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By Ian Beckett

HAVING visited the 1970’s and the 1990’s, this month we head back to the 1960’s. 1963 to be precise, when Harlow was still very much work in progress. When a trip to the town centre, The High, was for many, across fields yet to be built upon, when the town was administrated by Harlow Development Corporation, and when many residents paid the rent for the house or flat to the rent collector once a week when he visited their doorstep.

This month we look at the Harlow Citizen, the town’s first regular weekly newspaper – which, in March 1963, was two months away from celebrating its 10th anniversary.

PHOTO – Front page – main headline
Harlow Citizen – No. 514 – Friday 1 March 1963 “Financial Genius Who Went Wrong”

The front-page headline relates to a complicated case of fraud by a Harlow Development Corporation rent collector whose thousands of false entries and accounts “were so tangled it took four men working full-time three months to sort things out.” The “Financial genius gone wrong” was attributed by the prosecutor T. H. Jones to 37-year-old Peter Everest of Spinning Wheel Mead, who over a period of 7 months had embezzled £175, 17 shillings and 7 pence.

Mr Everest pleaded guilty saying that the problem started when £198 was stolen from his satchel one lunchtime, and rather than report this, he borrowed the money from a friend to replace it, but had to repay the friend.

The prosecutor said Mr Everest had been robbing Peter to pay Paul – although, as Everest refused to give up the name of this “friend” there was no evidence of Paul existing.

Everest was placed on three years’ probation and ordered to pay £100 over six months. The Chairman of Harlow Magistrates, Mr Sewell Harris, told Mr Everest “We would like to order you to repay the full amount, but we are told that the law limits us to £100”.

PHOTO of “Nursing Cadet Cynthia Gilbey receiving the Grand Prior Badge”

The front-page picture of the week shows “Nursing Cadet Cynthia Gilbey receiving the Grand Prior Badge from Miss E. Davis, Cadet Supervisor for Hertfordshire, at the St John Cadet prizegiving and enrolment ceremony at Mark Hall School on Monday.”

The Grand Prior’s Award was first established 1931 and was presented to Cadets who achieve proficiency in 12 subjects including communication, care, and life and social skills. Achieving the accolade involved demanding work on the part of the Cadets who took pride in wearing the badge on their uniforms.

Back in the early days of Harlow’s development, not all administrative decisions fell to the Corporation. Some of the bigger issues fell to the Harlow Urban District Council, whilst other issues we still very much in the hands of central government. Two stories on the Citizen’s front-page point to this.

The first story carries the heading “Harlow Hospital Progress” and is a reminder that whilst we might be waiting for a new hospital sometime in the 2030’s, back in 1963 the new towners were reliant largely upon Epping or Bishops Stortford for hospital services. The site of St Margaret’s Hospital which opened in 1938, had originally been the Epping Union Workhouse Infirmary built in 1846. The Herts and Essex Hospital had opened a year later in 1939, and during the second world war was quickly added to by temporary prefabricated buildings to increase its capacity to 900 beds, transforming its general purpose as a “Public Assistance Institute” to a “Hospital for Servicemen”.

By 1963, both Epping’s and Stortford’s Hospitals had benefited from progress and advances through the National Health Service, and although Harlow’s own hospital was being still being built, it had in fact been providing some services since 1958. Bulit upon the site Parndon Hall, the former home of Godfrey Arkwright, the Princess Alexandra Hospital was now in Phase II of its development, and the Citizen reported that “the Ministry of Health has given authority to the North East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board to negotiate a price with Messrs. W. and C. French for the final stage of Harlow Hospital.” Further the Ministry had approved a Group Central Sterile Supply Department at a cost of £32,750 and agreed in principle the provision of an office building to accommodate hospital staff and the new Harlow Group.

There was no shortage of opportunities to be entertained in Harlow in 1963, as revealed by the Citizen on its “Forthcoming Events” page. Film and music lovers could enjoy Cliff Richard and the Shadow in “Summer Holiday” at the Odeon, and our neighbourhoods were awash with cultural offerings.

PHOTO – from “Forthcoming Events” page

At Moot Hall at The Stow, The Stowaways were presenting “Luna Laughs” on Friday and Saturday 1st and 2nd March, a variety entertainment for all the family, Admission 2 shillings and sixpence, half price for children and OAPs. Also, at The Stow, The Embers Ballroom and Social Club appeared to be offering something for almost everyone with “Harlow’s Most Popular Club for the under 14’s – The Top Teen Club” offering “Off The Record” and the “Top Twenty Record Hop” on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, Bingo every Sunday and Thursday evening, 10 games for 3 shillings with a £100 Snowball Jackpot, and on Saturday evening, wait for it, “Top London Group, Johnny Scott and The Skyways” – supported by “The Cossacks”!

Over at Bush Fair, Tye Green Community Centre was offering “Come Dancing with music by The Metronomes” on Saturday evening, whilst for those more interested in learning to trip the light fantastic themselves, Nora Taylor was offering Juvenile Ballroom Dancing Classes every Saturday morning, and Beginners and Intermediate Adult classes on Thursday evenings. However, it would seem that the place to be in 1963 in Bush Fair was at The Lantern Club, where on a Saturday evening couples could eat, drink and dance the night away to the music of The Premier Quartet, and during week, at the same venue, every night apart from Wednesdays, young people could be part of “The Modernist, Teenage and Coffee Bar Club” accessing “everything for your entertainment” including Jive, Billiards, Pin Tables and Juke Box!

Readers Challenge: Who remembers The Lantern Restaurant at Bush Fair?

I believe that the Lantern Club and restaurant which offered “English and Continental Cuisine” may have been located where that Pak Lok Chinese Restaurant is now, but so far, I have not found anything to verify that. Do any Your Harlow readers remember the Lantern Club or the Lantern Restaurant? Better still, does anyone have any photographs to accompany those memories?
Council To Build Civic Theatre

Harlow Playhouse is one of the Jewels in Harlow’s cultural crown, but in 1963 for many it was a dream, whilst for others it was something they were passionately fighting to make a reality. A lot of those campaigning for a proper local theatre were members of the local amateur theatre companies embedded within Harlow’s neighbourhoods, groups like The Prentice Players, The Netteswell Players, The Tye Green Drama Group and The Moot House Players, many of whom had established their companies in the 1950’s.

PHOTO – “Moot House Players Win Drama Festival Trophy”

Within the Citizen sits a headline “Moot House Players Win Drama Festival Trophy” and the story explains that that resident company from The Stow had won the Willis Trophy in the Essex County One-Act Play Festival with their production of Chekhov’s “The Anniversary.” One of the cast members was the late Gordon Hewlett, an actor for the Moot House Players, and many years later one of the General Managers at Harlow Playhouse.

The One-Act Play Festival took place on the stage of Harlow Technical College and Gordon, who was also at that time the chairman of the Harlow and District Theatre Guild, addressed the audience of councillors and theatregoers, apologising for the “untheatrical atmosphere, lack of heating and difficulty of seeing from the back”. Gordon continued with a hopeful expression, “These things will all be put right when we get our theatre, and I hope what we have seen today will convince anyone we should have one.”

Planning Matters

The front-page of the Citizen reveals that dream was coming closer to becoming a reality. A report from a meeting of Harlow Urban District Council earlier that week revealed that the Council had resolved:
That an offer from a private developer to build a theatre be declined.
That the Council reaffirms its decision to proceed with its own plans for a civic theatre.

That Harlow Development Corporation be pressed for an early decision on the allocation of a site for the civic theatre.

That the Establishment Committee be asked to invite representatives of the Harlow Theatre Working Party to discuss the proposed civic theatre.

The news item went on to explain that, based on a cost of £100,000, the District Council had agreed to meet a third of the costs of the project with the Development Corporation promising a similar amount subject to satisfaction of the economic viability of the theatre scheme. A first attempt to raise the balance of the funding from Essex County Council had been unsuccessful, although the County Council said they would reconsider the matter when the credit squeeze was over.

It’s all the Co-Op – Now!
PHOTO – It’s all the Co-Op – Now! advert

Good news for Harlow’s shoppers and those looking for work was revealed in article entitled “CO-OP STORE OPENS NEXT WEEK” as the Citizen announced “Harlow’s first department store opens next Friday, 15 March. Designed by Harlow Development Corporation and built by C.W.S., it will be run by the multi-million-pound London Co-operative Society.”

The Co-op’s relationship with Harlow predated the new town, having been in business for almost 40 years at its premises in Station Road. It was also quick to open stores in The Stow and Bush Fair when those Neighbourhood Shopping Centres were developed. However, the Broad Walk department store was set to be on a far grander scale, offering food, clothing, footwear, bedding, electrical goods, jewellery, pharmaceutical products, and much more over three floors, serviced by a lift plus attendant!
I recall the attendant had a very smart uniform and rather grand moustache. I also remember my mum diligently collecting the blue Co-op stamps, sticking them in books, until she had enough to buy our next pair of shoes!

My father insisted I had Clarks shoes until I was 13 years old, when he finally relented to my pleas to have something more fashionable and bought me a pair of shoes “with a heel!” from Frisbeys Shoes Shop at The Stow. The shoes hurt my feet enormously for weeks, but I dare not complain!
It is interesting that with only a fortnight to go the store was still recruiting to fill some key positions, as adds in the Citizen’s “Situations Vacant” pages showed. LCS Departmental Store were looking for:
Fully experienced MANAGER for our HARDWARE Department. Must be conversant with General Hardware, China and Glass, Radio and Electrical.

ALSO – RADIO & ELECTRICAL SPECIALIST – First class opportunity for a man who is thoroughly experienced in Radio, TV, and Electrical Merchandise.

ALSO – Experienced DISPLAY STAFF, WITH A GENERAL KNOWLEDGE OF Dry Good Merchandise.
40-hour, 5-day week. Good rates, plus commission. Excellent staff amenities including staff restaurant, discount scheme, holiday, and sickness advantages.

I have no doubt that others will notice the fact that that the notice for the Radio and Electrical Specialist specified that it was a “first class opportunity for a man.” Residents of Harlow and the rest of the UK would have to wait another twelve years before The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 would prohibit such discrimination.

That brings our look at Harlow in 1963 to a close. Next month we will spring forward to look at April 2000 through the eyes of the Harlow Star.