April 25, 1956

When the mayor of Newark (Alderman G. R. Walker) was invited to the open extensions to the Sherwood Foresters’ Drill Hall in Sherwood Avenue, Newark, he described the ceremony as cementing a friendship that for so many years has existed between Newark and the Sherwood Foresters.

Immediately after the mayor had unlocked the door to the new extensions, the colours of the 8th Battalion the Sherwood Foresters were ceremonially marched into the building. Later the mayor followed, accompanied by the colonel of the regiment, Major-General P. N. White and the 8th Battalion’s commanding officer, Lt-Col G. P. Gofton-Salmond.

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Newark police division, in common with other Nottinghamshire divisions, has introduced a plain clothes motor patrol to combat an increase in road accidents.
The practice has operated in other countries for some time. The object of the ‘courtesy cops’ is to prevent motorists from speeding and try to stop careless driving.

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For many years it has been customary in Newark for schoolchildren to be given a half-day holiday on Mayor’s Day.

But this year Mayor’s Day — May 24 — is in the middle of Whitsun week when all the schools will already be on holiday.

“Jolly hard luck,” said Mr A. E. Whomsley at a meeting of Newark District Education Committee.

He suggested that the Whitsun holiday should be extended by a half-day but the district education officer (Mr N. E. Kay) said a casual holiday could not be added to a main holiday.
 

April 18 1956

Wooden pegs driven into the ground indicate that the annual transformation of Winthorpe Airfield has begun.

But they gave little indication of the agricultural city that will arise there during the next fortnight, and hardly hint at the fact that on May 4 and 5 the site will accommodate the biggest agricultural show Newark has ever seen.

Year by year since the war the astonishing growth of Newark and District Agricultural Society’s show has presented new problems in planning and layout and 1956 is no exception.

But the 74th show has one advantage. It is staged in the knowledge that the society now has reasonable security of tenure at the airfield one of the natural showgrounds in Britain.

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Because of the disbandment of Anti-Aircraft Command, the Army is moving out of Newark’s Hawton Road camp, but only as “a short-term policy.”

The 5th Anti-Aircraft Group Workshop, occupants of the camp since 1948, has ceased to exist.

The unit will be replaced by a civilian organisation, to be known as 33 Base Workshops, at the Lincoln Road depot.

It will consist of 246 civilians under a military commander, Major L. A. J. Hill.
The Hawton Road camp will be unoccupied by the military for about six months but it is expected that then another unit will be put into the camp.

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Newark Boys’ Club, through their own efforts and through public support, has been able to pay off the mortgage on its George Street premises which is now its own property.

An appeal to the public for help in raising the necessary £280 was launched at the beginning of March.

There was a response from 11 organisations and 28 individuals, and by the end of the month only 35s was needed.

Last week the gap was bridged by a donation of £5 from a Newark firm, Ernest Coleman Ltd.

The boys themselves contributed £40 by organising a jumble sale.
 

April 11, 1956

The waiting list for admission to Newark General Hospital has been cut in the past month from 304 to 267. The reduction is general over all classes of admission — medical, surgical and gynaecological.

It is due largely to the end of epidemics of illness among nurses, which complicated work during the winter, and to an all-round improvement in the staffing position.

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Children in county council homes in Nottinghamshire receive a shilling a week for sweets as basic pocket money. In addition, there is ninepence a week for children between three and five, rising to 3s 6d for a child of 14 — a total of 4s 6d a week.

And that, Mr T. D. Mosscrop (Besthorpe) told Newark Rural District Council was extravagant expenditure.

“I know it may not be extravagant compared with a few individual cases,” he said. “But how can a working man on a wage of £8 or less be expected to pay that sort of sum?

“It is supposed to put these children in homes on a par with children living in normal homes but it does much more than that.
“It is a waste of public money and very bad training for the children that money should just drop from heaven like that. If they had to work for some of it, it might be better.”

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One year ago, when Newark Amateur Operatic Society was presenting The Quaker Girl, 16-years-old Peggy Jones was selling programmes.

On Monday she will be on the stage of the Palace Theatre playing the title role of Rose Marie in the society’s 1956 production.

Peggy, now 17, is the only daughter of Mr and Mrs J. F. Jones of 88a, Main Street, Balderton. She has been having singing lessons for only two years.
 

April 4, 1956

Tenants on Newark’s new council estates will no longer be allowed to leave their cars on grass verges. The town council has approved a housing committee decision prohibiting parking on the verges or on grassed open spaces.

The chairman of the housing committee, Alderman T. W. Howes, said that pavements as well as verges were being damaged.

Garages were being built for the tenants — and many had already been built.
“It can be imagined,” he said, “that if most of the council tenants parked their cars in the front garden it would be a very ugly sight. If we are to allow them to go as far as that anything would be possible.”

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Applications by parents in Newark for the vaccination of their children against poliomyelitis closed on Saturday. The borough medical officer of health, Dr G. G. Buchanan, stated: “There was not a heavy demand but it is about what we expected.”

Because of the limitation on supplies of the vaccine, only children born between January, 1947, and December, 1954 —the age group in which the disease is most prevalent — were eligible for registration.