| Name |
Reminiscences |
More |
| BISHOP, DOROTHY |
Reminiscences January 1998
Dorothy Bishop, aged 76
Selena Bumford, aged 66
Lynn Baron, aged 63
Our father was Joseph Porter. He was a labourer in the Bright Shop for over 20 years. He started work at Park Bridge ironworks about 1921 and left because of ulcers when he was probably 47. He then went to work at Shaw’s brush works on Winton Street in Ashton. We lived on Jackson Street... |
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| BROWN, CHRIS |
Reminiscences May 2001
Chris Brown, aged 78.
The garage used to be up a road to the left of the Bottom Forge, the Lancashire boilers used to be up there. As you went up to the Lancashire boilers the garage was on the right hand side before you got to ’turbine, there were a garage and then there were turbines. They made there own electric, so the steam boilers worked the turbines to... |
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| CLARKE, MARGARET |
Reminiscences February 200
Margaret Clarke aged 73
I was born in Ashton Lakeside Hospital in 1930. My father was William Day, known as Billy and my mother Sarah was known as Sally. I had no brothers or sisters. I started life at Denton in the Kings Head Hotel at Crown Point; my grandparents were licensees there. I came to Ashton when I was six years old because my father’s parents... |
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| FAIRHURST, JOHN |
Reminiscences October 1999
John Fairhurst, aged 56.
My Father was in the Grenadier Guards in the First World War and in the Second World War he was in the home guard and was Works Manager in Park Bridge Ironworks from 1938 – 1961. He didn’t actually retire. He had two heart attacks, which my mother said Park Bridge had caused. He was works manager under Lowther Lees, who lived... |
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| FOSTER, BERNARD |
Reminiscences May 1996
Bernard Foster, aged 68.
I was born in 1928, at 23, Dingle Terrace, one of six children. The house was quite small with two rooms downstairs, the house and a kitchen. Mother cooked the meals on a black leaded stove that had an open fire and a side oven. She did the washing in a set pot, made of bricks with a metal liner, under which a fire was lit to heat the water.... |
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| FOSTER, JOE |
Reminiscences February 1996
Joe Foster, aged 78
I started work at the ironworks at Park Bridge, when I was 15, cutting up scrap on the shears at "Spion Kop", the scrap yard in the Top Forge. In my 20's I was promoted to the engineering side of the business and looked after the works boilers in the Bottom Forge. It had two Lancashire boilers and five waste heat boilers over... |
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| FREEMAN, BOB |
Reminiscences July 2000
Bob Freeman, aged 80.
I was born on the 15th December 1919. This was just twelve months after the end of the Great War or World War I. It became necessary later on to differentiate between World War I and the second terrible conflict now known as World War II.
My father and mother both worked in a munitions factory during the first word war. Father was a skilled... |
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| HIRST, HAROLD |
Reminiscences March 1996
Harold Hirst, aged 92.
I started in the Iron Works on my thirteenth birthday on the Spion Kop, that was the scrap yard. It was called the Spion Kop after the Boer War. All the lads started there and moved to the Bottom Forge when they were older and there was a vacancy. In the scrap yard we cropped scrap up into small pieces with a cropper. It was on a rocker system... |
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| HOLLAND, ERIC |
Reminiscences January 1998
Eric Holland, aged 66.
My Father, Richard Holland, was a maintenance man at Hannah Lees & Sons, Park Bridge ironworks. He was working there when I was about ten. He probably worked there for about ten years and retired at sixty. He would be called out to repair the brickwork of the furnaces when they had cooled down. He dubbinned his boots with neat’s-foot... |
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| HOLLAND, MAUREEN |
Reminiscences 5th April 1999
Maureen Holland, nee Taylor, aged 57.
I started work in the offices at Park Bridge in 1959 when I was eighteen. The offices, opposite the Bottom Forge gates, at the bottom of the hill at the end of the Cotton Mill, were three storeys high. The top storey had a tower with a winding stone staircase.
My first job in the morning was to light the coal fires... |
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| HOPWOOD, BRIAN |
Reminiscences July 2001
Brian Hopwood, aged 57.
We moved to Park Bridge in 1957 off Ashton Moss. My parents were Harry and Hilda Hopwood. My sister Elaine lives at Dukinfield and Brother Philip lives at Hyde. Philip was just born when we moved into Mill Brow House. Dad was born in 1919. He worked there (Park Bridge ironworks) since he was fourteen. He started off sorting scrap up on Spion... |
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| INGHAM, JOHN |
Reminiscences October 1995
John Ingham, aged 58.
In 1954, aged seventeen, I was an articled clerk working for Wainwright, Son & Co, auditors of Delamere Street, Ashton.
I used to go to the offices at Park Bridge Iron Works to help Harris Jenkins audit the firm’s books. I went by train, getting off at the Park Bridge Halt or caught the bus to Bardsley Brow and walked along... |
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| KAYE, BERNARD |
Reminiscences January 1998
Bernard Kaye, aged 63.
I left Ashton Grammar school and worked at the National Gas and Oil Engine Co. in Ashton for three weeks. I was a choirboy at Christ Church in Ashton and Billy Clegg, who was Company Secretary at Park Bridge Ironworks was the choirmaster. He got me a job in the offices at Park Bridge as a junior clerk. I worked there from 1950 'till... |
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| KIDGER, JACK |
Reminiscences February 2002
Jack Kidger, aged 78
When I first started work I signed up with Boots as an unindentured apprentice. The job was counter work and some dispensing under supervision. Then I went in the forces. When I came back all the jobs had been taken over by the girls, there was no dispensing to be done so the interest wasn’t there. So I had a sudden change of plan and... |
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| LAISTER, PEGGY |
Reminiscences January 1996
Peggy Laister, aged 80.
Childhood days in our village were very pleasant. The village school was about twenty minutes walk from my home, over open fields, up several hills, but we thought nothing of the journey. There were no school meals so we made that journey four times daily. We set off singly but almost always joined up with others long before arriving. The... |
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| LOMAS, BOB |
Reminiscences October 2003
Vera Moody, aged 85.
Bob Lomas, aged 77
Vera – ‘I was born in Union Road in Ashton in December 1917. I had one brother, Bob, who was nearly nine years younger than me. My father, John William Lomas, known as Jack, was an engineer at Park Bridge ironworks. All the time he was at Park Bridge he worked on ‘textiles’. They made fluted rollers... |
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| NEATH, HARRY |
Reminiscences July 1996
Harry Neath, aged 54.
I was born in Bardsley at 20, Clive Street, now Hilary Avenue. I went to Bardsley Infant School then to Christ Church Secondary Modern School. I left school when I was fifteen and started work in the Roller Shop at Park Bridge in 1958.
My first job was brewing up, making 22 drinks, four in metal billy cans with lids, the rest in enamel... |
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| PICKUP, EDITH |
Reminiscences ... |
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| POTTER, JEAN |
Reminiscences November 2001
Jean Potter, aged 70.
I came to Park Bridge a week after a large blitz in Coventry 8/9th April 1941. I was ten and a half years old and my brother next to me had been killed in the blitz. My elder sister Doris had arranged to marry Peter Wellesley Morris from Park Bridge in May of 1941 in Coventry, but following the devastation this was impossible. So she decided... |
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| SLATER, JACK |
Reminiscences March 2000
Jack Slater, aged
Headquarters – united Methodist School, Alt
1933
President – Joe Hadfield
Vice President – Herbert Wood
Secretary – Wm Marland (of Park Villas, Park Bridge, foreman in roller shop)
Assistant Secretary – Wm Slater
Treasurer – Percy Marsh
Alt Chapel and Sunday School had one big room with moveable... |
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| SMITH, EDNA |
Reminiscences ... |
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| YATES, NORMAN |
Reminiscences April 1997
Norman Yates, aged 83. (Emigrated to Canada)
It is quite apparent that dates of happenings seventy odd years ago are somewhat elusive, but it seems fairly certain that 1920 was the year that Bessie and I, along with Jimmy Whitehead, Marion Kidger and others graduated from the infants to standard one in the 'big room'. Just at what point we left Alt - before... |
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| BOOTH, WILLIAM |
Reminiscences March 2002
William Booth Aged 82
My parents were Margaret & William Booth. I was born in Blucher St. In Waterloo in 1919. I lived there until I went into the Army in 1939, when I got married I lived at 8, Blucher St. My parents lived at No. 5. I had no sisters, our Ernie, who worked at Park Bridge, was about three years older than me. When he got married he lived in Hill... |
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| MOODY, VERA |
Reminiscences October 2003
Vera Moody, aged 85.
Bob Lomas, aged 77
Vera – ‘I was born in Union Road in Ashton in December 1917. I had one brother, Bob, who was nearly nine years younger than me. My father, John William Lomas, known as Jack, was an engineer at Park Bridge Ironworks. All the time he was at Park Bridge he worked on ‘textiles’. They made fluted rollers... |
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| NEWTON, JOSEPH ISAAC |
“Some Reminiscences of Bardsley & District.”
By Joseph Isaac Newton, Ashton Reporter, 20.2.1904.
What a feeling of regard we have for the haunts of our boyhood days! Having been a resident of Bardsley at a time of prosperity, I venture some reminiscences of my past acquaintance with it.
During our stay in the village we resided in a dwelling of antique character, where... |
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| HOLT, MAUD |
Reminisences
Maud Holt nee Slater wrote a list of the villagers she knew.
(When the vicar was Rev. Wolf, 1902-23 and the curate was Mr. Timothy, 1912-20)
Tenants of Dingle Terrace;
No.1, Mr. & Mrs. Williamson, he was manager of the Top Forge. Children-Arthur, Alice, Charlotte, Harry & Emiline.
No.3, Percy & Laura Marshes. Children-Dora (died), Lizzie, Janet, Clara,... |
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