24) The Phoenix Works - arises time and time again
THE PHOENIX ARISES, TIME & TIME ... AND AGAIN!
ERNEST E. GOOD & CO. - Builders' Merchants
A full page advertisement in the 1909 Goole Times Illustrated Almanack described the former Phoenix Works as Ernest E. Good & Co's. site “off Hook Road, Goole”, as “a Builders' Merchants, Carting Contractors, Commission Agents etc. Furniture removed to all parts (Moderate Charges)”, followed by a comprehensive list of available stock.TOM HARNIESS - Travelling Showman
WINTER QUARTERS
Enquiry relating to TOM HARNIESS (see Feedback) highlights the next user of the Phoenix buildings.The Harniess family bought the buildings and yard in 1910, as winter quarters for their wagons and equipment.
"Over in Swinton was the base of another of Yorkshire's well known fairground families. Tom Harniess of the Don Pottery, Swinton, near Rotherham, was one of the earliest Roundabout Proprietors in South Yorkshire. Tom and Fanny Harniess had five children. With the three sons George Samuel, Frank and Len, they travelled the country with their equipment as the Harniess Brothers. Under this name they operated an ornate Gondola Switchback, a set of Galloping Horses, two Electric Motor Scenic Railways, a Cake Walk and a Slip. Their sister Dorinda married Will Starr and they too took an active part, travelling one of the Scenic Railways and later a Dodgem. Today there are still members of the Harniess family attending Yorkshire fairs."
From The National Fairground archive at Sheffield university (COPYRIGHT approved)
National Fairground Archive
PALACE THEATRE OF VARIETIES & OLYMPIA ROLLER SKATING RINK
Erected during the latter part of 1909, a “picture and variety hall” known as the Palace of Varieties, and the Olympia Roller Skating Rink were opened.
Between 1911 and 1916 the Palace of Varieties' programmes, under the management of Mr. Rose, featured regularly in the Goole Times. Seating accommodation was extended from 250 to 500 persons. Entertainment Every Week!
GOOLE SOCIAL CLUB LIMITED
The building also housed the GOOLE SOCIAL CLUB LIMITED: “formed some time ago by the late Mr. T. Harniess and others to provide pastime for the working men of the town. The club rooms and registered office are off Hook Road and contain billiard and bagatelle tables. The Secretary is Mr. F. Clayton”.
Sadly, Tom Harniess “the popular proprietor of the Palace of Varieties” died on Sunday 17 September 1911, at 78 Marshfield Road, Goole, the home of Mr. & Mrs. F. Clayton. “He was 60 years of age and well respected”.
Reference to the Boothferry Family & Local History Group labours - Goole Cemetery Monumental Inscriptions, Vol. 1 entry 228: records the deaths of both Mr. & Mrs. Harniess:
In/loving memory/of/TOM HARNIESS,/amusement caterer,/of Swinton Yorks,/who died at Goole/Sept 17th 1911,/aged 60 years./"We cannot Lord thy purpose see,/but all is well that's done by thee."/Also of Elizabeth,/the beloved wife of the above/who passed away at Askern/June 17th 1933,/aged 82 years.
But the show still went on, in true fairground fashion.
Amusements in Goole that first week of October 1911 included “The first appearance in Goole of Lily May, described as “The Queen of the Wooden Shoes”, is signalled this week at the Palace of Varieties. She is a clever dancer and excellent singer, and her jokes are most amusing. The pictures are also first-class.”
At the beginning of 1912, “A Grand Whist Drive and Dance, held on Thursday January 25th from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.,with valuable prizes being given. Admission 9d.
A Waltzing Competition that same evening, with additional prizes. Entrance Free.
Prizes were on view at Stanley Bros. (Clothiers), Boothferry Road, Goole.”
“Dancing from 7 till 11 p.m. every Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Admission: Mondays and Thursdays 3d., Saturdays 4d.
The Finest Floor in Goole.
This Room to Let for private parties etc.”
The following week, twice-nightly shows at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. entertained the audience with the “special engagement of Syd Laurence - the Little Man with the Big Voice.
A pathetic drama of Edison, “Then You'll Remember Me”.
Also Jenny Valentine, Seria and Descriptive Vocalist, direct from the Principal London Hall.”
In March 1912, “Weekly Whist Drive on Thursdays. Marcus Boyle, Comedian. Little Dolly Austin,”Coon” Singer & Dancer (such language is non p.c. now, of course)
and
See THE BATTLE The Most Thrilling Drama ever produced.”
The next week: appearances were made by “Violette Proctor - Wonderful Child Artist, and Marie Walters - The Lancashire Mill Girl”.
In the Goole Times of August 30 1912 "Mr. Rose, Manager" advertised "two long films, and a special engagement of artists' "turns" ... the "programme changed every Monday and Thursday".
The newspaper also reported a motor cycle accident sustained by: "Mr. George Samuel Harniess, connected with the Palace Theatre of Varieties, Hook Road, Goole, for his mother, and picture theatres in many Yorkshire and Lincolnshire towns."
Skating Rinks began to lose their popularity, Picture Houses were the coming-thing: at Goole the Coliseum (Tower theatre, Carlisle Street) was built c. 1913, the Carlton Rink converted into a Cinema, and then the Cinema Palace opened.
ARE THERE ANY DESCENDENTS OF JOHN EDWARD ROSE OUT THERE?
GOOLE TOWN PRIZE BAND
In 1914 the GOOLE TOWN PRIZE BAND moved from its previous bandroom at the South Street Old Chapel to hold its practices on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at the Palace of Varieties Room. Hook United Brass Band also practised here.
Mr. G. Perrett, the conductor of the successful Goole Town Prize Band, and other members, were former residents of Phoenix Street and the neighbourhood. Even Mr. John Edward Rose, Manager of the Palace of Varieties, lived in Phoenix Street at one time. Many other changes of use and years later, what became known as the Adelphi Warehouse is now being demolished, to make way for ?14 houses?. The terraced homes of working men whose leadership of the band brought Goole great success, are threatened too.
MR. A. G. PERRETT
Goole Borough Brass Band was conducted by Mr. Alfred George Perrett for fifty years. He died, aged 68, in 1945 at 16 Kingsway. Mr. Perrett deserves to be remembered for his lifelong contribution to the town. Besides being a “well-known brass bandsman”, his obituary commemorated Mr. Perrett's all-round musicianship, “not only as a hobby, but also as a duty to his fellow citizens”.
The Band began in 1884 as the Goole South Street Band, “founded by the late Israel (Clockie) Jackson” who had just arrived in Goole from Boston on the Wash, where he set up on Barge Dock-side as a watchmaker and jeweller, before acquiring a fleet of small schooners, branching out into shipping repairs, acting as the local agent for Lloyds, and becoming secretary of the Shipwrecked Mariners Benevolent Society. It is not surprising to find that two of the first bandmasters were Mr. J. Chester and his brother Mr. T. Chester, a family well-known in Goole's shipbuilding and shipwright circles. Mr. Jackson was also a lay preacher in the Wesleyan church. He started the band to provide music for services at South Street Mission Chapel, with the temperance cause and the “interests of the poor of Goole at heart”.
In 1887, on the occasion of Queen Victoria's Jubilee, the evening programme on this public holiday was given by Goole Recreation Company's Band (leader Mr. G. Duprey), playing a selection of dance and other music. However, the South Street Mission Band under its bandmaster, Mr. T. Chester, led the South Street Sunday School, following the procession of dignitaries led by Goole Recreation Company's Band, after the afternoon speeches.
Goole's South Street band played at Reedness Show and Sports in July 1895.
The band became independent after 1897 and from 1903 until 1920 Goole South Street Band entered championships under George Perrett (who succeeded the late Mr. George Dupré as conductor), becoming “the band's guiding light and inspiration, its solo cornettist and the founder of its many successes”, eventually winning 45 prizes, 34 medals and four Challenge Cups.
There was a good audience at Goole Market Hall when the South Street Brass Band arranged a concert on January 27 1903. Councillor E. Jackson presided over the event, intended to allow the band to become more proficient and enable them to enter competitions throughout the country. Under its “able” conductor, the band played a selection from “Scottish Memories”, as introduction to three visiting artists - Mr. Austin Mahony, principal tenor at St. Ann's Cathedral, Leeds, and Mr. Goulder Hamilton engaged for his amusing sketches, together with “lion” of the evening, Mr. Ceres Jackson, the principal solo cornet with Black Dike (sic) Brass Band - winners of the 1000 guineas Challenge Cup at the Crystal Palace in 1902 - before ending the program, this time with a selection from Sullivan's operas. The guest artists were accompanied by Mr. Arthur Whitaker, organist and choirmaster at North Street Wesleyan Church, who offered piano, organ, singing and theory lessons, terms to be arranged, at 21 Bridge Street Goole.
A Member's card (2d. weekly) admitted players to all practices, still held at the South Street Old Chapel on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, as well as band concerts, etc. After several successful seasons under Bandmaster Mr. Thomas Chester, 15 Dutch River-side, Secretary Mr. G. Jepson of Percy Street, and Conductor Mr. G. Perrett who lived at 22 Phoenix Street, in 1907 the band was able to call itself Goole South Street Prize Band.
The year 1910 saw it take 2nd 3rd and 4th places and special prizes in contests. The Goole band and friends made up a “party of fifty” who travelled to Doncaster by train, before waiting taxis speeded them from the station on a journey “so exhilarating they were sorry when it was over”. Travelling to a model village venue five miles to the west of Doncaster, it competed in the Woodlands contest. The background to the arena was of “silver elm and English oak” at the bottom of a hill on the “very edge of a beautiful lake”. Ten bands competed in making some “fine music for the large gate” and Goole were delighted to be placed third, with the baritone player awarded a silver medal. “Each band played a march of its own choice, then the test piece, a selection named “Memories of the Past”. Mr. Perrett was credited with training the band to this winning standard where they were only beaten by “a mere trifling margin” by Rockingham Colliery, a band that had “held its own at the famous Belle Vue, Manchester, contest”.
The band changed its name again in 1914, to the Goole Town Prize Band, when it moved to the new practice room known as as the Hook Road Palace of Varieties.
In 1920 the Goole Town Prize Band were the winners of the first contest under the auspices of the East Riding and North Lincolnshire Brass Band Association. Held at Barton on Humber on a June Saturday, Mr. Herbert Scott, formerly of Besses o' the' Barn Band, judged the Brigg, Barnetby, Scunthorpe, Gainsborough, Goole Town, New Holland, West Hull and Barton Subscription bands as they competed for a cup, valued at £21, given by Mr. Quibell, the prospective Labour candidate for the division, and first prize of £8.
The test piece was “Recollections of England” and Goole selected the “Senator” March as its choice, as well as winning medals for solo instrumental performances: Mr. G. Snowden took the prize for Trombone and Mr. Perrett himself won the Cornet solo.
When Goole celebrated its Centenary in 1926 evening concerts were held at West and South Parks, and the Goole Town Band offered “very fine programmes that the audience greatly enjoyed, especially their numbers from No No Nanette and the well-known march “Mephistopheles”. Afterwards the band played for dancing.”
The prize band changed its title again when Goole became a Borough in 1933 but continued to play for its own enjoyment until 1951. But “without Mr. Perrett, the Goole Borough Band would have ceased to exist”. During the war it was he who kept it alive, despite his own failing health. He did not live to see VE Day and perhaps it was a blessing that he was not there to see the Band, to which he had given his life, so badly let-down.
After the war the band was in urgent need of young recruits, money and a bandroom “where practice makes perfect”. Sixteen Goole bandsmen and three others serving in the forces still remained in 1951, out of a full brass complement of twenty-four. Free tuition and free instruments were still provided but collections at concerts barely covered expenses, not to say the cost of uniforms at £15 each, never mind instruments: the smallest E flat soprano cornet was £200 and to replace a full set would have been £2,500.
Despite a public appeal, those glory days when the whole town turned out to cheer the band's champion players were gone forever. Corporate sponsorship was “so small as to be undignified” - the officials who were left provided a sober epitaph:
“The next time Goole Borough Band leads a procession to church on Mayor's Sunday, or to the Cenotaph on Armistice Day, think how much more hopelessly out of step everyone would be without those musicians at the front”.
ADELPHI
A contribution from 'Pedro's' vast store of memories reminds us that the warehouse and yard then changed its name:"Remember my dear departed mother telling me stories of the Adelphi theatre and later skating rink during her childhood days.
During my own childhood, even during WW11 when it housed American bren gun carriers and tanks (incidently this was the only time I remember doors opening in Phoenix St.), the large green sliding doors were signed Adelphi works, even after Lep transport took over."
CAN ANYONE SAY WHO NAMED THE WORKS "ADELPHI" AND IN WHAT CONNECTION?
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