The Good Ship "Calder High"
and Other Tales from the 1950s

Tuesday, 7 December 2010

As a follow-up to the very popular 'From Rationing to Rock'n'roll', Peter Thomas' latest offering takes another backwards glance at the 1950s, a decade in which, as the author says, so much happened but which seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.

The Good Ship "Calder High" and Other Tales from the 1950s has as its starting point two stories about our local comprehensive. The scenarios and some of the characters will be very familiar to those who thronged its corridors in that decade and perhaps later too.

More colourful characters are evoked as Peter delves into life outside school, whether it be football, scouting,train spotting or, in later years, pubs and 'old bangers'. All in all there was plenty going on in and around Hebden Bridge in that seemingly grey decade . Life did not begin, as the media would have it, in the 'swinging sixties'.

Peter is a true local who has given up on his family tree as it all seems to end up in a tangle of Greenwoods and Sutcliffes in Heptonstall. His highly regarded Seeing it Through - Halifax and Calderdale During World War 2 is still available through this website.