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My brother and I were born in Hope Street and lived there throughout our childhood and adolescent years. Mrs Norton was our Great-Aunt Alice and lived a few doors away from us at number 262.

She was a great character, and along with my Father, Jack Hall, formed a song and dance act performing at many venues in and around the area. Hope Street, along with many other streets in Grimsby and Cleethorpes, had within its residents an intense sense of community spirit, and took the opportunity to celebrate any major national event with flamboyance and style with bunting and flags strung across the street from house to house, and residents decorating their house fronts with inventive designs. In addition, there would be singing and dancing by individuals and groups of people, and music filled the air from these and the numerous clog dancers, mouth organ players, hand-bone(knick-knacks) players, and accordionists, who, given a fine summers evening, would play well into the night. Of course, Aunt Alice Norton would be among these! Very often, a piano would be dragged out into the street, people would gather round it to sing the songs of the day. Invariably, it was I who played the piano — it certainly served as a good grounding for a career in music which I was to follow in later years!
To us children, these were fairy-land occasions, and we had the fervent hope that they might go on for ever, how sad for us at the conclusion of the celebrations, to see the displays dismantled!
The last such celebration was that for V.E. day. Even now, I can recall vividly the sense of joy and relief that everyone displayed, for it must be remembered that the rigours of the war years had taken their toll, with tragedy, privation, and fear touching every family in one way or another. Therefore the celebrations for V.E. day were to bigger and better than anything that had gone before — and they were. It seemed that the street was thronged day and night with people, either as sightseers, residents, or local dignitaries, all joining in with the parties and other functions. The climax to all this came on V.E. night itself, and the whole street seemed to be filled with people singing, laughing, dancing, and I guess, imbibing. Of course, the piano was brought out on to the street, and I played and played well into the early hours of the next morning.

An interesting sequel to this came some years later, by which time I was teaching at Harold Street Boys School. I received a call from Yorkshire Television informing me that they were filming a mock-up of the V.E. party in what remained of Hope Street (many of the houses were by this time demolished, with a few remaining and still occupied), would I care to go along and play the borrowed piano in the street with a few surviving residents singing as we had done before? I went along, and led by Aunt Alice the residents sang their hearts out to the songs they had sang on that eventful V.E. night. The whole episode was shown on television some nights later.

Alice Norton died some time ago, and I fear all those that sang that day have passed on too, leaving just a few ex-Hope Street dwellers to recount not only the experiences that I have described, but to the many that went to make the street such a vibrant friendly place in which to be nurtured and live. Alas, I fear its like will never be seen again — perhaps the war years helped reinforce the sense of togetherness and belonging — who knows? One can be too embroiled in the past, but it is so good to take the occasional glance but not to stand and stare!

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