Playing Out At The Court.

A Memory of Manchester.

As a child, from the age of six until the age of fourteen, I used to live in Manston Street, off Mary Street in an area called Strangeways. My two older brothers were mad on speedway racing and used to visit Belle Vue to see the Belle Vue Aces in action. The old Assize Court building had been bombed during the war and the area flattened at the side of Strangeways Prison, facing onto Great Ducie Street. My two brothers and their friends created a 'speedway' track on this spare ground and used to organise races on their homemade bicycles with cow horn handlebars. They often came home with badly scraped arms and legs after falling from their bikes onto the cinder track during a race.
On part of the cleared and flattened bomb site there were areas where you could make out the steps leading down to the cells, these parts had been filled with rubble so we couldn't venture in to explore, although we certainly tried our hardest to clear a path - without success.