Bradford has a tradition when it comes to the shoe trade based around Stylo which was founded in 1935.
The Stylo business grew in the 1960′s by buying Barratts and in the 1990′s when they bought Priceless. Unfortunately that record is badly tarnished by receiverships, administrations, redundancies and liquidations. Barratts shoes, Priceless, Stylo, Shutopia and Dolcis have been ‘rationalised out of existence’.
Three times the same executive management of Michael Ziff and family have tried the shoe trade on for size. Let us hope that they are more successful this time around having just bought the latest, much reduced, business from the liquidators.

With this as a background I found it interesting to see Bradfordian J B Priestley was being used in the Bata-ville shoe context by the folk at No Way To Make A Living. In ‘Bata in Essex and the Decline of the Third England’ they record

‘When J. B. Priestley wrote Eng­lish Jour­ney he was exer­cised by some trouble­some 1930s women: lip­sticked, dressed up to the nines to ape Hol­ly­wood glam­our on light industry wages. These were the women of the third England.

“the Eng­land of arter­ial and by-pass roads, of filling sta­tions and factor­ies that look like exhib­i­tion build­ings, of giant cinemas and dance-halls and cafes, bun­ga­lows with tiny gar­ages, cock­tail bars, Wool­worths, motor-coaches, wire­less, hik­ing, fact­ory girls look­ing like act­resses, grey­hound racing and dirt tracks, swim­ming pools, and everything given away for cigar­ette coupons.”

Priestley, J. B. (1984[1934]) Eng­lish Jour­ney, Pen­guin Books.’

These fact­ory girls were an object of con­cern and scru­tiny, troub­ling the estab­lished cat­egor­ies of class with their out­spoken, per­formed fem­in­in­ity. A new, light, indus­trial labour force destabil­ised the estab­lished under­stand­ings of gender and class. The Bata fact­ory in East Tilbury was staffed, in part, by this kind of woman: mak­ing shoes in order to pay for new shoes and hand­bags and lip­sticks. And to keep their fam­il­ies: women’s work is not all about pin money and frivolity, J. B.’
Read the full ‘Bata in Essex and the Decline of the Third England’ on No Way To Make A Living

J B Priestley and English Journey from Amazon

What Would J B Priestley Make of This

Being remembered more for an alleged affair with the Duke of Edinburgh than a glittering career as a musical actress could make anyone angry!
Her fourth husband, Peter Knight, a former president of the Bradford and Bingley Building Society, said: “She never once complained to me, or to anyone else, about the lack of official recognition, though I know it hurt her very deeply” angry again I guess.
One newspaper headline called it ‘The Duke and the Chorus Girl Affair’. Pat displayed her anger by retorting ‘I had never been in the Chorus in my life’, she was always a showgirl and musical success story.

This anger is being channeled into a new show funded by Opera North. It is written by and stars Yorkshire actress Jessica Walker. There is a lot of material to develop about Pat Kirkwood, who died in Ilkley on Christmas Day 2007 aged 86.

Career Highlights and Low Lights

• There had been affairs with President John F. Kennedy’s brother-in-law, actor Peter Lawford, and also with Danny Kaye.
• In 1944, she is reputed to have sung with Glenn Miller and his orchestra, only days before Miller vanished.
• Flirting with Hollywood, MGM put her under contract but thought she needed to lose weight, and prescribed pills that had a disastrous effect.
• Pat Kirkwood suffered a severe nervous breakdown and was committed to a sanatorium in New York for the best part of a year.
• In a career spanning more than 60 years she starred in leading roles in musicals written by Noel Coward, Cole Porter and Leonard Bernstein and was more successful in the UK than America.
• In pantomime she was a dashing principal boy with legs to drool over.
• Pat co-stared with George Formby in Let George Do It but found the experience totally unedifying as George was lacking in conversation and under the thumb of his controlling wife. There are conflicting ideas about Pat’s view of George but Beryl Formby was a tartar.

When Pat Kirkwood died on Christmas Day 2007, the world-wide media coverage focussed on two things: her fabulous legs, once described by Kenneth Tynan as the eighth wonder of the world, and her rumoured relationship with Prince Philip. Be sure the new show called fittingly ‘Pat Kirkwood is Angry’ will display more talent than invective.

Sometimes you can’t improve on what is already on the intenet. Rather than compete I have just given my favourite links.
Sorry I do not believe the theme tune in the Yorkshire’s National Anthem.

Links

Last of the Summer Wine is the world’s longest-running sitcom and it seems immortal, which is ironic for a show about people in the autumn of their years. BBC

The cast included Ivy, Marina and Entwistle who never divulged their surnames. More info by Phill Other Yorkshire Facts

Last words of Last of the Summer Wine: The Mirror reveals axed show’s final words.

Amazon sell DVD’s and books of the series.

What do smut and talking heads have in common? They are both titles by Alan Bennett, Smut being his latest book to be released.

Alan Bennett mini Biography

• Bennett was born in Armley the son of a co-op butcher.
• He went to Leeds Modern School and is reputed to have been in the same class as Bradford Taylor Bradford
• Alan Bennett is an award-winning dramatist and screenwriter.
• He was one of the original members of Beyond the Fringe, a satirical review that was a hit in both the London and on Broadway.
• Other members were Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller and Dudley Moore.
• Alan wrote the plays The Madness of King George and The History Boys.
• He features on many peoples top Yorkshiremen lists including that published by biography on line listed only 36th.
• He has survived 6 years since admitting he had long  suffered with colon cancer.
• Alan was given the sobriquet “curmudgeon laureate” by Mark Jones.
• Bennett had a close relationship with ‘Cafe Anne’ Davies of Clapham. There were portraits of him posing with the painter David Hockney on the walls of Davies’s tearoom until her demise in 2009.

‘Alan Bennett at the BBC’ featured above is a DVD that includes his first television play, A Day Out, autobiographical pieces such as Dinner at Noon and Portrait or Bust and celebrated plays such as A Woman of No Importance, An Englishman Abroad and A Question of Attribution.

A wide range of other titles is available from Amazon

Definitions

OED defines smut as lascivious talk or pictures…. There are some less refined definitions of smut on the Urban dictionary.

Talking heads  were an American band and is a  Sheffield based Language Service in addition to being the Alan Bennett series of dramatic monologues written for BBC television.

We at Gods Own County have 400 pages of miscellaneous rubbish, pithy comment plus ideas on where to go and what to do when you get there.
On a good day we get that many readers but can cope with many more so link in your friends (or enemies we’re not proud).
For those wishing to extend their knowledge of Yorkshire from an armchair we can point you to :-

Answers to the following type of question?

• What is a Yorkshire Fat Rascal?
• Why has a song about hats and moors become the Yorkshire Anthem?
• Where can you find Booze, Crackpot and the Land of Nod?
• How did the white rose become Yorkshire’s emblem?
• Which three Prime Ministers were born in Yorkshire?
• Who are Yorkshire’s real Calendar Girls?
• When is Yorkshire Day? (shame on you if you do not know go to the bottom of the class or Lancashire)

The answers are all in A Yorkshire Miscellany by Tom Holman

• In the amazon blurb they claim it is an  ‘entertaining guide to this much-loved part of England and a celebration of its people, places, history and quirks.
• Learn the lingo of Yorkshire dialect and how to cook specialities like Yorkshire Pudding, Parkin and Curd Tart.
• Discover the secrets of building a dry stone wall and uncover the Yorkshire locations of famous films and TV shows.
• Understand the history of famous Yorkshire icons like the flat cap and the Yorkshire terrier, and read about the lives of the greatest ever Yorkshiremen and women.
• A Yorkshire Miscellany is crammed with intriguing facts and figures- a fascinating treasure trove to delight Yorkshire natives and visitors alike.

All available from amazon for less than £6.00

As a viable alternative wait until Gods Own County turns it’s attention on these miscellaneous subjects in future posts.