| 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... |
|
| 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... |
|
| CLAYTON, PETER |
Reminiscences October 1997
Peter Clayton, aged 54
I went to Park Bridge School for a short time before I moved to Alexander Park School. The headmaster was Warren - Naylor. He had a club foot and wore a hearing aid. He was in charge of the choir at St. James' Church. I think I only got into the choir in 1950 because Warren - Naylor was deaf. When the electricity was off I sometimes... |
|
| 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... |
|
| 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.... |
|
| 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,... |
|
| 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... |
|
| 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... |
|
| 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... |
|
| 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... |
|
| 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... |
|
| 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... |
|
| MURRELL, GLENYS |
Reminiscences February 1996
Glenys Murrell (nee Harrop) aged 59
Christmas Eves were exciting. There was a Social of some description held in the school room under the church. Perhaps a dance with some games and of course always carol singing, which included “The Park Bridge Anthem ", (Our special rendering of “While shepherds watched their flocks by night "). Everyone... |
|
| SCHONUT, PEGGY |
Reminiscences November 1999
Peggy Schonut, aged 68.
I was born in 1931. I was called Peggy Hessner and lived in Meadow Lane, Dukinfield. I was in Ashton Girl Guide Company based at St. John’s Church, Dukinfield. I remember coming to Park Bridge with the Girl Guides to camp in the grounds of Dean House. I think it was the summer of ’42. A hand cart was loaded, in the church grounds,... |
|
| 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... |
|
| YATES, NORMAN |
Reminiscences April 1996
Norman Yates, aged 82.
My own attendance at Church would begin in late 1917 or some time in 1918, and at that time the young fry sat on the first pews on the right and were kept in order by the young man's class, who at the time filled the second pew. I remember Jim and Tom Penny and Joe Hewitt and Wilfred Suter. The photograph shows the Lee's pew to the... |
|
| 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... |
|
| 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... |
|
| DEFLEY, MAVIS |
Mavis Defley Reminiscences
Ours was a small industrial village with the Ironworks at its centre. There were four rows of workers cottages, about 40 in all, and six larger bay windowed houses for the managers, a school, church and two chapels, five small farms and a very grand manor house with stable house and coach house where the Ironmaster lived. We had a village policeman who kept the children... |
|
