Padgate Cottage Homes

A Memory of Padgate.

The opening on the left of the photo is the entrance to Padgate Cottage Homes. I first went in there in 1948 as a 6 year old and finally left in 1953 as a 12 year old. The events that happened in there over those years were to shape the rest of my life. Although life in there was quite tough, you have to remember that it was tough for most folk at that time. The good memories vastly outweigh the bad memories. Good memories, including the annual 4 week camp at Knott-End-on-Sea, trips out to places like the Lakes and even as far as London to the Festival of Britain. But Christmas times were fantastic, apart from the in-house celebrations, we were invited to parties given by the RAF and also the Americans at Burtonwood. The thing is, when you live in a home with upwards of 130 children there is always someone to play with. The house straight across from the gates was my first call on bob-a-job day, they were great people who always found us some little job or other, whether it be a bit of weeding or polishing the silver, anything just so we could earn our shilling. The view up the lane reminds me of walking excitedly up to the bus stop at Paddington post office to meet visiting relatives, though that was a pretty rare thing.