Peter Fisher has a superb set of old photos which you can see on the web. As I browse through them, all my early childhood comes alive. Our world was in these streets, which you can see here on the Land registry plan. (click on the photo to see the larger version).
East Street, where I was born, and in the first picture, (the house on the left with the wooden fence and small conifer),Thorn Street, Woodcroft Street, Rosedale Street and Terrace, Burnley Road, and Westwood Terrace were bounded by the main road running along the valley, and in the east by fields and beyond the fields the hills.
On the map the plans for the first new houses can be seen, to be built on the fields in which we played. The factory lodge is visible at the top, with the stream which fed it with water from the hillsides.
As you look down each street from the top, you look out over to the hillside opposite and the woods which belonged to Cicely Brooks, and always known as Brooks' Woods.
Of course we used to go and play in there, keeping well away from the big Hall and its owner! It was a magical place then, in the days when we used to make our own fantasy world.
Each street aside from those by the main road, was very steep, but the gradient became less challenging as you progress towards Woodcroft Street from East Street.
Brilliant for sledging in the winter, but as you can see, extremely challenging when sledging down our back!! Olympic Bob sleigh teams had nothing on us!!
We had to make a hair-raising stop at the bottom, or cannon into the brick walls of the yards of the houses on Westwood terrace.
But I digress..................how can you condense so much history into a small space!!
As I had my trip down memory lane in June 2008, I wondered how on earth the dustbin men ever managed to collect the bins from our street! Let alone the wheelie ones which now have taken over............I lived at No 12, but we couldn't see a bin with that number on to have the statutory photo!
And after all these years from the early '5o's when my childhood began, to this day, those of us who lived there still talk about it with great affection, and still share our history together. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished DVD being made by Ken Stott.
1 comment:
I lived at 34 Woodcroft Avenue which is one of the few new houses on the plan. We lived their from 1982 until 1996. My mum died there after a long illness so whenever I return to Rossendale (3-4) times a year, i always have a swoop past to stir the memories. We played in the stream you mentioned often damning it up so we could have our own paddling pool. I used to catch great crested newts in there which I suspect are long gone.
Great blog Viv, love hearing about the area which I have strong emotional memories about.
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