September 28, 1955

When fruit-picking is at its height in the orchards of Norwood Park, Southwell, as it is this week, apple-crates are used to set up an outdoor canteen for the packers.

And it is Sir William Starkey himself who daily delivers the tea-urn in his Land Rover against a background of well-laden Bramley trees.

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Fish and chips cost more in Newark this week. Minimum prices which came into effect on Monday are 9d for fish and 4d for chips.

Fish friers have made no increase for four years, but in that time the cost of fuel - whether gas, electricity or coke - and repairs to equipment have risen sharply. So has the cost of the actual commodities.

Fats have been steadily going up in price over the last six months. Best fat which costs 24s. a cwt before the war now cost 158s. Potatoes have now been decontrolled, and in a year their price has risen from £12 to £18 a ton.

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Shell Premium and BP Super petrol now costs 4s 71/2d a gallon in the Newark area. The increase was effective from midnight on Monday.

Newark is in the outer zone for prices. The inner zone is that close to the port areas, next comes the outer zones and the farthest away from the port areas is the general zone.

Your bill sir: If the petrol tank holds ten gallons it will cost you £2 6s 3d to say: “Fill her up.”
 

September 21, 1955

A bid to make the three-mile stretch of the Fosse Road between Farndon and Syerston safer is being made by Newark Rural Road Safety Council. At the end of August there had been six deaths on that stretch in ten months.

Mr W. W. Gash, chairman of the council, visited the fatal stretch with the chairman of the county road safety committee, the deputy surveyor, chairman of Bingham local road safety committee, and representatives of the police.

They decided a speed limit could not be justified, but it would be an advantage to have no parking signs on the road, to make the broken white line south of the junction with Syerston Lane a solid white line, and to see that overgrown bushes on the west side of the road were trimmed.

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When Mrs G. W. Lambert, of Charles Street, Newark, took an egg from her larder on Friday morning for breakfast, she found it was treble yolked.

On Saturday another egg was found to be treble yolked.

The two eggs were among half a dozen bought by her husband from a farm at Grassthorpe.
 

September 14, 1955

Two sisters won first and third prizes in the final judging for Newark Trades Fair Queen at a dance at the Robin Hood Hotel on Saturday evening.

The Fair Queen is 20-year-old Miss Rae Jenkinson of Shortwood, Ompton.

The runner-up is Miss June Allis of Springfield House, Farndon Road, Newark, and the third prize winner is Miss Judith Jenkinson, Rae's 17-year-old sister.

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Patients in Newark Hospital will not be such early risers in future. They are now to be woken daily at 6.30am instead of 5am.

Their early morning service has been put back from 8.25am to 9am.

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Because television has changed Britain's entertainment habits - 73 theatres have closed in the country this year - Mr and Mrs Newark and their children will be able to see Europe's biggest circus on their own doorstep for the first time this week.

When Chipperfield circus tomorrow presents the first of seven performances at Newark's Sconce Hills, Newarkers will see a top-line spectacle with 60 international artists, 16 elephants, 18 bears, 70 horses, 14 lions, six camels, six zebra, and the first giraffe ever to visit the town.

A circus spokesman said: "We realise that economics and the popularity of TV have changed people's entertainments habits.

"No longer can we mount a show in Nottingham and expect countryfolk from the Newark district to travel there to see it. TV competition is too strong."