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Downham
Downham maps
Historic maps of Downham and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Downham maps
Downham area books
Displaying 1 of 17 books about Downham and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Downham
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Lancashire memories
Saturday Mornings
My grandad kept racing pigeons, his loft was at the top of the old road looking down into the village centre. Ever Saturday morning during the racing season he would send me up to the Brown Cow (public house) to check when the birds had been released and which way the wind was blowing. It would say something like, let 09.30 / wind SW. I would have to remember this all the way back to tell my grandad. We would then sit and wait for the first sign of his birds. I was nine years old at the time
Summer Holidays
I remember in the 1950s my sister Annette and I used to spend some time on a farm owned by Mr Thomas Holgate who was a friend of the family and really enjoyed those times. The farm was called Townley House and my dad used to help with the hay making. I also used to go there occasionally to do jobs when I worked for Roland Ford plasterers and slaters in the 1960s. I now live in Australia.
Home Sweet Home
1981 The year we moved into West Bradford, to Gable Cottage, built about 1790. For 28 very happy years we lived here. Aunty Nancy the cottage ghost showed her present sometimes! No gas, no lights overhead electric wires and telly pole in back garden! Well, in 28 years on we had gas lights etc etc! Well, it was time to move on. We settled on Portugal! Now we live in a village with no gas, sort of street lights, and a telegraph pole on front garden! We miss west Bradford!
Paddling Pool, Castle Field
I remember this pool vividly! One day I was riding my tricyle round the outside of the pool, which wasn't filled with water at the time. Unfortunately I happened to fall in and I cut my hand on a broken glass. After 34 years I still have a scar to prove it.
Morris Dancing With The Clitheroe Morris Men
This was a weekend to remember!
The Clitheroe Morris Men invited several other dance "sides" to join them for a weekend of dancing, music and - of course - beer drinking! By a lucky chance I was included in this invitation due to a strange set of circumstances...
Just the Autumn before, in 1979, I had begun to play my piano accordian for the Whitethorn Morris team in Harrow, Middlesex. After a month or two of enjoyable music I spotted an advertisement in the Watford Observer which said that the Pumphouse Women's Clog Morris urgently needed a musician to play for their practice evenings on Monday nights. Well, I lived in Watford, and I badly needed the extra opportunities to practise playing for dancing on my accordian myself. So I got in touch and found myself twice as busy: Mondays nights playing in Watford for the Pump House Clog Morris and Thursday nights playing in Harrow for Whitethorn Morris. This worked well and my standard... Read more
Bondstreet31@hotmail.com
I was 19 years old and loved cycling. My aim was to cycle from Blackpool, where I lived, to Barley Youth Hostel on Pendle Hill. Unfortunately, I calculated too little time to reach my destination and found myself at the bottom of Pendle Hill, Padiham, I think, at 5.pm. in December. It was pitch black and the battery on my front light was low. I was scared because the hill was steep and I had to push my bike. One image is ingrained in my memory. Down below, to my far left there were the orange neon streets lights of a major town and to my near left, silhouetted against this backdrop of the town, was a gnarled old tree. Close to the tree was a stream and in my frightened state I could not at first identify the sound of the gushing water. On and on I pushed my bike until I reached the YHA, where I had to knock long... Read more
My Mum's Hairdressing Salon
Right on the end of this barn, hidden from view was a small irregular building with it's own door. It had been a small butchers shop some time before my Mum and Dad bought it as a hairdressing salon for my mum to use as a little business.
It had no heating, just two yellow sinks and chairs, a couple of work stations and a telephone table where the phone, appointment book and till sat.
Surprisingly the business did really well. My Dad was the local 'bobby' and so knew everyone in the area. I remember helping out in the school holidays and hearing an old tractor pull up outside - a farmer, hair full of hay, and old dirty clothes popped his head round the door asking if mum has time for a quick short back & sides. It was much quieter during lambing time but many farmers wives were there most Fridays for their shampoo & sets.
When Mum decided to stop... Read more
