| Name |
Reminiscences |
More |
| ANDREW, DOROTHY |
Reminiscences November 1995
Dorothy Andrew, aged 68.
I was born at Fairbottom Farm, Ashton under Lyne, on 4th February 1927. All the children around Fairbottom attended Park Bridge School. There were no school dinners in those days, so every day we had to walk up and down the 'School Brow' ( Mill Brow) to go home to Fairbottom for our dinner. Our headmaster was John Warren Naylor... |
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| 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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| BRINDLEY, MARGARET |
Reminiscences May 2001
Margaret Brindley, aged 64.
My father Arnold Penny was born in Waterloo. When he married he lived in Ashton and then moved to 7, Dingle Terrace for a time. Then he moved onto Oldham Road near The Dog and Partridge where I was born in 1937. I was an only one. My mother, Edna died when I was four. She was a tailoress and used to make outfits for the shows that they... |
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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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| MALONEY, BILLY |
Reminiscences September 1995
Bill Maloney, aged 71.
I was born in Stalybridge. As a boy I lived in a cottage next to Pickford Hall at Fairbottom. We then moved to a cottage next to Fairbottom Sunday School. My father was out of work, so mother took in lodgers to make ends meet. They were men from Park Bridge Iron Works.
I went to St. James' School, Park Bridge. The headmaster then... |
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| MASKERY, HENRY |
Reminiscences March 1996
Henry Maskery, aged 57.
Park Bridge was mainly dominated by the Lees family, who were reputed to own everything, even the houses of the workers employed in their iron works. If you lived in one of their houses, the rent was taken from your wages before you got it. If you lost your job, you also lost your home as well.
I worked in the Bright Shop with a Polish... |
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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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| WARREN, ALBERT |
Reminiscences July 2002
Albert Warren. Aged 88
I was brought up in Duncan Street, Ashton under Lyne, one of twelve brothers. My only sister died when she was only a few months old.
Two of my brothers Daniel Morrison and George Harry Warren worked in the Bright Shop at Park Bridge ironworks. Danny married Hilda Newcombe and they lived on Dingle Terrace with their daughter. Danny worked... |
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| WOOD, FRANK |
Reminiscences March 2000
Frank Wood, aged 86
At the beginning of the Second World War I was a policeman, P.C. 205, with Oldham. In those days policemen were firemen and ambulance men as well. One day I was called to Park Bridge Ironworks, to the Bright Shop, because Danny Morrison had fallen into a vat of acid. We pulled him out and washed him down with water and took him to Oldham Royal... |
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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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| 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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