Hyde Cheshire Blog

Mechanics Arms

2013-05-21T00:30:00.000+01:00

The building today

Excerpt from "A history of The Pubs of Hyde and District" by Paul Taylor

Copies available for sale from Harrisons Newsagents, Hyde.

A Sonnet to Joshua Bradley

2013-05-20T00:30:00.000+01:00

SONNET

Inscribed to Joshua Bradley,

the Donor of Hyde Town Hall Clock and Bells.

HOW CAN WE THANK THEE TRUE, DEVOTED FRIEND,

FOR THIS RARE OFFERING TO THY NATIVE TOWN, BUT BY PROFOUND REGARD?

FAIR HONOURS CROWN IS THINE.

THIS NOBLE GIFT WILL EVER TEND

TO SHOW THE PROMPTINGS OF THY GENEROUS HEART,

WHICH FREELY GIVES, WITH AN UNSPARING HAND,

FROM HARD EARNED STORE.

BASE SELF CAN NEVER STAND ON FAME LIKE THINE, WHICH WILL TO THEE IMPART,

IN THY DECLINING YEARS, A JOY UNKNOWN.

SAVE TO THYSELF, WHOM WE REVERE THE MORE

FOR THIS GOOD DEED. WHO KNOWS WHAT LIES IN STORE

FOR THOSE WHO WORK AND GIVE FOR GOOD ALONE?

THIS TREASURED BOON THY MEMORY WILL ADORN,

AND RING THY PRAISE TO GENERATIONS YET UNBORN.

Postcards.

2013-05-19T00:30:00.000+01:00

Here is a collection of Hyde related postcards through the years.

Flowery Field Unitarian Church

Hyde Cemetery

Looking towards Hyde from St Annes Road Denton

Bennett Street Newton

Union Street Congregational Chapel

2013-05-18T00:30:00.000+01:00

Union Street Congregational Chapel

Founded in 1814

Built in 1822 / rebuilt in 1843

Main church building demolished circa 1970 ?

The Church is still thriving as the United Church, on Union Street in Hyde.

It can be seen centre of the photo, with the library to the left.

Going Back

2013-05-17T00:30:00.000+01:00

Here is a charming video that is on Youtube that was brought to my attention by Tom.

I hope you enjoy it.

p.s. There are a couple of pictures in there that are not of Hyde but it doesn't spoil the overall effect.

Randal Hibbert Esq

2013-05-16T00:30:00.000+01:00

On the brook side behind the Bankfield Hotel and Bankfield Terrace, there stood, for about a hundred years, a Bone Mill. This mill was erected about the end of the 18th century, by Mr. Randal Hibbert; it had a picturesque appearance, which was enhanced by the lake-like reservoir behind it; and at one time it was a very busy place. It was demolished circa 1903.
Randal Hibbert built Boston Mills, and it was at these mills that the Ashton’s first began cotton spinning.

Modern map showing the location of the Bone Mill.

MEMORIES OF HYDE 1958 – 1962 Part 10

2013-05-15T00:30:00.000+01:00

BY ROGER CHADWICK

The end of June 1958 saw Mum, Gran and I make the annual pilgrimage from Glen Wood to Godley Station. We were on our way to the annual fortnight in Bournemouth.

But that summer saw me staying in Bournemouth working on a market garden – for at that time Hyde had absolutely no work for temporary or unskilled workers.

The pay at the market garden was low, the work boring and at times dangerous as I was shinning up ladders rolling “sylglass” between the greenhouse panes or taking new growth from the axils of tomato plants and for variety, feeding each and every cucumber plant in a vast greenhouse with one barrel-load of horse muck per day. The summer did have its bonuses – I found very good “digs”, a smashing girlfriend whose father worked for De Havilland and I came home brown as a berry, ready for third year at Durham University.

This was the time when I realised I could not be in Hyde for much longer and still needed to work for the family income. An enquiry at the Office of the North Western Road Car Company informed me that there was work for “temps” in the summer months. I jumped at the chance!

Mottram Road

I spent a fortnight in Conductor School and was then assigned to Glossop Garage and placed under the watchful eye of a senior conductor and an Inspector. Very soon I was in charge of a vehicle and when on early shift, learnt to wake up at 0300 hrs, brew up, dress smartly in full uniform and stand under the lamp on Mottram Road(A 57) waving my billy can and hitching a lift so as to take a bus out for 0500. Most days I got a potato lorry bound for West Yorkshire but then meant a long walk from The Gun Inn, Hollingworth to Charles Street in Glossop. Sometimes a newspaper van would oblige. Occasionally one of the drivers would pick me up – sometimes in a car, sometimes on a motor bike. Yet I never missed a shift in three years on the buses. Thankfully most of the shifts started later and I could travel to work on the 0530 or 0600 service 125 to Glossop. Coming home at night was sometimes difficult, The Company put on a “ghost” bus for late workers as far as Mottram Junction but you never got lifts from motorists so it was “shanks pony” for 2.5 miles home! The shift that saw me work the Glossop Saturday Midnight Circular 190 taking all the boozers home was no fun when it was half past one in the morning before I got in!

Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley & Dukinfield Joint Transport and Electricity Board Crest

It was a funny feeling to work on a bus route that passed my door and which I knew so well and to sit in the crew room at Glossop with North Western and SHMD guards that knew me from boyhood. I often worked the 125 Limited Stop to Denton, Hyde and Old Glossop. It was an 8hr 31min “turn” and you worked hard with full loads to Hyde, full loads to Manchester and the same at night on return workings. On one such trip we came into Chorlton Street, and went out immediately, fully loaded.. Late running was frowned upon. Traffic jams were frequent around the city and you didn’t get a clear road until beyond Ardwick.

Belle Vue circa 1963

By Belle Vue I was dying to use the Public Conveniences.

Going down Broomstair Brow I was desperate but I knew that there were facilities in Hyde Bus Station. Never was I so glad to arrive at Hyde Bus Station and find relief – but then – it suddenly dawned upon me that I was in a cubicle! There had been no urinal and I was too desperate to notice. I did now – I was in THE LADIES!!! I really do remember breaking into a cold sweat. Was I going to be arrested? Someone might have already called the police for our bus was fully loaded and waiting immediately outside. What if a lady came in? Here goes – with head held high walked out pretending that nothing untoward had occurred, I emerged into the sunlight. Suddenly there was a roar of laughter and cheering from the passengers and driver! They had all seen what had happened and were going to make the most of it. It took me weeks to live that episode down. Nowadays, such an incident would be world news!

Hyde Bus Station - The toilets were to the left behind the bus shelters.

I learn a lot about the British Public whilst on the buses and I will come to that in the next chapter. My first driver warned me when I started that I would learn things about people’s behaviour that no college course could teach. Bye – he was right – but they were good years with eight to ten weeks on buses, enjoying the travel, the “crack” with mates and the fun with passengers. Of course, there was the bonus of good wages, plenty of overtime, Sunday double time, rest day working, spread-over penalty payments for split shifts. I was to get married in 1963 with this “bus money” behind me! My mother, instead of taking my wages for board and lodge took the money and then secretly saved it all up for when I needed it.

In some ways, these were the happiest years of my life!!

Thanks to Roger for his continuing memories of Hyde.
They are much welcomed and enjoyed ! :)

Love your local Market !

2013-05-14T00:30:00.000+01:00

Its almost here - Love Your Local Market 2013....What a great celebration of markets we are going to witness over the fortnight May 15th - 29th. 652 markets in total signed up to take part this year!

Free market pitches are being offered to new traders as part of a package of special events and offers to celebrate Tameside markets.
Love Your Local Market (LYLM) fortnight, which runs from 15 May, aims to showcase all that markets have to offer as well as give new small businesses a helping hand in starting up trade.
http://www.tameside.gov.uk/pressreleases/welovemarkets

Many thanks to Hyde Market for the photos and information.
Hyde Market Facebook Site

Hydes Own Poet - John Critchley Prince

2013-05-13T00:30:00.000+01:00

Below is a chapter on John Critchley Prince from Thomas Middleton's 'Annals of Hyde and District'.

Critchley Prince was born on June 21st, 1808, at Wigan, in Lancashire. He was brought up amid the greatest poverty, and was never sent to school. His education was obtained solely from his mother and from the teachers of a Sunday School. The Princes eventually settled in Hyde, where the poet married in 1826, when under 19 years of age. His income at the time was very small, and when a young family appeared, it took the united efforts of both parents to procure even a bare subsistence. Misled by glowing accounts of the prospects of artisans in France, Prince at length left his family to seek his fortune abroad. Disappointment, however, met him on the Continent; the greatest distress prevailed, and unable to obtain work, he found himself a beggar in a strange country, possessing no knowledge of the language.

In the middle of the winter of 1831 Prince left Mühlhausen to return to Hyde. He followed the romantic wanderings of the Rhine, exploring the ruined castles and visiting the principal scenes of legendary lore. Travelling through Strasbourg, Nancy, Rheims, Chalons, and most of the principal cities, he at length arrived in Calais, having subsisted on the charity of the few English residents he had met with on the way. A passage was procured for him by the British Consul at Calais, and he at length set foot again in England.

On his return Prince first applied for food and shelter at a workhouse in Kent, and was cast into a filthy garret with 12 other unfortunates, some of whom were in a high state of fever; indeed, the dawn of the next day found his bedfellow dead. From here he proceeded with bare feet to London, begging in the daytime and sleeping in the open fields at night. A portion of his clothing he sold at "Rag Fair" for 8 pence, which treasure he spent partly in allaying the dreadful cravings of hunger, and partly in the purchase of paper and writing materials. Entering a neighbouring tavern, he wrote as much of his own poetry as the paper would contain, and that task done he went round to a number of booksellers, hoping to dispose of the manuscript for a shilling or two. But disappointment again met him, and after staying in London a short time—lying on the stones of some gateway at night, he left the metropolis and set off northward. His biographer tells us that he slept in barns, vagrant offices, under hay–stacks, in the lowest of lodging–houses; one day he ground corn at Birmingham, another he sang ballads at Leicester, the cool night wind found him sleeping under the oaks of Sherwood Forest, and finally he rested his weary limbs in the " lock–up " at Bakewell. By perseverance, however, he at length reached Hyde, only to find that his wife, unable to sustain herself and children, had been obliged to apply for parish relief, and was then in the workhouse at Wigan. Prince hurried off to that town, removed his family to Manchester, where he took a bare garret, and without furniture of any sort, with a bundle of straw for a bed, the wretched family remained several months. The Princes subsequently returned to Hyde, where a fairer fortune smiled upon them than had been the case in former years.

It was not until 1841 that Prince published his first work, "Hours with the Muses." He contributed at different times to the Manchester periodicals, and to three now defunct local magazines, "Microscope," "Phoenix," and "Companion."

The publication of " Hours with the Muses " brought Prince numbers of friends, but unfortunately he became a prey to habits of intemperance. He seems to have fallen into an unsettled state, sometimes working at his old trade of reed–making, often hanging about the country, and chiefly depending for subsistence on the profits of the five successive volumes which issued from his pen. An attempt was made to secure for him a pension, which, although fruitless as far as its main effort was concerned, won for him a grant from the Royal Bounty. He died at Hyde in 1866, and was buried in St. George's Churchyard, where a head–stone commemorating his works has been erected over his grave by a few admiring friends.

'ERECTEDBY A FEW ADMIRERSTO THE MEMORY OFJOHN CRITCHLEY PRINCEAUTHOR OFHOURS WITH THE MUSESBORN 21ST JUNE 1808DIED 5TH MAY 1866.' The photograph is reproduced with thanks to Dr Tony Shaw Dr Tony Shaw

MEMORIES OF GROWING UP IN HYDE 1953 – 1962 Part 9

2013-05-12T00:30:00.000+01:00

By Roger Chadwick

The school week at William Hulme’s G.S. was six whole days, there being lesons on Wednesday and Saturday mornings and compulsory sport until 4.00.p.m. on both afternoons. Drama and School Cadets added yet more hours to the schoolday and at busy times I would do homework in Manchester Central Library getting home around 9.30.p.m. only to be off again at 7.30.a.m. in the morning. Half term consisted of a Friday and a Monday tacked onto a weekend but the school holidays were longer. These factors meant that my time in and around Hyde was becoming increasingly sparse! In those days, Sunday truly was a day of rest with shops closed, bus services curtailed and nowt to do unless you were involved in a church.

Just after my 15^thbirthday, with the expenses of adolescence rising, some money had to be raised. In the summer of 1954, I started labouring at Ashton Brothers Bayleyfield Mill, hauling tubs of cotton bobbins to Italian lasses, (many of whom had already done 8 hrs in the Pan Yan Pickle factory in Glossop) in what was then called the Pirning room and then sorting boxes of cotton in the cavernous damp cellars. Weekday work began at 7.30.a.m. and finished at 5.30.p.m with 20 minutes for breakfast and 60 minutes for lunch. Saturdays began at the same time and work finished at 12.30.p.m. I was not allowed in the weaving shed because that was for skilled workers and overlookers only and I was very glad not to be in that infernal noisy place: nor was I allowed in cotton waste where men worked in cotton overalls and “plimsolls”. One spark in that department and the whole mill would have gone up like bomb! My first wage amounted to £6.8.10d (£6.44p) – a phenomenal wage at that time for labouring when teachers and other professions were getting much less. It was hard work with long hours but good money and I loved the smell and atmosphere, the views of Werneth Low from five floors up, the coarse cackle and vulgarity of the women in the cop cellar, the hot juice of lunchtime meat pies and endless tea from the steel urns provided. We have an old cotton bobbin in the kitchen which is converted to an egg timer. It still stinks of the mills….lovely!

Redferns Rubberworks

Sadly, the days of Lancashire cotton were numbered and I had to find other work in the summers that followed. I biked to Harden’s Engineering, North’s Atomic Clothing, Redfern’s Rubber Works, Oldham Batteries, Daniel Adamson’s and a host of other industrial concerns but the message was always the same , “no vacancies for unskilled work…nothing part time….etc.” 1955 saw me cutting malt loaves and sorting hot white loaves and milk buns in the Bread Factory on the road from Denton to Brinnington. The following year I was clipping and weeding graves for six weeks in Denton cemetery. There I was a dab hand with the weedkiller and did untold damage through ignorance rather than malice. I started learning the art of gravedigging! But the money was poor compared with Ashton Brothers.

Whenever I see pictures of St Stephen’s Church, Floweryfield, I am reminded of an intensely sad time.

Coming home from holiday work in July 1956, I was told of the sudden death of a school friend, David Oldham. He had died of an unsuspected brain tumour. His father was the Organist of St Stephen’s and the family were closely connected with that church. It was my first experience of death and along with Pete Broughton and Barry Broadhurst(the son of George Broadhurst the painter and decorator), we bore David into church for the funeral service. His parents were much comforted by what we did but I am sure it was a case of “put a brave face on…”. David was an only one, like most of us in those years.

Some three weeks after this sad event I came home from work and found the family gathered in the back room. Straightaway I knew there was something up. “Where’s mi father….” I asked… only to be told that he had died on the 125 bus coming home from work. I had to attend Platt Lane Police Station in Manchester that night so we were glad of evening buses! My father had to be identified and my mother couldn’t do it. “Are you Roger Chadwick, the son of Harry Chadwick?....is this your Father? Having answered the questions, the paperwork had to be done and I could not say that the police sergeant was sympathetic. But then, he had to do his job and cards and sympathy and teddy bears were light years away. This was the first time I had seen a dead body. But my Vicar was brilliant and gave my atheist father a wonderful funeral!

“These things happen”….is a truism even if it doesn’t help much. The fact of the matter was that my mother had to go to work and had to manage to keep us on her wages and the £4 widow’s pension. It was now even more important that I get work to support the family. But this was not going to be easy as it was the time of a mini recession and temporary work became even more difficult to find from 1956 onwards!

I would like to thank Roger once again for sharing his wonderful memories with us !
They are a pleasure to read. :)

More Old Adverts from 1968

2013-05-11T00:30:00.000+01:00

Below are a selection of adverts taken from the

1968 edition of the Green Guide,

which was a local Yellow Pages type publication.

The good old Kingston Stink !

Rosemount Primitive Methodist Chapel

2013-05-10T00:30:00.000+01:00

The following was taken from

the Annals of Hyde and District.

The church was founded in 1875.
The Chapel was demolished and the congregation moved into the adjacent former school (also merging with Trinity Methodists) in 1977.

I was christened at Rosemount and took part in a few pantomimes there in the late 1960's. I would love to see any photos of these.

I'm glad to report that the church is still going strong.
Rosemount Church

Thanks to A M Berrell for the photos.

NOTICE

2013-05-09T14:07:00.002+01:00

A letter to Dorethy/Maloney (and all the other cowardly aliases you use).

We know that all the nasty, spiteful and sometimes racist comments you send are from the same person as it shows up on the computer as having the same location.

Do yourself a favour and save yourself some time by stopping sending them as they are deleted immediately.

Why you have to be nasty about something that you dont even have to read is beyond us.

ps If you want to use continue using aliases make sure you spell them right .

Also, using other posters names to post a comment is despicable....

Christmas Party Photo

2013-05-09T00:30:00.000+01:00

The following was sent to us by David Hamilton.

Over to David....

!I wonder if this Christmas party photo is of interest to you.

As well as my mother, brother, myself and Dorothy Edwards, there are four of my cousins on the photo.
It is worth noting that the six children named are all 2nd cousins of Tom.
I would say that the picture was taken in 1960, and has Proctor's stamp on the reverse, but I have no idea where it was taken, other than somewhere in Hyde.
It may have been in a central location, as we were from Newton, the Wigleys were from Dowson Road, and the Ovens's lived in Kingston Gardens".

In the 1960's Dorothy Edwards had a shop on Victoria Street, more or less opposite Sawyer Brow. Later on she had a flower shop at the top of Bennett Street, just a few doors down from the Cheshire Cheese.

Dorothy Edwards

Hilda (my late mother)

Adrian (my younger brother)

Myself

Katherine Ovens

Dorothy Ovens

Alan Wigley

Michael Wigley

Many Thanks, David ! :)

Newspaper Item 1967

2013-05-08T00:30:00.000+01:00

Whilst looking through some old family photos and newspaper cuttings I came upon this...

Then I found this one....

The unfortunate youth was my dearly departed cousin, Ian.

I'm sure the person who reported him meant well but it caused a lot of trouble at the time.

How times ( and attitudes) have changed.

2013-05-07T22:46:00.006+01:00

We have had a few issues with the photos not appearing correctly (or not at all). This is due to the popularity of the site.

Whilst I am not complaining about that, rest assured all will be back to normal as soon as possible !!

Thank you.

GROWING UP IN HYDE 1950 – 1957 Part 8

2013-05-07T00:30:00.000+01:00

By Roger Chadwick

For worse, rather than better, I sat the Manchester Grammar School 11+ three months before my 10^th birthday – and failed! But then that was why we had two years for these exams and I did get a scholarship to William Hulme’s G.S in Moss Side Manchester the following year. I still wonder how I won this award because on the day of the first examinations the 7.50 bus to Manchester was full and didn’t stop at Glen Wood, nor did the 8.05 and I was some twenty minutes late arriving at one of the exams.

In case anyone might think I am highly intelligent, I had another crack at Manchester Grammar just before I was 11 and for Hyde Grammar as well – and I failed those!!!.

Hyde Grammar School, now Clarendon College.

Leigh Street had educated me well, even in drama when I played Jan in “Jan of Windmill Land” and somewhere in our attic there is a postcard of the “cast” to prove it but I have no real memory of it. This gave me confidence for school plays and concerts at the new school – and later – in the pulpit!!.

Nowadays, junior schools have big trips over huge distances. We had only one – a bouncy ride in an SHMD Thornycroft single decker with the seats arranged around the sides of the vehicle (for cramming standing passengers in during the war) – and then a journey via Mottram to Melandra, a Roman Fort between Woolley Bridge and Glossop. This was part of our history studies on Roman civilisation and there we learnt our first Latin words!!

Memories of Leigh Street School continue to come back – ink monitor duties on a Monday moring, milk monitor duties at other times, boring assemblies and the singing of “Strawberry Fair” and something called “Tarah’s Halls” – the sight of Mrs Gaunt’s red Biro, something very new in 1948! School reports, Moray House exam papers, the smell of school dinners and mad playground games.

School Milk !

All this ceased when I started school days with the daily 7.35 SHMD bus to Manchester and then another one out to Moss Side. The new school co-incided with a new bike. This was NOT given because I had “passed the Scholarship” but because at 11 years of age I was deemed sensible enough to be careful in the heavy traffic.

Well! that was like letting a cat out of the house for the first time.

I set off up Mottram Road, through Hollingworth and Tintwistle to Woodhead Tunnel and then over the top to Dunford Bridge and Holmfirth. Little heed had I taken of the terrain home via Holme Moss TV transmitter and a late arrival home and a good telling off for being out so long! Then, other long days in the Cheshire countryside and by the time I was 14 I was cycling the 13 mile round trip to school in the summer term. With no gears, the hills around Hyde were hard work but then I was young and strong and used to exercise. I knew every blade of grass on Green Lane, past Dove House Farm, Glendarach, Godley Green to Mottram Old Road and up the Hackingknife to Idle Hill, Apple Street, Bothams Hall Wood, Broadbottom and then a train ride back to Godley. I loved the view across the Etherow valley to Charlesworth, Combs Rocks, Monks Road and Kinder. Other walks come to mind - up to Sulby Glen, Thompsons Wood, Matley, Harrap Edge and over the top of Hobsons Moor and then home by the SHMD 4 Service from Carrbrook to the Hippodrome in Hyde!

ABC / Green Lane

During the summer holidays I cycled everywhere with a best friend from Hulme Grammar who lived in Denton. We got as far as Oxford when we were 12, Whitby the following year and sundry other Youth Hostelling holidays in the Peak District. Nowadays, even lads together would not be allowed this freedom and certainly not on solo walks. But we always felt safe and there was always somebody you could ask for help. I well remember a 40 mile ride from Hyde, through Ashton, Oldham, Rochdale, Bacup and Burnley and Colne to Skipton to stay with another friend. Within sight of Skipton I stopped at a pub and asked the landlord if he could give me some water. I was really tired and needed sustenance. “Come t’ut back dooer”, he bawled out and then regaled me with tea and cheese sandwiches in his kitchen. “Yuv come from wheah? Hyde? Oh aye, that’s where all’t flies from Denton go to in’twinter in’t it. The good man would not charge me a penny.

Need I say more.

Great memories, once again, Roger !
Also, thanks to Carl's Cam for the photo of Hyde Grammar!
Many thanks :)

News article from 1967

2013-05-06T00:30:00.000+01:00

Just thought I'd share this little snippet that I found in some old papers I am sorting through.

Are any of you culprits out there ? :)

Memories from Hallbottom Street

2013-05-05T00:30:00.000+01:00

By David Hamilton

I've attached some photos of my early years in Hallbottom Street.

We lived at number 37, long before the houses were built on the other side of the road. In fact our front window overlooked Dad's allotment where he kept poultry, and there was a small part of the reservoir fenced off for his ducks.
Also from our house we could see Newton Mill, and I always knew when it was getting near Christmas when the tree went up on the office roof with lights on it.

There were several other youngsters in the street, all around the same age, always someone to play out with !
We used to play on the allotment, and also on the tip, (can you imagine that now !) At the bottom of the street, I think that it hassince been grassed over and turned into a recreational area.

I went to St. Mary's Sunday School on Garden Street, and just behind that, number 45 Clarence Street was Marshall's shop. I was always going there on an errand for somebody or other.

Happy days !

At front door with Grandma

Back Yard

Back Garden - Whitsun !

Backyard Sherriff and Deputy

Feeding dad's poultry

Picnic at no.33

There wasn't much traffic then.

37, Hallbottom St

45 Clarence St - formerly Marshall's shop

Great photos and happy memories, David !
Many thanks :)

MEMORIES OF GROWING UP IN HYDE Part 7

2013-05-04T00:30:00.000+01:00

1939 – 1962

By Roger Chadwick

In September 1944, aged 5, with my mother, on the first day only , I walked down Mottram Road, up Grange Road, along Tinkers Ginnel and through the playground of LEIGH STREET SCHOOL to Miss Beaumont’s class in The Infants Building. Clutching a small bag of cocoa and sugar, my first experience of education was making fudge sweeties! The noise of other children was a bit frightening at first but the room, festooned with pictures and charts, was a fascinating experience. Miss Beaumont was a tall lady with violent red lipstick and wore Lisle stockings with small tufts of red wool dotted about all over. I could not take my eyes off this “fashion statement” and when I got home, my mother told me they were “clocks” – an ornamental design either woven in or embroidered on the side of a stocking. Miss French was another tall teacher and noted for smacking unruly infants so I kept out of her way! Miss Moore, a smiling, motherly and wonderful person, was the Head Teacher, who I came to know better in later years at church.

Leigh Street School.

The war was on, everything in short supply. Even in the Junior Department we were told to write on the inside covers of exercise books and across the margins. Any sheet of paper with a clean side had to be used. Sugar bag paper was used for art work. Those waxy cardboard milk bottle tops had to be brought to school for further use: raffia was worked around any available container to make “spell” boxes, those things we used at home with “spells” of wood to light the fire! Nothing was wasted. Old blotting paper lined precious jam jars for the beans and peas to grow on the window sills. Tops of carrots were brought on saucers to grow foliage. Woe betide any child who wasted anything! The one third pint of milk had to be drunk even if it was frozen. No child could leave anything on the plate of a school dinner. “Get that down yer and stop messing about; the convoys brought that across the Atlantic”, warned my grandmother!

I still do not leave a plate with any food on it!

My first teacher in the Juniors was Miss Taverner but she could not keep order and the classes were rowdy. Believed to be quite bright I was “expressed” through Miss Halton/Haughton’s class and into Miss Emsley’s third year. Miss Emsley became Mrs Andrew and was just lovely! I well remember her as a younger teacher with a quick stride and a handbag. Likewise Miss Lees, who was always smiling but reputed to be a strict disciplinarian. Mr Drewett, a quiet and lovely man and Mrs Gaunt were responsible for Year 4 pupils (present day year 6’s). Then there was Mrs Shaw who cared for the youngest class of entrants, seeming to be always asleep on canvas beds in the afternoons!

I found myself under the tutelage of Mrs Gaunt for two years and she was certainly the moulding of my education. Being “expressed” meant two years in what was then called “the scholarship” class. In those days it was the one great aim to get as many children as possible into grammar schools via the 11+ and at our school to make sure that we always beat St George’s CE School, our nearest rival educational establishment. From 9.00.a.m. to 4.00.p.m we were kept at the grindstone. “First Aid” English text books were studied and relevant parts memorised. “A verb is a doing word”, we had to chant - “An adverb modifies the verb” “An adjective is a descriptive word” – chanted in class, these phrases were never forgotten. Grammar training and correct sentence formation both on paper and in speech was repeated over and over again and again until we knew how to write, how to speak and how to communicate.

Then of course, there were the tables – up to “twelve times” of course and for those who were expected to manage it – up to 13 and 14 times tables. Highest / Lowest Common Denominators, Fractions, Percentages, Interest and Compound Interest, Mental Arithmetic both written and verbal had to be mastered. Imperial Measures, Rods, Bushels, Pecks, Acres, Pints, Jills, Quarts, Pounds, Stones, Quarters, Hundredweights, Tons, 1760 yards to the mile 5280 feet to the mile, 4840 sq yds to the acres…… Yards, Feet, Inches, Eight Furlongs to the mile… All these details were printed out on the backs of some exercise books and they had to be learnt. Most days we had cash sum to multiply like - £14.19s 4pence three farthings multiplied by 29. Thence, in neat columns sums transferring farthings (960 to the £), halfpennies (480 to the £) pennies (240 to the £) sixpences “tanners” (40 to the £), threepenny bits(80 to the £), shillings “bobs”(20 to the £) half crowns(8 to the £) florins/2 shillings(10 to the £). These sums had to be got right, especially when the Headmaster, Mr Walter Hugh Renwick entered the class at 3.40.p.m to set the homework for the “scholarship” children. Children did not get much praise. “You can do better….not good enough…poor work…untidy… write out the correct spelling 10 times.”. Et cetera!

Does this bring back memories to those born just before, during and just after the war?

I cannot say whether this kind of education was right or wrong. Suffice it to say that even though I am no mathematician, mental arithmetic has stood me in good stead throughout life as has the grounding in grammar. Class 8 at Leigh Street School in 1949-50 had 53 pupils presided over by a teacher who knew what she had to do, brooked no nonsense or interference, gave favours to none and criticism to all and made sure that everyone in that class could read and write before they went into secondary or technical education. She wasn’t there to be liked or loved: she had a job to do and did it magnificently!

It did me no harm at all and I owe everything to that school and its staff.

Leigh Street 1949

Many thanks to Roger for sharing his memories and to the "Hyde Schoolday Memories" book that was sent to me by Joyce and Graham Sharp.

It's a Beautiful Day !

2013-05-03T00:30:00.000+01:00

Here are a few photos I took today when I had a walk over Werneth Low.

We are so lucky to have this beautiful spot on our doorstep !

It's a long walk up there .....
...But all worth it for the best seat in the house !

The views are stunning...
Looking over to Hattersley and Mottram !

It's much easier walking down!

Re: David Hamilton's "Bennett Street Memories

2013-05-02T00:30:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Tony Downend for the following account...

Since my Mother's now turned 90 she doesn't travel much anymore but on her last visit in 2010 (she living in Poulton-le-Fylde for 25 years or more) she stayed, as usual, at my place for the week. On one of the days I took her down yet another 'memory lane' to Newton this time, to a house she'd not seen the inside of since 1950. It was number 137 Bennett Street [across the way from David's 138].

I'd fortuitously stopped the car outside 137 some months prior as to take some photographs when a kindly lady had come out of the front door. I told her the tale and so was invited in. She allowed me to take some pics whilst in there my concentrating on the things I though would not have changed much. All the pics going onto a laptop for viewing by Mother on my next trip to Poulton. The marble fireplace and well fashioned staircase caused her some thinking my purposely not showing her the outside views or anything like until the very end.

Months on, and now on her visit we drove past 137 and again the same lady had come out of the front door. It was an opportunity not to be missed. Mother was invited in. I deciding to take a walk around and about with thoughts of my own. She now saw the marble fireplace and well fashioned staircase and the cup of tea is still treasured and remembered. I thanking again the kindly owner and her welcoming Mother in to see all those years apart.

One Three Seven is the first house I ever lived in, the one my grandparents had bought in the late 30's, the family, aunt and uncle, all having moved, as Mother tells, from the spooky candle lit, hidden passageway and yes haunted and now demolished Dukinfield Old Hall, Globe Lane.

Being in a pram at the time I cannot remember the inside 137 although I would have still passed it on many occasions a little later, a little older as our move from grandparents was not so far away, to what was then known as the ' modern prefabs'...halcyon days with big gardens with privet 'kid gaps' hedges and an exiting tip with drum paint and tin-lid shields and slim round bars for swords...a number of 50's pics of these times, all which my father took, have kindly already been posted on the Blog.

My distant memory has now again been recently jolted by David's own well documented memories of 138, my reading things in their I'd 'well forgotten'. Like "Eleanor's Shop" close to the red bridge, a tiny mixed business and I can now just see her, "Eleanor" herself again quizzing me over "mother's" poorly (as I write now) hand written note asking for permission for a box of matches! The hardware shop on other side (red bridge) in my day sold, I think, wallpaper and the likes; my father having rented a garage round the back of it. A Morris 8 van, one repainted green which he converted with new side-rear windows and a bus seat in the back of it, a 'shooting brake' they called it'; going to Devon with five in it was like going to the Moon.

Thanks very much, Tony :)

Oakfield Primary School 1963

2013-05-01T00:30:00.000+01:00

The following photo and information was sent to us
by David Hamilton.

"This photo was taken at Oakfield Primary School,
Christmas 1963.
The children were performing fairy tales for the parents. The one that I was in was Sleeping Beauty, and the other was Hansel and Gretel, as you can tell by some of the costumes.
I am standing at the back, far right, and on the front row 3rd from the left is Graeme Green.

I wonder how many others can be named ?"

Very cute indeed !

Many thanks, David :)

Greenfield Secondary School 1953

2013-04-30T00:30:00.000+01:00

The following was sent to us by Colin Ridgway.

As the 60th Anniversary of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II approaches I thought it most appropriate to look up a school photograph taken in the Spring of 1953 of Form 4R at Greenfield Street Secondary Modern School.
As I recall, all the Hyde schools had class photographs taken to commemorate the Coronation.
The country was still recovering from World War II and the Coronation was to be a big event, to be held as a great morale booster for all. So, perhaps the enclosed photo may serve as a reminder of this momentous event.
I have appended a list name of the pupils on the photo; however, after 60 years I cannot recall everyones name !
Hopefully many thereon are "still around" and can remember this happy time in our lives.

Back Row
Jack Fitton, ?, Clarence Hulme, Peter Ridgway (no relation!) Keith Brookes

Middle Row
?, ?, Michael Lees, Me (Colin Ridgway) , John Saville, Melvin Jones, ?, Tony Hunt, Teacher ?

Front Row
John Bateman, George Swindells, Keith Rider, ?, Jimmy Foden, Joe Wilde, ?

Seated
Neville Hulme, George Robinson.

Many thanks for your time and trouble, Colin.
Much appreciated :)

Temperance Seven and the White Hart

2013-04-29T00:30:00.000+01:00

Here are some more photos taken by Tony Downend's Father.

Over to Tony....

"This time it's one of Newton's own, I discovering this local fact much later.
A young Cephos Howard of Temperance Seven fame and son of the landlord of the once White Hart Pub on Old Road.
Also, there are a few pics, indeed a study, a good insight into just how much things and we have changed is gained by simply looking at the faces of the early 1950's, our grandparents, our heritage and how we once were.

God Bless them All".

Cephos Howard

Cephos Howard Jnr

The Howard Family

Harry Smith and his Wife

The following are unknown locals of the White Hart on Old Road

Off to powder his nose :)

Mr and Mrs John Travis

Many thanks again,Tony.
Wonderful photos. very evocative of the age. :)