1960s Slum Clearance And High Rise Flats In Bradford. Social Comment!

A Memory of Bradford.

I recall my grandmother, Florence Peyton, who lived in Little Horton Lane writing a poem about the Slum Clearance and High Rise Flats Programmes of the early 1960s. The poem was published in the Bradford Telegraph and Argus in the early 1960s.


The Old Folks’ Lament.

Five pence up, and five pence down
Miles and miles from Bradford town.
I loved the house where I was born
Where first I saw the rosy dawn.
Its wall were stout, no squelching muck.
Shops and work were close at hand
Kindly neighbours, life was grand.
Till someone got a bright idea
These folks are living far too near
What they need is air and space
We’ll move them to a lovely place.
Alas! Alas! They sent the key
Said it would open heaven’s gate for me.
I said “Sir, I don’t want a flat”.
But I’d no choice, so that was that.
Three flights and three flights down
Half a dozen miles from Bradford town.
Not a neighbour, not a friend
Thought this must be journey’s end.
Walls were cold, eyes were wet,
Viewed the view, thought what a wreck.
Lonely lanes and muddy paths.
Can’t ee’n tell the fronts from backs.
Off to work at crack of dawn
Snow and sleet. Oh what a morn!
Up the ruddy, muddy track
Side to side the slither back.
Join the long and silent queue,
Here’s the bus, just room for two.
Twenty minutes more to wait,
Longer than at Heaven’s gate.
And when each day my work is done
I pray to God the only One
To help me through my last few years
And forgive the folks with bright ideas.