Memories of a bygone era

Memories of a bygone era

Read the following earlier. It’s an extract from an old pupil from my old school in the ex mining village of Mansfield Woodhouse. It’s very evocative of a bygone era I think. Lifted in its entirety as it’s written & all the better for it I think.

Well,I walked from my house to the vale today, going over the rec down Sandy and Chuck Hills field, along school lane beside John Ogdens Aukland House. At the Chapel beside Geoff Carlisles old sports shop I turned left and went up Rose Lane where Woodcocks yard used to be and along past George Parmenters Rose Cottage to the crossroads where my grandparents had a cottage,smack bang on the middle of the crossroads (Alan Organ bought it when grandad died. Then up Eather Avenue past where Vic Shead has a bungalow towards the Sunnydale going up Slant Lane where Old Mr Rathbone used to live in a railway carriage many years before the estate was built. I crossed the road opposite Vinnie Shead s house and Alan Bakewells whose son Mark was the first bloke I knew to have a perm,earning him the nickname Bubbles. Then I walked up Coxs Lane to McKenzies farm where Parmenters once held state. Right past the old place where Joe Ashley the brickie lived with his handlebar moustache and down by Pete Vernons land into the vale lane by Hayes bungalow. The land on the right was Park Hall Estate, in the left is the old quarry,now filled with green water. I did what I had to do in the Vale and came home by the same lane although this time I went back down past Joe Nemeths garage and Park Avenue where Ken and Bet
Walker lived for many years. Past Tony and Mal Stevensons,Dosh Wagstaffs,Harry Swinns,Jimmy Hamiltons and Roland Taylors into Albert Street. On the left was Evelyn Fairbrothers humble abode, Malc Lees place and the cottages leading down to Ron Spates bungalow on the Old car park that Ken Walker built. I sat for a while on Albert Square watching strangers drive by,the old dog was tired at this point and needed a minute. I looked up the High street where I grew up, two of our houses in view, grandma's yard where Tom Watkinson shod many a horse and Billy Plaice had his butchers shop. Memories flooded back of my childhood and I trudged back up New Mill lane home.