Weaste Salford 5

Nice to hear from someone else who used to play on Mode Wheel Sandhills and Weaste cemy. It was my mum and her pals who introduced me to MW fields - picnicking with her mates (my various childhood 'aunties'). Ever after, she was always warning me against playing on MW due to our setting fires, wrecking bikes on the sand-hills and other naughty stuff. My partners in crime were the Foxes and Fannings kids. We all live in Higher West Street, Weaste. I used to go to the Friday-night film shows at St Luke's; this was all 1960 - 65, before moving to Swinton. The net seems completely devoid of any pics of the old sand-hills - shame!

Well, I lived in Skillingthorpe street - born there in 1951 and went St Luke's primary.
Headmaster was Mr. Pringle and my good friends were Gordon Lucas and Tommy Hutchinson.
In Skillingthorpe Street I was friends with Brother and Sister , Kenny and Doris Dunbar.
Also a girl called Carol Keats.
How well I remember Mode Wheel and the Sandstone and also climbing over the wall to get into the cemetery so that we could get to the rope swings at the back.
Behind the swings was a wall and over that wall was "Hidden Valley " reputedly haunted by "PegLeg" ! And policed by PC 49, though we never saw either.
On the way back we would use sticks to pop the pitch bubbles in Cemetery Rd.
There was a local Toy Shop called "Robinsons" where we would buy "Zeta Planes"
And a sweet shop where they got fed up of us kids asking "What have you got for a penny "? - and so they invented the Penny Tray - a whole penny could get you 4 Black Jacks or Fruit Salads or Mojos or two Flying Saucers or a Penny Arrow Bar.
Spangles were out of the question!
I also remember the Rag and Bone man ( though I have no recollection of anyone ever taking him bones ) you could swap the rags for either a ballon on a stick or a Bow and Arrow, though this was a bamboo cane , a bit of string and a thinner cane as the arrow.
It was impossible to fire the damned thing without getting splinters.
Anyway, I ended up at Salford Grammer School until 1965, when my parents decided to move Darn Sarf and I've been here ever since.
Funny how some things you never forget !
P.S - I knew the Foxes and the Fannings
Anyone remember the Salmons ?

Some memories in common here - I remember the Dunbars. My mother Audrey was a friend of their mum. We lived at 43 Higher West Street, last-but-one house, which met Skillingthorpe Street at right angles with 'the croft' on the corner. Carol Keats rings a bell, too, but the Fox's eldest was called Carol, also, so maybe I am confusing them. I am still hoping someone has some pics of the old Mode Wheel sandhills - being a large, but hidden away, stretch of wasteland - it was never gonna attract many photographers. I wish I still had the collection of artefacts me and the Fox kids dug up on the sandhills - exotic coins, knives and god knows what.....fun, adventuring times!

My half sister Brenda Oshaunessy lived at 43 higher West Street, in 1971, trying to find any info about her, anything to help me find out what happened to her or if she had any children would be much appreciated, she would be about 78 now.Thank you.

Sorry she was Brenda cooper when she lived there.

I am one of the Salmons. We lived in Cemetery Road. Thete were twelve of us in two bedrooms, but we never thought that was a problem, we just got on with it and we had great times and we were very happy. I knocked about with Lesley Bradbury, Julie Lame and David Edmonds as well as my siblings, as I got older I knocked around with Chris Fox, she lived in Higher West Street. We played on Mode Wheel, the sandhills, the cemetery, Hidden Valley and sometimes went as far as Buile Hill Park. They were great times for us.

I am one of the Salmons. We lived in Cemetery Road. Thete were twelve of us in two bedrooms, but we never thought that was a problem, we just got on with it and we had great times and we were very happy. I knocked about with Lesley Bradbury, Julie Lame and David Edmonds as well as my siblings, as I got older I knocked around with Chris Fox, she lived in Higher West Street. We played on Mode Wheel, the sandhills, the cemetery, Hidden Valley and sometimes went as far as Buile Hill Park. They were great times for us.