Cheadle, High Street c1955

Cheadle in the Second World War

I think that we must have moved to Cheadle around 1938, because I was born in Newcastle under Lyme, but my younger sister was born in Cheadle in 1939. At that time we lived on Leek Road. We had various airmen and sailors billeted with us when they were on training courses at the top secret Cheadle Hall, an outstation from Bletchley Park. These included a sailor who had served on HMS 'Hood', but prior to the terrible happening. bout 1941 we moved from Leek Road down to The Birches. Not such a nice house, but when you are young these things don't seem to matter. For most of the Second World War Dad worked in the munitions factory at Swinnerton. Despite the terrible war, as children we rather enjoyed those years. Cheadle was a lovely place to grow up in at that time. I started school in 1941 at the Church of England school which was just over the garden wall from where we lived. In the summer months all of us children from the Birches and Lid Lane used to disappear up into Huntley Wood. Whilst up in the woods we played various games, climbed trees, and picked bilberries. I can recall my elder brother having to come and fetch us home when it was nearly dark! Later on after the Americans came into the war Cheadle used to see a big influx of the US servicemen for the Saturday dance at the Guildhall. Sometimes of course this resulted in fights which were not so nice. The Americans seemed very glamourous to us children. It was around this time that I saw my first black American. We kids used to go around the streets collecting American cigarette packets which were new to us. By about 1943 I remember gazing at the Fyffes adverts in the local shops which showed a bunch of bananas. By this time we had forgotten what they tasted like. I recall that Goodwins on the High Street used to be surrounded by crowds whenever they received a rare delivery of sweets. I remember however that you could buy a ginger-bread man from a stall just inside the market hall. One vivid memory that I have is one evening when Dad took us upstairs to the front bedroom to show us a bright glow in the sky. When we asked him what it was, he just said it was "Coventry burning". Terrible. We did have a couple of bombs around Cheadle, but I don't know if the Germans were trying to get Cheadle Hall outstation, or Thomas Bolton's at Froghall. Possibly both. Later on in the war my mum used to take me to the North Staffs Infirmary for eye treatment. We used to sit on the benches waiting our turn, and on the same bench would be German and Italian PoWs. It was a bit unnerving for a kiddie of 6-7. After one such visit to the NSI, Mum stopped off at Meir to see Dad. I had never before travelled on a train, and we went to Meir Station to try to catch one of the infrequent trains to Cheadle. I remember standing on the platform, watching the train come in and marvelling at how clever the driver must have been to keep the train on such narrow tracks! Stupid boy! I remember, later in the war, I went through a phase of collecting bus tickets, and always had a pocketful. One day I took my younger sister for a bus ride down to Tean. Only a couple of miles, but a long way for kids. We wandered around Tean, and walked up to the bridge that crossed the river (a brook really). We stood on the bridge just below the houses where a plane had crashed into the roofs. We leaned over the bridge and I amused us by flicking some of my bus tickets into the river below. Unbeknown to me this included our return tickets back to Cheadle. Doubly stupid boy! We moved away from Cheadle in 1946, and even though it is now over 60 years since I left, Cheadle has a special place in my heart. I try to get back there occasionally, but of course they say that you should never retrace your steps. The place is just not the same. But then neither am I.

Better Late Than Never.

I met my wife Dorothy in Northampton. She came from Cheadle. Incidentally I was born at Ryton-on-Tyne. One day Dorothy asked me if I would like to move to Cheadle so I got a map out and what caught my eye was a place called Upper Tean which was about 3 mile from Cheadle. Within 4 weeks we were living in Upper Tean and it's a beautiful place to live in. From the kitchen window to the horizon one can see many woods, old-fashioned stone walls and hedges. At this moment in the distance there is a farmer at work in the field. Actually I like a game of chess, but moving to Upper Tean was the best move I ever made.

Recollections of a special village

I attended Sunday School in the 1960s at St Peter's School, Caverswall and my teacher was Mr Harp. He was a great inspiration to me as a budding historian and he sometimes took us to visit the castle and taught us much about the church. I remember being taken by Mrs Yates (the former Vicar's wife) as Brown Owl and Christine Tranter (Tawny Owl) to Caverswall Square and being taught, with other Brownies, to use the telephone box. We would attend church parades at St Peter's, often marching from the school grounds and presenting our standards. Christmas parties were at great hit, with Bert Poole in charge of the games and music. My friends Ruth and Jane Tranter had bicycles and it was still safe in those days to cycle round the village. St Peter's Church was a very important location in my childhood, however, the first time I went inside St Philomena's RC Church was on the Millennium Eve, when the 2 churches had a joint service, part of which took place in one church and part in the other. A yew tree was planted in the grounds of St Peter's to mark the Millennium. I was confirmed and married in St Peter's in 1986 and my sister Kathryn Boden was married there too, some years later. We have an old home movie of the wedding of Gilllian Inchley and Brian Proctor in 1962, showing the robed choir and Vicar Yates. I am so pleased that the bells have been restored recently at St Peter's. My house in Guernsey has framed notelets which were the result of artwork by the well known artist Tom Hinks, who lived in Caverswall and which raised funds for the building of the village community centre. My daughter Emma Boden-Heaume went to Caverswall School in 2001-2 and we were warmly welcomed back into the area by Mr Beardmore and Mary Hull. The Christmas carol service of 2001, in which we joined the choir, was a great highlight for us, after I had been seriously ill. Ann from Caverswall School and Wendy Scott have been a wonderful  support to my family. Mrs Thorley from the school, taught my daugher to play the piano. There was always a cheery smile and supportive comment from Paul in the Post Office along with Tery, Yvonne and Susan from church. Even though so many friends are no longer with us, Caverswall retains a very place in my memory and I hope that others will avail themselves of this opportunity to share something of their memories. I am sure they will be ones of a close, caring community. Long may the spirit continue.

Evacuation

My brother and I, aged six and a half and five, were evacuated to Wetley Rocks at the outbreak of war in 1939.  We only stayed for six weeks but the time is imprinted on my mind.  We were billeted in a farmhouse which belonged to, I believe, the Ridgway family who lived in a grander house nearby, now demolished.  Miss Ridgway lived there with her brother.  Their father was a pottery manufacturer.  The farmhouse had a room with a large table, covered in white crockery, and glass-fronted cupboards containing the same.  There was a cowman who I think was conscripted but I was told that his name was Mr Moss and he was still alive in 1991.  We attended the village school - mornings one week and afternoons the next.  Arriving in Wetley Rocks we were deposited in the school and given beakers of tea and a banana.  On arrival at the farmhouse we went to see the cows being milked and coming out I slipped in a fresh cow pat - I was wearing a green gymslip!!  There was a walled fruit garden where we children over-indulged in ripe fruit.  My brother and I visited the area in 1991 and I was pleased to see that my memory had served me well regarding the farmhouse.  Enquiries put me in touch with a Fay Butler whose parents, I was told, owned a shop.  Fay moved to Stone.

Cauldon Low Cricket Club

Whilst going through a number of items handed down to me by my late grandfather Ronald Arthur Rayson of Suffolk who passed away in 1982, I found a medal from the Leek and District Cricket League with an inscription 'Cauldon Lowe 1904 Runners Up'. It may have belonged to a member of my distant family, surnames of which are Rayson, Foules, Harris, therefore I am interested in any information regarding the Cricket Club, Team list from that period etc.
Andy Beesley