Viv Nicholson cremation location (3rd April 1936 to 11th April 2015)

 

 

In 1961 Vivian Nicholson was thrust into the limelight after she and her husband Keith won £152,300 on the Littlewoods football pools (about £4.5 million today.) Her fame was matched by her words “spend spend spend” after she told the media of her spending intentions. She led a messy chaotic life and died after five marriages aged 79 and was cremated here where I'm stood at Pontefract Crematorium.

 

For years the media followed Viv’s rollercoaster rise as the couple rapidly burned through the fortune. Growing up in poverty she didn’t know how to make it work for her, nor pace the spending. She was born near Wakefield to a poor family and, being the eldest child, was expected to mind her six sisters. Aged 14 she left school to work packing Pontefract cakes at the local liquorice factory for £7 per week. Pregnant at 16 she got married by soon left her husband to marry her neighbour Keith Nicholson. By the time she was 25 she had four children and was broke. At this age the couple won the football pools - what equates to £4.7 million in today’s money.)

 

The media had won the jackpot too - Viv and her husband lapped up the attention. Oddly this wasn’t even the biggest jackpot - widow Nellie McGrail from Stockport had won £205,235 four years earlier.

 

The brakes were off and uncontrolled spending commenced - sports cars, fur coats, posh clothing, home appliances, jewellery and holidays. There was a bling new home called Ponderosa after the ranch in a TV series (the swimming pool was often empty and used by the children to store their bikes.) Viv was a fan of Jayne Mansfield who owned a pink Cadillac - so she bought one too.

 

With little idea of managing money she said spending was like being addicted to drugs. She felt disconnected from people she’d known for years. Four years of the win Keith lost control of his Jaguar and died in a crash. Viv began drinking heavily and would become an alcoholic. From this point the money seemed to run away and she ended up with nothing - less than nothing and the banks and the Inland Revenue deemed her bankrupt. There was one advantage - Keith’s will ensured a trust fund protected their her children’s private schooling. Aged 34 she won a legal battle to gain £34,000 from her dead husband's estate but had learnt nothing. More rampant spending ensued - along with more drinking.

 

Aged 44 she moved to Malta but was back within a year after assaulting a policeman. She married again but her new husband  - like the first one - died in a car crash. Her luck worsened when she married again but the wedlock lasted 13 weeks (she ended up in a mental home to escape his abuse and attempted suicide.) She claimed she was so broke she could not afford his funeral. She married again but her fifth and final husband died of a drug overdose. Not far off being penniless she had a brief stint in a Manchester strip club singing Hey Big Spender but was fired for refusing to take off her underwear.

 

In later life she became a Jehovah's Witness and wrote her life story called Spend, Spend, Spend (also a play - a big success for the BBC.) Aged 62 a musical Spend, Spend, Spend was such a triumph at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds that it transferred to the West End of London for a two-year run. Viv developed dementia and suffered a stroke, dying at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield a week after her 79th birthday.

 

On a hot autumn Sunday I arrived at Pontefract Crematorium. I had set off home from the coast and was hungry so I had three fried eggs on toast and a milky coffee before emerging into the sun. I had to wait for a couple in wheelchairs to leave before taking a few photos. As usual the grass of memorial gardens was peppered with ashes. Someone had shaped one into a crucifix shape (see photo.) Perhaps if Viv hadn't hit the jackpot she wouldn't have lived such a chaotic life. Perhaps she wouldn't swap it for anything. I did a salute and left.

 

 

 

Some ashes in the shape of a crucifix...