The Hart Lane Gang

A Memory of Luton.

i was born in 1947 in welbeck rd, but my parents moved to hart lane, when my family grew to 7 six boys and a girl, we did'nt have a lot but we got by all the kids round hart lane derwent rd and brooms rd, we used to play football on the school field, we used to get chased off it every now and then, we found the old air raid shelter that went under the school, growing up was no picnic we lived day to day and i spent most years in and out of hospital, so my schooling was always interupted so when i left old bedford rd the only test i passed was a blood test, the kids next door were the lincoln's and we used to go round to get the lister's and kilpatrics as well as harry empson who i met about 3yrs ago as harry came back from australia, and jack fortune used hang about with us, the town had started to lose all its characher when they knocked the old market and all the shops down to build the arndale, the old libery went and manchester st lost all its shops now whats left? i hope there is someone who remembers all this.
ken.murray


Added 30 August 2016

#340011

Comments & Feedback

i remember the murrays , lived opposite you , ime jim smith , tonys elder brother
Hi Ken i remember this like it was yesterday.
is your brother Ray still around?I still see Barry Lister from time to time.
Yes i remember the Lincolns they lived next to my aunty and uncle they were very happy days we did not have much but we enjoyed live-regards Mike Powdrill
Hello Ken,
I was also born in '47, in Waller Avenue, Leagrave. I remember the old Luton Market very well. Lots of cast iron pillars and ornate ironwork supporting plenty of glass skylights. In my view a wonderful Victorian venue was destroyed - imagine how it would be loved today, had it survived. I hated the Arndale Centre and even though it was directly opposite the college on Park Square where I studied for a few years I hardly set foot in the place.
In my boyhood memory of Waller Avenue, we had lovely old gas lamps in the street. A bloke on a bike used to come around in the evenings and turn them on. His bike had a little ladder strung along the cross-bar, I suppose in case anything went wrong and he had to get up to the lamp - which explains what the little bar sticking out at the top of the lamp was for, somewhere to rest the ladder.
The street had granite kerb stones in those days and proper paving slabs. I also remember an actual steam roller in action right outside our house when the road was resurfaced, lots of clanking and the smell of the tar and the reduced atmosphere from the smoke stack like you get with steam trains.
We also had little street trees with dark red/bronze leaves and little pink flowers. After the rain it was a common trick to dodge past a friend waking under the tree and give it a quick shove to make the wet leaves give them an unexpected shower. The trees all went when they took out the granite and the gas lamps and gave us concrete kerbs, pavement and sodium lamps with concrete poles. It destroyed the character of the street and I remember my father was quite upset about that.
At the bottom of the road there was a road bridge over the railway, later also a footbridge in steel tube and concrete. The old brick road bridge had a hedge growing over it on the south side - quaint?
We used to go train spotting at the bridge and on a couple of occasions I recall one of my friends crept down the embankment and put a penny on the rail line before a freight train came through, it used to roll them thin and flat.
Leagrave Marsh was within walking distance for us boys, though we could also get a bus. We used to go to the Marsh and catch sticklebacks, frogs and rarely a prized newt. I can't image what conservationists would say about that - but we were young and ignorant and never saw any harm in it - and one three legged frog we caught lived happily in our garden pond for ages.
Sometimes we'd get huge leaches stuck to our wellies - the blighters could actually swim like eels. There was a weir that kept the water level up and good deep spot to catch tiddlers, but I think all of us at one time of another slipped and slid down into the shallow side and had wet shorts to walk home in.
Heavens, I could write a whole book on the subject and looking back on it, I reckon we had a much better time than kids do these days.
Looking at Waller Avenue on Google Street View as it is now it looks so run down. No front gardens, no pride in appearance, car parked where flowers used to grow and the character of the corner shops changed totally. Definitely not the kind of place I would want to live in any more!
What a great set of memories. All those involved in the "destruction" of old Luton, ought to have their names carved in granite and remembered to their eternal shame. A town of real character - gone.
I was born 1948 in Derwent Road. Moved to Tower Road when 6. Lived at 24. Have memories of Hart Hill school. I remember Mick Powdrill, Mrs Turner lived between us. Visited there 2 years ago so much had changed.

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