1960s: Kennedy elected as Presidential candidate

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Rising crime rates, a controversial new airport for the area and the national and international successes of the sons and daughters of the county were all making headlines in Derbyshire in 1960, writes Nicola Rippon.

THERE was both excitement and controversy in 1960 at Derby Corporation’s plans to reopen the former RAF airfield at Castle Donington.

The council had previously expressed its intention to turn the airfield into a civilian airport as “a matter of policy” and wanted the first step to be to furnish the airport with a long, hard runway.

However, the Castle Donington airfield stood within the county of Leicestershire.

John Chatterton, of Leicestershire County Council, told the Evening Telegraph that a planning application had been made by Derby Corporation and that “it had always been Derby Borough’s idea to take over the airfield on their own account and to develop it as an airport in place of the existing airport”.

Certainly, Derby Airport at Burnaston was becoming increasingly busy and an upgraded and enlarged alternative seemed increasingly necessary.

But the council had previously mooted the idea that, rather than becoming a small civilian airport, Castle Donington might become a major airport for Derby and its neighbours Leicester and Nottingham.

For such a project to prosper, all three authorities would need to put in long-term investment to develop the wartime facilities to the required standards of the day.

It was also widely assumed that, should such a scheme come into being, transatlantic flights would be making regular landings at the new airport.

There would be plenty of obstacles to overcome. Already many local residents had expressed their discomfort at a new airport, whether major or minor, with all its accompanying disruption and noise, opening up on their doorsteps.

Major developments within Derby itself were also announced in 1960. The Derby borough police force, then entirely independent from Derbyshire County Constabulary, revealed plans to reorganise the force and to extend its headquarters in Full Street.

The police station, which had been built as part of Derby’s Central Improvement Plan in the 1930s, was severely overcrowded with several offices spilling out into corridors.

But, as the Evening Telegraph’s Geoffrey Hammerton reported, new premises alone would not be enough to stem the seemingly ever-growing crime rate in the county.

Figures, locally and nationally, indicated that crime was on an alarming rise, while detection rates were relatively low.

In the borough, detection rates stood at just 65 per cent of the average of six crimes a day being reported, and the first six months of 1960 had revealed the highest reported crime rate on record.

Reassuringly, Chief Constable Noble announced he had instigated a number of measures with the “emphasis on preventing and detecting crime”.

He had “stopped the 10pm curfew at the Central Police Station and instituted a 24-hour office”.

He also intended to organise a modern typing pool with “prefabricated” report forms to reduce the amount of paperwork done by his officers, leaving them “maximum time for positive policing”.

Police motorcycles would be equipped with two-way radios and the CID department would be strengthened and expanded.

The borough would be divided into two divisions, each with their own modern police station.

In addition, he said: “There will be changes in foot and motor patrolling to increase the surprise element.”

On a lighter note, Derby MP Philip Noel-Baker, Nobel Laureate and Olympic medallist, was honoured in the name of a new school.

Noel-Baker School, in Alvaston, was formed from the former Southgate Secondary and Technical Grammar Schools.

For Rolls-Royce, however, there was bad news. The Government’s planned Blue Streak ballistic missile project was cancelled.

Since the Second World War, Britain’s nuclear deterrent had relied on atom bombs that had to be dropped from Vulcan aircraft.

However, if Britain wanted to possess a credible threat against Soviet attack, something that could be launched quickly from the UK towards the Soviet Union, it needed to own a ballistic missile system.

The Government also realised the importance of producing a British-designed missile system, independent of the United States – thus ensuring that Britain could be seen as an independent nuclear power.

Rolls-Royce was chosen to manufacture the RZ2 engines that would power the missiles.

The missiles themselves were to be built by De Havilland; Sperry Gyroscope would produce the guidance system; and the Atomic Research Establishment, at Aldermaston, would design the warhead.

Ultimately, Blue Streak was deemed impractical. The mix of kerosene and liquid oxygen that powered the missiles could not be mixed until needed.

Fuelling would take at least 15 minutes, by which time any incoming Soviet missiles would have already reached their targets in Britain.

Blue Streak, it seemed, was hardly the deterrent everyone had been anticipating.

In April, the project was cancelled and a decision made to purchase American Skybolt missiles instead, although these too would eventually be abandoned in favour of the Polaris system.

For many sons and daughters of the county, 1960 was to prove an important year.

Allestree-born Alan Bates, already established as a fine theatrical actor, took his first cinematic feature role in John Osborne’s The Entertainer.

In the lead role was Laurence Olivier, reprising the role of Archie Rice, in which he had starred in the West End. As Archie’s son, Frank, Bates proved that his electric performances could easily leap out from the cinema screen.

Two more Derbyshire-born actors also shot to fame, this time in what would become the country’s favourite, and longest-running, TV drama serial.

Arthur Lowe was born in Hadfield, in the north of the county, in 1915, and became an actor after serving as a cavalry trooper during the Second World War.

He had already enjoyed a busy theatrical career and had earned small parts in films like Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and in radio’s Mrs Dale’s Diary.

In 1960, Lowe joined the cast of Granada Television’s new series Coronation Street as Leonard Swindley.

Alongside him was Ilkeston native William Roache. Like Lowe, Roache had pursued acting after a military career; in his case National Service with the Royal Welch Fusiliers took him to Germany, Jamaica, the Bahamas and the Persian Gulf.

Coronation Street had initially been planned to run for only 13 weeks. Lowe remained with the show for seven years and Roache, more than 46 years later, is still starring as Ken Barlow.

Derby-born billiards player Herbert Beetham won two major championships in 1960. Beetham was born in April 1909, at the Havelock Road factory house of White’s Brothers, the family soft drinks manufacturing business that he ran for years.

Although he had not taken up the sport seriously until the age of 19, he proved an instant success, first entering the English National Billiards Championships in 1932, and reaching the finals in 1946, 1952 and 1959.

In March 1960, Beetham took the title for the first time, beating Reg Wright of Leicestershire in the final.

“It was,” he said later, “a wonderful moment in my life.”

Six months later, Beetham topped that achievement, becoming the first English world billiards champion since Walter Driffield’s victory in Calcutta in 1952.

In the world final, Beetham met the Irish champion W J Dennison and, although he was 100 points down at one stage, pulled back to win by 1,173 points to 845.

In 1960, another sportsman was just embarking upon what would become a long and illustrious career for Derbyshire.

Yet it was a career that almost never began. Young Staffordshire-born wicket-keeper Bob Taylor had been selected to make his debut for Derbyshire 2nd XI against Lancashire 2nds at St Helen’s.

He had been instructed to wait at Leek for Derbyshire’s coach Denis Smith – himself one of the county’s greatest players.

Taylor waited and waited and was about to go home when Smith eventually arrived.

Derbyshire – and England – would be grateful that Taylor had waited as long as he did.

In August 1960, the Evening Telegraph published a photograph of one of its former columnists. Gardener Percy Thrower was shown as he prepared for the BBC’s gardening section of the Radio Show at Earl’s Court in London.

Although born in Buckinghamshire, Thrower had worked in the Royal Gardens in Windsor before joining Derby Corporation’s parks department while in his 20s. From here he had moved to Shrewsbury, where the BBC’s Godfrey Baseley, presenter of a radio programme called Beyond the Back Door, had spotted his talents.

Thrower had become a expert in his own right and was now “conductor of BBC TV’s Gardening Club”, as the Telegraph described him. He would later become television’s first celebrity gardener.

In contrast, 1960 brought the sad news that Constance Spry, doyenne of middle-class housewives for her innovative and fashion-conscious floral arrangements, had died.

Spry’s wonderful arrangements had graced the homes of celebrities, socialites and royalty, and through her books she had reached out to the average housewife and showed them how to create elegant displays with wild flowers and even vegetables and fruit.

Not bad for a girl born in Derby’s Warner Street.

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