Darwen memories
Here are memories of Darwen and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Darwen or a Darwen photo.
Clogs
I remember the sound of the clogs at 6am as people came past 6 Hilton Street (second house from mill).
Primary School
I attended St. John's Primary School from age late 8 to 11, we used to go to church on Monday morning where we would walk round from the school to Sough Road where the church was.
This is Hilton Street.
I was born at No 4 Hilton Street (in March 1955) which was the shop on the very corner at the end of the street nearest to the chimney. Darwen Paper Mill is the mill opposite the houses, with of course India Mill at the end.
Education And Faith For Holy Trinity.
I attended Holy Trinity Primary School, Church of England, at Darwen in the year 1955, when I was six years of age. There was a spiritual bond between the school and the Holy Trinity Church, as it was then called.
On a certain day of the week the class of children I belonged to were given religious instruction. A picture still present in my memory, is that of the outline of the Holy Trinity Church, as drawn on the classroom blackboard by the teacher. It was explained that the outline shape was that of a cross on which Jesus was crucified and that the church was built in the same shape for that reason.
On religious days of remembrance, for example, Good Friday, all the children at the school would be paraded across the town centre and up the hill to attend a service at the church.
My grandfather was 23 yrs of age when he died, having succumbed to wounds he endured during the... Read more
Darwen Market & The Old Glass Shed
I was born in Cranberry Lane in 1957 and I remember the old market very well. There was the 'pot man', Annie and her second hand stall and the old market cafe. In summer there was the ice-cream man near the steps at Railway Road. Later on I worked on the market after school and on Saturdays for Betty who sold underwear and for Mrs Jones who sold remnants of fur fabric. My mother had a stall later on selling handbags. I also recall the lady who sold potted shrimps in the doorway of the market hall. I always thought the market was a wonderful place, especially when it was lit up on a winter's day, but how grateful we were for the mugs of steaming tea from the cafe to ward off the cold.
Memories of Lancashire
Childhood Memories in Blackburn
My first school was St Michaels and All Angels in Whalley New Road. We all had to have our gas masks over our shoulders and hang them up on our own little peg. I can remember we all had school dinners, I don't think we paid, we had no money. Also all the very young children had a sleep for a couple of hours in canvas beds so we had to creep around. My father Harold buck and his friend Edmund kept pigs, so they came after dinner to collect the food that was left over to feed the pigs, they called it pig swill. I used to hide when they came. There was a wall at the bottom of the playground with a big drop on the other side down into the brook(Blackwater), we would climb down sometimes, cross the brook and go up the other side to the Tizer where soft drinks were made. Also on the same land was a big lake we called Granny Green Teeth,... Read more
School Speech Days
When I was a pupil at 'Blackburn High School for Girls' we used to go to Blackburn Cathedral for the morning sevice on Speech Day. In those days the Cathedral was dark and dismal with masses of dark wood and lots of box pews. I particularly remember walking over what I believed were graves - scary to an eleven year old! We always sang the hymn 'Now Thank We All Our God' and I always associate that hymn with the Cathedral. The modernised, light and airy Cathedral is a joy to visit and bears no resemblance to the Cathedral of my schooldays. I was so delighted to find your photos of the 'old' Cathedral's interior looking more like my memories to show to my children.
Infirmary Memories
My first memory of the Infirmary is when I was four years old. I had my tonsils and adenoids removed because I was very, very deaf. After the operation I could hear but it would be many years before I learned that I only had hearing in one ear. When I was six I had another operation to remove a tumour from my neck. It was a long procedure and I was an in-patient for six weeks. I had my seventh birthday while I was there! At that time the 'New Wing' had not been built and we children used to play outside. There was a large grass slope which we used to roll down and have great fun. At the age of nine I fell over and broke my leg requiring a plaster cast for six weeks. I refused to walk with it and my mother shortened the long brush to make me a crutch - no wonder she had... Read more
Shopping Days
This photo is as I remember Church St when I was a little girl. I had three younger brothers and when Mother took us to town she often went into Woolworths. We were told that if we became lost we had to find the weighing machine. It was huge and stood near the doors. She said that if we waited there she would find us. I don't remember any of us ever getting lost in the store. We also were taken to the toilets facing Woolworths doors, which can also be seen in this photo. It was always fascinating having to go down below ground level to the toilets. It is so sad that it is all in the past now.
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... Read more
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