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March 2008 Archives

« February 2008 |Main| April 2008 »

Social Life for Teens in the '50's

Posted by on March 29, 2008 5:31 AM

There was social life before girls and social life after girls. Looking back I think the former was definitely more fun. Sorry ladies! Firstly there was no cinema in Weaverham, the nearest being Northwich, but I think regular cinema going came into the ‘social life with girls’ era. Secondly there were no computers available and no computer games. But the old saying “we made our own� fun was true and we had plenty of it.

Looking back and analyzing it with hindsight, I would say that we certainly had more direct contact with our outside environment and nature. Staying indoors for socializing was never a good option. We usually had a collection of ‘mates’ from within a small radius of surrounding streets, lanes, drives or avenues. After homework was rushed and finished we got out and about. My first home was in Gerard Drive, so my ‘mates’ were from Gerard drive, Farm road, Gleave road, and the Crescent. Apart from the odd game of soccer and cricket, we often headed for the woods (Owley Wood) and a wooded area, the name escapes me (perhaps a reader can help, which was at the bottom of the steep decline that Wallerscote road made before leveling out towards Winnington.

The areas were a treasure trove for rabbit hunting, frog spawn collections and ‘John Wayne – western type games’. We could keep ourselves amused for days. I remember vividly in the summer months playing in the wheat fields that were adjacent to Farm lane and often getting chased off by irate farm workers. The River Weaver was of course another favourite spot, were we would gather raspberries and strawberries for pie making and head for a swim in the Weaver. It was pretty brown in colour in those days and after reading Steve Williams notes on factory pollution I am beginning to wonder how we survived.

The challenge in those days was to swim the whole breadth of the Weaver from the Weaverham side to the Barnton side, which appeared from a distance as a foreign country with foreigners living there! My uncle Bob initiated the ceremony for me. First by getting me to swim a certain length of the river and then after he was confident I could make it, set out alongside of me to swim the breadth. I had much less confident but plenty of determination. As I got to the middle of the river my anxiety increased. Then I realized that turning back was the same distance as going on. I made the other side exhausted, but happy for a short while, until it dawned on me that I know had to swim back. But with re-newed confidence this was achieved more nonchantly!

Another more formal side of village life was the clubs and associations. We had a choice of Boy Scouts, or a newly formed Boys Brigade. The BB uniform and band seemed more appealing so a group of us joined. The uniform was quite simple, a hat that sat on the side of the head, a leather belt with a white blancoed bag attached that never carried anything and that was it. We were advised to wear a dark jacket and trousers, and as most teenagers had a dark jacket for school in those days, that was no problem. There was a whole range of activities available each week including drill marching and playing in the BB band. The only downside to the whole thing was the insistence on going to the Methodist church each Sunday, which some of us wagged of course. We hadn’t fully realized that the BB was an offshoot of the church and designed to teach boys discipline and good Christian ethics! Still we put up with the religious side for the sake of the social side. The head officer was a Mr Roper, who was a kindly man, but always seemed very serious and not prone to too much laughter. He had in fact started the association from scratch.

Brush over Basil’s gaffe

Posted by Trinity Mirror Cheshire on March 25, 2008 1:02 PM

IS Basil Brush racist? His joke about a Gypsy nicking his wallet is a slur on all travellers, says a Gypsy and Travellers Network and stereotypes them.

Personally, I suspect it’s a class thing. Mr Brush is extremely well spoken, dresses very well and doesn’t throw litter about, just the kind of person to get up a Traveller’s nose.

Continue reading "Brush over Basil’s gaffe"

A Weaverham Special - Past Rose Fetes

Posted by on March 24, 2008 10:59 AM

Thought I’d put this special in as a supporter of the Cheshire Rose Fetes. Read with dismay some time back that despite surviving for 75 years they may very well not continue through lack of support and expertise!

The Weaverham Rose Fete in the 50’s was an amazing event. It was a bit like Christmas in June/July. Here in Western Australia we actually do celebrate ‘Christmas in July’. July is in the middle of winter, and pretty cold. So some of us crazy gals and guys, take off for weekends and hols in the south of the state, which is the coldest part and celebrate ‘Christmas in July’, with real Christmas food, cards and celebrations!

Weaverham in the 50’s was pretty quiet and the two main exciting times were the summer rose fete and Christmas. The rose fete of course attracted the traveling fair, and that was a week or two of excitement and ‘the big night out syndrome’! Whether it rained or shone, it didn’t matter. The fair ground was a honey pot to the ‘bees’ of Weaverham. We strutted are thing and met the girls for a fling. I managed to catch the last night of the Weaverham fair in July ’99. It was much smaller than I remembered and one of the stall holders confirmed the fact. The fair ground seemed to be loosing its’ appeal to modern entertainment and technology.

In the 50’s the Weaverham fair took up the whole field practically and had every imaginable event. Dodgem cars, boxing rings where you could fight the resident boxer and win a quid or two. Ferris wheels, merry go rounds, hot dog stands etc etc. For us it was magic and we felt like kings for the night. I remember we all got dressed up in our best jeans, shirts and for some of us cravats and kept trying to bump into as many girls as we could and dare them to try the more dangerous rides.

In ’99 on my return after 37 years away we turned out for the Davenham Rose Fete. A much smaller place and event than the Weaverham one. So come on don’t ‘throw the baby out with the bath water’. We can enjoy the new technologies like the internet but let’s retain some of the old world charm as well and support the revival of the Cheshire Rose Fetes’. It doesn’t after all have to be exactly as it was in the 50’s. What about a ‘new age’ rose fete with modern themes and space –aged displays. Remember ‘achievement is only limited by a lack of imagination’

British humour is a funny thing for others to follow

Posted by Trinity Mirror Cheshire on March 19, 2008 8:29 AM

Three interesting reports reach my ears: The secret of British humour is in the genes, say researchers; Britons are only happy when miserable, says an American – and Germany to buy ’Allo ’Allo.

The last item is bound to make us happy. Constable Crabtree, speaking broken French in English and dubbed in German, will be worth watching with subtitles. I think we should buy it back.

Continue reading "British humour is a funny thing for others to follow"

Personally speaking

Posted by Trinity Mirror Cheshire on March 11, 2008 10:15 AM

IT’S all very well for the Government and the Daily Mail and the Greens to pick on the plastic shopping bag, but my question is this: When they are banned, as will happen, what are we expected to wrap Sunday’s chicken carcass in?

You know, the one that sits in the wheely bin for two weeks in the summer getting smellier and smellier, until it is potent enough to knock out the binman like coal gas and a canary.
It’s a serious question.

Continue reading "Personally speaking"

A Walk Around My Old Town?

Posted by Kingsley Road Kid on March 8, 2008 12:40 PM


I Can’t help feeling sad, seeing so many of our lovely old buildings disappear from the ‘Old Town’ landscape.
While I understand the need for redevelopment after all these years.
It does seem such a crying shame that a lot of our unlisted old buildings are being snapped up to be turned into apartments, when what the Old Town badly needs is a retail development.
Our heritage is fast disappearing along with our identity, maybe we won‘t realise this until its all gone.
What we don’t want is for the Old Town to become a distant memory, or a collection of old black and white photographs

Take the La Scala building in the High Street in Runcorn, originally it was a cinema, then a well known bingo hall.
It’s said “the Beatles once played there in the early nineteen sixties�
I’m sure it had an art deco frontage and was used in many top t v drama, such as ‘Pennies from Heaven’ by Dennis Potter.
It’s a shame the buildings façade couldn’t have been kept in it’s original state and the building redeveloped inside, this could be said of a lot of Old Town buildings.
It is really heartbreaking to see the ruined shell the La Scala has become because redevelopment has taken so long.

Waterloo House in Waterloo Road was built in the late 1830s by Charles Hazlehurst and it later became our Town Hall from 1874 to 1933.
It became well known as a community centre for the company YKK.
Who, in their right mind would let one of Runcorn’s Town Halls be turned into yet more apartments?

To complete the trio of well known buildings due to disappear soon is the Technical Institute known locally as the Tech.
The Tech was built in 1894 by John Tomlinson Brunner of I C I fame with the help of public subscription.
In 1902 the pupils of the new Runcorn County Secondary School shared the building.
These building are all a major part of the history of the Old Town.
I can’t help but have some misgivings as to what is happening in the Old Town and if we are really doing the right thing.
Such a pity we couldn’t take a leaf out of Frodsham’s book and preserve our heritage for the future.

Ash-worth Time Bank

Posted by Trinity Mirror Cheshire on March 7, 2008 8:50 AM

We are a charity (Big Lottery Funded) which started in 2003, to encourage rural people to share their skills and time with older members of the community. Membership is free as are all services and we also organise social groups, a monthly reminiscing group, art, reading, walking, luncheon groups and we have our very own lending library in our central office in Ashton Hayes. Membership is like having an insurance policy - you never know when you may need it!

We organise all sorts of job exchanges from lifts, companionship, letter writing, gardening, walking the dog and computer sills - the list endless! We also organise awaydays for members, as well as a Holistic Therapy Pamper Day for unpaid carers and people who have suffered a bereavement. We have members in ten rural Cheshire villages and are holding open evenings during 2008.

Continue reading "Ash-worth Time Bank"

The Story Continues - School Life in the 50's

Posted by on March 7, 2008 8:28 AM

Having secured a place at The Winsford Verdin Grammar, I now had to get there! I discovered there was a special school bus that left Weaverham Monday to Friday for Winsford via the back lanes and villages. So for a weekly fee of probably 10 shillings I sat in the chauffeur driven limousine with 35 other raving lunatics. There was always a full bus load and a daily scramble to get a seat or stand all the way. There were many more but the memory dims. So for us each day we lived in Weaverham but traveled to ‘work’ at Winsford. We had learnt the skill of ‘commuting’ in the 50’s!

The highlights of school had nothing to do with learning and everything to do with socializing and ‘wagging’. The forbidden ‘fag’ was shared with mates at the back of some purpose built wall on the outskirts of the playground. Unfortunately for the ‘smokers’ we hadn’t worked out that smoke rises and as soon as the ‘Indian smoke signals’ appeared the teacher on patrol would head for the wall. The alarm was sounded and bodies would fly in all directions! Another favorite site was the bicycle shed, which afforded less cover but an alternative diversion from the prying teachers.

School lunch was a hoot, and conducted in two sittings. The masters sat on one central table and seemed to eat the same food as we did, but we suspected the quality was different! All pupils sat on tables eight, I think with a two designated senior pupils, who were responsible for dividing the food amongst the eight. In some cases the ‘dishing out’ process was not scrupulously fair, and without the prowling attention of a ‘master on patrol’ some younger pupils would miss out on a complete meal. Talk about ‘Lord of the Rings’!

Physical activities were an interesting event. They took place each week and you could either elect to play the main sport, football in winter, cricket in summer, or choose cross country running. Those who were not football or cricket mad, selected cross country running, including myself. The great advantage of latter choice was that it was unsupervised! This meant that we could walk, jog, or run and best of all stop for a ‘smoko’ I can still vividly recall running in the midst of winter, with snow and ice on the ground in white shorts and singlet (designed to prevent masters from spotting erring students), and stopping for a quick ‘smoko’ with chattering teeth and blue lips. The only thing that kept us warm was the matches and fags! Summer was more leisurely and we could lie on grass hilltops under blue skies and intermittent sunshine!

Did I mention that the school was co-ed? Well that was not particularly significant for the first two or three years but as the hormonal system kicked into place all hell broke loose! But, more about that in the next instalment. Some of the ensuing romances are still active!

Vale Royal Lions 7th Prestigious Charity Golf Day

Posted by on March 5, 2008 7:26 PM

Charity%20Golf%20Day.jpg

A quintessential cheshire Village

Posted by on March 5, 2008 12:16 PM

I'm not sure where I'm going with this one but I do know where I've been - so now a short posting to see if I grapple with the machinations of all this new technology. But I feel sure James will come to the rescue if necessary he seems such a gentle soul!

Imagine Weaverham if you can in the mid 50’s. A sleepy Cheshire village with add-on old and new housing estates belonging to that big chemical factory spouting smoke all day called ICI. For a young 12 year old straight from the back streets of Liverpool this was paradise. Plenty of fresh air (when the ICI smoke was blowing in the right direction) green fields and laid back country folk!

Personally Speaking

Posted by Trinity Mirror Cheshire on March 4, 2008 12:53 PM

You cannot take early flowers and sunshine as evidence of Armageddon

Spring is early again. I know because the newspapers tell me and because, well, I saw two ducks, you know, at it, the other day.
It may be nature but it is not romantic. It’s a wonder she didn’t drown.

Other ducks were milling about as ducks do and you wonder what they thought of it all.
Daffodils have been flowering for months, hedges are in bud, the sun is shining, there are gnats in the air and it is all the fault of global warming.

Continue reading "Personally Speaking"

Past, Present and Future

Posted by on March 2, 2008 10:24 AM

Some weekends – usually Saturdays we would get farm jobs – other Saturdays none. I think we used to earn a pound for a full day, which was great in 1955. The work could be anything on the farm. I remember quiet distinctly cleaning out chicken coups and then creosoting them inside and out to prevent diseases attacking the chicken, general painting and herding the remaining two cows in for milking at the end of the day. I don’t think we ever aspired to actually milking the cows. But I do remember having to assist the farmer to tie down the legs of a rather belligerent cow before milking. There were usually two of us teenagers who worked on a Saturday. The hard working lads stuck it out long term, the rest gave it away! But I suppose in those days you could say it was a good spirited public gesture on the part of the farmer to give young teenagers a leg up so to speak. Looking back the transition from city life to rural life had seemed easy. But I had had a trial run so to speak. I had an elderly cousin and her husband who had also moved from Liverpool a year or eighteen months early then we. I had had the privilege of spending school holidays with them and using Uncle Bob’s bike to explore Weaverham. Once we moved I was already on familiar ground.