MISS CRIMDON 1960 was Sally Fleetham, Miss Wheatley Hill, who now lives in Peterlee, and a video of her great triumph has just been re-discovered.
She was 18, worked as a bank clerk in West Hartlepool, and her father, Alfred, was a deputy at Thornley Colliery – despite the Earl of Carlisle’s claims, there don’t seem to have been any Labour councillors in her family.
“She went to a dance with her boyfriend, Denis Johnson, on a Friday night at Wheatley Hill Miners’ Welfare,” recalls her sister, Katryne Luke, who still lives in the area. “She was quite a shy girl and reluctant to enter the competition but, after a bit of persuasion, she did join the other girls in the line and win the title.
READ MORE: THE FULL STORY OF THE MISS CRIMDON BEAUTY CONTEST
“As a seven-year-old, I was in bed that night, but I remember her boyfriend Denis shouting up the stairs to mam and dad that their daughter was Miss Wheatley Hill!
“I was on holiday at Butlins in Filey with our nana when the big day in August 1960 arrived. Nana was wishing she was there to see it, but the holiday had been paid for in advance, and we waited for the news next day in a telegram from mam – there was no landline phone access in those days, letalone a mobile.
Sally Fleetham, the Miss Wheatley Hill, is crowned Miss Crimdon 1960
“We went to collect the telegram and I remember nana shouting and crying, telling me that my beautiful sister was Miss Crimdon!
“We were thrilled and so proud.
Sally at the end of the 1960 Miss Crimdon video
“Sally was asked by the photographer Mr Craig to have some photos taken to be put on to calendars, which she did and they are beautiful.
“Sally married Denis on September 1, 1962, and they have lived in Peterlee for most of their married life – it will be their 60th wedding anniversary this year. They had four children and 10 grandchildren.
Winner Miss Wheatley with Manny Shinwell and his wife, Dinah, and the other winners: second was Kathleen Martindale, the 18-year-old Miss Wingate, and third was 15-year-old Miss Easington Colliery Margaret Jones
“It was so emotional to see the footage on the Wheatley Hill History Club site. It is a wonderful memory of what was then a huge occasion and one the whole family will always remember.”
the 1960 video is a remarkable piece of social history. Today the concept of beauty parades seems very dated, but the film shows how back then there was great pride and even prestige in being crowned Miss Crimdon.
There is a link to the channel from the group’s website, wheatley-hill.org.uk
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