Born On Sutton Flats

A Memory of Salford.

I was born on Sutton Flats (now demolished) Pendleton in 1941. My first vague memory was sitting under a table with a blanket draped over it and a lit candle (must have been an air-raid on at the time). My first real memory was a party in the square, which I learnt later was to celebrate VE Day. My first school was St Thomas (also demolished), but the Church is still there. Then my mother moved me to Halton Bank, (now turned into flats). My closest friends at that time was Tony Washington, Keith Aspey and Graham Walker, we went every together, and to be honest it is a wonder any of us survived to adulthood after some of the things we did. We used to get into the railway sidings in Brindle Heath to get large ball bearing of the Thomas Ward scrap wagons, or climb onto the top of the embankment to lay long nails on the track for an express train to flatten after roaring past us. We also used to buy ingredients from Bloors chemist for making a primitive explosive substance. We also spent a lot of time in the derelict house of Colonel Fletcher next to Buile Hill Park. On one occasion getting chased by the Park-keeper for removing as much timber as we could lay our hands on for our bonfire that we held on the croft on Seedly Road. Each block of flats would hold their own bonfire on this croft and we used to either pinch their wood or better still, set fire to theirs before Bonfire Night. We also enjoyed the fairground when it arrived on the croft, or the biggest and best in the area of Cross Lane market when you saw the Silcox fair arriving you knew it was going to be goo. They had the best and biggest rides - they were brilliant. During the summer holidays we would go to the baths in Weaste where I learnt to swim. We used to enjoy going to either the Ambassador cinema (also demolished) at the top end of Langworthy road, or the old Hippodrome on Crosslane (also demolished). On other occasions we would go down Regent Road to the abattoirs and ask for the horns of the cattle they had killed. One task I used to hate was the Saturday morning trip to the gas works with my older brothers to buy a bag of coke; we used an old pram to push it back home. On New Years day 1957, I started work at James Hodgkinson and Sons, (burnt down) as an apprentice fitter. By this time, Graham Walker had moved on and I had met a lad at Salford Technical College (where I attended day release for Engineering), called Jim Haves who lived in Weaste. Friday nights through to Sunday were the nights we would go for a drink usually in our local or take a trip down Cross Lane that had so many pubs it was impossible to have a drink in each, and still be standing half way through the evening, let alone at the end of the night. After serving my time, I left there to work as a driver for Ward and Goldstones (also demolished), this is where I met my first wife and also another great guy called Frank Jaccovelli (last I heard of him he lived down Chapel Street, Salford). Around this time I joined the Auxiliary Fire Service based at Salford fire station on the Crecent. There I met other lads who were to become close friends, Stuart Merrison being the best man at my wedding. My favourite pubs were the Church Inn (top of Ford Lane Pendleton), still there I believe. Other pubs were the Horse and Jockey, or the Priory once managed by a very close friend and workmate, the late Graham Oldfield and his wife Veronica. In the 1967 I got married and spent my last year in Pendleton less than ½ mile from where I was born. My wife and I lived in a flat above Duggies the hairdressers on Lower Seedly Road (also demolished) before moving to Davyhulme the following year. Even now my blood still boils and my hackles raise when people start to bad mouth Salford or its people. I am still a Salford boy at heart. Sadly in their haste to modernise Salford the planners have ripped the heart out of the place, whilst it needed much work to be done, it could have been carried out with more care and sympathy. But no, in came the bulldozers and whole swathes of buildings and communities were destroyed, and even now the replacement building of the 60’s and 70’s are falling under the bulldozer, but fortunately not our memories.