| the Wetherby Photographic Archive & Nostalgia Experience | The memories of former Wetherbyite Tim Midgley |
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| Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | HMS Ceres Muster Station | Assembly Hall | 1950's Menu | Contact the Author | |
| the Wetherby Photographic Archive & Nostalgia Experience | The memories of former Wetherbyite Tim Midgley |
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| Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | HMS Ceres Muster Station | Assembly Hall | 1950's Menu | Contact the Author | |
Alan Geany's father had a 'Standard' with
a union jack mascot on the bonnet. Dad's was an Austin A12, with spare
tyre strapped to the back, running boards [useful for push starts] and
crank started. I remember the number plate, AKO 903, this was when plates
were still simple to remember. All cars then came with leather seats as
standard, there was no PVC upholstery. Ah! the smell of leather, the sort
of accessory you can only find in today's expensive cars. Not many people
had a car, certainly there were very few new ones on the road, and they
were almost all black or dark blue with a few grey ones making an
appearance.
One family weekend car excursion was to an abandoned WW2 airfield somewhere NE of Wetherby- perhaps at Tockwith where the driver Training School is today. Here we spent the hot day picking blackberries and spotting rabbits, foxes, stoats and weasels. Those Normans certainly affected the ecology by bringing rabbits to England. Rabbits were native to the Iberian Peninsula, the Normans originally found them difficult to breed here!
There were family and school trips to York, Rowntrees sweet factory, the steam engine museum, Cifford's Tower, the Shambles and York Minster. Stories of workers at the sweet factory being able to eat all the sweets they wanted, a child's idea of paradise. Mars Bars were only 6d, they were, until the 1980's, an economic indicator of the inflation rate, but by the 80's the size and content was, in my view, deleteriously changed.
We entertained ourselves with games such as musical chairs, pass the parcel, blind-man's buff and hide and seek, these were common games at birthday parties. Hide the jewels [a sort of map paper-chase], biking on the quiet roads, climbing, exploring, cub scout activities, fretwork was a big thing, electric train sets, and collecting 'football cards. Usually these cards were black and white and found in packets of 'Wills Woodbines' that the adults bought. These cards were of well-known footballers, to get a Stanley Matthews card was to be hero for a day. These activities were a major source of social lubrication for at least the male children in the 50's.
Bob-a-job week was always a challenge. Trying to fill up a little book with as many jobs as could be found. Usually a few at home would start the ball rolling. Most people, unless you knew them, didn't want to have anything done so Alan suggested we visit 'the big cheeses' around Raby Park where the rector lived. I suppose today I would call this area one of gentrified housing. This paid off and we ended up with a lot of gardening and mowing jobs.
The Fairs would periodically visit the town. These were sited on spare ground at the intersection of York and Deighton roads, there now appears to be a factory here. This was a time for coconut shies, candy floss, round-about rides and shooting knockdown ducks with air guns.
On the York road was, and still is, the Wetherby steeplechase course for horses. One time Alan and I ran around the course [one of us won by a length]. Close up, the brush hedges were wicked things to encounter and were taller than us, then aged nine. The birch branches were more like spear points, as thick as a little finger and I pitied any horse belly that landed on top of these. Beyond that, the horse and rider had to negotiate a slippery water splash. It is little wonder that there are outcries about this form of sport today, but it must be a major source of periodic income for Wetherbyites.
A little further along the York road, past the race course, on the right, was a wooded area we often explored. It was for the most part a reeking swamp. We thought we could disappear into it like we had seen in various cowboy films, as horses could sucked under by forces unseen. I think these swamps are a relict of glacial melt-water ponds from 10,000 years ago which have been slowly in-filled. The wooded swamp still appears on Google Earth, which by the way is the best way of seeing Wetherby today from the air, with excellent resolution for this part of England. Little seems to have changed from the air. After we had manoeuvred ourselves through the boggy parts we would come across a fence, where were tied hundreds of dead birds, rabbits and foxes which had been shot. This seems to have been the main way the farmers protected their crops and stock but is a sad reflection of the way wildlife was managed. I hope this doesn't occur today. Along with the poisoning, I would be surprised if any bird survived the last fifty years.
The St. James Road was another way out of Wetherby but on the West side. Walking up St. James road we would pass the terraced houses on either side, past Stead's cobbling shop on the right, beside an alleyway to additional school buildings for St. James which lay on the edge of the High School fields. We would continue along Crossley Street and past the Secondary School on the right, a rather old red brick facade with newer buildings behind. Past an advertising hoarding above a shop on the left which always seemed to be proclaiming "Craven A Cigarettes- kind to your throat", a not so subliminal message, which I'm sure scores of today's cancer and emphysema patients would attest to. It was seemingly not known by the general population that smoking was so unhealthy, even doctors smoked. Thence, we would walk to the cinema on the left, where the road now joined the Linton Road. The long cinema building with roof ventilators can still be seen on Google Earth. I wonder what it's used for today?
Walking along Linton road was a small kiosk that sold teas etc. and patrons could sit outside on a good day and look over the Wharfe valley from here. They sold 'Kensitas' cigarettes, as I remember on a school walk. A road navvy asked me to get some for him, I didn't really know what they were but I complied. I had to rush to catch up with the class but the teacher never noticed I had gone astray or I would have copped it. A little further on was the park going down a long flight of steps where the school and families would have picnics and games on the Wharfe flood plain. Between here and the Wetherby bridge, on the right bank, was a footpath through cow fields, you had to be careful of the cow-pats, they were treacherous, not to mention the hordes of attendant flies.
A little further up the Linton road on the
right was the Wetherby train station. This was wondrous place where the
steam age was still swooshing through the pastoral countryside. From here
the school would make excursion to Kendal and the Lake district, for the
princely sum of 21/- (105p), a lot of money then, which we brought to school as
instalments over a few months.
In winter some of us would roll huge snowballs on the railway footbridge and drop them down the steam engine funnels as they chuffed out of the station. Of course the light fluffy snow was blown into the air, what a hoot and no harm done.
We also visited the steam engine sheds on a siding near where the Fairs were held. Here I can remember seeing fire buckets hanging from the sides of the shed and the water was frozen solid, I thought, not much use in the event of a fire. The 'Beeching Axe' fell on small rail lines like those at Wetherby in the 1960's and no doubt changed the character of the town with the rise of the motor car.
After more than 50 years I hope to revisit Wetherby in August 2006, I must make some observations of the town and how it has changed. I'm paraphrasing something here Nelson Mandela said: If we return to a place that has changed, we may notice how much we have changed.
pictures of Wetherby borrowed from WETHERBY Archive Photographs, compiled by Wetherby and District Historical Society, Published by the Chalford Publishing Co. 1995 - hope they don't mind! An excellent book, one of a great series. ISBN = 0752403281
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