March 31, 1954

"Who would be a cooper?" went up the cry in the barrel-makers' shop at Warwicks and Richardsons Brewery in Newark.

After sitting quietly in his own barrel while the final hoops are hammered on, the new cooper finds that worse is to come - a shower of hops and beer over his head.

Peter Davis's fellow victim Stanley Peate delighted in dispensing the hops while the head brewer Mr J. L. Anderson added the beer.

Joining in the fun was Peter's elder brother Len Davis whose own trussing was five years ago.

The ancient ceremony of trussing a cooper on completion of his six-years apprenticeship is known in breweries all over the country - although its origin and the reason for it have long since disappeared from memory.

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Although the current parking restrictions in Newark are to become permanent they will not prevent a shopper from leaving his car outside for a few minutes, Newark Town Council was assured on Monday.

After this assurance had been given by the chairman of the Highways Committee, Alderman J. H. Knight, and by the Town Clerk, Mr J. H. M. Greaves, the council rejected a proposal that it should protest against the confirmation of the present traffic arrangements.

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Newarkers will be asked to decide at a public meeting whether they want Sunday cinemas or not.

Newark Town Council on Monday approved the formal resolution bringing into operation Section One of the Sunday Entertainments Act, 1932.

March 24, 1954

Hoveringham Women's Institute members last week invited their husbands to the institute's 36th anniversary party.

About 110 people attended. Mrs R. F. Craven presided and during the evening thanked Mrs S. Morley and her helpers for preparing the meal.

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Amateur operatic and dramatic societies are facing a challenge in television said Mr George Bennett, producer of Newark Amateur Operatic Society, on Friday.

He was speaking at the society's annual dinner at the Clinton Arms Hotel. People are able to see a really good show on television several times a week and they set a high standard of criticism and acceptance.

In the Operatic Society, he said, they had a very fine team and he was proud to belong to it. Canon G. W. Clarkson, speaking later in the evening, said he was sure that the amateurs would meet the television challenge and win through.

"There is a sense of co-operation between the audience and performers which no television show can obtain, and that co-operation is important to all of us," he said.

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Tradespeople of Newark were reminded on Sunday that the Parish Church was built hundreds of years ago not by individual great benefactors, but by townspeople out of the generosity of the commerce and business of Newark market.

Canon G. W. Clarkson, vicar of Newark, was preaching at a service attended by members of Newark and District Tradesmen's Association.

He said: "The church serves the community as tradesmen do. In serving the individual we are serving the community."

March 17, 1954

Last Wednesday was the first anniversary of the official re-opening of the Royal Air Force Station at Winthorpe, now occupied by the RAF's Central Servicing Development Establishment.

Newark Town Council held a special meeting in the Town Hall to receive the presentation of a replica of the unit's badge as a symbol of the bond of friendship between the unit and the borough.

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Peter Martin, a 14-year-old Newark Sea Cadet, has won this season's Sea Cadet Corps national small bore shooting competition. Peter, who scored 98 out of 100 in his recent shoot on the Cafferata range, is the first Newark boy to win the honour.

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Collections, congregations, and the number of communicants at Newark Parish Church have all increased in the past year, reported Canon G. W. Clarkson, vicar of Newark, at the annual meeting of the parochial church council.

"No great things have been done to catch the public eye or excite the general emotions," said the vicar.

"But there has been much steady consolidation, an increase in membership, a growth of financial stability and a period of earnest preparation for such duties as the future may lay upon us."

March 10, 1954

Although it will be several years before two young nurses reach the rank of sisters, they are already sisters in another sense.

Seventeen-year-old Rachel Martinson (on the right) was barely 15 when she became the youngest pre-student nurse on the staff at Newark General Hospital on March 3, 1952.

Now her sister Jill, just 15, holds the record; she entered the hospital service two months ago.

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After 30 years of railway service a man who started his career as a station lamp-boy took over his new appointment on Monday - as station master at Newark Castle Station.

Mr L. H. Adams moves to Newark from Swinton. It was in 1924 that Mr Adams entered the railway service - as a junior lamp-boy at Tilbury.

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A suggestion that shops should be closed on Good Friday 'because it is a holy day' was endorsed by grocers who met for the annual meeting of Newark, Southwell and District Grocers and Provision Dealers' Association at the Robin Hood Hotel, Newark, on Monday.

But because multiple shops had decided against such a course this year it was agreed shops should remain open on Good Friday but close on Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday.

Re-elected president, Mr S. G. Porter suggested that an effort should be made to have shops closed on Good Friday next year.

March 3, 1954

Number five bell, more than 8cwt of metal, begins a slow descent down the length of Newark Parish Church tower - 20 minutes by winch and tackle.

Newark's ten bells made a journey that ended in Loughborough. The mammoth task of dismantling and lowering the 6½ tons of bells took two workmen two days.

And the secret behind their speed? Said bell steadier, 23-years-old Roy Marsden: "It's easy if you remember to keep clear of the trap door."

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Can a greengrocer in a council-owned shop sell cooked beetroot?

Not if they have been left in vinegar overnight would have been the ruling in Newark - if the town council had not rejected a decision of the housing committee.

The committee had refused an application by a tenant at Meering Avenue to sell frozen food, pickled beetroot, vinegar for pickling, and sterilised milk.

Councillor R. A. Sheldrake wanted to know how the beetroot had got mixed up in the veto.

He pointed out that the greengrocer sold cooked beetroot -- and the only way to keep these overnight was to soak them in vinegar which turned them into pickled beetroot.

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In the national Safe Driving competition for 1953, 21 of the 22 postmen-drivers in Newark and district eligible to compete have gained awards for accident-free driving.

These men have between them driven 278,000 miles in the year - equal to 11 times round the earth - in all weathers, by night and day.

Regulations which govern the awards are strict, and any driver judged to be blameworthy in any accident, however trivial, is banned from an award.