Growing Up In 50s Middleton

A Memory of Middleton.

I loved growing up in Middleton in the 50s.
Except for the smell from the Pixie Pickle factory - always hated vinegar!.
Late afternoon April 30 1954. Passing through the town were endless 'charrers' full of blue and white bedecked aliens with manic grins on their faces! These were Everton fans on their way back home after their 4-0 win over Latics at Boundary Park got them promotion back to the top flight where they have been ever since.
Friday afternoons and Market Day next to the Baths.
Jack Johnson's Motor Garage on Corporation St.
The somewhat sinister atmosphere - especially on a foggy day - of the brow that connected Oldham Road to Corporation St with the Gasworks adjacent and the murky mucky River Irk below.
The quality interior of the Empire Cinema on Corporation St and watching Hollywood epicfilms like River of No return (Mitchum, Monroe).
The ..er.. rather less salubrious interior of the Vic at the bottom of Wood St...!
The smell of leather from Greenwood's shoe repairs on the Old Hall St corner.
The friendly chemist Frank Cojeen and the mysterious coloured bottles in his shop.
Horridge's - everything electrical.
Standing in the gardens at the bus terminus when Rochdale buses did a turn around and as the driver changed the destination indicator far away exotic places would pass by like...Todmorden... Bacup....Littleborough Summit !
In my childish imagination I would equate the latter to the
Summit Conferences that were then headline news and imagine that Khruschev and Eisenhower after disembarking from their planes on the tarmac would get straight onto a Rochdale bus (no. 6A was it?) and head up to Littleborough for a chinwag!
There were even Ribble Buses bound for Burnley and Morecambe!
Pessagno's Ice Cream - the best Ice Cream EVER!!
The top class cricketers that played for Middleton like Jimmy Hyde and Eric Price. Alf Barlow and all the slips standing on the boundary when Roy Gilchrist bowled!
The coming of Basil D'Oliveira.
Lowick's Black Bull garage. My dad buying a brand new Hillman in 1962. Me salivating at the Sunbeam Rapier in the corner of the showroom.
(Since the 70s I've had over 15 of those cars and still have 2 as 'restoration projects'!).
Passing through after many years away and horrified by the Monster Tesco looming over the once almost Sacred Gardens.
...alas ...it's now 2016 and I'm just a sentimental old fool...!!!
OH NO I'M NOT!
Middy was a great place in the 50s......

Paul Blackwell