1930's Rochdale
Born in Birch Hill Hospital in 1925, I lived in William St (off Halifax Rd);
Abbot St, Castleton; Mere St (off Tweedale St); Franchise St (off Boundary St,
now under a block of flats) I attended Milkstone Rd Infants (now
demolished?); Brimrod All age (from 8 years, pupils had to leave Milkstone Rd at
8 years) until I left Rochdale: in 1936.
I remember boyhood friends at Mere St, ie. Frankie Podesta, son of a dentist,
Dennis Pickles, son of a shopkeeper on Tweedale St. I remember Ormerod's corner
shop at the corner of Tweedale St and Mere St. I remember George Lee's shed
behind Franchise St, where he (a local painter and decorator) kept his paints,
ladders etc. I believe that George went bankrupt in about 1933.
In Franchise St, now long demolished, I remember the Mountain family across the
road. One son was Joe, a friend of mine. And another lad who lived in a house
where they boiled beetroot for a living. It was cooked in the fireplace, then
peeled and hawked round the streets, from to door. They also made boot blacking
from a mixture of soot (from the chimney) and paraffin.
Lots of men were unemployed. The main earners in families were often women who
worked in the local cotton mills and walked home with their clothes speckled
with cotton fluff.
I remember the fish shop, on Grove Rd I think. The owner was one of those who
made political speeches on Rochdale Town Hall Square at weekends, during the
early 1930's, a time of very high unemployment. There was also a branch of
Duckworth's (Jimmy Duck's) where I was sent now and then to buy a quarter
of ham, for 6d. (2.5pence now).
I remember people commonly sat at their front doors in warm weather.
But I remember the arrival of our first radio in 1935., a 'Marconi 5 valve
superhet' which cost £16.00 hard saved pounds at a time when a man's wage
was between £2 and £3. And the pleasure of listening to
'Children's Hour' at 5.0 pm every day.
I remember the very recently purpose built Christian Science Church on
Castlemere St (now, I believe, a mosque). Not far was 'the nurses' home' where
lived nurses from local hospitals. I remember, very clearly, shopping on
Saturday night in Yorkshire St (Prices were lower towards the end of the evening
!). There always seemed to be several stalls in the open air market selling
delicious celery. And after dark the stalls were lit not by lamps but by hissing
naptha flares.
I remember my first ever watch, a wrist watch, one Christmas, from the
recently opened (1932? ) Marks & Spencers store in Yorkshire St. It was
'five bob'.
I am interested in Rochdale history, of any period.