I First Read the Derby Evening Telegraph 66 Years Ago

     Photo. by kind permission of Picture the Past www.picturethepast.org.uk.  researched by Mike Newbold                                                                                                                                  NOTE : This story was written several weeks before The Derby Telegraph was named Midlands Newspaper of the Year at the 10th annual media awards.                                                        

Why my parents, living in Littleover, got their Derby Evening Telegraph (D.E.T.) delivered by Tarlton’s on the corner of Burton Road and Waterloo Street, in Little City, I do not know. Maybe because they grew up in Stockbrook Street/Sun Street area. 

Regardless, it was natural that the first newspaper I read was the Derby Evening Telegraph. WWII had just ended and I had been at school for two years. When they had finished with the paper I would read it. At age 7, each sentence was a challenge with most words being new. I had heard some but not seen them written. And this was my first dilemma. After a few weeks of reading I became thankful that we had our home delivery of soft drinks like Dandelion and Burdock, Lemonade and Limeade from R White Bros.

  R.Whites’ Crate

It seemed obvious to me that the people who had the other company supply their drinks were at risk of dying and I couldn’t understand why adults didn’t catch on. There it was in writing several times a week. Everytime they reported that someone had died, they ended by saying the Coroner had been notified. As a little lad the subtle difference of words was not too apparent. As I grew older and wiser I realised the other drink supplier was not the CORONER but……………………….. CORONA.

 Artist: Mike Jeffries
Corona Delivery Lorry

The D.E.T. catered to children too. I was a founder member of the Junior Telegraph Club,  attending the inaugural meeting in the Central Hall in Albion Street to see Uncle Eric and Auntie Doris ‘live on stage’.

Just as they say a man’s first love is his only love so my affinity to D.E.T. has remained through life. Our paper boy back then was Gordon Lowe. I would meet up with him at Rolls-Royce, Derby, 20 years later. And again at R.R. (Canada) Ltd. in Montreal, in 1968. He had moved there as Tyne Engine Service Manager.

I became a paper boy at age 12, working for Barnes in Littleover Village. I got a shilling for each evening delivery round, 1/8d for each morning’s round and 2/6d (25 cents) for a Sunday round.  Collecting money from customers on Saturday, brought in another 2/-. i.e. £1.06d weekly.

You could be sent to any customer that preferred to pay at home rather than visit the shop. The only customer I recall was one at a big house on Burton Road between South Avenue and Warwick Avenue.

After ringing the bell the door was opened……by a young lady in a pale green sheer material full length negligee. (SORRY NO PHOTO.) In a flash, my Adam’s Apple became visible and I was thrust into puberty. As comedian Tommy Cooper would say. “Just like that!”

She handed me a £1 note and, without looking away, I gave her all the change I had. If I was short when I got back to the shop and had to add some of my own money, it was worth it.

Headlines I recall in the three years I delivered papers were:                                             1952 SINKING OF THE FLYING ENTERPRISE, WITH CAPT. CARLSON TRYING DESPARATELY TO SAVE HIS SHIP. 

1952 FLOODS OF LYNTON AND LYNMOUTH.

1953 STALIN’S DEATH

 library.usu.edu

My eldest son, Paul, followed the tradition by delivering the Telegraph from the same newsagent. By then it was Jordan and Fitch. Then his sister, Kim, took over. We would help out and when we took papers up the drive at the side of the old cottage in The Hollow, we were met by Topper, the Airedale. If the five bar gate was open he was our best friend. But if the gate was closed, we didn’t put our fingers through, unless that is if we still needed them.

 Old Cottage, Mentioned in Doomsday Book  websitwww.derbyshire-peakdistrict.co.uk

The first D.E.T, reporter I met was one summer’s evening. He had just come from Burton-on-Trent Court where he was reporting on a U.S. Serviceman standing trial for the murder of a taxi driver just after the war. Visiting the Herculean Barbell Club, above the Derby Borough Police stables in Full Street, the purpose was to interview a young Jamaican whose arrival in Derby quickly led to him winning all the Body Building contests in the Midlands area. His name, Louis Martin, who later became well-known by winning a gold medal at the Olympics and receiving an M.B.E. for it.

 Louis Martin

Louis didn’t want his age mentioned as he had modified it when applying for a Railway job. But his real age was used and Louis was called into the office at work and his pay was cut.

A schoolboy friend, Ian Worthington, worked at D.E.T. I would see him in Thorntree Lane (before the paper moved to the Meadows) loading lorries with papers be to carried to  news agents and the Telegraph Paper Sellers around town, such as Boots Corner, the Bus Station, The Spot, Samuel’s Corner etc. Their cry would be “Final”, “Late Final” or “Extra Final”. On Saturday they plied the “green ‘un” with all the football results.

In the 1970’s I would walk down from the Cathedral Car park with John Budworth, another Diocesan School pal, by then the D.E.T. News editor.

Around that time I became the nemesis of John Orgill, of the Telegraph, who was also the Chairman of Derby City Council Highways Committee. He wanted to pull down Friargate Bridge. As chairman of Friargate Bridge Action Group I wanted to preserve it.  In recent times he e-mailed me, not realising who I was. When I told him he said if he had known he wouldn’t have contacted me. But it was in fun and he admitted publicly that today he would be on my side.

Aside from all the letters I wrote on the Bridge issue I was even in the paper a time or two.

 

My readership ended temporarily when I emigrated although visitors still brought copies, including Bygones. When the electronic version became available I started sending stories. One was: http://youandyesterday.com/articles/Derby’s_lost_cinemas_were_centre_of_our_world_in_the_40s_and_50s

The advance of the Telegraph’s media allowed me to re-unite with several friends from the distant past. Mike Newbold from weight training in the 50s. Eric Chapman, also from weight training and my teenage buddy, who worked at the Derbyshire Advertiser. MY FIRST ever playmate at the age of three, David Holland. He bought a computer to correspond with me.

The World has changed immensely since I first read the D.E.T., not all for the good, but the Telegraph has maintained a high standard, bringing news and entertaining the reader, be they local or half-way round the World.

Their most memorable series for me, was circa 1980. It featured each week, alphabetically, a town or village in Derbyshire. First may have been Ashby, next maybe Baslow, then Clowne and so on. It would show a photo., give it’s location and a short story on its market day, population etc. Eventually the last in the series was Zanesby.

I hadn’t heard of Zanesby. Nor it appeared had many other readers as evidenced by their letters. The editor explained it simply. “DID YOU NOTE THE DATE OF THE PAPER WHEN ZANESBY WAS FEATURED? – APRIL 1st.” I view this as one of the best April Fools jokes of all time. It took meticulous planning so that the finale was on the correct day of the week, month and date. 

So when, out of the blue, last June I was invited to write a blog by Julie Bayley it put the cap on all these years of reading. I had only ever read one man’s blog  http://antonrippon.thisisderbyshire.co.uk  And me, the only non-journalist to do a blog on the paper.

It is amazing that I can sit at my home computer and write something which will be read by hundreds of people from Britain, U.S.A. including Hawaii, to Canada,  Japan, Australia and Russia.

Please do me a favour and tell me where you are reading this. Just use your first name and your location. Use either the comments box at the bottom or click on the e-mail.

NOTE: Someone tried to e-mail me at ellenderbyclaim@netzero.com BUT added “mail to” before the e-mail address. Please delete the “mail to” and send again. Thank you.

ellenderbyclaim@netzero.com