Prestwich memories
Here are memories of Prestwich and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Prestwich or a Prestwich photo.
Prestwich Memories
Well I suppose my memories of Prestwich go back to early 1940s when I started school at Park View Primary with Mr Rigby as Headmaster. He wasn't reluctant to cane the boys for any misdemeanour even at the ages of 5 to 11. During the Second World War we regularly had to vacate the classes to go to the Air Raid Shelters when enemy aircraft were in the area and we were warned by the Air Raid Sirens. Our teachers in the first classes were Mrs Brennen and Mrs Grimshaw. I used to walk to school from Ruskin Crescent (end of Ruskin Road and St Ann's Road) along with my friend David Marples. We had to pass Mrs Brennens house and sometimes her son, Paul, would join us but he was a year or two older than us. As the war progressed, teachers seemed to leave to go in the armed forces. David and I had some private tutoring by Mrs Connolly at... Read more
Growing up in Heaton Park
I grew up in Heaton Park. Stanley Street. The Prestwich and Whitefield Guide Office was at the top of the street. I went to St. Hilda's School and at 11 went to Hope Park School for Girls. My earliest recollections are of the German Path Finders dropping flares to light their way. They were trying to locate the park where the RAF had a base. After the war ended we had a huge victory party on Egerton Street. In those days it was safe for the kids to play on the street until it was dark and wew hgad lots of fun. My best friends were Margaret Thomas, Pat Gay, and Pauline Downs, Mavis Whittaker and Mary Mellor. I left in 1968 and came to Canada.
My Memories
There is a museum inside this building which is only open to the public on certain days. This is one of my early memories of Healton Park, when I was a child my parents took me and my sister for a day out, to the park. Later we moved house,and was living nearby the park which then wasn't as much of a big attraction for us, we just took it for granted that it was there, with so many different attractions and appealing charm. Our last big attraction were Oasis, a pop group, playing here over two or three days, I didn't need to buy a ticket to go and what because I just sat in my back garden listening to the great music, hearing the cheering and screaming coming from the group of people and fans. When the Pope came to the park in 1983, I think this was the year or it could have been later, I was still at school then at Prestwich High, me and my friends watched... Read more
First Love
Not so much Prestwich, but Heaton Park, the year was approx 1982, and while out with friends in the Park I met my first love, it may be a soppy thing to write, but I don't really care about things like that! Her name was Sandra Bernice Sherman, and she was the most beautiful girl I had ever set eyes on, and how lucky was I to have met her and dated her, and if things had worked out differently, I would probably have married her! I hear she is married now and living in the Bury area, just thought I would share this with anyone who wants to read this!
Memories of Lancashire
Harry Street
My gran lived on Harry Street in the 1960's and early 70's. I remember playing near the trafford swing bridge and the excitement when it was opened. Old terraced houses slums by then. Corner shops and the horrible smell from the canal. When Man Utd were at home people would park all over the place!! Burtons ice cream (tasted like brylcream), going up to the shops on Trafford Rd - busy busy. My dad lived at Sunnyside Court in the flats in the 70's and 80's. Lots of redevelopment going on then including Harrys being knocked down. I loved to visit Ordsall Hall with him and walk along the canal paths. I like to visit the Lowry Centre now when I'm up north, and see all the changes.
Debra Edwards (nee Rimmer/Byrne)
Langdale House, Salford
I lived in Langdale House, Salford. It was a block of masonettes, there were two other blocks on the same road, Patterdale and Ennerdale. We lived on the 3rd floor, overlooking a small play park and a row of tiny one bedroomed bungalows. I went to Mount Carmel school, which was just near Boots The Chemist which was on a corner on Regent Road. We used to walk from Oldfield Road right up to the top of Regent Road to the market at Cross Lane. Regent Road was a very busy shopping area in the early 60's there was every type of shop. I can remember my mum buying loose butter at the butchers on Regent Road. I can remember Landies Department Store, where they had a payment system which was piped all around the store, the assistant would take your money and it would then somehow go through the pipes to a cashiers office in a kind of shuttle and then your... Read more
Salford Childhood
I was born in and grew up in Salford. My dad had a pub "The Farriers Arms" off Bury Street, and before that my dad was caretaker of Ladywell flats. We lived in Flint House, the blocks were alphabetically named, Albion, Barry, Corby, Danby, Easton, Flint and Goole. Afacing the flats was a quarry where we used to play and a shop called Stories.
When we moved to the pub in the early 50s things were so different than today - we used to play out with no fear of harm, we used to roam the terraced streets and only came home when mam shouted us in, or it was tea time. We would go to Peel Park, Dean Road Park where they had a parkie who ruled the park, the Rex cinema where we would go to the Saturday matinee, on Sundays all the kids went to Sunday school. I went to Gravel Lane off Blackfriars Road, and attended Sacred Trinity School, Canon Hussey was the then rector of... Read more
Salford in The War
As a child I lived in Earl St Hanky Park then moved to Cottrill St off Ellor St. I attended John St school in the Ellor St area. I never really knew my dad. He went in the army when I was 4 years old in 1939 and returned in 1946 when I was 9 years of age. During the Blitz of Manchester and Salford in 1940, when the sirens sounded we all had to go to Unwin St shelters for the night but me and my brother Jack who was 5 years older used to watch the German bombers coming over dropping their bombs over Trafford Park, Salford Docks and Manchester. It's a sight not to be fogotten. When the war finished with the defeat of Germany, we had street parties to celebrate VE day (Victory in Europe). The war was not over with Japan untill 1946. I was playing in the street when this soldier with three stripes, a sargent, and Australian bush hat on and carrying a... Read more
Playing Out In Salford's Streets
I was born and bred at home, 19 Newall Street Salford 5, in 1960. A small street just off Eccles New Road near to Cross Lane. I often sit and remember the tight, cobbled streets where we played Rallyheaveho, Football and Kick Ball Hide. All the kids, all the time, we just loved playing......Robbers Knock, a game that would get us a clip round the lughole if we got caught!..'The Purse Trick' was our favourite. An old purse would have cotton tied round the clasp and placed outside the door of the corner shop at night. We would hide and be in stitches watching people bend down and have it tugged away when they were within an inch of grabbing it!..Some of the embarrassed faces we seen were priceless.
The rag and bone man, the coalman and even ice cream man, we never see them anymore. Kids playing out on bikes, scooters, pogo sticks and even sharing roller skates with somebody else, flippin' one each!
Running to the... Read more
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