Mike studied Politics and graduated from Lancaster in 1968.
From 64 – 67 the University was based in a converted warehouse and church in Lancaster. There were only 2 colleges then – Bowland and Lonsdale – with Cartmel and County added in 67 – 68 when the Bailrigg site opened.
Around 80% of all students lived in Morecambe since there was available off season accommodation and there were no Halls of Residence until the first one opened in 1969 (I think !). In 65 – 66 there were only circa 800 students so you tended to know most of them if only by sight. Most of the social life centered around Morecambe at that time and we were generally regarded as a ‘mysterious and strange species by most of the locals’. We sometimes used to go to Morecambe Pier on Friday nights to see touring 60’s bands like The Searchers, Swinging Blue Jeans etc and one of the main objectives was to circumvent the ‘punch ups’ that invariably occurred amongst the locals around midnight.
Quite a few of us managed to run cars, even if they were old bangers, so we also used to go up to the lakes at weekends and a popular pub was the Red Well which was in the countryside somewhere near Carnforth. However the main pub was the Shakespeare (long since demolished) which was located between the Library (warehouse) and the lecture theatre (church hall) in Lancaster and run by a wiry little Irishman, who I still remember collapsing on me in tears one lunchtime when the news came of Bobby Kennedy’s assassination. 3 course ‘business lunches’ in the local Chinese restaurants were popular. They cost 3s. 9d. (19p) in those days and always consisted of Cornflower soup (coloured red to be tomato, green to be pea or unadulterated to be chicken – whatever colour they always tasted the same), Curry (they often used local cats we subsequently discovered when they were prosecuted by the Police for catnapping or whatever the charges were) and Suet Pudding (with a thin spread of different colours so they could call it apple tart or jam tart etc). Certainly not at all nutritious but very filling !
The student body was fairly cosmopolitan since Admissions focused upon character more than academic factors in their policy at that stage, as they wanted the early intake to establish the student community and all of the student events, societies and organisations. Consequently the student body as a whole was not overwhelmingly leftist like most other Universities at that time and was more representative of the whole spectrum. We did have anti-Vietnam demonstrations etc but they were more muted and never violent as in some other Universities. We also had a number of ‘draft dodgers’ from the US, some of whom used to attend lectures and live with the student community. There was no major drug scene at the University during this period although quite a few people experimented with dope (cannabis). There was a lot of gambling, mainly cards (Poker and Brag) both in the JCR (against the rules) and in the pub or at peoples flats – which often went on all night. I knew one guy who lost his terms grant in the first week and had to work evenings in a pub to pay his rent ! (We were fortunate enough to have grants in those days and we didn’t have to pay tuition fees either- maximum grant was £110 per term and the average rent was circa £3 – £4 per week). Student Societies received a grant from the University to help fund them but had to be approved and they also needed to have a member of staff as Treasurer. I founded the Equestrian Society, with a token link to a local farm with horses, but which was really a cover to hire coaches to go to the Races at Catterick, York and Liverpool since I found a ‘compliant’ Lecturer who was happy to participate.
I was one of the Rag Week organisers in 1967 and apart from events in and around Lancaster we engineered two ‘operations’ in the south.
The first was cementing a Loo – with Lancaster University Rag Week painted on it (yes we were highly creative and original) by the fountains in Trafalgar Square (we did get a picture in one of the tabloids – The Daily Mirror, think).
The second was Sailing Half A boat Across the Channel to France. We found a boat builder in Iver, Bucks who had invented this ‘unsinkable’ dinghy made of some kind of glass fibre compound. He sawed one in half and put a clear glass perspex cover at the sawn off end to prevent the passengers from getting wet (the context of this stunt was Britain’s then abortive efforts to obtain membership of the European Common Market – De Gaulle kept saying ‘Non’). I won’t bore you with the various attempts but finally we managed a ‘set up’ with either the BBC or ITV news who filmed the launching of the boat off the south coast, with Gail Dixon (the current Rag week Queen….yes we did have such absurd things then) as the crew. The sea was rather choppy so it was purely a token event to create a light news story. It was shown as the last item on the TV News one Sunday as “And Finally Yet Another British Attempt To Get Into Europe That Failed” and it was presented as a 20 second jokey news item. Did it raise any money – I can’t remember – but we had some fun doing it. Another guy who did a Rag Week stunt on TV at that time was Chris Mountford. He was in the 64 intake and was one of the student characters. He was a tall, good looking guy, who always seemed to have plenty of money. He drove a Jag, was a real womaniser and was really into drama. He know someone who worked in make up at the ATV studios in Birmingham. At that time there was a popular ITV Chat Show hosted by an amiable Irishman named Eamonn Andrews. Chris got his friend to smuggle him onto the set towards the end of a show. He just walked on to the platform and coolly said “Hi Eamonn can I join you”. He was immediately grabbed off camera by security and thrown out. At the end of the show Eamonn Andrews asked if anyone knew who this intruder was but by then he had gone. However the incident got coverage in a couple of national newspapers the next day and the Producer contacted Chris and invited him to appear as Eamonn’s first official guest on the following weeks show, which he duly did. Again I can’t remember if we raised any money from this either. Chris went on to try and be an actor and got a bit part in “Oh What A Lovely War which was filmed in Brighton a year or two later.”