Great Sankey memories
Here are memories of Great Sankey and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Great Sankey or a Great Sankey photo.
Memories of A Sankey Lad
Although now living over a thousand miles away, my memories of my childhood in Great Sankey will always be dear to me.
Brought up in Hood Lane near the Rose Inn, the endless stream of traffic passing my garden gate heading to and from the United States Air Force base at Butonwood. I remember saying hello to Cleo Laine when the Johnny Dankworth tour bus stopped outside my house for direction to Buertonwood. She was the first coloured lady I had ever spoken to, she was only in her twenties I think.
And at night the constant roar of the aircraft engines in the test bays, the afternoon BOAC flight from New York to Manchester which came to Burtonwood as the Manchester runway was not long enough, the constant buzz of jet planes flying into Burtonwood, the Boeing WB50 weather planes based on the airfield and of course the large dominating figure of Harry James, our next door neighbour who was a policemen at Burtonwood and his always... Read more
Memories of Cheshire
Childhood
My friend and I would await the arrival of American ships on their way to Manchester. We would shout "got any gum chum?!" to the crews. We would occasionally be rewarded by a packet of sweets being thrown from the ship. Far tastier than the English equivalent!
Ike Smith''s Hardware And Bicycle Store
My grandfather, Isaac Smith, had a hardware and bicycle shop on these premises, known universally as the 'Tudor Cottages', from some time towards the close of WW1 to the late 1930s. The premises were owned by Rylands Bros, the nearby wire works, at which Ike (also Ikey) had worked at one time (I infer from census records), and at which his oldest son Arthur later worked until 1955. He set up his business, my father told me, with the compensation he received from being temporarily blinded (for about 6 months), while working on top secret poison gas research while he was a foreman at Warrington Gas Works, sometime around 1916. The whole family, including the children, were apparently required to sign the Official Secrets Act, and my father (also Stan) only told me this story just before he himself died in 1980. At some time in the later 1930s, Rylands Bros persuaded my granddad to move out of the shop while they redecorated it, I understand, with the promise of... Read more
Happy Times
The building at the top of the picture with the advert on was a grocers called Hendrey Millings. I worked there as a young man and had my first encounter with the opposite sex!!!
The Queen's Visit.
I remember as a youngster my mum and dad talking of the Queen's forthcoming visit to Warrington and how the statue of Oliver Cromwell was to be covered so as not to upset her. They eventually moved the statue to a less visible place and the side of the Academy.
Sad Demise
Sadly we see very few ships passing down the Manchester Ship Canal these days. When I was a kid I lived in Latchford not far from the locks. We used to spend many hours watching the ships pass through the locks on there way to Liverpool or Manchester. We were occasionally rewarded by a pack of cigarettes or sweets thrown by the crew to us kids. Happy days.
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- ... and lots more - Browse this week's memories now.
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I Remember When...
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