Search results for ""author norman jacobs""

In this revealing memoir of childhood, the author shows not only what affected his family, but also reveals a large slice of social history concerning the lives of all ordinary working-class people struggling to live in the slums of the East End of London in those pre-Welfare State days. He writes with sympathy, and sometimes anger, of the overcrowded houses with families of anything up to eight children, as his own had, living in just two or three rooms with outside W.C. and water tap; of the reliance on charity and the soup kitchen for food; of trying to eke out what little income they had by buying stale bread and cracked eggs or other cheap food from the many itinerant street sellers.Yet this is also a chronicle of what was a turbulent time in British history, and especially in the East End, with its then still large Jewish and Irish populations. So here too is an eyewitness account of the Depression, and of the provocative marches by Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists through the area, culminating in the Battle of Cable Street that saw the marchers turned back by the efforts of Jewish, Irish, communist and socialist protestors. Above all, however, Norman Jacobs writes with affection of the area and its extraordinary mix of peoples, as well as the now-vanished aspects of everyday life, such as the music hall, the two-valve radio, and the first Cup Final to be played at Wembley.

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On 19 May 1928, just three months after the sport had been launched in this country at the pioneering High Beech meeting, Fred Mockford and Cecil Smith introduced speedway racing to Crystal Palace with the first international match between England and Australia, the forerunner of the Test matches. It was an immediate success with the public who flocked in their tens of thousands to witness these latter day black-clad gladiators hurtling their way round the track on bikes with no brakes at breakneck speed and flinging their bikes into a slide at the corners at impossible angles. This book looks at how speedway came to open at Crystal Palace and follows its history through the next six years as a league team operating in the world's first speedway league until its closure in 1933 and its brief revival in the late 1930s. Although one of the pioneering tracks little was known about its history until now as Norman Jacobs provides a comprehensive history covering the major events at the track, facts and figures, behind the scenes anecdotes and its larger than life characters including Johnnie Hoskins, Ron Johnson and Tom Farndon, who became the Star Riders' champion in 1933.

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In 1926 two men, Fred Mockford and Cecil Smith, operating as London Motor Sports Ltd, introduced speedway racing to Crystal Palace. Path racing was an immediate draw to the general public who initially flooded to the track to witness the likes of Triss Sharp and Joe Francis hurtling around the track in the flesh. However, following disagreements with the Trustees of the Crystal Palace itself, Mockford and Smith found it necessary to relocate the team to the greyhound track at New Cross.Thus speedway had its home at New Cross for nearly thirty years and enjoyed a tumultuous but successful existence in all. The American rider, Jack Milne, was triumphant in the Speedway World Championship in 1937, and resides in the New Cross annals along with Johnnie Hoskins, George Newton, Tom Farndon, Ron Johnson and the Roger brothers, Bert and Cyril.

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Clacton-on-Sea's motto Lux, Salubritas, Felicitas (Light, Health and Happiness), sums up the main reason for the town's existence. Born in 1871, the brainchild of Victorian entrepreneur Peter Bruff, it was created from nothing to become one of the country's leading seaside resorts. Its name derives from the ancient farming village of Great Clacton, about a mile inland from the then desolate area known as Clacton Beach. with a short acknowledgement to its mother village, this book deals mainly with the growth of its lusty offspring from its earliest days to its height as a seaside resort from the 1920s to the 1970s. The fact that the entire history of Clacton-on-Sea falls within the lifetime of the camera means that every part of Clacton's history has been charted by the photographer. This book brings together than exceptional selection of photographs, and great majority being published for the first time, to illustrate that history. All aspects of the town are here: its streets, its shops, its beach, the Pier, its entertainers, the events that shaped it and the people who moulded it. All are recorded in this compelling photographic record which is certain to evoke many memories for older residents and visitors while at the same time conjuring up the past for those new to the area and those visiting for the first time. The illustrations in this book are drawn mainly from the author's own collection, from those of the Clacton District Local History Society, of which he is the chairman, and from the archives of Tendring District Council.

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