The birth of the Lancashire branch of The Old Oswestrian Society, Part 1. Early Beginnings.

Nestling centrally in the town of Bury, just a few miles north of Manchester, the Two Tubs Inn became a popular venue, watering hole, and meeting point for many Old Oswestrians living in that part of Lancashire during the early sixties.

It was from here, in a small back room, that the Northern branch of The Old Oswestrian Society slowly blossomed into reality following several initial meetings at The Shakespeare pub in Manchester, but I am getting a little ahead of myself.

The Two Tubs Inn

As I sauntered beyond 'LAST DAY' and out of the school gates for the last time as a boarder in July, 1960, I determined to maintain contact with as many of my contemporaries as possible. Having fond memories of boarding school days, ongoing contact with friends and classmates was high on my list of priorities. Shortly after leaving Oswestry my brother Bernard and I decided to join the Old Boys' Society, at the head of which was Duncan Felton who had been a Master at Oswestry since the 1920s. The annual subscription at the time was one guinea, which was 21 shillings (there were 20 shillings to the £1), and to put things into perspective, a good salary would have been about £20 per week.

In January 1961 I began working at the Northern HQ of the National Coal Board in Manchester and on my first day bumped into OO John Robbie's father. I also spoke on the telephone to OO Bill Martin's father who ran a coal business which supplied Oswestry School with fuel... small world!

Victoria Station, Manchester

As I made my way home after work one day in February, purely by chance I met another Old Boy, Tony Furnival, at Manchester Victoria Station. Tony had been part of the original intake at Holbache House in 1947. A staunch Oswestrian whom I last met at the Annual Dinner in 2019, Tony told me that along with Mike Prestwich and 'Willie' Welbourne he was trying to ascertain if there was sufficient interest in establishing a Northern section of the OO Society, and he invited myself and Bernard to join the steering committee. I agreed and a couple of weeks later eleven of us met up at The Shakespeare Inn in Manchester for the inaugural meeting.

February 26, !961

The Shakespeare Inn

Tony and co. had left school in1954 and they were several years older than me, but I remembered travelling with them by train from Manchester to Oswestry as part of a fairly large contingent of boys from Lancashire, and we all got on well together. Prior to the start of the meeting Mike Prestwich was elected secretary of the steering committee and, after a good deal of banter, proceedings were underway.

Ideas flowed freely and we discussed the implementation of a programme of social and sporting events aimed at getting the fledgeling organisation off the ground during the summer months. Sadly our efforts to organise a few competitive events against the School on Sports Day of that year were vetoed out of hand by a truculent Headmaster Frankland whose tenure at the helm would soon come to an end.

2 August, 1961 - The Frankland era is over 

Feeling slightly miffed about this completely dismissive reaction, without reference to Mike I wrote a letter to Mr Frankland contending that his negative attitude was not helping the growth of our fledgeling organisation. I made the suggestion, somewhat frivolously and with a large helping of sarcasm, that the temperature at School could be lowered significantly if a Headmaster's XI would face up to the Lancashire OOs in a welly wanging match and black pudding eating contest (to be held on the Maes-y-Llan as part of the sports weekend activities). Needless to say a stony silence descended around my letterbox and I realised my helpful suggestions had fallen on deaf ears.

Bury Black Puddings

Welly Wanging (a good Northern tradition)

 

   

Black Puddings are the ultimate Lancashire delicacy, and Bury Black Puddings in particular are famous throughout the county, so my proposal was not so off the wall as might first appear.

However, several weeks later I was given a gentle ticking off from the OO Secretary, Mike Prestwich, who thought that my unauthorised actions could have damaged our image. Somebody had grassed on me!

Later that summer on Sunday 6 August we played our first competitive cricket match against Stand Cricket Club near Bury and six OOs from Oswestry including P Narroway and Bev Croft were scheduled to play in the team. Bernard, myself, Don Berry, and Trevor Ashworth, who were all members of the school team in my era, took part in a very exciting game which we ended up losing.

Most unfortunately for him personally, and the team as a whole, poor old 'Pip' Narroway (our demon fast bowler, top of the order batsman, and former skipper of the School 1st XI), suffered a nasty car accident en route to the match in which he broke his arm in two places.

Oswestry 1st XI, Circa 1955 (seated) Pip Narroway, Capt. (centre), Bev Croft (second from right)

Swerving to avoid a car that was fast approaching on his side of the road, Pip overturned his vehicle and in the process his arm was propelled through the open window and crushed. He was lucky not to have sustained more damage and, amazingly, after a short break (no pun intended), he went on to bowl as a left hander. It was a fabulous day and we were entertained royally, partying at the club house long into the early hours vowing to return for revenge in 1962!

Stand Cricket Club, 1961

The Lancashire Lads and their cricket team were up and running at last with invaluable support from Oswestry.

To be continued...