Living In The Cpa Mill On Commercial Road, Godley.

A Memory of Hyde.

I lived in the CPA or Calico Printers Association mill for about 12 years, where my dad was a foreman who worked in the batiks for many years. We had a huge flat which was knocked down many years ago. We lived next door to a family by the name of Kenyon who I believe had two sons. I went to St John’s Godley School up on Fountain Road; the teachers were Mr Pitty (headmaster) Mrs Simpson and Kenneth Healy. I have lived in London now for 40 years but still remember the good times we had as kids there, especially the Ritz on Saturday mornings and playing on George St for hours on end and then going to Nagles shop for refreshment. The winter of 1963 was spent mostly on the Box canyon disappearing into the snow drifts, best time ever. Swinging across Godley Brook on that rope with a branch stuck through for years, it’s a wonder no one was killed. Spending many happy hours in Hyde Park in the summer and going to Jock's stall on Saturday morning to see what we could pinch. Getting a penny bag of broken biscuits from Woollies across from the market place, my mum taking me to a shoe shop on the corner across from the market to buy these pointed pair of shoes that weren’t really pointed.
They used to hold a fair on the market place once a year which I really enjoyed, it felt so exciting with all the lights and music. One of my favourite places was a jaunt up to Werneth Low which seemed very exotic and wild. Going fishing to Godley Reservoir, Rhodes Reservoirs and many other places on a Sunday morning. We didn’t have much money but then no one else had so it didn’t matter, but we had loads of fun and were totally unaware of the evil that would unfold very shortly during the early sixties. Poor as church mice but would not have missed it for anything.
Stephen Durr, London.