December 31, 1952

There were some outstanding highlights of Newark sport during 1952.

The sportsman of the year was Newark Athletic Club's Tom Grocock, who won the 880-yards at Castle Brewery sports meeting in spite of a badly sprained ankle.

He beat the Notts half-mile champion in this event by three yards.

One of Newark Athletic Club's newest members, Stanley Ogden of Eldon Street, Newark, became Notts throwing-the-hammer champion at his first attempt.

The Newark girl athlete Elaine Horton claimed a new county record with a 220-yards sprint of 26.5 seconds.

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More Newark history should be taught in the town's secondary schools, the town council's publicity for Newark committee has suggested.

Headteachers have been asked to consider putting more emphasis on local history. The aim is to make the inhabitants more interested in Newark's historical heritage.

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Teaspoons marked with a crown and an E will be Newark children's coronation souvenirs. They will be presented to all school pupils and children under the school age born before June 2, 1953.

Newark Town Council on Monday approved their coronation committees recommendation that spoons should be ordered from a Sheffield firm.

Ald. B. L. Maule, chairman of the committee, said he expected the 6,000 spoons they wanted would cost £250 without purchase tax.

They would be electroplated nickel silver.

Coronation celebration plans include roasting an ox in Newark Market Place and floodlighting the parish church and Newark Castle.

Souvenir teaspoons will be presented to children attending schools and educational establishments in the borough and children attending schools outside the borough but whose parents reside in the borough.

December 24, 1952

Newark Parish Church Choir has been practising carols for Christmas in scenes symbolic of those which will portray the festival in town and village churches.

Carols will convey the joyous message of the Nativity and the Advertiser extends greetings to all readers at home and overseas. May they enjoy every happiness and blessing.

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Heavy Christmas traffic may delay the arrival at the Society of the Sacred Mission, Kelham, of the 6ft high sculpture, Madonna and Child, said a member of the mission.

The sculpture, which took Alan Coleman, a young London sculptor, three years to complete, is worked in laminated oak, and is planned to stand in the society's Mother House at one side of the chancel arch.

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Complete and understanding co-operation between teachers and parents is needed to supervise the leisure hours of children today, said the headmaster of Newark Magnus Grammar School, Dr N. Clayton, at the annual prize distribution in the Savoy Cinema.

Dr Clayton said: "Of this I am certain, that outside the school a boy rarely reads the good literature enjoyed by our forefathers; instead, boys seem too pre-occupied with juvenilia such as comics, American gangster films and excessive attention to television."

December 17, 1952

Ransome and Marles Bearing Co Ltd, Newark, will find selling their products in 1953 harder than for many years, warned Mr E. Belcher, director and sales manager.

He appealed for co-operation throughout the factory so that orders could be fulfilled speedily and the firm's customers satisfied.

Mr Belcher was proposing a toast at the annual dinner of the works' progress department in the Robin Hood, Hotel, Newark.

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A Sutton-on-Trent housewife, Mrs Edith Annie Foster, of Ledge Cottage, Crow Park Farm, has been awarded the British Empire Medal for her part in rescuing an airman from a blazing RAF vehicle last January.

George Parry and Andrew Ryan were nursing their 60ft-long Queen Mary carrier along the Great North Road.

As they reached a drive leading to Crow Park Farm, the vehicle went into a bad skid. It overturned and burst into flames.

One of the airmen was still in the cab, and unable to move. Regardless of the flames, Mrs Foster dragged him to the verge.

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Alternate places at a dinner in the Clinton Arms Hotel, Newark, on Saturday evening were set with red bandannas and khaki neckerchiefs, and the diners placed them around their necks, tying the knots in front.

This was the unusual tribute to 22 of the men present, veterans of the Boer War, who were entertained to dinner by the Newark branch of the British Legion.

December 10, 1952

With bigger congregations and better collections, Newark Parish Council still cannot pay its way. This year the church needs £800 more than was given in collections.

The vicar, Canon G. W. Clarkson, said at the opening of the church bazaar in Newark Town Hall: "We have £460 of it. We want the rest today."

Only that morning he had received an estimate for the repair of the church stoke-hole chimney of £125, and £100 from the bazaar would be for the Fabric Fund, and it would have to go towards the repair of the chimney.

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A Newark housewife, Mrs I. Ellison of Beech Avenue, had not seen her son David for four years until she spotted him in a TV telefilm.

He is in Nairobi, Kenya. He wrote recently to tell his mother that he had been filmed by a BBC cameraman as he was going out on an anti-terrorist patrol with the Kenya Police Reserve, of which he is a member.

He told her the number of his armed car so Mrs Ellison kept her eyes glued to her TV screen every evening.

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Newark Operatic Society, without an adequate stage for their productions, and Newark Amateur Dramatic Society, in suspended animation because they have nowhere to perform, may be able to present future shows at Newark's Palace Theatre.

Before the war amateur productions were presented there by the Newark operatic and dramatic societies and by other local producers of plays, notably the Brown Sugar Company.

December 3, 1952

More than 140 members of the Beaumond Olde Tyme Dance Club attended a fancy dress ball in the Sherwood Suite of the Robin Hood Hotel.

This Advertiser newsphoto shows some of the guests. Among the winners of the fancy dress competition were, most original: Mrs Goodall (television) and Mrs Fotherby (paper serviettes) and comical: Mr and Mrs Glass (Bisto kids.).

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In 1936, when Peter Roach was 18, young men in search of excitement had to look hard, and when they did find it, it was often an expensive luxury,
It was in the Personal column of a daily newspaper that Peter, he lives at Langford Hall near Newark, now, found his invitation to adventure.

It read: voyage to the South Seas in sail; schooner leaving August for about a year. Six young men wanted to crew, each contribute £100 towards expenses.
Peter Roach kept a day-to-day record of the 37,000 mile voyage from the day the barquentine left Brittany to the day he was paid off at Falmouth.
His book, Voyage In A Barquentine, has been published by Rupert Hart-Davis.

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The visit of the famous Hogarth Puppets to Southwell on Thursday reminded one that there is an association between Muffin the Mule and Newark.

It is Ann Hogarth who puts life into the television mule and she is associated in the puppet shows with her husband, Jan Bussell, who is a relative of a former Vicar of Newark, the Rev J. G. Bussell.