Annie Gumbley – What Was Pebble Mill?

Mary Kendall RIP

From Pebble Mill News 1984. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.

Mary Kendall, better known as Rosie from Radio WM’s long running 80’s series, The Barmaid’s Arms, and my Mum, died yesterday, 21st January 2015, after a short illness.

Mum had been living quietly in Worcestershire over the last few years, before moving to Shropshire last year. She passed away peacefully yesterday afternoon at the Princess Royal Hospital, Telford.

Steven Lloyd-Gonzalez (Son)

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Pete Simpkin: ‘So sad to hear this news. Always enjoyed working with her and remember her reporting for my afternoon show which followed the Barmaids. She was a very individual and lively lady from a talented family. I remember her Dad recording a couple of programmes for me featuring his wartime memories. Outside of work my wife Pat and l would often meet up with her on holiday in Mid Wales where she had an ancient caravan which was her beloved escape from work. In fact we inherited her lovely van when she moved in to a newer one. Always remembered. RIP Mary.’

Sue Welch: ‘Such a friendly lady.’

Andrew Thorman: ‘I’m glad we are able to share such sad moments while remembering the good times.’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘Yes I worked with Mary and Malcolm Stent on Barmaids Arms and I am so sad to hear this. She was such a lovely lady and a delight to work with. Oh yes Ann I remember you and Ivor getting together! I loved working on the series and the Producer was John Clarke.’

Viv Ellis: ‘Sad indeed, “The Barmaid’s” was on immediately after my show they were both such fun to work with.’

Steve Woodhall: ‘Very sad news. I fondly remember the show, the banter, the pub fx (obviously live!) & the sig tune (Malt & Barley Blues), etc. RIP Mary.’

Maggy Whitehouse: ‘Aw … well I’m sure there are quite enough lovely watering places in heaven which need someone like Mary. I remember her well from my time at WM. Never heard a bad word spoken about her. Ah yes, Steve, the live fx! Would that we actually could have popped in for half an hour on our lunch breaks…’

Ann Gumbley-Williams: ‘Such sad news. Ivor and I first got together on the Barmaids Arms when it was being recorded in Studio A. The rest is history. Such a lovely lively lady.’

Gill Thompson: ‘I worked with Mary when I first joined the BBC, she was a lovely lady, such sad news.’

Andy Bentley: ‘Remember Mary well always up for a laugh.’

Ed Billington: ‘Sad news she was always happy’

Carole Lowe: ‘Sad news remember the show well it was great condolences to her family’

Lorraine Randell: ‘So very sad…I worked with Malc and “Rosie” in the 1980s…she was great to work with..I have many fond memories of those days.’

Belinda Essex: ‘Ah that’s really sad. She used to look after the audience for Daytime Live when Malcolm was the warm up guy.’

Stephen Lloyd-Gonzalez: ‘I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all most sincerely for your kind comments about my mother, Mary ‘Rosie’ Kendall. I know that she would have been genuinely surprised to see that she was still remembered so fondly and by so many. Your comments have fuelled my already immense pride in my Mum, so my deep thanks to you all for that.
I recognise many of your names and faces, from my time as a grubby teenager hanging around the lengthy corridors of Pebble Mill. Happy days indeed!
My very best wishes to you all and thanks again.’

Terry Lindfield

I have been asked to pass on the news from Steve McLaughlin, via John Birkill, that Terry Lindfield sadly passed away last week from pneumonia. He will be sorely missed with that infectious laugh that used to ring out down the corridors of Pebble Mill.
John confirmed that he was the Project manager, in the mid 1980s, at Pebble Mill for the transition from Quad to 1″.
The photo above was taken in 1985 when he was a guest at my wedding to Ivor. Terry is second from right. (To avoid the quiz the others are from R-L Gail Herbert, Patricia Mifflin, Terry and Brian Watkiss).

He was quite a character that made his mark on Pebble Mill even though he was there for a short time along with Norman Hicks from London Special Projects Installation Dept.

Annie Gumbley-Williams

Bev Dartnall’s Memorial – 17th June

Photo by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission

(I’ve received the message below about Bev Dartnall’s Memorial Services, from Annie Gumbley-Williams)

As most of you will know that the lovely Beverley Dartnall passed away on 17th February this year and her funeral was in Majorca. Her close friends are keen to have some form of celebration of Bev’s life. The details, via Sarah Costigan, are as follows:

The celebration of Beverley Dartnall’s life will be held on TUESDAY 17th JUNE at:

Cartland Suite
Kings Heath Cricket and Sports Club
247 Alcester Road South
Kings Heath
Birmingham B14 6DT
0121 444 1913

Can those who would like attend please arrive at 2.15 and the proceedings will start at 2.30. This is a celebration so no need for funeral dress. Please feel free to come in as colourful, smart casual clothes as you would like.

Anne Gumbley-Williams

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Page:

Jane Green: ‘I love this photo of Bev. I only knew her a little from when I was AFM on the odd drama, but she always made people smile, and was one of the great Pebble Mill characters. ‘

Janet Collins: ‘I worked with lovely Bev in the Planning Office at Pebble Mill, before she moved on to bigger things. I will certainly be attending the celebration of her life.’

Kay Alexander leaves BBC Birmingham

‘Midlands Today’ presenter, Kay Alexander, retires today from BBC Birmingham after nearly 40 years. She began working for the BBC in 1974, and yesterday she presented her last bulletin, at lunch time. Besides from ‘Midlands Today’ she has presented ‘Best in Brass’, ‘Children in Need’ for the Midlands region, ‘Miss Great Britain’, and ‘Life File’. Although originally from Surrey, she became an adoptive Brummy after studying English at Birmingham University.

The photo dates from 1977, it includes the regional news presenters, left to right: Guy Thomas, Kay Alexander,Peter Windows, David Stevens, (back row) Michael Hancock,Tom Coyne. Thanks to Annie Gumbley for making the photo available.

The following comments are just some of those left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:

Ruth Kiosses: ‘Ahhhhh end of an era! Such a lovely lady with such a beautiful and distinctive voice.’

Julie Mayer: ‘All good things must come to an end, but they are shoes that will be hard to fill. Lovely lady and great friend.’

Pam Relton: ‘I always think Kay must have a portrait in the attic – she looks so lovely. Really is the end of an era. All the best Kay.’

Ros Gower: ‘A true lady and an enormous pleasure to work with. Happy retirement Kay.’

David Crozier: ‘I remember Kay as a warm, intelligent and immensely professional person. Happy days, Kay!’

Fiona Barton: ‘Happy retirement, Kay. Was so lovely to catch up with her and Brian earlier in the year. What a fab couple, so much fun…they didn’t look a day older than when I left Pebble Mill more than 20 years ago!’

Steve Peacock: ‘Fare well Kay and enjoy the next phase’

Dawn Trotman: ‘Always a joy to work with and a consumate professional. Glad to know I am also leaving the BBC in the same week as such a glamourous lady. Enjoy your retirement Kayx’

David Stevens, Midlands Today and the self opt

This blog is made up from comments from various contributors on the Pebble Mill Facebook page.

‘David was one of a team of Announcers who in the 70s became both TV and Radio broadcasters reading the radio and TV bulletins and also operating the local TV continuity desks. For a glorious time in the 70s all the Regions had one of these self operated desks, originally placed in the news studios but eventually in their own little cubby hole but using a studio camera wheeled into place after the regional news programme had finished. They shadowed the London announcers doing their own sound and vision mixing ……in vision…… and could call up captions, slides and even telecine. So the entire evening looked as if it were coming from Pebble Mill. The team consisted of David, Guy Thomas and others and seemed to be a great success.’ (Pete Simpkin)

‘David was always a delight to work with. Many years ago when BBC 1 closed down at the end of the day’s broadcast the Regions would opt out to say goodnight. David was famous for these opt outs and would often show photos from local photographic clubs. One time this opt out carried on after the other had Regions had closed down. The transmitters had a system called RBS. If the line feed failed, the RBS would rebroadcast an off signal, signal from the nearest transmitter. This resulted in all the transmitters switching back on and broadcasting David across the UK!’ (Peter Poole)

‘On the subject of RBS, assuming the tx’s of that era weren’t still being shut off manually at the end of the day (it’s quite possible that the main stations were still manned during operational hours in those days). It would likely be that only stations north of Sutton would carry this extended programme, as the RBS system was designed to work from London outwards it would be unlikely that any transmitters south of Birmingham would’ve stayed on as they would be RBSing from sites in the south, which would likely to have been fed from different regions. The network was strictly one way, a fully meshed configuration would have been a nightmare.’ (Andy Marriott)

‘As an engineer in the Communications Centre on the late shift, I would see David come in around 23:30 and load all his slides from local photographers into the slide scanner for his closedown news bulletin. Depending on how many slides he loaded determined how late we would have to stay!

We would do checks with him from the self op desk to make sure his mic and camera were working ok and then ‘opt him in’ (that is, change the route of BBC 1 Network (from London) from going directly to the transmitters to going via his self opt desk so that when he was cued via Network t/b, he could switch his own output to the transmitters instead of that from London Network)….sometimes there were a lot of slides!
When he had finished, we could put the Network feed back to the transmitters and go home.’ (Brian Johnson)

Contributions from Peter Poole, Pete Simpkin, Andy Marriott and Brian Johnson, and photo supplied by Annie Gumbley Williams