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I lived in Ryden Avenue...
#11
Fascinating stuff Bill, and more please when you can spare the time. We are informationaphiles. Other Bill has sent some fascinating posts about the building of the tank factory, some of the photos he has sent me are just incredible, open fields galore, where now there are none. To pull down a 15th Century cottage to put up instead prefabs, I find astonishing. I'm sure it would not happen now.
Oh John, I used to get 12 shillings for my paper round. You were diddled, we should have formes a paper-boys union.[Smile]
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#12
I should know about the pre-fabs, but I can`t remember, the dates you give should remind me. Memory bank lacking here. Remember Calverts shop at the end of the row. You went down the end to cross the railway at the level crossing, Right? I lived uup at Bent Bridge end, last big semi whenthere was an oak tree next door.Keep reminding m,e and it might trip something. Left there about 1950 .Brownie or Brynie brook rings a bell. Pre-Fabs? I remember Young Avenue being built, then Ryden Avenue across the top. Your mention of POW`s also doesn`t click. I`ve been away too long!!! Chjerio from obver the Pennines, Bill. Remember Arthur Parker Woods.?????
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#13
Sorry, my typing is pathetic, Martin will be taking my stars away and banning me to the backwoods, Bill
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#14
JUst thinking, Bill should have known Ike Dickinson, had that house and yard in the shadow of Turpin Green Bridge. He used to go drinking at the Fox Hotel in Fox Street ion Preston. Would come out at closing time, lie on the cart, and tell the horse to take him home. It did but I did hear the the horse had a tangle with a car at Penwortham traffic lights and put a shaft through some unfortunate`s windscreen. There must be some tales waiting to be told, mind you I`m going back to 1940`s Cheers. William R.
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#15
Gosh, William, yoiu just saved me from an error! Of course! Ike Dickinson from what was once a farm in the triangle formed by the railway, Bent Lane and Turpin Green Bridge. Ike used to have an occasional lodger who slept in the barn; we called him "Galosher Dick". He must have been an itinerant tramp and Ike for some reason gave him hospitality - relative maybe. At any rate, there were a few fruit trees at the apex of the triangle, but Ike kept such a sharp eye, we could never raid the place! Ike drank at the Eagle and Child near the parish church and used to return dead drunk on his cart, fast asleep, with the horse taking him home!
One place we did get apples from but only a couple of times was from an orchard up Bent Lane just past Calvert's row, the spare ground and the ruins of an old cottage. The orchard had a wire fence round and was hard to access. The owner was our milkman, I think, Charlie something. He had a horse drawn milk float and came up the avenue in late afternoon; one had to take a jug out and he would ladle milk from his measures from a churn. We had Hough's milk too, but I think he was the regular delivery. Did you know Bill Shakespear? They lived at the foot of Lynton Avenue, next to the paper shop?
I recall the building of the tank factory, indeed, in a piece of ground next to BTR used tanks and armored vehicles were stored, presumably awaiting repair, and we used to play in them, walking all the way across Leyland to do so!
My parents were the first renters of #27; when we arrived there the avenue was not completely built. Across the road was a large family called Woodward, nice folks. I mentioned Aspinalls; Mr. Aspinall worked at LM and had been gassed in WW1. On the living room wall was a huge framed colored print of the city hall in either Lille or Louvain blazing after being set on fire deliberately by the Germans (It is mentioned in "The Guns of August" by Barbar Tuchman"). It was a strange picture in a Lancashire working class home and I used to wonder as a kid where it came from.
Arthur Parker Woods does not ring a bell, sorry.
We always called the brook, Brownie Brook, and at the bottom of the field in summer dammed it. The water rose to about two feet max and attracted kids from all over. Farmer Hough would periodically come in the night and knock it down, since his cows lower down the brook got only a trickle of water!
In the end house in solitary row off Ryden Avenue lived Old Riley, his wife (every time I saw Marjorie main, she reminded me of Mrs. Riley!) and two sons, Jim and Tom. Old Riley was a rag and bone man, firewood merchant and general scrounger. Next to the house he had a large wooden shed surrounded by a tall fence. If I recall, he palled somewhat with Ike Dickinson.
I just wrote about the trek across the fields to go to Whittle Hills, a day's expedition. Once had an encounter there with a kid who accused me of splashing him at the waterlogged quarry. I was never an aggressive kid and this one squared off at me, so what could I do but do the same. I think this surprised him, so he said "Lucky for you, we're not at Brownie brook!" An imposter! Never forget when with utmost contempt I told him your'e not from Brownie brook, because I am! He then confessed he came from Lymington Avenue. I must have been 11 or 12 and it set me thinking; are we such a rough lot that our location is used to intimidate others?
BillR
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#16
My uncle Eric Peet lived in the prefabs on Ryden avenue, I remember playing in the brook and the sandhills there, early 50s . Mum lived in the old terraced houses, now next to the pub on Bent Lane until '46 , but she's about eight years older than you, Bill. When my grandparents first moved to Leyland from hesketh bank way, they first rented an old thatched cottage on Bent Lane, I wonder if that's the same wattle-and-daub structure you mention??
Somewhere(' Eating in Leyland' topic, I think), we discussed Licorice root and someone said they could still get them...
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#17
I forgot to say, Bill, keep up with the painting! Have a look at my website if you like-
www.artistsmock.com
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#18
You can buy licquerice root in Barnsley at the Health Shop. It used to make go no end of times. William R
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#19
Hello Caroline. My paternal grandmother's father came from Hesketh Bank; name was Higham. After farming, he quit to become landlord of the White Lion, Upholland. Hda no sons, just three daughters, so I guess that explains leaving the farm!

Peet. My maternal family are from Ainsdale and I remember a Dick Peet, who was an amateur golfer at Ainsdale golf club and a friend of my uncle Percy (Halsall).

The cottage was actually on Bow Lane. When did they move to Leyland? I do not recall a cottage on Bent Lane, though one was demolished circa 1939, after standing empty for a year or two. I remember going in the empty cottage as a kid and remember the green paint peeling off the entry hall walls and the damp, musty smell of an old, empty house. I cannot recall if the roof was thatched though.

Sans etre indiscret, est-ce que je pourrais vous demander ou vous habitez en France? Ma fille et sa famille viennent de s'etablir a Chartres - elle est nee en Angleterre mais on l'a quitte en 1962 quand elle avait 6 ans, donce elle a fait ses etudes en France.
BillR
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#20
quote:

Originally posted by William R

You can buy licquerice root in Barnsley at the Health Shop.

I spotted it today in Holland & Barrett's in St Helens, so it looks like most health food stores now stock it.
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