Newbridge Con Club, Jubilee Week 1977      © Dory Buck

 

 

Newbridge Memo 1977     © Dory Buck

 



The interior of the Memo cinema - a time capsule for many years; the seats were removed by a film company - see the next photograph. © TBA




Looking out from the Memo stage/screen into the auditorium. Those who could afford a ticket for 'upstairs' or the balcony, will note that the seats removed by a film company were all piled there; the few original seats on show 'downstairs' in front of the screen are shown free-standing. © TBA 





The amazing original dressing room at the Memo, with images and posters accrued over decades pasted and pinned to the wall. © TBA






The detailing on an Art Deco wall-panel in the Memo. © TBA























































































An 'H Edwards' stone bottle, found in the mid 1960s by Roger Reese, in the garden of a derelict cottage by the canal side, close to the present metal footbridge at the bottom of Pantside hill. Photograph courtesy of Roger Reese.



































A photograph of film star Gregory Peck riding a horse, during the filming of 'Arabesque' in Crumlin during the summer (July) of 1965 with Sophia Loren. Taken on the railway embankment near Crumlin Viaduct and Treowen bottom park. © Robin Williams







 

 The Bridgend Inn, Crumlin; so named because Crumlin Viaduct ended right behind it, and where the Viaduct ended can still be seen © Dory Buck.

 

 Many a person will remember spending an evening at the 'Double-D', having a few too many drinks, rounded off by riding a wild animal on the moors. Now long-closed, the remains of the Double-D stables reminds many of us of a long-lost youth hugging a bucking beast with tiring thighs....... Photograph courtesy of Lisa Bevan and Kelvin Thorne.



You might wonder what 'the Fab Four' are doing on this site - if you look carefully in the bottom right-hand corner of this LP cover ('Please Please Me' - their first LP from early 1963) you'll see the name of the photographer, Angus McBean. Although not a Newbridge family, McBean's parents moved around Wales on a regular basis, due to his father's job as a mine surveyor, and Mrs McBean gave birth to young Angus during a stay in Newbridge in 1904. Angus's family soon moved on, and he later attended Monmouth School, followed by Newport Technical College (later Newport Art College, Clarence Place), where he developed an interest in photography.

 

He went on to become a 'celebrity photographer' of the old school, photographing many leading theatricals, such as Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor and Quentin Crisp. He also photographed Cliff Richard's first four album covers, and was commissioned by the Beatles' young manager Brian Epstein to photograph 'his boys' for their first album, photographed in the stairwell of the EMI offices at Manchester Square, London. A similar photograph from the same session was also used on the later retrospective double 'Best of/Red Album' (1962-66) and the pose was requested to be replicated by McBean for use on the cover of their projected next album, provisionally titled 'Get Back', but that album became 'Let It Be' and a different cover design was used; McBean's photograph was finally used for the retrospective double 'Best of/Blue Album' which covered the tracks from the Beatles' later career (1967-70), and showed the Beatles as they looked in 1969.

Angus McBean continued working well into old age, and fell ill while on holiday in Morocco - he returned to England and died in Ipswich shortly after, at the age of 86.








 








Barbara Bevan of Llanfach; Barbara became involved in the restoration of the Memo in 2002; initially through her membership of the choir, she became aware of a petition to save the Memo from demolition and started collecting signatures door-to-door.

In April 2003, a public meeting was called and Barbara became the Treasurer of the newly-formed committee, before becoming a Trustee, and eventually Chair of Trustees in 2016.

Barbara resigned in October 2018 on her 80th birthday, and the Memo's committee showed its appreciation of her commitment and dedication by naming the ballroom in her honour.





The Newbridge Grammar School Drama Production of 'Robin Hood' in 1951. The King and Queen are played by Dave Thomas and Joan Benjamin, and the photo has been supplied by Keith Davies, kneeling, front/left.




The Newbridge Grammar School Drama Production of 'She Stoops to Conquer' in 1956. The two teachers are Mr Pommeroy, the History teacher and Miss McCrea ('Ma Mac'), the English teacher. Mike Croad is standing behind and between the two teachers, and the photograph has been supplied by Keith Davies, who is standing at the back, second from the right.