At the end of last year I thought I had found the furthest outpost of Wryton land in Caernarfon. About a hundred miles from Manchester. I am talking about the golden years of the early sixties and regular wrestling. Well it looks like we can add nearly another 40 miles to that now.
The Kings Hall , not as grand as Belle Vue for sure , in fact only built as Art deco in the 30's for multiple use , with different floor levels. I take it the ground floor dance hall was used for wrestling with a seating capacity of over 1200.
Don't bother to look for it today as all you will find is a block of flats. Yes pulled down in 1989.
It looks like they did a winter season. the prices marked up considerably above that of Belle Vue for sure.
Look at those bills steeped in Wryton Stalwarts.
Very little in overseas visitors , the most the reports could brag , was Lancashire versus Yorkshire matches.
They must have considered it established by 1962 with every week in the summer. But for me , an absolute sin to be advertising wrestling without the wrestlers.
Did it all come to an end. Could they have kept out O'Shea in 1964 , who was already promoting a few shows at Lampeter.
There is nothing in the papers to support large crowds or a miserable demise or even any further papers that would show if Wrestling remained through the 1960's.
But for me , I just don't see Billy two Rivers , Ian Campbell , Ricky Starr , title matches.
Was the geography just too difficult . I leave it to the reader to enjoy what is here and give an opinion.
But one more thing I did find. Like Blackpool there was a Pleasure Beach/ Fair ground that had a Boxing and Wrestling Booth. On two occasions the performers were named and the promoter. Here we are.
I don't know much about Ron Taylor. He Looks to have been Nottingham based in later years.
Any observations welcome.
Pete using the ‘Judo’ monicker as far back as 1961.
Great Ron. The museum in Aberystwyth has posters of various entertainment events during the century but there's no sighting of wrestling. It was the Municipal Hall when it opened in 1934 and re-named the Kings Hall in 1937. As you say there are now (expensive) flats on the site, from the first floor up. You can get a nice pizza and ice cream from the shops below.
It was quite a traipse to get to Aberystwyth whichever route the wrestlers took. The shows were still going in 1965 and back in 1980.
Go to crinklecut.co.uk and under the titles list is a 24 minute film called boxing booth. It's worth a look.
Ron Taylor travelled with his boxing and wrestling booth all over the country attending all the big fairs such as Nottingham Goose Fair and Newcastle Hoppings Fair. Ron always worked the crowd before each show and a lot of wrestlers who went onto greater things worked for Ron, his grandson was working the booth the last I heard but they no longer encourage members of the public to tale part because of public liability issues.
Thanks Ron,
All those gaps we have in our records, wondering where the wrestlers were on those empty evenings, you are now starting to plug the gaps with this tip-top research.
I would just say that they did have foreigners: Two Rivers, Zaranoff, Bartelli, Majid Ackra ... not to mention all those Englishmen!
I am intrigued by the claim that Dr Death was a TV favourite. On the one hand he was nobody's favourite, but on the other, he was never on tv. His fame must have skyrocketed early sixties.
Agree, the finances are intriguing: Royal, Mann, Albert Wall, Eric & Ernie (who I always confuse, never having seen them) ... the big names wended their way to Aber. So many snouts in the trough for any show. For this to have lasted several years the hall must have been packed.
In amongst it all - my earliest sighting of Tiger Ryan.
Great stuff!