Based at Sandtoft airfield this gunner remembers cycling into Crowle and Belton. In Crowle he was befriended by Pidds the Butchers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/91/a4104091.shtml
War Weapons Week. The whole of Crowle, Catholics and Protestants, Women’s Institute, Men’s Clubs, Pubs, Political parties, Sports’ clubs all joined together in a special week dedicated to raising money for the war. The Crowle Show and Gymkhana occurred that week together with children’s sports day with fancy dress competitions etc, etc. All sorts of money raising activities were organised which not only raised cash […]
By Bill Goldthorp Peat stacks on Crowle moors. 1936. Circa 1910. Mr. Tune and gang cutting peat on Crowle Moors. Cutting peat for fuel on Crowle moors, has been going on for several centuries. If you read the old documents, there are several accounts of bodies being found, which of course rapidly decayed. These are now known to be either some form of human sacrifice […]
Early cinema in the Isle of Axholme Colin Lovelace My grandfather, John Lovelace, had a cinema in Crowle near Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire, called the ‘Palais de Luxe’ at the Market Hall, shortly before the First World War and opened several more in neighbouring villages like at Epworth (from September 23rd) at the outbreak of war. He ran these until about 1922 when he either sold […]
Later in the war as Sandtoft became a training and then an active bomber aerodrome. Bomber crashes would occur in the surrounding area. The local lads were usually the first to reach a crash site if it was any where near Crowle. They were always efficient souvenir hunters. The day after the crash, the police sergeant, both constables and several specials arrived at the school. […]
The Crowle of my Boyhood. Taken sometime in the early fifties. Starting at the bottom left hand corner, beyond the row of trees and alongside Johnson’s Lane is the fair field. It belonged to Wroots the fair owners, the annual Crowle fair was held there as the same time as the carnival, gymkhana and children’s sports day. During the war (1939 – 1945) the latter […]
Every body had a bicycle, even my mother. Wicks the Cycle shop sometimes had a new one but many second hand plus numerous spare parts. Inner tubes and tyres could be ordered probably with the area being rural the authorities were more generous with cycle parts than in the towns. Garages, barns, old farm buildings were searched and ancient thirty-year old cycles were resurrected or […]
TRANSPORT. In 1939 very few people from Crowle worked at the steel works. There was no workmen’s bus; you had to have your own transport. My father had the Morris equivalent of The Austin 7. He was allowed a petrol ration to go to work and continue his agency supplying oil and grease to the local farmers. This of course meant he had permission to […]
GAS MASKS. These were issued to every body early on in the war; there was a serious concern that the Germans would drop gas bombs aimed at the civilian population. We had to carry the gas mask at all times and did so for the first two years of the war. It was believed that the Germans did not use gas because we were quite […]
Crowle at War. A Schoolboy’s Memories – Part 1 By Bill (once known as Billy) Goldthorp. Background. My mother’s forebears, Tills, Everetts, Oates, etc. had been farmers in the Isle of Axholme for generations. For ten years prior to marriage Doris had been the primary school teacher at Eastoft. Boltgate my grandfather’s farm was a mile north of Eastoft. At that time when a woman […]