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Weaverham Community Website

Social Life for Teens in the '50's

Posted by Weaverham Community Website on March 29, 2008 5:31 AM

There was social life before girls and social life after girls. Looking back I think the former was definitely more fun. Sorry ladies! Firstly there was no cinema in Weaverham, the nearest being Northwich, but I think regular cinema going came into the ‘social life with girls’ era. Secondly there were no computers available and no computer games. But the old saying “we made our own” fun was true and we had plenty of it.

Looking back and analyzing it with hindsight, I would say that we certainly had more direct contact with our outside environment and nature. Staying indoors for socializing was never a good option. We usually had a collection of ‘mates’ from within a small radius of surrounding streets, lanes, drives or avenues. After homework was rushed and finished we got out and about. My first home was in Gerard Drive, so my ‘mates’ were from Gerard drive, Farm road, Gleave road, and the Crescent. Apart from the odd game of soccer and cricket, we often headed for the woods (Owley Wood) and a wooded area, the name escapes me (perhaps a reader can help, which was at the bottom of the steep decline that Wallerscote road made before leveling out towards Winnington.

The areas were a treasure trove for rabbit hunting, frog spawn collections and ‘John Wayne – western type games’. We could keep ourselves amused for days. I remember vividly in the summer months playing in the wheat fields that were adjacent to Farm lane and often getting chased off by irate farm workers. The River Weaver was of course another favourite spot, were we would gather raspberries and strawberries for pie making and head for a swim in the Weaver. It was pretty brown in colour in those days and after reading Steve Williams notes on factory pollution I am beginning to wonder how we survived.

The challenge in those days was to swim the whole breadth of the Weaver from the Weaverham side to the Barnton side, which appeared from a distance as a foreign country with foreigners living there! My uncle Bob initiated the ceremony for me. First by getting me to swim a certain length of the river and then after he was confident I could make it, set out alongside of me to swim the breadth. I had much less confident but plenty of determination. As I got to the middle of the river my anxiety increased. Then I realized that turning back was the same distance as going on. I made the other side exhausted, but happy for a short while, until it dawned on me that I know had to swim back. But with re-newed confidence this was achieved more nonchantly!

Another more formal side of village life was the clubs and associations. We had a choice of Boy Scouts, or a newly formed Boys Brigade. The BB uniform and band seemed more appealing so a group of us joined. The uniform was quite simple, a hat that sat on the side of the head, a leather belt with a white blancoed bag attached that never carried anything and that was it. We were advised to wear a dark jacket and trousers, and as most teenagers had a dark jacket for school in those days, that was no problem. There was a whole range of activities available each week including drill marching and playing in the BB band. The only downside to the whole thing was the insistence on going to the Methodist church each Sunday, which some of us wagged of course. We hadn’t fully realized that the BB was an offshoot of the church and designed to teach boys discipline and good Christian ethics! Still we put up with the religious side for the sake of the social side. The head officer was a Mr Roper, who was a kindly man, but always seemed very serious and not prone to too much laughter. He had in fact started the association from scratch.

A Weaverham Special - Past Rose Fetes

Posted by Weaverham Community Website on March 24, 2008 10:59 AM

Thought I’d put this special in as a supporter of the Cheshire Rose Fetes. Read with dismay some time back that despite surviving for 75 years they may very well not continue through lack of support and expertise!

The Weaverham Rose Fete in the 50’s was an amazing event. It was a bit like Christmas in June/July. Here in Western Australia we actually do celebrate ‘Christmas in July’. July is in the middle of winter, and pretty cold. So some of us crazy gals and guys, take off for weekends and hols in the south of the state, which is the coldest part and celebrate ‘Christmas in July’, with real Christmas food, cards and celebrations!

Weaverham in the 50’s was pretty quiet and the two main exciting times were the summer rose fete and Christmas. The rose fete of course attracted the traveling fair, and that was a week or two of excitement and ‘the big night out syndrome’! Whether it rained or shone, it didn’t matter. The fair ground was a honey pot to the ‘bees’ of Weaverham. We strutted are thing and met the girls for a fling. I managed to catch the last night of the Weaverham fair in July ’99. It was much smaller than I remembered and one of the stall holders confirmed the fact. The fair ground seemed to be loosing its’ appeal to modern entertainment and technology.

In the 50’s the Weaverham fair took up the whole field practically and had every imaginable event. Dodgem cars, boxing rings where you could fight the resident boxer and win a quid or two. Ferris wheels, merry go rounds, hot dog stands etc etc. For us it was magic and we felt like kings for the night. I remember we all got dressed up in our best jeans, shirts and for some of us cravats and kept trying to bump into as many girls as we could and dare them to try the more dangerous rides.

In ’99 on my return after 37 years away we turned out for the Davenham Rose Fete. A much smaller place and event than the Weaverham one. So come on don’t ‘throw the baby out with the bath water’. We can enjoy the new technologies like the internet but let’s retain some of the old world charm as well and support the revival of the Cheshire Rose Fetes’. It doesn’t after all have to be exactly as it was in the 50’s. What about a ‘new age’ rose fete with modern themes and space –aged displays. Remember ‘achievement is only limited by a lack of imagination’

The Story Continues - School Life in the 50's

Posted by Weaverham Community Website on March 7, 2008 8:28 AM

Having secured a place at The Winsford Verdin Grammar, I now had to get there! I discovered there was a special school bus that left Weaverham Monday to Friday for Winsford via the back lanes and villages. So for a weekly fee of probably 10 shillings I sat in the chauffeur driven limousine with 35 other raving lunatics. There was always a full bus load and a daily scramble to get a seat or stand all the way. There were many more but the memory dims. So for us each day we lived in Weaverham but traveled to ‘work’ at Winsford. We had learnt the skill of ‘commuting’ in the 50’s!

The highlights of school had nothing to do with learning and everything to do with socializing and ‘wagging’. The forbidden ‘fag’ was shared with mates at the back of some purpose built wall on the outskirts of the playground. Unfortunately for the ‘smokers’ we hadn’t worked out that smoke rises and as soon as the ‘Indian smoke signals’ appeared the teacher on patrol would head for the wall. The alarm was sounded and bodies would fly in all directions! Another favorite site was the bicycle shed, which afforded less cover but an alternative diversion from the prying teachers.

School lunch was a hoot, and conducted in two sittings. The masters sat on one central table and seemed to eat the same food as we did, but we suspected the quality was different! All pupils sat on tables eight, I think with a two designated senior pupils, who were responsible for dividing the food amongst the eight. In some cases the ‘dishing out’ process was not scrupulously fair, and without the prowling attention of a ‘master on patrol’ some younger pupils would miss out on a complete meal. Talk about ‘Lord of the Rings’!

Physical activities were an interesting event. They took place each week and you could either elect to play the main sport, football in winter, cricket in summer, or choose cross country running. Those who were not football or cricket mad, selected cross country running, including myself. The great advantage of latter choice was that it was unsupervised! This meant that we could walk, jog, or run and best of all stop for a ‘smoko’ I can still vividly recall running in the midst of winter, with snow and ice on the ground in white shorts and singlet (designed to prevent masters from spotting erring students), and stopping for a quick ‘smoko’ with chattering teeth and blue lips. The only thing that kept us warm was the matches and fags! Summer was more leisurely and we could lie on grass hilltops under blue skies and intermittent sunshine!

Did I mention that the school was co-ed? Well that was not particularly significant for the first two or three years but as the hormonal system kicked into place all hell broke loose! But, more about that in the next instalment. Some of the ensuing romances are still active!

A quintessential cheshire Village

Posted by Weaverham Community Website on March 5, 2008 12:16 PM

I'm not sure where I'm going with this one but I do know where I've been - so now a short posting to see if I grapple with the machinations of all this new technology. But I feel sure James will come to the rescue if necessary he seems such a gentle soul!

Imagine Weaverham if you can in the mid 50’s. A sleepy Cheshire village with add-on old and new housing estates belonging to that big chemical factory spouting smoke all day called ICI. For a young 12 year old straight from the back streets of Liverpool this was paradise. Plenty of fresh air (when the ICI smoke was blowing in the right direction) green fields and laid back country folk!

Past, Present and Future

Posted by Weaverham Community Website on March 2, 2008 10:24 AM

Some weekends – usually Saturdays we would get farm jobs – other Saturdays none. I think we used to earn a pound for a full day, which was great in 1955. The work could be anything on the farm. I remember quiet distinctly cleaning out chicken coups and then creosoting them inside and out to prevent diseases attacking the chicken, general painting and herding the remaining two cows in for milking at the end of the day. I don’t think we ever aspired to actually milking the cows. But I do remember having to assist the farmer to tie down the legs of a rather belligerent cow before milking. There were usually two of us teenagers who worked on a Saturday. The hard working lads stuck it out long term, the rest gave it away! But I suppose in those days you could say it was a good spirited public gesture on the part of the farmer to give young teenagers a leg up so to speak. Looking back the transition from city life to rural life had seemed easy. But I had had a trial run so to speak. I had an elderly cousin and her husband who had also moved from Liverpool a year or eighteen months early then we. I had had the privilege of spending school holidays with them and using Uncle Bob’s bike to explore Weaverham. Once we moved I was already on familiar ground.

Past, Present and Future

Posted by Weaverham Community Website on February 29, 2008 10:52 PM

Cheshire Memories

Imagine Weaverham if you can in the mid 50’s. A sleepy Cheshire village with add-on old and new housing estates belonging to that big chemical factory spouting smoke all day called ICI. For a young 12 year old straight from the back streets of Liverpool this was paradise. Plenty of fresh air (when the ICI smoke was blowing in the right direction) green fields and laid back country folk!

Continue reading "Past, Present and Future"

Weaverham Community Website

Posted by Trinity Mirror Cheshire on February 25, 2008 9:40 AM

WeaverhamYarns is a website dedicated to encouraging local people to share local knowledge and stories.
Contact: Richard Condor, PO Box 6354, Derby, Western Australia
Tel: +61 (0)41 337 7845 (mobile)
Email: freefall@wapda.com
Website: http://members7.boardhost.com/WeaverhamYarns