Thorne, Finkle Street c.1960

Photo ref: T303032

The Annual Fair was always a time that the young people of Thorne waited for. Opposite the Red Bear, not far from Clarkes Pork Pie shop, there was situated a boxing booth and the young men used to try and win a prize for staying in the ring for 3 rounds. The prize was £3 (if memory serves me correctly). In the green there was roundabouts and stalls and also the start of the horse ride. You could pay a small amount of ...see more

I remember Websters very well, I was able to buy clothes by saving 1 shilling a week in their club. My cousin worked there after leaving school and before going in the ATS; she once gave me a Victorian child's apron she had found in the storeroom.

We used to hang around the street but mostly the cafe. There was Pete Lea, Jim Peason, Dennis Buckley and some stunning girls - Jannis, Orial and a few more whos names escape me. We sat in there for hours listening to the jukebox and the songs of the period - Brenda Lea, Conny Frances, the Everly Brothers - when we weren't in the cafe we were in the Red Lion or in the Windmill, listening to blind Freddy play the piano. ...see more

It always seems a pity when someone's life ends and there is a decreasing memory of their place in the town as the years go by. Hence, if I may, I would like to share with current readers in the town the memory of one of its figures of the past. The reason I know something about Charlie is that he was my father's cousin, a refugee from the tenant farms of North Yorkshire. Charlie was a 'horse man' through and through. ...see more