Martial Arts and Weight Training in The 1950s

I hope I’m not being too impertinent, but I thought I’d use this site to sneak in a few tales from another world. A world not of martial arts but just as crazy… the world of bodybuilding which, in many ways, parallels the strange world of the martial artist.

Both worlds seem to bring out the most dedicated, and sometimes the nicest people you could wish to meet. However, to balance things out, both worlds also have more than their fair share of the odious, the idiotic, and the simply strange.

Because of this, a little more background about me as a little extra information won’t go amiss.

I was involved in the bodybuilding world for nearly as long as the martial arts. Though I hasten to add, before someone remarks at the very obvious lack of competitive development in my physique (I’m no Mr Universe), not as a competitor but as an official.

So, first, just a little on my double developments in the worlds of the martial and the muscle.

I was born in 1948, in a small Coal Mining & Steel town, in what was then known as the West Riding of Yorkshire, but is now South Yorkshire.

I was transported across the Pennines by my parents in the early 1950s to reside in the Cotton Mill town of Heywood. This was just a couple of miles north of Manchester and part of the borough of Rochdale.

It was here in 1959, after passing the now defunct ‘Eleven Plus’ exam that I found myself in the dark portals of the long gone school, ‘The Heywood Grammar School’.

There I was amidst the atmosphere of the strict discipline of a 1950s grammar school. Run very much on the lines of the schools you see in the old black & white British movies of the same era.

In this atmosphere of school ties, peaked caps, loyalty to house, etc. I was introduced both Western boxing and wrestling. I ended up on the school team for both events.

However, on leaving school in 1964, the facilities for combat training were now denied to ex-pupils and no longer existed for me.

Not able to locate any wrestling or boxing clubs locally, I turned my face away from the west to the east… I found Judo, and then Ju-Jitsu (and others) which, in turn, put me onto this path I am still walking.

Just before leaving school, however, I was developing what could be termed as a degree of wrestling skill.

There’s an old Lancashire saying, “Tha’s nowt bar a bloody treacle bender…”

Which in turn translates to being someone who’s puny and weak? Which was a pretty fair description of the then 15 years old David Turton.
My school report showed that at that time I was 5ft 4 inches tall (or short, depending upon your view point), and tipped the scales at a massive 8 stones and 10 pounds (122 pounds or just over 55kgs). With my red hair I looked like an un-struck match.

Anyway, our wrestling (and overall sports) teacher, Mr Fenton, suggested some weight training might balance me out a bit. In this respect he was well ahead of his time as weights were still frowned upon in ‘athletic’ circles.

So, I enrolled at ‘The Heywood Barbell Club’ in 1963.

These types of premises, once the backbone of the physical culture world, are now no more. Run by enthusiastic amateurs who weren’t in it for any financial rewards, often even losing a bit of cash in the bargain… paying the rent out of their own pockets, etc.

They have lost much of their ‘rustic’ charm and have been replaced by the ‘Chrome & Carpet’ places, usually run by teenagers in T-shirts and shorts, well meaning but often little more than sales people.

Obviously, these newer premises are better equipped, etc. but, to me, something has been lost. Maybe I’m just living in the past.

The Heywood Barbell Club was situated just under the Heywood Brass Band’s premises. There was no heating and no changing rooms… just a largish brick-walled room full of barbells, benches weights and sundry apparatus, often just scattered about.

It was run by a great guy by the name of Ken Ollerenshaw (his real name). Ken was a typical product of the ‘Physical Culture/Weights’ scene of the 1950s. These people were much less specialists than they are now. They wouldn’t class themselves as bodybuilders or weight lifters, but ‘physical culturists’.

They indulged in many aspects, such as weight lifting, muscle building, hand balancing, wrestling, etc. entering competitions for Physique, Lifting, etc. Quite a mixture, but they were all well developed, healthy and fit.

Ken was one of these. A decent wrestler, lifter and hand balancer, he was a pretty strong and well built guy. I had three very happy years at the club before the council classed the building as derelict and had it pulled down.

I started there at 5 ft 4 inches, around 55kgs, with 10 inch arms and 36 inch chest. My best bench press was 27kgs for 5 repetitions.

When the club closed I was 5ft 7 inch, weighed 82kgs, with a 45 inch chest and 15 inch arms. And I could use 90kgs in the bench press. Not much to write home about, but not bad. A big improvement… and without drugs.

In fact, our only extra was ice cream powder from the ‘Granellis’, a local ice cream man who sold it to us in big bags. We used to mix it with very ripe bananas, full fat milk and honey, blend the lot together and keep it in a jug in the fridge to drink throughout the day.

It could fatten a corpse.

Dave Turton’s Unarmed and Dangerous