MEMORIES OF GROWING UP IN HYDE by Roger Chadwick

1945 – 1950  Part 4

Halfway down Station Road Godley there is a tunnel under the line which in my young days led through the back of Wall’s Ice Cream factories.   On the back road towards Godley Hill War Memorial you came to the pie factory.   The smell of pies cooking and the view through the window of all the operatives preparing the pies would have me slavering like a dog!    My mother worked there briefly but never came home with samples!   Some of my contemporaries had holiday jobs at “Walls” but I remember Unilever as a mean company towards its employees and their rates of pay were not good. I found other more lucrative work!

Those were the days when one could pick and choose – even for temporary jobs.

Godley Hill, with its old Inn and cottages was a quaint and interesting place.    In one such I had a friend whose mother ran the Ice Cream Kiosk at the foot of Godley Hall Road.   The War Memorial was our last stop on the Whit Friday Church Procession and I see from the Blog that it is still there. 

 

Godley War Memorial

There was another track from the “tunnel” which led to Godley Golf Club where both my parents were members. Both were active “athletes” and excelled at golf and other sports.     Although I learn to swing a club and play reasonably well for my age, sport was something that my parents did not pass on to me.    I preferred to follow the wisdom of Winston Churchill who is reputed to have said, “When I feel like sport, I lie down until the feeling wears off”.   But the Golf Club was an interesting ramshackle affair until it was re-built and the source of veal sandwiches, pork pies, home made scones and tea after matches.  I became friendly with the Professional, Alan Brown, who let me share hair raising rides with him on the old jeep as he mowed the fairways and the Greens.  The 9 hole course was really an assault course with no need for artificial hazards – the terrain provided that – like the similar course on Werneth Low.  Sand bunkers were for the flat lands!   I cannot imagine what it looks like now because the Club closed in the early sixties to make way fore the Hattersley Overspill.

Our milk was delivered by horse and cart from Osborne’s Farm at the back of Godley Reservoir.  This farm had the lovely name “Tetlow Fold” (“tetla fowt”) and was quite an old construction, 16^th century in parts,  with the farmhouse, a second home, the byres and the shippon constructed in the form of a square with a cobbled yard.  The kitchen always smelt of milk for that was near to the cooling room.  Hay barns and cattle stands gave that lovely sweet aroma that one associates with the rural setting.    There was a “copper” in one of the barns where we would sit and eat freshly boiled pig potatoes with hard margarine.  Harvest time saw us stooking and riding the hay cart back to the barns.    Mrs Osborne’s mother was a Highland lady with the lovely old surname of “Christiansen” so there must have been Nordic roots in the family.  She was famous for her soda scones which I love to this day!   I would accompany Farmer Osborne and/or his strapping son, Ian, on some Saturday mornings with the milk deliveries around Godley, Hoviley, Cheapside and Mottram Road.    I learnt about jills and quarts and pints as the appropriate steel measuring implements would brings the milk out of the cool churn and into the waiting  milk jugs of the folks standing around.   The approach of the milk float (and indeed the Co-op Horse) would have gardeners ready with shovels, gambling that the rich brown horse muck might fall at their doors!  

Nowt was wasted then!

Tetlow Fold

I became a choirboy after my sixth birthday.  Under the tutelage of Fred Whyatt, the head chorister, I learnt how to pronounce the Latin tags of the canticles and “point” the psalms.  Discipline was strict and a clout at the base of the neck from a Psalter was standard practice if we misbehaved.  Fred was a lovely kind “older brother” to me and I recognised him immediately some years ago in a “You Tube video” of Hyde Grammar School, where he is seen playing football.     I gather he returned to the school as the PE Teacher.       Godley Church was big for the size of the village but was well attended and it was the scene of the ministry of Canon Samuel May who was Vicar of the parish for over thirty years.    He had a huge influence on young men, had a wonderful preaching style and a powerful delivery and was full of fun.  I have an abiding memory of standing at the Lych Gate in 1947 for the Armistice Day Remembrance, watching the villagers standing silently, some of them weeping profusely, as 1100.a.m. struck, the Last Post and Reveille was played and the Fire Station siren went off and all the mill chimney hooters of the town blared a Remembrance Day sound I shall never forget.  

But choirboys are not little angels and that topic starts the next chapter.

Happy Days!

 

   

The Lych Gate at St Johns, Godley.

Thanks to Carls Cam for the photos and Roger for another great account !!

Much appreciated ! 

Remembrance Day

Tomorrow is Remembrance Day and, appropriately, this year it's on a Sunday. This is what the Tameside website says about Remembrance Services in Hyde:

Hyde Central

Parade will assemble in Greenfield Street at 2pm and proceed via Market Street, Union Street, Travis Street, Mount Street, Ridling Lane, Frank Street, Orchard Street, John Shepley Street, Mottram Road, Union Street, Travis Street, Reynold Street and Crook Street to Hyde Central Methodist Church for a Remembrance Service at 2.30pm. At the conclusion of the Service, the Parade will return to Hyde Town Hall via Crook Street, Union Street and Market Street for a Wreath Laying Ceremony at approximately 3.30pm. The Stalybridge Old Band will lead the Parade. At the conclusion of this event, wreaths will be laid at the Falklands Tree Memorial on Stockport Road.

Newton

Parade will depart Rosemount Methodist Church at 10am and proceed to the War Memorial at the George & Dragon Square, Bennett Street for a short Service of Remembrance and Wreath Laying Ceremony commencing at 10.15am. Service to be conducted by the Reverend Alan Bolton. At the conclusion of the Service the Parade will return to Rosemount Methodist Church via the same route to disperse. The St John’s (Mossley) Band will lead the Parade.

Werneth

A procession will assemble at the Visitors Centre, Higham Lane departing at 11.45am for the Cenotaph on Werneth Low where a short Service of Remembrance and Wreath Laying Ceremony will be held at 12noon (Vehicular access will be made available).

The Cartwight Street 'Little Soldier' (Part 3)

I called in to the Town Hall yesterday and found the old statue where it was when I photographed it last year. It's at the top of the stairs which face the main doors on Market Street.

This is a close-up of his head and comparing it with the photo in the Tameside Image Archive I've got to say that, as Mo says, it does look a little different. The different angle of the head might be explained away by the head having been knocked off several times and the restoration works could have eventually changed the angle. I must say though that the cap looks a little different and the thought crossed my mind that on some occasion when the head was knocked off it may have disappeared and a new one had to be made - but if this is so I don't ever recall hearing about it.

Here's a close-up of the hat badge for Barry - it looks like it could be the Cheshire Regiment:

For Werneth Low, here's the memorial for Evelyn Rose Welch:

You'll see it's "Tipperary League", not "Guild" and I've found this information about it, which doesn't really explain what it's all about as it refers to "Tipperary Rooms" without explaining what they are, but I've found this on another site:

"During World War 1, new regulations creating obstacles for women who wanted to drink, socialize in the pub, or work in pubs were challenged as discriminatory towards women, mainly by the militant suffrage society, the Women's Freedom League. Charlotte Despard and other activists made a deputation to the War Office, and otherwise engaged in lobbying activity against both direct and indirect restrictions. But this was more a civil liberties campaign than a direct challenge to the medico-social spectre of the female inebriate. Indeed the WFL, while defending women's right to circulate in the public space of the pub, also opened feminist temperance hotels (the "Women's Tipperary Rooms" and one establishment known as "the Despard Arms")."

Cartwright Street War Memorial, Newton

A comment was made on the recent post about the Memorial on Cartwright Street by 'SC' saying that he (or is that she?) remembered when the soldier's head was frequently knocked off by drunks and feckless youths and that he/she was glad to see that he was intact again. Well, yes he is intact, but that isn't him standing at the end of Cartwright Street. This is the original - and sometime headless - soldier:

He stands in Hyde Town Hall at the top of the stairs facing you as you go through the main doors on Market Street. The plaque at his feet says:

The Newton War Memorial

This is the original 'Little Soldier' statue, which was bought

with donations from

local residents, and was sited at the junction of Cartwright Street

and Victoria Street, in Newton, Hyde.

The Statue was replaced with a bronze replica in 2005

I too remember seeing the statue so many times without a head and the bronze replacement should ensure that there will be no recurrences of such vandalism.

Also in the Town Hall and attached to the railings of that staircase are these two plaques dating from the Second World War:

I am indebted to this site for the following explanation of the War Savings Campaign:

'Community campaign weeks during WW2

"The People's War" is a term that has been applied to the Home Front in Britain during the Second World War. One key feature of this "People's War" that reached out to every community in Britain was the War Savings Campaign. This was run by Sir Robert Kindersley on behalf of the British Government, mainly as an extension of the National Savings Movement which he had led before the war. 

Savings groups were organised in each local community throughout the country. On the one hand the War Savings Campaign encouraged thrift at an individual level and on the other hand brought together the community by fund raising for large-scale campaigns such as the 'Spitfire Fund' (1940), 'War Weapons Week' (1941), 'Warship Weeks' (1941 / 1942), 'Wings For Victory Week' (1943) and 'Salute the Soldier Week' (1944). 

The pattern of these campaign weeks involved a community being set a large monetary target. Ostensibly, the idea was to save a sufficient amount of money to support the airman, sailor or soldier have the means to win the war. During the campaign week, the organising committee arranged events in support of the campaign, which might include meetings about the war, speeches by decorated war heroes and visits by Government ministers or royalty. Generally speaking, each community met or surpassed its target by a combination of individual saving groups, insurance companies and local banks or other financial institutions. 

The campaign week was also supported by the local newspaper for each community. Overall, these campaigns tended to bring together the local community and the service man or woman. Everyone was united in their intention of winning the war.

Some weeks or months after the campaign week, each community received a commemorative plaque similar to the ones seen in the photographs above. The commemorative plaques for the other campaigns are of a similar design. Usually they were placed in place of honour, such as at the Town Hall or local museum. Some, like the ones in the photograph, have survived into the modern era and are still on display. They remain a silent if unobtrusive reminder of the times when communities united as one in standing up to Adolf Hitler and Nazi tyranny during the "People's War" between 1939 and 1945.'

War Memorial Newton

War Memorial

Cartwright Street, Newton

There are two lists of names inscribed on the plinth:
- a Memorial to the men of Victoria Street who fell in WW1.
- a Roll of Honour of the men of Victoria Street who served in WW1.

A full list can be found here CarlsCam

Many thanks, Carl :)

Hyde War Memorial (Cenotaph), A brief history

 I thought with the Remembrance Day not far off, a brief history of the Hyde War memorial or Cenotaph as it is commonly known would be appropriate.

The war memorial was erected in 1921 to commemorate the loss of over 700 Hyde men in the first world war of 1914-1919.

The task of organising a suitable war memorial scheme was given to Councillor E. Bury JP, who became Mayor of Hyde in 1919. The amount required was estimated at £12,500, but over £14,000 was raised by voluntary contributions. Of this £4,000 was spent on the purchase of the Lower Higham Farm estate, on Werneth Low and a further £2,000 was spent on the actual monument.

The monument itself took the form of an obelisk of Cornish granite with a total height of 27ft 6". The site is the highest point of Werneth Low known as the Hacking Knife, some 800ft above sea level.

The four sides of the lower portion of the monument bear inscriptions. The slab facing the town is surmounted by the borough of Hyde coat of arms and bears the words "The Great War, 1914-1919". The next slab to the right bears the inscription " In honour of the 710 men of Hyde who gave their lives for King and Country". The next contains the words " In proud remembrance," and on the last are the words " They willingly left the unachieved purpose of their lives in order that all life should not be wrenched from the purpose".

The War memorial was unveiled on Saturday afternoon, June 24th, 1921. a number of processions made their way, by various routes to the summit, and by 3.30 pm the assembly around the memorial had reached around 12,000. The Mayor Alderman S. Fawley, JP presided, supported by many prominent townsmen and women. The memorial was unveiled by Mrs Stanley Welch. Prayers and dedications were made and the deeds presented to the mayor.

A further part of the War memorial Scheme was the creation of a trust fund under which 268 children of the fallen sailors and soldiers received £4 per annum during the five years between the ages of 11 and 16 years. Other schemes were also formulated.

The 'New Big Tree'

Under the shade of what is known as the New Big Tree is this memorial which 'Remembers the Sacrifices made in Northern Ireland and the Falklands. 

Thank Dave for the pictures. 

Lost War Memorials

We have been asked to see if any of our readers can recall the two War Memorials mentioned below, and if possible to obtain pictures of them. 

Tameside MBC website list them as follows:

Croft Street war memorial, Hyde

A wooden memorial stood for many years in the wall of a grocer's shop at the corner of Croft St and Market St Hyde. Over the years the wood rotted badly, and the structure disappeared when the shop was refurbished in the 1970's. It was about 8ft high and 4ft wide and had a glass front. There was a shelf for flowers, while wreaths were hung underneath. Besides the names of the fallen, the memorial also bore the names of all the men from Croft St area who fought in the Great War. the early names were evenly spaced out, but later ones were crammed in.

George Street War Memorial Hyde

There is hardly anything left to remind one of this memorial, or what it looked like. The area has been completely redeveloped and the M67 motorway, constructed in the mid to late 1970's runs where George St was once stood. Many of the men comemorated would have been from the Donneybrook area, once the toughest part of Hyde, which was demolished in the late 1930's. Apparently, the memorial stood outside the Star public house which, before development, was next to the Astoria bingo hall (still standing) then the Scala cinema. Before the war Mr and Mrs Lockwood regularly tended it, they were the licensee's of the Star.

Croft Street War Memorial

According to Kelly's Directory of Cheshire 1902 Cooke Bros had a grocers shop at 100 Market Street, which Dave as calculated to be the corner of Croft Street nearest the Town Hall and is now 'inspired jewellery.

On the opposite corner is Reeds Rains, but the shop was a drapers in 1902, run by a George Hopwood.  

George Street War Memorial

The George Street was more difficult because George Street, of course, no longer exists. We reckon it was about where the Manchester-bound carriageway of the M67 is now, and The Star was on the corner of George Street and Clarendon Street so Dave took this picture of the Astoria from the bus station which shows where The Star would have been or there about.

What would be great is if we could find any pictures of these..... and of course any memories of them. What a shame the were not renewed or replaced for the future.

...

Hyde Lads Clubs  Up-Date

All Done And Dusted

As good as new... nearly, the stone split in two right through the letter 'H'. I'm now hoping we do not have to cover this again and it suffers no more damage.