Title
Alan Bartley Oral History Summary
Subject
Alan Bartley
Description
Summary of an Oral History Recording with interviewee Alan Bartley
Creator
Michael Romyn
Publisher
Kent's Sporting Memories
Date
12 March, 2020
Contributor
Alan Bartley; Michael Romyn
Rights
Kent's Sporting Memories
Relation
Alan Bartley Oral History Recording
Format
Microsoft Word Document
Language
English
Type
Typed summary
Identifier
Alan Bartley
Text
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’.