Droylsden and Audenshaw (Images of England)

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Mams potato pie made in a large brown deep eathenware dish with the crust hanging all around the sides. The same dish was also sometimes used for taterash or hotpot. Allen Shaw’s grocer’s was on the corner of the Avenue (at the Market end). My Uncle George (Wragg) operated the bacon slicer.

Up to the 1950s the property was leasehold from the Tollemache Estates. When paying the estate fees at the Junction Inn my mother saw documents indicating that the property had earlier been called Blenkinsop House. I asked on the www.ashton-under-lyne.com "message board" for suggestions of which buildings contributors thought of when Ashton was mentioned. These are some of their ideas: The annual Music Festival attracts performers and music enthusiasts, making it a must-visit event for music lovers. The town has produced some incredible DJs who have made their mark in the music industry, setting records and delighting audiences worldwide.

As a last resort was the use of Dads cat 'o' nine tails which was hung by the side of the fire place range in the house. I must say here that I do not ever remember it being used, but Dad did reach for it a couple of time only to be stopped my Mam. I had a job on Bailey’s Hardware in the market in the summer of 1961. Bert the Manager told me that doormats were his ‘bread and butter’ so I was stationed to stand by them and flog as many as I could. Although it was summer they went like hot cakes day after day- all different sorts …… “Priced from 2/6 to our top brand (coloured all the way through), a bargain, darlin’ at only 7/6. Not many left and they’re ‘ard to get ‘old of” I remember the rag and boneman’s horse eating from its nose bag standing outside our house at the bottom of Turner Lane (just before you went under the railway subway). We used to give Reuben some old clothes and, in return, we'd get a balloon or a pipe for blowing bubbles. I used to love those- my Mum would give me a little enamel bowl with some sudsy water (Rinso powder?) and I'd spend hours blowing bubbles that Susie, the dog next door, would jump to try and catch. Do you remember the cinema at the Alhambra? And Droylsden's bug hut, the Palace? And the Carlton in Clayton, catching the Mayne's bus to get there.

We also heard of a previous occupant called Hartney John. Older residents also said it had been a doctor's surgery We do have of course the families of Sid, Ron and Eddy who all still live in the Ashton and Stalybridge area. On Whit Friday morning we would gather at Sunday School- the Boys' Brigade, smart in their uniforms and pillbox hats, the brass band tuning up in the yard, the girls twirling round to show off their new dresses and the little kids being marshalled inside the ropes, which they had to hold on to, to avoid being run over by the passing buses on Oldham Road. The Etihad Stadium and training facility is where Bradford Pit and the Clayton Aniline once stood. Even United fans have to admit City have been good for some Openshaw folk and the area in general.Dad being in the army at Dunkirk in 1940 but as I was only two then, this time is very vague, but I do remember Dad coming home on leave with his rough wiskery chin and his rough uniform and leaving his rifle propped up in a corner of the kitchen. The ‘monkey run’ when I was a teenager was round the market hall - lads went one way, girls the other. We’d stop and talk to a gang of lads and then the police would come and move us on. We’d just meet them again further on! We’d meet up with lads after the second house at the Queens Cinema on Sunday nights. The Old Cross Street Mission people used to be there trying to show us the error of our ways! When my Mum and Dad were young, they used to parade up and down Stamford Street. My Dad said the lads always went for the girls that were fat. If a girl who was slender (as he always said) tried to get off with him, he’d say’