Modern day Ciren has about 25 GP’s from 5 Surgeries who cover the town. Back in the 50’s and 60’s you could count the number on one hand, and you knew them all by name – formal name that is. Doctors were once an important fixtures in the lives of their patients; many of which were brought into the World by the same Doctor that they then went on to see for many years in times of sickness and ill health. Judging by the responses to my recent posting of pictures on OldCiren (Facebook), of the “Old School” Doctors of Ciren: Dr Hope-Simpson, Dr Grey, Dr Winters, Dr Westwood, Dr Guest; many people not only remember these Doctors, but still hold them in great affection as being once friends-to-the-family or people that they regarded as personal confidants to whom they would share their secrets and personal worries. It was a time when unless you were fortunate to own a telephone or have one at the end of the street, you simply walked into the surgery and asked to see your personal Doctor. You might have had to wait for a while in the waiting room, or be asked to come back later, but when you did, the Doctor would greet you by name – and ask after your Father or Mother. Rather than a Locum which you might get today, your local Doctor would pay home visits if you were deemed too poorly to leave your bed or in an emergency. I remember once being in the waiting room at 45 Dollar Street and Dr Westwood putting his head round the door to apologise to the patients that he had to dash out to see a patient, but he would be back! We whiled away the hour he was away; reading old copies of National Geographic magazine, Farmer’s Weekly and the last week’s “Standard”.
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As well as mainstream activities such as Football, Cricket, Rugby, there have always been other clubs and teams in Ciren to cater for minority interest as well. Boxing is a sport which goes in and out of popular interest, but in the 1960’s Boxing was a widely followed sport. These were the days of Cassius Clay, Henry Cooper, Joe Bugner and others, who’s fights we listened to excitedly on the radio and then enacted in the School playground or better still (and safer) did so up the stairs to the hall at the back of the Nelson pub in Gloucester street. Cirencester Boxing Club met on a weekday night at the Nelson with coaching by Reg “Pop” Mathews (from Patterson Road) assisted by a number of Dads; keen to encourage their sons in the “Noble Art” but also there for a couple of pints afterwards in the Nelson public bar. At 13, I was too young to join my Dad at the bar after, but waited for him instead in the car outside; nursing a sometimes bloodied nose, with a bottle of real “pop” and a packet of crisps – which in those days came with a small blue bag of salt. The Boxing Club frequently took part in what were called “Tournaments”; fighting with other Clubs as far away as the Synwell Boxing Club at Wotton under Edge and Nailsworth. Sometimes we went further; to the Isle of Wight one year for the Three Counties Championships. Training continued outside of the Nelson with regular running around the City Bank and also with sparring in the front room of your house with your Dad or a someone else from the Club. I remember many an afternoon sparring with Club Member, Derick Smith in his front room at Upper Churnside; avoiding the sofa and trying not to knock over the then fashionable glass top coffee table. Before the time when circuses were banned from using animals, wild animals such as Elephants, were a frequent feature of the Circus when it visited Cirencester. The Circus would visit Ciren usually once a year and would set up in a field off the Gloucester road. There would always be a procession through the town – the elephants leading through the Market Place and down Dyer street towards the temporary quarters in Grove Lane. There is some talk that once upon a time, one of the visiting elephants took ill and was taken by its owner to the aptly named Red Lion Pub in Dollar Street on the corner of Spitalgate Lane for a drink. The record I have says it was hot water from the Pub’s boiler, that the elelphant was given; I’d like to think it was Beer. The Red Lion, which was once owned by the Cirencester Brewery, is no longer there, having closed around 1939. But the remains of the elephant however is rumoured to be buried somewhere in a field off what is now called Abbey Way. Trips to the Circus were a feature of School trips; not just to Chipperfields (Giffords nowadays) when it was encamped up the Gloucester road, but further afield to see it in London. I remember being taken from Lewis Lane School on a train to Kemble and then to London to see Bertram Mills Circus at Olympia. On the 6th May 1932 a different sort of Circus came to town in the form of a “Flying Circus”. Alan Cobham, a test pilot for the de Havilland aircraft company, had started what he called the National Aviation Day displays - a combination of barnstorming and joyriding which toured the country, calling at hundreds of sites, some of them regular airfields and some just fields cleared for the occasion. Ciren didn’t have an airfield as such, so Cobham used land off Grove Lane. But more about this in a later edition.. When I was growing up in Ciren , if you wanted to see a film or as we said then “go to the Flix”; you had a choice of two Cinemas. There was the Gaumont on the corner of Victoria road and London road which had opened in 1924 as “The Picture House” and the Regal just up the road in Lewis Lane which opened in November 1937. I remember being taken to the Gaumont, by my Mother in the 50’s to see films by the likes of “Old Mother Riley “ and my favourite; Mr Pastry, aka Richard Hearne. Mr Pastry was a black suited (or raincoat ) wearing old man with a Walrus moustache and black bowler hat. More slapstick than character actor, like an older version of Mr Bean, he would get into all sorts of scrapes and adventures. He also had a black and white television series, which each week, would have me laughing and screaming at his antics watched on our 14inch screen Murphy that my Dad rented from “Rentaset”. The Regal was bigger than the Gaumont and not only had a wider proscenium and a 12 foot deep stage, but it also had two dressing rooms for visiting entertainers. The Regal provided a wide range of entertainment and as well as films, there were regular events along the same lines as those at the burgeoning Holiday Camps. Butlins style; “Glamourous Grandmother” Competitions and Pancake tossing were regular well-supported features. Many readers will also remember with affection, paying sixpence to get in for the ABC minors every Saturday morning ( Balcony 9 pence) and who can resist not singing the words of the ABC Minors song whenever they hear the tune 'Blaze Away' ? I can’t! The Gaumont closed around 1963 to make way for the flats that stand in its place now. The Regal closed in 1977 and was demolished in 2007. Before the time when most people in Ciren rented a Television from either Ted Ford’s shop or “Rentaset”, home entertainment came in the form of upright pianos, the “Wireless”, or record players. In the early 60’s there were still a lot of players for 78 rpm records around, although the records had stopped being produced in this form in 1958. If you did have a record player in the 60’s, it was likely to be what was a called a “portable”, by which it meant it be could be carried between room as long as there was a plug socket to plug it into. If you had the house room for it, and could afford it; upmarket “Stereograms” were available from Currys. Curry’s had two shops in Cirencester in the 1960’s; one in the Market place selling bikes and toys and the other in Cricklade Street, electrical items. In 1966, Stereograms ranged from 62 Guineas for a Fergusson model 3334 (£59.13) and up to a princely top of range Blaupunkt Arkansas Deluxe Stereogram for 125 Guineas; the equivalent today of £2031; more than three month’s pay for the average working Man
If you had a record player, you needed records to play on them. W.H.Smiths in Castle Street once had a proper record department at the back of the shop where the pens are nowadays. There were racks of records but ff you were unsure about whether or not to buy the latest Kinks single, or in my case; Booker T and the MGs, an assistant behind the counter would happily put them on for you. You would be given the record sleeve to read and you went to one of the booths to listen on headphones. We called them LP’’s in those days – “Albums” being something you kept your stamp collection in. or your Mum and Dad; the family photos. I’ve written about how much there was to do in Ciren when I was growing up – and to an extent this hasn’t changed. As time has gone on, some clubs have gone and many opened in Ciren and today we still have Guides, Scouts as well as Civic and Community groups such as Soroptimists, and one of the oldest; The Air Rifle and Pistol League established in 1932. Shooting was once a widely popular pastime and although the Air Rifle club closed down in 1939, it reopened after the War to cater for returning servicemen who wanted to continue shooting. Before this however, there was (and still is) the Rifle Club situated at the Bingham Hall which formally opened by Mrs Jane Bingham on 14th October 1908.
The Cirencester Wine Club which started about 1974 focusses on wine from well beyond the Ciren horizo, but back in the 60’s and 1970’s there was another sort of Wine club: the Cirencester Amateur Wine-Makers Club which held its meetings in a room at the top of the Corinium Museum. It was fairly dangerous place to meet really – home made wine being what it is in terms of strength and the copious amounts of it drank over an evening of comparing “Parsnip Port” with concoctions made from produce from hedgerow or the Allotment; and then to descend the staircase in one piece! As far as I know, the Amateur Wine makers of Ciren have long disbanded and gone the way of other specialist interest clubs in the town such as the Caged Bird Society and the Pipe Smokers Club which once hosted pipe smoking competitions for Men and Women. Pipe smoking was a once a very popular hobby and even now although largely outlawed, who can resist the pleasure of smelling a pipe of a fine tobacco – Balkan Sobranie anyone ? Judging by the number of photos I have of formal Dinners at the Kings Head throughout the 50s, 60s and 70’s, I think Ciren people do dressing up very well. But aside from “ best bib and tuckers” there’s another bit of dressing up they do very well at too: Fancy dress. Fancy dress was a part of my Ciren childhood and I well remember my Mother entering me in Carnival processions wearing outfits she had knocked up on her treadle Singer sewing machine. I don’t recall winning a prize, but I always won my Mother’s pride. In choosing the pictures for this week’s Nostalgia page, I’ve had to careful in my choice. Times have changed in terms of what used to be acceptable and except in the living memory of those of us old enough to remember, or as captured in old photographs: Dressing up to represent stereotypical Slaves, Black people, or Oriental characters, to name but a few, are now strictly off limits at the very least, and in most cases now illegal. These were subjects that frequently made appearances in the Ciren Carnivals during the 60’s and 70’s . They were times when Floats frequently featured material which would now attract Police attention. At the time hey were not unlawful, and putting together a scene or tableau irrespective of the subject matter, was an important Community effort that connected and drew people together. The Scouts, Brownies, and certainly the Herd” from Adam Ford’s group of teenagers had themed floats, as did many pubs. The Golden Cross always had a float and I think it was in 1966 that they won an award for their “Hippy” theme which featured residents of Blackjack Street and Golden Cross regulars who used the float like a travelling extension of the Public bar; complete with barrels of Arkells beer and my Dad on the piano playing “Roll out the Barrel” . As old style confectionary shops such as Mrs Thornes in Dyer street went out of fashion in the late 1960’s: shops replaced by Estate Agents or Insurance brokers; Sweets and Tobacco had to be bought elsewhere. The new Supermarkets were quick to satisfy the cravings of Cirencester folk with, to use an annoying modern phrase “in-store” outlets for tobacco or confectionary aisles. Woolworths in Cricklade street however managed to hang onto something of the past - selling sweets by the ounce from a huge range, while embracing the modern way of self-selection; the ever popular “Pick and Mix”. “Pick and mix” was once extremely popular and judging by the response to the posting of today’s photo on my Facebook group OldCiren, many Ciren folk remember it with affection and wish it was still available ! I’m reminded that sweetshops also sold Ice Cream; but in my day we mainly bought this from vans that cruised the estates. Stopping on most corners, the likes of “ToniBell” and Mr Whippy would entice us to buy with jingly-but-memorable tunes emitted from a trumpet like speaker mounted on the roof. (Tonibell had a musical cow). Winstons, established in Stroud in 1925 also had vans, and these can still be found selling “99”s, up on Rodborough Common on Summer days. Mrs Thorne’s shop sold a variety called “Meddocream”, an ice cream made in the Midlands from Wiltshire Milk. Although Meddocream no longer exists, a few of us still have our “Archie Andrews” Club Meddocream badges to prove that it did. For younger readers; Archie Andrews was a ventriloquist's dummy on 1950/60’s Wireless and Television. Archie’s fans once numbered 250,000 and while I’m not sure that all of them ate Meddocream “Double Top” cones at 3 Pence a time (Equivalent cost today of 39 pence) many certainly did do so in Ciren. Meeting a friend in town for a Coffee the other day, I remembered a time when there were very few places you could actually go to at all for a Coffee in Ciren. I remembered, in the 1960’s there was the Castle Grill were you could be sure of tea, and also coffee, which in the 60’s was a far less popular beverage than it is now. The Castle Grill had two sides; a coffee bar mainly for the youngsters and a “posh” side where you could sit at a proper table and order a meal. The coffee bar in the 1960’s was primarily the haunt of the motorcyclist or “Greasers” as they were known at the time while Scooter riding “Mods” went elsewhere. As a part-time “Greaser” at the time, I have no idea where the Mods actually went, but I guess they went to the Copper Kettle café a little way further down Castle street. Readers will probably correct me on this, but the Castle Grill had the only jukebox in town and for a “tanner” (6 old pence) you could select a record from the latest hits – as long as the owner had filled it with them that week from Carrols Record Shop in Cricklade Street. The “Greasers” and the “Mods” in Ciren largely dropped away as the 1960s progressed and by 1967 “Flower Power” had started to drift into Ciren in its place. Many of us teenagers were by now sporting Bell bottom trousers and floral pattern shirts with wide collars. It was time when you had to “ Be there or be Square” and the “there” place to be in the late 1960’s was no longer the Castle Grill; it was the Mad Hatter Café opposite the Grill where you could sit and drink frothy milky Coffee at twice the price you used to pay over the road. When I was a boy, my Mother used go into town several times a week to do her shopping. Once or twice a week she went to the Butchers and the Fishmonger and then once a week to the Grocers where there was a proper counter and a stool to sit on while you gave the assistant your order for groceries. These would be itemised by the assistant on a hand written receipt and delivered later that week by bicycle. Before Tesco or Waitrose in Ciren there used to be several Grocery shops in town that delivered. My Mother was loyal to the Wheelers Stores at the junction of Cricklade Street with Ashcroft Road which was just down from Macfisheries which was where she would buy what she called “Yellow Fish” on a Friday (Smoked Cod) to be later poached in milk for tea. In those days – and still is for many Ciren folk; we had “Dinner” at Midday to One O’clock and “Tea” was from Five O’clock to about 7pm. In the late 1950’s and the 1960’s there were also a number of motorised grocery vans that visited the Estates , Watermoor and Stratton. The vans I remember were like a sort of walk-in version of a furniture van; fitted with shelves that were stacked up with tins of beans, peas and other popular comestibles. Going back to bike: When I was about 13 or so, as well as an evening paper round, I also rode a delivery bike after School and Saturday mornings for Timothy Whites in the Market Place. Many was the time when, rain or shine, I would mount my bike with its metal framed basket and ride to New Mills or up Chesterton to deliver the likes of a Sink Plunger or a new towel rail, while all the time I pedalled the heavy bike, telling myself, at least it wasn’t a sack of coal |