hussey, Roy James, Jimmy White, Charlie Wilson and Tommy Wisbey. The robbers had covered the green signal light and connected a six-volt battery to power the red signal light. The locomotive's second man, 26-year-old David Whitby climbed down from the cab to call the signalman from a signal-post telephone, only to find the cables had been cut. Upon returning to the train, he was thrown down the embankment of the railway track. The five postal workers in the HVP carriage were tied up and detained in a corner of the carriage.

The robbers now encountered a problem. They needed to move the train to a location where they could load their ex-army dropside truck with the money and had decided to do so at Bridego Bridge approximately half a mile further along the track. One of the robbers had spent months befriending railway staff and familiarising himself with the layout and operation, but it was decided instead to use an experienced train driver to move the train from the signals to the bridge after uncoupling the unnecessary carriages. However, the person they selected was unable to operate this type of locomotive as he only drove shunting locomotives. It was decided that the original driver Jack Mills should move the train to the stopping point near the bridge which was indicated by a white sheet stretched between poles on the track. Mills was initially reluctant to move the train so one of the gang struck him on the head.

At the bridge the robbers removed 124 sacks which they transferred from the HVP to the truck by forming a human chain. The gang left 30 minutes after the robbery had begun they then headed along back roads listening for police broadcasts on a VHF radio and arrived at Leatherslade Farm a run down farm 27 miles from the crime scene that they had bought two months earlier as their hideout. There they began counting the proceeds of the robbery. £2.6 million was stolen in used £1, £5 and £10 notes.
The robbers had cut all the telephone lines in the vicinity, but a trainman caught a slow train to Cheddington, which he reached at 4:30 a.m. to raise the alarm. At 5 a.m. the Buckinghamshire Police arrived at the crime scene where evidence wasgathered and statements taken from the driver and postal workers. One member of the gang had made the mistake of telling the postal staff not to move for half an hour and this suggested to the police that their hideout could not be more than 35 miles away.

The Postmaster General offered a £10,000 reward to "the first person giving information leading to the apprehension and conviction of the persons responsible for the robbery" and following a tip-off from a herdsman who used a field adjacent to Leatherslade Farm, a police sergeant and constable called there five days after the robbery. The farm was deserted but they found the truck used by the robbers which had been hastily painted yellow, the Land Rovers, a large quantity of food, bedding, sleeping bags, Post Office sacks, registered mail packages, bank note wrappers and fingerprints of the robbers.

The first gang member to be caught was Roger Cordrey and his friend, William Boal, who had helped him to conceal his share of the stolen money. They were lying low in a rented furnished flat above a florist shop in Wimborne Road, Moordown, Bournemouth. The CID were tipped off by police widow Ethel Clark, when Boal and Cordey paid rent for a garage, three months' up-front, all in used 10 shilling notes.Other arrests soon followed and thirteen of the gang members were caught and the rest is history.

Keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

Griff Writes:

Peter has reminded me in his last piece of the woodworking and metalworking classes in the outer temporary buildings at Court Lane. Ken Wells metalworking class was a new class opportunity and if you recall correctly we had the choice of dropping woodwork and starting metalwork classes and as I remember quite a few of us did just that after 2 years with Mr Bennett. I have to say though that I do quite a bit of woodworking and carpentry in my renovation business and I don't know whether anyone else gets the same feeling but I can feel Mr Bennett sitting on my shoulder and watching me which is not a bad thing really I might add. Remember what he was always saying? Measure twice.....Cut once Boys! What Mr Bennett taught us still carries with me to this day.

The only boy I know who went on to become a fully employed carpenter, as far as I know, was John ( Patrick ) Wilson who lived on the Highbury Estate. I met him at the school reunion we held and he was still working as a carpenter in Portsmouth. If anyone knows where he is can they get in touch with me please.

I actually enjoyed metalwork more than woodwork and I still have my coffee table that we all built circa. 1961/62 and it is still used as well as a platform table for my 3 Granddaughter's Doll House because it is just the right height for them to play with the furniture. I have put up a photo of the coffeee table now 50 years old!.. amazing!

Didn't we all go on to make a model steam engine with Mr. Wells? I'm sure I finished mine but can't remember what happened to it......or did we run out of building time at the end of our 5th year at school?
I bet Melvyn Bridger still has his steam engine.....lol

Regards To Everyone.....Melvyn ( Griff ) Griffiths.



News and Views:

George David Weiss, who co-wrote the Elvis Presley standard, "Can't Help Falling In Love," Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World," Kay Starr's "Wheel Of Fortune" and adapted "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" from the South African tune "Wimoweh," died at his home in Oldwick, New Jersey. He was 89. George also was responsible for Broadway productions like "Mr. Wonderful" with Sammy Davis, Jr. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984.



On this day 4th September 1960-1965.

On 04/09/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) 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.

On 04/09/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) 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.

On 04/09/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield 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 04/09/1963 the number one single was Bad to Me - Billy J Kramer and the number one album was Please Please Me - 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 04/09/1964 the number one single was Have I the Right? - Honeycombs and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) 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 04/09/1965 the number one single was I Got You Babe - Sonny and Cher and the number one album was Help - 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 No 866

The final three from the Barlow Family Album, all showing Cosham High Street, see if you can spot where the Building School was and where Tesco’s is now!!!

When Peter sent me these photographs he asked why I did not talk about Court Lane Secondary School, so here goes.

But first a welcome to two new old school pals John Lockwood and Phil Wheaton who tells me that he still has an outstanding detention to serve for Reg Davis !!!!

Court Lane School

I suppose that I was like most children in the late 1950’s I thought that if I did not get into one of the Grammar Schools or the Tech. I had failed the 11+ and was doomed to a life at Court Lane.

But once I got over the nervousness of going to a new school, wearing an overlarge new school uniform (it’s got to do you for at least two years dear, I was told), I slowly began to enjoy ‘big school’.

To start with the new school was a bus ride away and if you were crafty you could run down the stairs of the bus and off the platform without paying and so manage to gain extra money in your pocket. The other way was to walk the couple of miles or so, this was fun with your mates on a fine day but I have to admit that on a wet and windy day we resorted to the bus unless there was a cute little lass that you wanted to talk to on your own!!!

Court Lane itself was a bit of a shock. One long corridor with classrooms off, and a two storey building In the middle which housed the headmasters office, his secretary and the holy of holies, the Staff Room. Talking of the Headmaster, he was Wally Dunstan and if you look lower down on the side bar of this blog you will see a photograph of Anida Folland presenting Wally and his wife with a leaving gift. The one thing I cannot remember is his Secretary’s name. Can anyone help?

That long corridor was quite daunting at the east end the first class room was that of Miss Curtis, Flossy as she was known to us! Moving down there was Harry Harrison, Miss Fields a motorcycle riding science terror that we were all terrified of. The George Pledger, the technical drawing expeteacherrt how he ever managed to make such neat drawing on the blackboard with those enormous set squares and rulers I will never know. Further along came June Blitz and her French class, then Ray Dopson who taught English, and finally Mick (Chalky) White another English teacher. Now who remembers these last two collecting the little plastic guards bandsmen from the Corn Flake packets? They encouraged us all to bring in ours from home so that they could race to see who could get a full band first! These were the classrooms where our drama presentations were planned, see the side bar for a programme of three plays from that period. These were the rehearsal rooms, dressing rooms and props rooms whilst the main hall in the Junior School was used as the theatre.

Opposite the headmasters block was the main hall with its two separate entries from that long corridor. Oh, how I remember sitting on the floor in there on my first day as we nervously waited to hear to which classes we were assigned. This hall, as most school halls at the time doubled as a gym hall and a dining hall, I experienced the first but never the second. Off this hall were two classrooms one the music room ruled over by Mr John Stephens, what a production the Messiah was a few years later in Manor Court! The other room was the domain of Bob Coulthard and his Geography students.

Over the years the school had grown and outer building were added, again see the side bar. Here on the east end of the site was the Domestic Science Room of Enid Tuffin and the Needlework room of Miss Crocker. ( I remember Anida telling me that she was never very good at needlework and one day Miss Crocker said in a loud voice Anida Folland I am sure that I would be able to see those stitches from the top of Portsdown Hill. Some eyesight Ehh!!!). Right down by the school fence were the two workshops , the metalwork room of Ken Wells who only passed away in the last couple of years and the woodwork shop of Harold Bennett, I do have to say that I never did well in either of those workshops.

I have left the double ended hut at the west end of the site to last as that is where any red blooded boy really wanted to go as in one end was the class room of Miss Burden and the other the room of Jill Coggan, both well worth staring at for a complete lesson!!

Finally we did not have any playing fields so on sports afternoon it was time to crowd onto a double decker bus as it made its way to the playing fields at East Lodge. The worse thing was there was no time to change before we left either end so we had to change on the bus, very unhygienic. The other sports trip we had was to the original Victoria swimming baths which were right next to the City Mortuary (bet you did not know that!). This was even worse changing wise as three of us had to crowd into a poolside booth and attempt to either put on a woollen bathing costume or afterwards trying to get socks onto damp feet.

On reflection I enjoyed myself at Court Lane with its big playground out the front and what we all thought of as old buildings 53 years ago and they are still going strong!

I also remember the move from Court Lane to the brand new Manor Court, did you know it was originally going to be called Court Manor, doesn’t have the same ring does it? I also remember at the end of the Summer Term of 1960 pushing several four wheeled trolleys loaded with chairs and desks from one school to another, Ah well So much for memory.

Keep in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

John Asks:-

The 4 distinct different area's that Manor Court pupils came from in the Schools catchment area were
· Highbury
· East Cosham
· Drayton
· Farlington
Was there any rivalry, did some kids look down on some of the others, I think they did and I was aware of a few fights and stand off between these groups. Hopefully things have changed since them times or have they?

News and Views:

Jack Parnell the man who provided the music for shows such as Sunday Night At The London Palladium and wrote the theme tunes to programmes including The Golden Shot during his time as musical director at ATV died a couple of days after his 87th birthday. In 1951 left the Ted Heath band to lead 12-piece and then a 16-piece band. When ITV launched, he landed the role of musical director for ATV. During his decades at the broadcaster, he worked with legends such as Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr, Lena Horne and Nat King Cole. He also made series with Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck, acted as a panellist on TV talent show New Faces and was musical director for programmes such as The Benny Hill Show and a production of Peter Pan starring Mia Farrow, Sir John Gielgud and Danny Kaye. He also composed signature tunes for programmes such as Family Fortunes. In the late 1970s he began his association with The Muppet Show, for which he conducted the orchestra and frequently appeared on screen. He retired from ATV in 1982, when it became Central Television, moving to Southwold but continuing to perform with the all-star veterans group Best Of British Jazz with trumpeter Kenny Baker and trombonist Don Lusher. He also played with his small group for weekly shows at the Green Man in Rackheath. Jack Parnell died

On this day 28th August 1960-1965.

On 28/08/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) 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.

On 28/08/1961 the number one single was You Don't Know - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Blackpool Tower Circus (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.


On 28/08/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield and the number one album was Pot Luck - 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 Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.


On 28/08/1963 the number one single was Bad to Me - Billy J Kramer and the number one album was Please Please Me - 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. The big news story of the day was Martin Luther King gives I Have A Dream speech

On 28/08/1964 the number one single was Have I the Right? - Honeycombs and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - 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 Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 28/08/1965 the number one single was I Got You Babe - Sonny and Cher and the number one album was Help - 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.