Clarkes Farm

Mr Clarke had a farm up Reeds Lane, Reedsholme and supplied milk around the streets.
He had a horse and cart and carried the milk in churns which he decanted into all manner of containers that were waiting for him.

As I have previously mentioned, when we were at school we would hang over the playground wall at morning break in the expectation that he would have ginger oatcakes to give us. During the holidays we would sometimes be allowed to have a ride in his cart.

Mum cleaned at the farm and I would go with her if I was not  school. I remember that the farmhouse had a stone flag floor and that's about all sadly.

The only other memory I have is that they had a "Flatley Dryer" which seemed very high tech!


Flatley looked like this picture, it also had a lid which went on it. I assume that there was a heater underneath the metal bottom board. The clothes hung on the wooden slats. The heat given off was fairly gentle - and as hardly any houses had central heating they saved drying the washing on a clothes airer in front of the fire!

Photo's March 2011

Site of outside toilets

The "Landing"

Walking towards East Street

Woodcroft St. Mr. Wilkinson's Shop

Signpost - Main A56 to Burnley

Back Thorn St/East St

Walking down East Street

Looking down Bk. East Steet

Outside The "Hogan's"

These photographs were taken in March 2011 on a trip down "Memory Lane".

St Paul's School

St Paul's, Constable Lee School

There was no Nursery provision or Pre-School  in those days and I can remember sitting on Mum's knee, under a blanket, after lunch and putting the radio on waiting for "Listen with Mother". We were cared for by our parents and grandparents, going to one anothers houses to play.

I began school at St.Paul's two months after my 4th birthday. Miss Parkinson, assisted by Mrs. Nolan, cared for us.
The infant department at St. Paul's was in a separate building at the back of the school. It seemed a wonderful and happy place to be: Toys and Wendy House - - and the small matter of learning! Mum and Dad decided that once I had started school that they would donate my trike. I rode on it all the way to school one morning - but the same evening I had to take it home as I would not let anyone else play on it and apparently had caused no end of mayhem.

The "juniors" were housed in the main school building.  I can only remember being taught by Mrs. Pickup during these years, when we reached the "top class" we were taught by the Headmaster.
Mrs. Pickup taught everything from country dancing, sewing, art, maths and english. She was always in school - when we arrived and when we left for home. I had the notion that she lived there.

We had to learn our "times tables" as homework - learn over the week-end and then we had to stand in class on Monday mornings to answer questions and were not allowed to sit down until you answered your question correctly.
Arts and crafts meant painting with powder paint which was dispensed from big tins and mixed with water and using Gloy glue with the paddle spreader. We also made little baskets from canes or from stiff waxy card that was cut and then threaded with brightly coloured wool.

There were two break times: morning and afternoon. At the slightest bit of sunshine and warm weather we would put our coats alongside the school wall and sunbathe! During the morning break we could buy biscuits and crisps from a trolley or hope that Mr. Clark, a local farmer, would stop off during his milk round to give us large ginger oat biscuits.

Free school milk was available (School Milk Act 1946) and each child received a 1/3pint. In the winter months it was quite often delivered frozen and was thawed out on the class room radiator! This probably explains my hatred of the white stuff!!

At Christmas time we had Christmas parties at school, each child had to take their own cutlery and crockery labelled with your name so as to avoid any confusion. We would stand out in the playground and look for Santa's sleigh arriving, but as if by magic when we returned inside he was always there laden with presents for us.

As far as I can remember there were three Headmasters during my time at St. Paul's: Mr. Cocker, Lloyd and Ashby. For those of us who were there on 12th April 1961 we witnessed something that was a huge day in space history.

All the pupils were rounded up and taken to the main hall where we were summoned around a large and cumbersome radio. We  listened intently as the Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, became the first human in space, making a 108 minute orbital flight.

Yuri Gagarin 9.3.34 - 27.3.68      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin

12th April 2011 is the 50th Anniversaryof this historic moment

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12975006



 

Bonfires and Playing Out

The bonfires at Woodcroft were legendary and the whole community seemed to be involved in one way or another.
The wood etc was duly collected and fiercely guarded just in case "Reedsholmers" came on a raiding party. I remember that we hollowed out the structure and would put an old chair inside it and then take turns at sitting inside it!
Mums made all manner of bonfire food: bonfire (treacle) 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.

Apart from the memories of Little Blackpool and the above, we used to play out in the back streets and put on variety shows for friends and families.
We would peg out cutains 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.

Back East Street

Pictures - 1956

With Dad and Vivien

With Mum and Vivien

  

Lodge and Little Blackpool

Is it an illusion that the sun always shines and it never rains when you are growing up? It certainly seems so.

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.

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. I seem to also remember that it had a wide ceramic bowl where we took our sticklebacks to live!
A second Gang Hut was just a concrete base, (or was it the former but in disrepair?) and how I loved it there. 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. Dad would always joke that the Three Bily Goats lived under it:

Remember the song?  http://www.sterlingtimes.co.uk/bill_goats_gruff.htm

On the hill above Clark's farm 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 winter of 1962/3 was the most severe in living memory:

Known as the Big Freeze, the country was covered in snow on Boxing Day and did not thaw out until March.

In the meantime it was battered by blizzards, freezing fog and icy temperatures as low as – 22C.

It was so cold that many lakes and rivers – including the Thames – froze over. In January temperatures plunged so sharply that a one mile stretch of sea was covered in ice.

In February more snow came and winds reached Force 8. A 36-hour blizzard caused heavy drifting snow in most parts of the country. Drifts reached 20 feet (6.1m).

 The River Nidd in Knaresborough which froze over in Deember 2010.

The first time I have seen anything like this since the frozen lodge above Reesholme

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