From the "Golden Days", when we first became re-acquainted, and reminiscing was a new and fruitful pastime. I thought some people might like to re-read these exchanges. Unfortunately Bert Snell is no longer with us, but we might even tempt Brian Grainger, Les Grantham, Rachel Symons, Isjustme (Diane), Brian Lewis, John Redmond, Don Boyall, Bonz, Cocky, Peter Brown etc to come out of the shadows and reignite this site.
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From: Keith_Williams (Original Message)
Sent: 24/01/2002 10:13
Positively my last sally for two weeks. But now that Bert (our most senior member according to Who's Who") has emerged, this site is in danger of becoming a Broadway coterie with Bert, Don, myself and Brian Grainger - although Brian seems to have gone into hibernation, lulled by the soft charms of Provence. And Jimmy Turner, Gwyn Williams and even Neville Williams (1935-40) are out there watching our every word. So what has happened to Frank Wooley, Ron Bidmade, Ron Plant et al. And is there anyone else out there who admits to such humble origins?
Keith Williams
From: Don Boyall
Sent: 24/01/2002 18:20
Ron Bidmade was a superb scholar - modern languages. French was his speciality. After University he went, I believe, as an interpreter to the UN.
I suppose a lot of us went to the old tin can rattler and responded to the tender care of Mr. Holmes, Miss Taylor, Mrs. Oldham etc. That, too, was a wonderful school.
Don
From: bonz
Sent: 26/01/2002 04:39
Keith,
You mentioned Ron Plant. If I have it right, he was a good fast bowler. Although I was not at the game, I remember the story of the 1st eleven playing the teachers. Ron was coming up to ball Shipley. He decided to slow things down, but still bowled him out first ball. At assembly the following day, Ship lauded the spin bowling skills of Ron, chuckles were held back by those in the hall. Can anyone confirm this tale.?
From: Bert
Sent: 29/01/2002 16:52
From ...Bert Snell
A good story but unfortunately fictitious.Ron Plant was a year ahead of me and lived a few doors away. Both being sport mad we travelled to, watched and engaged in many sports activities together. On leaving school he moved South as a Civil Servant. He was a fast bowler but not as fast as John Woodward from Dunsville who had a big influence on us as a more senior pupil.There was no staff cricket team in the forties as all the able bodied men were in the forces. Even our P.E. Teacher was a lady (Miss Jackson).There was a parents team who thrashed us every year.I never saw or heard of Shipley wielding the willow but I can vouch for the fact that he was a fine stroke player with the cane.
From: LES_VG
Sent: 30/01/2002 07:58
There was a case in Oz recently where a 30 yr old was awarded around 700,000 quid in damages for the trauma he allegedly suffered after being caned (once I think) at a Catholic school. Taking into account PT's unjustifiable dislike of me, if Bert, myself and a few others took a class action against what was then the West Riding County Council, we could finish up with the whole of Yorkshire, Durham and a few counties South (we don't want Lancashire) in lieu of damages. Anybody know a good ("bad") lawyer?
From: Bert
Sent: 03/02/2002 16:08
From: Bert Snell
To: Thorne Grammar School
Subject: Broadway
As a tender 11 year old I was dragged out of a line awaiting entry to a classroom by a brute called 'Max' Miller.This master 'bully' closely resembled Adolf Hitler and beat me to pulp round the head and face mercilessly shouting the while presumably to beat time to his blows.Being stunned and punch drunk I was so far gone I went downstairs and demanded to see Shipley himself.My protest was heard with grace and Shipley then persuaded me to drop the case, show a stiff upper lip and don't tell my parents. Oh how I longed to meet this creature when I grew up and what a small fortune I could claim on him nowadays with the right solicitor.
Bert Snell
From: bonz
Sent: 03/02/2002 17:34
Bert, on a similar topic, in the late 40's, a boy from Armthorpe went to a County Councillor and showed her the black and blue ripples on his backside resulting from Shipley's administrations. That was the end of caning.
From: Cocky
Sent: 06/02/2002 16:55
Ron Bidmade is my uncle.He is now retired from United Nations after spending many years with them as an interpreter. He finally ended up being based in Montreal where he still has a house but spends part of the year in Malta. He was back in the UK last year for a short time and did take a tour of Broadway & Thorne. He does not have internet access but I will be more than pleased to pass on any messages or correspondence addresses.
From: Don Boyall
Sent: 07/02/2002 18:17
Hi Cocky
I don't suppose for one moment that Ron Bidmade will remember me. He lived a few doors below me on Broadway - probably about number 435. He was leaving TGS as I was starting. I bought his rugby boots! Several sizes too big for me but you couldn't get rugby boots easily during the war. He possibly remembers my father.
Regards
Don Boyall
From: Keith_Williams
Sent: 08/02/2002 00:14
Cocky,
I'm delighted to have news of Ron Bidmade's continuing existence. I also lived a few doors away from him but on the other side from Don.
He was always held up to me as a shining example of academic diligence because he used to sharpen his oral French by listening to the BBC broadcasts to Europe in the early years of the war.
I think he left TGS in 1942, the year I started, so he probably won't remember me, either. But he may recall my older brother Neville, generally known as Ginger or Ging, who went from the Broadway school to TGS at the same time as Ron. I recall that Ron had either one or two older sisters - and I presume you are one of their progeny.
Pass on our best wishes if they or he remember anything of the Williams family.
Keith Williams
From: Keith_Williams
Sent: 09/02/2002 15:00
Following success in locating Ron Bidmade, let's try a few other local names. What about Mickey Gallagher, Gabe Berry, Dickie Rowan, Jean Rhodes? And the Dunsville crowd who came from the Broadway school to TGS including Peter Bamforth, Ron Hollingsworth, Jimmy Freeman, and the elegant Joan Whitehead ? Has anyone any news to report on these former TGS pupils ?
Brian Grainger is still asleep in Provence, I see.
Keith Williams
From: ALLAN
Sent: 10/02/2002 22:08
Many many years ago, I spotted a photographers on Queen Street, Thorne owned by "Bamforth and Freeman". Not so much a discovery but a bit of social history. Immediately after the war, the occupying forces had a nice little black market going with the jerries. Coffee was the main barter to obtain mostly wrist watches or cameras. The cameras were a bit of a laugh compared with what a youngster would have nowadays, but Jimmy Freeman was one of the first with one. Just a black cardboard box with a tiny lens and no adjustments whatsoever. Point and click and hope. Even the film was rubbish - panchromatic, which meant hard black and white contrast and ruination from even the smallest of leaks. No enlargements, just a straight contact print from a 9cm x 6cm neg. Which is small. But, from this humble beginning maybe a career emerged.
BE HAPPY-ALLAN SWALES 1942 - 1950
From: Don Boyall
Sent: 10/02/2002 22:28
You're very wrong about the cameras and the film Allan. Immediately after the war second-hand German cameras were easily obtained. I bought, for example, in 1946 a second-hand Zeiss Nettar with a 6.3 lens in Doncaster. Enlargements, were, of course, no problem. Panchromatic film - monochrome films are still panchromatic - were a big advance on orthochromatic films. Ortho films over-emphasised the red tones.
Panchromatic film, as its name implies, responded more accurately to the colour range of the subject. Immediately after the war there was a lot of pretty unpredictable film about - this was re-cut and spooled into 120 from ex War Department aerial film. This situation didn't last long. Top quality Ilford and Kodak material soon became available. Jim Freeman and Peter Bamforth did, indeed, open a shop in Thorne - studio and D&P work. I'm afraid it failed.
Don
From: ALLAN
Sent: 11/02/2002 22:58
Hi Don - I stand corrected. Maybe the cheap and nasty were the ones for 2 oz of Nescafe or maybe I am totally wrong. But I still have this mental picture of Jimmy Freeman being one of the first on the school field with a box brownie type camera.
BE HAPPY-ALLAN 1942 - 50
From: Brian Grainger
Sent: 13/02/2002 11:13
Broadway! Now's there is a subject to bring me out of hibernation.! I must be a couple of forms younger than Keith because I remember all the younger brothers ( and then Janice Hollingsworth too)of the classmates he recalls. John Freeman has coloured life with his considerable talents as a Painter and has a gallery in Whitby. One of his watercolours of the Dales graces a wall of our dining room in Provence.Dave Bamforth still lives in Dunsville and recollecting him brings a smile to my face since he was always the Comic.
From: Keith_Williams
Sent: 13/02/2002 15:00
Welcome back to life, Brian. I've recently been in touch with David, but all the rest seem to have gone to ground. Perhaps they'll also emerge with the spring sunshine.
How is the weather down there in Provence - worth a visit ?
From: Bert
Sent: 19/02/2002 20:19
From: Albert Snell How comforting to read all those names Keith. All were ex pupils of the Old Tin Rattler which was replaced 50 years ago andI hear they are having some sort of celebration.Last I heard Ron Hollingworth was living in Mexboro/Wath area. His brother Lou in Ripon but sister I don't know.Lost is Mickey Gallacher who took a degree in Law....his parents were the proudest I've ever known. Pete Bamforth was a card but Jimmy Freeman very serious.
A nice lad but he dreamed consistently of fame and great achievements. Just before I left school his dream was to sing in the Doyle Carte Co. The film Walter Mitty was based on Jim. We were all keen on Photography then as film came back on the market after the war. It has been a lifetime pursuit for me since.
I met Len Swift one day in Broadway. He had a large redundancy package and said to me " What bloody good is it to me" and gave the lot to his daughter. In those days you didn't tell anyone you came from Broadway and
the further down you lived the rougher and tougher the reputation. I was keen on a girl from Dunsville who went to TGS with my year but I was afraid to ask her out because they were all too posh for the likes of me up there. When she left the district to go nursing I daren't even ask for her address. Anyone know of her whereabouts?
From: Keith_Williams
Sent: 19/02/2002 22:13
Bert,
Perhaps Jimmy Turner will enlighten us about developments at the Broadway/Dunsville school since he ended a distinguished career as headmaster there - lucky man - a job I always dreamed of doing in my young adolescence. Rumour has it that they are planning to cut down the trees that Brian Grainger planted there fifty years ago.
Nice story about Len Swift - what hidden depths there were in those rough diamonds. Back in those grim early war time years there was no one tougher than Johnny May. I bumped into him when I was an undergrad in London in the 50s. He had turned into a very knowledgeable opera buff. How cruel that County Minor/Eleven Plus system was in denying these people the chances we enjoyed.
Didn't you appear as a minor principal alongside Jimmy Freeman in the 1949 production of The Mikado, no doubt the inspiration for his Doyle Carte ambitions? Don appeared in the chorus and I banged the bass drum in the orchestra.
I'm intrigued about the girl from Dunsville who became a nurse - you kept your feelings well hidden. In those days the only thing that seemed to turn you on was the football results. Did she have a name?
From: Peter
Sent: 20/02/2002 22:35
Gentlemen,
My father often referred to the corrugated roof of the primary school at the top of Broadway and the noise it made in the rain. He was probably a few years younger than some of you (George Brown born 1932 and lived at no.385 Broadway). He went on to Hatfield Secondary Modern and then down the pit with most of his contemporaries. I was born in the same house then moved to 248. I too went to Dunsville primary, but the building was quite new. I suspect it was the "nice" things in that school that made it so different from life on Broadway and attracted me to education. I was fortunate enough to go to TGS in 1968 and left in 1975.
It is amusing to note that I too would not volunteer my origins to other pupils at TGS (esp. the girls) and that I had a similar view on the bottom (rough) end of Broadway. My family did move towards the border between the rough end and the nicer end and we moved in to a house at 140, opposite Hatfield Main football ground.
Peter
From: Don Boyall
Sent: 20/02/2002 23:07
My memories of the tin-can-rattler on Broadway include the constantly leaking roof and the buckets strategically placed to catch the water, Miss Brown's wonderful nature walks and the pressing of flowers to put in nature books, the coke-fuelled iron stoves in the corner of each room, the milk put each morning close to the stoves - it was dreadful by morning break, Mr. (Daddy) Holmes as a wonderfully warm head and teacher; Mrs Taylor's inspired English teacher, Mrs Oldham - fierce but a good maths teacher . . . . and Mavis Fowler who used to sit behind me . . . I love her to this day!
Don
From: Keith_Williams
Sent: 20/02/2002 23:17
Pete,
Welcome to this thread, and my greetings to your father who I knew well (we called him Georgie Brown). In fact, unless my memory has failed me, (a frequent event these days) he was a member of the scout troop at St Hilda's church when Bert and I were rival patrol leaders about 1944. I, and my brother Gwyn who has also just appeared on the site, lived at 409, on the top side of the school entrance which you used daily.
My solution to the girl friend problem was to find them from Broadway (or for preference the side streets). There were some crackers. Happy memories!!!
Keith
From: Bert
Sent: 25/02/2002 22:12
Pete....from Bert Snell.
From your letter I'm surprised the name Snell does not strike a chord with you.I was one year ahead of 'Georgie' Brown at the Tin Rattler and he played regularly in our group. More to the point we lived at 250 and my grandmother Dockerty lived at 246 Broadway. I of course was living in Sunderland but 250 was my home until my Dad, Ernie Snell died there 3 years ago at 90 years old. My sister Sheila confirms the above as she remembers your family well.
My Dad also slaved down the pit to give me a comfortable life and was
duly rewarded with pneumonicosis for his trouble. He was one of the old characters of Broadway and would regularly walk 10 to 18 miles per day.He was part of a group that built the hut on the Welfare at the end of the war and organised a Boxing Club with likes of 'Spike' Palmer knocking hell out of punchbags like me. I played wing-half for Hatfield Main when 15 years of age and was the first lad in the village to become a Professional in what was the First Division. The Welfare was Holy Ground to us and Geordie Laycock,
the Welfare groundsman, would chase us off if we looked at it. Small world!
From: Bert
Sent: 25/02/2002 23:16
From Bert
Don, I remember your Father on his rounds as if it was yesterday! I also recall a caring primary school in what must have been difficult times. Mr Merkin was called up when I was in the top class. My teachers from start to finish were Miss Boyle, Mrs Osborne, Miss Hurford, Mrs Oldham ( a powerful influence on my life) Mr Merkin and Mrs Taylor. Can you remember the way a man with a suitcase of Ket would occasionally appear at the gate at 12 am and offer goodies in exchange for old woollens. That's not what you landed up in Halifax for is it Don.
I played soccer for Halifax for one year after my knee injury finished me in higher circles. I was persuaded by an ex colleague from Sunderland who was Manager at Halifax before he switched over to using his skills in his other sporting interest. I speak of the famous batsman Willie Watson....one of the few men who played for England at both Soccer and Cricket.That was about 1955-56. When Willie left I retired too. Remember when we used to burn up the 440 yards together Don. I had to withdraw from Athletics because of
my professional status. I am sure I have photos with you in the chorus of Patience when I had a small part with Margaret, the mother of the T.G.S. Diva
Hundreds of boring memories from an old dreamer!.
From: Don Boyall
Sent: 26/02/2002 18:20
Hi Bert - here are a few more boring memories from another old dreamer; the tin-can-rattler again. Do you remember the immensely long, polished-ice slides in the playground during the winter - must have been absolutely lethal with dozens of kids flying down them at high speed; and the enormous, thick rope we had for skipping - seven or eight skipping in together; and the long breaks (what joy!) when the cry went round, "teachers' meeting!"; and the outside toilets - quite smelly and certainly cold and miserable - although it never occurred to us that anything better could possibly exist. But I hardly
ever had an unhappy moment in that school - although I do remember quite vividly having my bottom smacked on the first day I attended - five years old - for accidentally spilling some paint; and for a while I didn't enjoy being bullied by Tommy May, until I sorted him out.
Don
From: isjustme
Sent: 28/02/2002 19:18
Hi, I read with interest about Broadway, though I did not live there, I spent a great deal of time there,more than at my own place of Stainforth. My grandparents lived at 217, aunt at 219, my Grandad was known as Cockney Bob, though it may be in later times than yourselves, I have fond memories of the Welfare, the bowling greens, and tennis courts. Going to watch my uncle play footie, etc. Later on in time when I married I lived at 396, we have since moved because of job transfers, but I have good happy memories. Is nice to see familiar places, tho I don't remember many names.
Take care all.
From: Keith_Williams
Sent: 28/02/2002 21:24
Let me see, 396, that must be the end house in the first fourblock on the left, counting from the top. Occupied by the Elliots in my day, and in between Bernard Harrison (394), Ken & Marie Branston (398) and Harold Hayes (400). They were all calling points on rainy pre-war days when it was the custom to visit your friends and swap comics (Dandy, Beano, Wizard, Hotspur). Of course you'd give two of those for a thick glossy American! That was in Tin Rattler days, long before TGS encouraged us to adopt higher literary tastes. Anyone else remember Wilson who performed the most astounding feats in Victorian long-johns ?
Keith Williams
From: Bert
Sent: 02/03/2002 17:32
From Bert Snell.
Yes Keith, 'Wilson of the Wizard' was my hero...strange that athletes have now reached and passed Wilsons times and now look like him with their leggings.What about Smuggy in the Hotspur? ....Rockfist Rogan R.A.F. in the Champion. Miss Lyall, our English teacher used to go wild if she caught us with any of these rags.
From: Don Boyall
Sent: 02/03/2002 18:14
I remember Miss Lyall, Bert. She was a good English teacher. She was slim with dark hair and, at the time, I thought rather attractive. Perhaps because she always gave me high marks.
I also remember Wilson. I can remember some of the stories quite clearly - especially preparations for the Olympic Games - the way he stressed the importance of sleep (he adjusted the arms of his fellow athlete in sleep to give him a more relaxed posture) - and also some of his training methods. I tried to copy him. I remember going over to the quarry on the Straight Mile and running as hard as I could up the sand dunes in rugby boots to try to improve my stamina.
There was also a tale in the Wizard about some chap whose weapon was a cricket bat - did he call it Clickybar?
Don
From: John R.
Sent: 03/03/2002 13:04
Sorry to interrupt, but I cannot resist.
I thought I was the only person in the world who remembered `Clickey-ba'. It was a story about some guy in the jungle fighting the Japanese I think who had a caveman as his sidekick who used to lash out with the infamous `clickey-ba'.
And do you remember Alf Tupper - the `Tough of the Track' - who used to work 48 hours fixing his motorbike (why not catch a train?), have a fish and chip supper, drive 200 miles through the night, be tripped up and stamped on by the `toffs' he was racing against and still get up, run a sub-4 minute mile, win, eat another fish and chip supper, and then drive back through a blizzard to clock in for the 6am shift? (Alright I exaggerate - but not much!)
And then the football stories:
1. The goalkeeper who never conceded a goal. Every week it looked as though he had but it would turn out that it had gone in through a hole in the side-netting or the final whistle had blown a split second before the ball crossed the line or the goalkeeper had been kidnapped and the man who let the goal in was an impostor, etc..etc...
2. The one set in the future where football had been banned and was being rediscovered by a group of schoolboys.
3. The one about some aristocrat - J.P. Smedley(?) who was obsessed with fair play and who used to have an impossibly difficult practice regime,
I used to read all these - and more - the memories!
Anybody remember these stories?
P.S. One for the ladies: My daughters get comics and so did my sister. Do you realise that although they are now approaching 60 the four Marys are still at school being taught by Miss Creef (?) who must be at least 112!!
From: ALLAN
Sent: 04/03/2002 21:35
Just to put the record to rights :- Clickey-Ba was the weapon used by a Ghurka warrior. Part of our war time propaganda was the belief that the Ghurkas were massive with their ability to sneak up in the dark, slit your throat
(if you were a Jerry) and fade away. Also the story that they were obliged to draw blood every time the knife was unsheathed, so in the event of taking it out for a quick clean and no Jerry being handy, they nicked their thumb.
BE HAPPY-ALLAN SWALES 1942-1950
From: Keith_Williams
Sent: 05/03/2002 00:47
Oh, I always thought it was a phonetic representation of an oriental's pronunciation of "cricket bat". You live and learn!
Keith
From: Keith_Williams
Sent: 05/03/2002 07:24
Its consoling to know that others of my vintage have these mental lapses, or is it? I've just heard the story about the two old codgers, bridge partners for fifty years. In the middle of one session one leaned over to the other and said "Excuse me, I know this is very rude, but I can't remember your name". The second looked very cross and perplexed, sat in silence for a good minute, and then replied "How soon do you need to know?"
Keith
From: isjustme
Sent: 07/03/2002 15:46
Keith ..
Yes you are right, Harold Hayes mother , and Mr Harrison senior was still there when I was .. bout 1983 , my husband worked with Harold. Strange how these computer things help remind us of people and places.
From: Brian Lewis
Sent: 08/03/2002 18:09
Keith. Re the old codgers-in similar vein. Two old friends fly fishing near to the road. A funeral cortege passed by. One old boy put his rod down ,took his hat off and bowed his head until the procession had passed by when he resumed fishing. Nothing had ever interrupted their fishing in the past. His friend
expressed surprise at his respect."Well,said his mate,I was married to her for 40 years. It was the least I could do"!!
By the way,I cant see that my reply to your query re the court house in Hatfield has been posted.There was no evidence of this that I saw. Sorry
Brian Lewis
From: Bert
Sent: 12/03/2002 20:57
From Bert
Clickey Ba was the fine willow that I used as Captain of Brooke House to demolish Mowbray with doubtful team men like Swales Minor. The inspiration I received was from the Wizard or some such source. Lawrence Lawton used to get frustrated as he fancied Mowbrays game was based on Science whereas Broadway louts just hit the ball hard and far.Brooke excelled in all the sports that year. What has happened to all the team photos that adorned the corridors in the forties at T.G.S.?
I promise I will write that letter to you sometime Allan. I've become as dizzy as you were in the 6th Form.
From: Bert
Sent: 12/03/2002 20:57
From Albert Snell
For Isjustme, I was born at 259 and the Welfare was in my area. You must have lived next to the Convery family...and the Rickaby's...and Jimmy Turner on the corner of the Crescent. I remember the name Cockney Bob as well as the Mordues. One of the houses on the opposite side of the road used to have a huge tree in the front garden and we called it the Big Tree House...I have a postcard with it on
From: isjustme
Sent: 15/03/2002 21:20
I have very fond memories of Bob and Brenda Rickaby, I spent a lot of my childhood at their house. Jimmy Turner and his wife were both teachers at my junior school in Stainforth .. Jim eventually being the headmaster of a school , though not sure if it was Stainforth . I remember the Convreys I think one of them went to live in the States .
From: Keith_Williams
Sent: 19/03/2002 00:37
Hi Diane,
Is that the red-headed Bob Rickaby who went into the army, cousin to Arthur and Doris Rickaby from 393 ? As stated elsewhere, Jimmy Turner became headmaster at the new Broadway school which replaced the Tin Rattler (known formally as Doncaster Road Junior Mixed and Infants in my day).
I think it was Jessie Convrey, the more glamorous of the twins, who went to live in the US.
Keith
From: Gwyn (Original Message)
Sent: 26/02/2002 16:31
1/6 to go to the pictures - Luxury!
At about the time you older sophisticates slicked your hair with Brylcream before going to meet Lena Kelly and her friends, I used to go to the 'Tupenny
Rush' on a Saturday afternoon.
In its heyday the picture house used to be full to bursting with young people and often we sat two to a seat. We sometimes indulged in a little ruse, to which the management obviously turned a blind eye, which was to go to the lavatory and, on the way, open the exit doors to let in the kids who had no money. There was a great deal of audience participation as we cheered the heroes and booed the villains. During the lovey-dovey scenes the noise level gradually rose and frustrated shouts of 'Ger on wi it' rent the air. The discontent prompted a man in a flat cap to walk down the aisle and shine his torch in our faces, telling us to 'Shurrup'. If things got out of hand the projectionist would stop the film and the lights would go up until the audience calmed down.
Gwyn Williams
409 Broadway (next to the school entrance)
P S
Do you remember this old chestnut? Gene Autrey was cooking his sausages and beans on the prairie when a posse on horseback arrived? The first guy said, 'Gene, I've got some bad news. The Clancey gang have burnt down your ranch'. The second guy said, 'And they've stolen all your cattle'. A third guy added, 'And they've raped your wife and shot your son'. The fourth guy said, 'Before you go, Gene, can you sing us a song?'
From: Bert
Sent: 26/02/2002 18:59
From: Bert Snell
Being born and bred in the middle of 'Hollywood' I am familiar with both ends and know Stanley Rd. I also know of the John O Groats -Lands End walk as I was on the fringe. It is quite a story and could only have happened in Broadway.
It was a race and a large sum of money was at stake. I am ashamed to say that I have forgotten the victors name but any of the regulars ao my age will tell you. He was a member of the Miller family. Tommy Miller was the senior and he had two sons...Ken and Ronnie...both great boxers.Ronnie is now blind and owns land between the station and Crescent. Tommy Miller and my father trained youngsters (including me) in Dunscroft Welfare with some success...and at least kept many off the streets. Tommy Miller was very astute and enterprising. When this race came up I was asked to partner the eventual winner but had to decline as Sunderland A.F.C. refused permission as I was a Professional with them.. Theoretically they had no chance but I lay awake wondering what Tommy Miller had up his sleeve. I did not have to wait long. The race began and after a day Tommy decided his competitor would walk at night free of harassment fro the press. Being a no hoper the adroit move passed almost unnoticed as no reporter relished the idea of following this
shadow on remote Scots roads. Our hero was therefore able to clock up modest mileage each night from a bed in the back of a non eye catching van. The plan worked like clockwork and as one neared the south our favourite appeared more often. Crossing Dartmoor he had to do some real walking as he was now in pole position. Tommy Miller told me they had to kick him out of bed and with a few pit phrases to encourage him he finished the course a worthy winner and newspaper sensation.He returned to Duncroft to a heroes welcome with flags and bunting.
Bert
p.s. A year ago I saw a programme on the telly on some dog fights illegally carried out on a farm near the station. The farmer innocently hired out the barn concerned evidently and he was cleared of any blame. Now I wonder ???????
Bert Snell (Captain of Brooke in 1949)........Educated in Broadway
From: LES_VG
Sent: 27/02/2002 00:46
As a Thorne resident I remember Broadway as a rather wide road with houses and the odd pub and shop alongside running from Dunsville to Stainforth. Judging from the number of messages posted and the people who inhabited the area, is there another Broadway, 50 miles long and flanked by high rises that I did not know about?
From: Bert
Sent: 02/03/2002 11:03
From Bert
No you did not miss any salubrious undiscovered area Les. Broadway was the district tied to Hatfield Main that was overlooked in everything -not even able to get recognition on a sign-post with the result that visitors could never find it. It therefore developed a powerful internal identity and strong communal spirit. Everyone knew everyone and all pulled together.
It was cosmopolitan in the sense that it was populated in the twenties by immigrants.....Geordies, Staffs, Irish, Welsh and 'Darkie Alicks' whose main feature was that he was coal black. Broadway was always denigrated by people who should have known better. When we entered T.G.S. none of us were eloquent and bowed down humbly to the upper class who we had not encountered before. Our generation discarded the dialects of our parents and spoke Yorkshire. Do excuse us if we are rather enthusiastic about rediscovering colleagues unheard of for 53 years and are enjoying
their recollections. Please allow me to look out from my present upper class residence overlooking the sea and enthuse over stories of Broadway, my humble roots, having been starved of contact so long. I hope there are more to come Bert Snell.
From Bert Snell
I was at the opening night at the Regal in about 1942. The decor was superb and the changing lights behind the curtains hiding the screen looked superb to 'Us' kids. It was a full house and we sat two to a seat and on the carpet in front of the first row.
From: Keith_Williams
Sent: 12/03/2002 23:53
Bert,
My memory tells me that the Regal opened in pre-war days (about 37/38), because the Jones family who managed it for Spivey moved into Broadway in early 1939. I remember Clive Jones appearing alongside me in Class 4 ( teacher - Miss Lyshon who succeeded Miss Burford), and a first day fight to establish the fact that we were going to be lifelong friends. Clive's brother Gordon must have arrived in your class (teacher - Mrs Oldham) at the same time, or perhaps he was one year ahead of you.
It was certainly not the opening show, but the first film I remember seeing there was a Hollywood version of Maeterlinck's "Bluebird". It made a very big impression on me, although at the time I did not appreciate it's provenance. It was many years later that I learned that the story is something of a classic. 've just established from searching the web that the film was released in 1940, so it probably reached the Regal in Broadway in 1941. What vast vistas of information we have at our fingertips these days.
Keith
From: Rachel (Original Message)
Sent: 22/02/2002 08:05
Thought I might start another angle on the Broadway topic as the mailbox was getting far too long. Speaking as one who came from Stanley Grove (the other end to Dunsville) I really can't speak with authority of what it meant to live on Broadway but all I can do is refer to the lovely comedy Keeping up appearances which I am reliably assured was based on Dunscroft (Daisy and
Onslow) and Dunsville (Hyacinth) - Roy Clarke apparently lived in the area.
As for me, I had enough trouble coming from London to worry about whereabouts in Dunscroft I lived - fancy being told at 9yrs old that you were a foreigner and having to change the way you speak - and on top of all that I went and passed the 11+ and lost some of my friends.
As the District Nurse, mum knew everyone and everyone knew us - no getting away with anything.
Rachel Symons (1958-56) - Dunscroft and then Hatfield (where mum moved to replace Nurse Schuller in about 1963)
From: Keith_Williams
Sent: 23/02/2002 13:48
Rachel,
I've been scouring the maps on the Multimap site to locate Stanley Grove, but without success. There are a couple of Stanley somethings over the bridge in Stainforth, but I can't find one in Dunscroft. Was it part of Station Road? It doesn't seem to be one of the Broadway side streets.
Nurse Schuller, who you mentioned above, was the aunt of Pamela Waddington who is featured in the group of 6th form girls from circa 1950 (actually 1951) posted by Don. Pamela and her mother and aunt lived in the same house in Hatfield - is that where you eventually moved to?
Keith Williams
From: Rachel
Sent: 23/02/2002 14:29
Keith - Stanley Grove was part of Station Road - we had The Crescent at the back of us - the land between the two was full of pigeon lofts. It formed a T shape with Broadway, on the opposite side to the Co-op and other shops. It had at least one famous person living there - the first man to do the John O'Groats to Landsend walk in the late 50s early 60s whose name escapes me. It was a row of pebble-dash semi-detached council houses in the midst of all the Colliery ones. We moved to High Street in Hatfield and I believe Pam may have lived there - it was a detached pink house variously called the Nurses House, Jubilee Cottage and Hethefield. My mum was the last
district nurse to live there. The house was specially built for the district nurse in 1935, at the cost of 6d a brick for each villager (they used to threaten to come and remove their bricks if she used a blunt needle). Nurse Schuller and her sister moved to a house closer to the shops but still on the main street.
Rachel Symons 1958-65, Vermuyden, Dunscroft and Hatfield
From: Keith_Williams
Sent: 23/02/2002 14:54
Rachel,
What memories! Irene Ashton, Blondie Crompton, Meg Ryan, etc etc - some of the crackers referred to in the other thread and all from the Station Road/Dunscroft Crescent area, but a little before your time - late 40s.
I also remember the Pink House in Hatfield - very posh for a Dunscroft girl. I didn't know its history however. Pamela Waddington was a friend of ours (Don and me) through our Hatfield Church, Hatfield amateur dramatics etc activities. I last heard about her a week ago through another Hatfield friend - Hubert Piper - who is still in touch with her. Thanks for the memories.
Keith
From: Bert
Sent: 23/02/2002 16:38
From Albert Snell
Rachel, I grew up in the middle of B'way in the thirties and forties and my wife urges me to write a book on the Onslows who resided there....my own father being a notable one..Characters like Big Jim, Oxo Graham, Darkie Alicks (Enoch Powells strongest supporter) . All paid homage to the Regal Cinema 3 times a week and the quips in the audience far surpassed the efforts of Hopalong Cassidy on screen. Everyone was convinced the latter lodged at Kemmets next door. What a rich environment. The superstore where St Edwins church stood is aptly named 'No Frills' and is truly symbolic
of the place and people.
I was 10 when I passed the scholarship and it was an embarrassment financially and socially for my family. I carried a huge inferiority complex
on my shoulders right through to the SixthForm. Back in B'Way I was comfortable and at home. Immediately on passing the scholarship I was rejected instantly by my pals who lived near me and it was cruel. Strangely the real hard lads from the Welfare downwards stuck to me because I had ability as a footballer and athlete and could mix it.
Big days were Club treats and trips to Cleethorpes....the 'Demi', Ike's and the British Legion. Can you wonder that I was afraid to ask my 'Hyacinth' from Dunsville out for a date, Incidentally Keith her name was Helen Gardiner and she lived near Jimmy Freeman. Fancy Georgie Brown cropping up/
From: Keith_Williams
Sent: 23/02/2002 17:43
Bert,
The name Helen Gardiner induces happy vibes but I can't put a face to the name. I'm glad you remembered Georgie Brown - such a nice lad. I haven't forgotten your suggestion about The Green Tree. When do you next plan to be in the area?
Keith
From: Don Boyall
Sent: 23/02/2002 23:58
I have very happy memories of the Regal cinema on Broadway, Bert. It was owned by a chap called Spivey who owned two or three other cinemas in the area. It was managed by Mr Jones - who was also chief projectionist and general expert on everything. He had two sons - great lads - Clive and Gordon Jones. But the cinema was great - five pence at the very front, then sevenpence, then ten pence and, if you were really flush, one and sixpence at the back. Then chips on the way home. What a treat.
Don
From: Keith_Williams
Sent: 24/02/2002 13:46
Don
Couldn't see the point of paying one and six (seven and a half pence in current parlance) until the hormones began to rise and we realised the advantage of those double seats on the back row.
Do you recall how, having walked the length of what remains of Hadrian's Wall, we legged it through Ennerdale and Borrowdale, out to Penrith and all the way along Ullswater. We cut out the last day diversion to Ambleside and Grassmere in favour of catching the train from Windermere, consoling ourselves with the thought that by so doing we could be back in Broadway in time for the second house Saturday night at the Regal cinema! Wordsworth - thou shoulds't have been with us at that hour!
Keith
From: Brian Lewis
Sent: 24/02/2002 17:35
Rachel.Interesting to hear nurse Schuller mentioned.She and her sister lived in the house next to Hatfield Manor House(on the left fronting the road as you look at the Manor from the road).I occupied their upstairs flat for a couple of years.Furnished-rent £3-12p pw.incl.electric!!
Brian Lewis TGS 1953-1958
From: Brian Lewis
Sent: 25/02/2002 18:14
Rachel.
Roy Clark converted the old windmill at Fishlake and lived there in the 60's
Brian
From: isjustme
Sent: 28/02/2002 19:27
The windmill that Roy Clarke lives in is in Sykehouse ,.. not Fishlake . I remember Frazer Hines asking us for directions one summer . The windmill is a small walk from my mother in laws.....
From: Keith_Williams
Sent: 28/02/2002 21:34
Brian,
I learned today that the house Nurse Schuller and her sister occupied on Manor Road was known at one time as the Court House, which is what it had been. It was situated conveniently alongside the Manor House, no doubt the seat of the local dispenser of justice. It was thought to have had cells at one time - did you see any evidence of that ?
Keith Williams
From: Rachel
Sent: 01/03/2002 09:16
Just a little bit more history about the Manor House in Hatfield - did you know that the Lady of the Manor kept a bottle of brandy there for the district nurse 'for medicinal purposes only' - wonder if Nurse Schuller and my mother, Nurse Symons, ever took advantage of it!! Mum also received a pair of fur gloves every Christmas from her. The house we lived in was owned partially by the Hatfield District Nurses Association whose patron was the Lady of the Manor, and partially by the good old WRCC. Rachel
From: isjustme
Sent: 07/03/2002 19:17
My aunt and uncle rented a wing of the manor, when I was small, about five or six years old I think, I remember the lady of the house chastising me for running down the corridor from the kitchen to the dining area .
