Box People and Places
Latest Issue 48 Summer 2025 
  • This Issue
    • Augustus Perren
    • Church Photos
    • Box Village Photos
    • Bath Photos
    • Pictor Photos
    • Celebration Photos
    • Perren Family Photos
    • Unknown Photos
    • Box People Photos
    • VE Day Full Story
    • Memories of VE Day 1945
    • VE Daty 2025 Anniversary
    • Oral History
  • Previous
    • Issue 46 - Box Hill
    • Issue 45 - Moleyns Lordship
    • Issue 44 - Viking Hazelbury
    • Issue 43 - Late Medieval
    • Issue 42 - Beautiful Box
    • Issue 41 - Becket Plays
    • Issue 40 - Selwyn Hall
    • Issues 30-39 >
      • Issue 39 - Modern Box
      • Issue 38 - Railway Workers
      • Issue 37 - Mill Lane Halt
      • Issue 36 - Box Rec
      • Issue 35 - Inter war
      • Issue 34 - Fogleigh House
      • Issue 33 - KIngsdown Post Office
      • Issue 32 - Chapel Lane
      • Issue 31 - Saxon Box
      • Issue 30 - Georgian Rudloe
    • Issues 20-29 >
      • Issue 29 - Darkest Hour
      • Issue 28 - VE Day
      • Issue 27 - Northey
      • Issue 26 - Heritage Trail
      • Issue 25 - Slave Owners
      • Issue 24 - Highwaymen
      • Issue 23 - Georgian
      • Issue 22 - War Memorial
      • Issue 21 - Childhood 1949-59
      • Issue 20 - Box Home Guard
    • Issues 10-19 >
      • Issue 19 - Outbreak WW2
      • Issue 18 - Building Bargates
      • Issue 17 - Railway Changes
      • Issue 16 - Quarries
      • Issue 15 - Rail & Quarry
      • Issue 14 - Civil War
      • Issue 13: Box Revels
      • Issue 12 - Where You Live
      • Issue 11 - Tudor & Stuart
      • Issue 10 - End of Era 1912
    • Issues 1-9 >
      • Issue 9 - Health & Leisure
      • Issue 8 - Farming & Rural
      • Issue 7 - Manufacturing
      • Issue 6 - Celebrations
      • Issue 5 - Victorian Centre
      • Issue 4 - Slump after WW1
      • Issue 3 - Great War 1914-18
      • Issue 2 - 1950s & 1960s
      • Issue 1 - 1920s
    • Index By Author
    • Partner Sites & Book Reviews
    • Currency Converter
  • People
  • Places
  • General
  • FULL Series
  • Contact
    • Blog
    • Q&A
Memories of Box Gay Nineties     Bill Cooper    January 2019
Picture
I have just had a long and lovely telephone conversation about yesterday in Box with a very close family friend and the years (and tears) took us both way back. It was Yesterday Once More. The Gay Nineties crept into the discussion and the article and photos by Margaret Wakefield of the Annual Balls brought back many memories. Somewhere I am in those pictures but don’t know exactly where. There are two photos which bring back memories of the 1950 and 1951 Ball and the happenings in those years.
 
1950-51 Father Time
In the 1950-51 Ball (headline picture), somewhere around 5 minutes to midnight, the lights went out and there was heavy funeral-type music. In came Cecil Fildes, dressed in a long grey flowing gown complete with scythe, depicting Father Time. He marched down the middle of the room in time with the music. A clock began to chime, the lights went out again and, in a spotlight, came a young Ann Hayward, dressed as a fairy, dancing around the room waving her wand spreading the New Year around everywhere. By this time the circle of all the dancers had linked hands with all singing Auld Lang Syne.
Picture
​1951-52 Predicting the Future
The following year in the 1951-52 Ball, I spent the crucial ten minutes before midnight shivering in the back porch. Alec Burningham was the organiser and his idea was a pageant to depict the future coming to Box in 1952. First in line was Brian Fuller, dressed as a happy bachelor boy, unaware that 1952 was a Leap Year when ladies could propose marriage. Brian tripped around the room before being swamped by a group of Sunnyside nurses, all wearing bridal bonnets!! Wow!!
 
I was on next, having changed from evening dress into Box Rovers strip, all well ironed and boots cleaned, and carrying a large cardboard cut-out FA Cup scrounged from the Sports Shop in Argyle Street. Yes, the cup could come to Box in 1952.
 
Then came Blewey Weeks dressed as a Postman with Santa Claus trimmings and a heavy sack over his shoulder. This sack was full of blank Ration Books! It was still austerity Britain but we had been advised that rationing would end after Easter. Blewey ripped up several of the Ration Books and threw more books everywhere so that everyone could join in! All to many cheers, of course, as there had been rationing since 1940. Somehow a massive gold horse-shoe appeared on the scene, seemingly to portray Good Luck to all. Then Auld Lang Syne. Ah, I was there.
 
Postscript
Brian Fuller did not marry until 1956. Box Rovers did not win the FA Cup. Rationing did end but austerity reigned for several more years.​
We welcome names of participants and any more photos of the event.
Back to Issue 24