PETER JACKSON
THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW

Star man: Alec Givvons, bottom row, third left, with the Oldham team of 1934-35 and, inset, with the Rugby League international cap he won for Wales against England
Picture courtesy of Michael Turner

Alec Givvons left home in Newport’s dockland for a distant town then mightily proud of its self-styled status as the cotton-spinning capital of Europe.
The Welsh teenager was heading towards a new life on the far side of the Rubicon, at a place humming day and night to the sound of 360 mills, one for almost every day of the year. When the las...