Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths
Letter, 1939
Griff writes to Ida sympathising with her trouble shaking a cold, blaming it on all the hard work she does and concerts she attends in the cold winter.
He's not feeling up to snuff himself, "I had a jolly good sing on Tuesday but was in poor form generally and finished last in Rummy."
He reckons that "colds are better than certain other discomforts but they are quite bad enough."
He's double booked himself in February between wanting to go to a William Rees concert and cards with friends.

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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths
Letter, 1938
Griff writes to Ida thanking her for the wonderful piano accompaniment as he practiced his singing. He wasn't as nervous as he used to be with her, "in the old days I was apt to be reduced to a kind of sticky heat and fever, but it wasn't so pronounced last night."
He hopes she has enjoyed the play by Zola and still entertains the fantasy of writing one of their own. The "critics will come along in a big way and the public will then flock to see it and future success will then be assured. Quite easy, when you know how."

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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths
Letter, 1939
It is again New Year's Day 1939. This time, Griff writes to Ida describing his typewriter technique, the good old fashioned hunt-and-peck of one finger per hand, expecting those words he uses a lot, the speed of which "would take prizes in competition."
He describes in detail the ticket-issuing rigmarole at the travel office when the dates change.
He enjoyed the music on the radio, has been reading a play and relates the ranking of productions for 1938 as well as the astrologer Naylor's predictions and advice for the week.
He's reading Basil Dalton's Auction For Beginners and unsurprisingly, it won't help him much with his Rummy game.

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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths
Northern School Of Music (NSM)
Letter, 1939
It's New Year's Day 1939! Griff praises the New Year's Eve they spent together, attending the Watchnight Service at church.
He describes Parrs Wood Road on his way back home, with "sounds of revelry" from a violin and an enormous number of cars parked up - fifteen in total! "There were songsters on Kingsway and others who seem to have been looking upon the wine, or beer."
He arranges to meet her for cards with friends and urges her "you must wear the nice new frock. Wear it at sc[hoo]l and you will have the staff and pupils dotty with jealousy."
He declares "away with 1938, except for the more pleasant memories."
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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths
Letter, 1950
A belated, or early, Merry Christmas to you all from Griff.

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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths
Letter, 1940
Griff playfully sets out his rationale for taking them the long way home earlier. He says that he could easily have stopped, too, to be "leaning heavily on nearest wall, merely stood looking at you, one of the most pleasant occupations, but your feet might have become cold."
She mentioned his strength of will, and he notes that "I behave immediately like water, a thing without substance, like butter (in the summertime). It shows that you have only to look at me and I go funnier than you said I look."
He's not looking forward to his trip to Denton in the snow and tries to write to her on the bus there but to illegible effect.
He obsesses over the sleep she may or may not be having and organises their week ahead together.
A Mrs Myers "led me into a distinct trap!", possibly trying to get him to admit that he was involved with Ida after some sly questioning but their secret remains unspoken.

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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths, St James Church Choir at Birch-in-Rusholme
Northern School Of Music (NSM)
Letter, 1944
Griff writes to Ida, hopefully sarcastically when he says, "when it is fine I shall positively miss the rain."
He hopes she has enjoyed the performance of ballet dancer Karl Jooss, or possibly his ballet company.
He tells her that the choir has moved into a different room in Birch church which is smaller and cosier and "the sound bounces off the walls delightfully."
He discusses a book he's reading and local library options.
"A spot of moon" makes all the difference when walking about of an evening, especially as he's attempted to walk through walls at various times without it.
He obsesses over the radio for a bit, explaining that he has the tuning in different positions depending on the music he's listening to.
He played cards and enquires after her meal at the Midland Hotel - possibly for her birthday.
He hopes her birthday isn't being spoiled by being on a Friday and believes that "Friday isn't always the happiest day of the week at School!" He's glad she has aged with youthfulness and prettiness as he is "given to understand that day-old babies look about a hundred!"

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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths
Letter, 1939
Griff writes to Ida explaining that he popped in on friends who were celebrating a birthday and then got involved in another birthday celebration and now he's knackered. "I seem to be in the midst of birthdays!"
He relays a conversation he had with acquaintances about history and invites her to the cinema.

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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths
Letter, 1932
Griff wishes Ida happy birthday. I think this is early on in their meeting, possibly the early 1930s.
He hopes in her next birthday it "will be in time of peace - in the world, that is, for I am sure you are most peaceable at all times. Ten years ago I used to think the early thirties something very far distant, hardly to be thought about, and here they are quite tip top though there are blemishes in the world generally; man-made as usual." Could he mean the early forties? We may never know.

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 Hallé, Walter Carroll, Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths
Northern School Of Music (NSM)
Letter, 1939
Griff writes to Ida while she's away. He's been trying to listen to opera on the radio but can't catch hold of the frequency very well for Germany and France. He wanted to listen to Oxford Cathedral choir but they have all taken ill it seems. He understands that for cathedral choirs it is tempting to go full tilt on the jolly pieces but "I must confess a liking for the more 'precious' styles used, say, by our own Cathedral Choir at their weekday and Sunday afternoon Evensongs."
Work at the travel agents has been busy and he's barely had time to practice his vocal exercises.
He hopes that she is making good ground with the thirty-nine papers from the Matthay School of Music. Possibly student exam papers? "I think you have to do too much work for the School, in odd patches especially neat the term-end, but rush times seem to appear in most businesses."
While she's away he thinks he should send up a "serial story, to be send in bulk - and then thrown away on sight" as it is undoubtedly too selfish in nature. But if she were to write a little to him, it would be cherished.
"How do you like the new Hallé chief?" he asks - likely referring to Malcolm Sargent that steered the orchestra through most of WW2.
Businesses are failing, and he thinks it may be time to jump ship with the travel agents and start one of his own with a partner but the partner isn't ready and "I know pretty well your Father would advise against my parting with any money at the moment with so many crises about for one thing." Good advice given what's about to hit.

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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths
Letter, 1938
Griff relates to Ida some controversy with "the Baron" who needed to pass on a message to her but didn't want to do so himself, which has "left no doubt in my mind that he is no longer eager to write to pretty young ladies." He admits to his character being "as Artful as a Cart Load of Monkeys" but he won't say no to having the excuse to write to her himself to pass the message.
He hopes she will meet him for a walk. If she can't then he will take himself to the cricket. However access to the cricket is access to the club bar and it's best for him to stay away from such things if his reputation at choir practice the next day is to be upheld. So maybe she shouldn't tell him if she can't meet him so that by the time he realises she's not coming, it's too late to go to cricket. "So you see the temptations that surround a deceitful, cowardly, city-dweller like myself."

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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths, Hilda Collens
Northern School Of Music (NSM)
Letter, 1938
Griff writes to Ida, "time after time, last night being just another instance, I swear you are more sweet and charming than before." He weirdly compliments here with "altogether you're the most soothing-disturbing young woman I have met," especially when she can't meet him.
He wishes to see her more, "I am not greedy, but like a lot."
He's not sure what to do with himself between someone's death and playing cards with friends. Not sure what the right approach is.
He assures her to "never be afraid to introduce what you term 'shop' into your letters. I am enormously interested in such as School and Magazine happenings" especially as he comes to know people such as Miss Collens. He assures her that he loves to learn and read about music, even if a lot of it is "beyond me".
He admits to not "openly express the unbounded admiration I felt for your nice rounded arms and that very pretty frock. It is an unfortunate example of cowardice to say such things at a distance of about two miles, as the streets go, but there we are! Had better stop now, before I become positively indiscreet or even rude." Steady on, Griff.

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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths
Letter, 1937
Griff starts his letter to Ida with a punny "Water day" after being rained on all day. He's notated some music he heard on the radio and seems "to be losing the opera-on-a-big scale habit," thankful that it wasn't "a screeching soprano!"
He discusses a book on grammar and wonders if he can take her out later in the week.

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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths, Hamilton Harty
Letter, 1938
Griff updates Ida on local cricket outcome but came home early it seems and read instead. He's reading up about Thomas Beecham, Hamilton Harty, Malcolm Sargent and Henry Wood, in Bernard Shore's "The Orchestra Speaks" - Shore the violist, not the playwright. These passages in particular interest him "having met those gentlemen in the course of choir business. Shore describes them perfectly."
He writes about architecture in Liverpool and others.
He wonders "where did my reputation for greed come from?" and talks about preferences for food.
He was horrified to be told of his rude comments to Ida earlier but declares "have no recollection at all, so you must have invented them." Now now, Griff, that's called gaslighting.

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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths
Letter, 1938
Griff relays a dream to Ida in which they were walking in Wythenshawe/not Wythenshawe when she replaced his mum in the dream. A bit disorienting.
He relays the short adventure that his mum and aunt waylaid themselves with around south Manchester.
He details his thoughts on his evening's plans that were thrown out when he saw her unexpectedly turning a corner "so neatly and so prettily."
He writes about radio programmes and isn't all that confident in English singers' abilities in opera.
Ida may be too busy to see him much before October for concerts but he invites her to the cinema instead. He urges her to stay in Scotland as long as possible, "I am sure your friends would be disappointed by any earlier departure. If you return earlier, you will only be popping into School, out of turn, to see what work there is to be done."
He hopes to take advantage of the free passes train companies give out to travel agents.

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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths
Letter, 1939
Griff tells Ida that "my first instinct is always to go crashing up to you wherever you are, but that has to be suppressed, because sometimes it would be rude and at other times would probably invite comment that you might not care about," especially when acquaintances of theirs may see, for "I don't care two straws what anyone says about me, but you know an embarrassing number of people, and so I am sure you deserve a bit of privacy."
He jokes about his jealousy of policemen, "that bobby, masquerading in ordinary clothing, is happily married if that is any deterrent." And reassures her that "my remarks about the Dutch girls go for the Belgium girls as well. Not one in Antwerp or Brussels was prettier than you, or as pretty," and then draws her a map "not to scale" just to be sure.

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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths
Letter, 1938
I would have to pass on Griff's tripe and onions but wouldn't mind sharing his banana and custard. He writes to Ida obsessing slightly over some singing test he is training for. He is "conscious of making only about one error in the sight-reading test, 'Pentecost', but went off the rails a little in the 'Creator' extracts - not 'Gerontius' so altos are evidently having something different for the 'known' (supposedly!) piece. But I don't feel too bad about it all, and hope to receive favourable notice some time in August, The waiting is the worst part."
He writes about his visit to Paris which impressed him even though he was only there for an hour or two.
Possibly walking home from seeing her to her door for a date, Griff relays that "Kingsway at midnight was unique. Wouldn't miss it for anything, almost. The shadows were weird."

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.
Walter Carroll, Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths
Letter, 1939
Griff writes to Ida all a-flustered. It looks like he's torn in two on Saturday - the choir's picnic or the local footy - and in all of that not even half an hour with Ida. "Can't I discover a relation or other purely fictitious visitor, so that we (?) could go on the spree instead?"
Her father came into the travel agency where Griff works and "he looked frightfully well."

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 Hallé, Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths
Letter, 1938
Griff writes to Ida referencing their walk and his cold. He thinks himself a little delirious from it, "there are about eighteen commas so far, now nineteen, so I have probably gone al Osbert Sitwell." A poet/author/politician chap, possibly of long writing style?
He thinks he could have passed his cold on to her but "if germs do exits, I am not afraid of yours; they must be nice ones."
Her dad is ill and therefore he will have to visit the Night Club - cards with friends - alone, and that will put him in a miserable mood.
Admiring a chair of hers, he warns her to "beware, or I shall walk off with it under the large mac." I must admit to feeling that way about cute dogs occasionally but not furniture.
He discusses music options on the radio, staying he likes to listen to the 11pm concerto in the dark but sometimes falls asleep. He once wok at 2am and "even Frankfurt had closed down."
He warns her against slimming, "awful things happen to people when they start slimming, or when they have slimmed Some fade right away. I've read about them in the Sunday press." Oh well then.
She's written a long letter to him it seems and it's such a shame we don't know if these letters survived or where they even could be.
She deserves huge rewards for her work in music, like actors and athletes get, "because after all you have either easily or painfully acquired a sound knowledge of music but it has cost you something in money."
After a good lunch, "I feel ready to face the Hallé practice, all prepared to look at he music without doing much about it."
He apologises for running out of time to write on the last two pages.

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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths, St James Church Choir at Birch-in-Rusholme
Free Trade Hall
Letter, 1938
Griff writes to Ida about his journey home, "A woman entered the bus, sat down near me, and WHISTLED to a male companion that she had spotted, the vehicle being a bit overcrowded; there were about ten unfortunates at the Pars Wood Road stop who had to watch the bus tear by, I felt sorry for them."
They've been to see Robin Hood and he was almost inspired enough to join an amateur dramatics society. He discusses the merits of actor Claud Rains and others.
It sounds like there's trouble at Birch church. She has urged him not to let "general thought about apparent church and congregation inefficiency to warp me about the particular matter - the choir effort." Some members of the choir don't want to support the Whist Drive, holding that their work in the choir is supportive enough and resent the entry fee. Church management is getting in the way of team spirit.
He interprets her slippery mountain dream, not as anxieties about Manchester City's league struggles, but as either a hard achievement to be won or too much supper.
His catarrh medicine makes him "feel like a microbe" and he's running out of paper so that he may have to send her pages from the newspaper "with appropriate letters and words underlined."
He invites her to a concert by Paul Robeson, a bass singer like Griff, who had a cold the last time he saw him. In fact it was the time when Ida saw Griff "that season when you saw me at the Gigli concert, propped up in the corridor of the Free Trade Hall, also with a frightful cold."

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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths, Hilda Collens
Northern School Of Music (NSM)
Letter, 1938
Griff writes Ida a letter just to thank her for her own letter and company. He's sending the letter to her work place "in the lively hope that your respected Chief will open it by accident and receive such a shock that you will have to do her work for an hour or so as well as your own."
He compliments her dresses.

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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths
Northern School Of Music (NSM)
Letter, 1938
Griff says leaving Ida in the evenings sees him more of a "slow unwilling crawl" than a bold march. He doesn't care what she uses to wrote to him just as long as she does write.
As letters are "always a form of self-expression, so all those I receive from you are just Capitol" even if she was in an off mood when she wrote them.
He urges her to take care of herself, "despite the beastly doing at School" and assures that even if she says she is out of practice that she played piano for him splendidly," dash it all what is an odd wrong note or so of music between friends."
He will see her after the concert and hopes she doesn't mind Heddle Nash, "he has to wail away like anything, being a Soul in Purgatory, and so forth."
He signs off with "I like your pink jersey" and hopes he can take her out soon.

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.
Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths
Letter, 1938
Griff is on a break to the Isle of Wight. He is shocked to learn about a Mrs Gaudon's mental health struggles, reckoning that the huge upheaval that marriage can bring to a life could be the cause. "Life on the surface seems odd at times."
He discusses the merits of pens. His "late holidays have made me fairly used to nearly-empty lodgings" but that her "letter was a gleaming jewel in a wilderness of tinsel, a sparkling cup in an oasis of loneliness."
He details the island tour he has been on, including going past the Pankhurst Prison where "a convict waved cheerily enough at us."
He discusses the different church services, saying that if she was ever to go to All Saints "if you go, I warn you, you may be astonished at the service."
He's looking forward to a concert and hopes for an end of the row seat "for those dramatic late arrivals from church, where the eyes of thousands will be turned in disgust upon me."
He remarks on international politics. "There are obvious faults on both the German and Czech sides and either England nor Germany really want war. The Polish and Hungarian interventions are a nuisance and the U.S.S.R. is militant but I hope it will all blow over." Oh, Griff.

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 Hallé, Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths, St James Church Choir at Birch-in-Rusholme
Milton Hall
Letter, 1938
Griff writes to Ida telling her that his favourite pipe has choked up and it ruined a good smoke. After a little sexism and racism he is reminded to read J.M. Barrie's 'My Lady Nicotine'.
He confesses a crush on a bunch of film star blondes, of which most are brunettes, but not to worry as none of them go to Birch Church where he sings so it's safe.
He hopes never to criticise anything she wears/does/says "to one of your excellent taste this would indeed be a very grave breach and deserving of the most severe censure to myself; lipstick of unnatural hue or green fingernails would I am sure in most cases be my only charge, and in your case the possibility dos not exist at all."
He thinks "the things I am capable of leaving unsaid and unwritten would fill a large (fat) volume or volumes," especially when she is modest about herself.
He encourages her to have lunch in Blackpool instead of going straight to Manchester "far better to seek healthful recreation whilst the weather is good."
He hopes to see her outside the Milton Hall for a concert.
He thinks of leaving the Hallé to get a little break "and saying hang to the Society's free tickets, then I shouldn't have arguments with me ticket partner; he is a bit cunning and knows a good concert when he sees one."

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.