"Hairy" time at Formby Lawn Tennis Club

Posted by Cliff Birchall on March 27, 2008 4:08 PM

TENNIS players pictured picking up their hard- won trophies in the 70s were remembered by an old school friend this week.
Reader S. G. McLardy nostalgically wrote in to tell us how cliques at Formby High in the mid-70s were based on musical tastes, after spotting some familiar faces in our February 28 edition.
The picture appears to be of a trophy presentation event, which Mr McLardy thinks took place at Formby Lawn Tennis Club in the early or mid-70s.
He said: “I recognise three or four of the tennis players in the picture. Seventh from left is Christopher Thorpe, tenth is Julie Aindow, twelfth is Phil Blundell and thirteenth is Gary Henwood. “Christopher, Phil and Gary were at Formby High with me in the 70s – Phil was my age, the others were older.
“Phil and Christopher’s younger brother Mike were good friends of mine and most people considered them to be very likeable fellow students.
“Formby High in the 70s had two main groups: the ‘Hairys’ liked guitar rock and heavy metal and Pins liked soul and northern soul – each group had a separate common room for break times.
“Phil, Mike and myself tended to be Hairys but our interests varied. From the 70s the Thorpe’s parents had a pharmacy on Harington Road. Within the last 10 years I bumped into Mike who was then living in Formby with his family after playing for Formby Hockey Club for many years. As far as I know Gary, Phil and Julie have left Formby.”

Formby Lawn Tennis Club in the early or mid 70s. Seventh from left is Christopher Thorpe, tenth is Julie Aindow, twelfth is Phil Blundell and thirteenth is Gary Henwood
Mr McLardy also spotted familiar faces on a picture of a group serving tea or coffee: “Two of the adults are familiar. First from right is Mrs Schumm, who had two daughters, Amanda and Alison. Third from right is Mrs Davies (of Park Road) who had two sons, Howard and Richard. the Schumms lived on the south side of Cross Green.”
Another reader also identified the lady holding the tray as Audrey Davis and is curious to know more. She guesses the people on this picture could be parents campaigning for a pool at Redgate or Woodlands School.

If you recognise anyone on this week’s photos or have a tale for Times Past call Emma on 872 237, email newsdesk@formbytimes.co.uk or write to Formby Times, 17 Elbow Lane, Formby L37 4AD.

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Formby airman’s identity a mystery

Posted by Cliff Birchall on March 20, 2008 3:20 PM

Museum wishes to honour brave wartime pilot who died in 1944

THE search for news of a Formby airman continues after his identity was queried this week.
Last October, Times Past publicised the quest of Surrey’s Wings Museum to track down the relatives or next of kin of Formby airman Ernest Fleetwood Street Till, in a plan to honour him with a plaque.
Serving under the name of Pilot Officer EFS Travis, he died aged 34 in June 1944 at Surrey’s Redhill Aerodrome when the guns of a Spitfire standing on the airfield were accidentally fired by the pilot. The aerodrome claimed records showed he was the son of Mabel Till and Pte Alan Gordon Till, who was in the Australian Infantry and was killed in action at Gallipoli in 1915, aged 29.
However relatives of Alan Gordon Till have got in touch to tell us that he had no children, and could not be PO Travis’ father. Irene Gordon Till from Dorset spotted the mistake online. She said: “The Alan Gordon Till who was killed in Gallipoli was single and his next of kin was his mother when he died. My father-in-law is Alan Gordon Till’s younger brother and there’s nobody in the family who have ever heard of him having a son.”
However, part of PO Travis’ Formby roots were uncovered by history researcher John Rowlands from Formby in December.
He says the airman, who signed up to the RAF in October 1942, is listed as one of the fallen on Formby’s War Memorial.
After trawling through newspapers from 1944, plus the archives of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, he also uncovered evidence of his life in Southport.
Reports suggest that he worked in Southport’s evacuation office prior to the RAF and was a member of Churchtown Conservative Club and North Meols Tennis Club.
Mr Rowlands also discovered that PO Travis, who is buried in Birkdale Cemetery, achieved the more senior rank of flying control officer.
Records also show that he listed his home as Formby and was also married to a Formby woman named Elizabeth Everard Travis.
If you can help the Wings Museum honour PO Travis, or have any information about his family, let us know at Times Past.
If you recognise anyone on this week’s photos or have a tale for Times Past call Emma on 872 237, e-mail newsdesk@formbytimes.co.uk or write to Formby Times, 17 Elbow Lane, Formby L37 4AD.

Were you on the roller express?

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The Formbybeat goes on..

• Tags:
• beatles
• chris rimmer
• formby
• merseybeat
• music
• sixties
• southport
• the kingsway
• the quiet ones

Posted by Emma Cruces on March 13, 2008 3:02 PM

DURING the summer of 1962, Formby musicians supported an unsigned Liverpool band at Southport’s Kingsway Club.
Only a year later its four young members were attracting such frenzied adulation a new term was coined – Beatlemania.
Their support act at the Kingsway was Chris and the Quiet Ones, a Formby quartet who had been part of the burgeoning Merseybeat scene since 1960.
Today, their frontman Chris Rimmer said he is not surprised the four Liverpudlians he shared a bill with in 1962 went on to become a global cultural phenomenon.
“They were meant to be,” he said of The Beatles, who he remembered as being “very nice lads and very talented”.
The Kingsway concerts were held in the venue's Marine Club, on its top floor.
Chris, 65, remembered: “Because a lot of the kids were under 18 they didn’t open the bar until afterwards.
“After the gig we sat and drank and jammed with them (The Beatles). We knew them quite well.”
“They were on the verge of going to Germany and there was talk of us going with them.”
Accompanying Chris as vocalist were the Quiet Ones – Barry Madden (drums), Ray O’Connell (rhythm guitar), George Eccles (lead guitar) and John White (bass).
All were from Formby and aged only in their mid or late teens, with Chris working as a farmer labourer and Ray still a schoolboy.
Southport was a regular destination for Chris and the Quiet Ones, who took their inspiration from the Merseybeat scene, plus 1950s favourites such as Buddy Holly, Cliff Richard and The Shadows.
The group played at venues including the resort’s YMCA, an underground cafe which then graced Lord Street and the since-demolished Palace Hotel in Birkdale.
Chris, who later worked as a lorry driver and builder, had starting singing with a local skiffle group in 1958.
Only months after the Kingsway gig with The Beatles he quit the Quiet Ones to marry Sandra and raise a family.
He said: “After I left and got married the group scene really burst open. Everybody seemed to be in a group. There was a lot of competition.”
Other bands that Chris, a grandfather of four, remembers on the Southport scene were: The Black Cats, The Undertakers, The Sandgrounders, The TeenBeats and Roy Storm and the Hurricanes.
Without Chris, the Quiet Ones morphed into Rhythm and Blues Incorporated and later became The Gems with Fender Ray.
Two years ago, Chris was re-united with ‘Fender’ Ray O’Connell and the duo play locally as Us 2, performing at pubs and bars and functions such as weddings.
“Music is my life,” said Chris. “I was very fortunate to be born in an era when I saw rock ’n’ roll at the beginning.”

Chris and the Quiet Ones at Formby Guild Hall, probably in 1962. From left: Barry Madden, Ray O’Connell, Chris Rimmer, George Eccles and John White Code NA

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Mr Average Remembered

• Tags:
• 60s
• Formby
• population
• school
• sixties

Posted by Emma Cruces on March 6, 2008 12:24 PM

OUR LOOK back into the Formby of the 60s continues thanks to the discovery of more carefully saved Formby Times copies.
Starting with a feature that appeared in 1966, the average “Mr Formby” at this time had 1.2 children, owned his own home and commuted to a “white collar” job outside of Formby. A third of households had no car, but there were many one and two-car families already about.
Formby’s Mr Average had a home equipped with “a garage, a hot water tap, a fixed bath, an inside water closet and six rooms.”
The population had grown by 50% between 1961 and 1966 and this had resulted in some huge changes to the face of Formby.
According to one article, a long-awaited new school opened on Wicks Lane in September 1966, just in time for the new school year.
However the name of this school goes unmentioned. The article only tells us that builders and plumbers were still on site clearing up and the name of the school’s first headmaster.
When the article was written, headteacher Eric Kenyon had been in the job a week at the new school, working with his staff on administration and beginning to teach their new pupils.
If you know the name of the school, taught there or were a pupil, please get in touch with Times Past and tell us your memories.
A few years on, another newspaper article tells us that Formby’s population had boomed to the point where two comprehensive schools would soon be needed. The Divisional Education Officer for the area, told the Formby Times of their plans to provide a 10-form-entry school “together with provision for Roman Catholic pupils” by also providing a four-form-entry RC secondary school.
Farmers in the area were also extremely concerned about foot-and-mouth disease around this time. The local branch of the National Farmers’ Union postponed their annual ball and banquet so as to concentrate their efforts on stamping out the infection. The Milk Marketing Board were advising farmers to wash all milk churns with hot water and soda and to lay disinfected straw at all farm entrances.
In the same week as new school shoes entered the brand new school on Wicks Lane, a small business planned to clean up Formby. A small news article tells us that planning permission had been granted for a coin-operated launderette at 9a Duke Street.
If you have a tale for Times Past call Emma on 872 237, email newsdesk@formbytimes.co.uk or write to Formby Times, 17 Elbow Lane, Formby L37 4AD.

The lady holding the tray has been identified as Audrey Davis by a reader who is curious to know more. She guesses the people on this picture could be parents campaigning for a pool at Redgate or Woodlands School. Can you tell us more?

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