Childhood Memories 1950 Onwards.

Irwell Vale c1950
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I was born in 1948 and we moved to Irwell Vale (Bowker Street) in 1949.  We moved again onto Hardsough Terrace when I was five years old. I lived and worked in Irwell Vale until 1972. The village had a Co-op, a Methodist Church and chip shop/grocer’s shop (owned by the McDowell family), which was on the corner of Bowker Street.  The shops were used by the villagers, as in those days not many people had cars and the main towns were not easily accessible as there was no train station in Irwell Vale then.

The red brick building adjacent to the Church was a canteen for the mill workers.

I remember the streets being decorated with bunting to celebrate the Queen’s accession to the throne.

The village was owned by the Dewhurst family, who also owned the local cotton mill (Thomas Aitken & Sons).  John Dewhurst – commonly known as J.D. was the owner along with his sons, Geoffrey and Tom.  Both of my parents worked in the mill for many years and it was common knowledge that the owner, John Dewhurst (J.D.), was not a man to be messed with!  He had the appearance of the Fat Controller out of Thomas the Tank Engine!  He was chauffeur driven to and from work by Fred McDowell whose family also ran the grocers and chippy.

Although the Dewhurst family were known to be quite formidable, the villagers were always looked after.  The family used to hold occasional gala days and there was food and drink provided in the mill canteen for everyone (no alcohol was permitted!).  This was also used at Christmas as it had a dance floor and a stage.  All the village children received a present from Father Christmas.  Tom and Geoffrey Dewhurst also ran a Scout group for the village lads.  We learned ways of cooking eggs in a dirt oven – this consisted of a metal biscuit tin buried in the ground with a fire underneath it.  We were all told to bring an egg but very few eggs made it as most of them broke in our pockets!

To keep the children  (known as ‘the village kids’) happy, J.D. had a park built at the back of Bowker Street.  We had swings, roundabout, slide and goal posts for the older boys to use.

I can remember bonfire nights when I was young being celebrated by a large bonfire being built by the villagers and mill workers.   In two occasions that can I recall, the men built a full sized house complete with Guy Fawkes looking out from the window!  The following year, they built a windmill – complete with Guy Fawkes again!  Once the fires were lit, we had a firework display with food and drink in the canteen.

These are some of my memories of the 50’s and 60’s in Irwell Vale.

Jumping on a few years, I started working in the mill as a weaver and I can remember being asked to work overtime during the summer holidays for one week.  The job was classed as a ‘special’ job called flueing.  It consisted of working with a mate and a rather large waisted boiler man called Don Alexander.  I was given a bucket, shovel, a hand brush & a long length of power cable with a bulb on one end and a dust mask.  Our job was to brush out the boiler flues at the back of the boiler to the bottom of the chimney.  This was done by crawling on our hands and knees on damp, wet floors and filling the buckets with soot.  The job was finished when you worked your way to the chimney and when looking up, you could see daylight!  The work took about four days and it was no joke going home every day black with soot and only two white eyes showing!  Many a time the bulb blew, leaving you in complete darkness, covered in damp soot and feeling your way out to the nearest light source.

It was an experience that I never wish to repeat, but was glad I did it at the time!

Ken Drummond