It Will Always Be Home By Julia Elwell Nee Walley

A Memory of Knutsford.

I was born in Knutsford in 1947 at 114 King Street (the Tatton cottages), and moved to Manor Park in 1951. I started at Egerton School (the old one on Silkmill Street) and then moved to Crosstown. I have so many memories of my wonderful home town that 1000 words wouldn't begin to tell my story. The Maydays, (I was a bridesmaid in the village wedding, a dutch girl and several other characters). The freedom of running the fields in front of our house on Manor Park (no housing estate opposite in those days) - over to St. Helena's churchyard. Where in the summer we would take a picnic of jam sandwiches and a bottle of water, and use the gravestones as a table (oh boy, when I think of that now!)
I remember the day my brother David came home from one of his and Tony's (my other brother) adventures, soaking wet. They had ridden over the fields to Booths Mere, and David decided he would ride his bike on the water. Needless to say, David and the bike went in with a big splash! On arriving home he said to Mum "a big dog pushed me in". He was sent to bed right after tea for that.
Those were the days when parents didn't worry if you left home at nine in the morning and didn't get back until almost dark. We played over at Booths Mere, and War Wood. My Grandad, was the blacksmith at Tatton, so my brothers David and Tony would go and spend time at Tatton with him, it seemed I was always too young! We would even cycle to Castle Mill, an open air swimming pool in Ashley. In our teenage years, we would hang around 'The Cool Spot', and I remember going to see the Beatles at 'The Morgue' - The Memorial Hall in Northwich (I still have the autographs!)
I was married in 1967 and emigrated to Canada. We returned to Knutsford in 1971, and came back to Canada in 1980, with our two children. Our son married an English girl last year, and now lives in West Kirby, with his lovely wife and two stepdaughters. Our daughter and her husband, live ten minutes from us and have two beautiful little boys. Canada has been very good to us, but when all is said and done, to quote Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz "There's no place like home". and that is what Knutsford will always be to me.