Years Gone By

Tinkerbelle

Tinkerbelle

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I love local stories from years gone by so I thought I'd start a little reminiscing thread. One were people might read and think I remember that and add their own little tale ...... A little bit like 'Do you remember when Princess Diana visited Accrington ........' I can, I was one of the little ones sat on the wall waving my flag at the pretty lady in the posh car :)

One story my mum used to tell me (I can't remember I wasn't even a twinkle in my parents eye) was how the river used to flood at the bottom of Bank St/Bridge St. Anyone else remember it?

Anyone have any 'can you remember' stories?
 
I can remember when we had a proper railway station with different platforms and a waiting room with a coal fire and loos and a line to Manchester.
 
Tinkerbelle said:
I love local stories from years gone by so I thought I'd start a little reminiscing thread. One were people might read and think I remember that and add their own little tale ...... A little bit like 'Do you remember when Princess Diana visited Accrington ........' I can, I was one of the little ones sat on the wall waving my flag at the pretty lady in the posh car :)

and I remember shaking her hand when she opened the new Joseph Arnold factory - she was great fun in the factory that day
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WillowTheWhisp said:
I can remember when we had a proper railway station with different platforms and a waiting room with a coal fire and loos and a line to Manchester.
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I don't think I can remember it being any different than the way it is today. The only time I can ever remember using it was when we used to have family trips to Blackpool during the summer holidays.

I remember when they blew up those cooling towers in Huncoat. I swear the whole of Accrington shook when those things were felled.
 
I can't remember the incidents you recall Tinks...but does anyone remember 'Blowers' at the bottom of Church St in Accrington. It was a really old fashioned grocers shop. I only remember it vaguely......the smell of coffee grinding......sugar measured out into blue sugar paper bags with the weight printed on it. Butter came in wooden barrels, and the shop assistant would use butter pats to pat your half pound of 'best butter' into an oblong shape before wrapping it in greasproof paper. And when the butter was turned out of it's barrel, they used to make patterns on it using the bottom of a Beetop sauce bottle. Now how would the health and safety brigade turn their noses up at that if it happened today. Biscuits were kept in glass topped boxes and you could choose which you wanted in your 'pound of mixed'.
Also does anyone remember Joseph Bridges which was on the other side of Church St? The used to have tea chest outside with chipped cups in. My Mum used to use cups as deadly weapons....she used to say 'If I can't catch you, my dog will' and with that would hurl whatever piece of crockery she had in her hands directly at you......we got very good at ducking these deadly missiles, but it meant that we were always short of cups and saucers. So we were sent off to J.W. Bridges to get replacements....i think the chipped cups were something like four for sixpence......and chipped saucers were a penny each. We would be taken into care if something like that happened today.......but we never came to any real harm....and we took a lot of chipped cups off Bridges hands.

I hope this is the kind of thing you meant Tinks.
 
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I don't remember Blowers but I remember a shop jut like that in Peel street. Was it Veevers? Those biscuit tins were red. I remember the sugar being scooped out and put into blue sugar paper bags, the coffee grinder, and the wooden butter pats. There was a wooden chair in the shop with a circular seat with a sort of carved pattern on it, and a hooped back.
 
No...course we didn't. we were better brought up than that....but in Winter when you got warmed you invariably wanted to wee....so we'd use the toilets there......they were in the waiting room...ours was a draughty long drop out the back......theirs was a very comodious flushing variety.
 
Margaret Pilkington said:
I hope this is the kind of thing you meant Tinks.
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Exactly that Margaret :) That made me chuckle.

I don't remember the place but I do remember the green grocers at the top of Broadway (I can't remember it's name though) that always appeared to me as a little one, was on a very steep slope. My mum asked me to stand out side and watch little slinky in the pram while she went for her shopping but the buggy was so overloaded with bags over the handles that the buggy tipped up and I couldn't pick it up. I remember her wailing in the pram and me trying to comfort her, telling her mum will be here soon. :)
 
Yes Willow.....Veevers was another one of the old style grocers.
I remember going there to buy Gold Dish brand Jaffa juice when my dad was poorly. It was expensive, but it was the only thing he wanted that would stay down.
 
If I remember correctly there was a ladies waiting room through which you accessed the ladies loo but the door to the gents was on the platform. I used to think the men weren't supposed to know that ladies went for a weewee.
 
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