My Stockport Memories

A Memory of Stockport.

Hello, my name is Jeane Moorhouse, nee Huxley, I started life on Band St, Hollywood area, in 1952, then moved to Hilton St. My only memories from here are the wash house and Hollywood Park where the fair would arrive and the carnivals. We then moved to Hesketh St in Heaton Norris, our back yard was shared with Bob Hillingworth who lived at the end house, I remember sitting on our back step shelling peas with Bill, my gran's partner, we had a budgie who could say "Naughty girl Kenneth" and " Naughty boy Jean", yes, wrong way round!! I attended All Saints Junior School and remember playing with David Booth who had a sister called Susan, Katherine Cross, who lived at the off licence on the corner of Old Rd and Manchester Rd, and Margaret MacDonald, who lived on Old Rd, her communal yard was accessed by going through the entry on Hesketh St, Schocroft's shop was on the corner, right opposite our front window and my gran would send me for 5 Woodbines. I bought all manner of old sweets from there but the only alternative to Smiths plain crisps were Nibbits, I loved those, then they brought out cheese and onion flavoured crisps, woohoo. My gran's name was Emmie Metcalf, she worked at the Daw Bank Nursery with Mrs Slack, I would go to work with her in the school holidays. My mum's name is Margaret, she was called Huxley at the time but then remarried and was called Kellock, she worked at McVities biscuits then at Leonards and Alligator rainwear when we moved to Carrington Rd where my brother Kenneth and I attended St Paul's School. We used to play around the back streets of Portwood and I remember an old croft there that had old abandoned cars on it that we used to play in, also Warth Meadow and for years I thought it was called Warf Meadow because that was how everyone seemed to pronounce it. We found some old cigar boxes there among other treasures that we shared out amongst us, we were all sick afterwards, haha. I used to play with Betty Haig and went to Vernon Park youth club, wonderful memories from there, jiving to 'Love Me Do' by the Beatles and having art and drama lessons. I had piano lessons and remember, to get there, I had  to walk up Alpine St/Rd which was very steep and had a rail running up it in the middle, so you could manage it. (I've been back there and it doesn't seem as steep or long as it used to be! (have they cut it in half?) We used to get to New Bridge Lane by walking over a bridge, I had a paper round from a newsagents shop there. I didn't turn up for one of my evening rounds once because we were all watching the World Cup in 1966 when England won!!! The shop owner came to our house with my paper round bag and made me go and do it!! We later went to live on Didsbury Rd, I was in my last year at school by now and my friend from Reddish Vale Comp, Janet Gill, and I used to go to the Adelphi Club where I discovered Soul and Motown, we went on the nights that were for under 18s, I can't place where it was now, but we had to go up the Plaza steps to it. Was it off Underbank somewhere, St Petersgate, on a side st? Ralph's Records was on Underbank where I bought most of my soul collection from. They had a huge picture of Otis Redding on the back wall....I used to practically live at this shop lol..It was on the opposite side to Winters jewellers. Going back to Heaton Norris, we used to play in a park that was opposite the Empress theatre, I fell off that Helter Skelter numerous times because I was using the top bars as monkey bars, I still have a bad back because of that!!!  We went to the pictures there, to the Saturday matinee and Mum gave us ninepence each, 6d to get in and 3d for an ice lolly, we also went to the Plaza's matinees and went to the swimming baths up the Plaza steps. The bus station was spread around Mersey Square and at Chrismas, a huge tree was all lit up in the bear pit. We played on the Red Rec too, walking down Love Lane and Dodge Rd. Lancashire Hill was also very steep, I remember, so it was great when my gran took me on the bus from Mersey Square to the top of Sandy Lane, I think it was a penny fare for her, and we had to go upstairs so she could have a cig. There was a big flour mill up there and the men would come out from it all white with flour. Gran and Bill would go to the Three Crowns pub, there was a shop opposite there called Toms and a chippy where the woman always wore a headscarf like a turban, we queued up with a basin on a Friday when mum and gran got paid. I had to wait till Friday to get a lucky bag, I wanted the free toy inside but was never lucky enough to get the one I wanted which was a tape measure that had messages on it in the inch spaces....I'm rambling now lol..but if anyone reading this has any similar memories, I'd love to read them, and perhaps it will trigger off more memories for me. I now live in Audenshaw, in Tameside and so don't come across old friends very often...it would be lovely to hear from anyone that may have known me, or the places I have mentioned.

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