The Nostalgia Column with Margaret Watson

By The Newsroom
Published 7th Apr 2018, 11:02 BST
Margaret Watson.Margaret Watson.
Margaret Watson.
Over the last six months this column has concentrated on memories of Dewsbury sent in by readers recalling the days of their youth.

Some have written of childhood experiences during the war, some sad, some happy, but most have been about their teenage years.

They’ve looked back on the days of stiletto heels and beehive hairstyles, drainpipe trousers and beetle-crusher shoes.

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The photograph above, which I have used before, but I’m sure readers will love seeing again, depicts just how fashion conscious local girls were – and how gorgeous.

IN FASHION: Pictured on a day out at Blackpool in 1959, from left to right, Jackie Stanley, Maureen Foley, Janet Armitage, Pat Brooksbank, Kathleen Greenwood, Joan Wright and Alice Wright.IN FASHION: Pictured on a day out at Blackpool in 1959, from left to right, Jackie Stanley, Maureen Foley, Janet Armitage, Pat Brooksbank, Kathleen Greenwood, Joan Wright and Alice Wright.
IN FASHION: Pictured on a day out at Blackpool in 1959, from left to right, Jackie Stanley, Maureen Foley, Janet Armitage, Pat Brooksbank, Kathleen Greenwood, Joan Wright and Alice Wright.

Look at those beautiful billowing skirts made to stick out with lots of starch and layers of stiffened underskirts.

If you hadn’t any starch, then a good soak in sugar and water would suffice, and we used the same mixture to spray on our hair if we hadn’t any lacquer.

This picture also shows the kind of camaraderie existing among young girls in those days. We all had a best friend but that didn’t prevent us from going around in groups.

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This week I’m including another selection of memories with the promise that others who have written to me have not been forgotten.

IN FASHION: Pictured on a day out at Blackpool in 1959, from left to right, Jackie Stanley, Maureen Foley, Janet Armitage, Pat Brooksbank, Kathleen Greenwood, Joan Wright and Alice Wright.IN FASHION: Pictured on a day out at Blackpool in 1959, from left to right, Jackie Stanley, Maureen Foley, Janet Armitage, Pat Brooksbank, Kathleen Greenwood, Joan Wright and Alice Wright.
IN FASHION: Pictured on a day out at Blackpool in 1959, from left to right, Jackie Stanley, Maureen Foley, Janet Armitage, Pat Brooksbank, Kathleen Greenwood, Joan Wright and Alice Wright.

Their memories of the halcyon days of youth in the 1950s and 60s will eventually appear on this page.

The following letter came from Brian Webster who wrote to me after I had mentioned in my column, the Reporter photographic display cabinet in the old Dewsbury bus station:

He writes: “Wow! It’s the first time I’ve heard anyone mention the famous display cabinet showing the photographs appearing in the Reporter the following day.

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“At that time I was a Teddy Boy with black shiny hair and blue beetle crusher shoes and tight drain pipe trousers.

“At the Ben Riley dance hall Big Dave would stand at the top of the steps giving you a printed stamp on your wrist in case you wanted to go out and come back in.

“I lived in Gawthorpe, near Ossett, and used to get the bus from Leeds Road end to Dewsbury every Friday and Saturday to go to the Ben Riley – and on Sunday if my Mum gave me the money.

“I will always remember the beautiful girls who used to go to the Ben Riley. If I could pluck up enough nerve I would ask them for a dance.

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