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PostPosted: Wed Jul 15, 2020 10:42 pm 

Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2020 7:48 pm
Posts: 6
As a youngster I used to spend a fair amount of time in the care of my Grandmother Amy Brierley who at that time lived at 7 Nelson Road Haggate. I recall a typical day - Grandma and I would often set off after breakfast and walk down through the Syke to what was at that time the Briercliffe boundry. This was next to a pub at the end of I think the coprow. Commercial? There were tramlines in the road from here and Grandma told me this was the terminus from Burnley. We would then turn round and set off back. Progress was always very slow as my Grandmother seemed to know everybody. Sometimes it seemed quite boring to a 12/13 year old lad but we did get lots of rests and tea & food. As we set off I remember there was an old corrugated tin church?institute sort of thing on the right. From this point you had an excellent view up Burnley Road all the way up to Haggate school. As we continued walking past the shops on the right we would sometimes pick up some shopping which I would carry and swing about in a old bag made of "oil cloth" similar to what everyone covered there tables with. When we got almost between Oxford mill on the left and South view on the right we turned down a back street on the right and called on I think Leslie? Halstead and his wife. Tea & sandwiches here! I always remember that Mr Halstead had to weigh all his food as he was diabetic. Near to the back of their terraced house I remember Massive mill boilers for South View which used trucks and trucks full of coal every day to keep to looms running. Sometimes from here we would go down their front street and left at the bottom and up past a church on the right to reach Queen Street. I always remember that at one of the terraced houses on the left there was a chiropodist that did my Grandma's feet on a regular basis. HOWEVER I DIGRESS because on this day we carried on between the two mills. On Oxford mill there was an AA plate telling you how many miles to London. The AA used to put them up all over the place! On another 75 yds or so we visit the office of South view and I get yet another mug of tea while Grandma talks to Billy Taylor and Arthur Walsh in the office. (I was by coincidence again to meet both these people again later in life when I myself was employed by Taylor & Hartley Textiles from Westhoughton on thier foray into diversification from cotton to the motor trade when they bought G W Rushworth and also Jackson & Hanson at Barrowford. We leave the mill and continue past the mill lodge on the left. (where I was always told I must stay away as children could get drowned if they swam in it) past the post office and then to the shop of Clifford the butcher on the corner of Queen St. On the opposite side was Doctor Lishmans surgery. I remember that you could go up by the surgery to the "happy cot" and up the back to come out at the bowling green. We collect my fathers cousin Ian Kippax as he alights the bus from Lane Head as it turns in to Queen St. Could never understand at the time why it was my Grandma but his Aunty Amy. We carried on up Burnley Rd past number 96 at which my Grandma moved to from Haggate several years later. They had just built brand new toilets on the right much to my delight after many cups of tea. Onwards and upwards past the bowling green on the left and the spare land on the right with some garages on it. Up past Douglas Way and on to the level with old chapel on our right. I seem to remember (I think?) that this was the yard/ premises of Francis? Moy? & Edgar? Bucks business activities. A little further on Mr Proudfoot the Head of Haggate school for many years came across to ask about my Father and was delighted when Grandma told him that he had got employment as an accounts clerk at Platers and Stampers (Prestige) We continue to the cross roads with Ian and myself running on ahead. The shop on the right was Margarets I think and again a 15 minute natter. This lady i think later married my fathers cousin Harry Brierley. We cross to the Co-op with Ian now taking his turn with the shopping bag. Grandma buys some bacon and eggs and other provisions and loads Ian up and tells him to be carefull. We cross the Road diagonally (no cars in those days) and we are told that we can have a glass of sarsaparilla and a penny lolly each from Dysons. (EDDIE I think) a short walk to 7 Nelson Rd and in we all go for the night. No Telly back then just a radio. Ian and I had to be quiet whilst Grandma listened to Wilfred Pickles "have a go Joe" and we sat quietly listening to this guy shouting, WHATS ON THE TABLE MABEL. Grandma put us both to bed which was sleeping at different ends of a long settee. She put the POE next to the settee for any emergencies in the night as the toilet, a long drop was across the yard outside.In the morning I remember her coming down early to catch Maurice Binns the milkman for an extra gill so that we could all have porridge. Signing off for now, but we are going to Robin House Lane and the old tin fever hospital tommorow on a nature walk. "tell u abount it later" THAKNOWSJOBALEAVEITWITHY.


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PostPosted: Thu Jul 16, 2020 8:34 pm 

Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2007 10:46 pm
Posts: 433
Location: cambridge
Yes, the Commercial. Craven Heifer at the far end of the Cop Row. All in Burnley, not Briercliffe, when there was a difference !

Fascinating recollections.

Rex, even older, and from nearer Burnley !


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