ALEX SELINA & TONY SELINA |
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I guess I should start this
page by saying that it's a little 'one-sided' and mainly about Alex Selina
- rather than both of the brothers... |
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The photograph on the left was taken in Ilkley in 1936, when Alex may have been on his way out to... or back from... Sherwood House Farm just north of Stainforth, near Settle, in what was then the North Riding of Yorkshire... Alex - and a close friend of the time, Frank Knight - spent a lot of their spare time exploring the Yorkshire Dales by bicycle... and Sherwood House Farm seems to have been a popular destination... perhaps because - and I'm only guessing - the owners had two daughters... Thirty years later - with an introduction from Dad - I got to spend a week camping at Sherwood House Farm myself, with a school friend of mine at the time, John Porter... By that time the daughters seem to have moved on... - But there was still a slightly disconcerting 'double-seated' outside toilet... and a large farm cat - that would draw blood from an outstretched hand without a second thought... and steam trains, that huffed and pistoned by... throwing off lumps of coal for our 'camp fire'... I don't know why or when Dad 'gave up' his bike... but I took up the cycling mantle myself, around 1957... |
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One
of the great pleasures of growing up in Leeds is that only have to travel
a few miles north-west from the city to find yourself by the River Wharfe,
and the borders of the Yorkshire Dales National Park... Even as a twelve year old in 1960, I could peddle out to Otley - alone or with friends - and pick up the A65, which would take me out through Ilkley, and Skipton, towards Settle and the Lake District beyond... and it's difficult to imagine just how quiet the roads must have been for Alex in the late 1930's... - though the picture above gives some impression... I did at one time know the name of the family at Sherwood House Farm in the 30's and 40's... but I can't find any record of it at the moment... So if any one out there can shed any light on the two women that Alex and Frank knew all those years ago, it would be really nice to hear from you... |
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Two images... from old and forgotten negatives... One of the daughters (I think), and both daughters, with Frank Knight... |
The spot Alex used to camp in the late 1930's - and where I stayed, around 1965 - was between the railway line and the river. The railway line is actually part of the now quite famous Settle to Carlisle route... - and I've only just noticed the name of the wood on the west side of the river... |
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I don't have very
much information about Alex and Tony's childhood in Leeds in the 20's
and 30's... |
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Although
Alex would never have called himself 'a pianist'... my brother Tony remembers
that he often spent time at Grandma's house entertaining himself at the
piano in the front room... |
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Left: I've included an
image of the reverse side of the card below, as it has a couple names
that might be familiar to anyone either over the age of fifty...! - or
with an interest in British Music History... |
Alex, probably getting ready for a flying lesson... |
Apart
from his time in with the RAF in Morecambe
- and probably quite a few other places in England... - Alex also spent
time out in West Africa and Australia during the war, working on the maintenance
of aircraft... |
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West Africa or Australia, c.1941... Is the plane a Dakota ? |
At RAF St.Athan's in South Wales, where we think he was treated for TB... (c.1943)... |
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Dad seems to have
graduated from a bicycle to a motor-bike sometime around 1940... and he
was discharge from the RAF in 1947... |
Hathorn Davy's Offices in Jack Lane, Leeds c.1937 |
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Brother Tony around 1940 I would guess, and probably in England... |
Brother Tony... |
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