| Early family memories |
| noel | Born just after the war ( 9 months to be precise!!! ) my early food memories were of very stodgy meals. "little lads in bags" my ma used to call them.
Sort of jam suet roll wrapped in an old sheet ( hey maybe it was a new one but I suspect it was an old one with the germs washed out)
and boiled for an eternity. Gosh I loved them. Just after the war of course so I guess ma and pa were not well off.
Jam butty fritters, jam butties dipped in batter and deep fried. Healthy modern Scottish meal you might say.
Oh and treacle butties for tea on a good day. Getting a bit like monty python this isn't it? " Shoe box? Tha were lucky, we had to live in a match box" or words to that effect.
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| William R | Noel, you`ve started a good one here! I won`t mention how some people celebrated the end of the war, but I`d be the guest of the government of the day when you were enjoying jam butties. Used to have them during the war,bread was made with, I believe,"National" flour.(Somebody will come up with the right name) which was a blend of unrefined flour, there wasn`t white or brown flour but it was all there was. Jam butty for breakfast toasted against a 1kw electric fire sat on the table plugged into the electric light socket (shock horror) Generally took jam butties to work for midday, so you can understand my previous ravings about the man who sold butter pies outside North Works gate. Parkinsons raspberry jam tea cakes were another delicacy. I`m going to ramble on a bit here. When you went to work then your attendance was marked by a Shelter Warden on his Daily Card, remember this was when we were short of everything, and this Card was used to obtain things like bars of chocolate, oranges, cigarettes and all sorts of goodies for war workers from the Works Canteen in Thurstan Road. I suppose other firms had similar schemes, but just imagine going home with an orange, they were in short supply. As for the cigarettes, they became an article to barter, I believe we got 10 Players as a freebie. The chocolates were 2oz bars. I`ll not mention Workers Playtime at this point. Incidentally, Mr.(Tubby) Gilbert, the Canteen Manager used to have a model of the Canteen in his front garden at Eccleston, I wonder if it still exists? From over the Pennines, Cheers Bill. |
| rocketmanjohn | Well Bill, you've jarred my memory. A favourite of mine was bread and dripping [20% cholesterol ?] on the way to school, one slice and I would be glowing all day. I remember my mum lining up for oranges, I'd had apples and pears, but never oranges. I took mine into the back garden to eat, and was horrified, it tasted awful. I did'nt know I was supposed to peel it.
How come we could always get pomegranites and dates, which are pretty exotic, but not oranges ?
John |
| William R | Mentioning Dripping, The last firm I worked for had a Stores way off the beaten track with 15 employees. The Canteen was run by two ladies who knew what people liked to eat. They started making toasted dripping sandwiches every Tuesday and Thursday "without permission" of the Main Canteen some miles away, the local butcher supplied proper beef dripping. This was kept a bit of a secret, but more people used to go absent from work on any excuse to "just be near" the Stores when the sandwiches were available. All too soon the main Canteen got to know and put a stop to it. Reprimands all round. Canteen ladies then arranged with the butcher to supply dripping sandwiches at specific times, so when anyone "just happened to be near" they were diverted to the butchers shop for them. I think the ladies got a cut in the takings, they were good. That was early 1970`s before cholesterol became the "in word". I think the Canteen Manager`s staff were a bit petty, because they lost out in the end. From over the Pennines, Cheers, Bill. |
| LDunlop76 | Mmmmm! Dripping had to be on toast - so that the warmth made it soak in! My Grandma had a dripping bowl on the kitchen table in which she poured all the fat that came off joints of meat. Not the done thing at all these days! And who fries in lard any more? Yet obesity is on the increase!
I'm too young to remember days of rationing, but I heard the tales of it at my grandmother's knee. My grandparents kept chickens in their garden and used their egg ration coupons for corn feed. Several neighbours donated their egg coupons for corn feed too - in return for fresh eggs. The funniest tale Grandma used to tell of the war years relates to my Dad (6 when war broke out) watching the hens. Grandad had been told hens wouldn't lay unless they had a cockerel in with them, so Dad went down to the coop to see the new cockerel and rushed back into the house, yelling, "Mum, Mum" Come quick and rescue the hens! That cock's bashing them up, one after the other!" I believe a little lesson in the facts of life may have followed! <vbg> |
| brian | Does anybody remember that orange juice in the late 40's early 50's. Was it specially for children, I loved it.
Does anybody remember a popular medicine for children called somebody's emulsion. A lot of people didnt like it but I did.
Does anybody remember a pie shop down Slater Lane not far from St. James Church. I thought their meat and potatoe pies were delicious, quite peppery.
Feeling hungry,
Brian. |
| William R | Was it the orange juice you got from the Clinic up Hastings Road? Was it Scotts Emulsion? Don`t know about the pies sold in Slater Lane. I believe you could get the Orange Juice at Leyland Public Hall at one time, it was a wartime thing for babies and young mothers. One time you could also get seed potatoes and fertiliser at the Public Hall when everyone was asked to grow potatoes in their gardens, I don`t know if there was a charge, I think it was a Government thing, grow your own food. Fertiliser was National Growmore. Fromover the Pennines, Cheers Bill. |
| penny | I well remember orange juice during and after the war also cod liver oil and malt. I don't know about a pie shop in Slater Lane but there was one in Tardy Gate on the corner near to the playing field, their pies were fantastic and cakes, used to get Mums' shopping there every Saturday morning.Dad grew peas and potatoes, they don't taste like that today. I also remember going for a gas mask to a wooden building near to the Lostock Hall gas works entrance further on than Bee Lane I think!. Penny - new girl |
| William R | Hello Penny, Welcome to the Forum, keep at it and you`ll make a lot of friends from all walks of life. From over the Pennines, Cheers,Bill. |
| noel | I remember some time in the early fifties getting a parcel at school from where I never really knew. Just remember taking it proudly home to my parents, a gift from Australia or South Africa??? Does anybody remember this around 1953 I would guess. It's always puzzled me. Also remember getting back to the early family theme doing the washing in the back yard in a round tub full of hot water soap powder and dirty cloths with something called a posser. Oh what joy. |
| William R | Noel, I had to wash my overalls on the back yard every weekend in the dolly tub, and give it a good possing. Used to use soap powder and soda crystals, my, how we lived. They`re museum pieces now are possers and dolly tubs. Whats this about putting a recycling plant in the old factory? I`m going to send you an eml with details of what the original layout of MOS was when I sort out which button to press. Watch this space. Cheers,Bill. |
| William R | Noel, I had to wash my overalls on the back yard every weekend in the dolly tub, and give it a good possing. Used to use soap powder and soda crystals, my, how we lived. They`re museum pieces now are possers and dolly tubs. Whats this about putting a recycling plant in the old factory? I`m going to send you an eml with details of what the original layout of MOS was when I sort out which button to press. Watch this space. Cheers,Bill. |
| Lady Griffin | The Orange Juice was extra nice and given to us nursing mothers and babies as William said together with Cod Liver Oil capsules.I think I got mine from the clinic in School Lane Bamber Bridge where young mothers took their babies for weighing and checkups.Also remember the potty training sessions-all the older infants sitting on potties in a circle.
There were also the hours during the War when we had to gather in the shelters at Lostock Hall Council School wearing our gas masks.To while away the time we had Horlicks tablets to chew
At the end of the war food supplies came from America which included huge tins of rolled thick bacon made quite a change from corned beef ans Spam and preserved or dried eggs.
Women in Australia and New Zealand did great work in sending food parcels often including dried fruit a real treat.
I can smell those butter pies now from the Tardy Gate shop. |
| noel | I remember my mum telling me about a tin of tongue she bought during the war.
When she opened it the whole tongue/slice of tongue rolled out on the table.
And to think it was one of my favourite meats until she told me that tale.!!! |
| Lady Griffin | Your tale of the tongue reminded me of Cow's Elder which my dad loved and you could buy sliced.Only found out what part of the cow it came from years later.
Mum and Dad also hoarded- in a small way of course- several tins of foodstuffs which they put away at the beginning of the war and took out to celebrate at the end.Several tins had no labels but one was a tin of Libby's Sausage meat.Tasted fine even after 5 years.
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| rocketmanjohn | I was one of those weird people who actually likes cod liver oil, I used to bite into the capsules to get the oil out. We also got it in bottles as well, along with the concentrated orange juice, my mum got it from a council run office opposite the old library on Towngate. I was also the only one in the family to like powdered eggs.
We had gas masks kept under the stairs and a portable childrens air raid shelter. I still have a gas mask, but I think it's a later model than war time issue.
John |
| Lady Griffin | There was also the Halibut Liver Oil-must have been a bit more upmarket than Cod.
My brother had one of the large baby's gas masks like a space bubble.Just as well he was too small to be traumatised.
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| LDunlop76 | quote:
Originally posted by William R
They`re museum pieces now are possers and dolly tubs.
They certainly are! If anyone wants to take a stroll back in time, I can recommend "The Way We Were" exhibition at Wigan Pier. (No, I'm not on commission!) You can step into wash-houses complete with dolly tubs and possers, sit in a 1900 pub (no ale though [:(]) and experience a lesson in a 1900 school room. Worth the trip if you're over Wigan way. Wigan Pier also has Opie's Museum of Childhood, which has a separate area for every decade of the last century. When I took my Dad, he loved rediscovering the kinds of toys he'd had during the war years, though I found it a bit disconcerting to see the Sindy dolls and slide projector I had as a child in a museum case! [:0] |
| William R | Wiganer, If you ever get the chance, visit the Victorian Town Museum at Blists Hill at Ironbridge in Shropshire. It is a working museum where you have to change your 2003 money into shillings, tanners, pennies, halp pennies and farthings before you can shop. It is a collection of shops and houses which have been collected together and restored and staffed by people in authentic dress. There is a school, chapel, all types of shops, ancient fair. There is a foundry working to produce souvenirs for sale in the ever present gift shop, pay in real money there. We went to a Victorian wedding there given by a Victorian society from somewhere in the Midlands. They do two or three a year. Well worth the effort to get there. Then there is the Historic town at Beamish in County Durham. Again the same theme but a lot has been moved brick by brick from all over the area, complete with Co-op shop and cafe from Anfield Plain. There is a school, chapel, different types of houses, all with people dressed for the part to tell you about it. Local schools send classes for a day to see how it was. There is an operating ancient omnibus and tram service, a coal mine, and in the top Town there is a pub which sells beer of the time. Again there were people all around in authentic dress to talk to. I can recommend them both, and if I get the chance I`ll see if I can persuade one of my lot to make the trip this year. From over the Pennines, Cheers,Bill. |
| Caroline | We had Scott's Emulsion- I think there was the picture of a sailor in oilskins on the front, I loved the orange juice Mum got for my sister,and we also had malt from a big brown jar, and cod-liver oil. I was given Horlicks tablets as reward when I'd been to Grundy's dentist, but that's another topic!
Hello Penny, and Welcome.
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| brian | Welcome to Penny,
Please tell us more about your Leyland connection.
Brian
PS Nice to see that Noel has come out of his winter hibernation. |
| noel | quote:
Originally posted by brian
Welcome to Penny,
Please tell us more about your Leyland connection.
Brian
PS Nice to see that Noel has come out of his winter hibernation.
Into yet another redundancy situation Brian. Wish I'd stayed in bed!!!!
Yes welcome Penny, always nice to see new members. |
| Karen | OK guys ..I guess it's time I got my feet wet!!!
THE best pies were ... Harry Dwyer's ... remember his shop in Chapel Brow, just about opposite the Maypole.
He also used to 'whistle' as he lovingly patted the sliced deli meat etc whilst packing it in greaseproof paper.
NHS orange juice made the best popcicles .. er .. ice lollies!!
Only available to folks living in the pre-fabs ... they had fridges ... or their friends and relations
(I was privileged ..I had cousins in Bryning Road).
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| William R | Hi Karen,Welcome to the forum,can`t remember the shop opposite the Maypole, I left Leyland in 1950 to Chorley then emigrated to Yorkshire. Have fun with us. From over the Pennines, Cheers, Bill. |
| noel | Welcome Karen. I remember the Maypole and the Prefabs but not Harry Dwyer. |
| LDunlop76 | Hello, Karen & Penny - hope you'll both post often!
Aww, Noel, redundancy rearing it's head again? Fingers crossed for you, mate!
Thanks, Bill, for the museum info. Ironbridge was already on my list of 'places I must visit sometime', so your post confirmed it's worth a trip. |
| Martin | Hello Karen and Penny, welcome to the forum [:)] |
| William R | Noel, Remeber I was on about firms closing and sending production to eastern Europe - todays Telegraph reports Proctor and Gamble closing a toiletries factory in Havant with 330 job losses and transferring production to - guess where? - eastern Europe. Chjeers, Bill. |
| William R | Noel, Remember I was on about firms closing and sending production to eastern Europe - todays Telegraph reports Proctor and Gamble closing a toiletries factory in Havant with 330 job losses and transferring production to - guess where? - eastern Europe. Cheers, Bill. |
| noel | quote:
Originally posted by William R
Noel, Remember I was on about firms closing and sending production to eastern Europe - todays Telegraph reports Proctor and Gamble closing a toiletries factory in Havant with 330 job losses and transferring production to - guess where? - eastern Europe. Cheers, Bill.
Yup I remember William. Apparently our labour rates are 10 times higher than in India. What chance do we have??[V] Wonder if Pontefract Cake manufacture will ever be transferred to India? |
| LDunlop76 | quote:
Originally posted by noel
[br Wonder if Pontefract Cake manufacture will ever be transferred to India?
Quietly pondering the possible offspring of Licorice Allsorts meeting Bombay mix....... [:o)] |
| LDunlop76 | quote:
Originally posted by noel
Apparently our labour rates are 10 times higher than in India. What chance do we have??[V]
The rate we're going on, we'll just be one mass of service industries soon - all providing health care and haircuts and meals out and sueing the backsides off one another. It can't be good for a country not to actually make anything, surely? |
| Lady Griffin | Most of our stuff is being produced in places like Fiji these days.
Same story-cheaper labour. |
| noel | quote:
Originally posted by Lady Griffin
Most of our stuff is being produced in places like Fiji these days.
Same story-cheaper labour.
And of course they don't have the massive taxes we have in the UK.
Council tax for one is one of my pet hates.[:(!] |
| Lady Griffin | Can you still go to local Insurance offices, Tax Departments etc for help in UK?
They seem to have all re-located here to an unknown central location and all enquiries have to be via press 1 press 2 and so on.
No way do you see a human being.Perhaps there aren't any.
Last week I had to ring a free phone number to order a book from a large book store in NZ.
Discovered I was ringing Australia to do it.
I grow old!!!!
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| noel | quote:
Originally posted by Lady Griffin
Can you still go to local Insurance offices, Tax Departments etc for help in UK?
They seem to have all re-located here to an unknown central location and all enquiries have to be via press 1 press 2 and so on.
No way do you see a human being.Perhaps there aren't any.
Last week I had to ring a free phone number to order a book from a large book store in NZ.
Discovered I was ringing Australia to do it.
I grow old!!!!
Tax departments are very helpful, mine is in Winkley Square.
Sometimes it's the only way to get something done, go in and see them. |
| Lady Griffin | Sadly you can't go and see them here since they re-located.It's part of a conspiracy so that they can rip you off and there's no-one to complain to. |
| LDunlop76 | quote:
Originally posted by noel
[br
Tax departments are very helpful, mine is in Winkley Square.
Sometimes it's the only way to get something done, go in and see them.
I work opposite my Inland Revenue office - very handy. Banks, on the other hand.....grrrr! I can no longer phone my own branch. If I need to contact them by phone, I have to ring a call centre - who have twice told me my account (opened 1977) does not exist! Funny how the standing orders keep getting paid out of it then? I find a snotty letter (copied to someone in authority if you really want to stir it[}:)]) works wonders - within a week of writing to complain about non-arrival of a replacement chequebook, I had 5 on the doormat and shouldn't need to order any more this decade![:p] |
| Lady Griffin | Has Winckley Square changed much?It used to be a very leafy and restful place when I worked there in the 50's at the Eagle Star Insurance Office.
There were some wonderful old Georgian houses.Do hope they haven't gone.
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| noel | quote:
Originally posted by Lady Griffin
Has Winckley Square changed much?It used to be a very leafy and restful place when I worked there in the 50's at the Eagle Star Insurance Office.
There were some wonderful old Georgian houses.Do hope they haven't gone.
Hardly changed at all you'll be pleased to know. Lovely chippy about 100 yards away, great to eat them on the park benches while the pidgeons hover overhead. |
| Karen | Visited Winckley Square Fall 2002 ... My old school ... Winckley Square HCJ.
Some changes on the Eastern side but otherwise mostly intact .. I think that it is protected.
There's an really good site that I like to visit ...
www.winckleysquare.org.uk
Hope you enjoy it too. |
| Lady Griffin | Thanks Karen I enjoyed the site and will go back.
Evidently my great great grandfather who was a tailer in the 1830's made clothes for the well- to- do folk in Winckley Square.He had a Drapers and Tailors shop on Fishergate Hill Number 9 and lived in Avenham Lane -another old area with Georgian style houses.Not very healthy though by all accounts because of the sewage and waste from nearby streets and markets.
I believe those houses in Avenham may still be there too. |
| Karen | Glad you enjoyed the Winckley site Lady G. ... many of the Avenham houses are still there .. some of them converted into apartments.
Did the memory lane bit there too .. my school luchtime 'Walk'.. revisited!!!
... (after eating lunch ...we were required to walk in crocodile formation, around the Park and nearby areas!!)
Try the Avenham Walks link on the Winckley site. |
| Caroline | I have lovely memories of Winckley Square as well- I was at the Harris School of Art and used to walk through on my way to and from in the 60s. Hasn't changed, there's still a muddy bit at the bottom in wet weather! |
| William R | I`m posting here because I can`t find where we put things before, Martin will sort ot out, I hope. I call it Wartime Memories - Yes its the old man at it again, I hear you say. All this talk about going into conflict with Iraq reminds me of the 1940`s when the decision had been taken. My father called me "Too clever by half" because when we first declared war we dug an air raid shelter. Now when the Luftwaffe started blitzing Liverpool, the sirens in Leyland sounded, so we were told to take to the shelter. I would rather stand on our back yard and watch the sky, searchlights and AA fire, all over Liverpool and St,Helens area. Thats when I was told I was too clever, I protested that they were bombing the Mersey not Leyland. Too clever again, we could get hit by a stray bomb. In Leyland, I`d ask. surely we were safe. The threats came again, get in that shelter you`re too clever you are. We used to sit there until the "All Clear" went, holding our gas masks, wrapped up in blankets whilst the bombing was on 30/40 miles away. Any old Leylanders will agree that we didn`t get blitzed during the war, and whilst we quaked in our shelter, all those others who must have been "too clever" were fast asleep in bed. Which brings me to today, Having grandchildren in their teens, I wonder why they are not the least bit bothered about what the near future holds if there is conflict, does nobody care any more? From over the Pennines, Cheerio, Bill |
| William R | Back again, I realise that we have had all the Student demonstrations over the weekend, its those who were not bothered that I`m thinking about. Bill. |
| LDunlop76 | quote:
Originally posted by William R
Any old Leylanders will agree that we didn`t get blitzed during the war, and whilst we quaked in our shelter, all those others who must have been "too clever" were fast asleep in bed.
My Dad and grandparents lived in Timperley (between Altrincham and Sale, 7 miles outside Manchester). They didn't go for the standard Anderson shelter, but dug a joint venture with the next-door neighbours, get it quite cosy eventually. But that area was considered pretty safe from bombs - to the extent that one day a chap turned up with a bus load of evacuees from Manchester city centre and Grandma had to take two of them. Not for long though! One night a stray bomb aimed at the nearby Broadheath industrial estate landed on my grandparents' street (by sheer luck landing in the only vacant lot in the street, not built on because it was a touch marshy) and immediately the evacuees were taken away again. Funnily no-one offered to evacuate all those kids already living on that street! My grandparents were jolly glad they had gone down to the shelter that night!
Another night my Dad (primary school age during the War) was a bit late going down to the shelter, so he ran down the garden with a cushion on his head to stop any bombs hurting him! [;)] |