Dance halls
 

Hi,does anyone remember Knowmere St; & Joe Mortimer's we used to go to Knowmere St;or Christ Church on a Saturday,then we'd go to Joe Mort's;on a Sunday as long as our parent's didn't know,not many dance hall's were allowed to open on Sunday & lads & lassies came from as far away from Blackpool on the train,there was often a lot of fighting with the local lads.

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Lots of us remember, on lots of other threads, try putting Knowlmere St into the search box at the top of the page.

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joe morts was the in place in those days, i seem to remember guard dogs being at the top of the stairs, was it rough?it was renowned for good nights,and the big crown next door to it, that was later than the morts scene, a guy called frank monohan was the landlord he had a daughter called pat, you was always in for a decent night out in accy.

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Bernard was landlord when i first went in, Frank took it oer from him, When they came out Pat n her Mam moved oer Fleetwood way, Bumped into Pat a few times oer yon, Big Crown was always a good boozer back then, But i thought better before the alterations,when Bernard used to have groups on, was very handy before goin up morts.:D

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I bet you were one of those that didn't wash their arm so the pass out stamp was still there the week after:D:Doh yes I remember it well:D

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the crown in those days, (frank monahan) was a big guinness place, most people in there drank bottled guinness, the guys worked on the roads.and the tar mackers, the fitz brothers, john and jimmy, and frank used to sub them beer all week, and end up with most of their wages, i remember a scottish guy called bruno curley hair i cant ever remember seeing him sober,i remember a night it was pats birthday party,didnt start till closing time we all helped to tidy up, and put the buffee out, a knock on the door, when frank went to the door it was alex higgins with a bottle of whiskey for pat,frank took the bottle said thanks and shut the door, i would have luved to have seen his face,

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Used to live wi john way back, all those lads are gone now, n quite a few more of the crown lads.

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i bought johns wagon,maybe 1974-5 a black bedford tk 10 tonner was one of ironfields, silly story, i was sick of building trade one year, we was in crown, all the worse for guinness,john said give me £150 you have bought the firm, it consisted of the wagon tarmack tools roller ect, his brother jimmy, george kennedy, and a heavy goods driver called carrot, like the idiot i was in those days, i paid him, biggest job was getting them out the pub, a bigger job was keeping them out,i deserved every penny we earned

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Joe Morts: sawdust on the male toilet floor, a hosepipe linking a leak from the ceiling out through one of the windows, fights on the dance floor that were so common we just danced round the bodies knocking hell out of each other. Mary Mort walking around the floor with her two German police dogs on chains wrapped around her wrists.The police used to parade outside in great force with their dogs because they were not allowed inside due to it being a private club ( the reason we had to become members was to keep the police out unless invited in) Apparently Joe's had the largest private membership for a club outside the USA. The front page of the Accrington Observer often had headlines about the trouble outside Joe's but this was often propaganda because the council wanted the place closed down. Does anyone remember the cartoons that were drawn and pinned to the window of the disc jockey's room? Downstairs was the cafe. The Ted's used to wobble their solo dance and occasionally brandished their knuckle dusters and bicycle chains that they never used but kept for show. Even now one can go upstairs and have a look at what was the dance floor and room known as Joe Mort's. It's a gym but they don't mind one having a look.

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Thought you were a peace-loving, CND badge-wearing beatnik, Stuart?

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i remember going to a dance hall in oswaldtwistle,?turn up by the clinic, as if going to rhyddings school,it was a right turn before the school,and then on the left must have passed it loads of times on my way to and from rhyddings, but a name, i cant remember, remember vaguely it being upstairs, (i think), memorys getting worse

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the only dance hall I remember in ossy was the Empire!

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That would be the weavers institute
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Sun...,90.34,,0,3.29

I don't recall any dances there - I left Ossy in 1961 (aged 18)

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There was a dance floor in Church Con Club. I went there a few times. Bopping. I remember dances too in Oak Street Cong Church hall. Th' Arc (adian) was probably my favourite - an off licence at the end of the street is still there I think. Cliff Davidson (?) was the bossman. One of my memories of Mort's was wearing a black shiort and jacket and making a hearing aid out of a white ear-ring and white bell wire to make people think I was Johnny Ray. It worked. I got sympathy from girls.

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Only one i remember also, Though Church Con down the road had dances upstairs, thats maybe what janloots on about?:confused:

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Perhaps its something to do with old age: peace loving...yes - CND...well, yes but without the badge. Never have been a beatnik...too late now ;);)

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the weavers rings a bell, the empire was still a pictures in those days, i think it was 1962 when i vacated gobin land, jimmy fitz used to live opposite if i remember,just when he started, or got married,not sure, i can only remember going a couple of times, it was maybe not a full time dance hall,

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That was St Mary's on Lock Street Mr j....always a bit disconcerting getting up close and personal with a girl and then the priest would be on patrol ;) Hand down by your sides and look innocent.
There and Spring Hill sold Cideraide :cool:

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Jimmy lived on Sun St when he got wed,of which Ossy Civic Hall is just at top of street.Lock St is in that area, used to have groups etc upstairs yon.

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You're not talking about what used to be St. Mary's Youthclub are you?
There used to be dancing there on Saturday nights

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Sorry, just saw there had already been this suggestion!!

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I then became St Maries Catholic club, was certainly that in 62 used to go dancing there every Friday night, it was while going into that place that I heard about the assassination of JFK

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Very rarely saw a priest in Lock St. Mr. D., there again never looked innocent in my life:D

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My oldest and best mate Micky Bull * and Hugh Jardon were always getting told to calm down by the priest ;)

* Micky hates me introducing him a my oldest best mate ;)

But as Sospan the Ice Cream seller in Aberystwyth says " I can't afford friends in this town, I lose too many working days attending the funerals"

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Mick Bull says it was Cydrax ;)

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I,m puzzled as no one else has mentioned going dancing to the Empire it was definatly 59/60 or am I that senile I,ve lost me marbles!

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It has been mentioned often in other threads in the past.
If you used the 'search' facility you would find them.

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Wandering off for a min. Is that Micky Bull worked at Huncoat Pit.

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Micky Bull hell that is a blast from the past, used to live near the Holy Farm near Derek Thornhill on Malham I think it was called

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Not sure when it closed was before the time I was attending dance halls around 62/63:confused:

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Yup J... Derek of the Warriors fame of course. Woke up on Mick's mums living room floor many a Sunday morning :D She used to say in her lovely Irish lilt " You'll be having some Breakfast D before I get off to Mass" Lovely lady salt of the earth.

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Yes Mr h...there's a thread on here somewhere where cashman and me mention it....
I used to get there from time to time usually when I had to lie low from the Arcs from a while.

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Can't find my bit but this about covers it Mr h


http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/f...ire-28841.html

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It's never too late, bud.;)

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Thanks for that D, I remember coming out one night the fog was that thick the buses had stopped running we had to walk home and you couldn,t see your hand in front of you,oh and I,m not Mr I,m Mrs.

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Thanks for letting me know that Mrs h :D
Though it wouldn't have been long before "her in Morecambe" woulda put me straight. ;)

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Bet you were on Stuart's "Hands Off Cuba" march to the Town Hall in Oct, '62. If I remember rightly, Ben Johnson went ape about it afterwards! :D

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Wyn wasn't that a different young man (in those days) by the same name? He really was a beatnik. This one is (was) a hairdresser, the one you are thinking of went to Japan.

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How do you know this isn't the beatnik, Hands Off Cuba Stuart Hartley, Susie?

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Well this one is or was definitely a hairdresser if you read some of the comments on his profile.

And some time ago you or somebody else told me in a pm that the beatnik one was on here under another alias which I won't post here but have just looked at it and it fits.

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Oh dear, looks like I've boobed! Thanks for enlightenment, Susie, and apologies hairdresser Stuart! :o

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Me thinks his mum might have been a tad disappointed with that one D:D

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Think you could be right Sue, the Stuart Hartley I know was a hairdresser, can't remember him going beatnik at anytime

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No with all the little Bulls appearing sleepy eyed from upstairs one more bacon butty made no nevermind.
Mick, Tricia,Margot Peter and Philip n me...could be a film title :rolleyes:

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I think the beatnik one spelt his name Stewart as opposed to Stuart. Here he is, anyway, on the right, circa 1964

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You're quite right, Susie and as you say, the "other" Stewart Hartley has posted on here!

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John Sergeant think he was a year above me at Accy Tech.. became a quite decent fell runner with Clayton Harriers Susie. Lived at the bottom of Avenue Parade. Was his mother a music teacher maybe?

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John Serjeant (note spelling) was my boyfriend for two years or so early sixties. Yes, his mother taught piano and they lived at the bottom of Avenue Parade. Sadly his mum was run over and killed virtually right outside her door, some time in the seventies I believe. They also had Farmery's leather shop opposite the Post Office.

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mmm Susie I remember John having a few lucky escapes up Ingleton too when we were in the Accrington Caving Club.;)

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I'm 'wandering' now.......

Would that be the same as the group that used to go potholing?? I remember them because I attended just one of their meetings and as it finished we got the news of the Kennedy assassination. I can remember a lad called Ray Dewhurst being one of the group

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Well he wasn't a caver or a fell runner when I knew him... 62/3/4 it would be.

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Yes Ray Dewhurst was one of the founder members. Early meetings were mostly in the Abbey and a couple in the Blockade. Minibus up to Clapaham or Chapel le Dale Sunday mornings.

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Think I rememeber some guys doing potholing and climbing etc from the Abbey or the Bridge. One guy got killed when he fell, I think they called him Flash or something like that.

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Ray Lightfoot aka Flash he was climbing a cast iron drain pipe on the Ingleton Viaduct after a night in the Wheatsheaf. :( The drainpipe and Flash peeled off with fatal consequences. :mad: We all thought we were invincible in those days.

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Time and tide wait for no man or woman even in Morecambe Bay as Chaucer used to say.

I guess Susie as Michael Faraday said " If you are not part of the solution you are part of the precipitate"

You being a scientist and all would know that ;)

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Got the old ZX Spectrum down from the loft and loaded up the C60 cassette. Early members of the Accy Caving Club "Ray D, Mel Singleton , Raymond Lightfoot (dec), David Preston,Jack Pickup, John Conway, Pete Fisken & moi. Ladies Sue Gilespie, Judy Twissell and a few more......
Can't find any pics but I have got the techy guys at Creech AFB working on another cassette, who knows what they may come up with. ;)

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If I remember right, You had a movie camera of some sort about 63/64 and I think you had a film of me crossing Abbey Street. I was seeing a lass called Connie at the time. She had a ladies Hairdressers top of Blackburn rd on the right hand side. ( I think.)

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Connie Downes married Jack Henry (who jaysay will surely know from Ossy ?).
Her and Carol Duckett?? were inseperable in the sixties and are still best mates.

Carol now hitched to the infamous, inimitable and gravelly voiced pub singer Tommy Franks. Nino "thingy" before that, latin lothario who had a garage behind the old Asda/Queens Bingo :cool:

I remember wandering off up the coppice with Carol on a few occassions to have a look at the "err" wooden gun carriages and emplacementsup there *grin*

Movie camera Mog yes it was Eumig 8mm. Current Mrs P say" You are not going up that flipping loft looking for it at this time of night ****** off to the Forts wi yer chums"

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Carol was in my Class at St Johns, brought up on same street, worked at M@S fer most of her working life, ;)

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Yes you are right,She did marry Jack. I used to go with Connie and Bob Burnside was going with Carol. We used to go and look at the same gun carriages as well. Jack worked with me at Huncoat. He never looked very healthy in them days. Nino was a so called Mechanic. I think it was Connie who worked at Marks most of her working life though. Do you remember Connies brother who eloped to Gretna Green just before his planned wedding. Connies dad also operated the winding engine to get us miners up and down the shaft at Huncoat Pit. I used to dread going on the lift if he knew I was traveling on it. The operator had the ability to stop the cage dead as it was travelling the shaft. Ask any miner who has ever experienced it. ( New Underpants were required) I Knocked about with Tommy,s brother Frannie Franks for a while about 63/64.

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Jack Henry, D. is that the Jack Henry, son of John Henry, lived on Moscow Mill street in the 50s, he was in my class at school, red head lad, suffered very badly with Arthritic in later life, not sure if he still does or is still alive even, but he used to live near me, saw him on a regular basis in the 90s, his Father John a good friend of mine lived a couple of doors away from me and often popped in for a chat

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The Franks brothers were members of the Sundowners Band in the sixties, Frannie was in my class at Holy Family, was living near the old Broad Oak works the last time I saw him Tommy is still knocking about with his guitar or he was

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Franny F is back in town.. him and Tommy can usually be found in Grants (the Old Hargreaves Arms) Not together though ...brotherly love or summat :rolleyes:
Tommy still singing he's a bit like some of these threads great in the beginning but goes on too long. Seriously though he does a lot for charity last saw him at a Macmillan do in the Peel... one of Accy's characters.

Jack Henry yes to all that jay. He was the dapperest of lads round town always suited and booted,and yes suffered bad with a congenital arthritic condition. He was a welder at JT Rothwells in Church when he was with Connie I am sure he is still knocking about Connie (or Mick Bull) would have told me I hope !!

mog Inspecting the gun carriages!!! and Carol told me I was the only one!! usually after my Jubbly had melted ;)

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I used to see him regular D walking very badly with a stick, ain't seen him for ages although to be fair I haven been out that much in the last few years to see anybody really

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Rang Connie Jay... Jack's fine living up behind the Heys still. Singing in the St Mary's choir and learned to play the sax !! Of course you know his dad was choirmaster there so he's continuing the family connections with the church. Connie say's he looks really well these days :D

Connie and Carol (inseperable as ever) went to the Pop' Friday night Billy Fury tribute act. mog
Well that sorta' gets this thread back on track ;)

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Thanks for that D. I was in the Choir with his father many years ago, together with the amateur operatics society and the John Henry Singers sadly he passed away a few years ago now

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Apart from, next time you see Connie, D give her my best will you. She may remember me.

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Well i remember yeh Mog, Though doubt if i'd recognise yeh after approx 50 yrs.:D n as fer carol i never trailed up the gun carriages fer any bird.:D Didn't need to cos i'm a catch.:D

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Known Connie forever and her brother Harold who sadly passed away. Always popped into Marks to say hello when over. We all went to St Annes in the 50s, together with Franny and Tommy Franks, usually bump into them on Broadway during a visit. Also Bowled with Tom and John Henry for James St club in the 60s-70s great blokes.

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Cashy do you remember our Brian. Changed a bit but still a good looking guy. Well thats what he say,s. Here is one with me and my youngest son. Couple of years ago mate.

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Where has Franny been all these years ?.

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Yeh Mog used to sup wi him in Black Bull, When he was goin out wi Janice.;) Remember him in army also.

Still knocking about Al, These days spends a few months a year in Thailand.;) His lads me daughters fella.;)

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don't you mean your catching cashy:D

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Ya Ossy Kid Bowls was only second to singing for Tom and John

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He did move away for a while but he's been back in Accy for many years now

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Also bump into Franny,s first wife on Vancouver Island occasionally.

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Yes Jay and they were just as good at bowls as they were at singing. Our home green was Rhyddings park.

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John was playing there until he died, Ossy Veterans, used to turn out for the Con Club too occasionally

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Shes oer here at moment, her mam died last friday,Who was a great lass, good friend of me mams, :(