True grit of cowboy Cal
QUESTION Who was the cowboy who performed lasso-spinning and quickdraw stunts at Bright’s department store in Bristol in the 1950s?
This was Cal McCord. During the late 1950s, he was top billing at the Goram Fair in the grounds of Blaise Castle, Bristol, performing cowboy tricks while telling stories about the Wild West.
The fair was an open-air show in the woods where there was a natural amphitheatre. You simply stood around near the top to enjoy the show. it had the type of acts you see in the circus: acrobats, fire eaters, jugglers and stilt-walkers.
Cal did stun-riding, shooting, rope twirling, lassoing stationary and moving objects and, as i recall 60 years later, dropping a handkerchief and picking it up from the ground while his horse was galloping around the arena.
it was all great stuff for a child in those days, when not too many had TVs, and whose usual entertainment was going to the pictures on a saturday morning to see a cowboys and indians film.
After arriving at Bristol Temple Meads railway station, Cal had ridden his horse through the streets to Bright’s department store in Clifton, where he gave an exhibition of lasso-spinning and quickdraw stunts with his pair of revolvers.
Online there is black and white Pathe footage of him in action.
Andy Phillips, Bristol. CAl McCORD was popular from the 1940s to the 1960s as a cowboy, juggler, singer, actor and comedian.
his trademark was rope- spinning, which he would perform while delivering a string of funny anecdotes.
he was born hertzel spenadl in 1904 in Whitechapel, East london, and went to Canada as a teenager.
he joined a Western act called The Macordialites, who entertained troops across Europe during World War ii.
he returned to Britain where he appeared in the BBC radio series Riders Of The Range in 1949, the 1953 TV documentary how To Be A Cowboy and the film Carry On Cowboy in 1966.
McCord was a popular performer at variety shows in music halls, fetes and fairs across Britain. Simon Wilson, Bath, Somerset.
QUESTION Why is the national newspaper industry referred to as Fleet Street?
FOR historical reasons, Fleet street is synonymous with the British Press even though national newspapers no longer have their offices there.
This street is on the west side of the City of london, with ludgate hill at one end and The strand at the other, where it enters the City of Westminster.
it dates back to Roman times and gets its name from the Fleet River, which it crossed. The river is now part of london’s sewer system.
Fleet street is the heart of the legal community, being close to several of the inns of Court, where lawyers established their practices. This may explain its attraction to the Press, as government and legal gossip was to be found there.
William Caxton introduced the printing press to Britain in 1476 and was the first to sell books printed in English.
his apprentice Wynkyn de Worde established a press in shoe lane, which joins Fleet street, around 1500. As was common at the time, when one business of a certain type was established, others of the same type soon followed.
skills were kept local, with owners living above the premises and apprentices sleeping in the work rooms.
When apprentices finished their indentured service and were admitted to the guild, they often established a business close to their old master and benefited from their patronage.
This growth in the number of presses coincided with the printing of pamphlets. london’s first newspaper, The Daily Courant, was established in Fleet street in 1702 and was soon followed by the Daily Chronicle.
local pubs and cafes were the haunts of newspaper employees and the legal profession, which made it easy for the Press to pick up gossip about criminal proceedings and other legal and government business.
From that beginning, other london daily newspapers established their offices in Fleet street.
The upper-floors were home to the newsrooms, while the newspapers were printed in the basements.
Robert Woodford, Northampton.
QUESTION Household advice dated from 1896 recommends putting pastry in the refrigerator overnight. What kind of fridge was available then?
WITH mechanical and chemical refrigeration still in its infancy, the Victorian household would use an ice cabinet made of oak with tin or zinc shelving and door lining.
in 19th-century london, there was an extensive trade in imported ice. Because of a lack of supply due to the British climate, ice was imported in blocks from the U.s. in the 1840s, with the Wenham lake ice Company being one of the most famous names in the business.
ice harvested from Norwegian fjords dominated the market from the 1860s until the turn of the century.
The ice was carried by ship to Regent’s Canal Dock, now called limehouse basin, in East london. There it was transferred to barges and drawn by horses along the canal. it was stored in ice wells deep below the level of the canal. One such well is preserved at the london Canal Museum near King’s Cross.
ice was delivered to homes in carts and the ice man would chip off a block the size you wanted. Because they were strong and came into kitchens to deliver their product, bawdy jokes about icemen and housewives were once common.
The natural ice trade began to decline at the end of 19th-century, when it began to be produced artificially in factories. Len Rossiter, London E14.
■ IS THERE a question to which you want to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question here? Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT; or email charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection is published, but we’re unable to enter into individual correspondence.