Great Haywood memories
Here are memories of Great Haywood and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Great Haywood or a Great Haywood photo.
Great Haywood
My name was Mackin when I lived in Great Haywood in the 197'0s. We lived in Elm Close for over 5years. When I began to look through the photographs in the Frith Collection and saw the one above, it brought back memories that the actual building shown was a Butchers. I loved living in that area, I used to walk my two Red Setters down by the canal and the river along side Shugborough Hall. Due to personal circumstances I then moved to Bournemouth and now live in Australia. I came to know about the Francis Frith Collection through the magazine "The Best of British" which my husband and I have delivered to Australia every month.
Summer Holidays
I was born in Brewery Yard, Great Haywood. After the war my mum moved to Notting Hill, London, so in the summer holidays my sister and I would stay at Nan & Grandads in the village. Mum {Eileen Bailey} played the piano in the Fox & Hounds, Stubbs's were the local butchers. I spent a few months at the local school, during the Notting Hill riots. We would come on our own by train, { it was safe in the 50s} then a bus to Shugborough Park, and would walk across the park lugging a rather large suitcase, which my dad had put handles on each end to make it easier for us. I remember going to the pictures in the memorial hall, and a dance now and then. A few of us would play down by the canal, and across the Essex Bridge. Most of the Bailey family are in St Stephen's graveyard. I have very happy memories of Great Haywood, it was then a very pretty place.
A 1950s Childhood Memory
I have very fond memories of Great Haywood during the 50s as my sister and I went to stay with our grandmother during the school holidays. We lived near to the centre of Manchester and so to visit this village in the 50s was like entering another world.
Grandma lived on the outskirts of the village in Tolldish Lane and she was quite a reclusive lady. Her husband had died in 1952 and because her cottage was not in the village as such, she kept herself to herself.
The photo, I believe, is of the post office in the village which was kept by a Miss Yelland. My sister and I, and of course grandma, would walk down to the village probably a few times a week. We would buy ice cream and grandma would do her shopping.
The walk would take us perhaps half an hour or so and we would pass certain landmarks on the way. The by-pass was not built then and so the journey... Read more
The Clifford Arms
Ahh, The Drinking Hole!
Bailey Bridge Pontoon - Canal Cruisers.
I built the boat shown on the right hand side of the photograph. Bailey Bridge pontoon MKVI N0.19053 was manufactured by Gee Walker & Slater Ltd, Uttoxeter Road, Derby and sent to Engineers Stores, US Army Depot, Newbury, Berkshire on 29/9/1944. At post-war WD surplus sales, a considerable number of these Bailey Bridge pontoons were bought by Levesley's International and stored at their depot at Alrewas near Burton on Trent. John Dobson, a local boat builder at Burton, began putting cabins on to these pontoons for sale as canal cruisers. I bought the pontoon hull for £18.00, built the cabin to a Dobson design, fitted out the interior and named it 'Agenor'. In August 1950, powered by a British Anzani 4HP outboard engine, she made her maiden voyage to the Inland Waterways Association's first National Boat Rally at Market Harborough on the Grand Union Canal. Subsequent voyages around the Midlands' canals included the Macclesfield Rally in 1953 and the rivers Trent, Severn and Thames.
Memories of Staffordshire
Colwich Football Team
My father, James E Bond, captained the Colwich Swifts for at least two seasons, and the team won the league in 1949. Jim played at Right Half. This memory was shared by Jim's friend Bill Fox.
The Photograph is of my Mother.
I'm a little young to remember the post office as it is in the photograph, but I can say that the girl in the pushchair is my mother and the lady behind is one of my great aunts. Three of my great aunts built and ran the store and post office at the bottom of the village, i don't know exactly when it was built though. I believe the photograph to be earlier than 1955 as my mother was born in 1949 and she looks younger than 6.
Our Childhood
My twin sister and me were brought up in Hixon from babies till we were about 10, we were known as the Taylor Twins. We first lived with our nan in the house that stands at the top of Smithie Lane and Featherbed Lane, we then moved into what was called The Baths, it was a 1 up 1 down house next door to a Mrs Greenwood which was behind Prestons Yard. We moved into a 2 up 2 down in the baths. Mum used to have to light a fire in a copper boiler to get hot water and bath nights was in a tin bath in front of an open range. We used to listen to 'Dan Dare' and 'Range Riders' on the radio. Eight families had to share the outside toilet which was a tin hut in the lane. We walked to school on the path outside our house and over the style and crossed a field into the school.
It is great to see the old... Read more
Hixon Village
I was 6 when we moved to Hixon from Stowe by Chartley. My dear dad Len, my 2 sisters Rose and Sue and my 2 brothers Gray and Mick. We lived in the Croft no 24, my brother still lives in that house today overlooking the woods that were there and the fields. I have very happy memories of this lovely village. We all schooled at Broadacres and it was a very tight knit community. The Clemsons i think were the largest family in the village and they are still going strong! I just purchased 2 calenders from this site one of Hixon and one of Gt Haywood, and the memories flooded back. As a child I loved this village and now as I face 50, I love the memories as much. Thank you for letting me travel back to my childhood on this site...
In The Name of Adversity.
My family lived adjacent to the fields which were designated for the Hixon Aerodrome. I remember well standing against the garden fence seeing the location being prepared for the runways, and watching the workmen erecting the hangars. My mum would make the workmen billy-cans of tea. My age was 7 years. It became necessary for our house to come under the hammer due to the hazardous location. My family and I were moved into a requisitioned house in the village of Gayton, approx 4/5 miles away. I have many memories of my formative years in the village of Hixon, maybe I will share more with you another time.
Sylvia M.W. Davis Pugh (nee Smith)
Ontario, Canada.
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