Published at 19:19, Thursday, 08 July 2010

WHAT you write today wraps the chips tomorrow! I can remember using these words, once told me by a grizzled old newspaper pro, in this column a good many years ago. And, as I remember, I didn’t disagree with his sentiments.

But not any more. The newspaper world, and the world in general, has changed. Nowadays, thanks to the internet, whatever appears in print, in national and local papers, can be read all over the world.

The pages of the Times & Star are literally only a click away, Australia, America, Africa or West Cumbria – it doesn’t matter where you are.

More than that, its pages are now preserved on the website and, in the fullness of time, it’s highly likely that all the paper’s back numbers will be made available for public access via the Internet. For the very early issues, it hasn’t happened yet but it’s only a matter of time.

This, of course, will be an absolute dream for any agencies looking to check up on individuals. Hatch, match and dispatch will all be there. Major and minor offences, the once reported follies of youth, personal successes and failures, they’ll all be preserved digitally, for ever!

For historians and genealogists it will be a dream come true but for anyone with something to hide it could be a nightmare.

This is merely a lead in to my once more asking for your help. I know I’ve done this before and many thanks to those of you who’ve supplied me with information but with the paper now having a possible worldwide readership via the internet, my pool of possible informants has suddenly grown larger.

I did ask if anyone could fill me in on a pre-war local illness – the Workington 100-day cold. This seems to have especially hit people who lived on or near the docks. So were you laid low for 100 days, back in the 30s, by this mysterious flu-like peculiarly Workington ailment? And what did you do to cure it?

Nimrod Dart. I’ve asked about this firm before, unsuccessfully. Were you an employee, or know of anyone who was, of this small firm?

And what about Nathan Jones? This local dance band musician from the 30s quit the Workington scene to go seek his fortune in London. Rumour has it that he started his own dance band but it’s something I’ve never been able to confirm. He seems to have vanished into thin air. Do you know what happened to him?

Workington and West Seaton, and not a lot of people know this, each had a baseball team back in 1890. At that time there were only 30 clubs in the country, so they were pioneers. But what happened to them? Has anyone got any old team photos tucked away in an old album? An antique baseball bat, perhaps, or anything?

Perhaps this is where I emphasise that I’m not necessarily looking for specialist detailed information. Snippets will do.

I’m still searching, after all these years, for a stuffed pigeon. Not any old pigeon, but “Never Fail.” Back in 1925, this national homing champion, owned by Siddick’s Fell Brothers, took only 14 days to fly all the way from San Sebastian – a distance of 747 miles. It was a record at the time.

Very shortly afterwards this brave bird took ill and died - and was, reportedly, stuffed. So what do you do with a stuffed national champion homing pigeon? You’d pop it on a shelf somewhere. Wouldn’t you?

And if you had a champion stuffed bird on your shelf, would you ever scop it out? I think not. So I suspect that “Never Fail” is out there somewhere. On one of your shelves, perhaps?

I’ve been told, and here I do confess that I know nothing about the subject, that back in the late 40s we were sent ‘food parcels’ by Australia. Do you know anything about this? What was sent? When were they sent? And, finally, when did such charitable gifts cease?

These have been but a few unanswered queries from years past. I am hoping that they will be picked up anew by new readers – both in the UK and abroad.

Finally, Workington Reds, it is claimed, sold a player called Forman to Hartlepool, some time in the early 20s. The transfer fee, if you believe it, was £10 and a box of kippers.

True – or an urban myth? What do you think?

Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk