Hulme, Manchester

[cathaldus]

remembering the blitz and it's aftermath,  the lack of coal,  the queueing for a bag of coke at Medlock Street Gas Works. Walking across the "condend rea"
(later to transribe as the condemned area demolished prior to the war!),  the playing in the bombed out houses,  the smell of the communal air raid shelter in Bangor Street.  The freezing cold winter of '47,  chilblains and frozen glass,  the return of a stranger called "Dad" (we never really did get over it).  The local beer house,  Turkish cigarettes and Manchester United.  The sheer grit and determination of the primary school teachers to inject knowledge and hope into our damaged minds (and they did!).  Manchester,  I love it.  My pride at being a Northerner has no limit.  Such history,  such strength,  such true
courage.

[uk2003]

Hi cathaldus

For memory lane have a look here

http://www.images.manchester.gov.uk/

Type in

medlock street gas works 

Then

bangor street

Regards
Ken

[cathaldus]

Dear Ken,

Many thanks for your reply.  Recollections of Medlock Street at 4.30a.m. with an iron wheeled cart and a cwt.of coke.  Football while waiting, with the rubber bladder!!  Did it do any harm?  Of course it did!!  But we survived!  We became self sufficient and understanding of other people's problems!!
I did not realise that Bangor St. school became RC,  for myself and brothers we went to St. Wilfs.   It is memory that moulds our reality!

Bill

[scottiefrom hulme]

Also for memory lane.  Street  Map of Hulme.  Circa 1956

[gortonboy]

http://www.scottlandcare.com/index_2.html      hulme 1956

[Toronto]

I lived around the corner from the gasworks during the mini ice age in Chester street. Do you remeber, a person selling mugs of tea from a cart like an icecream wagon. People were using jam jars for their tea. We took turns lining up for the coke. Dad would come along and relieve me.

Now I think back, the people were very orderly, no one tried to push in front of you.

The queue had to be over a 1/4 of a mile long. and what did we find? two or four guys (not sure of the number) shovelling the coke into a large skuttle with a large weight on the other end to make sure you had the right weight of coke. We did not have bags, most people used an old pram to carry the coke home.

Prior to this , my younger brother and myself had stripped all the available wood from the bombed houses. Even snuck coal from the boilers at Dunlops. But thats another story............

All my best
Mike Morris
Toronto Canada