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Wilfred Pickles
Wilfred Pickles, Order of the British Empire, OBE (13 October 1904 – 27 March 1978) was an English actor and radio presenter. Early life and personal life Pickles was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He moved to Southport, Lancashire, with his family in 1929, and worked with his father as a builder. He joined an amateur dramatic society, and in a local production there met Mabel Cecilia Myerscough (1906–1989), all of whose family had been connected with the stage. He remained a proud Yorkshireman, and having been selected by the BBC as an announcer for its BBC Regional Programme, North Regional radio service, he went on to be an occasional newsreader on the BBC Home Service during the World War II, Second World War. He was the first newsreader to speak in an accent other than Received Pronunciation, "a deliberate attempt to make it more difficult for Nazis to impersonate BBC broadcasters", and caused some comment by wishing his fello ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Halifax, West Yorkshire
Halifax is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. In the 15th century, the town became an economic hub of the old West Riding of Yorkshire, primarily in woollen manufacture with the large Piece Hall square later built for trading wool in the town centre. The town was a thriving mill town during the Industrial Revolution with the Dean Clough Mill buildings a surviving landmark. In 2021, it had a population of 88,109. It is also the administrative centre of the wider Calderdale Metropolitan Borough. Toponymy The town's name was recorded in about 1091 as ''Halyfax'', most likely from the Old English ''halh-gefeaxe'', meaning "area of coarse grass in the of land". This explanation is generally preferred to derivations from the Old English ' (holy), in ''hālig feax'' or "holy hair", proposed by 16th-century antiquarians. The probably-incorrect interpretation gave rise to two legends. One concern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piccadilly Theatre
The Piccadilly Theatre is a West End theatre located at the junction of Denman Street and Sherwood Street, near Piccadilly Circus, in the City of Westminster, London. It opened in 1928. In its early years the theatre presented a wide range of productions, and was briefly a cinema. During the Second World War it presented productions ranging from the premiere of Noël Coward's '' Blithe Spirit'' to John Gielgud's lavish production of ''Macbeth''. Later productions in the 1940s and 1950s included Cole Porter's ''Panama Hattie'' (1943), Coward's revue ''Sigh No More (musical), Sigh No More'' (1945) and Peter Ustinov's ''Romanoff and Juliet (play), Romanoff and Juliet'' (1956). In 1964 the Piccadilly presented the British premiere of ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'', but by this time musicals had begun to outnumber non-musical plays at this theatre, with revivals of ''Oliver!'' and ''Man of La Mancha'', and later productions including ''Gypsy (musical), Gypsy'' (1973), ''A Funn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Quiller-Couch
Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (; 21 November 186312 May 1944) was a Cornish people, British writer who published using the pen name, pseudonym Q. Although a prolific novelist, he is remembered mainly for the monumental publication ''The Oxford Book of English Verse, The Oxford Book of English Verse 1250–1900'' (later extended to 1918) and for his literary criticism. He influenced many who never met him, including American writer Helene Hanff, author of ''84, Charing Cross Road'' and its sequel, ''Q's Legacy''. His ''The Oxford Book of English Verse'' was a favourite of John Mortimer fictional character Horace Rumpole. Life Arthur Quiller-Couch was born in the town of Bodmin, Cornwall. He was the son of DrThomas Quiller Couch (d.1884), who was a noted physician, folklorist and historian who married Mary Ford and lived at 63, Fore Street, Bodmin, until his death in 1884. Thomas was the product of the union of two ancient local families, the Quiller family and the Couch famil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Oxford Book Of English Verse
''The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250–1900'' is an anthology of English poetry, edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch, that had a very substantial influence on popular taste and perception of poetry for at least a generation. It was published by Oxford University Press in 1900; in its India-paper form it was carried widely around the British Empire and in war as a 'knapsack book'. The 1900 edition, originally conceived under the title ''Lyra Brtiannica'', was designed to supersede Palgrave's ''Palgrave's Golden Treasury, The Golden Treasury'' (1861) by focusing on lyric poetry, which allowed for the inclusion of twice as many works. In print for almost 40 years, the first edition sold over 500,000 copies with 21 impressions. In 1939, Quiller-Couch revised the volume, deleting several poems (especially from the late 19th century) that he regretted including and adding instead many poems published before 1901 as well as poems published up to 1918. The second edition continued t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desert Island Discs
''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight audio recordings (usually, but not always, music), a book and a luxury item that they would like to take if they were to be cast away on a desert island, whilst discussing their life and the reasons for their choices. It was devised and originally presented by Roy Plomley. Since 2018, the programme has been presented by Lauren Laverne. More than 3,400 episodes have been recorded, with some guests having appeared more than once and some episodes featuring more than one guest. An example of a guest who falls into both categories is Bob Monkhouse, who appeared with his co-writer Denis Goodwin on 12 December 1955 and in his own right on 20 December 1998. When ''Desert Island Discs'' marked its 75th year in 2017, ''The Guardian'' called the show a radio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tower Press
Tower Press was a British jigsaw puzzle and games manufacturer, most active from the 1930s until 1969 when they were bought by Waddingtons. By the early 1960s, they were the largest jigsaw puzzle maker in the world. History The company had its origins in the Isle of Man. They began making cardboard wearings in the 1930s but were best known for their jigsaw puzzles and later children's games. They made a jigsaw puzzle range named "Riders of the Range", and also made games such as '' Ask Pickles'' (1948), '' Inspector Brown'', and many others. By the early 1960s they were the world's largest maker of jigsaw puzzles. They purchased Budgie Toys, which was said to also be a serious competitor to the Dinky and Corgi lines in the 1960s. In 1969, shortly before the acquisition by Waddingtons, Tower Press were cited as "the most impressive example of the QE2's selling power" when they sold over 150,000 jigsaw puzzles of Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jigsaw Puzzle
A jigsaw puzzle (with context, sometimes just jigsaw or just puzzle) is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often irregularly shaped interlocking and mosaicked pieces. Typically each piece has a portion of a picture, which is completed by solving the puzzle. In the 18th century, jigsaw puzzles were created by painting a picture on a flat, rectangular piece of wood, then cutting it into small pieces. The name "jigsaw" derives from the tools used to cut the images into pieces—variably identified as jigsaws, fretsaws or scroll saws. Assisted by Jason Hinds, John Spilsbury, a London cartographer and engraver, is credited with commercialising jigsaw puzzles around 1760. His design took world maps, and cut out the individual nations in order for them to be reassembled by students as a geographical teaching aid. They have since come to be made primarily of interlocking cardboard pieces, incorporating a variety of images and designs. Jigsaw puzzles have been used in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Board Game
A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the term "board game" are between the 1840s and 1850s. While game boards are a necessary and sufficient condition of this genre, card games that do not use a standard deck of cards, as well as games that use neither cards nor a game board, are often colloquially included, with some referring to this genre generally as "table and board games" or simply "tabletop games". Eras Ancient era Board games have been played, traveled, and evolved in most cultures and societies throughout history Board games have been discovered in a number of archaeological sites. The oldest discovered gaming pieces were discovered in southwest Turkey, a set of elaborate sculptured stones in sets of four designed for a chess-like game, which were created during the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the River Severn. The river rises at Thames Head in Gloucestershire and flows into the North Sea near Tilbury, Essex and Gravesend, Kent, via the Thames Estuary. From the west, it flows through Oxford (where it is sometimes called the Isis), Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Henley-on-Thames and Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor. The Thames also drains the whole of Greater London. The lower Reach (geography), reaches of the river are called the Tideway, derived from its long Tidal river, tidal reach up to Teddington Lock. Its tidal section includes most of its London stretch and has a rise and fall of . From Oxford to the estuary, the Thames drops by . Running through some of the drier parts of mainland Bri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ask Pickles
''Ask Pickles'' was a board game made in the United Kingdom from 1948 by Tower Press, and popular in the 1950s. It consisted of two card games, "Ask Pickles", a quiz card game featuring film, television and radio trivia for 2-4 players, and "Happy Families". Named after radio performer Wilfred Pickles (1900-1978), the game had 29 cards with varying scores of 5 points (yellow), 10 points (red) or 20 points (blue). TV show ''Ask Pickles'' is a TV programme that aired on the BBC Television Service from 1954 to 1956, hosted by Pickles, similar to a later ''Jim'll Fix It ''Jim'll Fix It'' is a British television series broadcast by the BBC, presented by Jimmy Savile and running for almost two decades, between May 1975 and July 1994. Devised by Bill Cotton, the show encouraged children to write a letter to Savi ...''. BBC publicity said of the show "It doesn't matter how old you are, you can still make your own special dream come true if you get in touch with Wilfred Pickles. Maybe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ainsdale
Ainsdale is a village near Southport, in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Sefton district, in Merseyside, England, situated three miles south of the centre of Southport. Originally in the Historic counties of England, historic county of Lancashire, at the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census it had a population of 12,723. By the time of the 2011 census, only figures for Ainsdale (ward) were available. It makes up the southern edge of the town, separated from neighbouring Formby by RAF Woodvale. The village and roads leading to the beach are middle class areas, with some new modern developments around the station, including the addition of the private estate Village Row in 2006, and the Belway estate in 2013. History Prior to 1600 Ainsdale was listed in the ''Domesday Book'' as ''Einulvesdel''. Deriving from Old Norse name ''Einulfsdalr'', this apparently was the valley occupied by a Scandinavian by the name of Einulf. 1600–present Ainsdale formed part of Sir Cuthbert Ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions and has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization.Gerald O'Collins, O'Collins, p. v (preface). The church consists of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical rites#Churches, ''sui iuris'' (autonomous) churches, including the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, which comprise almost 3,500 dioceses and Eparchy, eparchies List of Catholic dioceses (structured view), around the world, each overseen by one or more Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishops. The pope, who is the bishop of Rome, is the Papal supremacy, chief pastor of the church. The core beliefs of Catholicism are found in the Nicene Creed. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
