Michael SCARBOROUGH
speaking in 2006
“My house was built about 1936. I have lived in the village all my life. A man who worked with my Father at Ransome and Marles lived in it first and in 1938, when he moved somewhere else, he persuaded my Dad to take on the mortgage. It was 10 shillings [50p] a month and that was a killer for my Dad. Mum and Dad had to go and get extra jobs doing gardening, house cleaning and things like that.
When I was at school (now the Scout Hall), the infants had the room where we go in now. Seniors were in the left-hand room. In the large hall on the right were the juniors and at the other end was the gym and music room. There were sliding doors that divided the big hall. Later on, when school dinners came in, we used that end for school dinners. The dinners were cooked at the Tech. and brought to the school. My Mother and Mrs WILBEY were the first ladies to sort out the dinners.
When School first started to move to the new building, my Mother moved to the new school. At the new school they had their own kitchen. Mrs WILBEY who was serving meals from the Tech. and Mother were interviewed for new job. Mrs WILBEY’s lasted for half an hour. Mother went in and was asked the question “what is the difference cooking for 60 children and cooking at home?” she replied “common sense” and she got the job as cook. Mrs MOORE was the supervisor at the time and later, when she retired, the headmaster asked my mother why she had not applied for the job and she said she didn’t have the qualifications listed, his reply was “never mind you have got the job!“. He had been waiting for her to apply for the job because Mrs MOORE was continually off ill and Mother used to take over anyway. Mother stayed at the school till she retired at 65.
When I was a lad, we used to play around the limekiln and quarry. The pit itself was very large (or so it seemed to us as kids). It was the last field before you come to Greenways. The kiln is directly in front of the field that was the quarry. Dug for stone then filled in as a council tip ‘till it caught fire. It burnt for many years and they put loads of sand on it first – and that didn’t put it out, so they then started putting on the soil. The farmer regained a sizable field once it was filled in. It was divided into two fields but now it one large field again.
I have tried to remember the date when I moved down to The Mount School. They closed the senior part of the school and just had Juniors and Infants.
During my teenage years there was scouts in the village – the leader I thought were Mr TOWNSEND – but I have since found out his name was TOWN. He ran a small group of Scouts [and] we met in a hayloft on one of the farms. There were no Cubs here then. Later on, I moved to Sea Cadets in town. We had a M.T.B. at Newark Wharf that attracted a lot of people. It was a very strong cadet force with its H.Q. in a building behind the Advertisers office. We used the chapel at the Friary for our Main Stores.
The school dentist was based at the Friary, he always smelled of whiskey. It later moved up Appletongate to an upstairs room between the Church Garden and Bridge Street.
When R.A.F. Winthorpe was active they used to store documents in the building that stood on the side of Beaconfield Drive (the last building to be knocked down a few years ago) and in the late 1950’s we boys got in there and got the paperwork with all the details of the new Canberra aeroplane!!
On the path at the back of the yew wood, back down towards the new A17 bypass (along the concrete road) was one of the coal stores for the RAF Camp. It had a fence all round it and that was where they issued the coal. The military used to paint the coal blancho, so when the guard went round at night they could see if any had been pinched away!!
The indoor arena at Beaconfield farm is built on top of the old Sick Quarters attached to RAF Winthorpe.
The group of friends I hung around with were Bob BAILEY, David ANDREWS, Barry and Brian HANSARD, the BOSWELLs and FROBISHERs.
I went into the Navy in 1955, a fortnight after leaving school. I enjoyed it straight away, but the discipline was terrible. When I was at Vincent, they tried an experiment and [had] a group of borstal lads down. Within two days they dumped all their kit on the parade ground and demanded to be sent back to borstal, they just could not take it.
When I joined at 15, it was 50% schoolwork, 25% drill and 25% gunnery. You earned certificates alongside your Naval Certificates. It was very strict, they gave you five minutes to get out of bed and dressed. If you didn’t, then you had to roll up your mattress with all you bedding and clothes and run round the parade ground in your pyjamas whether it was raining, snowing or whatever. We were in a three-storey building and if you didn’t get up straight away, there were some fire buckets at the top of the stairs and the Officers would push them down the stairs making a loud racket!!
I was on the [HMS] Belfast. I spent my 21st birthday in Hong Kong and my 22nd in Vancouver. I went back to “school” at HMS Excellent” every so often for further training.
I got to many interesting places, most of the world in fact, especially aboard [HMS] “Hermes“, within nine weeks of leaving England – Trinidad, Grand Cayman Islands and New Orleans for Mardi Gras week. I saw most of the parades, Penti Cola, back down to Fort Lauderdale then up to Bermuda for four days. Cruise ships don’t see as much as that!
One of my favourite places was Hong Kong for the life; then again, I liked the South Pacific because there was nothing laid on. You had to make your own entertainment.
I was in Tonga (Friendly Isles) for the Coronation of the King, son of Queen Saloti. It’s a lovely island. It had one club and two hotels. The Post Office was interesting; they had huge tinfoil stamps that the postmistress had to cut. They started off as round ones and took the shape of a banana and all sorts shapes.
When I was in Hong Kong I had two suits made. One was Mohair and Silk mix with a bright red lining and it only cost £10. You could not get it for that price anywhere else! It took 48 hours to make. You didn’t go to the shop. The tailor came on board, took your measurements and brought back the suit 48 hours later. If you put [down] more than a 33% deposit you got a silk tie thrown in for free!!
I served in the Falklands on board the “[HMS] Hermes“. I was five miles away from the “[HMS] Sheffield” when she went down. I was presented with a Certificate from Newark Town Council at the end of the war.
At the end of each commission on a ship you were given a commission book. They have the history of the ship. My grandest is from the “[HMS] Ark Royal“.
On board, you did three-hour watches normally; if you were on “action station” you did ‘four hours on – four hours off’. When we left a ship, we would all go on leave and then on to our next ship.
While I was in the Navy, I met Prince Charles. He was more at ease with the ordinary sailor than the officers.
I believe that the centre of Newark castle is filled with Coddington Stone. The lower part of the two mill houses that were on Clay Lane, near the windmill, were of Coddington Stone – as is the Friary in Newark. The way those two cottages were built was terrible. The ‘two-up, two-down’ [buildings] had branches for floor joists and single brick walls. It wouldn’t be allowed today for habitation. There were two other cottages opposite Hilltop Farm and over time they have been turned into one house and extended.
What really upsets me today, is the covering of the brickwork on the windmill with that black paint. Years ago, it only had a band of black around it, mid-way up. It was still a working mill in my younger days. The sails were still on it, but we were told that they were no longer used. David ANDREWS or maybe Martin SEARSON, who are a little older than me, might remember what happened to the sails.
I think the moat was part of the monastery. It was mentioned when Newark Castle was exchanged. The Bishop of Lincoln swapped Stow for Newark and in the deeds, it mentions “one good fish pond” and that is a good fishpond. There is a sluice system leading from the moat to the fishpond opposite the school. The fry would be bred in the top pond near the moat and when big enough let through to the fishpond. Nobody seems to be sure of what was in the middle of the moat. There was a well in the middle of the moat when we were kids.
I read in a sort of “Who’s Who” of Notts, and Derbyshire that when Colonel THORPE bought Beaconfield he demolished a medieval house and replaced it with a great mansion. He was reported to be one of the richest men in England in malting and plaster.
I have a piece of the fountain in my back garden that I saved when they were talking of having a caravan site there. I also have a tap that once was part of the hot houses.
I remember some of the older people in Coddington speaking of going up some steps to a pub but I thought it was near the maltings, opposite the Green.
The three-storey building on Main Street was a long row of two-up, two-down houses with a third floor. I’m not sure what the top floor was for.
Off Clay Lane was the isolation hospital and if you walk along there, the war trenches are still visible and the remains of the lime kilns. They were also a great place to play when we were children. When they put the cycle track in, they should have joined it up to Clay Lane then you would be able to ride all the way into Newark.
The garage and cafe on the top of Beaconhill was white. It had a bowed end on the Newark side and at the other end it was flat, almost boat shaped. It was a cafe downstairs and a large dance hall upstairs where they had children’s parties with Punch and Judy. In later years they ran a taxi service and had a fish and chips business. It was very much Art Deco inside and out. There were a lot of people who complained when it was pulled down.
The black and white house that was pulled down to make way for the A1 belonged to the GILBERTs. Mr GILBERT was an inventor, and his main invention was the tubular fire escape, still in use today.
I think that Catch’em Inn was so called because it was one end of the Turnpike, to catch people who tried to get by without paying. Of course, it was also an inn because of the curfew. If you were too late to get into Newark then you had to get a bed for the night. The Turnpike came through the village to Sleaford.
I took the photographs of what was left of the outbuildings of the Hall just before the buildings were demolished and the bricks were reclaimed. They show what was left of Freddie BOOR’s house and the hothouses – the coach house that has been refurbished recently.
Collected by David & Jane Hedge. 16th Jan 2006