| 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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| 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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| BROWNE, TERENCE |
Reminiscences September 1999
Terence Browne, aged 78.
When I was young, I lived in Portland Street, Ashton under Lyne. I had five brothers and a sister that I don’t remember, she died very young, in infancy, and a sister that died two years ago, who was two years older than me. My father was Edward Browne and my Mother’s name was Marie Anne Bostock before she was married. Dad... |
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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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| 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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| 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, 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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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