Clowes Street West Gorton In The 1950's

A Memory of West Gorton.

I was born in December 1947 at 124 Clowes Street, West Gorton in a terraced house between William Street and Elizabeth Street, directly opposite Bert Hall's butcher's shop and next door to the Beswick Cooperative Society's Grocers and Butchers shops.
My dad was a boilermaker at Beyer Peacocks' on Gorton Lane and was called William (Billy) Holmes.
I went to St Marks' Infants and Juniors School in William Street between 1952 and 1959.
The headmistress was the dreadful Mrs Clayton and the deputy head was the sadistic Mr Platt.
My mates at school were Billy Harper, Keith Brooks, Tony Latham, Frank McPartland, Bernard Burke, Barry Slevin, Billy Briggs, Keith Forshaw, Stanley Gaunt, Mike Williams, Dave Roberts and Brian Ravenscroft.
Girls I remember were Jean and Joan Davis, Sandra Jones, Lilian Garland and Lynda Briggs.
We played in back entries around Clowes Street and went to the Conway Cinema on Clowes Street to watch Flash Gordon and Lash Larue.
Playing further afield was done at Gorton Park with football played on Bennett Street Rec.
The streets were dusty in summer and muddy in winter but we played out all day, dawn till dusk.
Holidays were eventually taken in Rhyl, North Wales after a train ride from Victoria Station.
Christmas gifts were always basic - nuts in a bag, an apple and orange, the Beano or Dandy annual and usually a tin car or a small three-colour torch or cowboy six-gun.
I never remember being cold but must have been, no central heating or duvets but a warm brick wrapped in a towel in the bed that had been heated in the open fire, and the usual ex-army greatcoat on the bed.
No bathroom nor inside toilet and no garden, but happy, happy days.
John Holmes.