The Old Un’s Notes
How to buy The Oldie during
the lockdown The Old Un is afraid that many W H Smith shops and some independent newsagents have closed – so buying individual copies of The Oldie may not be easy. There are three ways of getting round this:
1. Order a print edition for £4.75 at: www.magsdirect.co.uk.
2. Order a digital edition at www.pocketmags.com for £2.99; scroll down to the Special Issues section.
3. Buy a 12-issue print subscription for just £47.50 and receive a free book – see page 47. And if you want to buy a 12-issue subscription for friends for as little as £8, see our special offer on page 7. Sign up for The Oldie e-newsletter and Barry Cryer’s jokes
During the lockdown, the Old Un is producing extra pieces every day on The Oldie website, including Barry Cryer’s jokes. Every Friday, we send a newsletter with the best pieces. Go to www.theoldie.co.uk and, at the top right of the home page, enter your email address in the white box, above which is written ‘ Sign up to our weekly e-newsletter’.
The Old Un fondly remembers the late Dame Vera Lynn, who’s just died at 103.
She was a great supporter of the largely forgotten soldiers who fought and died alongside the British in the war. For the last ten years of her life, Dame Vera was the patron of H4FA – Help for Forgotten Allies – a small, private charity which helps foreign veterans who fought with the Allies against the Japanese in Burma.
‘They fought on our side and they should certainly be entitled to compensation. Many lost their lives,’ she said in a 2010 interview, remembering her 1944 tour of Burma to entertain the troops. ‘They are poor people. They should be supported as they supported us.’
On her death at 103, H4FA President General Sir Alexander Harley wrote to Dame Vera’s daughter, Virginia Lewis-jones, ‘The respect and affection with which she was held, not only here in the UK, but across the world, was such an important feature of our charity. It gave us enormous credibility.’
Dame Vera’s splendid life and achievements are remembered on page 24 of this issue.
Happy 60th birthday to that great British institution the motorway café! On 15th August 1960, the northbound branch of Newport Pagnell services became the first motorway café in the UK – and transformed roadside dining.
The new Fortes motorway restaurant was as glamorous as a duo-tone Ford Zodiac. Such was the public curiosity that its management brought the opening forward by two hours.
When the M1 was first used, on 2nd November 1959, the Ministry of Transport was concerned that drivers should not regard any services as a ‘destination’. The facilities initially consisted of petrol pumps and lavatories.
But Eric Hartwell of Fortes envisaged a future of ‘a quick, comfortable service of popular, cooked meals and snacks in modern surroundings’. There would also be a licensed restaurant for those owners of Humbers and Wolseleys who wished ‘to eat in a more leisurely manner’.
By the 1970s, the idea of an M1 eatery as an attraction seemed ludicrous, but in 1961 Egon Ronay thought motorists could ‘Stop with confidence’ at Newport Pagnell. ‘Sensibly devised dishes which you can eat at the counters in full armchair comfort, served as if you sat at a traditional restaurant table.’
And you could send a postcard of the Grill and Griddle to induce envy in your neighbours before embarking on a speed-limit-free journey in your Hillman Minx.