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Madeley
Madeley maps
Historic maps of Madeley and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Madeley maps
Madeley area books
Displaying 1 of 4 books about Madeley and the local area. View all books for this area
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Memories of Madeley
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Cheshire memories
Trentham Railway
In the 1960's I was a ticket conductor on this train. Jack Goldstone was the driver and we took people from the gardens to the pool. Today there's no way I would be allowed to work on the railway because of health and safety concerns. We had to stand on a running board by the side of the carriages hang on with one hand and take money and issue tickets with the other while the train reached speeds of 20 - 30mph. Some times conductors fell off and Jack had to stop while we picked all the money that had been scattered over the tracks and by the lake. Luckilly no one was seriously hurt!
Happy Days
Memories of using the miniature railway to get to the open air swimming pool. Summer holidays were spent with either my brothers or my friends, exploring Trentham Gardens and Park, and swimming in the open air swimming pool. Little did we know how lucky we were to live so near to Trentham Gardens that we could use it as our playground. You could only get to the swimming pool either by foot or by this railway, which took you from nearby the lake to the gates of the swimming pool. The railway ran alongside the lake, through woodland. Amazing memories.
Memories of Hot Summer Days
My friends and I used to swim in this pool in the summer holidays. My friend's mum used to work for Trentham Gardens and so we used to have free access to the gardens in the summer school holidays. We used to take the miniature train from the lake to the pool and spend all day there. We bought ice creams from the shops above the pool. Looking back I can see that the pool is art deco in style, but when I was young I didn't consider the architecture, I just enjoyed playing in the pool. Oh, happy days!
Talke - A Forgotten Village
As you proceed north along the A34 towards the Cheshire border you will approach Talke traffic lights and on the left and right side of the road there are two areas of grassed land. This grassed area was once the village of Talke which was demolished during the mid 1970s. As it is today, you would not realise that this was once a thriving community. There was John Street which ran parallel to the A34, Thomas Street which still exists and Wesley Street which cut the corner between Coalpit Hill and the A34. These streets were named after the Methodist preacher John Thomas Wesley and within this community there was a chapel in Thomas Street on the corner with John Street, a church at the top of Thomas Street on the corner of Coalpit Hill and one in Wesley Street. The village was made up of mainly Victorian terraced houses, which had been built in the late 1800s, and had originally housed local pit and pottery workers. There were a number of local shops,... Read more
St Johns The Scary
As a child I was terrified of the churchyard, we had to walk past it to get to Wilson Way where my Nan Lizzie Grocott lived. It wasn't so bad in the summer but in winter when it got dark early we would get off the bus opposite the Church and it would loom up like a big dark monster as we crossed the road towards it. My sister and me would grip onto Mum's hand so tight we would get told off. The Church yard backed on to my Auntie Frances' and if we were told to go across and visit her we would only go to the front door because we were terrified of what might be hiding just over that fence in the back garden.
One night at about half past six we walked past the church yard up the lane to go and get the bus home to Talke, we heard an owl hoot and fly across the wall above us, we took off up... Read more
Fishing Equipment And Cakes
Every year we would go to Pooles on the High Street to get yellow fishing nets so that we could go and collect tadpoles from ponds around the area. We would deliberate for a good while over what colour nets to get but we always ended up with yellow because our Dad said they showed the tadders up best.
Tiko Bakery was at the top of Elgood Lane (Church Lane) behind the Swan and we used to walk past ever so slowly just so that we could smell the bread and cakes cooking, on warm days we could still smell it as we turned up Wilson Way to my Nan's house.
Happy Days
Goldenhill (Happy days)
My first memories of Goldenhill are visiting my grandparents during the terrible winter of 1947, the snow was said to be five feet thick on Oldcott Drive where it had drifted from across the fields.
I also remember flying a kite my grandad had made, we flew it on starvation banks at the top of Kidsgrove bank, I think these were the waste tips from old coal mines which had been worked out, although there was still a footrill working, I remember it had an old ex US army truck which used its winch to pull tubs to the surface.
My grandad used to take me to the working mans club on a Sunday lunch time, it was on the High street close to Stoniers bus garage, he would treat me to a bottle of pop & a bag of crisps.
There were lots of bus companies in those days, Stoniers & Jeffreys... Read more
