 |
|
||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|||||
|
|||||
| Ancestor Gateway Forum - STAMFORD MEMORIES GATEWAY (Lincolnshire England) used as PRIDE and PREJUDICE FILM SET | New Topic | Search |
| Thread Topic: The Lansbury Club Topic Originator: David Post Date July 2, 2008 @ 7:10 PM |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| David |
|
||
Must bring back a few good memories for those that frequented the place in the early 60's. It does for me. To start the ball rolling here is a link to the Peterborough Telegraph. There are some great pics of Lulu and the Luvvers and some of the Green familly who ran the place. Terry Rice Milton (Bull) and his first band were the support group for Lulu that night. I remember it well. http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/lookingback/Do-you-remember-when-Lulu.3950787.jp Regards Dave Leishman. Kate: Thanks Dave. Where are all those Lansbury Club crowd? Send in your memories. |
|||
| Joan Stafford |
|
||
Does anyone remember when the Lansbury Club had roller skating ? Didn't last long as it was very noisy for the people living around that area. But it was very popular with the youngsters. Perhaps something like that is needed again. |
|||
| Patrick |
|
||
I believe the Lansbury Hall was named after George Lansbury (1859 - 1940) one of the founders of the Labour Party. I have a vague recollection of him coming to Stamford in the mid-1930s to open the Hall. Can anyone confirm this? I believe the driving force behind the fund raising and building of the Hall was Councillor George Essex a life-long member of the Stamford Labour Party. In 1944 I came home on a 48 hour leave from the Navy. I saw there was a dance at the Lansbury and decided to go. I found myself swamped by the US Air Force. I had one dance with a girl I went to school with and that was it. The locals didn`t get a look in! We retreated to the Balloon and went back in at 10.30 as the dance was ending to see if any girls wanted an escort home. The end of the evening was followed by an announcement that there was a party at the US base at Walcot Hall to which transport would be provided there and back for the ladies. Next day back to sea thinking how Stamford was changing. |
|||
| Clem Walden |
|
||
Hi-Joan, I remember the Roller Skating at the Lansbury in the early 50s. Will Darns ran it, he had a shop in St Marys street, brought my first pair of jeans from him & the odd shirt, it was a little difficult with your skates on for the boys to visit the toilet if my memory serves me well, you needed to go down a lot of stairs as the gents was in the basement. had some great times at the old roller rink, fond memories. |
|||
| Patrick |
|
||
Will Darnes shop was called `Suitalls`. Wasn`t Will also the leader of the resident band at the Lansbury in the 40s and 50s? The band was called `The Black Diamonds. |
|||
| Clem Walden |
|
||
Hi-Patrick correct on both points re: Suitalls & the Band, Will Darnes was a very nice guy, his band was also vey good. old Suitalls shop supplied many of Stamfords "first teenagers" with the latest fashions. When one thinks back to the late 40s their were no teenagers as such the word had not been invented! you was either a school boy or an adult, in the earlier 50s all this changed "rock & roll" teenagers were born, Teddy Boys new fashions, forgive me for saying this but I always think my generation were the last of the real workers & the very first teenagers. Not meaning no one after ever worked, but meaning if you did not work the you could not go out & live life. there was no unemployment benifits, sick benefits, or job seekers monies, no work no pay, state benefits were not available, girls & boys in those days did the same as their parents & grandparents had done before them work or go without. things are much better now, or are they? |
|||
| John Tyers |
|
||
Heard somewhere that when George Lansbury opened the hall, he was accompanied by his daughter Angela, star of that irritating "Murder she wrote!" After the war the Labour Party ran socials there and later Bingo. We had not been married long, it was a long time until payday and my wife won about £30 in one session as I remember. I think there was quite a lot of controversy over the selling of the hall as it was built by voluntary subscription. |
|||
| Mike Laughton |
|
||
George Lansbury did indeed come to Stamford to open the Lansbury Hall in the 1930s. He was leader of the Labour Party at the time and the new building, which was to be the headquarters of the Stamford and Rutland Labour Party, was named after him. He was actually Angela Lansbury's grandfather and one of the greatest politicians of the 20th century. Perhaps the best Prime Minister Great Britain never had. He would indeed have made a brilliant peacetime PM and was responsible for many of the advances made by ordinary working people during the early 20th century. However, he had one quality that the country did not want or need in the late 1930s and this led to his fall from grace. He was a committed pacifist and he supported the policy to appease Hitler. Today, the Lansbury Hall houses the Newage Social Club. In the early 20th Century before the Lansbury Hall was built the first Dodman's (Doddies) cinema occupied the site. |
|||
| Mike Laughton |
|
||
Incidentally, George Lansbury was also the grandfather of Oliver Postgate - creator of Bagpuss and Ivor the Engine. Lansbury would have been 76 when he came to Stamford in 1936. He died of cancer four years later - in May 1940. |
|||
| reg hornby |
|
||
will darnes also ran a band called the Senrad Players and I attended one of his dances at Castle Bytham in the early sixties. |
|||
| Chris |
|
||
Reg, are you the Reg who used to work at St. Michael's Motors? |
|||
| tom fitchett |
|
||
History of the Lansbury Hall This history is compiled from notes left by the late Harry Islip and are reproduced by kind permission of Max Winslow executor of his will. In 1900 the building on the site was the Primitive Methodist Chapel. In 1908 a roller skating rink, then the Palace Theatre showing silent films, variety shows and plays. It burnt down in 1926 and lay derelict until purchased by the Stamford Labour Party for £100 in November 1933. Work started on clearing the site on Good Friday 1934 by a number of volunteers under the leadership of Fred Boyfield. Volunteers included ;- Percy Wyles, R.H.M Islip, D.H Islip, Stan Parsons, George Parsons,Ted Holmes, Sid Smith, Fred Collin, Rowalt Archer, Bill Newman, Joe Hoe, Don Haden, Frank Rice, George Smith, Sid Belton, George Wigginton, Ray Boyfield, Charlie Barnett, Reg Parsons and others. Much of the original material was reclaimed and reused. The front part was rebuilt by the volunteers with money for the extra building materials raised by the concert party who performed in All Saints church hall and in the surrounding villages. The Concert Party Singing and dancing girls:- Peggy Cox, Nora Collin, Joan Webster, Nellie Rudkin, Betty Pauley, Maureen Cole, Gladys Harrison, Valerie Bell, Doreen Harper, Doreen Sullivan, Vera Hagger, Marjorie Thrower, Jessie Blodworth and others. They always opened with Happy Days are here again and closed with Au Revoir But Not Goodbye. Reg Rawlinson gave popular songs of the times Maynard Pickwell gave Stanley Holloway monologues Eddie Jones sang Victorian songs in Drag. The front part of the new building consisting of committee room, kitchen, toilets and billiard room opened in September 1936. The main hall was built by W.Brick & Son with a mortgage of £840 and was opened by Rt. Hon. George Lansbury April 28th 1937. The main sources of income were Wednesday and Saturday dances the band led by Jimmy Darnes (piano) with Will Darnes (accordion & guitar), Ron Darnes (violin) & Bill Bloodworth (drums) and were profitable until September 1940 when the hall was requisitioned to house soldiers. The army returned the hall to the Labour Party in april 1944 and dances resumed which were very popular until 1947 after which they went into decline mainly due to competition from commercial dances at the Town Hall. Various other ventures were tried including roller skating but they were never really viable and the hall was sold in 1954 to Chas. Gray for £4000. Kate: Thanks for that Tom. Its all there (the history) if someone can dig it out! Will bring back loads of good memories I am sure. |
|||
| John Tyers |
|
||
Extremely interesting about the Lansbury Hall and among the dancing girls whose names I scanned through, I saw my wife's aunt Vera Hagger listed in the troupe who thankfully is still going strong. I must pull her leg about that little episode in her past life! |
|||
| Philip Rudkin |
|
||
My cousin Syd Bowers tipped me off that my Mum (Nellie Rudkin) was mentioned on the Gateway memories about the Lansbury Hall. I have just read the history, fantastic! What memories! I had not realised that Mum Nellie had been in the concert party, however, I have an old black and white photograph of her in costume, and I vaugely remember her mentioning that she used to be in a show. I wonder what era that was? I was born in Essex Road in 1936, and I wonder if she gave the concert party up after she had me. My Sister Joan was born in Oct 1926. But, as Nellie was mentioned in the history, she was probably dancing after Joan was born. Incidentally, I remember the Senrad Players. I also remember going in to Suithall's, in St. Mary's Street, and the lovely Bill and his wife serving us youngsters. |
|
||
 |
 |