Griff tells Ida of his trip to rainy Southport, with a troupe of friends - likely the Birch choir. They've been on the bumper cars, bowling, house of mirrors and more.
He relays that a lady in Birch choir is off to join the Hallé and then another is leaving for a job at University of Reading.
He loves travelling towards Didsbury as it means he's heading her way, but struggles with the opposite.
Regarding Birch church, he's "been rather exasperated at times lately. The Rector can be very irritating; he is guilty of indiscretions from the pulpit and in ordinary conversation, but he can be so disarming at times. I wonder sometimes whether his war injuries had anything to do with it."
He'll hopefully see her at a concert.

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.

In this letter to Ida, Griff tells Ida he'd missed the tram by just a few seconds. He admits he used to enjoy dressing up for the Hallé but that the pleasure's waned recently. He thinks there's a psychological influence in dressing up, "I can always sing better at concerts than at practice".
He tells her that "show me the man who had been rude to you, and I will speak very harshly to him; show me the woman and I will run (away), covering the first 440 yards in 47 seconds, nearly."
He's got decorators in, although all his suggestions have been ignored. He thinks they could do things themselves but his dad's too tired and he's too busy.
He talks about playing music, singing, "in choir I try to blend with the next man, if has less voice than I, then I use less, and so on, but I am not used to crack accompaniments for solo voice."
He's still practicing in the travel office, but fears he's over-practiced.

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.

Griff's logic about the jigsaw puzzle gift is as follows, "you eat until you are fit only for forty winks and, if you awake in adequate time before the next meal, too heavy to walk, you play with the jigsaw." He promises a more personal gift next time.
He's enjoyed singing in the choir. His middle age is approaching meaning he can usually only manage one helping of dinner and a puff on the pipe, instead of two helpings.
He wishes her a Merry Christmas.

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.

Griff writes to Ida, thrilled about the journey to Wales in a private, fast car. It does make him curious about a bash into a wall on "a Certain Corner" off Birchfields Road...
He's currently based at Huddersfield travel office doing the accounts and helping out, and knows she's very busy at the Matthay all through to the summer.
He's been catching up on radio concerts.

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.

Griff returns some programmes to Ida before they get covered in his pipe ash, "with the reaffirmation that the concert was enjoyed by all." He's had a quick supper, is collecting old clothes and copies out a poem by AA Milne.

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 were on the edge of a real blackout plus fog this evening," that was so thick it stopped traffic, Griff tells Ida. If they ever plan a date on a night like this he orders Ida to cancel and go to bed instead.
While cinema visits aren't perfect he admits, they are very good for providing a break from being with family. "I enjoy flicks but we shall soon have to see if the Rusholme is still standing."
Their friend Tommy is off to war and probably won't be able to tell them where is posted but Griff reckons Egypt or India.
Anyway, he's off to sleep so he can stay awake for the Hallé.

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.

Griff tells Ida he's played whist, conquered the edges of a jigsaw and still has time to write a letter to her.
Re the war, a friend is "doing some work in connection with the care of dependents of French reserves called up in England."
He enjoyed the concert they attended (but not together I think?). He reckons the fortissimo (the very loud bits) at the Paramount theatre "hardly stand up to the standard of those in the Free Trade Hall". The brass wasn't muffled though, and Ida's favourite instrument the double bass was quite good.
There was a leftover bad under his seat the whole time though and he kept standing on it. While it was too flat for a gas mask, he thinks it was left from an earlier concert goer. (The whole building would have been evacuated today but he just kept kicking it aside.)
He's visited friends and promises to practice his singing voice at work when it's quiet. He wonders if she will go on a date with him on Saturday.

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.

Griff writes to Ida that he's been catching up with his friends, including visiting her dad Walter. He stayed so long that he'd missed his train. He's going on holiday but no idea where he's planning on staying. He thinks the Old New Inn in Burton-on-Water which "seems oddly named but it was 'New' in 1718, so is now 'Old' as well."
After chatting books, he chats war. There's a letter from the Town Hall and "another from the National Council of Social Service, whatever that may be! So I may be involved in something soon." He's worried he may end up on the Western Front, "which is a very bad place to be in at present, with the Siegfried Lines unbroken. Our united armies aren't half catching it there."
He doesn't ruin the cinema or the football, "with its many and varied moves seems a thing of the past. The suspension of the Hallé in unkind and I hope that can be resumed in some form, even if there isn't a choir though I did enjoy that." He has books and friends, and needs nothing more.

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.

Griff writes to Ida, "if I had the backbone of a self-respecting sardine I should have sat down on Moseley Rd, Fall., Manchester, M14 and howled until you consented to continue by bus. It would have meant a most unhappy curtailment of a very pleasant walk (for me) but you would have been much more dry." However it meant that "the raindrops gleamed on your pretty little face in a fascinating way."
Birch Church choir has hone down in some esteem, he reports, but he doesn't know if he could leave it wholly.
She has said that "there aren't any men with shaky nerves, but don't you believe it. Why, for one thing I do think, from my own simple observation of life, that women on the whole stand physical pain far better than most men. or they do so more silently." Abso-bloody-lutely.
He's trying to convince his parents to take a holiday but they won't go anywhere.

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.

Griff writes to Ida apologises for keeping her out so late but he "so enjoyed every minute (and there was two hundred and seventy of them!) and find all partings most agonising."
He's had only a few hours sleep but would still like to meet her for a star-gazing walk. He'd like to borrow an astronomy book from the library to do a proper tour of the stars.
He details the journey on buses home, absolutely packed and wonders if he "could be allowed to go home another way, so as to make more room for those who may have to go longer distances."
He walks her through modern radio sets.

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.

Unsurprisingly, it rained and Griff got wet.
He wants to take Ida out to the cinema.
Feeling the need to clear up some grammar he states that practice is a noun and practise is a verb. A lesson we will all forget the second the read it.
He says the only soprano he would ever be interested in would be her, if she was a soprano, and no others interest 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.

Griff tells Ida in a sort of dazed wonder that he managed eleven hours sleep the night before, and is now Wide Awake.
He'd met up with friends and had a jolly time with their radio but kept mucking up getting transport home and had to walk, "so was truly thankful for a fine night and a nice moon."
He offers to sit with her radio and figure out where all the stations that she likes are, drawing up a proper log for her so she doesn't have to fiddle with dials to get the content she likes.
He assures her that he only admires the new Birch church choir sopranos for their singing, nothing else.

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.

Griff tells Ida he managed to make it home before 11PM, what will the neighbours think?!
He writes about arrangements to see a Hallé concert.
He regrets not writing to cousins overseas, "we are terrors for losing touch with our relations."

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.

Griff apologises for writing Ida a less than friendly letter before, he had no idea it was so negative. "The only depressions and deflations I have are those horrid periods in between seeing you."
He offers trips to the cinema or walks and is desperate to see her, but shares that while going with her to the Hallé is great, it doesn't really feel the same as being properly with her.
Choir practice at Birch is jolly with some new sopranos singing well but the whole choir has some way to go before they are up to snuff.

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.

Griff writes to Ida whilst heading to his holiday on the Isle of Wight. In London he bumped into someone he knew on the tube, an auditor "who hates Manchester." Well we just shan't invite him again.
He writes about his London comings and goings and then about his activities on the Isle of Wight, remarking the warship in Portsmouth Harbour. Where he is staying is pleasant, he's learning darts courtesy of the hotel manager, and "everything is alright about Ventor with the exception of a number of trousered dames." Ah his opinions on ladies dress rear their head again.
He wonders if she sees these letters he writes to her, addressed to her at the Matthay School of Music, before the principal Miss Collens lays her eyes on them.

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's been to Blackpool and Griff is amazed at how much energy she still has. He has plans to play cards with their friends the Bowers and politely refuses any more book recommendations for the time being as he is slowly making his way through what he has.
He thanks her for sorting out Forsyths (possibly picking up tickets or music) and "Mr Bannister crashed into the office today with a plan of the Free Trade Hall", supposedly to arrange seats for a concert. Assuming his current Hallé season ticket arrangement holds, he may be able to share some with the Matthay School of Music and of course Ida herself.
He thinks she looks wonderful after her holiday, especially as "it must be a trial dealing with the whole School and the Staff and striving to keep top of the [Rummy] League."
He's looking forward to the Municipal Concert series with William Rees conducting.

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.

Griff writes to Ida thanking her for lending a book with a pleasant surprise inscribed in the title page. He languished over it in bed. He's looking forward to receiving the ash tray she's bought him and has cleared a place on his desk in its honour.
Walter Carroll, Ida's dad, has sent him a list of recommended reading which is so comprehensive it "trips me up all over the place." He reckons she must be "suffering from Brittenitis" - she been playing/listening to quite a lot.
He refers to the Manchester Municipal Concerts (performed usually by the Hallé) which she finds unusual and he finds amusing, especially with the unusual repertoire usually programmed.
He laments that the Manchester Women's Orchestra didn't have a new photo made of the musicians when she joined.
"There is nothing like a little innocent craziness in this sometime too logical world." Jolly well right, too.
He arranges to attend the Hallé with her and later the theatre.
After nearly smashing his head through the top of a double decker bus, he walked along Parsonage Rd, mouth agape at the starry sky, so much so that he "swallowed a portion of cobweb." Grim.

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.

After an "interesting day" at church and choir Griff has no appetite for practicing his music, he tells Ida. Walter, her father, is leaving Birch church.
He must deny being very tired and delayed when he comes to meet her and is trying to be social with friends. He is surprised Didsbury and Palatine Road harbours drunk people and must concede the useful presence of policemen.
He has declared the cello part of Brahms E Minor his theme song. Her father Walter has been saying nice things about Griff but "he might have a few things, of a different kind, to say if he knew of my nocturnal perambulations, or some of them any rate." He ruminates on when they first got to know each other. He says "I took you to be a natural happy person from the first day I saw you," but knows that joy can't reign all the time. He reminisces about the day her "Father heard me calling out numbers at Swan and Leach one day." He's reminded of it as the first concert he went to was the Franck symphony, which is due to play at the Hallé soon, just a few days before he met her Father. He knew nothing of music but Franck "dazed me completely, but I went again and again." He especially loved the first time he heard Elgar's Dream of Gerontius, and "little did I dream that I should have the privilege of singing in the Chorus of that same work on November 14th 1935." He tells her that his passion in partly her fault as well as her father's. He tells her of another music buff he knows, Leonard Riley and his brothers Eric and Harry who would give "first rate gramophone concerts."

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.

Griff likes walking, concerts, theatre, cinema, "living in general", talking, recitals, radio etc. Many interests that he knows Ida shares.
He's been enjoying a book about ballet, reading it at the office and on the train. He dreamt about going to a film premiere with her. He "simply can't believe you when you say that girls have hangover expressions sometimes in the early morning." But certainly he knows its true of men as "I've often been frightened by my own face in the mirror," and supposedly even said good morning "absentmindedly thinking there was a stranger present."
He thinks he shall keep his opinions on choir "dos" to himself to avoid putting his foot in it, "but I am apt to feel sore when I think of the enormous income if the Church of England in general; its ownership of slum property; its acceptance of tolls from pits where hundreds of miners are out of work; the acceptance of titles from some of the farmers who can scarcely afford; the lack of interest shown in the very poor and in the unemployed; the laughable differences in livings." He may be a socialist in spirit "when I think of the good that a re-organised church might do."

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 had praised Griff's efforts at a recital and it has inspired him to try harder. He has so far refused a solo at church and "felt as though I'd let you down by refusing." He's doubtful of the friendliness of Birch church relations between choir and congregation. "I have reasons to question the existence of honest Christian fellowship in members of choir and congregation," having worked with all of its manifestations.
She's seemed to have suggested he would be a great manager of a hotel, which he agrees with. He certainly enjoys reading about them - fact and fiction. He explores destinations on southern railway lines, and reckons that is he had a hotel "with a lot of hard work and a bit of luck, the ultimate reward should be good, very good."
He's only played Pontoon twice, the first time "on a rather tiresome train in France" and should encourage a return to Rummy.

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.

Griff tells Ida that "you are lucky to have such a father and he is equally lucky to have you for a daughter and friend." Griff has felt the benefit of knowing him, "his good taste in matters musical and otherwise is so obvious." Walter is thinking of leaving the choirmaster post at Birch, and his absence would "tax the loyalty of certain members who have to travel a fair distance."
He thinks she'd suit being a student of Conan Doyle and wonders if she has read the Sherlock stories. He hopes to go to see the Franck symphony at the Hallé but may be late due to choir practice. He's proposed to go to the cinema after another concert but would not dream of doing anything such like after the Hallé, but "the musical 'atmosphere' seemed to be missing from the Free Trade Hall on Saturday."
Apparently according to conductors Beecham and Harty, "a few wrong notes doesn't matter in modern works." (Is that... jazz?)
He wonders is she'll go to the cinema and hopes she will attend the choir social, "in fact, I don't see how it can be held unless you are there."
She's no longer top of the Rummy League table, "so what about a very special effort on Tuesday? Something devastating?" He admits to purposefully pausing at one cross roads on their journey out together just because he likes the way she looks at him when she does. He hopes to head out with her 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.

Griff tells he saw Ida out and about but no way he could have caught up with her fast pace.
He admits not to being great at hosting his parents and aunt of an evening, but they seem happy to entertain themselves, ignoring his radio when he listens to concerts and operas.
He is still trying to figure out the "Pipe Problem", baffled at the stem fashions of the day veering from the Sherlock Holmes style.
He's like to see her and is trying to arrange a cinema outing with her. He's sure they'd never argue seriously, "I'm often painfully astonished at the way some people can squabble in markedly unpleasant ways."
Choir practice "seemed to go with a rattle and bang, but there was a shortage of altos."

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.

In lieu of a camera, he's sent Ida a couple of picture postcards of Burton-on-the-Water where he's holidaying. He sings the praises of the model village, the trout in the river and the large newer houses not in the model. He's enjoying working around the village but "one ought to have a car for the complete exploration of this district." Either way he wishes to be with 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.

Griff's on holiday and has had a good quiet breakfast in preparation for a long walk, he writes to Ida. He intends to lead a simple life but she's reminded him that he must prove his size and capacity for such.
He's caught a cold despite having just got over a stomach ache, claiming astronomy as the cure.
"I am glad to hear everyone is chirpy, despite the, er, doings abroad." Chin up, keep calm, carry on etc.
Miss Collens sounds like she's moving house and Griff doesn't think it's a good idea. "Tell her the houses are damp and have invasions of cockroaches every April and October, and add again the bit about Air Wardens and Astronomy." Just in case it interests her.
He wishes the Hallé could get sorted, perhaps at the Palace at a push but "suppose there will be some silly regulation about not being able to hire the Free Trade Hall for Sunday performances."

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.