A short introduction to the Northern School of Music's support for the Barnardo's Charity.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

A 10 letter page is humbled by being introduced as "inadequate". All plans to do with planning for Geoffrey's involvement in the war. HIs father doesn't want to stay in the house if Geoffrey gets called up - since Geoffrey's mother died, he doesn't want to be alone.
Geoffrey similarly thinks it's too soon after his mother's death to think of marriage, "I would not really be happy until a few weeks have rolled by, despite the risk of call-up, which has reduced for the moment, after all."
He talks of their plans to move in together, of getting their own place and of being together. This takes many more years to become a reality due to the refusal of Ida Carroll's father to bless their union.
However, despite not being married, he has changed his will to give all of his estate to her, just in case the war takes him.

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

"There is a faintly sinister note to the opera adverts - programme subject to attention. If they change Tuesday or Thursday I shall roar the place down." But! Due to a hefty tip from a priest that Geoffrey Griffiths helped to get on a plane to Dublin for a wedding, the second opera is on him. "So Catholic money will pay for Il Nozze di Figaro."

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

There are very precise measurements of time and distance given by Ida Carroll's favourite "transport nerd" here and it's kind of adorable.
Geoffrey Griffiths confesses that when changing his train tickets, "the station master was inadvertently allowed to see your photograph - the lucky man" and wonders if he keeps a picture of "Mrs Station Master and his "repulsively attractive little daughter" he sees sometimes.
His parents should be able to receive a portion of his war wages.
He rhapsodises about the walks they spend together and how much he thinks of her.

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

We're missing a couple of pages of this letter but it's interesting to note that Geoffrey Griffiths, working in a travel agents, is concerned about the capacity to keep business open. He was going to set up another business with a friend of his but wonders whether there will be any business to be had by the time the war is done.

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Hoping that he left at a decent time, to avoid the judgemental ears of Ida's father, Geoffrey Griffiths explains how hard it is to leave her.

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Geoffrey Griffiths has nearly a week until he can see Ida Carroll again and he is already missing her.

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

It's been a clumsy few days for Geoffrey Griffiths. He nearly missed his bus, dropped money, walked into a gate and took 3 wrong turns on the way home.
Whilst Ida Carroll has admitted to enjoying being spoiled, "if you are being spoiled, it is my tribute to charm and beauty."
He's been practicing with Boris - the piano? - and has the aches to prove it.

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Geoffrey's got himself in a bit of a pickle and recounts the "bleakest Monday of my life." He's sold an air ticket to someone without a passport and has no idea how to fix it in time. "I am sunk, there is going to be the most beastly row." He's so anxious about this and the late shifts he has coming up that he confesses, "oh the cigarettes I've smoked today."

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Geoffrey Griffiths relays how he was trapped into conversation by a fellow Hallé concert goer on the 41 bus who talked loudly, "a distinct tenor" about the concert he'd seen. He went to a gathering of friends and they sat by the fire and listened to "more news bulletins than I thought possible" instead of playing cards.
Amusingly, he was asked by a Mrs. Lester if he ever sees her (Ida Carroll) and if so would he extend her an invitation to tea with her, with Griff welcome if he likes. Ha! He casually responded while staring nonchalantly out the vestry window that he occasionally spots Ida in at the Hallé. Their relationship was kept very close and out of sight for many, many years. Perhaps a mix of choosing privacy and to avoid the entangling grip of Ida's father's controlling habits.

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Geoffrey Griffith is carrying around no less than 8 of Ida Carroll's letters, as a comfort to him (although they present sharp edges in his jacket!). He doubts he'll be able to see her before he is sent away in the new year - possibly for war service/training - "it would be nice if you turned up at a camp, near or far, with that early morning cup of tea but I doubt if it's allowed." (I mean, probably, Griff).

Now, very interestingly he says he is working on Tuesday 24th, Christmas eve, at the travel agents. This is likely to be the Tuesday 24th which was one of the end of the Manchester Blitz - a sort of carpet bombing of the city. Hopefully the travel agents - in Ashton? - is unharmed. The Northern School of Music ended up with all its windows blown out. Anyway, he insists that she should visit him in Ashton since "he has nearly bought a tea pot."
He finishes, alluding to the controlling character of her famous father Walter Carroll, that "I hope you are reading this tonight and not when the postman (or your Father) permits it."

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

"Mr Hitler's bombs took their rightful back place" to playing bridge with Ida Carroll on Tuesday, writes Geoffrey Griffiths. He's determined to study Auction Bridge so that he can become a more formidable opponent. He does enjoy watching people play cards on the train, "often fulfil the role of interested onlooker."
He prefers home bomb shelters to public ones as they tend to be "too public." At the moment he takes up position by the stairs as the ground outside is mainly clay and everything seems wet and cold.
"I suppose that ignorant cad Hitler doesn't even realise just what a fantastic nuisance he is, visiting now at the time, now at that, depriving us of hours and hours together and again coming at entirely the wrong moment."

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

"The telephone is not a nice, cosy instrument but it does enable me to hear your voice in the wilderness of time," but Geoffrey Griffiths doesn't wish to disturb her at this hectic time. He asks her not to look for the book he previously requested since he things it's now out of print.
It's a busy day in the travel agency where he works with train times being jigged around other companies refunding customers.

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Geoffrey Griffiths wishes that he could have magic powers that would enable him to see Ida Carroll now, even while she sleeps, so that he doesn't have to wait 20 hours to see her. "But maybe awkward situations would occur if magic carpets and supernatural powers were not confined to romantic literature. Then if you were asleep I should want to waken you and you would promptly blacken my eyes".
Talking on the telephone reduces him to an "inarticulate state" so has to wait hours until he cam tell her how much he loves her.

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Geoffrey Griffiths is sympathetic to Ida Carroll as she now has to run the school almost singlehandedly since Miss Collens has taken ill (we know she had shingles at the beginning of the war which took her out for some months but later he indicates she's also been hit by a bike - not the best year for Hetty.)
They have even fewer hours in the week to connect with each other and he longs for an "equatorial island of peace" they could go to together.
He shares a dream he had, a sort of anxiety dream on her behalf, he calls it a nightmare since what else could it have been when he could have been dreaming of her.
Even though he can't be with her, "G.B.H." in letters is nearly enough to "make me swoon away."

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Geoffrey Griffiths frets over the "crushing nuisance" of anyone putting bombs near his beloved Ida Carroll. He admits that "it's probably as well I didn't know where they were - if I had, I should have thrown about ten fits." However it tickled him an old chap called Gill has had part of his roof damaged.
When the bombs landed near him "it made the usual row coming down and we all woke from forty winks and dived under the table! Optimism!"
Importantly, he's run out of library books (I sympathise - it's a terrible circumstance), and their time together is being hampered by a Mrs. A. who keeps falling down and needs help. "Even I dreamt about violence to er… 'old bean'."
In a post script he relates that shopping was a failure, that there were plenty of eggs but a queue "of at least 150 grim-looking ladies."

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Geoffrey Griffiths laments the 20 "enormous" hours until he can see Ida Carroll again. Their late night walks in South Manchester are a favoured way of spending time together but the war has made spending long hours together difficult.
He's played cards with his parents "the home front", and has played scales on Boris - the family piano perhaps?
He has enrolled in the Ashton Central Fire Watching Scheme and he begins "bomb spotting" soon - they have ladders, pumps, buckets and more but "no steel hats!"

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Geoffrey Griffiths complains of the cold to Ida Carroll but has found a way to keep warm: "food is the perfect excuse for sitting on or near the stove." He's currently at work in the travel agents and there is a small snow drift against the door and has been mistaken for a birdseed shop!

He invites her to the cinema on Palatine Rd to see 'Buck Benny Rides Again', "so it cannot be a good flick but we could go to sleep - in a horribly dignified way of course."

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

"My feet are well trained, darling one. Though the rest of me was bemused by your beauty, they took me home, though very unwillingly."

Geoffrey Griffiths sends a sweet note to Ida Carroll.

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Geoffrey Griffiths writes to Ida Carroll while at his work in the travel agents. She has recovered from an illness and is heading to Port Patrick for from sea air. He declares that whilst she was his "ideal" years ago, now he needs a word much stronger to describe what she means to him. "You help more than you know just by being your own sweet self."
He refers to joining up with the war effort - he may get better money for being in the W.R. (?) or the A.F.S. (Auxiliary Fire Service?)

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

It looks like an x-ray has revealed Ida's in good health "not forgetting your left kidney!" (for some reason!).
Nevertheless Geoffrey Griffiths still urges his sweetheart to take it easy, especially on Air Raid Warden duties.

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Being rudely awakened from a dream about Ida Carroll by his mother and a bowl of shaving water, Geoffrey Griffiths complains of a "fat head" from oversleeping.
Ida has some sort of illness or injury requiring bed rest and he praises her sister Elsa's attentiveness.

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Geoffrey Griffiths admits to being tired, even though he fell asleep in Fog Lane park that afternoon before meeting his sweetheart Ida Carroll. Trying to reason away her tiredness as well he guesses it is the "delayed spring and the extra hour, perhaps." It can't be helped by the "frequent raids a few nights ago." Air raids perhaps?
He arranges to visit her around his war work but it looks like he'll be kept busy with late night vigils, even admitting to "rolling off the seating" eventually at 4AM one shift.
She's planning to see John Gielgud (famous actor and kindred prolific letter writer) but insists that she take a friend as "policemen of all kinds are looked upon with disfavour - by me!" Anyone know what he means by that? Gielgud's war service was to entertain people, not in the forces?
Shout out the cameo mention of Paul the Pipe!

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

A letter over a couple of days here from Geoffrey Griffiths to Ida Carroll, making up for not writing the day before since Wednesday is usually his "literary" night. He is aware that he keeps her out all night, away from bed and bath on these cold nights, but doesn't know how he tears himself away from her. Perhaps it's will-power, "but here I am, chain-smoking, when you might say I ought to be well towards sleep, so that isn't will-power." He is always eager to be home after working or singing in the choirs, unless he has the chance to see her.
He talks about a dream she had that seems to have been very confusing for all! And he looks forward to a concert, even though she won't be accompanying him, saying he will enjoy "Casse-Noisette" (The Nutcracker) and that he will probably find Arthur Bliss interesting if not totally enjoyable. He had wished the Hallé would have programmed his favourite Respighi piece but alas they have not.
He's reading a good short story, a detective story, and allowing Madama Butterfly to "fly in one ear and out the other." Sounds very dramatic!

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.