This article was sent to me by a very good friend of mine, Steve, who helped me enormously in getting this site off the ground. It is his own story of growing up in his part of Rochdale.
Growing Up, Down Sparth
Use of italics indicates a lapse into what old ladies would have said .
Growing up in this area of Rochdale in the 1960's and 1970's probably wasn't much different than any other area of the town, but here are a few nostalgic reminiscences from Sparth .
This little known area is around the gasworks . Bordered by Sparthbottoms Road at the back , Mellor St at the other side, and encasing Albion Rd , Norman Rd , Dane St and the now demolished Saxon St (note the connection in the names), Heath St, Beech St, Maple St, Fern St and Briar St (another connection here), not forgetting Bridgefield St, Corporation Rd and the former Church St .
The upper area of Sparthbottoms Rd featuring St Albans Terrace, Castle Avenue and Castle Hill Crescent will only be briefly featured, for reasons stated at the end of the paragraph. I remember a church in this area, possibly called St Albans, demolished in the 1960's. This could be accessed from a road behind Castle Hill Crescent, or, far more spookily up some bush covered steps from Sparthbottoms Rd. Only the brave went that way, or to the vicarage (the site of the old Rochdale Castle on Castle Hill Cres.) because " the mad vicar lives there ". Behind the church was a very steep grassy incline where you could risk injury by sliding down on pieces of cardboard. This area was known as the domain of the " Chaddies " (don't know why they were called that), sworn enemies of the Sparth kids due to many a mutual raid of bommy wood for November 5th fires. Always a great time for us, with a communal bonfire, lit by a dad, parkin and black peas etc served up by the mums.
The gasworks area as it was has been immortalised in the 1966 film "The Family Way" Starring Hayley Mills, John Mills and Hywel Bennett to name a few Sparth visiting stars. The Fitton household was a house on St Albans Terrace and a wonderful panoramic view of the area is shown early in the film. Marjorie Rhodes as Mrs Fitton comes out with some lovely Northern remarks, and John Mills works at the gasworks with some great shots of what we weren't allowed to enter as kids. Occasionally repeated on TV. and available on video it's worth looking at for a slice of times are they were, even though the credits annoyingly thank the people of Bolton (where parts were also filmed) but not the people of Rochdale - especially not the people of Sparth who had several disturbed nights because of filming so I'm told, but I can't remember anything about it .
Apart from street games , we played in the "quarry" or "koz" which has now been grassed over and houses the Sparth community centre. This was a dump, and contained many resources for games, but met with parental disdain " you'll get nails in yer feet , you'll ruin yer shoes ", and you always had to hope you'd get away with lying about having played there. One lump of concrete there was said to contain a dead man, some wag having stuck a pair of boots in it upside down before it set. There were also the "hollows" ( pronounced 'hollers' ) a.k.a. the air raid shelters, another dump at the bottom of Albion Rd which is now an industrial estate. Plenty of brick / concrete hidey holes and massive old reels from the A.E.I. works on Corporation Rd were our toys, and many a first snog took place there. Of course, some of the big lads scaled factory roofs and the gasometers, with the inevitable, occasional injuries.
Some games were inspired by the telly. Wrestling was popular as we emulated the acts of Les Kellet, Mick McManus, Jackie Pallo, Johnny Kwango et al. Top of the list was Batman - the proper TV. version with Adam West and Burt Ward as the caped crusaders. A mum would shout to her child " Batman's on " causing the streets to silence. At the end of each episode, Gotham City was played out with passion on the roads of Rochdale.
We also had the " cricket field " for ball games when dry ( it had similar drainage problems to those of Rochdale F.C. ) on Sparthbottoms Rd. Sunday morning pub football was always worth watching. Probably because they were the friendliest (and good too ) we supported the team from the old Slubbers Arms which I think used to be near the Baths Hotel. This field also had a derelict pavilion (" don't go in there , its dangerous ") which had eerie rumours attached to it. The field was at the back of Ratcliffe's Springs ( now much expanded with new owners ), owned by then Rochdale F.C. chairman Fred Ratcliffe. The natural bowl shape of the area led us to dream that one day Fred would convert it into a mega - stadium for The Dale.
I spent many a morning in the 60's watching the regular as clockwork workers head down to the Standard and Sparth mills, the Norman Rd laundry, the A.E.I. and other works on Corporation Rd, and watching the coalmen bag up and load the wagons for David Anders coal merchants on Albion Rd. Before moving supplies to the depot at the bottom of Fern St / Church St, the coal was kept in the yard in piles that could have been easily stolen, but it rarely was.
There were plenty of shops in the area - two facing each other at the top of Albion Rd ( Mrs White's and Mrs Hilton's ), a bakers on Heath St ( now a general store ) - home of Mr Bellengers wonderful pies and later run by the Purdy's, now the ice-cream people, a chippy at the bottom of Albion Rd ( ooh its horrible, don't go there its dirty ) two shops on Norman Rd (Florrie's and Mrs Jolly's), one on Corporation Rd (Jessie's) providing a useful calling point for sweets on the way to & from Oakenrod School and selling some gorgeous smelling bacon butties for the local workforce, and most famously Harold Roberts butchers on Bridgefield St. Upto the 1970's, the recently departed Mr Roberts made regular deliveries around the town in his horse drawn butchers wagon. Popular for its convenience, his horse also kept the backyard gardeners keen for its arrival in hope that it would deposit fertilizing materials on their road. Another well known travelling trader was "The Black Pea Man" who had a moped with a cart attached on the back containing some delicious fayre. I don't remeber his visits being as regular as Mr Roberts, but being sent out by your Mum with a bowl on a Friday night as he rang his bell was a treat. We also had visits from Mr Whippy's ice cream van, who was a miserable sod and remained so when I was old enough to see him drinking himself to oblivion in the St Albans. He was superceded by what I think was the town's first Asian ice-cream man, who served up massive cornets of superb ice-cream and intoduced me to the delights of the "oyster" wafer.
Not many local characters spring to mind, but some deserve a mention. 4 doors up from me lived Joe ?? who ran the medicine store on the old inside market - the longest serving stallholder in that lost institution. 3 doors away were Tom and Elsie. Tom was always " on the sick " from BCH on Bridgefield St, watching the world go by on his stool in the vestibule, and exchanging ill - informed gossip . Elsie was a cleaner at the College , and one of the typical old Northern women of the area (like Les Dawson's ' Cissie and Ada ' characters). They ALWAYS had the telly on full blast with the back door open, ALWAYS on ITV. It was worth leaving your back door open while the wrestling was on to listen to Elsie - " behind you , ref , ref , ooh ee's a dirty bugger 'ee is , cheat cheat , public warning , give him a public warning " etc etc ad infinitum . From where we lived, we were able to hear the roars from Spotland when The Dale were playing, and Elsie's jubilation that day in 1969 when the town's glorious team were promoted was a joy to hear.
Nobody EVER dared to ask for their ball back from Dorothy at the top of Sparthbottoms Rd - she hated kids and all ball games. When she became old and bewildered, she struggled to find friendship in the neighbourhood. Jessie on Albion Rd always got a cob on if you played near her house - " go and play in front of your own house , ey , don't be cheeky i'll tell yer mother "
On an even sadder note, exposing the cruelties of children, at the bottom of Heath St lived " Molly Mental ". She was from Eastern Europe. It was said she was mad because she'd been in a concentration camp during WW2. A rite of passage was to play ' knock-a-door-run ' at her house because she'd "chase you with a knife" . The poor woman was continually plagued by kids at home and in the streets. Ex - Post Office clerk, Alderman and boringly frequent letter writer to the Observer was W.T.Quinn of Corporation Rd. The final character I remember was the "Colonel" on Corporation Rd, who was alarmingly territorial.
The big event of the time was when Sparth Mill burst into flames - I missed the real action because I was on holiday, but such was its scale, I was able to see it on the national news. Another major event was an annual bicycle race which took place around a circuit of Sparth attracting riders from far and wide. It was also noteworthy when gypsies parked up in the area. The locals adopted a siege mentality towards the caravan dwellers - "don't play out , they'll get you , ooooh , they steal anything that's not nailed down, why don't the police move 'em on, don't shop at Betty's, she serves 'em you know" - yes, Betty Hilton's shop was blacked for years for serving the gypsies.
All told , a fairly normal Rochdale childhood - or was it ?