Onchan - People's Pictures

CHANGING BUSES

This photograph comes from Richard Dodge of Onchan and was taken on 10th April 1993 in front of the 'bus shelter at the bottom of Royal Avenue.  The bus on the left, a Leyland National which had been purchased new by Isle of Man Road Services in 1976, was on route 25 which brought it down Royal Avenue and would have taken it along the promenade back to the bus station but it broke down.  The driver managed to get it across the road and park  in front of the bus shelter building which at that time incorporated a telephone box.  He then put up the Not in Service announcement on the destination  panel at the front of the bus.  The bus on the right was sent to the rescue.  This was also a Leyland National which was bought new by East Kent buses in 1973, subsequently sold to National Welsh and then bought by Isle of man Passenger Transport Board in 1985.  When the relieve bus arrived it parked head to head and passengers literally stepped from one bus to the other.  It then reversed back in front of the redbrick houses in Royal Avenue and proceeded to Douglas Promenade on the usual route.

In the background are the houses in Royal Drive which is divided by Royal Avenue.  Those shown in the picture all have house names and have never been allocated a postal street number.  Those on the other side of the road which links onto Sunningdale Drive have numbers even though most of the houses on the upper side have names.  On the upper side of the road the numbers run from 1 to 11 and the first house in Sunningdale Drive is actually numbered 13 as a continuation.  This came about in the early 1950s when the Onchan Village Commissioners renumbered the properties in Onchan following a complaint from the Post Master General over the fact that many of the roads contained several terraces each separately numbered (i.e. Governors Road had Governors Road, Seaview Terrace, Sunnyside Terrace and Clifton Terrace on one side of the road and just Governors Road on the other).  In the renumbering, part of Royal Terrace was to become Sunningdale Drive hence the numbering from the corner house.  Those properties in Royal Drive were all guesthouses and the occupiers complained to the commissioners as they had printed stationery, cards etc stating Royal Drive.  In the end the commissioners gave in the let them remain as Royal Drive but with the numbers imposed on them.

The houses in the picture mainly date from the Edwardian period.  The two nearest the camera were built by John R. Craine and complete in 1900 so they were Victorian.  The centre two houses with their sham half timbering (Hartnel and The Nook) were built in 1933/34 on a plot which hadn't been developed at the time of the neighbouring properties.

A.A. RIDER

Another photograph from Ronnie Brew, this time showing Italian TT rider and champion Carlo Ubbiali wearing wet weather gear turning up the side of the Manx Co-op in Onchan on the Clypse Course.  Carlo was nine times World Champion motorcycle racer and was born in Bergamo Lombardy on 22nd September 1929.  He commenced racing with MV Agusta in 1949, changing a year later to Mondial but then back to MV.  During his racing on the Isle of Man between 1951 and 1960 he had 5 TT wins on the Clypse Course.  In 2001 the FIM named him a "Grand Prix Legend".

In the background spectators stand in the doorway of The Blue Dragon with no fear of being crashed into and the words "Health and Safety" had never been heard.  Standing in front of the window of Dennis Corrin's shop is local AA man Jim Rider.  He was a familiar sight in the late 50s and throughout the 60s in either his khaki uniform or his yellow oil skins as seen in this photograph.  He travelled around the island on his yellow AA motorbike with sidecar box. 

Initially he lived at 102 Royal Avenue but in 1959 he moved into 15 Sandringham Drive and later to Blackberry Lane and finally to 38 Nursery Avenue.  In 1959 he established the 1st Onchan Scout Troop which was attached to St Peter's Church.  There had been a Wolf Cub Pack for a few years and any Onchan cub wishing to go on to scouts had to join 5th Douglas at St Thomas'.  The arrival of Jim Rider assisted by Mr Douglas Halton the chemist who lived in Summerhill Road changed things for the Onchan lads.  Some of the early scouts were Roger Christian, Eddie Ardern, Ian Quirk, Peter Jackson, Brian Lancaster, Melvyn Quine, John Smith and Norman Caley.

In 1961 Jim severed his connection with the 1st Onchan (Parish Church) Scouts and set up the 2nd Onchan Troop who met under the former Avenue Cinema in Royal Avenue due to the help and co-operation of the owners The Palace and Derby Castle Company Limited.  Thanks to a hard working committee and the good offices of Onchan Village Commissioners a prefabricated scout headquarters was erected in 1965 alongside School Road on a small triangle of land at the top end of the School Road Recreation Ground donated by the commissioners.  He was also involved with scouting island wide and took parties with representatives from several groups to Jamborees on International Camps.  Jim stood down from the Onchan scouts in 1969 when he was transferred in his job with the AA to the Cheshire area.  The scout troop then came under the charge of Mr R. Wright.

SUPER MAC

From Ronnie Brew comes this picture of two fast Scotsmen, on the left is Alistair King and on the right Bob McIntyre taken in the garage of 115 Royal Avenue.  Their use of this building for bike preparation is a sequence of events that revolve around a fellow Scot, Tommy McEwan.

Tommy's parents moved into a house in Royal Avenue in 1947 and he followed after them.  He was very much into motorbikes and in March 1949 he applied for permission to build a commercial garage at the top end of Marion Road next to Onchan Laundry which was run by the Nicholls family.  The garage was also to have petrol pumps but he couldn't get a petroleums licence due to the proximity of The Park bungalows.  The garage was designed by W.T. Quayle the architect who also laid out Onchan Park for the commissioners.

Tommy rode in the TT on an AJ.S and also on a Velocette and so its not surprising that when other lads from Scotland came to race they used Tommy's garage to fine tune their bikes.  Jack Nicholls was co-owner of the Onchan Laundry with his brother Harry.  Jack lived on Royal Avenue at its junction with Alberta Drive.  The house was built in 1934/35 to the designs of local architect R.H. "Cherry" Cain.  It caused quite a stir at the time and became known as "The house with no corners".  Although it had a low pitched roof it was in fact in the 1930s "moderne" style with metal windows frames and the long narrow windows went right up to the outside corners of the building and then returned down the next wall.  In reality the corner was supported by a metal column the size of a scaffold pole in behind the window frames but in the absence of solid brickwork there it looked as if the whole building rested on the windows as there were no solid corners at all.

Attached to the house was a flat roofed double garage where the Nicholls kept their sports car but both Jack and his wife Floss rode motorbikes in the pre-war years.  He had an International Norton whilst she rode a 350 Velocette and they were both very active members of the Peveril Motorcycle Club.  When Tommy's garage closed after only a few years, Jack Nicholls offered his garage as a base for TT and Grand Prix riders.

Bob McIntyre was born in 1928 and started work in a shipyard on the Clyde.  Later he went to work for Cooper Brothers the motorcycle dealers at Troon.  He entered the TT with an A.J.S although a lot of his bikes he built himself.  His break came in 1957 when he was given the opportunity to ride for Gilera due to Geoff Duke's illness.  He won both the Junior and Senior beating World Champion John Surtees.  In 1959 he won the Formula One race on a Norton.  In August 1962 he crashed at Oulton Park and died 9 days later from his injuries.

Alistair King had a short TT career from 1958 to 1961.  In the 1959 Senior TT he was second to John Surtees.  The year of this photograph is not known nor have the bikes been identified.  The number plates fastened to the inside of the round-the-corner doors to the garage was a feature for many years long after the garage was lent out to riders.  Roy Nicholls, a nephew of Jack well recalls when the Norton bikes arrived a day before practicing began.  The mechanics or riders would work on them then Roy would drive the largest Onchan Laundry van with the bikes inside all the way up to Jurby Airfield where they would be tested.

In the 50s it was not uncommon to see the young lads of Onchan, Ronnie Brew included, standing outside 115 Royal Avenue in the hopes of getting a glimpse of the TT riders and better still an autograph.  Mrs Nicholls was always keen however to chase them away to let the riders get on with their work.

THE GHURKHAS

This photograph has been provided by former commissioner Peter Kennaugh of Onchan and was taken by Ken Corlett of Ramsey on 16th August 1983.  A party of eight members of the 10th Princess Mary's Own Ghurkha Rifles under the command of Lieutenant Pastrng Dhenup Lama B.E.M. came to the island and visited various locations in connection with the V.J. Day commemoration.  Coming to Onchan they laid a wreath at the war memorial which had only been repositioned to beneath the weeping wytch elm tree the year before.  They were met at Onchan by the then Chairman of the Commissioners Ron Cretney JP and Clerk to the Commissioners Eddie Smith.

They also visited Douglas and were entertained in the Mayor's Parlour as well as visiting the National War Memorial at St Johns.  In the background is Beech House which had been built by Format Building Construction for the commissioners following the demolition of the building that housed Billy Mill's grocers shop, the Kirk Conchan Sub Post Office and Harry Mather's newsagents shop.  The upper floor was devoted entirely to the Onchan Library whilst downstairs the unit on the right was Davenport-Smith, estate agents and on the left a newsagents/tobacconist

TRANSPORT ENTHUSIAST’S DELIGHT

This coloured photograph was taken by Allan Blackburn in 1962 from a front bedroom window in his mother’s house in Royal Avenue West.  It shows a view looking towards Douglas Bay and although Allan was only trying out his new camera with slide film he managed to capture items that are now of great interest.   We start with the Douglas Bay Hotel erected on Onchan Head and opened in 1894.   It was built with both imported bricks and bricks manufactured in Onchan at the Ballanard Brickworks.   The entrepreneur responsible for its construction was Samuel Horatio Marsden of Windsor Terrace in Douglas who had other public house/hotel establishments.   The foreman for the construction work was Frederick Callow grandfather of the late Deemster Henry Callow.   A young joiner on the job was Herbie Green who later in life became a well known figure on the island as Coroner of Middle, a rôle he held for many years retiring in his 90s.

From the start the hotel was illuminated by electricity and was undoubtedly the finest purpose built hotel in the Douglas area despite actually being in Onchan.   Both the Castle Mona and the Fort Anne were of course converted residences of some age but this was brand spanking new and even attracted visitors from Monte Carlo in its first years.   In the 1950s and 60s it became famous for its Texas Bar.

Coming across the bay is a Steam Packet boat with a timber clad bridge structure.   At this time there would only be the one car ferry, Manx Maid, whilst all the other boats including The Manx Man which would only be seven years old at this time, were of a design that hadn’t changed for about forty years.

Also in the picture is a Douglas Corporation “yellow” bus coming down King Edward Road having undoubtedly just taken its passengers to the White City on Sea Cliff Road.   White City started life in 1906 when a bell tent was pitched with a small wooden platform in front and a group of minstrels performed in a similar fashion to Douglas Head.   The following year a wooden structure was built which provided a covered stage with integral dressing rooms for the Torreador Orchestra.   Next came a pavilion for indoor entertainment then a roller skating rink and gradually fun fair stalls were added and a wooden constructed figure of eight in 1909.   Many of the features installed in the early years were well advanced of those in Blackpool or elsewhere.   In the post war years a large brick built pavilion was built which housed the dodgem cars, side stalls, bingo and slot machines.   The owners advertised the fun fair as “Onchan Head – The White City of the Isle of Man” but somehow the title “White City” stuck.

In 1949 an Act of Tynwald was passed which permitted Douglas Corporation to take their buses up to two miles outside the borough boundary.   As a local authority they could run a bus service with their own area without any form of licence but to go beyond required special permission.   This saw buses travelling to White City and also up Summer Hill Road in Onchan with stops at Ridgeway Road and in front of the terrace near the top of Alberta Drive (Christian Terrace) to serve Onchan Park and Lourdes Grotto.   The single decker buses on this latter route would usually travel down Alberta Drive and turn by reversing into Kerrocoar Drive.   The bus in the picture is one of a batch four A.E.C. Regent V buses purchased in 1957.   Further buses of this type were purchased in 1964 and 1965.

In the photograph Port Jack Glen has the grass neatly cut and not a sprig of gorse in sight.   When the Howstrake Estate was laid out for building purposes in 1892 the developers, The Douglas Bay Estate Company,   gave the area of the glen and brows from Derby Castle to Onchan Harbour (Happy Valley) to Douglas Corporation for public use.   It was another two years before Onchan Parish Commissioners came into being so that’s how these areas were in the hands of Douglas.   Onchan Village Commissioners rented the glen and maintained it.   In 1959 they were able to purchase the glen and the brows which resulted in “Winter Works Schemes” to carry out a complete makeover of the glen with new bridges, new side walls to the stream, lighting of the stream, cutting back of all vegetation, the building of an enlarged bus shelter at the top end and a curved wall entrance incorporating a seating area in a suntrap situation at the bottom end of the glen.   The curved wall just shows in the photograph.   A Winter Works Scheme was an approved scheme whereby men were taken off the dole and Government paid a proportion of their wages rather than paying dole and the commissioners had work carried out at a lesser cost.   In the same way the back lanes behind Royal Avenue West and Falkland Drive were properly surfaced.

In the foreground is a cream and red coach which is parked outside the home of Mr and Mrs Forgie who like many of their neighbours ran a guesthouse.   Mr Forgie also drove coaches for different firms over the years including Scotts Garage, Highlander Coaches and Shimmins Garage.   This coach is one of a few Bedfords with a Plaxton Ventura 2 body.   They were only made between 1953 and 1954 and this one is thought to belong to T.H. Kneen Ltd which at that time was run by J.F. Edmonds.   Its registration was 3333 MN and operated as Marguerite Motors.   Although built in 1954 it was first run by a firm in Sheffield and brought to the island in 1961.   Three years later it passed to Tours (Isle of Man) Ltd which was another of Mr Edmond’s companies and was registered 11 MAN.   In 1966 it passed to Ransons Happyways Tours Ltd which was yet another of Mr Edmond’s companies having embodied Mr Ted Ranson’s business in 1964.   The coach lived on and in 1968 went to Corkills Garage becoming EMN 111 until 1970 when the 16 year old coach was sold to McGonagle’s a dealer in Belfast.

ITS PARTY TIME

Miss Corrin’s class at Onchan School in December 1955.  The class have made spill holder calendars and paper chain decorations.  Now it’s the last day of term and party time.  By the look of the plates the jelly has all been eaten and although one of the improvised tables, made by putting the desks together, still has a plate of cakes on it, the boys have eaten everything in sight.

Miss Corrin’s aged mother was ill and she took time off to look after her and so for the following two terms the children were taught by Mrs Hodson, a relief teacher.  With the group of four lads in the left hand corner on the back row we have Peter Kelly wearing the bow tie,  Next to him with arms folded is Syd Kelly (no relation) of Nursery Avenue.  Eyes closed in front of them is Paul Adams of Victoria Avenue and next to him with hands over his mouth is Peter Corkill of Royal Avenue.  His elder brother, Harley, appears in other photographs in the People’s Picture Section.

The two lads in the foreground are John Wright on the left, he left Onchan School when the family emigrated to Canada the following year.  Next to him is Shaun Loader who joined the Royal Marines after leaving school but sadly passed away at the age of 61 in 2009.

The middle table at the back has Patricia Stephens on the left, she became a teacher in England, beside her and also living in Sandringham Drive at the time we have Cynthia Cretney who also passed away long before her time at the age of 44 in 1992.  In front of them  is John Corlett of School Road who trained as an electrician and then moved to London to work for several years but returned to Onchan in the 1980s.

The next table has Carol Price of Groudle Road with one of her younger sisters behind her.  Opposite them is Maureen Campbell of Nursery Avenue who moved out of the district before the class went onto secondary education in September 1959.  Tucked away in the corner is Mary Crellin who moved to Foxdale and in the shadows is Pamela Crooks who lived in the Port Jack area and after many years of living in the UK returned to the island in the 1990s to live in Jurby.

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