Flashback: Farewell to Young Nellie, church hall thugs and bungling bus bosses
Cllr's Ashley Kissin and Alan Weinberg at the width restriction in Longwood Gardens - Credit: Archant
A look back at the biggest local stories from this week 20, 40 and 60 years ago.
1957: A much-loved septagenarian known as “young Nellie” by her workmates was retiring from her job of 39-years as an inspector at a Hainault factory.
Nellie Lambert, 71, had been an instrument inspector at Kelvin and Hughes from 39 years, and was presented with a cheque for £338 by managers at her farewell party.
Nine months previously, Nellie, of Forest Terrace, Chigwell, slipped and fell on a friend’s wet lawn. She broke her ankle.
That injury led to her making the decision to retire.
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Since the accident, Young Nellie was forced to use a walking stick and had taken up knitting instead of her previous sporting past times.
Nellie was also provided with an open invitation to pop in to visit her former workmates at any time.
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1977: Police were hunting a group of thugs who beat up a 16-year-old who tried to stop them from gatecrashing a church hall dance.
The teenager was punched, kicked and hit with chairs, but managed to escape when the gang began fighting among themselves.
He was taken by paramedics to Whipps Cross Hospital, where he was treated for a broken nose and cracked ribs.
He had been looking after the door at a disco at the Holy Trinity Church Hall in Wanstead when a gang of fellow teenagers barged in and began smashing bottles.
The poor boy only managed to get away when two members of the gang began to fear for his life and tried to pry their fellows off him.
1997:Bungling bus bosses bought a fleet of new vehicles for the Barkingside to Ilford bus route, but never thought to check if they were narrow enough for Redbridge’s width restrictions.
A long running battle between transport chiefs and Redbridge Council eventually saw the council agree to widen Longwood Gardens’ width restrictions by four inches to accommodate a new fleet of buses, but providers Thamesway never checked the official measurements.
After ordering nine brand new mobility buses, chiefs were forced to walkback plans to roll them out after discovering they were still too wide to fit.
