Born And Bred

A Memory of Crewe.

I was born in Liverpool Street in the centre of Crewe ( now the police station and library) with Manchester street to the rear, all the houses had an alleyway at the rear which enabled the lorry to empty the toilets which were housed in a brick shed by the gate.
The tin bath was hung on the wall beside the back door and was dragged in once a week, water was boiled on the fire and in order youngest to oldest each child was bathed, think the adults went to the slipper baths housed in the swimming pool in valley road.
The rag and bone man was a regular visitor "pots for rags was his call" we all went out with stuff that had been passed down the generations with more repairs than garment, to be given a cup or a saucer never both.
We had no electric lights, only gas lights in the street which the man turned on each evening, no telephone and certainly no tv ( what did we do for fun) only a cold water tap, the washing machine was a tub and a dolly peg, to extract the water we had a mangle with a big screw on top to tighten the rollers, the clothes line was a rack on a pulley which hung in the kitchen.
Our play ground was the street, very safe, or Crewe Park where the ogre lived under the bridge at the end of the boating lake, so said my brother John. Our transport there was our feet and dinner a bag of jam butties and a bottle of water shared with the rabbits and birds in the cages in the park.
The local school for us was Brierley street and my fondest memory was a large jug of salad cream served up with our school dinners, girls were upstairs and boys were down, for games we were walked to the playing fields at the back of Henry street.
Following the war years we were transported to heaven.....in the shape of a council house in Pyrus Avenue complete with a bathroom and a wonderful flush toilet, still no central heating in those days only coal fires. No duvets if you were cold then use your coat
Holidays were rare, or if lucky enough a caravan in Rhyl, if you had a car you were rich, nobody ever went in an aeroplane that was only for the Queen.
But they were the GOOD OLD DAYS you knew your neighbours and you shared the sugar and eggs and collected your dividend from the co-op 17830 still remember the number..... WHAT BLISS