Some Local Karate History

I was chatting to a chap tonight after training. He brought along some photos from the early 1970s, back when karate first came to our part of the world.

There were photos taken in the same hall that we train in today! There's always been a tradition of karate at Greengate Street (well, since karate came to Barrow, anyway!) and it was interesting to see those old photos taken just a few feet from where we were standing.

I didn't realise that at the time the "big name" Japanese karatemen (as karate people were known!) came to Barrow to conduct training. One of the photos was like a who's who of wado instructors.... Suzuki, Shiomitsu, Fuji, Ishikawa and Takamizawa were in it.

A couple of our youngsters felt inspired by these photos, and thought it strange that after all that time, there was that connection to early British karate in our little backwater.

I was a pupil at Greengate Street in the latter half of the Seventies, strange how things come around. Like pieces of a metaphysical jigsaw coming together. Either that or Barrow (being at the end of a 30 mile cul-de-sac) is a bit... insular... and everyone knows everybody else's business!

Still, it was good to take a look back in time. I was just a toddler back in '71 - the same age as my youngest daughter now. And here we are training in the same hall keeping the tradition alive. And long may it continue!