GROWING UP IN A PREFAB

                      

In 1945 at the end of World War II Dad was de-mobbed from the Royal Navy, he had been an aero-engine fitter on aircraft carriers.

Shortly afterwards he got a job at Rolls-Royce in Barnoldswick and so, in April 1946, when I was six months old, we moved from Ashton-Under-Lyne, near Manchester, to live in Earby.

   We lived firstly at 22 Warwick Drive with my aunt and uncle, who like my Dad had got a job at Rolls-Royce, then in a flat above a shop at 111a Colne Road, until the day came when we moved into a prefab at 16 Chesford Avenue on The Ranch.

  Northolme Estate(named after a nearby farmhouse), known colloquially as The Ranch, was situated at the top of a hill on Salterforth Lane, a short distance from the railway station. The estate comprised of semi-detached prefabricated (prefab) bungalows which were erected at the start of the war to house “essential workers”. The estate got its nickname from the community centre which looked like a ranch house.

   The community centre was a large prefabricated building, it had a bar, a small stage, snooker tables and one room at the end was a library, which on Saturdays was used as a cinema where films were shown. It was run for a long time by Phyllis and Bill Brookes whose son John tells me he used to help change the beer barrels and serve behind the bar at age twelve.

PREFAB

   The prefabs were constructed from asbestos sheeting with a corrugated roof.

Very basic, they had asphalted floors (“The lino’s coming today”), a black leaded range in the kitchen and a small fireplace in the living room. My initial memory is of it being so cold. There were three bedrooms and a separate toilet and bathroom (bath day was Sunday), which for the times was quite posh. Each prefab had a large amount of garden on all three sides and many people grew their own vegetables. Each house had a marked out garden and the land in between was a communal area. One day I picked Mum some flowers from the garden only to be told, at my cost, that they were strawberries.

   Times were hard and nobody had very much money so the house was very basically furnished, I can visualise in the living room a table,  peg rug, two chairs and a sideboard on which Dad had a fish tank, and in one of the drawers (the left-hand one) was “the strap” which my Mum, who I love to bits, used to administer what we would now call corporal punishment for my any misdemeanor. Parents were strict in those days but we were basically treated as young adults and were given more freedom than today’s parents would do. My bedroom consisted of a bed and a wicker basket in which I kept my worldly goods, clothes, toys, and my treasured books. There was a small porch at the side door which housed a mangle. Mum says that in “The Winter” of 1947 I crawled out of the porch and into the deep snow.

ENVIRONS

The estate was developed on a green field site on land requisitioned from two local farmers, and was split in two by Salterforth Lane, which basically led to there being two separate communities.

   It was a wonderful place to grow up in,  there was only one car I can remember, so no problems with traffic and the roads were ours to use as we wanted, to play football and cricket on. On all sides was beautiful countryside which we used to roam and explore as we wished. Many times we would pack sandwiches and take a bottle of sarsaparilla and walk up into the hills overlooking Earby and not get back home until it was almost dark

   I have a recollection of walking up the lane to the first farm with Dad to collect firewood. In the field across from the farm was a  large windmill, now gone but the spring is still used to water the cattle.

RANCH EVENTS

The Ranch was a very close-knit community and as was usual in those days everyone would join in. Every year there would be a bonfire which was built on the land between Chesford Avenue and Kenilworth Drive. We used to hollow out the base of the bonfire to make a den, one year we even lined it with plasterboard which we “stole” from the new houses that were being built. All the mothers would do their share of baking toffee apples, parkin, treacle toffee, and potatoes would be roasted in the embers of the fire.

   1953 was the year of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. Tables were set-up along the length of Chesford Avenue and cakes and jelly appeared from out of nowhere. Bunting was put up, paper hats were worn and for the first time in my life I watched television. A family called Nuttall had the only tv (and car) on the estate and we all took it in turns to gaze at a very small glass screen at a black and white fuzzy image of the queen being crowned. After the party sports were held on the Bristol Tractors football field.

   Other events I remember were, a mobile fish and chip shop that came round quite often, a converted van with a large fryer which had a chimney attached to it to get the fumes away, I can’t remember what the fish and chips tasted like but canyou imagine what is was like driving a van with a vat full of hot fat.

    Most days in summer Dixons’ ice cream van came round, they were based in Foulridge and the taste of the ice cream still lingers. The van is still around, owned by a gentleman in Kelbrook.

   The “Pop man” came round most weeks with large brown, stone-bottles of Sarsaparilla, lemonade, limeade, Dandelion and Burdock.

Very occasionally an Indian man (the first coloured person I had seen), who wore a turban, came selling dusters and brushes from a large brown suitcase.

   And best of all with cries of “Ragbone”, “Ragbone”! The rag and bone man on his horse and cart.

MEMORIES

  One of my jobs was to go on my bogie and get a sack of coke from Victoria mill

which used to stand across from what is now the bus station. Going there was a wonderful trip, going down the steep hill on my bogie (once again thankfully for not many cars about) and quite often crashing into the hedge that surrounded the field in front of North Holme farm. The trip back was quite different. With a heavy bag of coke on my bogie and having to pull it up the very steep hill it would take me ages.

   My Dad's first car was a green Riley, he was joint owner with Jackmans & Robinsons. During winter it was shut up in a garage, chocked up on wood blocks and the wheels taken off.

   When I was twelve (by law I think) I got a paper round with the newsagents which was part of the small buildings next to Doug Hornby’s barbers’ shop by the railway crossing. The round included Kelbrook and Sough so I had to do it on my bike and every Friday I was paid my wage of two shillings and sixpence.

 Misc:-

Sweet rationing ended on 5^th feb 1953, ration books had little orange coupons in them.

Didn’t like milk much, Mum put blue colouring in it to entice me to drink it.    

A family called Betts had a large pink Cadillac, I have vague memories of it being in a bad crash.

Hid outside the bedroom window where brother Les was born and heard his first cry.

The family who lived across from us had a hen hut.

There was a single track branch line to Barnoldswick from the main line and I would sit and watch out of the bedroom window to catch sight of the bellowing smoke which signaled the approach of the train.

PLAYING/ENTERTAINMENT

  No TV or computers in those days, all entertainment was self made.

We would play out in the streets as late as we were allowed, street lights would

enable us to continue playing until the dreaded cry “time to come in now”.

The list of games we played was endless:

Marbles

Relieve “o”.

Kick-the-can

Carts/bogies.

Hop scotch.

Telephones made from tin cans and string etc

   A family called Purdey had an old black car which stood broken down for ages. A gang of us would push it to the top of Tysley Grove, which had a slight incline,

then jump in and steer it back to the bottom (and still live).

   My brother Les and I had a tent and we go camping by the beck side in the fields at the back of the estate by the railway bridge. Not very waterproof we

spent many a wet night in it.

   The only “playing in” I can remember was with my collection of lead soldiers (heads/arms/legs fixed back on with a matchstick and some  plasticine) and associated toys, dinky tanks etc. I would go round to a friends house and we would make forts out of cardboard and cellotape. Many battles were enacted, I won some, I lost some.

    Summer time would be spent playing on the Bristol Tractors football field, two fields down from the estate towards Sough. Football and cricket matches which could be fifteen or more a-side were played for hours on end. The Dell, an old stone-quarry in the field at the rear of Kenilworth Drive, next to the railway line, was a favourite place to play hide and seek.

Winter was spent sledging in the fields or skating down the ginnel path to the fields.

   Always  keen on football I first played for Salterforth primary school team against teams from schools in Barnoldswick. I then played for the estate junior team in the local league where games were played on Saturday mornings. I left Salterforth school and went to Ermysteds Grammar school at Skipton where we went to school Saturday mornings so my chances of playing football were very limited. Lads from Earby who went to Ermysteds had formed a team who played their games on Saturday afternoons, I went to play for them, we wore our black and white rugby shirts so were called the Humbugs.

   Later I played with Armorides who played their games on The Rec, we got changed in a building behind the Armorides factory and then walked through the street to The Rec. I also played for Earby who played their games on Sough park.

   The egg packing station on the estate lay empty for some while until a group of us helped by a man called Walter (Wally) Thornton “did it up”, cleaned and painted it and started a Youth club(1957, Paul Anka, Diana). Mothers would take it in turn to supervise us(but we would still take a sneaky drag of a fag in the toilets).

   We had a table tennis table, dart board, refreshments counter with pop and crisps. There was music from a record player which we used to “bop” to.

I took my record player across one night with my prized collection of 78rpm shellac records and promptly dropped the lot and ended up with a pile of cracked and chipped records. Along with Michael Crearer and Keith Munton we entered, and won, the West Craven under 14’s table tennis championships and I won the under 14’s singles.

   When I was eight I joined the cubs whose meetings were held in New Road school. The cub leader was Veronica Nash who lived on The Ranch on Tysley Grove. We wore a green jersey and a yellow kneckerchief. The scout group leader was Herbert Lumb(who smelled of pipe smoke) who had a saddlers business in a shop on Colne Road.

TOWN & DISTRICT

  There was a large park at Sough which was a long walk away if you went down the hill from The Ranch and then along the main road, or went through the fields at the back of the estate so we would walk through the field to the dell and then run across the railway lines. There were swings etc, a paddling pool, and sometimes Earby brass band would be playing at weekends.

   Colne baths was a Saturday morning treat. We would catch the cream coloured Ribble X43 bus. Two wonderful hours were spent, swimming, diving and jumping in the bath. On the way back to catch the bus we would call in at a shop near the baths and buy a hot meat and potato pie for our lunch

 Socials were held in the Baptist church on Water Street.

   A fair came a few times each year and was sited where the bus station is now.

There were the usual side shows, swings and dodgem cars. A rock and Roll competition was held.

   The Empire cinema, two films I remember going to see were Rock Around The Clock and The Ascent Of Everest.

   The Band Club on New Road had a rock and roll night to which many teenagers from Colne came on a double-decker bus. We would creep up the stairs and peep through the door.

   The recreation ground known as The Rec was,  reached by going under the railway bridge at the side of the garage on Skipton Road. It was where the gala day parade finished. It was also a football field.

   The large enclosed bus waiting room by the Station Hotel (early courting days).

  The Waterfalls near the youth hostel on Birch Hall Lane was a favorite spot to go to, we would explore the waterfalls, paddle in the paddling pool, there were swings, an “umbrella” and plenty of room to play football In. When I was younger my mum would take me and my brother(in his pram) and we would have picnics.

  Haircuts were done by Doug Hornby who had a shop in the rear room of the sweet shop on the corner of Colne Road and Rostle Top Road. You had to walk through the shop to get to the barbers so most times a haircut cost a shilling plus a quarter of sweets.

Doug then acquired a shop (still a hairdressers) in the small buildings next to the railway level crossing. There were seats in the shop that had come out of The Empire cinema when it closed down.

  At the first house on Salterforth lane at the bottom of the hill to The Ranch was a general store owned by Harrisons. I am told that even up till fairly recently they would put together food parcels, to send to local people who had gone to live abroad, which would contain food items that the people missed and could not get where they lived.

SCHOOL

   I was three almost four when I started school. Mum would walk me there, about a mile, and then come and collect me when school was finished. When older I would walk or ride there on my bike and when brother Les started at the school I would sit him on the saddle until he was old enough to go on his own three-wheel-bike. Later on there was a bus service started.

  Quite often in summer we would walk, along the lane to Klondyke, or through the fields and onto the bridle path called Mucky Lane.

My brother and I would have meals at school until the price of the meal went up to 6d a day and my mother either couldn’t or wouldn’t pay it, so we went home on our bikes and I would make us a fried egg (only 9 at the time) I didn’t like yolk so being the biggest I had the white.

I enjoyed singing and would sing solo at the harvest festivals. Along with some friends, at one concert we sang Rock Around The Clock which was all the rage at the time, so it would be 1954/55. We had practiced for some weeks in one of the unused garages in “The Dip” on Warwick Drive.

Teachers I remember, Miss Longbottom, who was the headmistress, Miss Fawcett who I adored, Miss King, Mr Edmondson headmaster, Miss Petty.

A memory that still makes me laugh was the whole school sat in the hall listening

to a commentary on the radio of the eclipse of the sun. The internet tells me this was on Wednesday the 30^th June 1954. My first girlfriend, Sandra Hewitt who I still see sometimes.

  A friend of mine at school was Howard Southwell who lived at Spen Head farm at Klondyke and during summer I would go with him to the farm and we would help his dad with the haymaking, his mum would bring large jugs of tea and lemonade out to us with sandwiches and scones.

I sat and passed my 11+ exam and went to Ermysted’s  Grammar School at Skipton. We went to school by train which set off from Barnoldswick, I would watch out of the dining room window to see it coming and then I would run down the hill to catch it. Not the happiest days of my life, I was the only one from The Ranch there, and it was made quite clear that I was not in the same league as the lads from posh Grassington, Gargrave and even Thornton.

  One happy memory, when I was only 14/15(I looked old then) I would sneak into the back room of The Station Hotel through the door on Rostle Top Road and one of the older lads would get me a beer, a pint of Massey’s mixed, until one day I got off the school train and was spotted by Eddie Wood the landlord who was stood on the steps at the front of the pub, which curtailed my illicit drinking at The Station Hotel for a few years.

BUILDING NEW HOUSES

  The prefabs were built originally as a temporary measure to house workers until the cessation of the war. The houses were falling into disrepair when finances allowed new replacements to be built.

  The new houses were built partially of prefabricated walls which were stacked up all over the site awaiting being erected. We would wriggle our way down from the top of the pile through doorways and windows and make the inevitable den.

  The building company had a night watchman, a very large man and we nicknamed him (and I apologise to any of his kith or kin who may read this)

“Big Jim Seven Bellies”. He sat in a cabin through the night and kept warm with a brazier. We would throw stones at the back of his cabin and run away. Don’t think he ever chased after us.

  There was a lifting rig of some kind which had pneumatic tyres which was being used in the construction of the new houses and was parked near our house. I had, at age eight, believe it or not, a “scout knife” a quite long bone-handled knife. One day I was idly playing near this rig with my knife and I burst a tyre. Some while later came a knock on the door where stood the local bobby. It must have been a Sunday for I can remember getting out of the bath and creeping naked into the living room and watching my precious knife slowly melting away in the fire where my mum had thrown it.

  We moved into the new house in 1953 and my Mum, only a few months before she died, told me she moved us there using a wheelbarrow she borrowed off the next door neighbour (didn’t say where Dad was).

THE END

  The years went on and then as it does when you reach your early teens your life changes. During my teenage years the only thing I saw of The Ranch was the walk to the bus stop to catch a bus to Barnoldswick , Majestic, cinema, “Bop Club”, coffee bars, girl friends.