Category:Leisure

If you have fond memories of how you used to spend your spare time in Derbyshire before TV and computer games came to dominate our lives, why not write about them? You can submit your own articles by becoming a registered user. It's free to do. Go to the home page to find out more.

Keep fit is not just a modern-day fad. Back in the 1940s, women flocked to join new health and beauty classes in Derby to get in shape. At the time the concept of women keeping fit was virtually unknown. But Beryl Bennett, who led the classes, soon had the women performing energetic exercises to music. Browse the list below to read this, and other stories of how people spent their leisure time.

Going to the cinema was a popular pastime too, as it is today, but how many of us still don our dancing shoes on a Saturday night? Memories of the Locarno in Derby, where people used to dance the evening away, are also included in this section, along with recollections of other popular entertainment haunts.

Other Categories: Famous Residents Places Eras Sport Work Transport Education

'

• 'Sweeney Todd' died after final Derby performance

A

• A perfect platform to learn and grow
• Allenton's Broadway Cinema: The last picture show
• Animal lovers: Bird buddies and feline friends
• Appearing on stage at Hippodrome was a magical experience
• Ashbourne Road Skating Rink
• Assembly Rooms

B

• Bands
• Binge, Ronald: Ronald was British light music maestro
• Birthday cash goes to holiday home at Skegness
• Board games: Game on for profits
• Board games: Pass go and collect £2m...
• Books: Book inspired by love of wild flowers
• Boots cafe: For ladies who lunch
• Boxing Day customs: Boxing Day gift custom was a nuisance
• Bracing Skegness was Derbyshire's home from home
• Bruce was hard taskmaster at the Talk of the Midlands

C

• C S Lewis: Peak was author’s “ideal country”
• Carol singing: A bleak midwinter for carol singer
• Cars: Drummer’s life in the fast lane
• Charity celebrates 35 years of happy camping for needy children
• Chrismas toys: Action Man met a smoky end
• Christmas: Cockerel capers down on the farm
• Christmas: Pantos, Santa and all the trimmings
• Christmas: The first festive lights in Derby
• Christmas: Youngsters today never had it so good...or?
• Cycling: My life on two wheels
• Cycling: Pedalling a ‘sit up and beg’ bike

D

• Dad used to run Derby donkey rides
• Dance bands kept live music in the frame for Derby folk
• Derby Airways: Early jetsetter takes off for a holiday of a lifetime to 50s Ostend
• Derby Arts Festival celebrates 100 years
• Derby Cables sports and social club: Children's party time at Cables
• Derby Carnival: Mace-bearer at the last pre-war carnival
• Derby Hippodrome: Venue was real palace of variety
• Derby Playhouse
• Derby Serenaders Band: Band won contest
• Derby Serenaders Band: We were the Manchester United of marching band world
• Derby Shakespeare Theatre Company
• Derby cinemas in the 40s, 50s, 60s.
• Derby comptometer girls enjoy 50s night out
• Derby organ and keyboard club still on song after 40 years
• Derby roller club
• Derby's lost cinemas were centre of our world in the 40s and 50s
• Derby/Culture, entertainment and sport
• Derbyshire Constabulary Male Voice Choir: A force for good celebrates 50 years of hitting the right notes

D cont.

• Derbyshire Streakers
• Derwent Singers mark 40 years on a high note
• Douglas Bar - The Footballer, the Jockey and a Mystery Name

F

• Family trees: How to trace your family tree
• Ferrers' grand designs made county dance with delight
• From Bing to Bach music was the food of love and much more
• Fun in youth club shows led to lifelong friendships

G

• Gambling today is not half so much fun as it used to be
• Gaumont Palace: Palace of dreams

H

• Help me trace history of vintage motorcycle
• Historic Hippodrome could face the bulldozers
• Holidays: Great to be a child beside the seaside
• Holidays: Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside

I

• Ivor Novello: Movie heart-throb wowed theatre fans

J

• Jimmy's and The Rialto

L

• Leisure
• Littleover pub 'The Panther' - Lawnmower or Big Cat?
• Locarno Ballroom: Dance hall days
• Loscoe Miners’ Welfare Silver Band: NCB storm clouds have silver lining
• Lost Derby Pubs - Annie Winter at The Copeland Arms
• Lost Derby Pubs - George The Fourth
• Lost Derby Pubs - The Corporation Hotel
• Lost Derby Pubs - The Lifeboat Sank 'Just Like That'
• Lost Derby Pubs - The New Market Vaults
• Lost Derby Pubs - The Nottingham Castle

M

• Matinees at the Cav were no-go areas for adults
• Memories of watching silent films
• Mercury celebrates 70 years of pedal power
• Mothering Sunday: Church was focus for day
• Mum was part of the Hippodrome family
• Mystery still surrounds why Mary quit Derby's footlights

N

• New Year: A perfect man for the New Year
• No-one got past Midland head porter Frank

O

• Offilers' Ales Virtual Museum

P

• Pass the Posset - A Peakland Christmas Custom
• Peak Practice
• Pictorial memories of 35 years of Derby Kids Camp
• Pictorial memories of Derby Arts Festival
• Picture Posers
• Picture the Past
• Playing in a silver prize band could be a dangerous affair
• Plaza Ballroom - Sam Ramsden and his Derby Legend
• Pomegranate Theatre, Chesterfield
• Pony rides

Q

• Queens of water pooled strength

R

• Racing: Right on, triton – maybe next time
• Railway Institute bar was known as Platform Seven

R cont.

• Rallies, pearls and church wells
• Rambling: Nomad Mavis, 90, has always loved to go a-wandering
• Ramsden's Tavern: Restaurant in duke's residence
• Robert Baden-Powell - 'Scouting For Boys' in Dovedale

S

• Sad end to the epic journey of Belper's riverboat
• Saturday nights out on the town
• School-yard games: Cracking the whip and heads in the school-yard
• Shops: My 1935 Derby Directory
• Smoking was seen as being cool and everybody did it
• Songs and Rhymes: When girls and boys came out to play
• Steve Bloomer Was Worth Only Threepence
• Street games: British Bulldog was a favourite street game
• Street games: The days when washing lines had several uses
• Sweet Medicine

T

• Talk of the Midlands: No other venue like The Talk
• The 'Great Northern' - 'Steve Bloomer Slept Here'
• The Balmoral Club led the way
• The Cavendish Cinema: Saturday was fish and chips and the 'pictures'
• The Chellaston Players and Women’s Institute: Organisation committed to helping others
• The Coliseum Cinema: Coliseum stood on site of new shopping centre
• The Exeter Arms - A Pub with Pedigree
• The Hamilton Folk Four: Double life of town hall lad
• The Ritz Cinema: Cinema gets a new lease of life and some very ritzy new decor
• The Ritz: How the Ritz started out back in the 1880s
• The Roebuck - Gone in the blink of an Eye
• The Royal Standard - Will Old Derby Pub Fly The Flag Again?
• The Travellers Rest - Derby pub had sporting links
• The days when Derby panto attracted the stars
• The last of the Shakespearean Lauries recalls her family's love affair with the Bard
• Theatre stages last curtain call
• Ticklecock Fair was notorious in 30s - and not for its rides
• Tomb Raider – The classic video-game created in Derby

U

• Ukrainian Christmas: A child’s dream two Christmases

W

• Walking: Be prepared
• Wartime 'holiday at home' better than exotic hotspot
• Well dressing
• West End Boys’ Club: When the West End was the Best End for Blakey’s Club
• When grandma rode her scooter in black leathers
• When the top stars played the Hippo
• Whereabouts of rosebowl is no mystery
• Will the haunting sound of Derby's brass bands soon be lost forever?
• Winter sales: After the party, it’s time to spend again...
• Women’s League of Health and Beauty: The league taught us physical and mental benefits of exercise
• Women’s League of Health and Beauty: Wonderful way of keeping fit
• Working the lights at the Hippodrome kept me fit

Y

• Youth club still providing city’s teenagers with a place to meet up – 40 years after its launch