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Royton
Royton maps
Historic maps of Royton and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Royton maps
Royton photos
We have no photos of Royton, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Shaw| Oldham| Chadderton| Castleton| Denshaw| Rochdale| Delph| Grasscroft| Heywood| Mossley| Littleborough| Norden
Royton area books
Displaying 1 of 17 books about Royton and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Royton
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Lancashire memories
Billy's Greengrocer
Billy's Greengorcer - a small shop on the corner of Hebron Street where you could buy fruit and veg, and almost anything else. In those years there was not an awful lot of choice.. two lots of potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, and lovely spring cabbage (although I hated anything green at that time). Billy Greenwood was a very enterprising older (at least he seemed very old, but probably only about 40 ) purveyor of goods. You could ask for almost anything, if he didn't have it stock he would somehow magically produce the item the next day. Mrs Greenwood boiled beetroots in her tiny kitchen behind a heavy curtain that separated the shop from the living quarters. Her home boiled ham was second to none... Many times my mother would ask for 1/4 lb of boiled ham with some salad, and tomatoes and that was our Sunday tea for 4! No wonder there was never any question of being "overweight". Further up the road was "Alfie's" sweet shop, complete with a small... Read more
Tay Mill And Lodge
As children we used to play in the half demolished Tay Mill, and fish for tiddlers in the mill lodge. Our parents used to tell us to stay away otherwise Granny Green Teeth would get us.
FAILSWORTH
We came to live in Failsworth in l956 when I was 8, we lived in Firs Avenue where the school clinic was held at what used to be Firs Hall, where I believe the owner or manager of the local mill lived. There was an air raid shelter still in the back which wasn't knocked down until the mid 1970s - so it had 30 years of kids playing in it, sliding down it on coal shovels when it snowed. A lot of my relatives lived in Failsworth, Dean Street, Dalton Street and Mather Street where I went to school until I was ll. There was a pig farm nearby and an old clay mine which was still dug out, full of rubbish and water in which we floated about in old, leaky tin baths - in all that muck, getting covered in lead paint and burning oily rags in tins with holes in, my sister used to make with a handle made out of string so they could... Read more
I Remember Firs Hall
I remember Firs Hall, I lived on Oldham Road next to the Brown Cow pub, our house was 303a. It was this number because it apparently used to be part of the house next door and so when it was made into two they could not re-number the whole road so we got an 'a' after our number. I also used to play in the air raid shelter just like Jaques and I remember the brilliant bonfires we used to have in "the backin" as we used to call it, all the mums used to make food hot pot and parkin and toffee and the dads let off fireworks, good good days they were.
St Johns's School
I was at St John's about this time and I am looking for infomation re teachers' names, the name of the sweet shop on the corner of Flag Alley, plus any other interesting info of that time. I lived in Hibbert Crescent and was born in 1937. Thank you.
Mather Street
I lived in Mather Street from when I was born in 1963 until I moved to Chadderton in 1970. My Dad had lived there as a child too and knew the people at the farm. I remember he used to take me there - pig smells always remind me of that place. I also went to Mather Street school as my Dad did before me. I remember the bonfire we used to have between Mather St and Dalton St ( I think ) - I remember the hot potatoes, treacle toffeee and parkin. My friends there were Marcia and Michelle Roberts and Gillian Kenning. I have a picture of me and Gillian when we were about 5 years old and a picture of me with a bucket and spade in the passagway between the backyards. There was also a boy called Roy I think - I remember him with a runny nose!!! I remember the shops we could walk to - the corner shop on Dean St ( I think... Read more
Smallbridge And All That
The place name comes from a narrow bridge over a stream that forms the boundary between Rochdale and Wardle on Halifax Road, by The Red Lion pub as it was then. Folk who lived in Smallbridge were once called "Sandknockers" apparently from a family called Kitter who knocked the local stone to sand to spread on floors.
We lived on the main road opposite the Congregational church with Kitter Street at the end of our row. My Dad was a cobbler - intially a clogger till shoes became more affordable. In those days you could buy practically everything you needed within about 300 yards from Buckley Lane to Wardle Road, excepting things like clothes, furniture etc, things that you only bought once in a Blue Moon. Now there are no shops at all in Samallbridge.
As a pre-teen us kids could always eat more than we got, not that we were starved. There was no such thing among my friends of refusing food at any time. I... Read more
