St Helens | Archive | 2005 | May | 19
From the St Helens Star, first published Thursday 19th May 2005.
IT'S amazing how many people can still recall the great Lobby Ludd - but perhaps not too surprising, considering that he used to flash paper-money at folk during the good-old-bad-old days!
There's been a rush of mail on the subject first aired by Sutton old-timer John Marsh.
He'd wanted to know if anyone could still recall the amazing L-L, who used to parade among holidaymakers, on the front, mainly at Blackpool during the sunnier months.
And now the answers come piling in. As well as being cheerfully button-holed by a platoon of readers in the street, there's been some useful mail on the subject, coming in from the Rainford, Sutton and Whiston areas.
Lobby Ludd was a character who bustled among the seasiders, normally dressed but with a tell-tale newspaper in his hand. Anyone prepared to challenge him had to announce: "You are Lobby Ludd and I claim the prize."
And here's where a bit of controversy rears its head. For Doris M. Pennington of Oak Road, Whiston, claims that Lobby was representing the News Chronicle paper (others think otherwise).
"I know," she adds, "because a friend of my late husband won it and the prize was one-guinea (a small fortune then). This was about 50 years ago or maybe more."
Bill Tomlinson adds: "Lobby was the rep for the Daily Herald, from mid to late 1940s. It was a publicity stunt set up by other rival papers, including the Daily Dispatch. Their own rep, says Bill, from Buttermere Crescent, Rainford, was a fellow whose real name was Percy Pickles, aged around his mid-thirties.
"If you could locate him, you had to have a copy of the Daily Dispatch and announce: 'You are Percy Pickles. I read the Daily Dispatch regularly and | claim the fiver!' "
Ninety-five-year-old Miss Edith Carter from Mill Lane, Sutton, also has fond memories of the mysterious newspaper man, while another reader believes that Lobby came from Clinkham Wood - although there are no further clues on that yet!
n IF you remember cash-strewing Lobby, or any other interesting characters from the past, then please write to me.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008