Milford, Barley Mow c1955

Summer Holidays

I was born in Brewery Yard, Great Haywood. After the war my mum moved to Notting Hill, London, so in the summer holidays my sister and I would stay at Nan & Grandads in the village. Mum {Eileen Bailey} played the piano in the Fox & Hounds, Stubbs's were the local butchers. I spent a few months at the local school, during the Notting Hill riots. We would come on our own by train, { it was safe in the 50s} then a bus to Shugborough Park, and would walk across the park lugging a rather large suitcase, which my dad had put handles on each end to make it easier for us. I remember going to the pictures in the memorial hall, and a dance now and then. A few of us would play down by the canal, and across the Essex Bridge. Most of the Bailey family are in St Stephen's graveyard. I have very happy memories of Great Haywood, it was then a very pretty place.

A 1950s childhood memory

I have very fond memories of Great Haywood during the 50s as my sister and I went to stay with our grandmother during the school holidays. We lived near to the centre of Manchester and so to visit this village in the 50s was like entering another world.
Grandma lived on the outskirts of the village in Tolldish Lane and she was quite a reclusive lady. Her husband had died in 1952 and because her cottage was not in the village as such, she kept herself to herself.
The photo, I believe, is of the post office in the village which was kept by a Miss Yelland. My sister and I, and of course grandma, would walk down to the village probably a few times a week. We would buy ice cream and grandma would do her shopping.
The walk would take us perhaps half an hour or so and we would pass certain landmarks on the way. The by-pass was not built then and so the journey would have been quieter.
I think the first house we would come to would be the doctor's house on the left after walking from Tolldish Lane. There are so many new houses now but all we would pass would be cottages etc. The Fox and Hounds was also on the left and then there was the general shop. Lower down there was Trubshaws the butchers, the Catholic Church and then those cottages in one of the other photos that had steps up to the front doors with railings. We would jump onto the steps and swing on those railings.
Of course it seemed to be sunny all the time when I think back. I'm sure it probably wasn't. My sister and I spent most of the 1950s school holidays at grandma's cottage. She and other members of her family are buried in St Stephen's churchyard. My parents were married there and I was baptised there also.
I have never lived in the village but it holds a very special place in my heart. Thankyou Great Haywood.

The Clifford Arms

Ahh, The Drinking Hole!

Bailey Bridge Pontoon - Canal Cruisers.

I built the boat shown on the right hand side of the photograph.   Bailey Bridge pontoon MKVI N0.19053 was manufactured by Gee Walker & Slater Ltd, Uttoxeter Road, Derby and sent to Engineers Stores, US Army Depot, Newbury, Berkshire on 29/9/1944.  At post-war WD surplus sales, a considerable number of these Bailey Bridge pontoons were bought by Levesley's International and stored at their depot at Alrewas near Burton on Trent. John Dobson, a local boat builder at Burton, began putting cabins on to these pontoons for sale as canal cruisers.  I bought the pontoon hull for £18.00, built the cabin to a Dobson design, fitted out the interior and named it 'Agenor'.  In August 1950, powered by a British Anzani 4HP outboard engine, she made her maiden voyage to the Inland Waterways Association's first National Boat Rally at Market Harborough on the Grand Union Canal.  Subsequent voyages around the Midlands' canals included the Macclesfield Rally in 1953 and the rivers Trent, Severn and Thames.