About the
Chat....
It's a relatively short Chat Column this week
due to time constraints. It includes a number of contributions
that I can process fairly quickly. I realise that other items
are still outstanding and I hope to include these shortly. I
would like to apologise for the delay.
Christmas
Lights
As announced in the Visitors Book, Whitstable's
Christmas lights are on. Unfortunately, my automatic camera
simply isn't up to taking photos at night and, so, you will have
to make do with a small selection of failed pictures. But
don't knock it! The rejected shots are far
worse!
It appears that it is a traditional Christmas in 2007. After the handbag swinging of recent years,
the town Christmas tree is back where it belongs...
alongside St Alphege Church.......
The blue thing has turned up at its normal spot in
Harbour Street....
.... and those Dickensian shops retain their Dickensian
charm even if the expensive block
paving has gained a bigger sag than Santa's sack since the last
yuletide....
t
All is well with the world.... until I hit
Oxford Street. It is here that my little world is shattered by
change and confusion.... because I have spotted a new animated
decoration and it is taking quite a bit of effort to decode the
parable. It starts like this.....
So far... so good. Seasons greetings....
Christmas.... Whitstable... a boat... and political
correctness. It fits together.
But, hang on to your Christmas stocking because it's about to
get complicated....
Now I've got three boats... or possibly two
boats and a reflection. However, 'three boats' do tie in with
the song.... ie 'I
saw three ships come sailing in on Christmas Day in the morning'.
So, I'm back on track....until...
.... a large blue jellyfish eats two
thirds of my fleet. Then things take a turn for the
'even worse'.....
The damn thing snaps up my flagship for Christmas
pudding.
On the other hand, perhaps it isn't a nativity jellyfish
at all. Perhaps, its a storm surge in storm
surge season. Over to you for further suggestions. In the
meantime, I will try again to get some decent photos of the lights.
Now.... where do I press.....
Nottidge
School Team....
A while ago, Fred Warner kindly forwarded a
photo that will have some repercussions around the globe. Take a
look...
|
Back Row (L to R):
Colin Hadlow, Alan Milham, Brian Gambrill, Fred
Warner, Tommy Wood, Ken Phillips, Rodney Coe
Front Row (L to R): Garth
Evans, Ian Turner, Dave Hurdman, Brian Williams, Dennis
Hardy |
Fred discovered the picture while clearing out some old
photos. He can identify the occasion as a North East Kent Schools Cup Final
played at the Belmont in March during the late 1950s. The team is that of the
Sir William Nottidge and the opposition came from my
old school - Simon Langton.
Fred believes that the year may have been 1958 and the score
3-1 to the Nottidge. However, we need your help to sort out some issues because I already hold
some information kindly sent to me from Australia by John Wraight. This
includes a photo and an associated newspaper clipping that record a schools
Cup Final at Belmont during the 1958/59 season. I suspect that it may have
been the same match.... but we need someone to confirm that. (NB It is
conceivable that the Nottidge met the Langton at more than one cup final as
there were competitions for each 'year group').
John Wraight's photo shows the presentation of the trophy - undertaken by
Jack Emery of the Kent Football Federation....
The newspaper lists the same names as Fred. If we have any
Langton readers, they may be interested to know that the Simon Langton side
was as follows....
|
B. Swift, A. D Crosswell,
A Biggs, J. Corrigan, H. Ralph, G Allen, S. Johnson, M.. Johnson, J
Harebrook, F Savage, C. F. Hudson |
The news clip suggests that the Nottidge dominated the game
and that the Langton attacked in 'short bursts'. I think that is 1950s terminology
for 'counter attacking'! The goals came as follows....
-
Evans 'pushed the ball into the net' from a
corner to make it 1-0 (Clearly handball in my opinion!)
-
Evans scored again during 'a goalmouth
scramble' (Obstruction on the goalkeeper)
-
Allen pulled one back for Langton 'in a crowded
goalmouth' (A real cracker!)
-
'An excellent long range shot by Wood'
brought the Nottidge their third goal' (Obviously a deflection!)
-
The fourth was scored by Turner after he had
neatly evaded a tackle by a defender (Offside)
|
The report commends a 'strong' Nottidge defence in
which Rodney Coe was prominent' and 'courageous goalkeeping by
Brian Gambrill'. (Note: Rodney Coe was also prominent a few years later
when he sold me a Hillman Imp ;-)). However, the reporter failed to spot the
real reason why the Nottidge defeated my old school on that overcast evening.
Take a look at Fred's photo again - and focus on Colin Hadlow on the left of
the back row. He's a linesman and he's not even being subtle! He's wearing the
Nottidge badge on his jacket.
Talking of officials, there are yet more links to be made from
that Cup Final. The referee was none other than Peter Vanderpeer. During the
week, Peter was the PE teacher at Canterbury Tech. However, at weekends, he
starred as one of the most dangerous forwards in the old Kent League. We
discuss some of his career on one of the pages that make up our 'Whitstable Town
FC - The Golden Years' feature (Click
here to view).
In his presentation speech, Mr Emery said that 'he hoped
that the young players would continue playing football after leaving school'.
Oh boy... if only he knew! Brian Gambrill went on to play for Millwall.
Denny Hardy played for Whitstable Town FC. Some of the other players formed
the highly successful Whitstable Old Boys FC of the 1960s. Almost 50 years on,
many of the lads met up for a reunion of the Old Boys club in 2006 (see our
Whitstable Old Boys feature by clicking
here) .
There are so many memories involved for so many people here....
including me. Fred, Colin Hadlow, Brian Gambrill, Kenny Phillips, Dave Hurdman
and Denny Hardy were friends of one of my brothers (John Taylor). Fred
lived in Island Wall originally but moved to Station Road at the age of seven.
Thus, he became one of our neighbours.
As Fred reminded me in his email, some of the players came to our house to play Monopoly in our front
room in the early 1950s. Well, I can reveal a
dark side to them... because it was a bit more than just Monopoly. They also
played a football game called 'Wembley'. This involved owning a set of
football clubs (such as Arsenal, Wolves, Man Utd etc) and attempting to win
the FA Cup. Although I was six years younger, I wanted to play.... and they
told me that I could own Melchester Rovers. Can you believe that? I even sat
there waiting for my ownership card to be handed to me. It was only when I
didn't get to shake the dice and mum extracted me from the front room that I
realised that I had been shown the red card.
I never forgot it! However, I am not one to
hold a grudge..... so, I WILL add Fred and John's contributions to our Sir
William Nottidge School section. ;-)
Whitstable
Boys School Team....
That Nottidge team photo has prompted me to turn
the clock back to a few years earlier. Firstly, we can extract a
photo from our Oxford Street Boys School section. This features
the Boys School football team for the 1953/54 season......
| Back: |
Tony Paulson, Kenny
Phillips, Phillip Page, Fred 'Gus' Warner, Roy Kendall, Tommy Wood,
John Gulliford.
|
| Front: |
Brian Pope, Stanley Gyde,
John Taylor, Tony Smith, Roger Lilliott. |
As you can see, we are picking up some of the footballing
origins of that Nottidge cup winning side. Kenny Phillips, Fred Warner and
Tommy Wood all featured in the red shirts of the Oxford Street side of
1954. Fred was a goalkeeper in those days but, by 1958, he had switched
to right back.
To find some of the other players, we need to
slip back to 1952/53 and examine a photo that we have not shown
before. It was kindly passed to me with a a newspaper clipping by Mr G Qunney.....
| Back: |
G. Quinney, R Tubb, D Usher, C Hadlow, G Allen
|
| Front: |
A Newlyn, R Nutten, W Fleet, R Payton (capt), J
Taylor, I Turner, A Maflin |
Mr Quinney features on the far left of the back
row. We can also pick out the names of Colin Hadlow and Ian Turner.
The 1952/53 Oxford Street Boys team is a well
remembered side for the reasons given in Mr Quinney's news clip.
The school had failed narrowly to lift the Junior Schools Cup in
1948 and 1950 when
they were beaten finalists. In 1953, it all came
right when they defeated Holy Cross School (Canterbury) 4-1 in a cup final at Church Street playing fields. They
were one of seven schools competing in the competition and they
reached the final courtesy a 5-0 home win over Herne Bay and
narrow 1-0 triumph at Wincheap.
The cup final started badly with Holy Cross taking a
1-0 lead. However, the Whitstable Boys turned it all around with
goals from Newlyn (2), Taylor and Maflin. The reporter described
the secret of the team's success as 'better teamwork and
stronger kicking'. It was all very technical in those days....
until, in the same year, a guy called Ferenc Puskas turned up at
Wembley in a Hungarian side that deployed a deep lying centre
forward and demonstrated that 'strong kicking' wasn't going to be
enough!
Despite England's 3-6 humiliation under the twin
towers, the '53 school triumph gave rise to a bit of a
'do'. The Whitstable FC Supporters Club kindly donated
individual medals and these were presented on the stage of the old
Regal Cinema (now Somerfield's supermarket)... before a packed
Thursday night audience. The lads were introduced by cinema
manager Mr. C. H. V. Barker.
It's fascinating to note that the presentation
would have taken place shortly after the flood of 1953. The Regal
would have been recovering from seawater that submerged the
auditorium and the families of some of the players would still
have been repairing flood damage to their homes.
It's also interesting to hear of a 'packed cinema
audience' on a Thursday. By the 1960s, the Regal was struggling
and, of course, the auditorium eventually gave way to the town's
first supermarket (Fine Fare). The balcony gave rise to another
'first' - the town's first Chinese Restaurant (The Jasmine Tree). Of
course, the reason behind the demise was the TV set. There were
very few TVs in 1953. However, by the 1960s, Whitstable had its
first TV rental company (Rentaset) to make home entertainment
available to most people. Our front room wasn't needed for
Monopoly anymore!
Windows of
War....
Ian Johnson has provided a fascinating addition
for our Whitstable at War feature.....
|
Hi
Dave,
I was just taking another look
through your fascinating "Whitstable at
War" section and came across John Harman's
mention of the fact that it was illegal to carry a
camera or take outdoor pictures during the war in the
town. So, the photo I'm sending you might be a bit
unusual....
It's also interesting I think,
because it shows something that I can't see mentioned
anywhere in the section, although there is so much
wonderful stuff that I might have missed it!
You could call it "Windows of
War" (joke!). In wartime, windows were criss-crossed
with tape, to help prevent them from shattering in the
event of any bomb explosion nearby. I don't know whether
it was compulsory or just optional, but it was certainly
a very wise thing to do. (I was living in southern Texas
for a few months in 1999 and, when the town I was living
in was threatened by Hurricane Bret heading towards it,
we did the same thing to our windows, with duct tape!)
The photo was taken in the back
garden of my Dad's family's house, 98 Woodlawn Street,
on 12 April 1942, and shows my grandmother and my
cousin. It was taken by my aunt, May Johnson, who was
efficient enough to write the date on the back!
I thought it might be a good photo
to include somewhere in the section about life in
wartime.
Best
wishes,
Ian |
It certainly would, Ian.... and many thanks for
making it available.
I must admit that I had given up hope of
obtaining a local photo of wartime. Apart from some official
photos, even Doug West's trusty camera appears to have been
silenced!
Incidentally, Ian has since discussed the photo
with John Harman and John has mentioned that "parcel
tape" was used on the windows. That was the brown paper
tape which needed to be moistened on one side.
This brings back some memories too. Our family
had a massive roll of brown paper 'tape' that must have been
8" in width. I still recall the smell and the weird taste
that resulted from licking it! The roll was so large that it
lasted into the 1970s but by then it didn't stick to anything
for long and we had all run out of lick. Sellotape took
over!
Now....
Whitstable in World War I
After that discussion of World War II, we can do
something that I thought we would never have the material to
manage... ie slip back to World War I. Take a look at this message from Mark Foreman in Alberta.....
Dear Dave,
Please find attached photo's of William Foreman's bits and
pieces from the First World War. I believe, at the
time, he lived in Warwick Rd and was the local Special
Constable. He was the Father of Stan, making him my Great
Grandfather and he was by all accounts a very rough
diamond!
Stan is the youngest one in the photo with his
stepbrothers Leslie, Eddie and George. They were in the
Canadian Army, the Buffs and the Artillery.
Not much is available about Stan's stepbrothers but
they all survived the War and returned or emigrated to
Canada, I believe..........I must ask my Dad if he knows
any more!
Anyway, hope you find these few more old bits of
Whitstable of interest. The sign that the old boy carried
is still in great shape and was used for the announcement
of the arrival of the dreaded Zeppelins.
Best Regards,
Mark Foreman |
Many thanks, Mark. I just wonder how those
handcuffs would go down with the Police Complaints Board in
modern times. They could do some serious damage to nail varnish.
I will now put together a WWI item on the Days
Gone By Menu... but I am not exactly confident that we will get
a heap of contributions at this late stage! At the moment, the
only thing I can add is this extract from my family album....
It appears to be my grandfather (Cecil James Halls
aka Jim) and my grandmother. It was taken locally - at the studio
of "B & W Fisk-Moore of Whitstable-on-Sea". All I
know is that, by 1919 (when my mum was born), they were living in
Sydenham Street..... which is why the old Foresters Arms became
his 'life long' local;. They then moved to Railway Avenue where,
as a self employed tailor, he had a business sign on the wall
alongside the front door.
In the 1950s, we shared the house with him and his
bedroom was set up as a combined workshop and sleeping area. When
mum went Old Tyme Dancing on a Saturday night, I would sit by his
fire and listen to stories of the past. However, he hardly ever
mentioned the Great War... with the exception of one story. It
seemed to suggest that he become a corporal... in charge of some
soldiers from the far east. However, as the guys were related, he
couldn't distinguish between them and they appeared to sell their
lance corporal stripe and ensignia to each other. His first task
every morning was to check if his lance corporal was the same one
as the previous day!
Somewhere, the family still has his two medals
(the two common ones) and I will scan them when I can locate
them.
I actually have more World War I photos relating
to my dad's father. However, they are not really relevant as he
lived in Eltham rather than Whitstable. The one thing I would
mention is that he suffered a foot/leg injury in the conflict and
had to wear a special shoe with springs on either side of the
ankle. I believe that it resulted from a 'bomb' and I have always
been under the impression that a Zeppelin was involved.
Storm Surge...
In our recent storm surge article, we asked for
photos of that worrying day of the 9th November 2007. In response, Chris Siminson has very kindly
forwarded a selection of shots.
The scene below is captured from the harbour's
west head with the surge of water combining with a high tide to
lip the top of the quayside as vessels ride out the storm.
Photo by Chris Siminson
The shot of the inner West Quay (below) shows some
of the precautions that were taken when meteorologists warned of
the problems. Where possible, fishing boats were moored away from
the quay wall....
Photo by Chris Siminson
The beach scene below shows the level of water
along the face of the West Quay pier....
Photo by Chris Siminson
One of the differences between November 2007 and
February 1953 was the fact that the surge occurred during day time
and in bright sunshine. Somehow, it seemed to lessen the eeriness
and impact of the dangers. With warnings emanating from the Met
Office several days beforehand, it became an extra event to be
experienced on our coastline. In 1953, it was all much more
sinister with water pouring over the sea walls unannounced in the
inky black of night time.
Photo by Chris Siminson
Turning the
Native Air Blue?
I have removed the item about the headline in the Gazette that
suggested that Whitstable Town FC were known as the Blues. Apparently, it was a
simple editorial problem. Thus, Liz Crudgington and her fellow reporters were
innocent! My apologies to them.
I now owe Liz a pint.... but I hope to claim expenses from an
editor! Does that make sense? ;-)
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