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MARION MCMULLEN celebrates Valentine’s Day with a look at Hollywood couples whose love has stood the test of time
A bus chartered by the family of Albert Leake, who played for Port Vale between 1950-61, for the Valiants’ 1954 FA Cup semi-final against West Brom.
Port Vale v Blackpool in the FA Cup fifth round, 1954.
Stoke City players enjoy a Jacuzzi at the Richmond Leisure Centre, Shelton in 1984. From left, Peter Fox , Alan Hudson, Chris Maskery, Brendan O’callaghan and Paul Maguire.
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Volunteers, ground staff and players help to clear the pitch at the Victoria Ground after heavy snow in 1979.
FEW relationships survive the glare of the Hollywood spotlight and the clash of egos. Tinseltown is paved with broken hearts, but for some power couples falling in love is for keeps.
It was a second marriage for both Ronald Reagan and actress Nancy Davis when they tied the knot in Las Vegas at the Little Brown Church in the Valley in 1952 with Oscarwinning actor William Holden as their best man.
The future US president and his First Lady were together 52 years and Nancy said: “What can you say about a man who on Mother’s Day sends flowers to his mother-in-law with a note thanking her for making him the happiest man on Earth?”
He tried to ease her mind after he was the target of an assassination attempt in 1981 saying: “Honey, I forgot to duck,” and joked with the nurse at the hospital saying: “Does Nancy know about us?”
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward met in his agent’s office in 1953 and their marriage lasted 50 years until his death in 2008. He said he fell in love at first sight and his first thought was “Jeez, what an extraordinarily pretty girl”.
It took Joanne a little longer to fall for the blue-eyed charmer, but they later worked together in a Broadway production of romantic drama Picnic and again on 1957 film The Long, Hot Summer.
They married in Las Vegas the following year and made their home away from the glare of Hollywood in Connecticut. They had three daughters together.
Paul would go on to make his directing debut in 1968 film Rachel, Rachel starring Joanne.
She once said: “Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that’s a real treat.”
Double Oscar winner Denzel Washington and his actress wife Paulettea will celebrate 38 years of marriage in June.
The couple, who have four children, met when they had small roles in 1977 TV movie Wilma, about runner Wilma Rudolph. They married five years later.
Their son, Tenet star John David was born in 1984, daughter Katia three years later and twins Malcolm and Olivia in 1991.
Denzel once joked: “The secret to a happy marriage? Do whatever your wife tells you ‘Yes, dear’. And breathe”.
On a more serious note, he said: “She puts up with me. I think also in a way the travelling helps.
“We’re able to travel together and also be apart sometimes. Not everyone gets to live like that.”
Comedy star Mel Brooks and The Graduate’s Anne Bancroft were together for 41 years before she sadly passed away in 2005.
They met when Anne made her first appearance on Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall. Mel later bribed a woman who working on the show to tell him which restaurant Anne was planning to go to so he could accidentally bump into her there.
They eventually married in 1964 at New York City Hall with a passerby acting as their witness.
Mel later called his wife Obi-wan Kenobi for encouraging and supporting him and once said: “I’m married to a beautiful and talented
woman who can lift your spirits just by looking at you.”
She used to say: “When he comes home at night and I hear his key in the lock, I say to myself ‘Oh, good. The party’s about to begin.”
Tom Hanks and his actress wife Rita Wilson will be celebrating their 33rd wedding anniversary this year.
They met in 1981 on the set of
Rita has said the secret to a good relationship is “you’ve got to want to be married to the person you’re married to”.
Footloose actor Kevin Bacon and Born On The Fourth Of July’s Kyra Sedgwick will be celebrating their 33rd wedding anniversary in September. The couple, who have two children, met while starring in 1988 movie Lemon Sky and they have worked together in films like Pyrates, Murder In The First, The Woodsman, Cavedweller and Loverboy.
Kevin says the secret to a successful marriage is to “keep your fights clean and your sex dirty”.
Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell have been together for 38 years, but have never tied the knot.
They are Hollywood’s longest lasting unmarried couple and have been together since Valentine’s Day, 1983. They have one son, actor Wyatt Russell, and have appeared in several films including Swing Shift and Overboard in the 1980s.
Goldie once explained her relationship with Kurt saying: “We’ve both been married. I’ve been married twice, it didn’t work. He was married once, that didn’t work.
“And, you know, we were at a time when we had kids and thought ‘Well, you know, what actually would it do to get married.
“I like being independent. I like being his girlfriend. I like that notion. I think it’s sexy.”
Kurt simply says: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Kevin Bacon and wife Kyra Sedgwick
American TV sitcom Bosom Buddies and worked together again in 1985 film Volunteers.
Tom converted to the Greek Orthodox Church before their marriage and the Forrest Gump and Philadelphia Oscar-winning star once said: “It’s just as hard staying happily married as it is doing movies.”’
1700
William Jodrell mortgages the market and fair tolls to John Sutton and William Grosvenor, a Leek physician.
At a quarterly meeting of the Society of Friends, the schoolmaster, Joseph Davison, is allowed to admit the sons of non-quakers. The fees are used, together with a grant from the quarterly meeting, to set up a fund to provide scholarships for the sons of poor Quakers.
A church school is held in the north aisle of parish church. It included boys aged 14 & 15.
The highest number of communicants in the Church is 62 on Easter Sunday; with 40 on Palm Sunday & 35 on Good Friday. The lowest is 16 on Whit Sunday.
1701
Joseph Davison, the Quaker school master, is imprisoned for teaching without a licence. The school survives.
Josiah Hargrave who lives at Westwood is left £20 by Roger Morrice. He has been ejected as vicar of Duffield (Derb.) in 1662. The bequest is conditional on Hargrave’s continuing to preach at Westwood, or at any other place ‘in the Moorlands’ for at least two years after Morrice’s death.
The church books are being kept in a press in the vicarage house.
The Easter payment is fixed at 1/- for land worth £20 or more.
1702
Samuel Stretch, a clockmaker, emigrates with his family to Philadelphia. He made long-case clocks there.
1704
The gallery in St Edward’s Church, described as
“the new gallery” is being repaired. It may have been the west gallery.
1705
John Condliffe of Leek is described as a barber/ surgeon.
William Grosvenor is described as an apothecary.
Pickwood farm, to the south-east of the town exists.
The glebe is worth £6 a year. The Easter payments should have been worth nearly
£30 year, but because of the poverty of the people and the cost and trouble of collecting it in so large parish, its actual value is £20. Surplice fees could amount to nearly £15. The vicar complained that dissenters, and especially Quakers ‘do by their obstinacy draw the vicar into many tedious and expensive suits for the recovery of his just rights’; with the result that the value of the vicarage is considerably reduced.
Thomas Parker of Leek is made Lord Chief Justice (Some accounts state this to be in 1710)
1706
An ‘abundance of Presbyterians & Quakers & some Anabaptists” are noted in Leek parish
1707
The Quakers plan to send two Leek children, who are staying at John Stretch’s home in Leek, to Pennsylvania.
An apothecary named William Thorpe dies
William Condlyffe is born at Upper Hulme. He later became a solicitor
1708
It is stated that the vicars of Leek have always been allowed 12d. for every mile which they have to travel within the parish to baptize a child away from the church.
Horse races are being held in October, probably connected with the wake (public holiay)
The Quaker Meeting house has a gallery
Freeholders attempt an action against the encroachments on the Leek moor, east of the town
1709
The vicar, Thomas Walthall, stated that he read prayers every morning.
Death of William Jolliffe. West farm passed to his daughter Lucy, the wife of William Vane.
1710
The bridge at Wallbridge consists of a wooden horse bridge with a dangerous ford adjoining it. Travellers suffered both losses and delays from frequent flooding of river.
1711
A catalogue of books in the Vicarage is compiled by the vicar, James Osbourne. He lists 44 folio volumes, 67 quarto, 17 octavo and 41 bound in leather.
At the Leek monthly meeting of the Quakers, Joseph Davison, the school master indicates his willingness to be left
‘to his liberty for some consideration yet willing upon our request to serve us. His salary is increased by £3 year
The income from the common land on the north of town (Belle Vue area) amounts to £2 15s. 6d
1712
John Oakes, a tobacconist, dies. He is succeeded by Thomas Oakes of Leek.
A petition from 83 inhabitants of Totmonslow Hundred is presented to the Court of Quarter Sessions which granted £60 to rebuild the bridge at Wallbridge in stone for carts and carriages
William Grosvenor is described as a physician
A separate monthly Quaker meeting is being held alternately at Whitehough and Bottom House. These amalgamate with the Leek meeting.
1713
Rebecca, the wife of Sir Samuel Moyer, establishes an English school at Leek, the birthplace of her father
The John Jolliffe school for 50 poor children of Leek and Cheddleton. Each child is given three years’ tuition. A school-master is appointed and he is instructed to pay strict attention to his pupils’ morals and to ensure that they attended church every Sunday & Holy Day.
He is paid £20 a year.
Rebecca undertakes to provide new books every three years and to buy bibles as leaving presents for the children.
George Jackson is appointed as the Vicar.
George Roades, rector of Blithfield and the son of George Roades, the vicar of Leek 1662/ 95, dies and leaves tithe corn from several plots of land in Leek to the vicar for ever. His will also provides for the establishment of an English school at Leek for poor children aged 6/10.
1714
By will, James Rudyard of Dieulacres Abbey, leaves rent of £2 15s. charged on land in Leekfrith to endow a bread dole. One penny loaves are to be distributed to 12 poor people at St. Edward’s church every Sunday after the evening service and on Christmas Day, Good Friday and Ascension Day. Beneficiaries unable to come to church because of ill health are to be sent a loaf. He also charged his estate with an annual payment of £2 to the vicar.
The rest of the vicarage is rebuilt and enlarged with the parishioners contributing £100. The summerhouse in the garden, with a stable under it is built, or rebuilt, at the same time.
1715
The First Jacobite rebellion and several people in Leek declare for the Pretender.
A dancing master is teaching in Leek. Building stone is being dug in the common land known as
Back of Street (later Belle Vue Road).
The Presbyterians have a Meeting House in Derby
Street. It is first recorded when it is damaged by rioters. It stood on the west side of the Roebuck inn.
Thomas Oakes is described as a tobacconist.
1716
Thomas Parker is created Baron Parker of Macclesfield.
Josiah Hargrave still living at Westwood. He is responsible for Presbyterian Meeting House in Derby Street.
James Brindley, below, is born at Wormhill, Derbyshire
1717
The Grand Masonic Lodge established in England
William Mills (later Sheriff of Staffordshire) born at the house later known as Foxlowe
Thomas Mills born.
Lady Moyer gives in trust for the school a 90-year annuity of £25 and amplifies her plan for the school. The master is to be a layman. He is to receive £20 year for teaching 50 children to read & write. Both he and the children are to be chosen by the Board of Governors including the vicar and the churchwardens. The children are to be admitted at age of six and are to remain at school until they could read & write. The vicar is to be paid £1 year for catechizing them once a fortnight. The sum of £4 year is to be spent on bibles, primers and catechisms. In addition, every Sunday after the sermon, the children are to be allowed to sing hymns learnt at school
The congregation at the Presbyterian meeting house in Derby Street numbers 250 ‘hearers’
1718
Thomas Oakes, hitherto a tobacconist, is described as a grocer
Thomas Parker is created Lord Chancellor
By will, William Dudley of Fields in Horton, and formerly of Lyme House in Longsdon, leaves 6s. 8d. for a sermon to be preached on May 29, the anniversary of Charles II’S restoration.
1719
A pulpit with a reading desk and a sounding board is installed in the Church
The private schools in the town seem to have catered primarily for children of townspeople. They tended to be small schools and short-lived. A girls’ school is opened by Margaret Brindley, later Margaret Lucas.
1720
The girls’ school is opened by Margaret Brindley closes amid family quarrels when she becomes a Quaker The grammar school opens but remained small and poor. Boys from the Leek area who are intended for the universities continue to be sent to school elsewhere.
William Vane is created Viscount Vane (d. 1734). Westwood farm is the property of William Jolliffe of Caverswall Castle
Itinerant singing masters visit the town
A group of 22 townsmen, aware of the need for a grammar school, successfully petition the Bishop to license as a grammar-school master, one Thomas Bourne, who settled in Leek in January. A chapel is built at Endon Elizabeth, the daughter of Thomas Parker (Lord Chancellor) marries
William Heathote, MP for Buckingham,
1721
Leek joins with several Cheshire towns in successfully petitioning on behalf of all those employed in the manufacture of ‘needle-wrought buttons’ for the passing of an Act banning the wearing of cloth buttons and buttonholes.
Thomas Parker is created Earl of Macclesfield
The bells of St Edward’s church are recast as a peal of six by Abraham Rudhall of Gloucester.
As an experiment for the summer months, it is agreed to hold two Quaker meetings for worship at Leek on Sundays; one at 10.30 a.m. for both ‘country’ & ‘town’ members & another at 3 p.m. for ‘town’ members
1722
William Mills junior is practising law
Both sets of tolls (market and fair) are conveyed to William Grosvenor
Eli Robinson is practising as an apothecary in Leek. Henry Fogg, the son of a Stone butcher, is apprenticed to him
1723
Thomas Parker buys the manor of Leek, at his second attempt, and builds the grammar school on Clerk Bank. It has a symmetrical ashlar (squared stone used in building or in a facing wall) front
Wm Condlyffe is articled to Richard Goodwin
Benjamin Watson of Leek is described as barber/surgeon
The capital left by Anne Dethick (see 1678) is used, together with £100 left for the poor of Leek town by Thomas Jolliffe (d.1693) & £10 similarly left by Mrs Haywood of Macclesfield.
to buy 22½ acres at Oulton, in Rushton Spencer. The almswomen are entitled to 10/21 parts of the rent from the land, with the remainder being for the poor of Leek town.
William Grosvenor is described as a physician.
The burial mound described as Cock Lowe, or the Great Lowe, is still standing at the south- west of the town between Waterloo Street and Spring Gardens.
1724
No 62 St Edward Street is built with an ashlar front.
Lady Moyer’s will proved. It confirms the provisions made for the English School in Leek and asks that the annuity should be used to buy land to endow the school. That request is not carried out.
She also left a copy of Isaac Barrow’s Sermons and one volume of John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs to be kept chained in the church.
The town has a fire engine, given by the Earl of Macclesfield, after his purchase of manor.
It is maintained by the churchwardens.
1725
Thomas Parker (Lord Chancellor) is impeached, convicted of corruption, removed from office and fined £30,000.
William Badnall has dyehouses by the River Churnet in Abbey Green Road at its junction with Mill Street.
The Quaker Meeting House in Leek is the largest in Staffordshire. Its contribution to national funds is twice that of Stafford.
In St Edward’s Church, a gallery for ‘the charity children’ is erected
Thomas Loxdale is appointed the vicar of Leek. He stays until 1735.
James Brindley, aged 10, moves to a farm at Lowe Hill.
MERVYN Bragg presented a radio programme recently on the life of the early English saint St Cuthbert.
He is very much a saint of Northern England. Bragg narrated the story, which indicates Cuthbert’s affinity with nature, told by the Anglo Saxon writer Bede of how St Cuthbert spent a night in the North Sea to mortify the flesh. When he emerged from the water two otters warmed and dried his feet and as a consequence of this episode he is the patron saint of otters.
In another account after Cuthbert had died his monks were forced to carry his body from place to place as they sought a new home because of Viking raids on the abbey at Lindisfarne.
Food was running low when they discovered that their last cheese had been stolen.
Taking counsel, they did the obvious thing and asked their saint to turn the thief into a fox.
At once a vixen appeared with a cheese in its mouth, though the accused monk was nowhere to be seen.
The relationship between the natural world and the mystical world of these medieval saints was a close one as many legends indicate.
Irish saints stand out in relationships with animals.
St Ciarán made disciples of a badger, a wolf and a wild boar, which then helped him build his anchorite cell.
St Columbanus was a beartaming mystic who became the patron saint of motorcyclists.
Saint Ailbhe was a bishop, preacher, and a disciple of St Patrick.
In some writings he is called Albeus and was noted for his charity and compassion, as well as his powerful sermons.
It was claimed that he was left in the woods as an infant and suckled by a wild animals, a sort of Hibernian Tarzan.
St Kevin of Glendalough stood in prayer with his hands outstretched for so long that a blackbird laid her eggs in his hands. their
Taking pity on the bird, he remained in position until they hatched.
Among the Celts the blackbird is thought to be one of the three oldest animals in the world, the other two being the trout and the stag. They are said to represent the elements.
Irish legend says that the birds of Rhiannon are three blackbirds, which sit and sing in the World Tree of the Other worlds.
Their singing puts the listener in to a trance which enables them to go to the Other worlds. It was said to impart mystic secrets and ancient truths.
In rural Ireland in the nineteenth century, blackbirds were thought to hold the souls of those in purgatory until Judgement Day.
It was said that whenever the birds songs were particularly piercing and shrill, it was those souls, parched and burning, calling for rain.
It always followed which accounts for the downpour as I heard one in a field beside the flooded Rudyard track the other week.