My Time In Ash

A Memory of Ash Vale.

I lived on Longacre estate. I was born in 1951 and stayed there until I was about 8/9 years old when my parents moved to Preston. My dad worked at the bakery in the village, and then for a milkman called Bill Bugden. My gran/grandad lived at canal villas, by the side of the canal. I also had aunties and uncles living next door as well. I would sometimes help my dad deliver the milk after meeting him at my grandparents house. If my memory serves me right I went to three schools while I lived there. First was Ash Vale, then onto a school called Mansfield I think, finally St Josephs in Aldershot. I had to go to this school because being Catholic, the priest at the Church of Holy Angels of which we attended told my parents I should be at a Catholic school. I hated every single day I was there. I even hid in the gas work grounds next to the bus stop one day to avoid going to school that day. I used to dread bus number 35A coming. I remember a boy, he was called Alan Cook, we went to same school, we were the same age; funny really me being a Baker and him being a Cook with the same first names. I hope things turned out well for him? I go back to visit Ash Vale every few years to see my old house, also where my grandparents lived. I would love to knock on the door to ask to see inside to see how things have changed. One other memory which sticks in my head is that when we walked to school in Ash we would walk over the railway bridge and wait for the train to come and pass underneath so that we would be engulfed in the smoke coming up from the train. I can still smell the smoke to this day. I still miss Ash Vale.