Growing Up In Queensbury 50' To 60's

A Memory of Queensbury.

I was happily transported back to my childhood reading some of the memories on this page and thought I would share some of my own. I was born in 1951 in a tiny one up, one down house in Laneside, Yews Green. During our families time there the outside loo went from being a wooden bench seat and a 'mucking out' arrangement, to a chemical toilet and then a flushed one - which froze in the winter! My lovely Mum and Dad met whilst working at John Fosters Mill. They lived in the hostels having been recruited from up north. They danced at Victoria Hall on a Saturday night. I went to a nursery at Cannon Mills before starting Queensbury Church School at 4 or 5. The May Day processions were brilliant, all crepe paper and sticky tape, apart from the lucky girls who got to wear posh frocks. I've a terrible memory for names but I do remember Miss Allen, Miss Greenwood, Mrs Briggs and can 'see the faces' of many others. I remember the Janet and John books and the blackboards, the partition wall that could slide back. The stack up beds in the 'babies' room. The warm milk, digestive bicuit and cod liver oil tablets. The Lion and the Unicorn chalked up for us to copy down in our best hand writing. I remember thinking that the oldest kids were so big and was really disappointed when I got to be one of them and still felt small.

I moved to Foxhill and the lovely Mr Smith, wasn't he a gent? Mr Southwart, Mr Pickles, Mrs Clark - who wacked me with a ruler and I've no idea what I was supposed to have done but I daren't tell my mum. Girls made houses in the school yard from bricks we found on the green hilly bit. Boys played football. Both could use the big apparatus in front of the school, no soft mats in those days! The girls took pride in their houses, made tables and chairs and settees, if you had full bricks too it was special, and there was a sort of unwritten code that you couldn't really pinch other peoples even if you thought they'd pinched yours. The icy slides we made on the sloping playground in the winter were fantastic, no one put salt on them in those days, we had a great time and I don't remember any broken bones? We walked up the snicket which was wet either dew or rain and so our socks were soaking by the time we got there in a morning. The Christmas parties were fun, we took our own cup and saucer and a spoon with our names stuck on. The sports days over on Foxhill field, three legged race, egg and spoon. Brilliant. Those were the days.

At home playing out in the street it always seemed to be either dolls and prams, cricket skipping or variations of hide and seek. Mums and Dad's would come out and join in when they had the energy and time and trips to Birks wood with jam sandwiches and flasks of tea were the ultimate week end treat.

I was friends with Jennifer from Wellfield House. It was like a dream, I loved playing there and the grounds were magic. They had a wonderful bonfire there every year and when I had my tonsils out one of the grannies used to bring me ice cream over each tea time (they had a fridge and we didn't heven have electric for some years!) Unfortunately, in time she went to boarding school and then I moved when I was eleven so we lost touch.

We used to go to the Baptist Chapel at Mountain. I was the May Queen one year but had Mumps which sort of spoiled it a bit. Later we went to Queensbury Parish Church. I joined the Church Girls Brigade and even though I was scared stiff of the dark (it was lit by few gas lights on route) I still managed to pluck up the courage to run up and down Thornton Road on a Tuesday night to get to the meetings which I really enjoyed. I think we did drill each time then games or craft activities. We worked for various badges -I got one for collecting wild flower cigarette cards!

I remember the smallpox outbreak and how we had to queue up for vaccinations, by the way I think the Dr mentioned in one of the other memoirs was Dr Hainsworth 'now then mother, what's up?' Another was Dr Ackroyd. Both lovely men as I recall. One so bouncy and noisy, the other so calm and quiet.

My maiden name was Anne Gibson, I live near Settle now in a small village and I'm happy to report that some of the simple pleasures we had in those 'good old days' are still being replicated here and now and long may they continue. I hope you enjoyed reading this memory and I urge you to write your own.