Distant Days Long Gone But Not Forgotten

A Memory of High Spen.

I lived in Towneley Terrace with my Auntie Etty and Uncle Bill Eltringham when my mother died. I remember the street lights coming back on after the war. Looking down at all the pretty lights was a sight to see. I also remember sledging down the back street and making it so slippery that the coalman couldn't get up the street to deliver. The women would put ashes on our track and we would dig them off adding more snow! Bonfire night was looked forward to for weeks. We vied with the bottom enders of the street for fuel. guarding and stealing each others stack, roasting potatoes in the fire we had to keep warm. Those charcoal blackend half raw spuds were eaten with gusto. Remember finding fossils of ferns in the shale and tarley toot rope from the middle of the old cable from the old mine carts and hating doorknocking to sell my grandads lettuces for 3d in the summer. The outdoor loo was an experience as was hearing the kids nextdoor yelling for some paper when the newspaper stash ran out! I went to Hookergate Grammar School, the headmaster was Mr. Troop, before we moved to the midlands when the N.C.B. relocated us as the local mine was closing in 1953. I was Ena Robson then .

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