My Childhood In Gorton

A Memory of Gorton.

I was born Judith Payne in 1946 and lived in a two bed terraced house with outside toilet and no hot water or bathroom, on Victoria Road. Gorton, Manchester. This ran off Hyde Road next to the junction with Cross Street, later called Gorton Cross Street. On the left corner of Victoria Road was Batesons the ironmongers and on the other corner was a chemist with a seafood shop next door to it. I have memories shopping on Cross Street, calling into the herbalist for hot vimto or sarsparilla with my mum and walking right to the top and turning right to go passed the cinema called the Cosmo. One of my early memories is walking a long way with my granddad down Far Lane. I would have been about 5 or 6. It seemed to be out in the countryside but was really only about a mile away and was a tree lined and unmade road leading off Hyde Road. Also walking with him down the back of Brookfield Church, passed the graveyard and coming out at the park where there was a bandstand and swings. I remember going to Peacock Street School first the nursery at 3yrs old, then the infants and then Juniors, and the school dinners which I loved. Also walking home down Peacock Street, over Church Lane and then onto the top of Victoria Road, down to the end of my row, round the back of the houses called the "entry" and down the yard into our kitchen. My father was called William Payne and he was an electrician but I remember he was often home in the afternoon sleeping on the settee after calling in his local pub "the monkey" on Gorton Lane near Peacocks the engineering works. My mother was called Ethel Payne, formerly Selby and I remember she had a part time job for a short while in a cake shop on Cross Street and brought home some lovely left over cakes at the end of the day. We had a budgie called Peter who flew freely round the house, rarely went into his cage, and would stay firmly on our shoulder even when we walked into the yard to get a shovel of coal or to visit the toilet near the gate. My best friend was Thea Slann who lived nearby and we had many happy times playing in Gorton Park and later when we were about 14yrs old walking up Hyde Road to Belle Vue which was a popular amusement park with zoo, slot machines, scary rides, gardens, train rides and candyfloss. Her father Len Slann worked on the boating lake and sometimes would let us on a rowing boat for nothing if his boss wasnt there. He smoked a lot, was very thin, drove a Ford Popular black car with cold leather seats, but died of T.B. My father had a succession of cars, but I remember the Ford Zephyr with leopard skin seats and how comfy they were.