Noddy's

 Proclaims to be "Elm Park's Largest Toy Showrooms", but not many toys in the window! The shop was at 40 The Broadway, Elm Park, Hornchurch, early 1960s at a guess. Scanned from a negative in my collection.

Old Shoreham Toll Bridge

Sorting out some old magazines for the charity shop, this little green Bell Punch ticket fluttered out.

The bridge over the River Adur was opened in 1847, owned in part by the London & Brighton & South Coast Railway, then the Southern Railway from 1923 and British Railways from 1948. Control passed to West Sussex County Council in 1970, although road traffic had ceased to cross since 1968.

I Like It

A 1974 compilation of 1960s cover songs, most of which are of dubious quality (although one or two are OK), the performers, as is often the case on these budget records, remain uncredited. Sleeve design was by Peter Marriot, the photographer was Colin Glanfield. Of the models, he looks bored, she looks far more interested....... 20p well spent?

The Imperial 70

If you want to collect something that is relatively cheap to buy, then old typewriters might be an option, provided that you have the room to display them. This Imperial Typewriter Company machine dates from between 1962, when the model was introduced, to 1968, when it was superseded by the Imperial 80. They appear on eBay for around £10 to £20 plus postage (which is often as much as the typewriter itself), although this one was for sale in our local Oxfam shop for just £4.99, although I cannot say whether it was in working order.

Gingham Style

A Quick Polish

Quite why Lord Fotherington -Thomas's maid is buffing up the headlamps on his Alvis in this fashion is unclear, and what is she wearing?

The Singing Postman

Allan Smethurst, The Singing Postman, earned recording success in the 1960s with a series of folk songs sang in his native Norfolk dialect, which he wrote himself. The most remembered was Hev Yew Gotta Loight Bor? which won an Ivor Novello Award in 1966, but never made the charts.I am not sure how popular he was outside of East Anglia, but I knew his songs whilst growing up as, living in Bedfordshire, we received local Anglia regional TV programmes. Well after his retirement from music industry in 1970, he would be used as a sort of cultural touchstone "You've heard of the Singing Postman, well here's the yodelling greengrocer", sort of thing.

After the 1960s he appeared to return to obscurity, apparently having spent all his money. He died in 2000, aged 73.

This blog was prompted by the purchase of a couple of his albums in a local charity shop (actually they give away their records for a small donation - as much as you can carry!). They seem to hold up a decent price on eBay, all on vinyl too; were they not released on CD?

Here is a documentary about him from 1967.....

http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/756

Toys for 1960s boys

A few adverts that appeared amongst December issues of Meccano Magazine, during the 1960s;

And for older boys in 1968....................

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.....

.....as Keats would have it, is now upon us. Although our model is hardly dressed for autumn, she appears to be enjoying the effects of a strong breeze, as indeed are we. The park-keeper may not be so happy about the improper use of a litter bin however, she is no doubt in contravention of several council by-laws.

Beehives and Petticoats

Three young ladies cavort in the countryside in the 1960s; since these pictures came from a magazine actually called Beehive Girls, the one on the left doesn't appear to be playing the game!