I expect that many Spaldonian readers of my age and older (born 1967) may look at the heading I’ve chosen "My Parochial Town" and start to rant on social media or some other echo chamber of our time. However, I deliberately chose this heading to reflect the town area around New Road to describe the area around my father’s shop in the 1970’s and 80’s. As I describe this you will see a parochial society and culture with some cosmopolitan people amongst them. Whilst focusing upon this area I will saunter to other parts and other times.
“Parochialism” is often seen as a negative in that by definition there is a tendency to focus interests to a local sphere, have a narrow view, or lack global perspective. The reality is that we form attachments to a place and that becomes part of our identification. I am a Spaldonian in that I was born and lived in Spalding for 55 years. It is part of my identity. I believe this is the same for many in the various towns and villages of the Fens. I believe it is intrinsic in the character of old market towns throughout the country. However, it holds a hazard, that is a fear of the spectre of change.
When you’ve lived in the same place all your life you risk it changing around you to something unfamiliar. This is what happened to Spalding as it changed in my life time from a market town to an industrial town. The once parochial town of Spalding has grown into a larger entity that requires a broader base of people from a wider environment to fulfil its purposes, with the primary purpose being the processing, packing and distribution of food.
Looking at the various people and family businesses I shall describe around the town will hopefully help the reader understand the closeness and warmth of this parochial town centre, an aspect that can be recognised in other fenland market towns of the era.
On a quiet day my grandfather would stand in the shop doorway with his hands in his pockets watching the world go by. My mother would say, perhaps unkindly, that he was scaring the customers away. He would see dozens of people to say hello and have a chat to. In my younger days he still smoked and would have a fag in the doorway. There is, in my opinion, something particularly social about smoking that you do not see with vaping. The bumming of a cigarette by a fellow smoker, the sharing a light. When I first started using public transport I always preferred the smoking sections of the trains and buses as they would chat more. However, I would frequently disappoint smokers by neither possessing a lighter or cigarettes.
Next door to his shop on one side towards Swan Street was Rumbelows TV and electrical goods. This was later occupied, as it is today, by Longstaff Estate Agent – an old family firm at the heart of the market activity in the town since before 1854, with roots back in the former established business of J. Cooley and Son established in 1770. On the other side neighbouring the shop was an off-licence, Victoria Wine.
I recall three sets of managers of the off-licence. There was a young couple who ran the off-licence and lived in the flat above it. When they got married, whilst they were away on their honeymoon, my father got his ladders out and erected a large stork on the top floor of their shop – a considerable feat considering it was three stories high. I then recall a lady called Mrs Senior; a German lady that helped us translate letters from our exchange family in Speyer. She had married an English soldier and migrated to Spalding. I recall her describing fleeing the advancing Russians as a young girl at the end of the War. Then there was Mick Myers – a former Chief Petty Officer in the Navy and a prankster with a wicked sense of humour. When the town’s sewage replacement scheme shut off most of New Road Mick got out his deck chair and fishing rod and sat fishing by the hole in the road. On another occasion, one tulip parade, he lowered a bottle of wine on a string to the crowd below from an upper window.
Two doors away next to the off-licence was the White Swan pub. I recall peering through the window to see the wrestler Mick McManus having a pint at the bar. It was always a bit of a dive with frequent fights breaking out on a Saturday afternoon especially between seasonal Irishmen. The White Swan closed, and as the bar was ripped out much of the wood became firewood brought home in my Dad’s van. The years of alcohol and spirits being spilt on the bar gave this firewood an explosive character when lit! The White swan reopened as the Bass House, a pub where beer only came in bottles. My pint-loving grandfather disapproved of this new-fangled idea, yet he wasn’t totally against anything new. He couldn’t wait to use his voucher in the Sun newspaper to get a free can of Dr. Pepper from Victoria Wine when it was released in the UK. Culture was changing, even in the remote fenland town of Spalding. Punk arrived and my grandfather would stare open-mouthed at one of the local punks with his glued up spiked mohawk and say, “Look at that bugger.”
One Saturday afternoon a group of lads arrived outside the Bass House, laid down some vinyl mats on the floor outside the pub, switched on their ‘ghetto blaster’ and break-danced – the first time I had seen any such dancing. Apparently the break-dancers were enticed to come to Spalding by Dan Morgan. I remember Dan Morgan as the owner of “Dannys” the leading shop to buy jeans from in the area in the 1970’s. I recall Dan Morgan’s bright suites in a town where dark colours and tweed reigned[i], and his neat goatee beard, a rarity at that time in Spalding. I found him a fascinating person as a child when he came into my father’s shop for parts or to get something repaired or soldered as he seemed to know so much about so many different things – he was different. As a child I did not realise he was a polymorph with many different facets besides his clothes shop. He was a science-fiction writer, a musician, an early user of the internet and a sail-boarder to name but some of his skills and interests. I was not very old and I remember him showing my father a book he had had published in America and I asked him about the coloured edge of the paper which was either pink or yellow. He explained to me that different categories of paperbacks had different coloured edges to the paper according to the type of fiction as most paperback books in America were sold at newsstands.
Danny’s shop was modern and, for Spalding, was with the times in a town that was often old-fashioned. It sold the latest Wranglers and Levis jeans in flares or drainpipes as the fashions changed. This modern shop had its origins with Danny’s grandfather back in the 1890’s as illustrated in this article from 1949 that reveals the history of the business and describes how it fitted in with the market town of Spalding and the needs and fashions of the past:
“ Mr Dan Morgan, sen., the well-known principal of Messrs. Dan Morgan Ltd, the Spalding firm of tailors and outfitters , has completed 60 years in the tailoring business, this period coinciding with the first sale made by the firm.
It was in 1880 that the youthful Mr. Morgan, his father, and a witness, signed his apprenticeship to John Amos, the former proprietor. This lasted for five years. The rates of pay were not princely, commencing at three shillings per week and finishing at ten shillings. In terms of indenture peculiar to those days, it was stipulated in the agreement that the apprentice should not ‘contract matrimony, play at card or dice tables, nor haunt taverns or play-houses.’
In those days the work was chiefly making up suits for farm servants and smallholders. The 14th May was considered the busiest day of the year, the customers spending about £5 each. Everyone bought a Sunday suit, a quaint hat, and a silk handkerchief to tie around the neck.
They also looked ‘dressy’ in canton smocks of salmon colour – a type of blouse – and cord trousers. Horsemen were distinguished by their cream worsted cord trousers with white pearl buttons – about 18 on each leg – and some sported a double-fronted waistcoat. A great deal of comment would be passed of this rig-out were to be viewed at one of the modern Corn Exchange dances!
Perhaps one of the changes most pleasing to the eye in regard to men’s dress styles is in regard to colours. In those days everyone wore a black jacket and waistcoat. Now, of course, there are hundreds of different shades and styles, some of allotment produce tints!
Mr. Morgan took over the business in 1907 and was joined by his son, Mr. Cecil Morgan, in 1915. There are now three generations in the firm, Mr. Dan Morgan jun. joining it on his demobilisation last August.
At present Mr. Morgan is ill, and his many friends will join with me in wishing him a speedy recovery.”[ii]
Danny was born in 1925. In 1939 he bought his first guitar by mail order costing £3 15s. He began to teach himself guitar listening to the radio and trying to pick out chords and notes and by 1942 was performing locally. When he was demobilised in 1949 he joined the family business – and also pursued his music. He performed in Big Bill Campbell’s Band on the radio as well as in numerous other bands and combos. This bought him into contact with John Charles Hynam, a fellow jazz guitarist from Huntingdon who was also a fan of science fiction writing under the pen-name John Kippax. John Kippax wrote for the Melody Maker where he portrayed Dan Morgan as a man who, “stuck to beer and guitars and science-fiction.” Dan Morgan and John Kippax co-wrote one of a series of science-fiction novels titled, “Venture Twelve” with the third book, “The Neutral Stars” published in 1973. Sadly John Kippax was killed in a road accident in 1974 and the last book of the “Venture Twelve” series was published post-humorously in 1975.
Dan Morgan’s first science fiction novel Cee Tee Man was published in 1954 and this book has now become a highly sought after book as the cover was the first published work of the artist Josh Kirby (Ronald William Kirby) who was to subsequently design many covers to Terry Pratchett’s “Discworld” series.
It is perhaps Danny’s book “The Richest Corpse in Show Business” published in 1966 that illustrates how visionary Dan Morgan was in that this science fiction comedy foresees:
- The rise and dominance of reality TV
- Professional actors playing “second fiddle” to reality TV stars
- Camera drones
- Video calls
- Commuter cars on automatic pilot
- Self-help gurus gaining popularity that is disproportionate to their abilities
- Increased freedom from traditional sexual definitions
- A drug called ‘sinatone’ having similar properties to Viagra
- Five second spot advertising teasers
- The advent of such shows as ‘Squid Game’ and ‘Hunted’, albeit with the death of the contestants.
The following quote in particular rings true today whereas in 1966 it was not predominant, “…its axiomatic in the real life TV field that the nearer to crazy your subject is the better the dramatic content he is likely to produce.”
Sadly in 1958 Dan’s father Cecil Morgan was killed in a road accident near Hubbert’s Bridge, Boston. Dan’s foresight and visionary thinking was reflected in his business as it pioneered new fashions and styles that could not be found by local people without visiting London or the Midlands. The seventies and early eighties saw a shop rebranded as “Danny’s”, a unisex shop that was regionally famous for selling quality branded jeans and teenage fashion. I recall it being a very modern shop for its day with changing cubicles that had saloon style doors and coloured lighting.
Danny was using the internet in its early days of the 1980’s to share ideas and even wrote short stories in what would be called a forum or blog today. It was not just science fiction writing that saw considerable success. He wrote three books on guitar playing – the first in 1965 was extremely successful and with reprints sold in seven figures exceeding Bert Weedon’s famous “Play in a Day”. One of the other books was dedicated to the playing of Spanish guitar which Dan travelled to Spain to study. I first heard Dan play the guitar on an hour long feature about him and his music on the newly formed local commercial radio station, Hereward Radio in 1981. I saw him playing jazz and blues at The Birds pub in Spalding a few years later. Danny was generous with his talent and supported many local artists. He once said he was most proud of his adult education work teaching guitar. He never forgot his early days and the various bands and combinations that he played with which included fellow local businessman such as Harry Pilkington, a local butcher that played bass, Graham Walker, a pharmacist in the town, and Sheddy Turner the chip shop proprietor that played saxophone.
In 1988, eleven years before Banksy’s first artwork hit a wall, Danny’s held a graffiti competition in Spalding with a wall at the rear of the shop being decorated by two local graffiti artists. In 1982 he published one of the first books on windsurfing entitled, “Beginning Windsurfing – A beginners guide to the fastest growing and most popular water sport.”
Danny, being such a visionary, supported the new, but did oppose two significant changes in the town that he believed undermined the future of the town as a shopping centre, that is the development of Holland Market centred around a new supermarket, and the development of a retail park at Springfields on the edge of the town. He argued in both cases that the developments detracted from the viable retention and future development of independent family-owned shops in the town and therefore reduced consumer choice.
I feel that Dan Morgan illustrates the importance of the arts in widening the view and potential of people in rural towns like Spalding that are often marooned from the influences of the more populated cultural centres.
[i] In 1988 it caused a stir at work when I wore a light grey suite and was later advised that it had caused much discussion amongst managers as to whether this was appropriate work wear for a junior member of staff.
[ii] Spalding Guardian 14th January 1949
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