Church Minshull 1956 62

A Memory of Church Minshull.

I went to the County Primary School from 1956 until 1962, the teachers were Mrs Bracken and Mr Gore, Mrs Gutterage was the cook and later my mother. The lady who lived directly behind the school kept lots of chickens, and they all wore little blue spectacles to stop them pecking each other. The Post Office/shop was run by a Mrs Brereton and later this moved to the house next to the school and was run by Mrs Calvert and her husband, who also made furniture in a glass lean-to adjoining the house. I had a job as the paper boy, 44 papers, and it took me an hour to deliver them as the round took in the outskirts of the village too, all for 10 shillings a week. Sadly the boy who took over from me was killed when he was hit by a car, somewhere near Eardswick Hall I believe.
We kept a few chickens and got corn from the Mill run by Mrs Billinge. Opposite the Vicarage, with the Rev. Peter Gains incumbent, was the blacksmith's, we would stop and watch shoes being made and fitted on the way home from school, the smell of singed horse hooves is still with me. It used to cost 1p bus fare on the K31 from my house in Minshull Vernon to school but usually we walked the two miles there and back, a penny bought an arrow bar from the shop or two ginger biscuits or one jammy dodger at biscuit time!
Myself and my sister Janice, together with John and Shirley Wagstaff, were walking home one afternoon when we were nearly wiped out by a Rolls Royce which took to the hedge in front of us to avoid a lorry which had taken the corner wide. The roads from Minshull to the village were used by RR as a test route for their new vehicles. Summer holidays were spent 'helping with the haymaking' at local farms, playing in the woods or on hot days, paddling in the Weaver. Sundays were spent at Cross Lanes Chapel Sunday school, Mrs Buckley ran the Chapel and Mr Buckley was at hand with the threat of his belt to tame the unruly amongst us. I had my fifth birthday party at that Chapel and I also sang in the choir in the village church. The hunt used to meet outside the Badger PH and we as kids followed it, earning a few shillings by opening gates for the riders who couldn't or wouldn't jump their horses.
I visited the village a few years ago after the school had been sold as a private dwelling. The blacksmith's and the Post Office have gone but not a lot has changed really.

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