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Sports in the 40's and 50's in Gloucester
Posted by
Elizabeth Sylvester-Gray
,
19 January 2012
·
111 views
Back in the late 40's and early 50's I was Captain of Gloucester Albion Hockey Team. I wonder if anyone remembers me (I went by Shirley Sylvester in those days). My Dad played for the Gloucester Gas Company Hockey Team and several times I was called on to fill in for someone who couldn't make it. We were a mixed team and had girls from Ribston, Denmark Road and Central, along with boys from the Crypt School and Thomas Rich's. Even though I say it myself we were pretty good.
I can remember one game when we played Gloucester Gas Company and I had to forget my Dad was playing on their team. I was centre half and he was left wing. He had played professional rugby in his youth and was still very fit. I only know the match ended in a draw!!
Dad played cricket for Gloucester XI and I eventually became their scorer, having been taken to cricket matches since I was a baby. It was just a natural thing for me to follow every game that was played, even though we didn't travel too far (I think the longest trip we made was to Bournemouth) and I look back on those days with such pleasure.
I am really enjoying the photographs of "old" Gloucester as I didn't leave the country until 1955 when I went to the U.S. I then spent three years in Germany before returning to Gloucester for a visit before going back to the U.S. I made my home in Colorado which was a beautiful State but I always longed for the Cotswolds and "home" so after 20 years being an exile I came back home but finished up in Cheltenham, which as you know is only a hop, skip and jump from Gloucester. I must say I was shocked to see what had been done to the city when I came for a 3 month holiday in 1968. Gone was the "Market House" one of our favourite pubs, but the Double Gloucester was still there although changed from when we used to frequent it. And no more Plaza, Hippodrome or Empire (we called that the Flea Pit) and the Picturedrome was where my friend Eileen and I stood in a queue for four hours (straight from school) to see "Gone With The Wind" Then we could only get standing room at the back! What a long film that was and a long wait to get in but in the end it was worth it.
I have many other memories of Gloucester and when I came back briefly in 1972 I got a job at Debenham's which I had always known as Bon Marche. I was in Public Relations and had a lovely time because the staff were all so great. My boss Tom Herbert was in charge of the Debenhams Choir and I went along to all the concerts to help out. What fun we had, especially when we visited Coney Hill Hospital and one of the patients held my hand and wouldn't let go for the entire concert.
She was lovely and such a shame that she was stuck in that place.
I have so many other things I could say about my life in Gloucester, including falling into the fountain in Gloucester Park (it had goldfish in there in those days) and as I was only four years old, my "big" brother Geoff, dragged me home and my mother was so upset as he had left me at the bottom of our road and said that I had fallen in the pond.....she thought he had left me there and he got a good hiding and sent to his room when I came into the house dripping wet and crying that "my socks have sunk" and ever that the family joke was that "your socks have sunk" and I can remember how the socks had slipped down under my feet and made my walk home very uncomfortable.
I can remember one game when we played Gloucester Gas Company and I had to forget my Dad was playing on their team. I was centre half and he was left wing. He had played professional rugby in his youth and was still very fit. I only know the match ended in a draw!!
Dad played cricket for Gloucester XI and I eventually became their scorer, having been taken to cricket matches since I was a baby. It was just a natural thing for me to follow every game that was played, even though we didn't travel too far (I think the longest trip we made was to Bournemouth) and I look back on those days with such pleasure.
I am really enjoying the photographs of "old" Gloucester as I didn't leave the country until 1955 when I went to the U.S. I then spent three years in Germany before returning to Gloucester for a visit before going back to the U.S. I made my home in Colorado which was a beautiful State but I always longed for the Cotswolds and "home" so after 20 years being an exile I came back home but finished up in Cheltenham, which as you know is only a hop, skip and jump from Gloucester. I must say I was shocked to see what had been done to the city when I came for a 3 month holiday in 1968. Gone was the "Market House" one of our favourite pubs, but the Double Gloucester was still there although changed from when we used to frequent it. And no more Plaza, Hippodrome or Empire (we called that the Flea Pit) and the Picturedrome was where my friend Eileen and I stood in a queue for four hours (straight from school) to see "Gone With The Wind" Then we could only get standing room at the back! What a long film that was and a long wait to get in but in the end it was worth it.
I have many other memories of Gloucester and when I came back briefly in 1972 I got a job at Debenham's which I had always known as Bon Marche. I was in Public Relations and had a lovely time because the staff were all so great. My boss Tom Herbert was in charge of the Debenhams Choir and I went along to all the concerts to help out. What fun we had, especially when we visited Coney Hill Hospital and one of the patients held my hand and wouldn't let go for the entire concert.
She was lovely and such a shame that she was stuck in that place.
I have so many other things I could say about my life in Gloucester, including falling into the fountain in Gloucester Park (it had goldfish in there in those days) and as I was only four years old, my "big" brother Geoff, dragged me home and my mother was so upset as he had left me at the bottom of our road and said that I had fallen in the pond.....she thought he had left me there and he got a good hiding and sent to his room when I came into the house dripping wet and crying that "my socks have sunk" and ever that the family joke was that "your socks have sunk" and I can remember how the socks had slipped down under my feet and made my walk home very uncomfortable.
