Tyne Tees and Kennedy Caterers

[Happy Valley]

Despite having a good view of the city from Morley which probably included the studio, we couldn’t get Yorkshire Television and had to watch Tyne Tees instead. The early evening news and soaps were on at a different time to Yorkshire. Rumour has it that the town hall blocked the signal from Emley Moor, so depending on where you lived in Morley would decide which station you got, some might have even got both.

Morley based caterers Kennedy Caterers did the outside broadcasting and filming catering for Yorkshire Television, and had a large fleet of grey catering wagons parked in the carpark on coffin corner. I often wonder how many worked for them had to watch Tyne Tees instead of Yorkshire when they got home.

Not really sure what happened to Kennedy’s as they closed after I left Morley. I just remember them being there one day, and next time I visited Morley they had gone and the carpark was empty.

Leodis suggests that Kennedy’s may have traded premises with Bink’s chapel of rest down by Morley Waste Traders, but I can’t find any pictures online of the old fleet of wagons all backed up to the wall that I remember. I keep hoping one will pop up on Leeds back in the day page on faceache.

Morley can’t have been unique and I expect the problem is fixed now with the switchover to digital etc, but I’m curious where else is in Leeds couldn’t get Yorkshire Television and had to watch Tyne Tees instead?

[j.c.d.]

I lived in The Allenby's in Beeston in the mid 1960s and we got Y.T. Television O.K. but opposite side of the Drive they could only get Tyne Tees on their box.. as one of them was an electrician employed by the council he was especially annoyed and spent a lot of time on his roof twiddling his aerial

As for Kennedy's I do recall they had lots and lots of catering vehicles parked just off Wide Lane but as I sold my business in Morley I lost touch with them.

[liits]

My brother's in-laws lived in the Gravleythorpe's, up towards Whitkirk and they could get both YTV and TTTV. Didn't the YEP list both stations in the TV guide - this was when it was in two parts with the Evening Post Second Section having the listings on the front followed by the jobs and then for sale / wanted ads and the back page the hatch, match & dispatch.

[TABBYCAT]

I used to repair/service the generators they used on location in the early 90's. the pride of their fleet at that time was a 5kva Honda water cooled silent set that we fitted an extended silencer to so it could be run from inside the van, we also converted a few of the smaller sets to run on propane.
I can't remember off hand the first name of the Kennedy family member I dealt with except he was, as they say, a big lad and an absolute gent to do business with. I did read of his passing some time ago so maybe that's why the business called it a day?

As for TV I lived in Hill Street just off Beeston Road and for a time we couldn't get Yorkshire TV until a repeater station was built somewhere or other so we switched to British Relay cable TV.

[j.c.d.]

I used to repair/service the generators they used on location in the early 90's. the pride of their fleet at that time was a 5kva Honda water cooled silent set that we fitted an extended silencer to so it could be run from inside the van.

As for TV I lived in Hill Street just off Beeston Road and for a time we couldn't get Yorkshire TV until a repeater station was built somewhere or other so we switched to british Relay cable TV.

Your mention of British Relay reminds me that when I got married in 1960 I lived in a terrace house in Burlington Place, Leeds 11 and though we had no problems with the T.V. shortly after we had moved in I got cheque in the post from B. Relay for a 1/-.
This was for the cable running under the eaves of our house. when I told them I wanted £1. their Manager laughed so I told him if I did not get a payment of a £1 immediately I would cut the cable . he stopped laughing and I had a cheque with a few days.

[uncle mick]

I don't know if Brian Kennedy was from the same family but he was an English table tennis player from Morley in the 1950's. He owned the IOTTA cafe (I owe table tennis all) on Bridge End

https://flic.kr/p/beZtFX

IOTTA.png (517.71 KiB) Viewed 2577 times

[j.c.d.]

[quote="uncle mick"]I don't know if Brian Kennedy was from the same family but he was an English table tennis player from Morley in the 1950's. He owned the IOTTA cafe (I owe table tennis all) on Bridge End




Great Picture, Brings back memories of the sports shop just before the bridge on the right hand side, Wainrights I think, that was where we Junior (Mt. St. Mary's) football team bought our first ever new kit. prior to that we had always had the Senior teams cast off which were worn and much too big. In later years I worked in Concordia St. so used to jump off of the Bus at that junction to avoid being taken up to Dysons. Briggate

[Happy Valley]

I’d heard stories about one side of the street getting a different channel to the other side from my dad when we were talking about it over the years. There was rarely any news about Leeds on Tyne Tees and the only good thing about it was that when we went up to Whitley Bay on holiday a few years ago was that I could understand the local accent and phrases, and I could translate Geordie to my puzzled family quite easily. I believe the old Tyne Tees studios have been demolished now.

We always got the papers and TV and Radio Times delivered from Porter’s Newsagent so I never took any notice of the TV guide in the Morley newspapers. It makes sense though that they would list both channels though. It seems utter madness now that in a city the size of Leeds that it was pot luck if you could get the local TV channel or not. I thought it was likely a problem not confined to Morley but I couldn’t find any threads discussing it when I checked search on the old forum.

The rumour about the town hall blocking the signal from Emley Moor probably has some truth to it then if the signal was so poor in Leeds. I’ve heard the stories about the baby boom around 9 months after Emley Moor mast was destroyed by ice - perhaps it had something to do with the relay station you mention being built.

I have never heard of British Relay Cable before but I have looked it up now. I wrongly thought subscription cable TV was a new fangled 90s thing like the short lived BSB Squarial dish, funny what you learn about on here sometimes. We haven’t got cable where I live, but my mum has it 5 miles away. I think after doing Bradford, Yorkshire Cable run out of money to cable up the whole of Calderdale. We lived in West Vale for a short while in the early naughties and there wasn’t any cable and the big mill next door blocked the signal for a satellite dish to work. We couldn’t get channels 4 or 5 and wasn’t in a freeview postcode, it was just like growing up in the 70s again with a lot less stuff worth watching on the 3 fuzzy channels.

I didn’t know any of the Kennedy family I’m afraid so I have no idea if he was from the same family or not, but I would think it would make sense that he was and that maybe the catering business was a natural progression from the cafe. I just remember the trucks always been there on coffin corner as a child and seeing them come back from jobs on an evening. I couldn’t really find much out about them or the company history online they may well have done work for the BBC but I only remember seeing the name on the credits for some Yorkshire TV programmes. I seem to remember the wagons as Bedford TKs but it is a long time ago, they could have been anything really. With all the farms and food grown around Morley they probably were well placed for supplies at a good price from the local farmers.

Off Wide Lane sounds about right to me for Leodis being right then, I can imagine what the clean up job was like to get rid of the smell from the chapel of rest before it was ready to be used for catering and food storage. I’ve worked on driven and recovered quite a number of new, used and classic hearses over the years, and even with a dozen strong air fresheners inside the smell was still strong long after the last coffin was carried.

I hated having to drive them back over from Coleman Milne on a cold wet day when having the window open wasn’t an option and a flat bed recovery truck wasn’t available, they were just too long to spec back safely over the twisty moors, it was so much easier picking one up when Woodall Nicholson was still in the centre of Halifax before they bought rivals Colman’s out and shifted everything to Bolton. Colman Milne, Mellor Coachcraft and CM Specialist Vehicles divisions, is the result of that buy out today. The smell won’t bother me though next time I travel inside a hearse.

[TABBYCAT]

I don't know if Brian Kennedy was from the same family but he was an English table tennis player from Morley in the 1950's. He owned the IOTTA cafe (I owe table tennis all) on Bridge End

https://flic.kr/p/beZtFX

IOTTA.png

Well reminded Uncle Mick I'm almost sure it was Brian Kennedy I dealt with and this entry on company check seems to confirm.

https://companycheck.co.uk/company/0145 ... ecretaries

[j.c.d.]

[quote="Happy Valley"]I’d heard stories about one side of the street getting a different channel to the other side from my dad when we were talking about it over the years. There was rarely any news about Leeds on Tyne Tees and the only good thing about it was that when we went up to Whitley Bay on holiday a few years ago was that I could understand the local accent and phrases, and I could translate Geordie to my puzzled family quite easily. I believe the old Tyne Tees studios have been demolished now.

We always got the papers and TV and Radio Times delivered from Porter’s Newsagent so I never took any notice of the TV guide in the Morley newspapers. It makes sense though that they would list both channels though. It seems utter madness now that in a city the size of Leeds that it was pot luck if you could get the local TV channel or not. I thought it was likely a problem not confined to Morley but I couldn’t find any threads discussing it when I checked search on the old forum.

The rumour about the town hall blocking the signal from Emley Moor probably has some truth to it then if the signal was so poor in Leeds. I’ve heard the stories about the baby boom around 9 months after Emley Moor mast was destroyed by ice - perhaps it had something to do with the relay station you mention being built.

I have never heard of British Relay Cable before but I have looked it up now. I wrongly thought subscription cable TV was a new fangled 90s thing like the short lived BSB Squarial dish, funny what you learn about on here sometimes. We haven’t got cable where I live, but my mum has it 5 miles away. I think after doing Bradford, Yorkshire Cable run out of money to cable up the whole of Calderdale. We lived in West Vale for a short while in the early naughties and there wasn’t any cable and the big mill next door blocked the signal for a satellite dish to work. We couldn’t get channels 4 or 5 and wasn’t in a freeview postcode, it was just like growing up in the 70s again with a lot less stuff worth watching on the 3 fuzzy channels.


My mention of the cheque for a Shilling from British Relay was for their Radio rental as I seem to remember it had something printed to that effect on the Kite itself