Merthyr Imp
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Posts posted by Merthyr Imp
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My Grandmother Angelica Claire Davey was a Tiller girl at the Empire...danced on stage with a young Charles Chaplain.
So that may have been when Chaplin was with Fred Karno's Army.
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#26 - I think the details for 'It's Ragtime!' at 10pm would be worded differently were the programme to be shown today!
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#55 Hi Merthyr Imp, I can't remember what the show was, as that was the first time that I had been taken to a proper theatre, I would have thought that the grand entrance to the Theatre Royal would have left an impression.
Well, if you went up in the 'gods' as mentioned in your post you would have gone in through the doorway at the side mentioned in #50 rather than the main entrance at the front.
I don't know where there is any information available about this, but it would be interesting know whether the Empire ever staged pantomimes - at least in the post war period, as going into the 1950s theatre-going was in a gradual decline, and with the Theatre Royal famous for its annual pantomime would there really have been a demand for two of them in adjacent theatres? Just my speculation - it would be interesting to see any information about this.
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Lulu and the Beach Boys were at the Empire in the early 1950s?
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Cinderella starring Lonnie Donegan was at the Theatre Royal in 1960 - could it have been that?
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My last ever visit to the City Ground - I hadn't realised it was so long ago - was 20th December 1986. I was probably attracted by seeing the former Lincoln City player Glenn Cockerill playing for Southampton. Game finished 0-0 in front of only 15,394 spectators - and this was despite Forest being second in the league table at the time (behind Arsenal).
Note the advert bottom left on the Forest team page.
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By the way - in the photo at #44, the doorway furthest left with 'Theatre' above it was part of the Theatre Royal. In fact it was the entrance to the gallery ('gods'), an entrance which was still in use, set further back, in the interim between the Empire being demolished and the rebuilding of the Theatre Royal in the late 1970s.
There was a pay box just inside the entrance, and you paid as you went in, followed by a mad dash up the stone steps to try and get a front seat in the gallery - no reserved seats on those benches!
There's a good photo and some interesting details here:
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Just to put in a few dates:
The Empire closed in June 1958. It was demolished in 1969.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/37632
I hate to question people's memories, but reading back through this thread I do wonder if some people are actually remembering shows and acts seen at the Theatre Royal. Someone mentioned Lulu, but she would have been only about 9 or 10 years old when the Empire closed.
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I'm probably not the first to mention this, but wouldn't it be neat if the actress Tuppence Middleton ('Dickensian', 'War & Peace') were to marry the Welsh rugby player Leigh Halfpenny?
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One of NCT's Leyland Nationals on central area service 88. I thought some of the background details may be of interest.
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Here's another - with clear instructions on which door to use! Photo dates from a few years earlier. Note the flat tyre on 507.
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Fares aren't always expensive if you're able to book in advance. My son and I (admittedly with a Family Railcard) travelled from St Pancras to Leicester yesterday for a total of £17.45.
A few more examples - in December, on another of our trips out the two of us went from London Euston to Manchester for a total of £17.00. Last October we went from Exeter to London Waterloo for just £20, and last August, although I haven't made a note of the exact sum, we were able to go from Birmingham to London Marylebone for less than £10 for the two of us - amazing value, and although it may have taken a little longer than the Virgin Trains service to Euston it was still only two hours.
It can vary of course - we never seem to get any bargains going from Cardiff to London! - and I think it often depends on what time of day you travel.
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Picture 1 - just out of shot to the right would be the GCR railway viaduct.
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I've got three photographs of a 1A - this is the best of them, showing one of the Yeates-bodied Bedford VALs at Mount Street sometime in the early 1970s:
Here's a no. 29 at Mount Street seen at around the same time:
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Normally I spend an hour or two investigating split-ticketing. It's great fun, and there are substantial savings to be had.
That's correct. It does vary though - we're going to Manchester next month, and I tried several permutations for splitting the tickets (e.g. Cardiff - Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury - Manchester, etc, etc) and there was no saving to be found. In fact, in this particular instance it turned out to be cheaper to get a ticket for the full journey of Merthyr Tydfil to Manchester, as that was exactly the same cost as just Cardiff to Manchester.
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The good old standby 'Rail Centres: Nottingham' by Michael A. Vanns has some information about this.
My guess is the late 1930s would likely have seen the fastest Great Central Line services, as by the time things were getting back to normal after the war-time run-down of the railways the Great Central services themselves were being run down.
The above book lists some timings for both the Midland and GCR routes in 1939 before war broke out. Out of a total of 12 services (6 each way) the fastest times between Victoria and Marylebone were two services taking 2hr 16min, and one each at 2hr 17min and 2hr 19min.
The Midland route had a total of 21 services (10 southbound and 11 northbound), with 9 of these taking less than 2hr 15min. Four of these took just 2hr 3 min (via Melton and Corby), with two via Leicester at less than 2hr 10min.
The book also gives similar details for 1949, when the fastest timings were three trains at around 2hr 30min, all on the Midland route via Melton and Corby. Fastest on the GCR were the two named trains, The South Yorkshireman and The Master Cutler at 2hr 42min (fastest) and just over.
When I first began travelling to any extent by train to London in the early 1970s the fastest I can remember was 1hr 56min calling at Leicester only, but as a general rule you were thinking of two hours or just over as a typical timing. Then the HSTs came in, and I think around 1hr 40min became the norm, with 2hours for 'stopping' services.
Not sure what it is now, but I was amazed today to get from St Pancras to Leicester in just 1hr 2min. Although in making a comparison you could say trains from St Pancras nowadays have a head start on those in the old days, seeing as they now commence their run from a point a lot nearer to Nottingham than they used to!
#429 The book I mention does give a rather vague mention to what happened to the material excavated from the Victoria Station site. In connection with the bridging of the River Trent and the Midland station it says that by October 1895, 'foundations for these structures were well advanced. Unfortunately fabrication of the steelwork did not begin until March the following year and erection of the Midland bridge did not begin until September. The rest of the line south was almost ready by this time, and it had been intended to use the material excavated from the central station [i.e. Victoria] to make up the ground for the new goods yard near the Trent. As this was not possible, extra land at Ruddington had to be acquired from where the necessary material could be obtained. So that the excavations for Nottingham station would not be delayed either, it was decided to transport spoil northwards to be tipped at Bulwell.' But it doesn't say where!
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As said, I travelled from Leicester to Cardiff via Birmingham today, but wasn't able to give the arrangements for changing platforms a completely fair trial as my son decided he wanted to visit the Ian Allan Bookshop so we exited the station initially.
I should mention we had separate tickets for the Leicester - Birmingham and Birmingham - Cardiff journeys.
When we returned for the Cardiff train, though we did find ourselves on what, despite the rebuilding, I could still identify as the old link between the platforms (where the toilets and café used to be), and as far as I could see in a quick look there was access to all platforms from it. In other words you could get between platforms without having to go through barriers.
I suspect it may depend which set of escalators you use to go off the platforms.
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A Sunday game in October 1985 and Notts had sunk back into Division 3 (now League 1), hence I was able to see them play Lincoln at Meadow Lane. Jimmy Sirrel was now back in the manager's seat.
Result was 3-2 to Notts in front of a crowd of just over 6,000. Scorers were Rachid Harkouk(2) and 'Charlie' McParland for Notts, with Bob Latchford (well past his best by that time, unfortunately) getting one of Lincoln's goals.
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Due to change at Birmingham New Street tomorrow on the way from Leicester to Cardiff. I'll see how I get on.
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My memories are that the East Midland red was a darker shade than that of Trent buses and very similar to that used by Ribble in Yorkshire
Yes, that's about right. I can't produce a photograph as I don't seem to have taken any of East Midland in colour - too drab.
Ribble was Lancashire, by the way.
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The majority of medium-sized and larger stations have automatic ticket barriers now. I must say - #3 - I haven't come across any where you have to go through them to change platforms though. It wasn't the case the last time I was at Birmingham New Street, although that was about 6 months ago and it was still in the middle of rebuilding.
Re old trainspotting days, yes - used to have to buy them at Grantham. Cost was 2d around 1961.
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II would go & live there tomorrow but one thing the lingo & sometimes there is a dialect to contend with too
Sounds like Nottingham.
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We went on a boat trip on Loch Ness that day and didn't see the monster at all.
To be fair, the trip wasn't advertised as being one where you could see the monster, unlike the boat trip we went on from Inverness where you were supposed to see dolphins - and which turned out to be just as mythical that day.
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By the time of my next visit to Meadow Lane Notts were back in Division Two, in fact at the foot of the table by the time of this match in December 1984 against Oxford United who were top of the table. However, Notts managed their third win of the season - by 2-0. Scorers were David Hunt and Alan Young.
Notts manager was Richie Barker, with Jimmy Sirrel a director by then.
Does anyone remember Fitzroy's in the advert? Can't say that I do.
Empire Theatre
in pre 50's Nottingham
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Sorry, banjo, but once again - are you sure it wasn't the Theatre Royal?
'Walking up the steps to the gods, then being scared as the seats seemed so high up' - that would have applied there also.