Yorkshire

The business mom and dad purchased when we arrived in Yorkshire was an old smithy. The building in the middle in the image above here is reputed to be the original building shown in the 1800s when the toll bar was still evident. When we first moved there the smithy had already been used to repair cars and had a couple of petrol pumps, but the 'forecourt' was still just a muddy area between the smithy and the pumps. Boy, did I get a lot of punctures as I rode my bike home. I do remember, even years later the anvils and the 'all metal' blacksmiths tools were still hanging around in the garage.

As there was no living accommodation with the smithy dad bought us a railway carriage to live in. This was one of those with a corridor to one side and individual compartments on the other side. I remember well coming home from school and walking down the corridor to get to my room. Cold and damp are my recollections from here as are many from our time at the garage.

The map here shows the crossroads with the smithy. The circle on the map is the approximate position of Gildersome roundabout now - Junction 27 of the M62. I have included this as I want to impress how isolating it felt as a child living here. The crossroads being a major barrier to independent travel to the other three sides of the crossroads where all the excitement seemed to be taking place! I went to Street Lane Junior school from here until I reached eleven.

Often the local milkman 'Herbert Burnley' would still be delivering milk with his horse and cart, or returning to his small farm near home when school finished and you could often cadge a lift on the cart. His house was on the opposite diagonal of the crossroads, the dairy was under the house in the farm yard and as a young lad I would often wander into the dairy, help myself to bottled orange or milk then wander to the house and pay. It seems such a different way of life, it didn't seem to occur to anyone to take advantage of this easy going way of life. There was always a sadness about Herbert and I heard some years later his sister, or it could have been his wife, had been killed on the crossroads a few years before. It was a wild crossroads, unconsciously you were always listening out for the 'bang' as vehicles collided. One particularly clear memory occurred when a lorry hit a Minvan; looking up the road a lorry was clearly visible, snaking from side to side as it proceeded towards Bradford, looking the other way was a guy sitting on his windscreen in the road. The mini was totalled, the guy and the windscreen looking untouched; go figure.

Dad continousley developed the site and before long I was coming home to see a substantial brick built working garage. Business was booming so work then commenced on the house round the back. Mom says she remembers moving in to the house even before the doors were fitted. The army barber, marked 4 is included on the map as I remember well being marched up to this barber, whom I am sure had been tasked with sheering the new recruits as they joined up. It seemed like every Friday I would be forced to go get a 'short back and sides' and boy this really was short. Remember this is at the time of the Beetles and I so desperately wanted long hair. No wonder I still dislike going for a hair cut!

During this period on my return from primary school - must have been nine or ten - my chores would be filling and cleaning the oil bottles At this time engine oil came in glass bottles which needed refilling and placing on the garage forecourt. Many people were still using paraffin for heating and the paraffin containers also needed refilling ready for the next day. Seems a lot for someone under the age of eleven to be doing. looking back it just seemed exiting. In my mind I can revisit the bulk containers I used for the refilling as though it was yesterday, the oil and paraffin smell; winding handles on the oil pumps etc. By now dad had bought me my first car a Morris Eight which I raced round the premises when the garage was closed.

more about these adventures over here

When the garage was first developed we had several makes of petrol, National and BP I remember. However, business was booming and dad wanted to further develop the business so he approached Shell and they provided a big loan to further develop the forecourt and to add a showroom. The showroom was rapidly followed by an Agency for Renault and Skoda. Rock On! If this was not enough mom was busy running a taxi and wedding car business as well. Needless to say I did not see a whole lot of my parents growing up. The Image shows one of the pair of Armstrong Siddeley cars which were used for taxi and weddings. The one shown is before the car was repainted in its two tone sable livery and you can just make out my dad, AJ in the drivers seat. Photo taken outside the midland bank in Morley. Things were doing so well at this stage that Grandad wanted to sell up and come on board. So the plan was to start building yet again and add a flat to the top of the showroom. Grandma and granddad moved in and most of my childhood was spent with them just a stones throw away in the flat.

As a young teen my favourite pastime seems to have been to ask mom for some change for some chips, then visit grandma upstairs in the flat with the same request, finally pass by dad serving petrol on the forecourt, with yet again the same request. Then its off to one of the two fish shops on the crossroads for a veritable feast of fish and chips with a bottle of pop. The evening being concluded with a visit into the air raid shelters (No. 2 on the map) which were situated next to the fish shop. These were a bit damp and untidy but still fully open. Bliss.

My junior school on Street Lane in Gildersome was a happy place. See our class photo, it looks as though it was taken towards the end of my time there. I remember the faces well, just wish I could remember the names; ah well. My strongest memory from here is the sheer fright that if I passed the eleven plus exam I would have to do home work! I did indeed pass my eleven plus but then refused to go to grammar school. How things look different with hindsight. So its off to Victoria Road Secondary Modern...