Balderstone, Commons Lane c1955

Living there

As a young boy I used to stay at my aunt's house in Commons Lane. It may well be the house pictured? During summer school hols my brother Ken and I were often taken by our 'mam' on the Ribble bus to Mellor Brook, from where we had to walk to get to auntie's house, probably about 3 to 4 miles. The whole outing was someting of an adventure as often we were accompanied by mam's friend(s) and their offspring.
In good weather we could run ahead and play in a small wood until the grown ups caught up. If we were only going for the day the time sped by and the reverse journey could be tiring, and we were glad to reach the Millstone pub to wait for the bus. Lemonade outside for us kids and stronger stuff, inside, for the grownups.
If Ken and I were to stay for a few days this was great, there were some lads, the Kelsalls, and they showed us much of the surrounding district incl. the Horseshoe Bend and lots of other intersting places. Our cousins Barbara and Pauline Smith were friends of the Kelsalls and we went around as a group.
Later in life I used to cycle from Blackburn to spend happy days at Balderstone. My aunt and uncle are long gone, cousin Pauline lives at Mellor, Barbara is at Blackburn, Ken is also at Blackburn, I live near Wigan.

Pheasant Beating

I spent many a Saturday, walking the woods of the tower, beating sticks and making noise.
After a good 8 hours trudging up and down slopes and in the mud, they feed us a bowl of bad stew and beer. There was always a joke about who got the only piece of meat. I was the lucky recipient once, had to eat it quick tho.
I remember all the shooters in the next room having a meal and trying to catch a glimpse of the glamourous life, thru a crack in the door.
Not an old memory yet, but it will be eventually.

Rain, cold and fun.

Memories of shopping with my parents, Jack and Ellen, when I was 9 years old is always a pleasant thought, although it was not all pleasant, when it was raining the water off the canvas covers would drip down your neck, and if it was windy it would blow the canvas up and you got more than you had bargained for (ah, the good old days. It was not all doom and gloom though, there was always the Easter fair, although at my age I only got to have a go on the little wheel, but little did they know, when I was playing out I was spending my hard earned errand money on the big wheel,helter skelter and waltzer. The freedom I had as a child will always be remembered when I see a picture of the clock at Blackburn market...

Nurse Training

I started my SRN training in 1973. In those days the Nurses' Home still exsisted but the view was obscured by the more recent additional buildings to the Infirmary, which included the Education Centre. However the Home was still well used. Some nurses still 'lived in' in this building but we all used the building too. We all had lockers in a room in the basement there. When we went on duty we kept our gaberdines and bags in our lockers where we also stored our clean uniform. We had to wear clean uniforms every day so dirty laundry was put into laundry bags, also kept in the locker and sent off to the laundry on our given laundry day. When we worked on night duty, which was quite often then, we had to congregate in the Sitting Room and be told which ward we were to work on. In the main corridor down near our locker room there were information boards where we found the 'Change Lists'. These lists told us when we were to change to another ward. We usually worked for about eight weeks on a ward then would move to a different ward and specialty to gain new experience. Also our 'Block' exam results were posted here too. No secrets!
To enter the building you could either use its main front door or go through one of the infirmary corridors. I usually went through the main door as it was an additional walk to go through the A&E entrance and round the infirmary corridors. One day the heavens opened shortly after I had left home to walk to work. There was nowhere to shelter so I just walked as quickly as I could. On reaching the small driveway to the main doors a porter told me that I couldn't use that entrance as there was a huge puddle infront of the doors. I ignored him and waded through it. I was already soaked and couldn't have got any wetter than I already was. He must have thought I was crackers. I was so wet that even my dress under the gaberdine was soaked. When I put my apron on it stuck to the wet dress. When I arrived on 'my' ward I was sent to the sewing room for another dress and apron. I was also lent a pair of shoes by someone but they were two sizes too big! All in a day's work as they say!
Sadly the Nurse's Home was demolished way back in early 1980 to make way for the then new A&E department. Even sadder is that the whole Infirmary complex has recently been demolished.