Chickenley 1965 To 1973

A Memory of Chickenley.

I was born in Dewsbury in 1965 and moved to Chickenley when i was 1 and a half,i no longer live there,we moved out in 1977 to the West Country,it was great growing up in Chickenley.I remember as kids playing on the disused railway line that is now the cycle path,the tunnel was not blocked up and we use to run all the way through it without stopping.We use to help the farmer collect the bails of hay on Chickenley Heath farm,we also use to steal the potatoes direct from the fields.I remember my mates like Glyn Griffiths who use to live in Walnut Place,the Bedfords who lived 2 doors up from us on Walnut Crescent,there were the Lees,the McGills,Cascarinos,Claude Williams,Mrs Green on the corner who's door you would knock on to ask if she wanted anything from the shops,and if she did you would get a couple of pennies for going.I remember a bunch of us going to the chip chop at the top of Earlsheaton and stealing the bottles of empty pop from the yard at the back and taking them back into the shop for a refund and buying a spam fritter and chips for all of us to share (we did this regularly,apologies to the chip chop owner if he's still alive) i remember going into the chip shop across from the Crown Pub and asking for a bag of chips with bits on.I still visit Dewsbury a couple of times a year as i have a Grandad and Uncles who still live there,Chickenley has changed so much i hardly recognise it anymore,the layout is still there but it has changed with the times,the mills have gone from the bottom of Pildacre and Earlsheaton,the cricket ground as gone it is now houses,the sweet shop on Mill Lane as been turned into a house,i always drive through Chickenley when coming to Dewsbury,it will always hold great childhood memories for me,even though i moved away some 36 years ago i am still a Yorkshire man at heart.

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