LifeTimesLink

Sharing Salford’s Fantastic Story

Issue No 21 May 2007 - October 2007 FREE

Useful contacts Phone

John Sculley, museums and heritage

services manager 0161 778 0816

Heather McAlpine, lifetimes officer 0161 778 0885

Caroline Mean , heritage development officer

0161 778 0817

Ann Monaghan, outreach officer

0161 778 0881

Peter Ogilvie,collections manager

0161 778 0825

Charlotte Derry, exhibitions officer

0161 778 0819

Ceri Horrocks, learning officer 0161 778 0820

Luisa Guccione, learning support assistant

0161 778 0821

Tim Ashworth, librarian, Local History Library

0161 778 0814

Salford Museum & Art Gallery

0161 778 0800

Ordsall Hall Museum 0161 872 0251

Useful contacts Websites

Editorial

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Adding a LINK to our chainIf you would like to send in an article or contribute to LifeTimes Link then send it to:

The Editor: LifeTimes Link, Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Peel Park, Crescent, Salford, M5 4WUEmail: heather.mcalpine@salford.gov.uk Tel: 0161 778 0885

The deadline for Issue No 22 (November 2007 to May 2008) is 27 August 2007. We must add that we cannot accept any responsibility for the loss or damage to contributor’s material - so if you want us to copy original photographs, please phone us first. We cannot guarantee publication of your material and reserve the right to edit any contributions we do use.

Read all about itBasic large print versions of this magazine are available on request.

www.salford.gov.uk/museums - for all museum related topics

www.salford.gov.uk/whatson - find out about concerts, walks, talks and other events in Salford

www.wcml.org.uk - website for the Working Class

Movement Librarywww.canalarchive.org.uk

- all about Trafford Park, the Bridgewater Canal and

Manchester Ship Canal

A digital (pdf file) copy of this magazine, and all the back issues, can be read or downloaded from www.salford.gov.uk/lifetimes-links

Welcome to the 21st edition of LifeTimes Link, the magazine that provides information, news and views on Salford’s Heritage. Once again, our grateful thanks to all Friends, contributors and readers who continue to ensure lively interest in the city’s history and its stories.

It has been a good year for Salford Museums and Heritage. Between April 2006 and March 2007, Salford Museum and Art Gallery recorded 95,000 visitors, Ordsall Hall submitted its first stage Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) application and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council recognised Salford’s professional museum standards by awarding ‘Full Accreditation’.

Accreditation

The accreditation scheme for museums in the United Kingdom sets nationally agreed standards for UK museums. To qualify, museums must meet clear requirements in four areas – governance, user services, visitor facilities and collections management.

The scheme is administered nationally by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). MLA’s accreditation panel receives recommendations from the regional agencies according to their assessment of museums in their region. The accredited status of a museum often forms part ofthe criteria for funding organisations, including the Heritage Lottery Fund. We are pleased with the award, especially at such an opportune time given our Ordsall Hall ambitions.

The year also provided some particular highlights including:

• ThelaunchofLinkAgePlus,a reminiscence programme targeting care-home residents and staff.• Theaward-winning‘Embrace’project, for refugees and asylum seekers, which secured additional funding from the Baring Foundation and mountedamajormuseumexhibition, ‘What Would You Do If’.• Thedevelopmentofadditional learning resources servicing schools and families.• Therelocationofasubstantial proportion of the city’s archive to controlled safe accommodation.• Theciviccelebrationsforthe40th Anniversary of Salford’s twinning with cities in Germany and France.

The year ahead offers similar challenges and promises equal reward.

Lark Hill Place 50th Anniversary

Salford’s Victorian street was first opened to the public in 1957. This Salford ‘treasure’ allows the museum to display in excess of 4,000 items from the collections and acts as a magnet for schools, colleges and universities studying local and social history.Year-long celebrations kicked-off in March, with a return visit by the museum’s first patron, Queen Victoria. Other celebrity visits during the year are programmed alongside special birthday events and activities. For schools, a new Lark Hill Place learning resource pack has been produced and a ‘Victorian Theme’ schools competition, with a ‘street party’ and a Harold Riley signed print, donated by the Friends of Salford Museums, as first prize. For more information go to www.salford.gov.uk/museums

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Contents

Editorial 2-3Contributions 2Useful contacts 2

Salford samplers 4Didn’t we have fun 5

Our 3-cornered field 6 Salford Central Mission 7Centenary Street of a thousand 8 childrenFriends in America 8-9The Virginia Associationof Museums

Salfordians reunited 10 Links Listings 11-12(Events, Exhibitions)

Heritage Walks 12-13New Fusiliers’ 13museum

Shopping in Salford 14-15

And so to work 16-17

You Write 18(see also p3, p6-7, p9, p10, p20)

Ordsall Park memories 19-20

Memories of a tea 21factory worker

Mystery Pix 22 Local history 23roundup Venue map & opening details 24

Cover photo: The street is 50! No, not the Granada television street, but Salford Museum’s Lark Hill Place celebrates its 50th birthday this year - see Editorial opposite.

Museum review

The museum review is moving into a second phase. Consultations throughout 2006 helped inform ambitions for the museum’s future as a national centre for the appreciation, study and advancement of social history. Planning is now underway aimed at ensuring that Salford Museum and Art Gallery’s next 150 years is as successful as its last.

Ordsall Hall Museum

Since the last issue, Ordsall Hall has been visited by a series of Heritage Lottery Fund experts and panel members who have each confirmed the strength of the funding application. The HLF National Panel decision is expected soon. If the application is successful, work on the conservation and development of Ordsall Hall will begin in 2008, with an anticipated completion date in 2011.

Conserving 800 years of history while, at the same time, making the property fit for 21st century purposes, is an expensive business. Even with the generous support of Salford City Council and the HLF we still need to raise £1,000,000. If you would like to support the appeal, you can contact the Hall direct, or donate online by visiting The Extraordinary Ordsall Campaign at www.salford.gov.uk/ordsallhall

The Friends

The Friends remain at the heart of support for Salford Museums including Ordsall Hall. The Friends are always keen to welcome new members. For further information on joiningTheFriendsofSalfordMuseumsask at Salford Museum and Art Gallery or telephone 0161 778 0816.

Exhibitions, Events and Programmes

The next six months offers an exciting and challenging programme of exhibitions. In LifeTimes, Shop ‘til you Drop looks at the city’s long relationship with shopping. Also showing in the LifeTimes Gallery, is a stunning display of Pilkington Pottery, selected from the city’s own museum collection. Visiting exhibitions include, ‘Uncomfortable Truths’, which comes from the Victoria and Albert Museum to commemorate the bi-centenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade; and ‘Fellow Travellers’ (until 27 May) an exhibition of work by artists who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT).

The Lark Hill Place Anniversary leads the events programme. Other highlights include a ‘Refugee Week’ event on 24 June and the Salford Local History Fair, 18 November 2007, at Salford Museum and Art Gallery.

At Ordsall Hall you can see the re-installedSaxonlogboatandenjoyoneof our Family Fundays held on the first Sunday of every month, or you could visit the Hall’s Craft Fair on 7 October.

John Sculley

Museums and heritage services manager

STOP PRESS: Great news: at the end of March the Heritage Lottery Fund earmarked £4.3million to support Ordsall Hall’s conservation and development. The development programme will be confirmed during the next year and hall restoration is expected to begin in 2008.

SHOPS IN THE PROGRAMMES In Link Issue 20 the announcement of the LifeTimes Gallery exhibition ‘Shop Till You Drop!’ and the memories of Cliff Cavanagh and the Salford Docks Mission pantomimes brought forth the following memories. At Pendleton Congregational Church the pantos were produced by John F Magnall and countless numbers of helpers contributed to their success. The programmes had advertisements for local shops, as shown on the enclosed copy. I hope these memories will renew the thoughts of happy times of days gone by for many old friends.

S Whitehead, Blackley, Manchester

You write ...

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Salford samplers by Peter Turner, collections assistant

Salford Museum and Art Gallery holds in the region of eighty samplers in its collections, some of which have recently been taken out to groups in the city, who, as part of Salford’s Engaging Refugees and Asylum Seekers Project, have been working on a textile based project with the theme ‘Freedom – who sets the borders?’.

Samplers have been worked in Britain since the sixteenth century but most that survive date from the nineteenth century. This is true of the examples in Salford’s collection, although there are some that date from the 1780s.

Originally samplers were a record of needlework patterns recorded on a piece of cloth for future reference at a time when printed designs for needlework didn’t exist. The word sampler or exampler was derived from the French exemplaire or essamplaire meaning any kind of work to be copied or imitated. This original use of the sampler became unnecessary as printed pattern books became common by the end of the seventeenth century and it took on another use, as a needlework exercise, particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Samplers would be worked at school by (mainly) girls being taught practical needlework skills for use in the home or at work and to teach othersubjectssuchas geography by the use of map samplers. Some samplers recorded family events and occasions and many included religious or moral verse. The information recorded on a sampler, such as places, schools and people can make it a valuable source of social history.

One of the samplers in the collection which unusually makes a social comment

is ‘The factory child’s trouble’ sampler, which was worked by Elizabeth Hodgates, aged 12 in 1833, who was thought to have lived in Salford in the Trinity area. It is embroidered in silk on fine buff linen using cross stitch of various sizes, the detail including Adam and Eve beneath the Tree of Knowledge, Solomon’s Temple, a shepherd and his sheep, a bird in a tree, a prayer and a verse lamenting the lot of the factory child. Another sampler, which is typical of those produced in schools, was worked by Sarah Nugard, aged 12 in 1844 at ‘Mrs Thomas School Cayhill Street Salford.’ Above the centrepiece of a house with plants on either side are the alphabet and numbers. Below it are recorded family names, births, deaths and ages. This sampler is embroidered in wool, mostly using cross stitch.

Memorial samplers are another common theme represented in the collection, the example shown here being from the 1880s.

ThesearejustafewexamplesfromSalford’s varied collection of samplers, many of which provide a valuable insight into the history of Salford and its people inadditiontobeingobjectsofinterestdemonstrating the skill of those who worked them.

Memorial Sampler

Sarah Nugard Sampler

Fact

ory

Child

s Sa

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There was a lot of poverty in the 1930s but there was a massive housing programme also. There was certainly work for tradesmen, but not too much for the labourers who were given six months in work and six months on the dole. The women worked in the cotton mills where it was very hard work for very little money.

The pawn shop was a lifeline for poorer families in the 30s trying to make ends meet. People would make a visit there every Monday morning regular as clockwork to pawn a few items to see themselves through the week. The shop was run by a fellow called Harry andhekeptjewelleryinhis front window. He had a sign with three black balls on it and around the back was a large yard with a big, back door. Dead on 9 o’clock trading began.

Women would bring coats and frocks while the men would bring suits and coats to pawn. Harry would hand over money and a ticket and the clothing would remain with him until you could redeem back your items.

Every couple of weeks there was a man with a horse and cart who used to go around the streets shouting “Rag Bone, Rag Bone”. Then out would come the women with their clean rags which he would exchange for donkey-stones to clean the front steps. The only problem was you couldn’t get back into your house until the step had dried.

Next there was a barrel organ man who played a variety of music. We often had a sing-song but you were expected to put a penny or two into his hat. Sometimes he would bring a little monkey who would sit on the top of the organ. It wasn’t wise to get too near him though. He could have your arm off - the monkey, not the barrel organ man that is.

There was also the ice cream man (his name was Lucketti I think) who every night in the summer would come round our way in his little van ringing his bell. You could have a wafer or cornet, but if you couldn’t afford that you could put your ice cream in a mug or a basin. There was also a chap from Walls who would also come around on a three wheeler bike selling oblong snowfruits, which were flavoured ice. They quenched our thirst on many an evening.

by Eddie Kenny

You could go in Charley Lee’s grocer’s shop, on the corner of Swinton Hall Road, for food, providing you agreed to take a small book in which he would list the items you had received so you could settle up with him on Friday. If you didn’t then he, or one of his mates, would come a-knocking!

Once a year there was a fun-fair which would come to Swinton on the ground where Netto’s is now. It was a bit like Blackpool, but on a much smaller scale. There was a boxing ring in which you could pit your wits and skill against the ‘champ’. If you could stay on your feet for three rounds then you got three quid. Not many did though!

At weekend there was pigeon racing. I went with a pal of mine. On one hand he had a basket and on the other a stopwatch. We would time the birds by a mark on the tree. Lots of bets would take place on the outcome of these races and a fast bird could keep you in beer for a long time.

And I can remember a game we played called pitch and toss. In this game a ring was made and you all took it in turns to throw a coin to get nearest to the centre. The closest took the cash. We had to have our wits about us because this game was illegal. If the coppers caught you whilst playingit,youwereforthehighjumpandno mistake. Life was lived at a lot slower pace, but boy did we have some fun.

Didn’t we have funSammy the pony and scrap dealer outside stable, Orange Street, Brunswick redevelopment area, Salford, 1978 (Salford Local History Library)

make hair grow, so we used to take some out of the grease box on the wheels and smear it on our heads and, I might add, to other parts where we wanted hair to grow!

All during the war years and up to the late 40s we would spend all our time on our ‘Three-Cornered Field’. On a few occasions, we would see convoys of Yanks going along the East Lancs, either coming from or going to Burtonwood Air Base near Warrington. They would throw cigarettes, usually Chesterfields, or chewing gum, and even nylons for the women who watched them go by.The ‘Three-Cornered Field’ is now part of a housing estate, but I will never forget the times we had there.

Map of 1936 showing three cornered field, bottom left, and Parkfield School for Crippled Children, bottom centre. (Salford Local History Library)

Our three-cornered field

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By Ron Beech

You write ...

When the East Lancs Road was constructed, there was a field that was left on the side and was part of Swinton Park golf course. We, as kids, called it ‘The Three-Cornered Field’, because of its shape. On one side was the East Lancs Road, on another side was the Black Harry Tunnel and on the third was a ten foot high stone wall, marking the boundary of the ‘Cripples’ Home’ (we used to call it that, as kids). The Three-Cornered Fieldwassituatedjustoverthesmall‘BlackHarry’bridge,attheendofButtermere Avenue, off Dorchester Road.

At the start of the 39-45 war, the Cripples’ Home was derelict and crumbling and we used to wander and play in the grounds and what was left of the building. Times were hard in the war years but as lads we made our own fun. We were no angels and we had some good times. We used to play cricket, rugby and soccer, and if you could borrow a golf club, we’d drive a ball down the length of the field.

A few names of my mates who used the field then were Geoff Dale and his cousin Malc Dale, Harry and Alan Peachey, Dickie Harris, Gerald Eckersley, Alan (Big Red) Wareing, Ronnie Jones, George Whitworth, Kenny Cowie (even though he had a disability he was good at everything), Billy Willetts and an old friend of mine, Eddie Hobson, who was a few years older than me. Once when we were playing rugby, he had a box of matches in his trouser pockets and when he was tackled the box exploded, much to our amusement, but he was unscathed. There were many more of us, but I can’t remember the names.

I don’t recall seeing many goods trains on the Black Harry line, but there were always trucks, or wagons as they were called, parked up. We used to play in these, some of us smoking cigarettes and getting up to some mischief or other. We used to believe that axle grease was supposed to

KERSAL MEMORIES

I’m a new Link reader and in a back issue, no16, you reproduced a letter from Gomer Roberts. He was born at number 30 and me at 38 Shirley Avenue, Lower Kersal, in 1924. We started school together at Littleton Road Junior School as the first ever pupils in 1929 and both passed scholarships for Grecian Street Central School. We were boyhood mates, going everywhere together, until we left school aged 14 in 1938.

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By Ron Beech

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In its large church hall, which could seat over 1200 people, famous politicians such as Kier Hardy and Clement Attlee addressed packed audiences of their supporters.

In preparation for the centenary a book is being prepared which will cover the history of the mission and stories about the many activitieswhichwereenjoyedbysomanypeople. It is important to do this now because a new city academy which will incorporate the present mission building has been agreed by the city council. It is planned to have a place of worship within the new academy for the use of the Salford Central United Reformed Church. It is essential that before this happens the history and memories surrounding the mission are not lost.

Celebrations to mark the Centenary will take place on Sunday 21 October but it is planned to have an exhibition of photographs and memorabilia on Saturday afternoon the 20 October.

If any readers have memories or photographs of the mission, would they please send them to Barry Logan and Gerald Urey at the Salford Central United Reformed Church, 5 Broadway, Trafford Road, Salford M5 2UW. Please include your name and address so that photographs can be returned.

Photo, below: Opening of Salford Central Mission 1907 (from Salford Central Mission, Trafford Rd, Salford: Commemoration of the Semi-Jubilee, Oct 2nd - 30th 1932 Souvenir handbook)

Salford Central Mission -centenary celebrations

By Gerald Urey

In October this year the Salford Central United Reformed Church will be celebrating its centenary. The church, known to many as Salford Central Mission, was officially opened on the 19 October 1907. Since that date many people have passed through its doors either to the church services or to attend the activities which took place within the building.

For many years it had a thriving amateur operatic society and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Master of the Queen’s Music, claims his introduction to music was at a performance of the mission’s operatic society. Amongst its many other activities was a thriving Sunday school, a youth club, a Boys’ Brigade and a men’s club. One of the annual highlights of each year was its Rose Queen celebrations, which involved scores of young girls and the occasional lad to act as a page boy.

Another mate was Roy Molyneux from Monsal Avenue, and Prestwich Clough and Heaton Park were our favourite play areas, especially in the school summer holidays.

When Cussons soap factory was opened, by Madelaine Carol I think, we kids were invited to a party. Mr Cussons lived about 200 yards from my back garden at Oaklands on Oaklands Road.

I worked for Salford CorporationWaterworks from 1940 to 43. SalfordWaterworks was incorporated with Manchester Waterworks during the war. IjoinedtheRoyalNavyandwhendemobbedwasgivenajobatSalfordCorporation Gas Dept in Bloom Street where I was told in no uncertain terms that they had no room for ex-servicemen!

I left Salford at the end of 1949 to live and work in Chelmsford and though I have not lived in Salford since that time I have always been proud of my home town.

Norman Lambert, Bootle

Left: Norman on demob leave in civvies on Kersal Moor (St Pauls Church in the background)Above: Salford City Reporter article

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‘The Street of a Thousand Children’ was the nickname people gave to Rudman Street in Ordsall.

The street of a thousand childrenBy Leslie Holmes

video from 1986 of Manchester band The Smiths, ‘Stop me if you’ve heard this one before’, with Morrissey riding a bike up and down the back alleys around Salford Lads’ Club and St Ignatius Church.

The exhibition also includes the work of Lawrence Cassidy, another artist whose fascination is with Salford’s streets. Lawrence describes his work as, “unearthing the lost histories of street life in Salford, using digitally enlarged family albums and super-eight film footage collected from ex-residents of the streets from the 1960s, streets that are now demolished where established communities had lived for generations.”

Child

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The accompanying photograph was taken from an article titled ‘In a street of 60 houses, 300 children!’ in the short-lived ‘Salford Comet’ magazine of the late 1960s. Rudman Street also gained an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for having 304 children in one street. Times have changed of course and only one side of the original street remains, renamed Rudman Drive. The other side of the street was demolished in 1987.

This summer, over the weekends of June 16 - 17 and 23 – 24, I am organising an exhibition at Salford Lads’ Club. Besides Rudman Street, the exhibition will also feature the last remaining cobbled section of Brighton Street and a promotional

If you were one of the 1000 children of Rudman Street please get in touch with me to add your story to the exhibition. You can contact me at: leslie.holmes@ukonline.co.uk or post your information or even a photograph to: Street of a Thousand Children, Salford Lads’ Club, Coronation Street, Salford M5 3RX.

Friends in America - The Virginia Association of Museums by John Finley Chairman Friends of Salford Museums

Virginia’s museums and historic sites are actively participating in the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, throughtheco-operationincommunityprojectsandwiththeirownspecialevents,exhibitionsandpublicprogrammes.Manyoftheseprojectsandevents involve a look at the ties between the United Kingdom and its former colony. The Virginia Association of Museums (VAM) is also participating by sponsoring an exchange programme for museum professionals and volunteers from the UK. With Salford and Virginia’s links through the transported Agecroft Hall in mind, I accepted an invitation to attend the VAM 2007 Conference in March, titled Rediscovering Virginia: A Program for British Professionals, and I am writing this article before my departure (so that I can catch the publication deadline!).

Agecroft Hall (Salford Local History Library)

I will be attending the conference in Colonial Williamsburg, from 10 - 13 March and afterwards will visit a number of Virginia museums, Historical Jamestowne (sic) and Jamestown Settlement and to share experiences and ideas with our American colleagues and perhaps plan future collaborations.

Established in 1968 and with over 850 members, the VAM gives cultural and historical sites around Virginia and the District of Columbia a forum to voice common concerns, share ideas, learn from each other and grow stronger in the process.

There are two cities playing host to and offering a varied programme for their British guests. The first host city is Fredericksburg and the Northern Neck region where we will be visiting Stratford Hall, the 18th century home of the Lee family (General Robert E Lee led the Confederate forces in the American Civil War) as well as a number of other sites of national importance. As you may guess, the following programme is the more relevant to me, as the second host city is Richmond, Virginia and the participating museum is Agecroft Hall! We will take a tour of Agecroft Hall Museum and gardens, an afternoon visit to Richmond and nearby sites of interest to UK colleagues, before meeting on site with the curator of education, tour co-ordinator, gardener, conservator and office manager.

Agecroft Hall (www.agecrofthall.org) was built in Salford, in the late 15th century. For hundreds of years Agecroft Hall was the distinguished home of the Langley and Dauntesey families. At the end of the 19th century however Agecroft fell into disrepair and in 1925 it was sold at auction. Richmonder Thomas C. Williams Jr purchased the structure and had it dismantled, crated and shipped across the Atlantic and then painstakingly reassembled in a Richmond neighbourhood know as Windsor Farms. Today Agecroft Hall stands beautifully re-created in a setting reminiscent of its original site on the River Irwell. Agecroft Hall contains English furnishings from the 16th and 17th centuries and interprets the cultural life of the gentry during that time. Additionally there are lectures and school programs on a regular basis.

Last October I had the good fortune to meet Martha Scott who is the curator of the Kinsale Museum, Virginia, USA and I shall be her personal guest during my stay. She had to come to the UK to conduct some business with their sister

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By Leslie Holmes

museum in Kinsale, Ireland and then, as she had some days of her vacation to spare, she came to visit Salford, before visiting the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford, which is currently undergoing a £49 million redevelopment. She found a reference about me on the internet and contacted me by e-mail. We have corresponded since August and I told her of my involvement with the Friends. She informed me of her intention to visit the UK and said she would like to meet me. I took her to The Lowry where I was keen to show her the painting ‘Bargoed’ which the Friends helped to purchase. The following day we visited Ordsall Hall Museum for the hog-roast, being the final event of the Salford Food and Drink Festival. She was very impressed by the musicians, Tapestry of Music, with their authentic musical instruments, the ladies of the household in period dress and Walter Greenhalgh as Wilf the serf who welcomed the visitor from the colonies.

ED: We received the following appeal regarding Agecroft Hall. Please contact the film maker direct if you can assist.

Does anyone remember Agecroft Hall?This Tudor manor house once stood overlooking the River Irwell but had fallen into disrepair by the 1920s. It was sold to an American buyer who had it dismantled and shipped to Richmond, where it was rebuilt. Film-maker John Crumpton is keen to hear from any Salfordians who have memories, stories, photographs or opinions about the subject to contact him on 0161 282 6363or email salecrumpton@ntlworld.com

GARDNERS’ FIRST AID TEAM

My father, the late James William Stamford, worked all his working life at L Gardners & Sons, Peel Green, and he was also a dedicated St John’s Ambulance Brigade member. It is my belief that the top picture on page 17 of Link 20 contains my father sitting third from the left on the front row and in the lower photo he can be seen kneeling down in the middle of the three men displaying massage skills.When he married my mother in 1938 his workmates painted a verse on a board which he had to carry home to Swinton. He worked in the polishing shop and his mates had a good sense of humour and I never forgot the verse:

James Stamford is made of the right stuffBut he can’t stand for a rebuffAs Mary will findDuring life’s daily grindHe’ll polish her off if she is rough.

Mrs Dorothy Stevens, Swinton

You write ...

Today there a number of websites dedicated to putting old acquaintances in touch with each other; indeed we have our own forum http://services.salford.gov.uk/forum online where people can leave messages to find old friends.

We at LifeTimes can claim some success too thanks to this magazine, and below are a couple of letters we received shortly after our last issue was distributed. Mildred Melvin’s letter about St Ambrose School appeared in Link Issue 20 and Ken Horn, and wife Mary, wrote to us from their home in St Margarets Bay near Dover:

“We lost touch with my cousin Mildred Melvin (nee Pendlebury) many years ago when my wife and I moved from Salford to Kent. I have been in touch with her and have received a response from Alicante. It was indeed good to catch up with each other after more than forty years. It is through the good auspices of your magazine that this proved possible and we thank you.”

In Issue 19 we printed a letter, ‘A Weaste Childhood’, by Muriel Church. Muriel wrote to us last November telling us:

“… from this I received a letter from a lady who I used to play with, as our grandparents lived next door to one another in Grays Street, Weaste. Maureen and I were great friends until the 1940 Christmas blitz when we were all separated. We arranged a meeting and Maureen’s cousin Jack, who had lived with his grandparents in Grays Street, also came along. The three of us had a lot of catching up to do as we talked about all the things we used to do – the games we played, the Infants’ School on Leopold Street which was used as a mission on Sundays, the Sunday School outings to

Salfordians reunited

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Heaton Park and the teachers at St Luke’s senior school on Eccles New Road. Then there was the croft where we played most of our games, Weaste Picture House on Saturday, Whit Walks, Seedley Park and Chimney Pot Park, and the people we all remembered, the names just kept on tumbling out.After lunch we watched two videos of Salford and looked at old photographs, what great memories and I wish we could have met up with more people from this area. A great time was had by all, or maybe not: our partners did not look very impressed, but they can be excused as they are not Salfordians so they would not understand.If anyone has any photos of Turners Buildings, Robinson Buildings, Bentley Buildiings, or St Lukes School and Seedley Council School up to 1940 we would love to see them. Please find enclosed a photo taken last November of the three ‘oldies’ now in their seventies who last met in 1940.”

Left to right: Maureen Chapman nee Sykes, Jack Stock, Muriel Church nee Maddocks.

HOPE CHAPEL I was fortunate enough to receive from a very good friend and ex-neighbour issue 19 of LifeTimes Link. The reason it was sent was because my friend saw my maiden name in the photograph of the Daddy Longlegs play on p17. I also have that photograph which I brought with me to Australia in the early 1960s.Ienjoyedreadingthemagazineanddecided to enclose a photograph of the Hope Chapel badminton team, probably taken in the late 1940s or early 50s. Hope Chapel was situated on Liverpool Street at the Oldfield Road end. I look forward to receiving further copies of your magazine. Brings back a lot of happy memories.

May Willan (nee Timperley), Victoria, Australia.

Hope Chapel Badminton Team

You write ...

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LinkListingsa taste of forthcoming Heritage events

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Exhibitionsand events

At Salford Museum & Art Gallery

EXHIBITIONS

Salford University Graduate Show: Empowerment, Education and EnterpriseThe role of the arts in the regeneration of the city of Salford. This exhibition celebrates the breadth of the arts, design and creative industries in Salford.8 to 22 June

Shop ‘till you drop!Put your shopping bags down, relax, and comeandenjoyyourselfinstead-inourfascinating exhibition which explores how our shopping habits have changed in Salford over the past 150 years.Until January 2008

WHIT HALF TERM AT SALFORD MUSEUM & ART GALLERY

All family fundays and workshops are free and drop in events. No need to book.Please note: children need to be accompanied by an adult at all family events

Victorian SilhouettesContinuing with the Lark Hill Place celebrations, make Victorian silhouettes in our craft session. Tuesday 29 MaySessions will be held at 10.30, 11.30am, 2.30 and 3.30pm Drop-in £1.00

1950s DayTo celebrate the fact that Lark Hill place opened in the 1950s we have arranged some special activities themed around this decade. Thursday 31 MaySessions will be held at 10.30, 11.30am, 2.30 and 3.30pmDrop-in £1.00

FAMILY WORKSHOPS AT SALFORD MUSEUM & ART GALLERY

Activity Afternoon Join us for an afternoon of crafts and activities in the museum.Sunday 27 May 2.00-4.00pm

Small world in Salford A unique event celebrating Salford’s diversity with music,crafts and costume from different culturesSunday 24 June 1.30 - 4.00pm

SPECIAL EVENTS AT SALFORD MUSEUM & ART GALLERY

Adult Learners Week (19 - 25 May)

SELECTION FROM THE COLLECTION - Listen to museum staff talk about their favourite piece in the museum as you tour the galleries. Talks will last approx 45 mins. Tuesday 22 May 1.00pm and Wednesday 23 May 7.00pm Drop-in.

SLAVERY AND SALFORD With March 2007 being the 200 year anniversary of the Abolition Of The Slave Trade Act, Ben Whittaker of Salford Museum gives a talk on the significance of the slave trade to Salford, and how it effected the social, political and economic life of the area. The talk will highlight relevantobjectsfromthemuseums collections. Talks will last approx 45 mins. Thursday 24 May 2pm Drop-in.

A full programme of events and exhibitions can be found in our twice yearly (approx January and July) publication Here & Now. Pick up a copy from our museums, any Salford library or download a pdf version from www.salford.gov.uk/museums

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Salford Museum & Art Gallery

Peel Park, Crescent, Salford M5 4WU

Tel: 0161 778 0800Fax: 0161 745 9490

Email: salford.museum@

salford.gov.ukOpen: Mon-Fri 10.00am-

4.45pm and Sat-Sun 1.00-5.00pmFree parking, disabled access, gift shop, café

Salford Local History Library at Salford Museum

& Art Gallery:Open: Tues, Thurs and

Fri 10.00am-5.00pm and Weds 10.00am-8.00pmClosed weekends and

Mondays

Ordsall Hall Museum

Ordsall Lane, Salford M5 3AN

Tel: 0161 872 0251Fax: 0161 872 4951

Email:salford.museum@salford.gov.uk

Open: Mon-Fri 10.00am-4.00pm and Sunday

1.00-4.00pm Closed Saturday

Free parking, gift shop, limited disabled access

a taste of forthcoming Heritage events

LinkListings

(more events on p23)

Heritage walks

Exercise your body and mind and discover the hidden history of the city on our friendly and informal Heritage Walks. Details of other walks can be found at www.salford.gov.uk/heritagewalks

Walks are £2.00 for adults, children free. Please wear appropriate shoes or boots. All distances given are approximate.Contact - Ann Monaghan on 0161 778 0881, during office hours.

Sunday 20 May

Worsley & the Bridgewater CanalDiscover Worsley’s industrial past, including Old Warke Dam, the Bridgewater Canal and Worsley Green.Walk leader David George Meet at Worsley Court House, Barton Road, Worsley. Starts 1.30 pmApprox 2 miles circular

Sunday 8 July

Eccles Town CentreEccles cakes and the infamous Wakes will feature in this circular walk around central Eccles.Walk Leader Chris CarsonMeet Eccles Station Car park, top of Church Street, Eccles. Starts1.30pm Approx 1 mile

Sunday 29 July

Swinton and Pendlebury PerambulationBodysnatchers, mining disasters, a palace for pauper children, a Grade 1 listed church and the first electrically driven spinning mill in the country are included in this Swinton and Pendlebury circular.Walk Leader Ann Monaghan.Meet at the front entrance Swinton Town Hall (old building), Chorley Road, Swinton. Starts 1.30pm Approx 2.5 miles circular

WHIT HALF TERM Scavenger HuntLook for the clues in the Hall, crack the code and win a prize. Wednesday 30 May1.00pm - 3.00pm. Drop-in £1.00

Jolly Jesters!See the funny side by making your very ownjester’sstick.Sessionswillbeheldat Friday 1 June10.30, 11.30am, 1.30 and 2.30pm Drop-in £1.00

FAMILY FUNDAYSAt Home with the TudorsLearn how the Tudors lived and try your hand at Tudor crafts led by costumed guidesSunday 3 June 1.00 - 4.00pm

Re-enactment SpecialsFind out what life was like in the 17th century as Ordsall Hall is transported back in time. This family friendly event will include role play, living history and battle re-enactments.Saturday 30 June and Sunday 1 July 11.00am - 4.00pm

ARCHITECTURE WEEK AT SALFORD MUSEUM & ART GALLERY AND ORDSALL HALL MUSEUM We are holding a number of special events across both our sites to celebrate Architecture Week 2007.

Salford Museum & Art GallerySecrets of Salford Museum Join us for a fascinating talk about the history of the museum building, discover lesser-known facts and see the building in a new light. Talk will last approx 45 mins.Tuesday 19 June 2.00pm

Ordsall Hall MuseumSecrets of Ordsall HallThis is your chance to discover more about the fascinating and mysterious Ordsall Hall. The tour includes the East Wing, not usually open to the public. Thursday 21 June 3.00 - 4.00pmDrop-in

At Ordsall Hall Museum

Salford’s Local History Fair

Pub WalkJoin us for a special architecture

week pub walk taking in the Chapel Street pubs and discover interesting

facts about the architecture of the area.Over 18s only, please call

0161 778 0821 to book.Wed 20th June, 7.00pm start at

Salford Museum and Art Gallery

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Heritage walks Sunday 12 August

Broad StreetFascinating facts about the Broad Street of yesteryear. Learn about the first horse omnibus service in the country, the horrific murder at Mr Littlewoods house, Grindrett’s Ghost and much, much more.Walk Leader Roy Bullock. Meet at Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Crescent, Salford. Starts 1.30pm Approx 1 mile circular

Sunday 9 September

Halls and Houses of the HeightThe stories of the magnificent homes of some of Salford’s ‘Merchant Princes’.Walk Leader Tony Frankland. Meet outside Height Library, King Street, Irlams o’ th’ Height, Salford. Starts1.30pm Approx 1.5 miles

Sunday 23 September

Weaste Cemetery TourThis year marks the 150th Anniversary of the opening of the cemetery, to mark the occasionjoinusforthistourofSalford’sfirst cemetery, the last resting place of notables such as Charles Halle, Mark Addy and Joseph Brotherton. Walk Leader Layla Pyke Meet at Weaste Cemetery, Cemetery Road, (off Eccles New Road), Salford. (park in the cemetery near to the main roundabout ). Starts 1.30pm

Sunday 18 November 2007Don’t miss Salford’s Local History Fair!

Step back in time and delve into Salford’s history! Those with a love of history can turn back the clock on Sunday 18 November and head to the local history fair and family fun day at Salford Museum & Art Gallery, from 11.00am-4.00pm (admission is free).

With 30 visiting organisations and societies, the event is a real treasure trove and promises to be lots of fun for children - from swing boats to Victorian games. Special excursions to the Museum of Transport are also on offer courtesy of a vintage bus for true authenticity!

Visitors to the fair can explore the delights of Salford’s Museum & Art Gallery and take a walk on the recreated Victorian Street, Lark Hill Place.

For more information contactSalford Museum & Art Gallery on 0161 778 0800 or visit www.salford.gov.uk/museums

New Fusiliers’ Museum in Lancashire

Plans are now coming to fruition for a new Fusiliers’ Museum in Bury. It will tell the story of the Lancashire Fusiliers up until their amalgamation with three other Fusilier regiments in 1968, when they became the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, and will carry the story on into the future. Proposals have been on the table for over two years now to move the collection from the old barracks in Bolton Road, Bury, to the town’s Arts and Crafts Centre in Broad Street. This is a lovely Edwardian building that was built as a technical school to teach the skills required for working in Bury’s paper and textile industries.

TheproposalsgainedaStage1HeritageLotteryFundpassjustoverayearago and have recently received confirmation of the final Stage 2 approval, for a grant of £2 million. A further £1.3 million is being raised from a variety of funders. These include charitable trusts, the European Regional Development Fund, Bury Council and private individuals. The Arts and Crafts Centre will be

by Rosemary Allen

completely refurbished and a modern extension will be built facing on to Moss Street and the Bury Art Gallery and Museum. The display will break the mould of the traditional regimental museum and will be as much about people as it is about battles and weapons. There will be interactive displays, a fully accessible archive, temporary exhibition spaces, a programme of educational activities, talks and events for families and for people of all ages. Most of the funding is expected to be in place by the time you read this, but fundraising will need to continue during the course of the implementation works which begin in July 2007, with a planned opening late in 2008.

Although the museum will be located in Bury, the Lancashire Fusiliers’ heritage is much wider and the museum will tell the stories of soldiers and their families from Salford and other recruiting areas, such as Rochdale, whose history is firmly linked with that of the regiment. There will be temporary exhibitions and events on Salford themes and the Fusiliers’ Museum Development team is already collaborating with Salford Museums. The photograph of Edward VII unveiling the Lancashire Fusiliers Monument in Oldfield Road in 1905, is from Salford Local History Library’s photographic collection.

The fundraising activities include the sale of bricks to re-face a dilapidated wall of the building. Each brick costs £10 and provides an opportunity to leave a lasting memorial or message by way of a touch-screen computer. This will record who owns each brick and what their message is. Bricks are being bought as birthday and christening presents and in memory of loved ones. These are for sale through a fundraising campaign office which has been set up in the Arts and Crafts Centre and are also available throughtheproject’swebsite:www.fusiliersmuseum-lancashire.org.uk

As well as financial help with the project, we are also appealing for information. If anybody in the Salford community has any recollections, photographs or objects related to Fusilier history, we would love to hear from you. Please contact Mike Glover on 0161 764 2208 or email rosemary@headlanddesign.co.uk

Photo top: King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra unveil the Lancashire Fusiliers Monument in Oldfield Road on 13 July 1905. (Salford Local History Library)

Salford’s Local History Fair

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My early memories of shopping go back to the post-war years of the 1940s. Rationing was fully operational and food and clothes were in limited supply, which led to every string being pulled in the effort to get the most out of what was available.

The odd exceptions to this came when items were available on the black market - when stuff either stolen from the docks or from any other illicit source came on the streets for sale. I can remember on occasions going to the corner shop and being given something wrapped up in brown paper and told to ‘give this to your mother and don’t let anyone see it.’ The contents of the parcel used to be a ham shank or something of that order, which my mother showed more than great pleasure in receiving.

Much of the food shopping – or ‘going for the rations’ as it was said - was done at the Co-op, either on Chapel Street or Oldfield Road. There a dividend or ‘divi’ number would be recorded and points were totted-up against the dividend account. I still remember my mother’s divi number as 56020. Eventually divi-day would arrive and a measure of its importance was the number of people crowding the shops to claim their divi.

With the rationing system the allotted amount of food was issued against a stamp, out of the ration-book, with each weekly amount of tea, sugar, butter, eggs etc. being exchanged for a stamp, or coupon, out of the book. Similarly clothes were purchased against clothing coupons. Sometimes the coupons were exchanged between friends or neighbours who maybe did not take sugar and so had a surplus. They were then changed for ones which someone else had a surplus of.

The shops themselves were usually very small, certainly the ones on the corner of the street. However, it was amazing how they managed to stock so many different items. The shelves usually went from floor to ceiling, visibly bending under the weight of so many items. Every spare inch of the shop was used to give maximum storage, with barely enough room to move in the shop on some occasions.

The shopkeeper, usually the lady of the house, seemed to have a computerised recall of where each item was. When asked for something not regularly sold the reaction would be to put a finger to her lips, give a thoughtful frown, then in an instant turn and go directly to where the item was stored. If an item was stored on a top shelf, a box or even cans of food were used to create the extra height for retrieval of the item. Safety did not seem to be an issue then.

As well as the main items of food there were many other products in the shop’s inventory. Some of these would be candles, bundles of firewood or coal bricks, bath or bucket-washers, firelighters, gas mantles, lamp oil and blacking for the fire-grate. All items of their time now rarely found or used.

Lots of products used to be kept in large jarsorbottlesintheshopandusedtobeserved by weight placed in the customer’s owncontainer,suchasacuporjam-jar.Many a time I was sent for 2oz of syrup of figs (good for bowel movement) or Indian Brandy and hair setting lotion - all collected in a cup. Sometimes on visiting the shop there would be what they then

by Roy Bullock

Shopping In Salford

Walker’s Newsagents on Ellor Street 1960

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called ‘the traveller’ (now a sales rep) sitting on a box, or a chair if he was lucky. He would take the weekly order from the shop owner, which would amount to small quantities of many items. There were no pallet loads then. The ‘traveller’ would use public transport or a bike – no company cars either. He would move from shop to shop in the surrounding streets and could be spotted many times during the day.

Food such as cooked meats and bacon were sliced with a slicer, either hand-wound or electric, on the counter before your eyes. Cheese was cut with a knife or wire from a large lump. It was usually referred to as cooking cheese or eating cheese (presumably Cheddar).

All bread was unsliced in the early forties. Sliced bread came later and I remember that it was greeted with much excitement when it was introduced. When a loaf was bought, before sliced bread, it was not wrappedinadvance,itwasjustplacedina paper bag in the shop. Most times the bread was still warm, because the bakery was close by and it was delivered almost straight from the oven. Carrying the bread homecreatedanirresistibleurgetojusthave one little nibble at the corner of the loaf, then another, and another, until all four corners from the bottom of the loaf had gone and sometimes a whole edge of the loaf. This usually resulted in a crack around the ear-hole when you got home.

Most of the shops would sell wool, cotton and needles and knitting needles. These were essentials as most people darned their socks and repaired and patched clothes. There were lots of specialist shops, such as hardware or lamp-oil shops. These shops sold oil for lamps, stoves and heaters and they stocked spare parts for the fire-grate, buckets, tin baths, and many products made from metal or wire.

Many houses did not have electricity, so radio sets or wirelesses were run off accumulators. These were large square glass containers that held acid and metal plates that acted like a battery. The things were quite heavy so taking them to be rechargedwasnotajobthatwasrelished.I much preferred going for a loaf.

Greengrocers’ shops still hung up their products outside. Our local greengrocer had a mixed business selling other food as well as greengrocery. Ours sold rabbits and chickens. I used to help out in the local greengrocer and have skinned a few rabbits in my younger days.

Onthecornerjustneartouswasthepieshop.AsfarasIcanrememberthey only sold pies and these could be eaten in as well as carried out. Again, a visit to the pie shop brought the cup or mug into play, as one could get a cup full of gravy to go with the pies. Only in those days the gravy was free of charge.

Back to the corner shop. I remember other items that were sold such as snuff and Thick Twist chewing tobacco that was cut from a large lump

with a knife. Tobacco or cigarette shops did quite well. I remember being sent for seven penn’orth of Irish (snuff) or half an ounce of thick Shag (tobacco for rolling cigs) and thick Twist by weight. These shops also had pipes, matches, lighters, cigarette cases, tobacco pouches and many items associated with the smoking habit, which then was more acceptable than today.

There were what could be called specialist shops which usually dealt with certain types of products only. These shops usually built up a reputation for their products, which by word of mouth brought in custom from a wider area: ‘You can’t beat xx’s pies, they’re the best in Salford!’. Among the specialist shops that I remember around the Chapel Street and Oldfield Road area, were milliners shops, ladies’ gown shops, corset shops, a horsemeat butcher, and chemist shops. Of the above, only the chemist survives today in much the same form but with a modern setting. The old chemist had lots of little wooden drawers from floor

to ceiling, each having a label of the contents on the front of the drawer. Chemists then used to have large glass bottles, about two or three feet high, which were filled with coloured water and stood in the window of the shop, rather like the one that can be seen in Lark Hill Place in the museum.

The other shops mentioned above have mainly died out. I definitely don’t know anyone these days that wears a corset, eats horseflesh or sports a hat on a regular basis, although the number of baseball caps seen around may make something of a lie out of the last comment!

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And so to work - the way it wasby Kathleen Richards (nee Goodman)

At the end of 1942 our family had become four, Dad had the son he always wanted and I was in a wilderness. I had left St Mary’s school at Christmas, as I turned 14 years old on 2 January 1943 and I had not a clue what I wanted to do. I did not want to work in Dad’s shop, I did not want to work in the cotton mill, in fact I would really rather juststayhome!OnedayAuntieIdaarrivedandsaidshewasgoingtotryandgetajobcleaning at Burton’s Clothing Factory on the East Lancs Road. Would I like to go and see if I could ‘get on’? Everyone thought this a great idea, so I went with Auntie; she did not ‘get on’ but I did! I was to start the following Monday in the factory, as a ‘matcher in’, whatever that might be.

So it came about that Mum asked a neighbour who worked at Burton’s if she would let me walk with her to the factory and she said yes. Now this lady, Mrs Knight, was about six foot tall and she would say, “Take my arm Kathleen”, and I would sort of hang from this huge woman’s arm as I was escorted like a prisoner to my place of work. ‘Matching in’ turned out to be putting the coat sleeves with the rest of the coat. They were gents’ suits, actually demob suits, being made to supply our forces as they were demobbed and returned to Civvy Street.

Burton’s on the East Lancs Road, Swinton c1950 (Salford Local History Library)

by Kathleen Richards (nee Goodman)

Later I was promoted to going on a machine called a ‘Plonker’. With this I affixed the labels to the sleeves to bear a number which the ‘matcher in’ would match to the coats - all very complicated! In reality Burton’s was a good place to work. It was a modern building with a lovely huge canteen which had pictures of sheep going through the process of shearing etc till the finished cloth was shown and the ‘cutters’ ready to cut patterns for the finished suits.We had lots of recreational activities: netball team, keep fit team, library, discussion groups and ‘music while you work’ played at certain times of the day. I made some good friends and after a while went to work and back with them instead of hanging from Mrs Knight’s arm.However,itwasmyfirstjobandI listened to some of the girls saying awful things, like it was a concentration camp. Mum thought I was not happy and she had heard the hairdresser across the road wanted an apprentice.

I left Burton’s after seven months and beganworkatMarjorie’sHairSalonfor the huge sum of 2/6d (13p) a week. The real hairdresser, Margaret, a niece of the owner, was away in the ATS, so another woman, an unqualified but gifted amateur, Lucy was doing a three day week. She was also very popular with the Americans stationed atButtonwoodCamp.Somyjobforthree days a week was to mop the floor, clean the bowls, dress the shop window, answer the phone and take appointments for the other three days. ItwasaBobby’sjobandIspentalotoftime reading, writing and sticking my film star photos in scrap books. I also practised on my friend Shelagh and anyone else who would let me. Lucy did not teach me much, but I picked a bit up from her like learning how to shampoo hair. It was still hard to get shampoo, so we used to boil lentils to a gluey mass, strain it and add a touch of perfume: this was the setting lotion! We also charged sixpence for a vinegar rinse, which on brunettes would bring out red highlights. On white haired old ladies we would dip a Dolly Blue in water to make a rinse; everyone accepted this at the time as we were used to making do. One day a woman came dashing in the shop with a scarf around her head, she was very distressed. Her boyfriend, stationed in Egypt, had sent her some Egyptian Henna and she had put it on her hair. She took off the scarf and it was pillar box red! Lucy got it acceptable by putting about three applications of hydrogen peroxide on it, although it was a wonder she did not go bald!

IleftthatjobwhenmyfriendShelaghhadjustleftschool,andsheandIgotajobatGardner’sCanteen,servingFord’smunitions workers their meals. Shelagh’s sister, Dorothy, already worked there so she showed us the ropes. I had done three months at the hairdressers, but I was to do nine months at the canteen and I never worked so hard in all my life! Mind you, we also had some fun. We had to mop the canteen every morning like sailors swabbing the decks of a ship, then clean all the tables, go down into the kitchens for the food to fill the hot plates, then the first rush of hungry girls who worked in the munitions works would come in holding their plates for us to load with food. When they had gone we would have to rush round all the tables and clear them ready for the next wave of usually complaining girls. They really looked down on us skivvies. After they had all finished we would sit down and have anything that was left for our dinner, usually very good food, and have a chat and a laugh before washing the piles of plates and tin separators. I have never been overwhelmed by washing dishes after that experience. We also had to clean the lavatories and take waste stuff to a binintheyard:thiswasahumiliatingjob.Then, twice a day, we took a tea trolley round Ford’s works to give the spoiled girls a drink. They would be stood at their machines with their turbans holding their hair in position, seemingly not doing anything, while we canteen girls were working like little slaves.

My Dad actually worked at Ford’s. He was a ‘setter up’, which meant, when the girls’ machines went wrong he would put them right. I would often see him when I was on my tea trolley rounds. I had my hair in ringlets and at fifteen still looked about ten years old, so the girls told Dad I looked like Jane Eyre.

After nine months Shelagh and I were exhausted by all this hard work, so she went to work in a chocolate factory and IwentbacktoMarjorie’sHairdressingSalon. Margaret had come back from the forces and again Mum had been and got me a position. I guess she was determined I should be a hairdresser. Margaret and I became pals. She was 24 years old with long blonde hair, 5ft 10ins tall and willowy. She spoke beautifully and she used to tell me tales of the ATS where her trade had been to drive officers about. She, to me, was glamorous, like one of my film stars. We even went out together several times and she taught me things about fashion, music, art, etc. She was married and her husband was in the army in Antwerp; he was Geoff from Dewsbury in Yorkshire. I

learned how to cut hair and how to Kerka perm - this was when perming was a long process of winding sections of hair, applying animal wool, greaseproof round rollers and finally attaching electrodes to the rollers and suspending them from a machine, like medieval torture! No more the vinegar and Dolly Blue rinses, real setting lotion and green olive oil shampoo, we were living high! Of course it had to come to an end and Margaret went to live with her husband and by now, baby, up in Yorkshire. I only saw her twice more - very sad. The salon owner then got a lady called Mrs Blower in to manage the shop. She was very good and was nice to me but no Margaret and after a while she retired and a girl called Rosina, straight from Hairdressers College, took over. Actually I thought this was unfair as Rosina did not know as much as me but I was only 17 and she was 21, so she was manager and got more money than I. After a few months struggling on we had a perming accident where one of the electrodes slipped and burnt a client so I left andIjoinedtheWomen’sAuxiliary Air Force for two years – but that’s another story.

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You WriteLook out for more of your letters spread throughout the magazine. If you’d like to tell a story, ask ‘where are they now?’ or share your memories - send your letters in to: The Editor, LifeTimes Link, Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Peel Park, Crescent, Salford,M5 4WU. email: heather.mcalpine@salford.gov.uk Tel: 0161 778 0817 Due to space limitations we reserve the right to edit any letters that we do include.

LINK BRINGS IT ALL BACK Thank you for publishing my letter in LifeTimes Link, issue no 19 page 20. Apparently the letter has rekindled many memories of years past in the minds of some of your readers as I have received letters and photographs relating to 1934-35 at Tootal Road Infants School An old friend, Mildred Melvin,(nee Pendlebury), writing from Alicante, Spain, in issue 20 page 7, awakened memories of the late 1940s of dances at Buile Hill Park Cafe where we, and many other friends happily danced away, whilst David Percival’s letter on the same page brought a smile to my face when he ‘suffered with the cold in the open air gym’ at Tootal Road Secondary School 1948. In my time there it was exercise in the playground, also in the freezing cold! Apparently we have all survived and look back with many fond memories. The LifeTime Links magazine has appeal for so many folk, ex Salfordians and others in the UK and different parts of the world. The historical content permits one to reminisce of times past, in both good and sad times; it’s a reminder, an awakening of forgotten experiences, literally and pictorially brought to life again in the magazine. It’s a pleasure to read.

Dennis Hope, Queensland, Australia

(Ed: Thanks for those kind words Dennis and we hope you find this issue packed with more reminders of happy days.)

SHOPPING IN SWINTON I was born in Alder Drive, Wardley, and our local shop was called ‘Naylor’s’ (their daughter was Shelia). My mum used to have a little notebook and would write her big order in it once a week, then each time she needed extras the items would be added on in this little notebook. At the end of the week all would be totalled and paid for on a Saturday. Sometimes I would collect our small loaf and once, when really hungry, I nibbled away at the crust leaving rather a large hole. My mum was ready to accuse the shop of having mice, so I had to confess! I also got caught once pinching ‘peawags’ (peas in pods) from a display outside the shop. I have carried this guilt around with me for sixty years. Paraffin used to be sold by a very red faced man from a horse and cart. The rag and bone man collected old clothes in exchange for a ‘donkey stone’ which was used for whitening the door step.

Muriel Rogers (nee Prince), Swinton

SALFORD HIPPODROME I can’t remember how old I was at the time,Ithinkitwasjutafterthewar,andmum, dad and I went to the pantomime at the Hip. At the end of the show all the children were asked by the Dame to go up on stage and sing a song, so along with the rest up I went. We sang our song then we were formed into a conga line to go backstage and get some sweets. The only thing wrong with that was we had to put our hands around the waist of the kid in front and shuffle off. In my case it were a lassie and I was having none of that, so I shot off stage to hoots of laughter from the Dame, who made the comment “I didn’t know Salford lads could be so shy”. I had my leg pulled for a good while after. I saw so many shows at the old Hip as I grew up, including the talent spotting ones and I was reminded of my one and only time on the stage – and the fastest exit ever.

Bill Pearson, Bacup

(Ed: Did you ever appear on stage at the Hip and perhaps win a talent contest? We’d love to hear your stories.)

Lieut Col F Brook inspects the Police Force, with the Mayor of Salford, Councillor George William Sands, and MajorCVGodfrey.

SALFORD CITY POLICE FORCE Thank you very much for sending me LifeTimes Link. I am enclosing a photo taken in 1936 on the racecourse in Salford, of my father who was in the city of Salford police force for thirty years. My father, W H Fowden, is on the front row, far right, with his four medals – he later became Sgt Fowden.

Margaret Cox, Rhuddlan, Denbighshire

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Ordsall Park memoriesI looked down at my vamps. The left toecap was scratched and the right one was hanging off. “I don t know how that’s happened mam, honest. Do you want me to brew you a drink of tea?” If they had been handing Oscars out for the best actor I would have been one of the front runners the way I grovelled that day. She looked at my shoe once more and tutted again, “Just wait until your dad gets home. He’ll skin you alive”.

I whinged, as I made a move for the stairway, “Oh no you don’t,” mum said, as the palm of her right hand came crashing down again towards my head, “Get in that kitchen, and get that muck off you”. This time I was waiting and ducked. A grin appeared on my face but soon disappeared when she followed through with her left. My pet hate was getting washed. I wasn’t on my own on this issue, especially when there was no hot water. I reached for the towel and wet the end, then rubbed it over my face, hands, and then finally my legs.

The next thing on the agenda was to look for the scissors, then a cornflakes packet. I laid it out on the floor, and put my shoe on it, then marked out the imprint of the sole with the point of the scissors and cut it out, then put it in my shoe. It was cheaper than going to the cobblers and it saved getting a clip round the ear’ole as well. “That’ll see me through another day” I thought.

When my dad got home from work he went straight to the scullery for a wash. Five minutes later he shouted, “Where’s the towel Sarah?” “It s on the nail” mam replied. There was a sudden lull, followed by an almighty shout, “I can’t use that, it’s full of mud” Mam’s hand glided through the air. This time I forgot to duck, “Ouch!” I moaned, “What’s that for?” She replied, “How many times have I told you not to wash yourself with the towel. That was the only clean one we had.”

That little episode finished with me being sent to bed. Before I went though I sneaked some flour and water up, as there was a little matter of some restoration work to be done. I carefully took hold of my right shoe - the one with the toe-cap and matching sole hanging off - after mixing some flour and water together to make a nice spongy paste. I pulled the sole of my shoe back as far as I dared and spread the paste on good and proper. I then poked around under the bed until I found an elastic band - I used to keep them for flirting pieces of rolled up paper around. After I had doctored the toe-cap, I wrapped the elastic band around to hold it together. It’d stick anything would flour and water. It got me out of a good few hidings, I could tell you. A lot of people called it bug-bait but that’s another story.

by Ken Williamson

I have many memories of my schoolboy escapades in, or around, the late 1940s. One that comes to mind was when I had been playing out in the back-streets of Ordsall. When I got home for my tea that day my hands, face, and legs were filthy - it was all short trousers in those days. My mam looked at me and tutted, “Where’ve you been?” she said, clipping me behind the ear, “And just look at the state of those shoes”.

Ordsall Park, no date(Salford Local History Library)

20

Next day, when my dad had gone to work, mam banged on the ceiling with the brush handle, “Aren’t you out of that bed yet?” she called. “Right!” I shouted back, banging my good shoe on the floor to make her think I was walking about. “Brian’s been round. He said he’ll call back in about twenty minutes”. Brian was a mate of mine. He lived two blocks away in Granville Street and went to St Clements School, the same as me.

Around ten o’clock there was a knock on the front door and when I opened it Brian was standing there with a big grin on his face. “Oh, you’re up then?” he said, with a hint of sarcasm. “Yeah worse luck,” I replied, “I was up all night doing my shoe”. After a quick inspection the grin on his face widened, “It doesn’t look too bad” he replied, “Do you fancy going to the Concrete for a kick around? You could try it out”.

The Concrete was a part of West Craven Street, between West Park Street, and Robert Hall Street, the only one of its kind in the area. I took a long and wary look at my tattered shoe, it wasn’t exactly the work of a craftsman. “I don’t know about that,” I said, “If this elastic band breaks I’m done for”. “Why don’t you go in the goals then?” teased Brian. “No, I’d better not. I got a crack last time. I don’t want another”.

Because of the lack of footballs in those days, we had to screw sheets of paper up into balls and stuff them into a sock or an old balaclava or something, anything as long as you could kick it around, then encircle it with elastic bands. “What about Oddy Park then?” I gave my shoe a long stern look. I wasn’t exactly beaming with confidence, “Okay,” I said, a little concerned with my workmanship, “It should be alright in there”.

Just before we got to Ordsall Park, my trusted elastic band snapped. Brian nearly split his sides laughing and then started walking around in circles with a mock limp. “Stay there,” he said, “while I nip into the paper shop for a piece of string. If anyone asks you what’s wrong, tell them to hop it”. He was still laughing when he emerged from the shop with a long piece of string. “Blimey!” I said, “what do you intend doing with that? You’ve got enough there to go round the dock office”. Brian cut a piece of the string off by rubbing it on the corner of the wall, then put the remainder into his pocket, “Grab hold of this,” he said, throwing the smaller piece in my direction, “and tie it round your shoe, then I’ll race you to the swings”.

As you went through Ordsall Park, in the direction of Trafford Bridge, on the right hand side there were two bowling greens, a bandstand and a duck pond amongst other things - the duck pond being the most prominent. On the left hand side was a tennis court which had a summer shed come changing room next to the passage. Just beyond this, was a football pitch that ran from Hulton Street towards New Park Road, where there was another summer shed, with a girls’ toilets on one side and a boys’ on the other. Next to the boys’ toilet was a store room for the park keeper’s implements. At the Taylorson Street end of the park, was a playground which contained numerous attractions, such as two lots of swings, a Maypole, see-saw, slide, wedding cake, spider’s web, a rocking horse, and an umbrella. The latter used to go round and swing to and fro at the same time. Next to the store room, was a small drinking fountain and kids used to queue for this because it was a novelty.

When you pressed a brass button in, water used to shoot up into your mouth. If you asked anyone today, what the most memorable thing was in Ordsall Park in bygone days - other than the duck pond - it would have to be the old fountain that was located next to the park passage. I have often wondered where this overworked device ended up. It had four cast iron cups which were hanging down on chains. To get your water you had to press one of the cups against a brass button and it would fill with water - this contraption would be an antique collectable today. Directly behind this fountain was another park keeper’s hut and two more toilets.

“What time is it?” Brian shouted from one of the swings. I was lying on my back on the roundabout watching the sky go round. “I don’t know” I replied as I whizzed round at speed. Brian pointed towards the tennis court, “Go an’ ask that fellow over there then”. The roundabout had almost stopped before I attempted to disembark, then I set off on my hazardous mission. On the way back I tried a few pull-ups on the crossbar of the goalposts. “What time was it?” asked Brian, when I finally returned. This time it was my turn to grin. “I don’t know” I replied. “What do you mean, you don’t know? Did you ask him?” “Yeah!” I replied, “but he told me to hop it”.

The next two minutes were spent having a mock sword fight, then we both set off on our invisible horses towards the park entrance.

BRINGING HOME THE SWAN Reading in a recent issue of your magazine a letter form one of your readers, Barbara McNally’s More Happy Salford Memories (issue 20 p16) reminded me of the shops on the Height. Starting from near Pendlebury Church (St John’s), there used to be a corset shop, shoe repairers, Ashworth’s cake shop which was rather superior, coal merchants, Bate & Ball grocers, Parish shoe shop, etc. On the other side was Kidd’s chip shop where people used to come from quite a way away to buy their chips, barbers, Armits where you could buy clogs, and many more shops. There used to be a pub called the White Swan, known locally as the Dirty Duck and when they started changing the Height I remember it being demolished. Coming home from work one teatime I passed this pub, in the process of being knocked down, with the swan of the sign propped up against a wall, looking far bigger than when it was positioned above the door and heavier – probably made of iron. On reaching home I told my mother of what I’d seen and her answer was, ‘Why didn’t you bring it home with you?’ The swan, she meant. The mind boggled at the thought. It still makes me smile when I think of it.

P Hibbert (nee Bumby), Burnage

You write ...

21

Memories of a tea factory worker

AfterafewweeksIgotajobonthetop(4th) floor on the blending gangs. On the ground floor was the export department and the unloading bay where the tea chests came in, were unloaded, then sent up to the topfloorviaajig(hoist)byagangofaboutten men plus two fork lift truck drivers. On the first floor was the machine room (packing) and the tea bag room where lots of women worked packing tea into boxes. On the second floor (drum floor) there were four huge hoppers above four huge drums and dozens of small hoppers which fed the machines downstairs. On the third floor four machines sorted out all the tea, but all the action was up on the top floor. You had the ‘heavy gang’ who would put away the hundreds of tea chests when theycameuponthejig.Usingatwowheeledtruck they would put the chests into bays, 40 to 45 (a batch) per bay. Twelve to fifteen hundred chests would be brought up making hard work for the blending gangs. There would be two gangs of three men each and they would open the chests and empty the tea into small hoppers.Somejobsinthefactorywerecosyorsteady and some were hard but once you had been on the top floor a few weeks you got used to it. The worst time was Monday morning on the early shift because a lot of the guys had hangovers, or worse, never even made it into work. We used to call this the Monday morning 6-2 blues. After doing four or five batches we’d stop for a brew (tea-break). There was a lady called Phyllis on our shift who came up in the lift with her tea trolley every two hours, saying “Tea up. Anyone for tea?”. We used to be able to buy tea bags at Friday lunchtime to take home but I knew a few guys who never bought tea bags for years. Our supervisor was called Mr Burgess, nicknamed Budgie. It was like the docks – nearly everyone had a nickname and you hardly knew anybody’s surname. My nickname was ‘The Feet’ but I’m not telling you why. We had lots of laughs and some of the characters who worked there were top class. With all the banter that went on every shift it was like being on a comedy film set. It is now thirty years since I was made redundant. They built a new tea factory in Crewe but that too closed a few years ago. Exchange Quay now stands on the old Salford site of the tea factory and there are still people around today who either worked there or remember the place. It wasn’t a greatpaidjobforshiftsatthetimebutthepeople you worked with and the laughs you had made up for that. Those memories will stay with me. Oh happy days!

I was born in Salford in March 1952 and left school in July 1967. I had a few jobs until in the spring of 1973 I started work at the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS) tea factory in Ordsall Lane, next to Colgate Palmolive. The tea factory workforce was about 200, working in shifts 6.00am-2.00pm and 2.00-10.00pm and about a dozen men worked the 10.00pm-6.00am night shift cleaning the machines.

by Alan L Williams

Co-op Tea advert 1934

Salford Local History Library has over 50,000 photos in their collection - unfortunately we can’t identify some of the donations. Drop us a line or pop into the Local History Library if you can help (open Tuesday to Friday 10.00am-5.00pm with a late night closing on Wednesday 8.00pm).

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Mystery Pix

3

2 Little, large and larger with the centre two storey property flanked by a single storey building and either a very large two storey or a three storey dwelling.

All we know is that it was taken in Clifton a very long time ago.

In the last issue, pictures 2 and 3 have been identified.

Karen Humphreys (nee Francis), writing from Duncanston on the Black Isle, up in Scotland, tells us:

‘Mystery Pix 2 is the assembly hall of Cromwell Secondary School on Blanford Road. I’ve many fond memories of prize-givings and discos from when I attended the school (1971-76), though the name had changed to Irwell Valley High. The photos show girls only, and this would be because in those days, the girls had the bottom school and the boys were in the upper school on the hill.’

Whilst in regard to picture 3, Pat Rudge, from St Ambrose Barlow RC High School writes:

‘…the picture looks like the back of Windsor House, on the Islington Estate. The maisonettes were three storey flats and each block contained 6 flats/maisonettes. The windows shown are facing Salford Cathedral andthebuildingyoucanjustseeonthe left (which the flats overlooked) was the Reliant Robin/motorcycle garage called Billy Briggs. In the distance you can see what looks like Cornwall house and other blocks of flats which were behind Ye Olde Nelson Pub on Chapel Street.’

Roy Bullock confirms this by adding:

’I lived in the area when the flats were being built and used to play on them during construction - naughty lad! It was while on one of these escapades that I received a rusty nail through my foot after dropping onto it from the scaffolding. I had to have aseriesofpenicillininjectionandlimped for ages.’

Sorry, Roy, no sympathy from us, but thanks for confirming Pat’s observations! Now, can any reader help us with these three?

1 A school with lots of fresh air – note the open glass doors. And the desks at the front of the class have table lamps on them!

Boothstown & District Local History GroupThe informal meetings are held in the main hall of Boothstown Community Centre, Stansfield Drive, on the third Wednesday of the monthContact - Ann Monaghan 0161 778 0881 during office hours or 0161 799 6091 evenings• Wednesday 16 MayThe Story of Lady Ann Clifford – Margaret Curry• Wednesday 19 SeptemberMr Rolls and Mr Roe - David George• Wednesday 17 OctoberBygone Farnworth - Ken Beevers.Talks start at 7.45pmPrice: £1.50

Broughton District Local History GroupMeet at Broughton Library Contact Mrs P Dimond 0161 798 6382Talks start at 7.30pmVisitors welcome - £1.00

Eccles HeritageMeet at The Links Centre, Chadwick Road, on Thursdays. For details contact Ann Humpage 0161 789 2820Website: www.ecclesheritage.colsal.org.uk• Thursday 3 MayThe DeTrafford Family - Carol O’Rieily• Thursday 7 JuneFifteen Things We Gave The World - Ann Humpage Talks start at 2.00pmCost: £1.50

Eccles & District History SocietyMeet at Alexandra House, Peel Green on the second Wednesday of the monthContact Andrew Cross 0161 788 7263Website: www.edhs.colsal.org.uk• Wednesday 9 MayGeorge Edward Wright of Alexandra Road, Peel Green – Tony WrightNOTE: The Annual General Meeting will take place prior to this talk.• Wednesday 12 SeptThe River Irwell - Roy Bullock• Wednesday 10 OctEdwardian Eccles & Patricroft - Chris Carson

Walkden Local History GroupMeet the Guild Hall, Guild AvenueContact - Ann Monaghan 0161 778 0881 during office hours. Meet the second Wednesday of the month• Wednesday 9 MayThe Walkden Monument. Its past, refurbishment and future – a multiple presentationTalks start at 2.00pmCost £1.50

Worsley Methodist Church & Community AssociationMeet at Worsley Methodist Church, Barton Road. Contact Frank Brittain 0161 789 7885• Friday 18 MayBuilding The Ship Canal – Glen Atkinson• Friday 15 JuneMeccano, the ultimate toy – Don PalmerTalks start 7.30pmPrice: £3.00 including tea and biscuits (proceeds in aid of the church)

Irlam, Cadishead & District Local History SocietyMeet at Irlam LibrayContact Mrs A Arnold 0161 775 2934Website: www.icdlhs.colsal.org.uk• Wednesday 16 MayLancashire Surnames - M Holcroft (NB This meeting will be held at St Pauls Church, Liverpool Road)• Wednesday 20 JuneInn Signs and their Stories – Barbara Lovegrove• Tuesday 17 JulyEvening visit to Ordlsall Hall – tour starts at 6.00pm.• August 2007No meeting. Come and see us at our stall at the Summer Show in Princes Park, IrlamTalks start at 7.30pm

Salford Local History SocietyMeet at Salford Museum & Art GalleryContact Roy Bullock 0161 736 7306Website: www.salfordlocalhistorysociety.colsal.org.uk • Wednesday 30 May The History of the Order of St John - Ian Tootell• Wednesday 27 JuneCuriouser and Curiouser - Margaret Curry• Wednesday 25 JulyA Mother’s War: The Wartime Diaries of Meg Brimelow - Lesley Munro• Wednesday 29 AugustMedals and Tokens of Bolton - Part Two• Wednesday 26 SeptemberBuilding the Big Ditch - Glen Atkinson• Wednesday 31 October A walk in Manchester c1800 - 1850 - Ed MiliusTalks start at 7.30pmVisitors welcome: £1.00

Swinton & Pendlebury Local History SocietyMeet at Pendlebury Methodist Church, Bolton Road Contact John Cook 0161 736 6191 Website: www.splhs.colsal.org.uk• Monday 14 MayThe Spanish Civil War – Chris Carson• Monday 4 JuneReminiscence Session• Monday 18 JuneAnnual General Meeting• Monday 3 SeptemberReminiscence Session• Monday 17 SeptemberDigging The Big Ditch – Glen Atkinson• Monday 1 October Reminiscence Session• Monday 15 OctoberTrains Take Forever - Len Heathcote• Monday 29 OctoberReminiscence SessionTalks start at 10.00amVisitors welcome: cost £1.00

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Local History Round Up

This calendar of local history/heritage activities is based on information supplied by the individual organisations and is believed to be correct at the time of going to press. It may be advisable to confirm details in advance of attending an event.

Note to programme secretaries. For your group's talks to be included in this listing please send your programme to us before the deadline as shown on page 2.

Please note that some societies have their own websites and details of all talks supplied to us are also listed on our web page at www.salford.gov.uk/museum-talks

World Ship Society, Manchester BranchNot a Salford society but may be of interest to former navy personnel.Meet at the Britons Protection Hotel, 50 Great Bridgewater St, Manchester on the third Thursday of the month, Sept to June.Contact: Jim Charnock 0161 969 1581•Thursday 17 MayAGM plus Members Slides•Thursday 21 JuneShips Of The Falklands War, Part Two – Alick HadwenTalks start at 7.45pm

Salford Museum & Art GalleryPeel Park, Crescent, Salford M5 4WUTel:01617780800•Fax: 0161 745 9490Email: salford.museum@salford.gov.ukOpen: Mon-Fri 10.00am-4.45pm and Sat-Sun 1.00-5.00pmFree parking, disabled access, gift shop, café .

Salford Local History Library at Salford Museum & Art Gallery:Open: Tues, Thurs and Fri 10.00am-5.00pm and Weds 10.00am-8.00pmClosed weekends and Mondays

Ordsall Hall MuseumOrdsall Lane, Salford M5 3ANTel:01618720251•Fax: 0161 872 4951Email:salford.museum@salford.gov.ukOpen: Mon-Fri 10.00am-4.00pm and Sunday 1.00-4.00pmClosed SaturdayFree parking, gift shop, limited disabled access

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