October 29, 1952

The 1st Balderton Scout Group 'came of age' on Saturday when celebrations were held to mark the 21st anniversary of the group's formation.

The group secretary, Mr C. W. White, and Scout Brian Asher cut a birthday cake which had 21 lighted candles.

The party was held in the Scout hall and Mr Herbert recalled that when he took over from the first Scoutmaster, Mr J. Harper, meetings were held in the church schoolroom.

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Heralded by a single flash of lightning and a thunder-clap, there was a freak storm at Balderton on Friday afternoon which older residents described as 'the worst within memory.'

The sky darkened and during the half hour that the storm lasted there was intermittent thunder and lightning, rain, hail and snow. Hailstones the size of marbles piled against doors of houses in the old village. In some parts of Balderton the roads and pavements were white over.

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Newark's Roman Catholic school in Parliament Street is inadequate for the number of Catholic children in the town, writes Father B. Kevill in the current issue of the Nottingham Catholic magazine.

A new school will be built in Boundary Road when restrictions on building are lifted.

"It is not difficult to see how inadequate, in point of accommodation, our present all-age school is," says Father Kevill.

The school accommodation problem has followed the growth of Newark's Catholic population.

"Thirty years ago there were only 316 parishioners, and nine infant baptisms a year," says Father Kevill.

"Today our parishioners can probably be numbered by the thousand, and soon there will be more than 100 baptisms a year."

October 22, 1952

Thieves used a colliery-type detonator in an unsuccessful attempt to blow open a Bilsthorpe shop safe at the weekend.

Newark detectives were called to the shop on Sunday morning where they were told that cigarettes and £3 5s in cash were missing from a storeroom.

The premises - the village branch of the Mansfield, Sutton and District Co-operative Society Ltd - had apparently been entered through a window during the night.

It is reported that no detonators are missing from any colliery in the Bilsthorpe area.

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The weekend guest of Miss K. M. Garner, of 43 Victoria Street, Newark, is Mr Paul Garner Clement Foster of Barbados, British West Indies.

Mr Foster, who is the great grandson of the late councillor, William Radford, of Castlegate, Newark, and a great nephew of the late Mr and Mrs T. W. Garner of Newark, is on the last part of a six month training course in journalism sponsored by the Commonwealth Press Union, London.

He spent much of his time with Miss Garner, delving into the family archives and they were able to trace back the family tree to 1666 (the year of the great fire of London).

His grandparents, the late Captain John Bellamy of Grantham and Jennie Radford of Newark went out to Demerara, British Guyana, approximately 60 years ago and settled there.

October 15, 1952

It had been advertised that Friday was Newark Parish Church's Gift Day, and young and old went to the church with their gift day envelopes containing donations from pennies upwards.

The young donors pictured in this Advertiser newsphoto have helped to push the result past the £400 mark. Receiving their gifts is the parish church curate, the Rev G. H. L. Bowman.

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An ex-Magnusian, Major H. Corthorn, has recently relinquished his commission in the Regular Army to take an appointment as chief buyer and material controller to Leyland Motors (Canada) Limited at their Longueuil factory, near Montreal.

He left Prestwick Airport for Montreal yesterday and will shortly be joined by his wife and two daughters.

A former Lover's Lane scholar he served his apprenticeship in the tool room of Ransome and Marles Bearing Company Limited and received his early technical education at Newark Technical College, later attending the Borough Polytechnic in South East London.

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Two sign-posts in Collingham have caused several people wasted three-mile journeys to the Trent and back.

The signs - Pedestrian Ferry To Carlton - should be taken down as the ferry did not seem to exist, said Mr G. E. Pennington at a meeting of Newark RDC.

Mr A. A. Eddowes said the new owner of the farm from which the ferry had previously been operated had refused to have anything to do with it.

"It is not fair on the public that these boards should stay up," insisted Mr Pennington.

October 8, 1952

In an age of streamlining and jet propulsion, Scouting might seem tame and slow, said Sir Charles Buchanan, County Boys Scouts Commissioner for Nottinghamshire in Newark.

The numbers of Boy Scouts had fallen, he said, and it was up to Scouters to introduce new ideas - boys would leave the organisation if they were bored.

Sir Charles is seen in the above Advertiser newsphoto presenting the District Commissioner's Warrant to Mr S. J. Rendell, of Newark at the ceremony in Newark Town Hall.

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Modest 13-year-old David Crampton told no one at school that on Saturday he saved a little girl from drowning in the Trent. But his deed will be the talk of Sconce Hills Secondary School classrooms to-day.

David was on the bank near Mill Bridge watching other boys fishing, when he heard a splash and somebody shouted that a girl had fallen into the river.

David ran along the stone bridge, looked down and saw the girl's hand just under the water. He jumped off the bridge onto a stone, reached down and pulled her out.

The girl he rescued was ten-years-old Janet McDonald, a pupil of Bowbridge Road School.

The headmaster, Mr R. W. Bond, asked David if he could swim. "If I had fallen in with my clothes on I don't think I could have got out," was his reply.

October 1, 1952

Three children will soon ride proudly to school with smart pennants on the handlebars of their cycles. They are the three most road safety conscious children of three villages - Balderton, Coddington and Barnby.

They won the first cycle reliability trial organised by Newark Area Local Road Safety Committee on Saturday. Forty-two children, including four girls, competed.

The winners were: Dennis Hampson, of Balderton Junior School, Neville Woolhouse and William Parkinson, both of Balderton Senior School.

The trial - the first to be held in the district - consisted of a cycle efficiency examination, when competitors were awarded points for the condition and maintenance of the machines, and an 8½ mile practical test of road safety knowledge.

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Newark Town Council on Monday decided to spend £400 next year on coronation souvenirs for Newark schoolchildren. It is not yet known what the souvenirs will be.

Newark coronation arrangements still being considered include a civic service in the Parish Church, floodlighting of the Castle and Parish Church, red, white and blue flowers in the parks, decorating of the Town Hall, Market Place and Municipal Buildings, the presentation of a Loyal Address and an Elizabethan Pageant.

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A man whose memories of the Palace Cinema, Newark, include not only films but plays, variety shows, amateur dramatic and operatic productions and school speech days retired on Saturday.

He is 65-years-old Mr Arthur Priestley, of Cliff Nook Lane, Newark, who is known by most patrons as Pat.

Before he became a commissionaire Mr Priestley was the theatre's stage manager. He recalls the visits of George Robey, who gave him a golden sovereign, Cicely Courtneidge, Nelson Keys, Jose Collins, the great Pavlova, and Charles Doran.