Just After The War

A Memory of Patricroft.

My name was Mary Butterworth and I was born at 25 Egerton Street in Winton. I left Winton Senior School in 1946 and began work in a baby linin shop on Patricroft Bridge. The shop was called Turners, next door to Tatham's the leather shop, on the corner of Liverpool Road and Leigh Street. On the opposite corner was a plumbers and a cooked meat shop where people queued for tripe as rationing was still in effect.

Further down there was a sweet shop, a hairdressers and a newsagents. On the Peel Green side of the bridge was the Broomhead's the butchers where we had our rations registered during the war. There was also a Jewellers Barnes the greengrocers and Parkers the cake that sold delicious meat and potato pies. On the corner of Liverpool Road and Barton Road was the Majestic cinema, the fire station and a public house called The Packet, my dad’s favourite pub.

I can just about remember a Friday evening market that was held in that area before the war, although I was only a little girl. I remember the horse and carts having to get over bridge. On a wet day they would slip back on the wet surface.

I left the shop in 1950 and went to work for L. Gardners & Sons in Peel Green. I was there for six years until I got married and moved away to live in Coventry.

I have very fond memories of Patricroft and Eccles. I particularly like to remember the cinemas like the Majestic, the Palladium, the Crown, the Broadway and the Regent and now, at the age of 83, I often share these memories with my brother Bill who now lives in Salford.

---

---