October 28, 1953

Taking the field for their first time at Elm Avenue since September 21 Ransome and Marles were led by mascot Barry Dales and team captain Alex Davis.

Only 500 spectators went to Elm Avenue on Saturday when the victorious Greens played their first Central Alliance home match for the month against Coalville Town.

A hat-trick by Clark helped the Greens to win by a four-goal margin. A breakaway by Coalville's inside-right Burton split the home defence and gave his team a consolation goal.

Result: Ransome and Marles 5 Coalville Town 1.

o-o-o-O-o-o-o

Thursday of last week was a very great occasion for 37-year-old Miss Muriel Woods - she said so herself.

On that day she received a host of presents and bouquets on completing 21 years' service with F. W. Woolworth and Co. Ltd.

Miss Woods has been assistant manager of the Newark branch for four years.

She has worked for Woolworth's since she was 16, also at Grimsby, Birmingham, and Rushden.

o-o-o-O-o-o-o

Travelling the world in 80 days is not common place, but one man who has done it this year is Mr J. E. Palmer, managing director of Farrar Boiler Works Ltd, of Newark.

On Friday, after a dinner at the Clinton Arms Hotel, he described some of his experiences to Newark Chamber of Commerce, of which he had just been elected vice-president.

October 21, 1953

Temperatures have fallen sharply during the past few days, but scarcely enough, one would have thought, to freeze the River Trent as solid as it looks at the Nabs, just north of Hazelford Ferry.

Bus this pack-ice is thick creamy, surface-borne foam - a mass of tightly packed bubbles that is causing increasing despondency among anglers as it becomes more prolific year by year.

It arises from the sudden widespread use of chemical detergents by factories and housewives. Discharged into rivers, the detergents remain sufficiently active to be churned up into a lumpy effervescence.

o-o-o-O-o-o-o

A box of chocolates arrived at 4 Montgomery Road, Newark, on Saturday for 15-year-old Bernadette Clark.

It came with a signed photograph and a letter from Gilbert Harding. No one knows how Mr Harding knew Bernadette's name or address, or that she was in Barnby Road Hospital.

Bernadette was standing outside Hilton's shoe shop where she works in The Arcade, Newark, three weeks ago when Mr Harding asked her where he could buy some milk chocolate.

She did not see him again. A few days later Bernadette went into hospital. On Saturday morning Mr Harding's gift arrived at her home. The mystery of how he knew about Bernadette remains unsolved.

o-o-o-O-o-o-o

Ransome and Marles Band gained fifth place when 18 bands competed in the National Brass Band Championship finals at the Empress Hall, London.

The standard of playing reached that expected when the cream of Britain's brass bands compete for championship honours. Newark's representatives were coached by Eric Ball and conducted by their own bandmaster Mr David Aspinall.

October 14, 1953

The principal regional officer of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, Mr P. St B. Sydenham, used an inscribed silver key to open Newark Corporation's 1,001st post-war house.

The key was handed over by Mr C. McLeod, senior official in the area for George Wimpey and Co Ltd, builders of the house, 104 Churchill Drive.

o-o-o-O-o-o-o

When, in 1903, a 20-year-old junior apprentice put aside his indentures and branched out as a builder on his own, he could scarcely have foreseen that 20 years later he would be responsible for the building of the whole town.

Neither is it likely that the young Ernest Coleman, with all his energy and ambition, foresaw that by 1953 it would be impossible to travel far in the East Midlands without coming across a school or church, an office or a house, a cinema or a factory building by the firm that he founded.

Today at 71, Mr Coleman is still the active managing director of the Newark firm of Ernest Coleman Ltd, which this week marks the completion of half-a-century.

o-o-o-O-o-o-o

The long low ceilinged bar of the Willow Tree, Barnby-in-the-Willows, had never been more crowded, nor had it ever looked more beautiful when the regulars held their own harvest thanksgiving.

One end of the room was piled high with the profusion of harvest produce spectacularly arranged.

A harvest festival at an inn is something new to the Newark district, but the village took to it at once.

It was the idea of the host and hostess Mr and Mrs Wilfred Conabeare, who have been at the Willow Tree for six years.

October 7, 1953

Mmembers of the Newark Division of St John Ambulance Brigade were inspected at The Friary, Newark, by the area commissioner, Mr A. Hill. Few people realise that when a St John Ambulanceman gives first aid he is using equipment he has bought himself.

Mr Hill said: "I want to pay tribute to what I would go so far as to say is the division that has made the greatest progress since the war, both in the build-up of numbers and in the provision of facilities by your own efforts."

Since the war the division has increased in strength by 50% and now, including three probationary members, numbers 60.

o-o-o-O-o-o-o

Police had to seal off Barnbygate, Newark, on Thursday, when a crowd estimated at more than 1,000-strong massed round the front of a new furniture showroom to see the opening ceremony by stage, radio and television star Vic Oliver.

The crowd was one of the biggest ever crammed into so small a space in Newark. Mostly women, they were well rewarded for the discomfort of their crush. Before he unlocked the great glass doors of D. A. Clark and Sons - once a Methodist Chapel - Vic Oliver gave a one-man variety turn that kept the crowd shrieking with laughter.

o-o-o-O-o-o-o

A schoolteacher whose hobby is weaving allowed herself some weeks ago to be persuaded into entering an example of her work for the international handicrafts exhibition, the first of its kind, which was opened by the conqueror of Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary, at Olympia, London, on Friday.

Miss M. Anderson of Main Street, Balderton, who has taught at the school next door for 16 years, forgot about the exhibition until Friday, when she received a telegram informing her that her entry had been judged best in the weaving section.