I decided it was rather boring to hang about too long to publish the answers, and there are no prizes anyway, so here goes! I received a refined trickle of entries - it did occur to me that people might be waiting until they went back to work on Monday, so they could take some more time to do the research...
[No, I'm joking]
I received a couple of entries from THE AMERICAS, which is a jolly fine effort, since I would have expected this stuff to be unknown in those parts. There were some very good entries generally - highly commended are Mr H Bell-End (?) and Mr D Suffolk, who both got 7 correct, but the best entry was received from Mr D Sarrazan, who scored 10. In fact, he reckons he scored 11, but we agree to disagree (it's my quiz anyway) - splendid achievement anyway.
In case you were waiting for the answers, here they are:
(1) The Square, Earl's Barton - LES HIGGINS MINIATURES
(2) Station Street, Meltham - HINCHLIFFE MODELS
(3) "Rowsley" - MARCUS HINTON
(4) Ponteland - CHARLIE WESENCRAFT
(5) Northam Road, Southampton - MINIATURE FIGURINES
(6) 20 St Mary's Road, Doncaster - TERENCE WISE
(7) Lovel End, Windsor Forest - BRIGADIER PETER YOUNG
(8) 66 Long Meadow, Frimley - SPENCER-SMITH
(9) 69 Hill Lane - DONALD FEATHERSTONE
(10) 75 Ardingley Drive, Goring-by-Sea - WARGAMES RESEARCH GROUP
(11) "The Quantocks" - QUALITICAST
(12) 130 Wexford Avenue, Greatfield - BILL LAMMING
(13) Spade House, Sandgate - HG WELLS
Thanks very much to anyone who entered, or even just thought about it - much appreciated! HG Wells? - well, I didn't know the chap personally, of course, but the word is that the famous pictures of Little Wars being played on the floor were sketched in the attic of Spade House, so I feel that I almost knew him.
In passing, while I was reading about HG, someone asked a question on a forum, which was whether HG had actually built a Time Machine. There were a lot of very sarcastic answers, naturally, but one respondent said, "No-one will ever build a Time Machine - if it was ever going to happen, someone would already have travelled back in time with it and delivered it to us!"
So there you have it - one less thing to worry about...
Tony, I thought about taking a stab at your quiz and figured many of the addresses must have been wargame related but failed to act since none were immediately evident. Effort would have required research...
ReplyDeleteAre the answers to this quiz a form of Doxxing?
Hi Jon - it was a very unfair quiz anyway - a lot of these addresses would only be known to British enthusiasts, and many only were current during the late 60s and the 70s, so it was far too limited!
DeleteI confess I had to check out what doxxing was. I tried to be careful not to saddle anyone with advertising calls, or groupies camped outside their house, so some of the addresses are only fragments, but it would require a shot of Mr Wells' Time Machine to make full use of these now anyway.
Well that was another good intention failed - i honestly was going to enter but I wouldn’t have scored 10. ! I’m just trying to recall how many of those I sent stamped addressed envelopes to for lists and then eagerly awaited their return to peruse the lists of figures and frighten myself as to how much it was going to cost to build those armies.
ReplyDeleteVery different times! I bought most of my early figures at The Toytub - Mr Alexander's shop in Raeburn Place, Edinburgh - it was best to dredge through boxes of actual figures, though the catalogues were always a temptation. I was a latecomer (for my age!) with 20mm metal soldiers - I used to read the Hinton Hunt catalogue in the dead of night, when I was supposed to be studying for professional exams - it's funny when I think of the exotic lists laid out for the inexperienced eye, and contrast that with the much-delayed newspaper parcels of blobs that arrived from Camden Passage! Qualiticast don't really belong in that time frame, I guess - I mostly missed them during my sabbatical years.
DeleteThe Toytub! I bought some of the Minifigs 15mm strips from there.....long gone. I also remember being very tempted by the 20mm Atlantic Indian Brigade mostly due to the lurid packaging, but as My WW2 was NWE I ended up with some U.S. infantry.
DeleteAh the days of going to a shop and buying the only half dozen they stocked of the figures you were after!
I was going to enter your quiz but could only identify a few....
Mr Alexander was a grumpy old chap too, though I hardly blame him - Saturday mornings were funny, when the tee-shirted gamers would be there at the same time as the genteel folk of Auld Reekie, who would be checking out state-of-the-art dolls' houses for their little daughters.
DeleteI feel gratified that I would have scored zero.
ReplyDeleteClearly, I am too young for such frivolity...although this means apparently that I'll be paying for the current economic crisis until the year 2740 (this actually was stated in a newspaper article *sighs*).
They had accomplished this feat of debt prediction this through multiplying up the war debt from WW2, and contrasting that with the economic impact of Kung Flu. Somehow, I doubt their predictive prowess.
Where is that time machine though, just in case...
The quiz was a bit harsh on anyone under the age of 2000, so I'm sorry about that. This economic problem - I just have to trust that you'll get on with this and sort things out for us all. I can't help much now, though someone, somewhere, has access to my savings (both of it), and I'm damned if I'm getting any return on that, so the bankers' bonuses must be safe enough. That's always a comfort.
DeleteThey have to fill the newspapers with something, I suppose. Otherwise all those geniuses would have to work digging canals or something.
In passing, one of the comments on the time machine thread I mentioned suggested that a time machine would be a terrific thing, because you would be able to go forward in time and see the results of that cosmetic surgery you were thinking about. I'm still disturbed by that one - not so much the comment, just how stupid people fill in their time. No wonder we have Instagram.
I used to live in Sandgate (which is near Folkestone in Kent) in ‘85-6. I tried to place Spade House and racked my brains and came up with nothing. It doesn’t even show up on on-line maps as far as I can see. But now you’ve mentioned HG Wells, I remember seeing the house, but not it’s name, on walks (it must have had a plaque or been pointed out to me as HGW’s house). What a splendid location for Wargames. In fact a splendid location for anything.
ReplyDeleteWiki tells me that not only was he born in Bromley (I lived in the London Bromley Borough for 8 years after leaving Sandgate), he also lived in Worcester Park, not far from me now. So, like Frederick the Great as you aptly stated, the bugger is following me about!
Hi Chris - it's probably obvious now, but Spade House was the picture at the top of my previous post. A desirable residence, no doubt. Old HG had a lot of health problems, not to mention problems with other people's wives, and had to move about a bit.
DeleteI would have scored a seven. I have been to 3 of the addresses. As a youngster meeting Donald Featherstone is the one I remember best.
ReplyDeleteExcellent - having visited 3 is especially good. I visited none of these, though I wrote to a lot of them! I did once visit the Hinton Hunt shop at Camden Passage (in July 1974, I think - I was on my way to a holiday in Austria, by train), but it was just closing, because the man in charge of the shop had to do some messages, so I didn't get inside!
DeleteThanks for a nice brain-teaser and the honourable mention; I confess to leafing through my binder of early Duncan MacFarlane magazines for inspiration, but several were just there in the 'lizard brain' memory. I was a student in Southampton, early 1980s, but had temporarily put the toy soldiers away - I could have gone and knocked on Don Featherstone's door, and blown my grant money on Minifigs. Hmm.. maybe it was for the best!
ReplyDeleteResourceful approach, Blake - better than digging in Google. Speaking of which, I had a go at stalking some of these old addresses on Google Maps street view, to see what's there now. I'm not sure, but I think there's a care home on the site of Don's house now. If it's still standing, Rowsley will be worth zillions, as is Spade House, of course. HG could have nipped into the future in his machine, and sold the place - aha!
DeleteBit late to this party, but I managed four. Easiest was Ron Spencer Smith because I cycled to his house a few times!
ReplyDelete