Colin Fewster – Transcript

I’m Layla Jabbarri and we’re here today at Hall Fishing Heritage Centre and I’m talking with Colin Fuse there on the 6th of March 2025 on behalf of Hall Seam but not heard. Okay Colin can you tell me a little bit about your life on Hasbro Road? Well I was born on Hasbro down Brankton Street until I got my ride at Nancy and then we moved out and I went and lived on Chumley Street in a flat after we got married and then that didn’t so because we may be in a way at sea the wife didn’t like been left alone because she was on the 18 and with other people in the flat she didn’t feel comfortable you know sharing the flats so we moved and she knew someone who was more than lived down North on Avenue so we went and in lodgings with her for a few months and then our boats and our crew may own further down North on Avenue down New Street and from there I built myself up from fishing and then I bought me first house rail house down Westfield Road on the Belgrade drive and then my family was all on Hasbro Road from a big family and the eldest of nine they had four brothers and four sisters and we lived down Brankton Street in a tow-up and tow down outside taps North Central eating no double glazing nothing my father it was a chipper and painter on the trolus so his work was limited so in the winter time it was very slack you know so he wasn’t getting a real lot of work and but he managed to be more than managed unfortunately we lost her she was only 44 so she didn’t really see us all growing up and see all the grandkids she’s seen a couple of them and unfortunately now I mean out of the nand of us have only got one brother the youngest brother and one sister left the world unfortunately all passed on so and then as we got on a lot of friends and found outside family on Hasbro Road and we moved there you know so we always used to meet when it come on from sea we used to go meet up in the pub in rain as mainly and then from there you would maybe stay in there while you know for a couple of hours and then move on to the other pubs because in them days it was three o’clock closing so we used to go to the clubs chorclade club was one of them down north on Avenue that was up and while five o’clock and in agile those ex-servicements club and there was up and while five o’clock so that’s what we used to do with this you know move up to them just to get the extra couple of hours drinking yeah and then go home to the kids and then our I met my wife was at come home and it was a settling day with landed and we went in on the market then the cattle market down English Street and there was I forgot my name to the pubs one was cats which is still there now but really modernized but there used to be up and while five o’clock on a Monday when it was my kid day it was this is in town yes and me and my friend was both in the same ship and was in there and a friend of mine whose answer was in there with my wife’s mother so that was the first time I met her so at five o’clock we she says oh come on she lived up in the road then she says oh come we come to marry I was working other you know other sandwiches and then we’ll go on the night time so we went and when we when we got there my wife she which she’s a twin she came in the just come from work the works at Smith and Efrios there came in of course we was on a young then and of course I asked her out and that was it and it’s our diamond wedding this year in July oh that’s nice yeah and but moving on as I said was brought up down as a road she was on well she’d lived down English Street and around with a mother the mother during the world she come from Peter Ed so so she was Scottish you see and then you know of course as said from down the pubs would you would go in rainers meet up have a drink and then after that would arrange to meet the crows and go outside the town you know blow oven was a favorite place or peaceful right and then there was the the other clubs what we used to go to back leave a ride to the club we used to arrange nights out there go just for a bit of entertainment you know and when we would go there then the next day would have a day on our own and then it would be back at sea again after that but in the 80s that was I was working the fishing was really going down though there was only statue allers left and I got a job I was working in Scarborough on the inshore boats so I did that for about four years it was good at the beginning and then it just went down the expenses and everything it was there wasn’t much doing and then I finished up working I was playing okay I went I was playing as a you know just a using me ticket as a skipper for the Spanish crows and we as we got fishing off Ireland in them days on the wrong Ireland fishing there and then I came after that I got fed up with after about six years and then I went on the and I would be but on the snap started on them I think that was the but it’s the Nancy yeah so you would have been away from home quite a lot that was the trouble you see that’s why I didn’t go on the statue of us because it was you know he was going away there was doing long trips at the time I was you know going a long time away I just got me skippers ticket as well I didn’t get skipper fishing out of all right but I was out I was running a boat I was scarab and using it I was paying and then I was skipper on the overick standby boat I think I did to finish up doing that until I retired at 67 and that was that was it yeah but no we had some good towns on as a roadway all the pubs that there was you know and and you was a community where you could if you went out you could go you’d go in a pub and you’d guarantee you’d meet somebody in you and you could speak and you knew where other friends was what ships there was in and you know that kind of thing the families you know you knew what most of the families and afterwards as well they’d maybe be a party afterwards you somebody’s house some would go another couple of hours at there else you know having a drink so all the kids you know all growing up together which was nice I mean now you look back now and you know the the role grandma’s and granddad’s the cells you know these kids that we was talking about and it’s like blowing our case you know but yeah it’s so alright but yeah there we are I’m not one that’s I’d to believe in July you know down and wetting them me 79th birthday and in July as well so well yeah four days before me out before our anniversary so and then and then they thought oh you don’t want to be married in a fishing month and oh God you don’t want to know we are yeah prove them all wrong 60 years later was courting for two years yeah and then we decided to get married did you and your wife come out on as well or did you come no no we always like we also have a what we call the settling day when we come on from sea would meet up in the morning you know would go down dark get all setlings and then would meet all meeting the pub whichever pubes you won’t always read some of the crows you know like criteria and Alexander millers and then in the afternoon it would meet up with the waves and then go in town and you know when I’m just thinking of you mentioned that you’d go to the variety club it was it that late that was one of them yeah did you see any artists on heads or road remember oh yeah there was always there was always the artist but remembering names now I can’t I can’t remember names you know it’s one of those Joel on thumb when he was doing his tags you know it started in the clubs here Les Dawson I remember him coming so yeah they didn’t go and watch on all because when they come on um oh well sure see where was Les Dawson at then I think it was de street club or or rumba st and Rose it might have been in on both because the the artists used to you know the daughter and one and go into another one yeah you know and then but I mean Les then he was just starting off in his career and he used to always mention all when he you know when he was in his acts when he got famous yeah didn’t go much on okay but others well there was Candela Barry yeah he was he used to do his terms around the pubs he was good he was a good actor he used to draw Marlon you know everybody else of course the human what do you remember of Candela Barry well when he first come on he was um you know you said come on all dressed up in his days how him used to do with god knows but for every song he’d have a different dress on and they’d be you know parade in up and down on the stage and singing and telling his jokes it was it was really good and then the way I always remember him for his his last song they what did the call it oh is it Shirley Basset was it and he used to check all his makeup off as it was doing it and it’s all his dress up it was doing this on stage it would be wiping his makeup off change his dress and it finished up as a male right you know with a soul tone and you know all his makeup off fun these wigs off and yeah oh what did the call the son I am what I am I think that’s the one I am what it wasn’t Shirley Basset I think so yeah yeah yeah and there was there colder rivers she was country and west coast opened down there’s a row country and western was you know the big thing with us right same and you know the fishermen and that because when was it say you was a player a lot of country western songs and so colder rivers she was always on she was one of the favorite ones yeah there was that on your one that’s cool I haven’t yet not while I’ve been talking to you yeah yeah yeah yeah colder rivers she’s still about she still goes about she’s doing when there’s charities you know she’ll sometimes get on the stage and she’ll sing and get going she’s quite good yeah thinking of the drag scene because there was obviously Candida Barre and and others how it’s a was that kind of quite accepted in yeah we’ll just put it down as entertainment we didn’t think of it as anything else nothing else and to the old man’s it was just it was an entertainer and that was it and there’s more than you’ll see run the pubs you see see Clarice so she was Sam running rainers and then she went to decorates and then George down St. George’s Road and but no you just went if you knew he was on you know I mean you knew he was gonna be in for a good night yeah so no we never thought of it of anything different you know that same and is entertaining us and that’s all we want to yeah well no it was good though anybody that did anything like that yeah and of course it’s I mean then in them days it wasn’t like it is now you know for what’s what you see going on and we just accept it they are what they are and and that’s it it’s nothing else but it wasn’t as wide as people wasn’t coming out like yeah in them days like they are now yeah and but no no it was just accepted we didn’t think no no they didn’t bother us as I say he was part of the community you know he was there he was in the middle of it it was just a good entertainer so I’m sure we went under another name as well yes I was looking at this yes because because I think somebody from America accused him of using his name or their name and he had to change it yeah I think originally was candid to bury and he had to change it to do bury yeah I remember that going on because then he was you know he was big friends with Joel on thought and that that so I remember him coming on one was in the number St. Andrew’s Club and was having a you know a good night out when he was in there was Joel on thought not as an artist it was famous then but it just come in because in your you know you know everybody in their friends in that course was all jumping up and cheering and wanted him to get on the stage and he was saying no no I’m on the concert I’m on the contract I got and in the end he giving and you know he got on the stage and give us a couple of songs yeah so that was good of him yeah and as you say like we expect most of his time in black pole you know and she turned in round there I did see him a couple of times in black pole but you know when we’ve gone through there but yeah that was it just quite a few people come off as a road or you know muddin’ in for the self I mean there’s one going I always like him Rick Owen okay he’s a that is a company I was started doing his own thing but many years ago he was on on a show my kind of people do you remember that show with them what the call it even that was all the scandal with a somebody drowned in his swimming pole that’s it my co-barum I love that man I thought it was a brilliant entity and it was unfortunate of what happened to him well he used to do a TV show with my kind of people and he’d go to different towns and places and he’d get people on you know just singing or doing whatever they did and they were Rick Owen was one of them as well he there was a couple of them from all and he’s it does a lot of comparing and singing telling jokes that in Radder Club on a Wednesday afternoon that’s where where he is Rick and you know I love listening to him singing he never got to the big time but you know I mean a really brilliant entertainer yeah he’s still go see him now yeah well no we haven’t been into so much now we should go in every Wednesday but since Covid and other things have had operations and the way prints are good but we we don’t go out much now unfortunately you know it’s since Covid it’s made a lot of difference we lost a lot of friends from Covid when we was in you know what we used to meet up with him Radder on a Wednesday I mean Wednesday that was our dear we used to do nothing on a Wednesday no babysitting no appointments nothing that was our dear and we used to meet in Don Coleman Street in Radder Club and then on a Friday the way she used to go to Cecil Bingo with a couple of friends and the men we used to meet in town we used to go in Blaugh Bell and then work our way around into matching Neve Club and then when we was in there then the women when they finished Bingo at 3 o’clock they used to come into matching Neve Club with us and we used to have a good afternoon in there well afternoon we used to maybe nine ten o’clock yeah but Nate would get home like by the time we’d had enough and but now it was good and we used to see we used to meet up all the friends but unfortunately since Covid we lost some in Covid and then some good friends of ours who lost them afterwards you know so we really had the act to go back people could say no she’ll come in come in you know you know you don’t to be honest it’s had a lot of feel like going out now yeah not like we also we don’t bother me one bit about not having a pants or a drink when we don’t drink much in ours Mary after the odd glass of wine on a weekend and that’s about it was a big drinking culture before would you say or not so much no no we’re just you should enjoy all nights out and I mean in the days before in the 70s especially when if he was out of a ship we also meet up in rain is just about every day you know rain is a millis was my I’m course 11 o’clock whether you’re on the other 11 till 3 then in them days you know not like now all day I think these old days ruined it cuz people don’t I’m not going out here I’ll go out after and whereas then you’d see them killing up at the door at 11 o’clock and then 3 everybody go you know that kind of thing and on the Sunday 12 till 2 and then go water dinner and of course it round here was all majority of us was big rugby fans so we used to follow you know all I see got to away games you know would maybe meet outside of rainers and get a case of beer and check it on the courts with us the minibus or whatever and then would go to the away matches and yeah many time I’ve come home and we saw did in has been in the oven and I’ve been in the yeah in the oven and I’d have it Monday morning or sometime would come on you know we also got a weekend St. Helens all in places you know south of the early away games because then the games was on a Sunday Sunday afternoons so we used to go come on and then was west for where then but you know with a drink and maybe the maybe get dropped off at rainers and then the band they’d be ringing my house up there and you’d better come and pick him up because you want very pleased but she’s still with me she wants all bad but yeah it was it was really good but what apart from that you know I won’t say I was a real heavy drink just just social drinking you know that’s all it was we enjoyed it and I think that’s about it oh thank you so much for talking to me that I really appreciate it