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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Lancashire => Topic started by: ozdude on Tuesday 03 April 12 00:15 BST (UK)
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G’day folks
This is a real long shot… I have been trying to find information on a prefab estate, it was located in Boggart Hole Clough Charlestown Rd. Blackley, Manchester
I lived there with my grandmother until mid 1960 I was about 8 years old at the time.
I contacted Manchester council and have searched their image collection as well all they could tell me was it was demolished by early 1970 I know my grandmother had moved around 1963
I have searched the net for photos and info for a long time.
So my question is: would anybody know when it was built…
When it was demolished…
Or the big one…. Any photos :)
Cheers…George ;)
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This estate is even harder to track down than the Heaton Park one was!
The Manchester Guardian digital archive (pay to view or through a Manchester library card) had 6 hits on a search for Blackley Prefabs or Prefabricated Boggart (!), but the only photos I have found so far are of the demolished sites at Blackley and Heaton Park. They are alongside a Guardian article dated 4 Jan 1967 (discussing the future of the sites, and whether they should be returned to parkland or have permanent houses built on them). It describes the Heaton Park and Blackley estates as 'recently demolished' so if that is correct, they had come down before 1967.
An earlier article dated 15 May 1964 suggests that the prefabs had been cleared, or were being cleared in that year:
"The Parks Committee [of Manchester Corporation] has prepared plans for a sports centre on the site at Heaton Park, where prefabricated houses, built just after the war, were demolished recently, and a nine-hole golf course at Boggart Hole Clough on the former temporary housing site.."
so your grandmother probably left just before the demolition programme started.
Another article dated 1953 states that they were only intended to have a 10-year lifespan and that "..in Manchester alone, a thousand permanent homes would have to be found for the prefab-dwellers in 1955-56, when the 10 years end..."
meaning they were constructed between 1945-6. This seems to fit with people's recollections on the rootschat Heaton Park threads.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,278711.0.html
I did find out that the Heaton Park prefabs were built by the Manchester architects Fairhursts, so possibly that firm had the contract for all Manchester's prefab estates.
Hope someone can turn up a photo for you
:) Barbara
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The area in 1935...
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Do these street names sound right for the prefab estate?
Boggart Hole Crescent
Pevensey Close
Pollen Close
If so they were built in that white area on Stephen's map section, top right hand corner of Boggart Hole Clough park - area known as Charlestown
:) Barbara
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Barbara
They are the names of the streets, and yes they were in the white area of the map Stephen posted
The one I lived in was just opposite the main entrance to Booth Hall children’s hospital when it was still standing (Boggart hole crescent) it ran parallel to Charlestown road
I think I only have two photos of the house I lived in, one of them you can just see the hospital in the background
Thank you so much for that information, it’s more than the council could provide me. I was hoping someone may have had a photo or two ;D I will keep searching
Cheers
George :)
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The area in 1935...
Thanks Stephen that's one map i have not seen :)
Cheers
George
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Another map - Click here (http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html?coords=386510,402975) - then select the 1952 map from the list on the right.
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For anyone wondering where this strange mainly Northern name comes from, a boggart is a a mischievous goblin or fairy, who makes the milk go sour or the cow go lame, etc. The name is related to "bogeyman". Some boggarts lived under bridges, like trolls in Scandinavian legends. I guess this boggart was believed to live in some kind of a cave or hole on a hillside, which is what "clough" means.
Probably the golfers at Boggart Hole Clough Golf Club sometimes wonder whether there's a boggart at work ruining their stroke. :D
We Lancastrians used to have a saying, "He's off at t'boggart!", meaning running away at speed, as if escaping from one of these sprites.
Gillg
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For anyone wondering where this strange mainly Northern name comes from, a boggart is a a mischievous goblin or fairy, who makes the milk go sour or the cow go lame, etc. The name is related to "bogeyman". Some boggarts lived under bridges, like trolls in Scandinavian legends. I guess this boggart was believed to live in some kind of a cave or hole on a hillside, which is what "clough" means.
Probably the golfers at Boggart Hole Clough Golf Club sometimes wonder whether there's a boggart at work ruining their stroke. :D
We Lancastrians used to have a saying, "He's off at t'boggart!", meaning running away at speed, as if escaping from one of these sprites.
Gillg
Gillg
I lived in the Clough till I was 8 yrs old and never heard of a Boggart until much later in life
Cheers ;)
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You are bringing back a lot of forgotten memories for me, i remember going to Boggart hole Clough add a child with my granddad.
LOL strangely enough i never ventured far from granddad cos I was frightened the boggarts would jump out n get me!
(LOL I was a curious child n asked what Boggart meant once, I should never have asked cos the answer preyed on my mind long after!)
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You are bringing back a lot of forgotten memories for me, i remember going to Boggart hole Clough add a child with my granddad.
LOL strangely enough i never ventured far from granddad cos I was frightened the boggarts would jump out n get me!
(LOL I was a curious child n asked what Boggart meant once, I should never have asked cos the answer preyed on my mind long after!)
Gaille
Ah yes the memories… :)
I reckon I spent every spare hour exploring the park, after all it was my backyard ;D
Cheers
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Hi my name is Yvonne Bryan. I was born in the prefabs at Boggart hole clough in Dec 1951 at 3 Pollen close.I have one or two old family photos taken when living at the prefabs. I had a brother John and a sister Micheline.I to would love to hear from anybody that lived there and may even remember my family.
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My parents and their siblings, all now deceased, used to go courting on Boggart Hole Clough. ::)
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Hi my name is Yvonne Bryan. I was born in the prefabs at Boggart hole clough in Dec 1951 at 3 Pollen close.I have one or two old family photos taken when living at the prefabs. I had a brother John and a sister Micheline.I to would love to hear from anybody that lived there and may even remember my family.
Hi Yvonne
Although I can’t remember your family name I lived not far from you (31 Boggart Hole Crescent) and went to Charlestown Road Infants/primary school
I was about 8 yrs when we left for Australia in 1960, I have been trying for a long time to find any photos of the estate even Manchester council don’t appear to have any
You never know we may have bumped into each other as kids
Cheers…George
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We to had to move in about 1960. Think they started to move everybody then. I also have tried to find Photos but can only find ones of the Heaton park prefabs. I went to a school in Blackley village but my friend Adrienne Handley went to the same school as you. I loved living in the prefabs. Happy days
Yvonne
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Yvonne
This is one of two photos that I have. Boggart hole crescent is at the top of the picture
To the rear of photo is Charlestown Rd
George ;)
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Yvonne
I was just looking at a map of the estate you may have lived over the back fence from me
Depending on the house numbering
Do you remember where in Pollen Close your house was?
Pollen Close continued on from Boggart hole crescent and also a footpath/walkway ran down to Charlestown Rd if that makes sense
George
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Hi George
I will try to tell you where our prefab was. If you went to the main enterance of Booth hall Hospital and crossed the road you would enter the bottom end of Pollen close. Our prefab was at the top end ( the secnd one along from that end) At number 1 lived the Mountfields we lived at number 3 and the Westerns at number 5. One prefab at the back of ours had a family called Shepard. Its not easy without a map.
Yvonne
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Its not easy without a map.
Yvonne
Have sent you a pm (personal message)
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Hi Yvonne
The name Shepard rings a bell from the past...
Cheers
George
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A few really nice photos of this estate have just turned up on facebook on the Remembering Blackley Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/176795412439387/
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Thanks will look at that for sure
Yvonne
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:)i have only just found this site, i was born at 53 Rushcroft Close, Blackley M/C 9, in 1952. This was on the smaller of the two prefab site in the park. i remember there was an area called The Ollers between the two estates we used to have regular battles with the other kids chucking stones known as Duckers for obvious reasons. We had to leave in 1959/60 because they were demolishing the prefabs. i always look back on those days with so much happiness, within a year my mother had died and nothing ever seemed the same after that. The best way to describe where i lived was, if you imagine walking up the from the village along Charlestown Rd, as you climbed the hill there was a set of stairs which led from the pavement to, Rushcroft Close. i used to get the bus (1 penny) to Dommit St school in the village, after that to Pike Fold school. Unfortunately i have no photographs, just happy memories.
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Hi Eddie
I lived in Boggart Hole Crescent and left in 1960 and went to Australia
and still here
this map may bring back some memories for you
It did for me when I came across it from 1958
Cheers
George :)
Had to resize map to put on here hope you can see it ok
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GEORGE, so sorry for the delay in responding to your last post. I am still trying to get to grips with the tech. I have a problem remembering names of the kids i played with in those days. I just remember spending so much time playing in the park , my mam use to come searching for me in the summer to come and get my tea. I know this is all down memory lane, but those first years of my life seemed so wonderful in that place. Because we lived in the smaller of the two estates I do nor have a lot of memories of the other one apart from the odd dust up . If anybody out there who may remember the following names . My father EDWARD WILKINSON. My mother OLIVE WILKINSON, My brothers DAVID GARTH WILKINSON. JOHN EDWARD WILKINSON. My sister RONA WILKINSON. We were moved around 1959 to the SANDY HILL ESTATE, which was a brand and new jerry built what would know be called a housing development, but was in fact nothing compared to the prefabs. I am aware that at our age (62) everything is looked at through rose tinted glasses but nothing can be compared to the first years of my life in in that prefab. George if you can stir any more memories for me i will reply eventually . With my all my regards to ALL the prefabers (is that a word) tara for now. All my love Eddie
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Hi eddie I was born at number 45 Rushcroft Close in 1945. Great years living there, moved in 58 to New Moston, now live Middleton. I have three brothers and two sisters: Tommy Len Bob Rita Pat
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Hi,
Just came across this post while researching my past. My dad passed away 2006 and am Interested in finding some info about his father who died young at 36. As my Dad was very young when he passed I have very limited info. They lived in the prefabs at rushcroft close. John Thompson born 1948, Shiela 1946 ish and Michael 1943. My grandad was Harry/ Henry Thompson born 1923 ish died in Middleton around 1959.grandma Hilda. I know it’s an absolute long shot as this post is very old.
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My mum and her sister and my Nan and grandad lived on Pevensey close in one of the prefabs. I’d love to see a photo of them if anyone has any.