Category: Bill Goldthorp

Bill Goldthorp
January 1, 1970

Swimming in the Old Clay Pit.

It is impossible to locate the swimming area now. 1949. Dressed and ready for home. Aged 16. Don Tune, became head of the Music Department in a Comprehensive School, Brain (Chippy) Chapman, Lecturer at an Agricultural College, Don Clarke, joined the administrative department of Lysarsts Steelworks, one other and a great pal, my dog Mac. I cannot spell Lysarts. 1952, long summer vacation of my […]

Bill Goldthorp World War 2
January 1, 1970

Crowle at War: Part 6. War Weapons Week, Rationing – submitted by Bill Goldthorp

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 […]

Bill Goldthorp History
January 1, 1970

Non Farming Occupatons Around Crowle & District

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 […]

Bill Goldthorp World War 2
January 1, 1970

Crowle at War: Part 5. Entertainment, Fairs – submitted by Bill Goldthorp

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. […]

Bill Goldthorp
January 1, 1970

Crowle in the 1940 & 1950’s, Bill Goldthorp, Part 1

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 […]

Bill Goldthorp World War 2
January 1, 1970

Crowle at War: Part 4. Prisoners of War, School – submitted by Bill Goldthorp

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 […]

Bill Goldthorp World War 2
January 1, 1970

Crowle at War: Part 3. Transport. – submitted by Bill Goldthorp

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 […]