Synopsis
The last century has seen more change than any other in history and we at the Mid-Cheshire-based Leonie Press believe that the memories of those who lived during this period should be collected for posterity before it is too late. This book is the first of what we hope will be a series covering ways of life and occupations that have now changed out of all recognition or vanished for ever. It starts with Elizabeth Ellen Osborne's memories of her father's time as a horseman on local farms, living in a tied cottage and working long hours in all weathers. One employer sacked him for pausing to drink tea while ploughing on a freezing winter's morning. He was devoted to his animals and described his horse as 'human'. When the family had to move to Northwich his country-loving wife thought her heart would break. Geoffrey Mellor was brought up in the part of Lostock known as the Tip Bonk. He spent his spare time as a boy working on farms, but later took his mother's advice to 'get a trade' and learned to be a motor mechanic. He found he had a natural aptitude and loved the work in spite of the primitive workshop conditions and his bosses' hard discipline - he was once demoted to tea boy for breaking a brush. Peter Buckley was in the 'rural' stream at school but decided to be a fitter/turner. He obtained an apprenticeship at Yarwood's shipbuilding yard on the banks of the River Weaver in Northwich, where the initiation rites involved a painful daubing with Sloane's liniment. A bank of river mist often covered the machinery when the men arrived at work and in the winter everything was frozen. Bruce Fisher got a job on the railways when he left school, following in the footsteps of his father, who was an engine driver and his brother, a fireman. He tells the story of the last days of steam at Northwich locomotive depot where he worked his way up from cleaner to fireman. He describes in detail a skilled occupation - and a local railway freight transport system - that are now consigned to history.
