Memories Of Hessle In My Childhood During The 50s And Early 60s

A Memory of Hessle.

They were happy years of playing in the street with pals (not many cars then), playing down the foreshore and in the many parks nearby.
Itlings Lane was a fun place to go bramble picking, scrumping, making hideouts and rope swings over the ditch (covered over now).
Another place to go to was little Switzerland - woodland, open fields and a chalk quarry. It was a young boy's adventure park. Sometimes we watched from afar the blasting at the quarry - a blast from the past!
Hessle Square had all the shops. Browns butchers, the game shop next door selling poultry, hares, rabbits etc., most of which were hanging outside. A rare sight today. Wm Jackson & Son had wooden floor boards in the centre of the shop with counters on both sides. Sugar was sold loose and weighed to the amount needed, then put into thick blue paper bags which was then folded tightly at the top. The cobblers was the next shop along and that was well used by us. Next was the Plaza Cinema where many a Saturday afternoon was spent watching cowboys and Indians and Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless, all for 6d.
Southgate had a coal yard and on Saturday mornings I picked up a sack barrow from the yard and wheeled a bag of coal to Edward Street, sometimes I made 3 journeys depending on how much coal was needed The metal wheels of the sack barrow made a loud clitter clatter along the pavement. By the time I had finished this chore I'd had enough!
When I left school I worked up Prestongate in Browns butchers for 3 years. Opposite was a hardware shop, always remember the wooden floors and the smell of parafin.
So many memories that could be told.
Thanks Hessle, great place.
John Waters