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We've Had Our Own European Community Here For Years (26 January 1973)

TRM/004

The possibility that foreign workers may come to take up jobs in the new city of Milton Keynes has a very old familiar ring about it. Ever since that war, foreign workers have been settling in the district, sometimes in not-inconsiderable numbers. We have absorbed Poles, Latvians, Estonians, Italians, Pakistanis, Hungarians, even Russians. Could the brickworks in ...
Miners Have Always Been The Salt of The Earth (9 February 1973)

TRM/006

MINERS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THE SALT OF THE EARTH One day my father said: “How’d you like to be a journalist?” “What’s that?” I asked, in all innocence and ignorance. I am not sure I know the full answer yet. There are almost as many sorts of journalists as there are sorts of men and women. But I ...
Flora And Fauna And Memories Of Percy King (25 May 1973)

TRM/021

The recent story about the efforts to transform a gravel pit on the Wolverton-Newport Pagnell road into a wild life sanctuary made interesting reading for me. So do the new fortnightly nature notes in the Gazette. They remind me of the time, over 20 years ago, when every couple of months or so I had a ...
These Grand Old Men Are A Source Of Wisdom (12 October 1973)

TRM/041

In my first town which is not past its century as a municipal borough, there was a man who could remember when most of it was farmland. Naturally, as a junior reporter, I knew him. One wet and dreary day I met him on the main street. “Good morning, Mr. ________, though it’s not a ...
Talk Of Shooting Put Man On Path To Socialism (19 October 1973)

TRM/042

I arrived at Bletchley in time to attend the last meeting of what could be called its “long parliament”. This was the war-time urban council which by 1946 had reigned for seven electionless years and was due for a change. Politically it had been evenly-balanced, though after the illness and death during that period of ...
Getting To Know Newcomers - 20 Years Ago (2 November 1973)

TRM/044

September marked the 21st anniversary of the arrival of the first “Londoners” in Bletchley under the town expansion scheme. The Saints Estate was the first to be built for the scheme and early in September, 1952, the key to the door of 3 St. Andrew’s Road was handed to Mr. Arthur Attwell, who had come with ...
Greyhound Racer Led Me To Grow My Own Tobacco (16 November 1973)

TRM/046

An activity now taken pretty much for granted is the greyhound racing at Groveway, Simpson. Hundreds of people from far and near go there twice a week to enjoy the racing and other amenities and the public at large hears little about it. But it was not always so. Some people were greatly concerned, even alarmed, ...
The Reporter's Lot Is Not An Easy One - Nor Is It Dull! (18 January 1974)

TRM/052

Generally speaking, our local district councils, now ending their days, have been a well-behaved lot. Never in my time among them did I witness a case of violence by one member on another, nor even a little gentle pushing and shoving. I have seen members pick up their papers and walk out with snorts of disgust. ...
The VIPs Who Were Also VKPs (1 February 1974)

TRM/054

The longer I continue these quasi-memoirs the more I am impressed by the fact that it is not the Bletchley-shattering events that I remember best it is the kindnesses done to me and mine during my life here – kindnesses which have led to enduring friendships. For a newsman, I am not a very sociable sort ...
Horsey Fraternity Have Richness of Character (21 December 1973)

TRM/050

Captain Phillips is a lucky man. He has not only married a princess. He has married a former horse-riding champion of Europe – A title which has nothing to do with the accident of birth, and one of which she can never be deprived. I myself know little about horses, except which is the head ...
These Men Were The Town's Real Characters (22 February 1974)

TRM/057

Nowadays I feel that the heart is being torn out of the Bletchley I first knew, not so much by the disappearance of old familiar places as by the disappearance of old familiar faces. Mostly they have been those of men who did not at any time occupy any particularly exalted position yet gave a good ...
Associations With The Military - And Military Associations (22 March 1974)

TRM/059

During my early years in Bletchley, I met several men whose acquaintance with the town dated from the first world war. They had been sent here for training, had formed romantic attachments with local young ladies and had returned to marry them and settle down as Bletchley people. For that war, this district produced a large ...
Boer War Meant Bully & Biscuits All The Time (5 April 1974)

TRM/061

When you’ve shouted “Rule Britannia,” When you’ve sung “God Save the Queen,” When you’ve finished killing Kruger with your mouth, Will you kindly drop a shilling In my little tambourine For a gentleman in khaki ordered South? That was the top pop song of the Boer War, the 75th anniversary of which falls later this year. I was not born until six ...
Grim Deaths And Treasure Are All His Concern (19 April 1974)

TRM/063

With the retirement of Mr. John Smithie, Bletchley’s town manager, I can think of only one man prominent in local affairs who still holds the position he held when I came to this district in 1946. He is Mr. Edward T. Ray, who for the whole of that time, has occupied the ancient and honourable office ...
A Show Goes On And It's Another Milestone (26 April 1974)

TRM/064

The Milton Keynes Amateur Operatic society – formerly the Bletchley Amateur Operatic Society – reach a notable milestone this year. For Viva Mexico which they are beginning at Wilton Hall, Bletchley, on Saturday, May 4, will be their 21st annual production. Over the years the members have given many fine shows and I have reported them ...
Letter Writers Help To Put Record Straight (10 May 1974)

TRM/066

If there is one sure thing about writing a column of this kind, it is that you live and learn. And at time you live and unlearn too. Right from my first article – now nearly 70 weeks ago – I have frequently mentioned that I have no first-hand knowledge of Bletchley prior to 1946, which ...
It Was Game, Set & Match - To Middle Age!

TRM/065

One of my unhappiest days in Bletchley occurred about my 58th birthday. Four of us were in the midst of a good game of tennis on the Central Gardens hard courts when quite suddenly my legs seized up in a kind of cramp I had never known before. Next morning I saw my doctor – it took ...
Even The Bad Times Were Good For Men Like These (17 May 1974)

TRM/068

Two of the most interesting men I met during my early years in Bletchley were Mr. John Robert (“Bob”) Bryant, of Duncombe Street, and his neighbour, Mr. Thomas Beckett, who lived round the corner in Osborne street. They came from rather different backgrounds, but they had one thing in common. There were allotment digging enthusiasts. ...
The Secret Of That Dad's Army Joke Of 1904 ( 19 July 1974)

TRM/076

The path of the local historian is bestrewn with pitfalls, especially when he (or she) writes of events which he himself cannot exactly remember but which older people can. This happened in 1952 to no less an authority than Sir Frank Markham – then Major S.F. Markham, North Bucks MP. That year saw the publication of ...
It Wall Roll-Up And Queue-Up For The TV Look-In (21 June 1974)

TRM/072

During my first two or three weeks in Bletchley in 1946 I was mildly curious about the di-pole (letter H-type) aerials attached to a number of houses in the town. I had seen many similar aerials before, but they had been on army masts and vehicles, not on civilian buildings. By some means which I have ...
Thanks And Relief Thanks To The Doc (14 June 1976)

TRM/071

For many years after the war the local area Medical Officer was that genial Irishman, Dr. D.H. Waldron. Carl Moser, then Editor of the Gazette, and I first meet (sic) him over a cup of tea at the opening of the first council house in Whiteley Crescent, which was one of Bletchley’s earliest post-war estates. He ...
The Family Bible Reveals Clues To A Doctor's Dynasty (9 August 1974)

TRM/079

A factor that made me feel more at home when I first came to Bletchley was the presence here of a number of other Yorkshiremen who were in fairly prominent positions in the town and had been for years. Men like Mr. R.L. Sherwood, who was clerk of the urban council, Mr. E.C. Cook, who ...
They'll All Be Friends And Neighbours In Time (23 August 1974)

TRM/081

In one of her recent articles my Gazette colleague Susan, wondered “what sort of population this brave new city of ours” was going to have. She pointed out that the Wolverton Community Association was said to be defunct after only 18 months; that there was a fear that the Bradville Community Association might fold up; ...
Unordered Coal And Those Street Names (16 August 1974)

TRM/080

We had not long been in occupation of our council house at St. George’s Road, Bletchley, when we returned to it one day to find an unordered load of coal being shot into the barn. I forget how the affair was resolved, but the explanation of the error was that the coal had been intended for ...