A Schoolboy In Carlton During The War Years 1940 Plus.

A Memory of Carlton.

My father, Wifred Broadhurst, and mother, Gladys (nee' Bryan), were married in 1927, the reception being held in Booth's Hall, opposite the Board School Entrance which was in the lane running from Main Street to Station Road.
The shops running along Main Street from Walkers Mill were Annie Bates sweet shop, Joe Taylors baker, West greengrocer, David Taylor sweets, Burrow's cobblers, Amy Shelton chip shop, Major Clark hairdresor, Harry Rutherford electrician. Across Francis Road, Aslin's buthchurs, Mickeys chip shop, Lamb's grocers, Conway greengrocers, Liberal Club, across Cavendish Road to Tommy Lambert's grocer, newsagent, Conway's greengrocer and Mrs Clark's sweet shop. Then higher up the Windsor Castle, a bike shop, Vickerstaff's pork shop before Foxhill Road. On the other side was Jack Horton blacksmith and bike repairer, Greaves shoe shop, and Wilf Straw the baker. At The Square was My Tilly's post office, Mossop's chemist next door, where the council building now stands, with a recreation ground before The Board School (or Nobby Green's college as it was called), where Nobby ruled with a rod of iron and an assortment of canes kept at the top of a cupboard. There was a dyke running down Foxhill Road, culverted from Cavendish Road, which came out at Ousbridge Drive and the cricket field. Martin's Hill went up to Bakersfield area, where American Soldiers were camped during WW2, including black men who I had never seen before. We kids used to beg spearmint and Camel cigarette packets. Aroud this area lurked the "Black Hand" gang, feared by many children. There was a fair every year (Proctors?) on Foxhill Road, where we spent our pennies on the Jollity Farm, and enticing gaming machines, which were a complete novelty in those austere days. I remember a German bomber flying over Park Avenue where I lived, and I understand it fired on a funeral near the cemetery. As children we gazed up in wonder, oblivious to any danger.