Plymouth in the 1950s and 1960s

These few photos show Plymouth city centre during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The first picture shows a very busy town centre. Many people will remember the streets crowded like this, before the area was pedestrianised. On the left can be seen the Dolcis shoe shop at 37 New George Street which adjoined Dingles. Further down can be seen the old Western Morning News building which today houses Waterstones. The fashions have certainly changed over the years. A lone sailor can be seen in the foreground in the days when wearing their uniform was compulsory. The now old fashioned cars parked on the left, all look very much the same model and there certainly wasn't the choice there is nowadays. Most came in either black, grey or green. This was to become a far more busy scene in the 1970s and 1980s when every parking meter had a car beside it and in-town parking was almost impossible at busy times.

  

The second photo, from the same period, shows British Home Stores in Cornwall Street. The buildings haven't changed that much in the 50 or so years since but the cars and fashions have changed greatly. The streets all look much more narrow with the many vehicles parked there.

The third photo shows Frankfort Gate and, at first glance, it looks like not much has changed over the years.

Many of the shops have changed ownership many times but the market can still be seen clearly in the background. Earlier shops in the area included the popular stamp shop (probably a dying hobby now), Bonus Books, the Camera Exchange and, further around on the main road, Jack Cohen's Joke Shop. The red phone box has long gone and a huge green pedestrian walkway has been built in the centre of this scene. It all looks very tidy when this photo was originally taken and quite empty. However, anyone visiting these three areas nowadays would probably notice quite a bit of difference.

More about the Silver Mine of Saltash Passage

I've had a lot of people write to me recently about the underground mine at Saltash Passage and it all makes very interesting reading. With the work recently being carried out at the bottom of Little Ash Gardens to repair subsidence, together with past damage to the houses on the left-hand side of Little Ash Gardens, it's easy to follow the route of the final leg of the mine. I had a very interesting letter from Terry (whose surname I unfortunately don't know) and I hope that he doesn't mind me reproducing it here as it sheds some light on the tunnel and the route it took. Terry writes: 'I was very interested to read, 'The Silver Mine in Saltash Passage' on your blog. I lived in St Budeaux some 40 years ago, near Kinterbury Creek. We all called it 'Mud Cott' though I don't know why. What I now know as the silver mine, we called 'Smugglers Cave'. I used to go in often and I was one of the children they sealed it up to keep out! In the mid 60s, you could go in and just inside was a large boulder which you had to go around. After you got passed it, you were in a large chamber. There was a bench/bed carved out of rock. There was one main tunnel and the beginning of another but that was only a few feet in. The main one headed towards the main road. It must have been quite level because there was an inch or two of water along the bottom. As you went through, there were a few bends and at the end, it just got smaller and stopped. It didn't go in a very long way as I remember, under Little Ash Gardens at the most, so I would be very surprised if it went as far as Vicarage Gardens. I have for years wondered what it was. I assumed it was for the Home Guard to watch the river and bridge during the War. Maybe they did use it. I still visit Plymouth and last year, I went to have a look. You can't see it now, there is a boat house or something in front. Also, when I lived there, if you went along the beach on the opposite side to the mine side, where the cast iron pipes go into the river, there was a large sheet of twisted metal with rivet holes and rivets in. We used to try and move it when we were crabbing but it was stuck solid in the mud. It's not there now, perhaps it was taken away for scrap, and I wondered if it was part of the ammunition barge blown up in the War? I enjoyed Terry's informative letter very much and I wish that I had his address but hopefully, he'll write again. I would also be very interested to hear from anyone else with tales of the area. They certainly make very interesting reading.

Tarmacadam

Driving around Plymouth today, you can't help but notice all the potholes everywhere. In many places, the old cobbled roads underneath the tarmac are being revealed. Saltash Passage is one particular place where the cobbles are appearing and it's easy to imagine what the area must have once looked like when trams travelled towards the ferry taking passengers over to Saltash. Many people will think that tarmac is a relatively new thing but amazingly, tarred roads date back to the 8th century and appeared in Baghdad at the time. Tarmac as we know it today has been around since 1903. Patented by Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1901, some of the streets of Plymouth were tarmaced in the early 1900s including roads in Stonehouse which were paid for by the then Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. Previously, Macadam road surfaces were used from 1820 and invented by Scotsman, John Loudon MacAdam. He called the process, macadamisation. McAdam's road surfaces were ideal for horses and carriages but were dusty and eroded when it rained. Once motor transport was introduced, the roads couldn't cope and a new formula containing tar was used. Hooley's patent involved mechanically mixing tar and aggregate and this was prepared before it was put on the road surface and compressed using a steam roller. Today, cobbled streets and lovely paved footpaths are regularly tarmaced over much to the annoyance of people who prefer the streets as they are, a reminder of times gone by. It's amazing to think that this whole process isn't a new one and has been going on in Plymouth for well over 100 years.

The photo shows Bedford Street on the day that the circus came to town. No cobbled streets there, just a dusty old macadam road.

Goulds in Ebrington Street

Here's a lovely old photo showing where Goulds Surplus Store stands today.

Frederick Gould founded the shop in the early 1900s and they had outlets in various parts of Plymouth before moving into their present building in 1955. Many older residents will remember that the building once housed the Cinedrome, a cinema that was bombed during the Second World War. It's unique facade still remains and Plymouth City Council are eager to retain the older parts of the street, including the old shopfronts.

This photo features the number 24 tram on its route from Prince Rock to the Theatre Royal by Derry's Clock. With the constant heavy traffic nowadays, it's hard to imagine that trams ever travelled that way today and were the main form of transport. It's a very quiet scene and the tram driver seems to have stopped to pose for the camera. The only person on board is the conductor who is right at the back.

There are many interesting adverts on the walls of the buildings including ones for Pophams, G P Skinner, H Matthews' Restaurant, Four Castles Tea and a production at the local theatre. I wonder how many of these names are remembered by the people of Plymouth today? Popham's survived to well after the war but, today, in now long gone.

I haven't been along Ebrington Street for a long time but this photo makes me want to go there and see just how much has changed over the years.

Plymouth's Volcano

With all the catastrophes around the world at the moment, it might surprise many people in Plymouth that they live so close to an extinct volcano. Looking around the city, it is probably, nowadays, almost impossible to guess where it is. Many people would probably look inwards towards the land in their search for it but you're more likely to guess its location by looking out towards the sea. From the Hoe, looking out towards the Sound, is a giant plug that seals off the vent of this once active volcano. Have you guessed it yet? Yes, the plug I'm talking about is now Drake's Island. The shores of Kingsand are made up of a purple volcanic rock called Rhyolite. A close inspection of the rock shows that some of it contains thousands of gas bubbles from the volcano's last eruption. Rhyolite is a rock formed by the solidification of molten magma. For all of you concerned about an imminent eruption, don't worry. The last eruption took place a very long time ago. The Rhyolite dates from the Permian Period (299 - 251 million years ago)which represents a geologic period which included the diversification of early amniotes into the predocessors of mammals, turtles, lepidosaurs and archosaurs. It is the last period of the Paleozoic Era and included the largest mass extinction known to science. Ninety percent of all marine species became extinct, as did seventy percent of all land organisms.

Skull and Crossbones at Eggbuckland Cemetery

Anyone visiting the cemetery at St Edwards Church at Eggbuckland, and many other cemeteries around the country, might think that they've discovered the graves of pirates when they see the markings of the skull and crossbones on ancient headstones. In Leixlip Church in County Kildare, the same skull and crossbones can be found and it is said that many members of the military are buried there from the time of the crusades. A stone at the southeast corner of the church bears a connection to the Knights Templar Crusaders with a worn symbol of the skull and crossbones. However, the skull and crossbones in Eggbuckland cemetery neither mark the graves of members of the Knights Templar or pirates. Some people have suggested that the graves are the victims of plague, poisoning or that the people buried there were Catholics. The truth is, maybe, not so romantic. In the 1600's and 1700's, attitudes to death were very different to what they were in the 1800's and later. The motifs were put there just as a reminder to the living of what happened to the body after death. People were judged on the lives they led and not hope of forgiveness in the afterlife.

Old film of Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show

I've written before about Buffalo Bill's visit to Plymouth on 3rd June, 1904 and I've heard tales of people's great-grandfathers seeing the show. It seems amazing that people who are alive today have this direct link to the Wild West through their recent ancestors but, even with listening to the tales that survive, it's hard to imagine what the show was really like all that time ago. There seems to be few photos and no movie footage of the event in Plymouth. It must have seemed incredible in a time when there was no television, and little film performances, for people to see events recreated that they'd only read about in newspapers and comics. Seeing Buffalo Bill and Willie Sitting Bull, the son of Sitting Bull must have seemed amazing at the time. The event took place at the Exhibition Fields at Pennycomequick and the show would have included a re-enactment of the defeat of General Custer at Little Big Horn, complete with a cast of many Red Indians. Children and adults would have been fascinated.

Here is the only film I can find of the show and although it was probably shot in the US, it will give you an idea what the show must have been like when Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show came to Plymouth all those many years ago.