John Lister did pick this one up for his ITV site (In fact he has most of them now) Yes the Public Hall Wrestling made TV. Only the first bout made it and this Saturday show was only two days after one on Thursday the 7th June.

You would think R and G for most of Scotland , but I don't quite understand the connection with Jack Owens using Morrell wrestlers here in 1960.

In Ray's index there is nothing for 13th anywhere near , which does not mean that there was no Relwyskow show , just saying. It was 55 miles just to get to Kendal and on the way north again or across to Yorkshire. It does not look like the family were interested in Workington or Whitehaven or even Seascale. No Motorways , probably at least two hours to Carlisle. Maybe best part of 2 hours to get to the A6 for north or south. Truly in a tight spot on the north of Morecambe Bay. It would seem the main reasons must be the hometown of Mrs Elsie Relwyskow and a large enough town to get a profitable audience. And yes , there may have been some accomodation thrown in too. Nice little piece of history , it only took 65 year to unravel

Thanks Anglo , it shows there is always something new to be found. Very different , I have something else to show you. Coming from the south of the county (Lancashire at that time) Barrow truly was a difficult Journey. What I see above makes me wonder about a stop off on the way back from Scotland. So we have 11th , 12th , 14 April 1960. Look at Foley and Mancelli. They are in Hamilton slightly south of Glasgow. The next day they are in Aberdeen , well over 100 miles. I conclude that they did not wrestle on the 13th because just to travel from Aberdeen to Barrow was about 320 miles and I bet they were too tired to do the Barrow show without the rest day. Typically some wrestlers went Barrow to Yorkshire next. Mask and Stockton did Hamilton to Aberdeen but did not do Barrow. Foley/Mancelli , an unexpected combo must have traveled together , I assume by car , but who knows , maybe trains.

Just had a look at the Barrow connection. George Relwyskow married Elsie Lawrie there in 1937. Yes Elsie was born there.(1918) Here father William Lawrie was also born Barrow and had worked in Engineering , but in 1921 he was an Invalid (age 40) That year he died. Elsie Lawrie's Mother had been Jane Banister and whilst her husband was an invalid , she had took on a boarding house in Church Street that could accommodate 10 guests. After his death in 1921 Jane remarried (1923) and became Bailey. I find her again in 1939 in charge of The Concle Inn. George Rel and Elsie (Lawrie) must have took over the pub at some point, it was in the family. It's situated at Rampside and there are plenty of pictures on the web. Lots of land there at the back and I suspect the Inn could have put up wrestlers or maybe the Relwyskow family had other properties there. The Concle was the staring point for Motor Rally's that George took part in. Without a doubt the connection with the town of Barrow brought the wrestling there. In a Nutshell Barrow was the home town of Elsie De Relwyskow. I also have found out that the council had recently approved a Caravan Site at the rear of The Concle Inn for workers who came in to Barrow and in 1961 they were reviewing it. However I think by this time the Relwyskows had already moved on.

Don't know about the 1970's , could have gone to Wryton. I don't think anyone has any Barrow posters , again could be wrong but I don't think Even Ray Plunkett had these Barrow bills. The last I have thus far is 1963 , here are some Bruno was here , White Angel , Wall v Two Rivers (wonder if Albert went over) Two more visits from Pallo.

Walsh/ Marino just comes across to me as a huge rivalry before it could be captured on tv. Yes of course there were others. I think what jumps out for me is it's always to do with the World Title. When you bring that into it , it is a massive selling point for the promoters. Indeed , I am asking Bernard , were they exciting , or was the World Title the best way that the Promoters could sell it. Just been looking at George Rel. he was married in Barrow in 1937 and certainly living there in 1950. he was a member of Furness Motor Club and drove his Triumph in Motor Trials , frequently making the papers. There is mention that he had a wrestling Field , who knows maybe at the pub. Relwyskow and Green was registered in Leeds where George owned a Coach business. He died there. Rel and Green applied for the Public Hall in Barrow for wrestling in the autumn of 1957 and quickly got approval. Now we know that Wrestling in this Nook and Crannie was a cert. I only wonder why it took so long to get it going. No doubt due to bigger shows Thursdays was chosen to do the shows. ironically that was the same day as at Morecambe. At this time Carlisle was Mondays fronted by William Little. Enjoy some from 1960/61

Clearly Marino/Walsh went on at a lot of Halls. So many have come to light now.. Were they rough fights Bernard . How did both men come over. Was it very aggressive or technical. Like McManus Pallo.......... Box Office. I forgot to mention that Wrestling started in September and sometimes went to the first week of June with a summer break. It was generally fortnightly and roughly 16 shows a year. Mcmanus and Pallo visited , Scots v the Rest nights were popular and many top visitors went there. Bill Robinson was often on and in the days when he was not yet full heavy. In my own experience it's a long way to get round that corner to Barrow. Used to give it a miss when I watched rugby because it was so time consuming. It may get judged as not as nice a place to draw people in as some of the great spots like Grange Over Sands and Cartmel. Still a long way after you exit the motorway at Milnthorpe. When I have been up that coast I gave it a miss. But I do know it's an important place , my brother-in-law worked there for a couple of years re roofing the submarine base. Click for a bigger image. Here is some from 1959.

We have all come a long way. One of the greatest detailed deceptions of all time . Fascinating colour and sometimes mystery and a bundle of trade tricks to enchant us. There is something for everyone. Well done to Ruslan for doing so much. It's nice to have a consuming passion. You have to have lived through the early 1960's to really shake yourself and appreciate what you saw. Wrestling in every town almost no matter how small.

A great debate , entertaining reading , have we got anywhere , I have my doubts.

I think one big shift that happened was away from the heavyweights. Was this Mick , or was it simply anyone entertaining came over best on television. For me 1960's Dales heavies were very weak compared to the the North. You mention the travels of Marino , I would also suggest that Adrian Street matched him , learning the trade in the south , but once up and running really put himself about. I don't deny though that McManus , Pallo , Logan , Kwango and others was a good mix. But then again the north was probably ahead on Tag. Royals , Black Diamonds , Dennisons against The Hells Angels and McManus and Logan. 1961 looks a good call. I just wonder at what pace were the public buying their first TV set. I know as a boy our set only had BBC1 , and the ariels would not accommodate ITV and my dad got this booster box that suddenly doubled my choice. Could it be that wrestling was waiting for a general TV boom. These must be very early memories for me because I remember Billy Two Rivers and Ian Campbell coming over in 1959 , so we must have had ITV then. But I think we might have been one of the first to get that little box. Just a quick piece of research and I can state it was to be 1962 before ITV got across all regions. I have had a ramble , no clearer to me really except maybe that wrestling had to wait for a full ITV roll out.

Those 1950's years did not have as much TV wrestling if I remember rightly. So I suspect that does not mean that Mick had not jumped to prominence by then. In fact even in the late 1940's Mick was in favour and described as "The Speed Wizard"

Some more here from Dingwall..In 1965 , was this some sort of a Joint Promotions effort at a big outdoor stadium or has someone managed to borrow some Joint Stars. It's a big stadium too , a capacity bigger than the town itself. 1966 Continental Matchmakers and 1968 Cape Promotions.. back at the Town Hall.

Dick the Dormouse after 1956

The 1940 shows were not Dick and Jessie Rogers. Here is another name in the mix. Wrestling was on every week from April into August 1941 , but unfortunately we don't have the bouts. Here are some examples of various formats in the way that it was advertised.

Some late 1941 and a couple earlier. One of my pet hates , for much of the year advertised as Wrestling tonight Scarce in 1940 and one show , an afternoon show. Under Rogers Tenure it was a case of Spot the masked man. I don't think Bartelli or Ghoul ever did a show pre 57 , and by then I think too late for the Ghoul.

That find was just what I wanted Hack , I had always thought that Rogers took over from the Flamboyant Miss Look. I had wondered because I have some examples from 1944 where there were a certain amount of expletives used to keep the advertising colourful. Wonder who came up with the endless puns. However After the 1930's the format was quite simple and low budget. Click for bigger image. And if Rogers was low budget , Belle Vue itself spared no expense in advertising their magnificent business. Much prefer this type of newspaper bill , but many weeks did not show which bouts were on. These , well I just love them. And the year Hack mentions 1942 with Dick on his own show.

Don't think Wryton ever had control of Belle Vue , although in my time Conroy was MC for many years. I always understood that the Northern Promoters agreed to share Belle Vue. Not sure if it was on a three weekly basis or just co-operation in providing wrestlers , seeing as Conroy proved to be such a good front man. In my day , I Just looked upon it as Joint , and of course it was such a big venue , even Dale Martins sent up their men to enhance it. Marino the most , but I did get to see a fair bit of Mick and Jackie. Bruno was rare , I must say. I have all the news paper adverts for Belle Vue 1940-1945 , in fact for almost all years. 40-45 are all of a similar format , cheap advertising. But comparing 40-45 and 45-56 , I don't see much difference. For some reason Bartelli and Bomber Bates were not visitors. Pre Joint some wrestlers were forbidden by some promoters about their choice of Promoter to work for. I suspect Van Wurden was one such wrestler who got round this as The Green Asp. I did read somewhere about him being threatened over loyalty. Van Wurden did himself at Belle Vue from 1940. Not so sure he did The Green Asp there. The Belle Vue Site was a business , they allowed people in to do Stock Cars , Speedway , they ran a Zoo , they had a huge pleasure fair. Who they got to do all these things was up to them. They even accommodated Rugby League Broughton Rangers who became Belle Vue Rangers before folding. They had Kath Look , Oakeley and William Bankier in for spells for the wrestling. It was their facility and we don't seem to know who was The FIxer/Booker for 1940 onwards. Dick the Dormouse was still wresting on those shows in the early 1940's and then took to being a Ref. There were a hell of a lot of Manchester based wrestlers doing perhaps as much as 3 or 4 shows a month at Belle Vue. Virtually no visitors , but it still packed out 100 shows a year to bring some cheer in the war. I will pull out some bills for 40-45 and maybe we can spot if there was much variation.

Relwyskow must have opened 1957. Below is the opening of the 1945 season. I have never seen anything on exactly when Dick and Jessie Rogers took over. There had been wrestling twice a week all through the war.