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Crowds turn up to watch ... television

20/10/2007

A WINDSWEPT field opposite the Moorcock Inn, Newhey, on the Lancashire-Yorkshire border, was the target for scores of men, women and children one sunny weekend in July 1960 – as this look at the Observer archives for that year shows.

They had gone by car, by bike and even on Shanks’s pony.

Their object was to see how an outside television broadcast, so common these days in an age of instant global telecommunications, was done.

The programme being filmed was a popular Granada TV show of the 1960s – ‘People and Places’ – in which Bill Grundy and Chris Howland made their names as TV presenters.

The particular item was part of a series of programmes under the title of Coast to Coast, previous shows having been broadcast from Bridlington, Leeds, and Harrogate. Newhey was the first Lancashire location for the show.

While people were watching the programme on TV sets in their homes, the sightseers on the spot saw how, out of apparent chaos, a slick and orderly show was built up.

Appearing on the programme that day was a familiar figure to many Rochdale people – Richard Holland of Norden, who recited a Lancashire dialect poem called ‘I’ve worn mi boots and shoon away’ by Edwin Waugh.

Mr Holland, by the way, was an excellent choice for the recitation as he was, at that time, secretary of Rochdale Edwin Waugh Society.

Another colourful character who appeared on the programme was William Holt of Todmorden, an author and inventor of a loom shuttle. He used to sell his books by travelling around the countryside on horse back.

George Duckworth and Johnny Wardle, Lancashire and Yorkshire foes, and well known to older cricket fans, argued the relative merits of the Red and White Rose counties. Some say cricketers, aka Mike Atherton and Geoff Boycott, still do.

Another familiar figure was Amos Smith, the drummer of a musical trio on the show. Amos, a Rochdale man, played at the Carlton ballroom before he joined the Granada staff.