| Name |
Reminiscences |
More |
| ARTINGSTALL, ERIC |
Reminiscences August 2001
Eric Artingstall
Before she was married my mother-in-law was called Hilda Kidger. She lived at the post office by the bottom forge at Park Bridge. When she married Jimmy Whitehead in 1940 they went to live at Bellsfield opposite Briaracre at Fairbottom. Then in 1948 they bought Alt Farm from Charles Buckley, a solicitor. His father, Sidney Buckley was living in... |
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| BIRCHALL, RONNIE |
Reminiscences 1998
Ronnie Birchall
Frank Stott from Bardsley worked on the shears in the top forge cutting up steel billets to be taken by the small Dennis tipper wagon to the bottom forge. Just before the Second World War Frank was working on the shears when he cut off his thumb. He picked it up off the floor and said, ‘Well, that’s no good now!’ and threw it into number... |
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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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| BUTLER, GEORGE |
Reminiscences Summer 1995.
George Butler, aged 67.
Hannah Lees Iron Works, Ashton, was on Conduit Street between the River Tame and the Huddersfield Canal, off Whitelands Road, on the border between Ashton, Dukinfield and Stalybridge. The bridge there was called County Bridge. Conduit Street was opposite to Ira Stephens Leather Works. Next door to the Iron Works was Entwistles Tripe Works,... |
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| CLARE, JACK |
Reminiscences February 1996
Jack Clare, aged 65
My first recollection of Park Bridge was going to see Billy the bull at Andrew's farm. The shippon is still there and the square hole, where it stuck its head out.
I often went down to the Iron Works to see the men rolling the steel bars from the billets in the Bottom Forge. My Dad started working for the Lees in about 1940, when... |
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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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| COOPER, TOM |
Reminiscences April 2000
Tom Cooper, aged 73
Kenneth Cooper, aged 70
Our father, Thomas Cooper, was born in Ten Houses in 1899. He died in 1988 aged eighty-eight. He began work at Park Bridge when he was thirteen. He was a wheelwright in the Joiners Shop making wheels for carts. I (Tom) remember going down with his dinner with my mother and him standing me in a cart. Tom Gibson was foreman... |
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| COOPER, KENNETH |
Reminiscences April 2000
Tom Cooper, aged 73
Kenneth Cooper, aged 70
Our father, Thomas Cooper, was born in Ten Houses in 1899. He died in 1988 aged eighty-eight. He began work at Park Bridge when he was thirteen. He was a wheelwright in the Joiners Shop making wheels for carts. I (Tom) remember going down with his dinner with my mother and him standing me in a cart. Tom Gibson was foreman... |
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| DUNKERLEY, DOROTHY |
Reminiscences March 1998
Dorothy Dunkerley, aged 85.
I was born in December 1912 in a house near the bottom of Abbey Hills Road, Oldham. Then we moved to 4, Manor Road, Oldham at the bottom of Abbey Hills Road. It used to be a private road. They used to shut the gate once a year to keep it private. My father was called William Buckley and he was the son of Charles Buckley who was either... |
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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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| HIBBERT, SAM |
Reminiscences January 1998
Sam Hibbert, aged 80. (Died Sept. 1999)
I was born in Bailey Street in Stalybridge in 1918 when my father was away at the war. Later we lived at 15, Smallshaw Lane, Ashton under Lyne in a small stone cottage, one of four, which I believe now have a preservation order on them. I come from a large family. My father, Edward Hibbert, better known as Ned and Mother,... |
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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, HARRY |
Reminiscences 5th April 1999
Harry Holland, aged 62.
We never bothered to go to the canteen for toast. We just toasted in front of the fires, black toast. We did bacon on the plate in front of the furnace. It was the nicest tasting bacon. We used the canteen occasionally at dinnertime, it depended. My Mother used to put us stuff up and we’d warm it on top of the furnace.
I... |
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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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| HOWARTH, EDWARD |
Reminiscences July 1997
Edward Howarth, aged 89.
I started work on 'Spion Kop', the scrap yard above the Top Forge at Park Bridge Ironworks, on 20th February 1923 when I was only fourteen. I worked there until 1944 and became a rollerman on the big mill in the Bottom Forge.
There were many accidents in the ironworks. One of the lads, Jack Allott, found a Mills Bomb in one of the... |
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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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| JONES, MARGARET |
Reminiscences July 2002
Margaret Jones
My step-grandfather, Charlie Hough was a labourer in the top forge at Park Bridge.
My father Joseph Longsden, commenced work at Hannah Lees & Sons, Park Bridge ironworks shortly after his fifteenth birthday in 1916. He worked in the forge for most of the years, whether it was the top or bottom forge I am not sure. I just know he had a lot... |
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| JONES, SAM |
Reminiscences 1998
Sam Jones, aged 78.
I lived at Rycroft, Ashton. I used to come to Park Bridge on the train when I was ten or twelve. It was 11/2d return from Oldham Road station. A ‘push and pull’ train with two coaches and one engine went from Guide Bridge to Oldham. It was pushed one way and pulled the other. It never turned round.
We played on the meadow in front of... |
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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 May 1996
Peggy Laister, aged 80 Fairbottom Chapel
I start to write this with love and thankfulness in my heart. Thankfulness for all those who have contributed towards the 150 years of Fairbottom's lifetime. So many, many folk have attended here - learnt here - worshipped here. All those who taught - are teaching - whether as Sunday School teachers or preachers - what... |
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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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| PICKUP, EDITH |
Reminiscences ... |
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| PROBERT, WILLIAM |
Reminiscences April 1996
William Probert
Park Bridge Iron Works was really four works in one and each depending on one another.
Namely -
Top Forge, where the iron was made.
The Rolling Mills, where iron and steel were rolled.
The Roller Shop, supplied by the mills.
The Bright Shop, supplied by the mills.
May I briefly describe each in turn?
First... |
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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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| HURST, LILLIAN |
Lillian Hurst nee Turner.
HAPPY CHILDHOOD MEMORIES OF PARKBRIDGE DAYS.
One Sunday afternoon when I was about eleven, my Mum, Dad & I set off for our usual Sunday afternoon walk- but this time we went a completely new way, because we were going to visit some friends my dad had met at work. He was a Goods Guard stationed at Glodwick Rd. Oldham and his “turns of duty”... |
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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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| JOHNSON, DAVID |
Reminiscences January 1998
David Johnson aged 57.
I was born in 1940 in Werneth. My Dad was born at Tan Pit Fields in the end house nearest to Westerhill. He was called Wilfred Johnson and my Mother was called Mary. My grandma, Sarah Jane and my grandad, Thomas Johnson, my Dad's mother and father lived at Station House in the early 1940's. My Granddad worked on the railway. I've... |
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