Good Evening Reg, Well done to the chaps for getting HMSOldies up and running again. I know you had been providing some of the info in an alternative way but a number of us really preferred the original format and pleased to see its return.
Re the Obits I was very sorry to learn about Bryan Blackmore whom I knew quite well in our early days – as others have said a really splendid chap. And of course Tom Johnson – who was an old time ‘character’.
And now for another topic. Word has reached us that “Teedons’ Walk” is about to be bull-dozed and demolished. Can this really be, or is it part of an April Fool’s jape? If correct many of us will recall the quick cut-through to Sovereign House and Anglia Square without fear of being run over. The footfall figures by HMSO staff must be enormous. So is there a Petition to save the site, or at least a Blue Plaque to commemorate its existence?
Cheers, John
Hello John, Thank you for your kind words, which I have passed on to ‘the chaps’. Your note came on the heels of another from one TC Riley, so I am in full CRS glory-days mode now, and none the worse for that. TCR’s tale of Alec Gravatt wanting ‘a Light (ale) with the top off’ translating into ‘a top with the light off’ was enough to get me going.
The whole of our Technical Services and Graphic Design Divisions (P, R and D) are, even as I write, perspiring under hot towels as regards the future presentation of HMSOldies. I believe that ‘Brexit’, if you have heard of it – hasn’t made the newspapers here- may have something to do with it. Anyway, your comments about preferring the original format are well made.
Now I can see why you are getting your Underpass in a twist. The item was reported in the Norwich Evening News. We added a piece to the HMSOldies Facebook page. Seems that the old Teedon’s Tunnel was in a very sorry state, and was much less used for other than dubious activities than in the days when Sovereign and St Crispins teemed with people straining to get to either the Sovereign Club or the Golden Star. Nobody left in Sovereign – about 80 in St Crispins – and nobody wants to go to the decimated Anglia Square unless to Boots for their daily fix of Night Nurse, or to be mugged.
I recalled the day when there was a bid to see off Jack Palmer down there (see photo: I don’t know what he said to the lorry driver to make him want to back into him like that) and the day when the strident Mrs DNG Rust was flashed at by a poor bloke who has probably never unzipped in public again (‘put that thing away, you silly little man. I’ve seen bigger varicose veins!’) as well-remembered by Rosemary Lynch.
Enough reminiscence. Let’s hope for a bit of sun before we have to put the clocks back. Best wishes, Reg.