Lyons Bakery During the summer of 1966 I worked a week of twelve-hour night shifts at the bakery operated by J. Lyons and Co. in Telford Place, off Southgate Avenue. This was a famous restaurant chain and food manufacturing company, founded in 1884, which would later be a pioneer in…
London Road Bingo My older brother was friendly with the son of the owner of the Railway Hotel in Crawley and together the two young men ran twice-weekly bingo sessions at the Sea Cadets hut near to the old Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers depot on London Road, in Northgate.…
Part-time and temporary jobs in the 1960s When I was a pupil of the Thomas Bennett School (1959-1966) I was originally given a half-crown (two shillings and six pence or £0.125) a week as ‘pocket money’ by my parents, which would have bought me five Mars Bars, (had I been…
Catering at Gatwick Airport Having my own second-hand motor scooter enabled me to find part-time work at the rapidly expanding Gatwick Airport. The North Terminal of the airport and rebuilt Gatwick Racecourse station had been opened by the Queen in 1958 and throughout the 1960s it catered for the growing…
Catering at Gatwick Airport Having my own second-hand motor scooter enabled me to find part-time work at the rapidly expanding Gatwick Airport. The North Terminal of the airport and rebuilt Gatwick Racecourse station had been opened by the Queen in 1958 and throughout the 1960s it catered for the growing…
By David Stoker In the early nineteen fifties few Crawley residents had their own transport beyond a bicycle; the factories on Manor Royal all had large cycle sheds and the cycle tracks beside the by-pass on the A23 or from Northgate to Manor Royal could get quite crowded at the…
By David Stoker At first sight, Crawley was not a particularly good place to be a train spotter in 1960. The nationalised British Railways (BR) had been in existence since 1948 and five years previously they had published a modernisation plan phasing out steam power in favour of diesel and electric…
By David Stoker My family and I arrived in Crawley when I was three and a half years old. Our previous home had been a cramped second floor garret at 208 East Lane, Walworth, just off the Old Kent Road. It was the period leading up to the great London…
