What’s the story behind this little enamel pot?

Posted by Visiter Newsdesk on January 26, 2007 11:29 AM

LAST week’s 1928 Pic From The Past provoked a great deal of interest from readers but this time LookBack has something different all together.

This white enamel pot was dug up on a Victorian rubbish tip near the home of Shropshire man, Don Langford, who estimates it was last used around 1901.

That’s 27 years before Arthur Rooke decided Ainsdale sands was the perfect spot to film his epic adventure, The Blue Peter.

And one LookBack correspondent, who asked to remain nameless, remembers investigating the goings-on with her father all that time ago.

The 84-year-old said: “We were on holiday with relatives in Ainsdale at the time and we went to the beach to see all this going on, and because my father was keen on taking snaps.

“I remember the hero, played by Matheson Lang, running down the sand dunes being chased by natives, who had spears, and he was turning around with a gun.

“They must have had a lot of extras being the natives.

“When they were having a rest, some were sitting in a row with spears and as I walked past one of them, in a good-natured way, smiled and shook his spear.

“I was absolutely terrified!”

According to the British Film Institute, The Blue Peter, which was taken from a book by E Temple Thurston, tells the story of a man who decides to stay with his family instead of returning to Nigeria.

But very little other detail seems to be available.

Mr Langford has found himself in the same spot since discovering this white enamel pot.

He writes: “Although there are a few cracks in it, this pot is entirely intact.

“From the name and address on it, it must be of great interest to local inhabitants.

“What does anyone know about it?

“What was in it?

“Does the address still exist?

“I would certainly like to know, and I hope that perhaps one or more of your readers may come up with something.”

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Delivering goals and milk

Posted by Visiter Newsdesk on January 26, 2007 10:32 AM

IT was the kind of debut even Roy of the Rovers would have dreamed about.

On this day (January 26 2007) 22 years ago, former Southport and Everton youth prospect Stuart Rimmer walked out a Chester City player to face Southend United.

Over the ensuing 90 minutes he scored one goal with his right foot, one with his left and completed a perfect debut hat-trick with a header.

Reflecting on his football career, the Sandgrounder told LookBack: “I didn’t know what to expect after playing for Everton’s reserves, but I found I had a lot more time.

“I had been used to playing against defenders who played First Division football, so I found I had more space and luckily everything clicked.”

Stuart, now 42, had been signed on a three month loan after spending three years in Everton’s reserves.

He had made his debut at 17, but despite his promise, the lethal striking partnership of Adrian Heath and Graeme Sharp kept him warming the bench.

Fourteen goals in the next 20 games for Chester, and a permanent move to the then Sealand Road side was sealed.

In contrast to his league scoring record, Stuart says he always struggled to score in the FA Cup and never played past this weekend’s fixtures – the fourth round.

The former England youth international said: “I only ever got as far as the fourth round, but it was special, especially for the lower league clubs – they were the best weekends of the year.

“It’s a bit different for the Premiership clubs, because they’ve got more important things to worry about, but we’d always look forward to the draw.”

Stuart went on to play for Watford, Notts County, Walsall and Barnsley before switching back to the team that spawned Anfield legend Ian Rush.

Retirement beckoned at 34, and with no contract on the table, Stuart took work delivering Southport’s milk with Bates Dairy – a job he’s retained ever since.

But, as an Everton fan, his most poignant memory is those first steps onto the Goodison Park pitch 25 years ago.

He added: “The first game I played was probably my favourite.

“I got to play for the team I support, and very few people get to do that.”

Stuart remains Chester City’s all time leading goalscorer, with 185 goals in 361 appearances between 1985 and 1998.

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From Lord Street to the horror of no man’s land

Posted by Visiter Newsdesk on January 19, 2007 12:12 PM

AN award-winning play dramatising the story of one of Southport’s most famous visitors is to open at the Arts Centre.

Not About Heroes by Stephen McDonald tells of First World War poet Wilfred Owen – who briefly lived on Lord Street, and was also billeted at the Queen’s Hotel – and his meeting with fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon in a military hospital in Scotland.

The two poets are the only characters in the play, which is narrated by Sassoon and revealed through flashbacks of the war.

The drama, first staged in 1982, is currently touring after a successful run at London’s Trafalgar Studios.

Fittingly, the Arts Centre is just a stone’s throw away from Owen’s old lodgings at 168a Lord Street.

The revered poet stayed there in November and December 1916 while taking charge of firing practice at Crossens rifle range.

He was placed in lodgings at the Queen’s Hotel, but was less than impressed with the facilities.

In a letter to his mother Susan Owen during his second stint at the establishment, dated December 9, 1916, he wrote: “I am back at the Queen’s in a rather poor little room at the top.”

He had stayed at the hotel once before, in November 1916, before being moved to Fleetwood.

It seemed to be a decision that chimed with Owen’s own wishes.

On his arrival in Fleetwood, in another letter to his mother dated November 6, 1916, he wrote: “I like this digs far better than the Queen’s Hotel life.”

Owen left Fleetwood and returned to battle at the Somme in 1917. Although not as devastating as the murderous battle the year before, conditions were still appalling. Owen’s first taste of action saw him face 50 hours under barrage from German guns in a rain-filled shell-hole in no man’s land. He found himself in and out of hospital.

Finally, after spending three days trapped in a cellar destroyed by shells, he was removed from the front.

Suffering from shellshock, Owen was transferred to Craiglockhart Hospital near Edinburgh in June 1917, where his chance friendship with Sassoon occurred.

Owen returned to the front in September 1918 after having been promoted to Lieutenant, and his bravery saw him honoured with a Military Cross medal.

He was tragically killed, aged 25, on November 4, 1918. His parents received the news about his death seven days later – on the very day the Armistice was signed.

The poet’s new friend Sassoon survived, having been wounded and invalided home in July.

In his last letter to his mother, written whilst underground and dated October 31, 1918, Owen ended with the line: “Of this I am certain you could not be visited by a band of friends half so fine as surround me here.”

Not About Heroes, also the title of one of Owen’s books, won a Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1982 and has been adapted for Yorkshire TV and BBC Radio 4.

Director Caroline Clegg said: “As well as being a magnificent protest against the stupidity of war, the play has eloquence, wit and passion that separates the warrior from the war, showing us the man beneath.”

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What’s an African village doing on Ainsdale’s sands?

Posted by Visiter Newsdesk on January 19, 2007 11:22 AM

IT’S a new year and a new feature for your LookBack page!

Each week a photo from Southport of yesteryear will be chosen and released from dusty attics and albums to be aired on the public stage as our Pic From The Past. So often, images find their way into the LookBack archive but a lack of information to make sense of what can be seen means they soon fall to the back of the pile.

This week, an unusual photograph of Ainsdale sand dunes mocked up as a devastated African village starts the ball rolling.

The image was brought in by an anonymous LookBack correspondent and could certainly fool anyone who wasn’t aware of its purpose as a film set. The only information we have can be garnered from the back of the photograph, where we learn that the scene depicts an ‘African village, after a fire’ and was used for filming by Heatheson Lang & Co in June 1928.

Do you know which film resulted? Call LookBack on 01704-398225 or e-mail visiternews@southportvisiter.co.uk and, if you have any unusual or baffling pictures of Southport’s past send them to Pic From The Past at the usual Visiter address.

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Titanic passenger saved three lives but lost his own: Ted’s lifebelt sacrifice was gift of life

Posted by Visiter Newsdesk on January 12, 2007 12:40 PM

HE sacrificed his lifebelt and held her glasses close to his chest as the icy waters drowned his hopes of a new life in America.

With just eight shillings in his pocket, 21-year-old Edward ‘Ted’ Lockyer left his lodgings in Southampton and boarded the Titanic as ticket number 1222.

He made his way to his shared third class cabin and prepared for the journey that would take him from London grocer’s assistant to the metropolis of New York, his friend Mr EJ Robbins and unimagined horizons.

Ted never made it, but his valiant actions ensured that three passengers who could have shared his fate went on to have a life he wouldn’t ever see.

His great niece, Southport resident Sue Williams, discovered his story while researching her late father’s family tree.

Just like the narrative of the recent Hollywood blockbuster, Ted’s eye was caught by a girl.

He and Bristolian Emily Louisa Badman, who had given up her job as a domestic servant to visit her sister in New York, talked and flirted, buoyed by the adventure on offer.

As the huge vessel launched from its final port of call in Queenstown, Ireland, Ted sent his last ever correspondence to his parents.

Dated April 11, 1912, he promised to “write again” and hoped “I shall land all right”.

Three days later, as a fondness grew between Ted and Emily, the Titanic struck the iceberg.

Emily was asleep when disaster befell the virgin voyage, but she soon awoke and dressed, startled by the commotion all around.

She wrote later that at this moment she went completely to pieces, and it was then that her new friend Ted appeared.

A calm head, he helped her into her lifebelt and led her to the relative safety of the lifeboats.

As she was about to board, she handed her spectacles to him for safe-keeping.

Her lifeboat was picked up by the Carpathia at around 6.30am that morning.

Ted wasn’t so lucky.

Another distant relative of both Southport resident Sue Williams and Ted Lockyer described what happened.

John Ades said: “He was in the water with a lifebelt, but he took it off and put it on a woman who had a child in her arms.

“He went under, but the woman and child were saved.

“Every Christmas after that my great aunt and uncle would be sent a little Christmas box of money as a thank you from the family of the woman whose life he saved.”

Emily arrived in New York, married a year later and went on to have three sons and a daughter.

She died on July 17, 1946 after a long period of illness.

Ted’s body was recovered from the sea and among his possessions, alongside his few shillings, some scissors and a silver watch, were the glasses Emily had so faithfully entrusted to him.

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