Speedway programmes from the past

Kevin Glynn recently kindly sent me three Speedway programmes from the 1930s. They make fascinating reading.
The first programme is from the 'Central Park Road Races' which took place on the Bank Holiday (August 1st) of 1938.
The adverts make interesting reading and include long-forgotten businesses such as Oswald Neilson's grocery shop in Ebrington Street, Pike's Motor Cycles of Union Street and the Three Towns Dairy who sent cream by post and had cafes at Union Street, Westwell Street, Tavistock Road and Mutley Plain. There are also adverts for recognisable businesses such as Ford which were sold by Reeds Ltd in Cobourg Street. A new Ford Eight was £120, a Ford Ten was £145 and a Ford V-8 was £280. Vospers is mentioned in the programme but, back then, the name wasn't associated with car dealerships. They were, at the time, radio dealers and had premises in Russell Street. It's strange to think how much would change in the forthcoming years with the outbreak of war and many of these premises were probably obliterated in the blitz of 1941.
The second programme dates from Sunday May 13th, 1953 and features the 'Dartmoor Scramble' and the prize was the 200 Guinea 'Patchquick' Trophy. The race took place between Hayford and Buckfastleigh. There's an advert for Pike's on the back of the programme so they must have made it through the war although their premises are now at Alphington Street. They're billed as, 'the Leading Motor Cycle Dealers in the West of England.'
The third programme comes from September 1956 and features the 'Clearbrook Scramble'. An advert appears for Pike's again, this time at Millbay Road. They now have much competition and there are also adverts for many other motor cycle dealers.
It's amazing that these programmes are over 50 years old (one is 74 years old) and cover the year before the war until a time when Plymouth was still being rebuilt. They're certainly an incredible record of a hugely popular sport.

Jousting on the Hoe

I was interested to see Roy Westlake's photo of jousting on the Hoe in this week's 'Looking Back' column in the Herald.
The article requested that anybody with information about the event and date to get in touch.

I was there on the day and took many photos and borrowed my dad's cine camera (I was 16 at the time) and made a short film which is on YouTube and is shown below.


 

The year was 1978 and, as you can see, the lighthouse was still painted white. I think that the show lasted all day and was either in May or June. It started off with the jousting event and then there was a break before the characters from Planet of the Apes did a show, much to the delight of the kids. I filmed that too and the movie is here:

 

There were lots of other events going on during the day and there were celebrities there as well. The only one that I can remember though is Carolyn Jones, who played Sharon Metcalfe in Crossroads from December 1977.
Both the jousters and the apes used the old Hoe Theatre as their dressing room. They all posed for many photos but unfortunately, I've lost them over the years (I certainly wished I'd kept them!).

Shown here are a couple of screen captures of the Apes' performance.

I've been contacted by Planet of the Apes enthusiasts in the past and apparently this is the only surviving film of the many live shows that took place all over the world in the 1970s.

It's interesting to watch the movies almost 34 years later, not just for the events but also for the fashions of the day!

Tamerton Foliot in the 1960s

This photo of Tamerton Foliot, probably taken in the early 1960s, really reminds me of my childhood. When I was a kid, we'd wander everywhere and one of the places we'd end up would be the small village of Tamerton Foliot. A friend in my street seemed to know the whole area although we'd both just moved in at the same time in 1968. We'd take the road past Ernesettle Woods and up through Milford Lane in Whitleigh heading towards the village. In those days, there was no housing estates such as Badgers Wood or Holly Park and much of the area was farmland. It wasn't unusual to wake up in the morning to discover a cow asleep in your garden. It's hard to imagine now!
Following the narrow lane down towards the village, there appeared to be only one house, 'Casa Silva' which had a big 'Private' sign on its driveway. We never dared to venture up there. On the left were just open fields where Holly Park stands today and the farmer's milk churns, full of milk, would be placed beside the roadway, waiting to be picked up. Today, the road is quite busy but back then, I never remember a car passing us.
Once in the village, we would always head to the corner shop (now gone) where we'd buy sweets and bubble gum cards with our pocket money which was made up of large pre-decimal pennies and threepenny bits. We'd always get a gobstopper and suck it on the way back, taking it out every so often to see if it had changed colour!
It's probably not the sort of thing kids get up to nowadays but back then it seemed like a big adventure. Once we were back home, we were soon out again, climbing trees, building dens or shooing cows out of our gardens.
Things have certainly changed over the years!

The Stoke Gibbet

Driving or walking by Stoke Damerel Church in Paradise Road today, it's hard to imagine the grisly practices that were once not only carried out in the graveyard but also at the nearby 'Deadlake'. The Deadlake was the name given to the upper part of Stonehouse Creek which has long since been reclaimed. If you ever get a cold shiver, especially at night, when passing by this way, then the following tale might be the reason why.

The tale of the Stoke gibbet is a dark and macabre one. It is a true story that tells of the murder of a dockyard clerk on the night of July 21st, 1787. Philip Smith was brutally bludgeoned to death near to Stoke Church. His murderer, a John Richards, together with an accomplice, William Smith, were both soon apprehended. Richards was a dock worker who had earlier been suspected of killing a Fore Street sentinel. At first, there were no clues to who had committed the crime but Richards soon boasted of the crime and was, shortly afterwards, arrested. However, there was little evidence against him and he was soon released. A hat found beside the body was identified as belonging to Richards' accomplice, William Smith. Hearing of this, Smith fled to Dartmouth but was soon caught and admitted to his role in the murder and implicated Richards. Both men were tried for murder at Heavitree. They were found guilty, condemned to death and executed in 1788.

The judge in the case, Judge Buller, declared that their bodies wouldn't by given to surgeons for dissection, which was usually the case, but were to be 'suspended between Heaven and Earth as they were fit for neither.'
The corpses were brought from Exeter to Stoke and displayed near the scene of the crime. This gruesome practice was common at the time.
The bodies were hoisted in wire cages and chains on a gibbet erected on the muddy Deadlake beach just below Stoke Church. Smith's body stayed there for seven years before the gibbet collapsed and Richards' body stayed there slightly longer.
People avoided the spot and it was said to be 'the terror of some and the disgust of many'. Nettleton's 'Stranger's Guide to Plymouth' says that the gibbet stood in place upwards of 38 years near the Mill-bridge until it was blown down in the gale of 1827.
In 1788, a bestseller called, 'The Genuine Account of the Trial of Richards and Smith' sold 25,000 copies. Some were sold around the base of the gibbet.

Long after the gibbet disappeared, people shunned the area after dark which, during the 1830s, left the area quiet enough for grave robbers to carry out their grim practices in the secluded Stoke churchyard.

Today, it's hard to imagine that all this once went on and the area has changed considerably over the years although the church still stands. Walking through the church grounds today, many of the older gravestones have been laid flat and form a pathway. One of the headstones once marked the grave of Cornelius Tripe who was the Mayor of Devonport between 1838-1839.

Thankfully, the days of the gibbet have long since disappeared as have names like 'Cornelius' and Tripe' which seem to belong to a past time when the world seemed a lot more grim!

Eric Webb

When I was writing my first book on Plymouth, for Tempus in 2003, I sent a letter to the Evening Herald asking if anyone had old photos of the city. One of the people who kindly wrote back was Eric Webb. From the moment we first met up, it was obvious that we were going to be very good friends. Eric was very well-spoken and reminded me of someone who had just stepped out of a 1940s Ealing film! He had a great sense of humour and fun of someone 70 years younger! Eric was 88 when I met him and was living in a warden controlled flat at Southway. The warden was lovely and Eric told me that she had once been on tour with Tommy Cooper. Eric had lost his wife, Barbara (Babs), the year previously and he missed her greatly. One of the photos that he lent me showed Babs with her workmates from E Dingle's working on a farm during the war. They had all given up their two week holiday to help the war effort in 1939. She was 18 at the time.

Later, Barbara  joined the WAAF (the Womans' Auxiliary Air Force) and Eric worked for army intelligence in London. They first met on a train but it was another year before they saw each other again and married. Their honeymoon was spent in Richmond, Surrey in a basement with strangers, sheltering from heavy enemy bombing. They were happily married for 58 years.

One story that I remember Eric telling me was of one of his earliest memories from when he was a boy. During the First World War, there were Zeppelin raids over Britain and Eric remembered hiding under the bed with his mother. Eric had a candle so that they could see but the mattress was made of horse hair and slowly started smouldering! They both survived unscathed though!

Eric had lots of wonderful memories which he said that he was putting in his autobiography. He'd bought a computer and had learnt to use it and stored stories, poems and limericks and used it to make his own Christmas cards of which he sent out hundreds every year. He seemed to have kept every friend that he'd ever made and people would phone him up often who he'd known from school or from his army days. I remember he said that his commanding officer had phoned him up on his birthday and said, 'How's Little Eric? (Eric was only about 5 ft 2"). He'd write us long letters, often comical and jovial and phone us regularly to see how we were getting on. We often went out together and the last photo shown here was taken at Cotehele. He said it looked like he was a ferry cruise owner touting for business!

Although Eric was in his 80s when we first met him, strangely, I always saw him as the young man in the first photo shown on this page.

Eric seemed to be liked by everyone he met. We had some great times and he shared some great memories with us. We'd often go around  to his flat and I remember his favourite tv programmes were Emmerdale and Heartbeat. I think that he yearned for England as it was in the 1960s! His favourite film, which he watched time and time again, was Jungle Book.

Eric died in August this year aged 95 and we miss him greatly. He was certainly a wonderful bloke. I never did get to read his autobiography!

New circles at Churchtown Farm

This year has revealed more circles in the grass at Churchtown Farm, near Saltash, in the field close to Wearde Road. Many are perfect circles with, what appears to be, openings at the front. It has been suggested that these could form part of a Bronze Age settlement. There have been traces of Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements found around Saltash and implements such as skin-scrapers and arrow heads have been found in fields on the outskirts of the town. However, although there definitely seems to be some sort of structure underneath the grass, it could point to something more recent. The most obvious answer would be that maybe old farm buildings or cow sheds once stood there.

There seems to be very few old photos that show Churchtown Farm in the early part of the 20th century. They might also be structures left when the railway and the two viaducts over Forder were originally built (the route of the older viaduct can still be seen and stinging nettles grow where its supports once were). The other explanation is that they could show where wartime buildings once stood. Barrage balloons were flown over Point Field and the circles in that field could show structures left by the army.

I wonder if anyone knows the answer? Perhaps it's all down to visits from aliens!!

New books available this month

I have two new books out this month, both are published by Amberley and both feature the River Tamar. The first is 'River Tamar Through Time' which includes many old and new photos of the river. Within its pages are pictures of Plymouth, Gunnislake, Calstock, Cotehele, Saltash, Devonport etc. Many of the older photos haven't been seen in print before.

The second book features a year on the Tamar.
I'm lucky living right beside the river and I've spent the last year photographing all aspects of it as it changes throughout the seasons. Included are photos of the regattas, the wildlife, the people and the many villages and places beside the river.
The book features full colour throughout.

I hope that both books will prove enjoyable to anyone who loves the River Tamar much as I do. If you live beside the Tamar, you might even spot someone within the pages that you know!

Both books are available at all bookshops throughout the region including Waterstones and WH Smiths and can also be bought online at stores such as Amazon, Foyles, Blackwells etc.
Larger Tesco stores also stock many of my books so pick one up next time you're getting your shopping!