Film Shows And Waitresses

A Memory of Seascale.

I was an apprentice at Sellafield in 1957 living in Seascale. In the winter months some of my pals and I would frequent the Scawfell Hotel, but go in the back entrance where we could mix with the young waitresses in their mess room, just across the corridor from the kitchens. If we were lucky, we might even obtain a half pint of beer – I was 16 then so was under-age drinking. I remember one waitress, Nancy, a girlfriend of another Sellafield apprentice. Did they get married are they still around?
The manager of the hotel was a man called Phil Roddice, he was a real petrol head, just loved fast cars. Sometimes Phil would hire films of Grand Prix races, he would set up his projector in the front lounge and show the films. All this happened in the winter. They were great fun times. I remember having a race with Phil from Gosforth to Seascale, him in his car and me on my Triumph T110. I couldn’t shake him off, but he couldn’t pass me either.
One evening in 1958 I was riding my motorcycle home from work, I was just turning the bend by the station yard and the hotel when I was hit off the bike by a MoD chauffeured car. It broke my wrist and crushed my ankle. Everyone ran out of the hotel to help, a passer-by fixed me up with splints and old sheets which the hotel staff brought to help. They carried me into the front porch of the hotel to wait for the ambulance. Fortunately I fully recovered from the accident.
I now live in South Wales, have done for the past 47 years, but make frequent visits to Egremont where my wife’s relatives live. But I have lost touch with friends in Seascale.