Stockton Road

A Memory of Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

I was born in Flixton before moving with my parents to Stockton Road Chorlton-Cum-Hardy. At the time my dad was working at Metrovicks in Trafford Park before getting a job working for the MOD at The Royal Ordinance Factory - Patricroft - Eccles. I was one of eight children consisting of 6 boys and 2 girls, and I was born in 1941. My dad's parents lived just around the corner from Stockton Road in York Road and my mother's lived in Chester. One of her brothers was appointed Sherriff and also Mayor of Chester. I started school at Oswald Road primary and finished at Chorlton Park. I have fond memories of both schools and many of my old school mates. Myself and friends from our road used to play football and cricket with local lads in the park on Beech Road and occasionally on the green facing the Horse & Jockey pub. During school holidays we used to spend a lot of time playing along the brook that runs under Brookburn Road and also the meadows adjacent to the River Mersey and Chorlton Park. The banks of the Mersey were all natural in those days and bear no resemblance of the way they are today. Longford Park was also a favourite along with the fields adjacent to the old army camp off Edge Lane. We had so many different places to go that at times we were spoilt for choice and we even had 3 cinemas in walking distance to choose from.

In Beech Road we had a fantastic chippie that was owned by a family named Hawker who used to go to Fleetwood everyday to pick up fresh fish. There was even a laundry next to Acres Road and a CO-OP on the corner of Stockton Road with a butchers next door and a greengrocers opposite. I also remember being caught by the local beat 'bobby' firing stones with a catapault at the gas lights in the street and getting a good clout round my ear hole and dragged home by the scruff of my neck to get another good hiding by my parents. How things have changed. Today the place bears no resemblance to how it was and most of the shops in Beech Road have been turned into up market clothes shops catering for yuppies and pavement coffee houses. Even the main village that is located on Wilbraham Road and Barlow Moor Road has changed.

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