Very British! Memorable Images 51 : “Free Trips for Nignogs”

Text about children’s clubs

Letter from Bradford-based SterlingTimes visitor. If you have any NigNog memories, please email:

“Nignogs – also the same name as a children’s club run by the Bradford Telegraph and Argus in the 1930s – I’m sure of this cos I was Nignog No.2096 (all for sixpence). The club was extremely popular and ran swimming and cycling sections, competitions, and an almost -professional Nignog Revue at the Bradford Alhambra – Ernie Wise (then Ernest Wiseman) was one of the young much-admired ‘stars’.”

Free Trips for NigNogs

“The principal prizes in a big new competition are free trips to Liverpool to visit the White Star Liner “Doric” in the largest dock in the world.

How Many things in this picture begin with the Letter B?

Count them and watch the Nignog page in the Evening Despatch for more similar pictures.

Read the particulars of the competition and then try to be one of the luck NigNogs who will be conducted on this special trip.”

The White Star Line had two “Doric”s, the first sailed between 1883 and 1911 ; the second between 1923 and 1935 (last voyage 9 November 1935) .

This was almost certainly from the Birmingham Evening Despatch.

The Tufty Club (1961)

Road Safety. British children were taught the rudiments of road safety by learning the Kerb Drill through the Tufty Club. Tufty was a squirrel with a large bushy tail who starred in stories that always involved big main roads and fast cars that always manage to narrowly miss mowing Tufty down. Kids were given membership to the Tufty Club; there was a Tufty Club song and the kids were given coveted Tufty Club membership badges and child friendly colouring books re-inforcing the safety message.

The League of Ovaltineys  (1935)

The Ovaltiney Club, founded in 1935 and broadcasting from Radio Luxembourg every Sunday evening from 5.30 to 6 p.m. became a secret society for children, with its own badges, rule books, and inside codes: by 1939 it had five million members. The programme’s signature tune, ‘We are the Ovaltineys’ .

Tingha and Tucker Club  (1960s)

The club itself attracted about 750,000 members until the Post Office and ATV couldn’t cope with the volume of mail and had to close it. Thousands of children attended meetings of the club, where the secret sign would be exchanged, more at  Watched it.