Search

Currently displaying: 129 results

You've searched for:

1. Format: "Document" x
2. Subject: "Local characters" x

Search term

Filter by Collection
- Stony Stratford High Street - Properties & People (1)
- That Reminds Me (40)
Filter by Format
- Document (129)
Filter by Subject
Filter by Decade
- 1970s (123)
- 2010s (5)

Sort by:

Clay Lands Us In The Usual Mess (5 January 1973)

TRM/001

So the development corporation are determined to keep their new roads clean. I wish them luck; they have a big job on their hands – and feet – as all we older citizens of Bletchley know only too well. Remember the mess when lorries were running through the town for the making of the M1? Remember ...
That Reminds Me

TRM

That Reminds Me was a weekly column published in the Bletchley Gazette from January 1973 to December 1978. Originally from Yorkshire, Harold (Heppy) Hepworth had worked on The Gazette for twenty years. He preferred to describe himself as a reporter, though his title was officially Leader Writer or Assistant Editor. Later, we believe after his retirement, ...
See our Home Front online exhibition here

VED

Welcome to our online exhibition about life on the Home Front in the local area during World War II. Click on the downloadable PDF to have a look at words and images from local people as they talk about their lives and experiences during this time, as now we celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE ...
If Something's Worth Doing, Give Yourself Plenty Of Time (12 January 1973)

TRM/002

This week, my friends, I draw attention to three items of “news.” ITEM 1. Fears about the possible disappearance of some of the smaller local authorities and dissatisfaction because their work is already being frustrated have been expressed at a meeting of the Winslow Rural Council. ITEM 2. Because as yet there has been no announcement about ...
Loos Problem Has Still Not Been Resolved (19 January 1973)

TRM/003

When I first saw the photograph with this column – which for once in a while was after, not before the paper was published – I thought it would do me fine. No-one would recognise me from that. I did the photographer less than justice. Next day people in the town met me with grins and ...
First Impressions Of Parish Law - And Rationing (16 February 1973)

TRM/007

Looking at Bletchley’s big new police station at the end of Sherwood Drive I find it hard to believe that I arrived in Bletchley in time to know the last of its long line of parish constables – those lawmen who were appointed in every parish long before regular police were thought of. He was Mr. ...
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 ...
The Day I Sought The Judge's Advice (16 March 1973)

TRM/011

With all Bletchley’s progress over the past 27 years in terms of population and employment, it is interesting to note that in one respect at least it has sustained a fall in status during that times. I refer to the removal of the area’s County Court from Bletchley to Leighton Buzzard which occurred some few years ...
Dad's Army Tells Only Half The Story (9 March 1973)

TRM/010

I did not arrive in Bletchley in time to see its Home Guard companies. I wish I had. I heard quite a bit about them in my first few years here. In fact, the references still crop up – but sadly most of them are now found in the death notices of former members. I hope ...
The Wheel Has Turned Full Circle (2 March 1973)

TRM/009

Why did I come to North Bucks? It’s a question I have been asked several times since these articles began to appear. So I will clear it up without further ado. First, I had married during the war – on a 36-hour pass from the army – and needed a place where my wife and I ...
Blowing The Gaff: A Matter Of Time And Place (23 March 1973)

TRM/012

In a northern county borough stands a building whose dome and clock and general solid Victorian magnificence are secondly only to that of the town hall itself. They are the central premises of the town’s pioneer co-operative society. High up on either side of the main door, two medallion-type heads of men are carved in stone. One ...
The Jolly Sort Of Lord Called Longford

TRM/013

I suppose the name of Lord Longford means different things to different people. But whatever else it may mean it would be wrong to think of him as a killjoy. I can even tell you what he prefers in the shape of women’s legs. You see, Lord Longford was formerly Lord Pakenham. He was a great ...
Enough Instruments To Restart The Old Town Band (6 April 1973)

TRM/014

One Bletchley organisation which was revived after the war and which flourished for a decade but then sadly fell apart, was the town band. Occasionally meetings have been called in the hope of bringing it to life again, but so far without success. Leading spirit in the revival was Mr. Bill Axby, who was the bandmaster. ...
Gone Is The Personal Touch Under A Cloud Of Numbers (13 April 1973)

TRM/015

Recently the Post Office lumbered us all with a set of six letters and figures to remember. They represent part of our new postal address. And thus, as far as the Post Office are concerned, we no longer live in Bucks. We live in MK something or other. I don’t like it. Not that I blame ...
The Gazette's Farewell Tribute To A Retiring Colleague (11 May 1973)

TRM/019

It’s easier to say hello to a new colleague that farewell to an old friend. And when that happens to be a respected colleague at the end of his journalistic career, it’s a task that’s well nigh impossible. Our attempt to do so is certain to come as a surprise to the man in question – H.S. ...
A Refreshing Change Came From The Back Of Beyond (18 May 1973)

TRM/020

Regard with a touch of sadness the coming demise of the local district councils. I have known them since I came here at the end of the war, but how to begin writing about them is a problem. They are such a big subject and especially so in the case of the Bletchley Urban Council, ...
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 ...
Headmaster Started The Ball Rolling For Town Cricket (22 June 1973)

TRM/025

By coincidence I watched the final stage of the New Zealanders’ great fight-back against England at Trent Bridge with 84-year-old Mr. Ernest Cook at his bungalow home in Buckingham Road, Bletchley. Nothing much in that, perhaps. Nothing except that it was occasional Yorkshire county cricketer, Mr. Cook, who called the meeting that formed the Bletchley Town ...
In Praise Of One Man With Fifteen Unpaid Jobs (13 July 1973)

TRM/028

Once or twice when I walked into Bletchley’s first full-time library at Holne Chase a man sidled up to me with a look of mild surprise on his face and slyly whispered “I see you can read as well as write.” The he moved off before I could reply. “Next time” I thought, “I’ll be ready ...
The Day The Rural Dean Caught Fire (6 July 1973)

TRM/027

Are your one of those unfortunates who sometimes feel an almost irresistible urge to laugh at the wrong time? If so, you are not alone. I have been plagued by it all my life. The first incident I remember happened at a funeral when I was a nipper. I was not supposed to be there. Our ...
The Poor Boy Who Foresaw The City (10 August 1973)

TRM/032

People looking at present developments in this area may not all be aware that confidence in Bletchley and district becoming a large and important place did not begin with the new city plan, nor with the Town Development Act of 1962, nor yet with the “Bigger, better, brighter Bletchley” sentiments expressed by the Gazette on ...
1890, When Beer Came By The Slab (3 August 1973)

TRM/031

In the first of this series of notes I asked if anyone could tell me more about the solid beer which was made locally for shipment to our troops in the Boer War. I said I had heard of this but couldn’t remember where. I also told how I once met an old man at ...
How I Got My Police Issue-Style Flat Feet (20 July 1973)

TRM/029

You have heard about policemen’s feet – yes? They got that way from pounding the beat for about 20 years. But you haven’t heard about my feet, have you? They got this way from pounding the news beat for many more years than that. What the policemen’s feet and mine had in common was the road ...