Title
Alan Bartley Oral History Recording
Subject
Alan Bartley
Description
An oral history interview with Alan Bartley
Creator
Michael Romyn
Publisher
Kent's Sporting Memories
Date
Interview recorded on 3 March, 2020
Contributor
Alan Bartley; Michael Romyn
Rights
Kent's Sporting Memories
Format
MP3 (1:02:41); also available in WAV
Language
English
Type
Sound Recording
Identifier
Alan Bartley
Transcription
Kent’s Sporting Memories Oral History Summary
Interviewee: Alan Bartley
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 3 March, 2020
Location: Alan Bartley’s home in Hawkinge, Kent
0:00 Name, place and date of birth (Alan Roger Bartley, Dover Victoria Hospital, 1946); Alan grew up and went to school in Dover; both Alan’s parents and grandparents lived in Dover; his mother was in turn a housewife, a cook at Dover General Post Office, and a clothing presser for the Junior Leaders of the royal Engineers; his father was a bricklayer with a small building firm; Alan explains his father’s experience during the war in Egypt, and how he was conscripted into the RAF; Alan’s father’s RAF coat, which was hung from his bedroom door, used to ‘terrify’ Alan at night.
6:25 Alan grew up on the Buckland Estate in Dover, initially in a prefab, which the family moved into following the war, and then a ‘brick house’ on Auckland Crescent; moving into the ‘fantastic’ prefab: ‘it was far better living in one of those than the old-type houses about at the time’; Alan describes growing up on the ‘modern’ estate, and the hierarchy between the aluminum prefabs and the cardboard prefabs – ‘we thought we were superior’; ‘The only downside from where we lived – the shops were quite far away, you know, the Co-op and what have you’.
10:40 Alan chose to attend Castlemount School (secondary) because of its ‘good sporting reputation’; Alan was always encouraged to play sport but his parents were ‘not sporty at all’; ‘Times were a little bit tough looking back on it because, being a brick layer…winters seemed a bit harsh in those times, and he’d be out of work February, January, February time, because of the weather…the poor bugger, his fingers used to split with the cement, I remember my Mum always rubbing Vaseline into his fingers just so he could go to work like, he always said to me “Son, never be a brick layer”’; Alan’s grandfather on his mother’s side worked at Scott & Son's Dying and Dry Cleaners in Snargate Street – ‘he was never a well man.’
14:00 Football at Barton Primary School, which Alan attended, including playing in the final of the Burton Cup in Snowdown Kent – ‘I can remember getting off the bus and being attacked by a load of bigger girls!’; football in the mining villages; playing football, cricket and taking part in athletics and boxing at secondary school; Alan was Kent champion in boxing in the under 6st2lb and under 6st8lb weight categories, before retiring – ‘when it started to hurt I packed up!’; growing up supporting Dover Athletic FC – ‘it seemed like you were going to Old Trafford or something as a youngster, with crowds all walking through on a Saturday’;
21:05 Fishing during the summer in Dover; Alan explains how he used deceptive tactics to place runner-up in a fishing competition held on the Prince of Wales Pier in 1960 – ‘what started off as a joke suddenly became serious!; Alan’s first job, working at Buckland Mill (a paper mill) – ‘it was considered quite a good job’ - and his decision to leave school aged fifteen; why Alan didn’t like working at the paper mill; playing for Buckland Mill football team, which competed in the east Kent Wednesday League, which they won in 1966.
30:15 Working for AVO (electrical meters) and moving to London, once leaving the mill; Alan recalls living in London, in High Street Kensington – ‘I was in a broom cupboard…but I was quite prepared to sacrifice that for the London life, you know the football, going to matches, you know, really enjoying London’; watching football matches (particularly Tottenham Hotspur), going to pubs with his friends, and seeing the Rolling Stones in Eel Pie Island; moving back to Dover to do seasonal work as a steward on the cross channel ferries, which Alan enjoyed – ‘it was a good laugh, lots of young lads working on there, you know’; being unable to secure a job as an electrician’s mate at Dungeness power station because he wasn’t a member of a union, and, in trying to get around this, finding a job, aged nineteen, as an electrician’s assistant with British Rail, where he stayed for thirty-five years, until his retirement; Alan got married for the first time aged 21, and had three sons in the marriage; eventually getting married to his second wife, Marge.
39:20 Alan explains the ‘freedom’ of his railway job – ‘it was a lovely life, driving round, fixing lights, then onto the next one – the variety, you’d be in Deal one day, Margate at half noon, perhaps up to Chatham’ – and what was involved in the job; how his job changed when British Rail was privatized; ‘the sport never stopped’ – Alan’s lifelong association with sport in one form or another.
45:20 Forming a tennis club at River (outside Dover) with football friends in his late twenties/early thirties, and going on to join – and win – a tennis league – ‘it was just as big as the football really…we all enjoyed it’; Alan talks about what he sees as the decline of local sport; the social side of Alan’s sporting life – ‘it always led to the pub, every sport led to the pub…we’d all drink together, play together. A lot of camaraderie.’; taking up bowls as he became ‘too old’ for tennis.
52:20 Alan describes finding out, in c.2014, that he had dementia by being unable to play bowls to his usual high standard – ‘The balls were going all over the place. And I thought I’d had a stroke, I didn’t know anything about dementia and Alzheimer’s and that sort of thing’ – and his decision to give up the sport; Alan explains that he knew very little about dementia at the time, and how ‘frightening’ it was when he was diagnosed; Alan’s frustration with the day-to-day inconsistency of the disease, and his determination to ‘beat the plaques’ through various activities, including social groups, such as the Sporting Memories club, and writing poetry.
59:25 Alan’s history with poetry, and how he began writing again as a way of ‘beating the plaques’.
Interviewee: Alan Bartley
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 3 March, 2020
Location: Alan Bartley’s home in Hawkinge, Kent
0:00 Name, place and date of birth (Alan Roger Bartley, Dover Victoria Hospital, 1946); Alan grew up and went to school in Dover; both Alan’s parents and grandparents lived in Dover; his mother was in turn a housewife, a cook at Dover General Post Office, and a clothing presser for the Junior Leaders of the royal Engineers; his father was a bricklayer with a small building firm; Alan explains his father’s experience during the war in Egypt, and how he was conscripted into the RAF; Alan’s father’s RAF coat, which was hung from his bedroom door, used to ‘terrify’ Alan at night.
6:25 Alan grew up on the Buckland Estate in Dover, initially in a prefab, which the family moved into following the war, and then a ‘brick house’ on Auckland Crescent; moving into the ‘fantastic’ prefab: ‘it was far better living in one of those than the old-type houses about at the time’; Alan describes growing up on the ‘modern’ estate, and the hierarchy between the aluminum prefabs and the cardboard prefabs – ‘we thought we were superior’; ‘The only downside from where we lived – the shops were quite far away, you know, the Co-op and what have you’.
10:40 Alan chose to attend Castlemount School (secondary) because of its ‘good sporting reputation’; Alan was always encouraged to play sport but his parents were ‘not sporty at all’; ‘Times were a little bit tough looking back on it because, being a brick layer…winters seemed a bit harsh in those times, and he’d be out of work February, January, February time, because of the weather…the poor bugger, his fingers used to split with the cement, I remember my Mum always rubbing Vaseline into his fingers just so he could go to work like, he always said to me “Son, never be a brick layer”’; Alan’s grandfather on his mother’s side worked at Scott & Son's Dying and Dry Cleaners in Snargate Street – ‘he was never a well man.’
14:00 Football at Barton Primary School, which Alan attended, including playing in the final of the Burton Cup in Snowdown Kent – ‘I can remember getting off the bus and being attacked by a load of bigger girls!’; football in the mining villages; playing football, cricket and taking part in athletics and boxing at secondary school; Alan was Kent champion in boxing in the under 6st2lb and under 6st8lb weight categories, before retiring – ‘when it started to hurt I packed up!’; growing up supporting Dover Athletic FC – ‘it seemed like you were going to Old Trafford or something as a youngster, with crowds all walking through on a Saturday’;
21:05 Fishing during the summer in Dover; Alan explains how he used deceptive tactics to place runner-up in a fishing competition held on the Prince of Wales Pier in 1960 – ‘what started off as a joke suddenly became serious!; Alan’s first job, working at Buckland Mill (a paper mill) – ‘it was considered quite a good job’ - and his decision to leave school aged fifteen; why Alan didn’t like working at the paper mill; playing for Buckland Mill football team, which competed in the east Kent Wednesday League, which they won in 1966.
30:15 Working for AVO (electrical meters) and moving to London, once leaving the mill; Alan recalls living in London, in High Street Kensington – ‘I was in a broom cupboard…but I was quite prepared to sacrifice that for the London life, you know the football, going to matches, you know, really enjoying London’; watching football matches (particularly Tottenham Hotspur), going to pubs with his friends, and seeing the Rolling Stones in Eel Pie Island; moving back to Dover to do seasonal work as a steward on the cross channel ferries, which Alan enjoyed – ‘it was a good laugh, lots of young lads working on there, you know’; being unable to secure a job as an electrician’s mate at Dungeness power station because he wasn’t a member of a union, and, in trying to get around this, finding a job, aged nineteen, as an electrician’s assistant with British Rail, where he stayed for thirty-five years, until his retirement; Alan got married for the first time aged 21, and had three sons in the marriage; eventually getting married to his second wife, Marge.
39:20 Alan explains the ‘freedom’ of his railway job – ‘it was a lovely life, driving round, fixing lights, then onto the next one – the variety, you’d be in Deal one day, Margate at half noon, perhaps up to Chatham’ – and what was involved in the job; how his job changed when British Rail was privatized; ‘the sport never stopped’ – Alan’s lifelong association with sport in one form or another.
45:20 Forming a tennis club at River (outside Dover) with football friends in his late twenties/early thirties, and going on to join – and win – a tennis league – ‘it was just as big as the football really…we all enjoyed it’; Alan talks about what he sees as the decline of local sport; the social side of Alan’s sporting life – ‘it always led to the pub, every sport led to the pub…we’d all drink together, play together. A lot of camaraderie.’; taking up bowls as he became ‘too old’ for tennis.
52:20 Alan describes finding out, in c.2014, that he had dementia by being unable to play bowls to his usual high standard – ‘The balls were going all over the place. And I thought I’d had a stroke, I didn’t know anything about dementia and Alzheimer’s and that sort of thing’ – and his decision to give up the sport; Alan explains that he knew very little about dementia at the time, and how ‘frightening’ it was when he was diagnosed; Alan’s frustration with the day-to-day inconsistency of the disease, and his determination to ‘beat the plaques’ through various activities, including social groups, such as the Sporting Memories club, and writing poetry.
59:25 Alan’s history with poetry, and how he began writing again as a way of ‘beating the plaques’.