I grew up in Belle Isle and lived at Orion Crescent until I was 14 when we moved to West Ardsley.
My maternal Grandmother and Grandfather lived on Windmill Road. Of course there were many fields around the area in those days. As we walked round the crescent we would pass the Co-Op and walk across the field to the primary school and across the road where the trams ran. I do have many happy memories of those days.
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I remember Mum (Margaret Holmes) saying to me that while she was at school her class did a project on an estate planning, she could not remember the name mind you but it went on display!
She said she remembered her class being very proud. For a long time the road on East Grange Drive as far as East Grange Square was totally unmade and was a complete quagmire for the most of winter.
Looking out of the front window revealed a main road (Belle Isle Road) that in retrospect barely carried any traffic. At the opposite side of the road was a large undeveloped area known as the piggeries although pigs were never seen in the location. Various paths crossed the piggeries; one to the Old Run Road, which itself was not made up beyond the Parnabys and one to a large yard owned by a local man named David Marsden. In his yard was a collection of garages, mostly very run down wooden huts but it also contained a most interesting log cabin. The Marsdens used this multi roomed structure rather as a holiday home but the oddity was that it overlooked a disused pit head and huge spoil tips. Even at the tender age of 10 I questioned why one might want a holiday home in such a location. On the piggeries was a precisely laid out area that looked like a small oval race track, made up of waste from the local mining spoil, locally termed the ‘ tips’. It remains a mystery why this ever existed; even at the time no one could explain the reason for the racetrack. This waste land was the play area for myself and many of the local children. The West Grange housing estate was built on this area during the seventies. After shift as younger miners and in summer we would walk down the rail to the old “clay pit” which was located at the bottom of the incline and backed onto the clearings and ran near the old tram line heading to “Parkside”. You could get access through the very bottom of the park roads where they met and alongside the slurry ponds from the pit know as the “Black Pudding”. At that time the clay pit had been abandoned and filled up eventually with freezing cold water. At the Clearings end was a shear clay wall. We used to jump and dive off the old pump house opposite which kept the clay pit workings from flooding while work was being carried out. It was a dare to all kids at the time to swim to the clay wall and back, if you were not sure you’d make it back you didn’t do it as there was no where to hang on or climb out and the water was freezing cold. Earlier still when the clay was being excavated and transported to the brick works just before the Broome pit and when I was about 10 to 12 years old before my mining days another dare was to ride the full clay tubs up the hill to the brick works. We had to ride under the bridges holding the “Dreaded Star wheels” and carrying the thick wire rope around them to keep it from wearing out the sleepers. We used to shuffle into a side position hanging onto the side of the tubs to avoid them (like the cowboys on their horses in films). It saved walking up the slope especially when really hot. No OSH in those Days LOL.
Men at the Brickworks used to swear and curse at us for being so stupid when we jumped off at the top. |
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