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 A beautiful old sepia print of Loftus Town Band, late Victorian at a guess, activities like this were encouraged to keep the men ”out of trouble” in their free time, the employers often donating the instruments. But once again the Archive is open to any help you may be able to give! Image courtesy of Loftus Library.  Ray Brown tells us: ”I took this Polaroid picture of the Dinner Ladies at Carlin How Primary School (long before it was called Whitecliffe); it was taken circa 1967, well before the period when meals were cooked on the premises. In 1963 as you may remember all school meals were cooked at the central kitchens in Loftus”. The Dinner Ladies are: left to right: Audrey Sweeney, Marion Sayers, Kath Lancaster, Annie Dyer, Jean Cook and Rose Partlett. Image, dating and names courtesy of Raymond Brown.  This one took some preparation; it arrived as an A3 image badly creased! Scanned in two passes, stitched together and ‘Photoshopped’ to remove the crease, cropped and reduced back to A4. We asked questions and the answers are: Loftus Junior School production of The Old Music Hall and the year is probably 1981/2, but we await a definite. The annotation will take some time. But we can identify the following: girl in centre possibly Paula Danby, Rebecca Bowman is little girl in the bonnet on the right with hands together and Olivia McBurney is is seated front row, she is the little girl all in white with a white bonnet. We await other names. Image courtesy of Marian Toulson, thanks to Dan Ferguson, Rebecca Bowman and Barbara McBurney for the updates.  Chapel Bank Loftus looks as though some traffic has had a bit of a struggle to get up the bank with the snow.  Back row: Kevin Hampton, Martin Lonsdale, Steven Fenby, Leigh Winspear, Mark Scott, Steven Marsay, Mr D. McKenna. Third row: Joseph Bainbridge, David Robinson, Ian Robinson, Sally Buckton, Debbie Slassor, Tracey Money, Karen Lydsey, Louisa Wilson, Stephen Caley, Gary Flood . Second row: Beverley Johnson, Cathy Elliott, Linzi Hodgson, Michelle Hutchinson, Ruth Paulie, Kirsty Blythe, Claire Bailey, Joanne Yardy, Helen Neasham. Front row: Simon Best, Stephen Janicki, David Wilson, John Dean, Paul Sargeant. Tom Sayers has told the Archive: ”One of the annual Christmas Shows organised by Mrs Leybourne. The scenery was painted by Mrs Himsworth. I took this photograph along with many others.”  Another image which causes questions; but judging by the youthfulness of the footballers, it could be a junior school or senior school team. A trophy might have given a possible competition. I guess these were the winners, judging by the crowd of spectators in the background, but which team, what was the occasion and who were they?  We have no ideas about this photograph, we can surmise it is a football team, but after that nothing. Can you help us put names to these faces please?  A lovely clear photograph of Newton Memorial Chapel we can even see some of the head stones in the cemetery behind it, a beautiful building; such a pity it was bombed on 15th March 1941 at 4.48am. (Bombing information from Bill Norman’s – Wartime Teesside Revisited). Quoted verbatim from Bulmer’s Directory Norman Patton advised: ”Newton Memorial Chapel was built in 1876, at a cost of £3,564. It is a handsome brick edifice with freestone facings, and will accommodate 900 persons. In 1885 the front was altered and improved at a cost of £405.” It was named after the Reverend Robert Newton of Roxby (1780 – 1854) who was a travelling Wesleyan minister and four times President of the Wesleyan Conference. The chapel of 1876 was built to replace a more basic built first erected in the early 1800s, Methodism in Loftus dates back to the days of John Nelson, who ”roused the inhabitants with his stirring appeals”. Norman Patton further tells us: ”As far as I am aware, no one was killed by the bomb which fell on the open space/recreation field at the rear of what used to be the United Bus depot. Massive pieces of earth were hurled into the air and caused collateral damage to several houses in Tees Street. One such house was the home of my Great Grandmother Elizabeth Ann Hicks (at No 29), which she shared with many other family members. Although their home was severely damaged none of the seven occupants was injured. All needed to be rehoused with other family members in the district for 18 months while repairs were carried out.” Image courtesy of several sources, thanks to Norman Patton for this information.  A lovely tinted Auty series postcard of East Crescent showing the Chapel on the bank and a horse and cart making their way up East Crescent. Wonder what he had on the cart?  The text with the image says it all. A beautiful building destroyed – there is one consolation, it could have hit any of the surrounding dwelling places – with probably more disastrous consequences! Image and in formation courtesy of Jean Wiggins. |
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