Ernie Wise

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GWALK4732
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Joined: Wed 29 Jun, 2016 2:49 pm

Ernie Wise

Post by GWALK4732 »

My late Grandmother passed away a few years ago at the age of 94. Her maiden name was Wilde. She used to tell me for years that as a child her family lived in a street called "Wardour" something or other. She said they jokingly referred to it as "Wardour Villa" Not sure about the spelling. She claimed that she lived next door to Ernie Wise and his family. He was a small child at the time and occasionally she used to baby sit him. She said he used to dance on their kitchen table! She also told me something about his father getting one of her brothers a job at either the Queens hotel or on the railway, or something like that. It all seemed a bit "far-fetched" to me and I just took it with a pinch of salt. Just wondered if there could be any truth in this at all?? Any information would be good! Although I'm not expecting any. Thanks.

volvojack
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Joined: Tue 26 Jan, 2016 11:57 am

Re: Ernie Wise

Post by volvojack »

Do not underestimate the lads around here, they are quite capable of finding out virtually anything. As for your Grand mother's reference to the Railway I think Ernie's father worked for them and also the Queens Hotel in City Square was owned by the Railway. Good Luck.

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chemimike
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Re: Ernie Wise

Post by chemimike »

Possibly Warder St, New Wortley. Ernie wiseman (as he was born in 1927) was , according to wikipedia the son of Harry, who was a rail lampman. Harry would have been alive in the 1911 census , and the only one in Leeds in the census )aged 12) is at 53 Glensdale terrace, and his father, George, was listed as a waiter at a hotel (though admittedly there must have been a fair number of those),

jdbythesea
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Re: Ernie Wise

Post by jdbythesea »

For the first 10 years or so of my life I lived on Pemberton Street (off Dewsbury Road). Down the street from our house there was a couple with the surname Dawson who during the 1950s emigrated to Australia. He, I think, was called Derek (or maybe Dennis?). His wife was called Connie and her maiden name was Wiseman. I remember my parents mentioned that Connie's brother was Ernie Wise but as a nipper I'd never heard of Morecambe OR Wise back then. It was only much later that I made the connection. I still sometimes wonder whether the story was true. I've never been able to find out.

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tyke bhoy
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Re: Ernie Wise

Post by tyke bhoy »

Chemimike appears to be correct with Warder Street (35 according to what purports to be an official biography)
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YD_ ... ds&f=false

The biography also mentions Ernie dancing on a table in clogs.

It also seems to confirm JDbythesea’s memory may also be true. Ernie’s youngest sister Constance Wiseman (possibly known as Connie after her mother) is said to have emigrated to Australia.
living a stones throw from the Leeds MDC border at Lofthousehttp://tykebhoy.wordpress.com/

jdbythesea
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Re: Ernie Wise

Post by jdbythesea »

Thanks tyke bhoy. It does seem to confirm what my dear old mum told me all those years ago. I'll get myself a copy of the book now: I don't know why I never thought about buying one before! Thanks again.

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tyke bhoy
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Re: Ernie Wise

Post by tyke bhoy »

GWALK4732 wrote: She used to tell me for years that as a child her family lived in a street called "Wardour" something or other. She said they jokingly referred to it as "Wardour Villa" Not sure about the spelling. She claimed that she lived next door to Ernie Wise and his family.
ImageHardly a villa ;) The comments on the Leodis photo from http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... SPLAY=FULL suggest you can see 33-39 Warder Street so your grandmother lived at wither the 2nd or 4th house down the street with the Wiseman's at the 3rd. Between the 4th and 5th house are a block of outside toilets more obvious in some of the other photos (especially the 7th) at http://www.leodis.net/searchResults.asp ... D=&PUBID=0
living a stones throw from the Leeds MDC border at Lofthousehttp://tykebhoy.wordpress.com/

volvojack
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Joined: Tue 26 Jan, 2016 11:57 am

Re: Ernie Wise

Post by volvojack »

Looking at the picture's with the outside toilets I wonder when the last ones were still in use, surely not much after the mid 1970s, if that.

jma
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Joined: Fri 05 Aug, 2016 3:38 pm

Re: Ernie Wise

Post by jma »

volvojack wrote:Looking at the picture's with the outside toilets I wonder when the last ones were still in use, surely not much after the mid 1970s, if that.
I can date some of my memories quite accurately by connecting them to where I was working at the time.

From April 1974 to July 1976, I was working at Upper Wortley Police Station and at that time there were definitely lavatory yards still in use in the streets on the right hand side of Tong Road as you leave the city centre, although in some areas of streets, the houses had been improved with grants for inside lavatories and dormer conversions to attics, which previously hah had only a skylight.

My maternal grandmother lived at 31 Cedar Street and her house was modernised in that way and is still standing. By coincidence, I saw an ad in an estate agent's window quite recently and it was available to rent at £500 a month. Subsequently, the other end of the Cedars was demolished but I think that was to make space for the new leisure centre.

There were definitely lavatory yards still in use in some of the streets below Strawberry Lane. I remember one incident that nearly tuned into a mini riot when one family's lavatory became so disgusting that when Leeds City Council's hit squad (or something that rhymes with hit squad) arrived to clean it they refused to deal with it because it was so bad. The anger was from the poor neighbours whose lavatories were in the same yard. It's worth remembering that a lot of the people living in those streets - like my Nana - were from the era of scouring your own front step with scouring stone, clearing the snow off your own flags in winter and so on. I think that incident was in Armley Grove Place.

The streets above Whingate junction, between Tong Road and Conference Road also had lavatory yards still in use. I remember during the early hours of one night during the long hot summer of 1975 or 1976, several of us were dealing with an apparently abandoned car on one of those streets when a young lady in a very short nightie came out of a house running for the lavatory yard. In winter it would have been an overcoat job, of course. Anyway, she called out that we should look the other way. On the way back, she giggled something like "I told you lot to look the other way" but she seemed in no big hurry to get back inside.

Back to the date, it's possible to date some compulsory purchase demolitions from Works Department pictures on Leodis. From Leodis, I see that Fitzarthur Street was demolished in the mid-1980's.

With apologies for straying so far from the subject of Ernie Wise. I'll try and get back on-topic: "Bring me sunshine...." ;)

AnnieRoss
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Joined: Sun 09 Jun, 2013 10:06 am

Re: Ernie Wise

Post by AnnieRoss »

jdbythesea wrote:
Thu 30 Jun, 2016 12:18 pm
For the first 10 years or so of my life I lived on Pemberton Street (off Dewsbury Road). Down the street from our house there was a couple with the surname Dawson who during the 1950s emigrated to Australia. He, I think, was called Derek (or maybe Dennis?). His wife was called Connie and her maiden name was Wiseman. I remember my parents mentioned that Connie's brother was Ernie Wise but as a nipper I'd never heard of Morecambe OR Wise back then. It was only much later that I made the connection. I still sometimes wonder whether the story was true. I've never been able to find out.
Connie and Derek Dawson did emigrate to Australia. They visited a family I knew in Bramley several times during the 70's - 90's. They had a daughter called Caroline. When they came over to the UK I'd stay with this family so she had someone to play with during her visit.

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