Miner

A Memory of Bolton Upon Dearne.

My uncle Des emigrated from Dublin to Coronation Drive, Bolton On Dearne in 1950, he became a miner. In the course of writing letters home he told my mam that the streets of Bolton on Dearne were paved with gold, he had actually misspelled coal for gold. Mam and Dad and baby followed Des in 1956. They were living in Des’s house with him and his wife, l was due in a few weeks so mam found lodgings in Furlong Road, Goldthorpe.
I was born in those lodgings-in May 1956, locals in the area were complaining that we were living in a miners house and dad wasn’t a miner, so mam bought 138 Furlong Road Bolton On Dearne. I often tell people that the house l was born in sank, and when mam put clean washed nappys on the line she would take them in later black as the ace of spades from slack.
Mam had two more children after me in 138. Dads car was a Bond Mini, Robin Reliant.
On a Summers day in 1960 we were playing in the back garden, l decided to play out the front , so l ran through the lane out to the front and onto the main road, only to be hit by a passing car, l sailed through the air for a few meters and landed damaging a lot of my body, worst of all my head, as l lay there on the ground with a crowd around me, naturally Uncle Des was on his way to work on his motorbike he was stopped with all the commotion, he asked what was going on, he was told that his nephew was killed, Instead of going to work he went home.
I was taken to hospital, l was unconscious for ten days, l spent two months in hospital.
A couple of years later mam decided that she wasn’t going to bury any of her kids in Yorkshire, so we upped sticks and came to live in Ireland.
That’s my story, so here l am 62 years after l was given my last rights in the middle of the road, and my dad was told by doctors that l might not last the night.
My parents still had fond memories of living in Bolton on Dearne, until they passed away a few years ago - they still had friends that they met over there.

---

---