DVD

In February I was party to this group message:
I was only thinking the other day why not produce a DVD with vox pop interviews, shots of how it is today and some of your photos it would be good fun, it won't cost anything cos I have all the gear inc HD and it would be something to show our grandchildren.


The seeds had been planted and before long a few "Woodcrofters" were back in communication after several  years. Discussions took place on how to progress this wonderful idea and I was asked to write the script! Momentum soon gathered with radio and local newspaper interviews being undertaken. A presenter from the local radio station agreed to do the voice over.

The following is the first draft of the script:

Woodcroft Revisited

We grew up in a safe community known as Woodcroft, which is located three miles out of Rawtenstall on the main road to Burnley.

The streets that constituted the Woodcroft area are: East St, Thorn St, Woodcroft St, Rosedale St and The Holmes. These streets are still there today and largely unchanged.

When we were growing up the houses were bordered by the White Factory and Limey Water to the bottom and open diary farmland at the top. These created a natural enclosure forming Woodcroft.

As someone wrote, it was “A safe cosy community now disappeared under a sea of housing”.

Looking back as we all do now, we remember it as a very special place with lots of happy childhood memories and have only come to realise now how special and close knit a community we were and that these times will never be repeated.

We have created this DVD so that these memories are captured and so that we can hand down this living history to our children and grandchildren.

Everyone knew one another and the children were safely able to leave their houses and simply let themselves into others to play. In those days there were no Xbox’s, Wii’s, DS’s, Playstations, mobile phones, computers and many people did not even have a television or telephone.

We simply made our own entertainment

Is it an illusion that the sun always shines and it never rains when you are growing up? It certainly seems so, but one thing that is certain is that the seasons seemed more defined.

In spring the buttercups, daisies and clover burst into life and the sight of swealing could be seen. This is the process of burning old grass to regenerate new growth.

Our playing out and games followed the seasons. We would play skipping games, Hopscotch, Tig, Hide and Seek and generally enjoyed being out of doors after the long and cold winters. And of course we played football, as people do now. Little did we know that Billy MacAdam, who lived in our midst, played for Manchester City. ( Equivalent of Beckam today?)

Further up Burnley Road towards Crawshawbooth, and overlooking Limey Water was Crawshaw Hall, built in 1830 by quarry owner John Brooks, when we were growing up it belonged to Cicely Brooks. She was the last member of the Brooks family to live in what was commonly known as Brooks’ Woods. It was sold in 1976 and is currently a nursing home.

We used to go to Brooks’ Woods to pick bluebells which seemed to grow so abundantly, but we were always mindful not to be caught by Miss Brooks as she had a fierce some reputation.

Church "Walking Days" featured firmly in the calendar and were held at Whitsuntide. The local churches walked in procession and met on the spare ground in central Rawtenstall for a service. Each Sunday School was identified by their unique dresses and the boys also suitably attired in trousers and shirts. Church banners were carried aloft and bands played.  There was also the custom of "Rose Queens" who rode on a decorated float accompanied by attendants.

Summertime always seemed sunny and without rain and the long evenings and school holiday meant that we could play out in our fantasy worlds.

At the top of these streets was land belonging to Mr.Pickles, the local farmer, what could be more idyllic than having all this land to play out on? We built dens, climbed the five trees and dammed up the stream that ran through the land down to the lodge that supplied the factory.

We called the stream "Little Blackpool" and once we had constructed a dam we would fish for sticklebacks which once caught were put in a jam jar. We played out all day safely in our own little world and learning about the nature around us.

We also had a Gang Hut at our disposal, where we could play if it rained. To make it more homely we put pieces of wallpaper up secured by drawing pins and furnished it with old chairs and a wide ceramic bowl where we took our sticklebacks to live!

A second Gang Hut, or possibly it was just a concrete base, we turned into our Summer House, making mud pies and decorating them with wild flowers and then "baking" them in an oven that was merely made out of bricks and slate.

You could walk to Reedsholme through the fields on a well defined path, at one point you had to cross over a bridge that spanned a water pipe.

Here was Clarks Farm - can someone please expand

As well as our memories of Little Blackpool, we used to play out in the back streets and put on variety shows for friends and families.
We would peg out curtains on the washing lines to create a stage effect. After many rehearsals we would summon our friends, families and neighbours to treat them to our concert.

Haymaking- can someone please expand

Autumn quickly seemed to appear once we had returned to school in early September and this would mean we would all get very excited about the community bonfire.

The bonfires at Woodcroft were legendary and the whole community seemed to be involved in one way or another.
The wood was duly collected and fiercely guarded just in case "Reedsholmers" came on a raiding party. We would hollow out the structure and would put an old chair inside it for us to take turns sitting on.

Mums made all manner of bonfire food: bonfire toffee, cinder toffee, jacket potatoes and potato pies that were made in mixing bowls. These were laid out on long tables and served up by the light of storm lamps.
Taylor's chippy would supply 3d worth of sweets in a triangular bag after we had made money for this by doing "Penny for the Guy" at the factory.

Winters seemed long and cold with an abundance of snow and ice.

On the hill above Clark's farm, at Reedsholme, was a lodge where we dared to skate on during the winter months when it became frozen. We used to sledge in these fields during the winter and would rub waxed "Wonderloaf" wrapping paper over the metal runners to make it go faster.

The streets increased in gradient with East Street being the steepest by far, which meant that the back street was occasionally also used for sledging if you had good nerves.

Milk would be frozen in bottles on the doorstep, (is that correct?) and free school milk was available with each child receiving a 1/3pint. In the winter months it was quite often delivered frozen and was thawed out on the class room radiator!

We made slides in the school playground by sliding over the frozen snow and the momentum increased when they had been skated over a few times.

Candles in jars/Gang huts in Winter – can anyone expand

In the winter time the bedroom windows would be frozen over on the inside and we could make patterns in the frost.

At the bottom of the streets on Burnley Road was The White Factory. We used to peep in and watch the weavers working in the deafening noise of the looms. The workers wore clogs and protected their hair with headscarves.

The other factories where people were employed were the Globe Slipper Works at the bottom of East Street and Broadley’s at Reedsholme.

Can anyone expand?

At the bottom of Thorn Street on one side was the local Co-op store which was run by Kenneth and Edgar and at the other Taylor's chippy. At the bottom of Woodcroft Street was Mr. Wilkinson's - an "Arkwright Open-All-Hours" type of shop.

The Co-op was a bright and large store, where all manner of goods could be purchased and there was always the aroma of freshly ground coffee and fresh bread. It was also a good place for the exchange of gossip.

Mr. Wilkinson's was a fascinating corner shop and was literally in his converted front room. Rolls of bacon and ham hung from the ceiling, butter was in a huge block and was cut to order, and a big square tin of mixed biscuits was displayed and sold by weight. He also sold candles, loose tea, block soap and paraffin. He had such a diverse range of goods it seemed as though you could buy anything.

It would not be allowed in these days of health and safety and all the hygienic packaging.

Taylor's chippy was also a cafe and a corner shop which sold limited goods. They stocked a range of sweeties in jars and 1/2d and 1d sweets as well as a small range of groceries and cakes that were on display under a cover.

Some of us still live in Rawtenstall whilst others have moved away. However, we still fondly look back at these memories of growing up together despite the many intervening years.

May 2011