Memories of A Thurnscoe Lad

1948 was the year I was born and lived at 39 Taylor Street, ajacent to Thornley Crescent, School Street, Garden Street and John Street. In 1953 I attended the Thurnscoe Infants School on Houghton Road straight across from Stone Brothers garage I remember that some of the teachers were called Miss Davidson, Miss James and Miss Rose and the Headmistress Mrs Brown. 1955 came around and I moved up the road to the junior school remembering again the teachers, Miss Gregory. Cook, Mr Sammy Carr, Allsop, Fletcher, Hargreaves, Ellis
and Head Mr W E Hill.
1959 saw me moving up to the Thurnscoe Hill School at the top of Tudor Street, this was the time you started to grow up because you met with the kids who went to the Hill juniors. I remember playing football up on the school field or cross country which you ran to the vicarage at Clayton, down the hill then across the fields, by Stotfold Farm, back to the playing field, then run round it, Rain, Snow or Blow. Again remembering some of the teachers, they were Mr Buck, Lewis, Haig, Dolan, Neal, Jones, Hacker Hurst, Schofield, Smithson, Mace, Venables and Owen and Headmaster Mr Haig aka old Haigy.
1963 saw me leaving school and I had no job to go to, no way was I going down the pit, I wanted the fresh air and everything that went with it. I got a job working in the Co-op at the bottom of John Street for 2 years which I hated. When finally I got the job I really wanted, working on the Hickleton Main Welfare Ground on Houghton Road with my brother who was the groundman. We looked after the bowling greens, cricket and football fields and the red gra running track. I worked there when Val Peet ( Wild ) and Dorothy Hyman trained there. It was great looking after the place and I loved it and it was a no go area once the main gates were locked. It was a pretty sacred place, well known throughout the country and the people of Thurnscoe respected it. It was their little pot of gold.
Weekends were great too, "The Drum" with it's ultra lighting and banging out tamla motown music, or the "Corra" if you wanted a more sedate night out listening to the turns. "The Bomb" which was the same but later on put on the stage some very nice strippers. "The New Un" which was sods law there was going to be a fight. The
"Winwood" where the first woman in Thurnscoe wore a topless dress and yes I was there eyes bulging. There was always somewhere to go or do on a weekend something to please everyone, even when I was a young un there was the pit youth club, music,table tennis, boxing, snooker at the "Stute" which was situated between the now Thurnscoe Station and the "Drum". The swimming baths which were great through the summer holidays and closed in the Winter months, covered over with a false floor and allowed dances to be held on Saturday nights. The market where you could buy almost anything, including boot laces, polish, cat gut, to sow up your old "casey" that was splitting, all bought from "Little Harolds" stall.
Thank You for taking the time out to read this, I hope I havent bored anybody, I have really enjoyed writing this and I still have a lot more memories of Thurnscoe or as folk used to say Thunsca.