The Sand Park

A Memory of Collyhurst.

We lived in 41 Northern Drive, as kids we would play for hours in the sand park. We would watch women working in the Acme tin works, with the big steel presses banging down, making cake tins, cheese graters, kids' tin buckets. No safety gards in those days. You would very often see the women with rags rapped around their hands. This was, I surppose, to help stop the tin from slicing their hands. My friend;s mum worked in the Acme canteen. After school Judith Wildman used to shout to her mum below the canteen window. Her mum would launch 3 blue ribbon biscuits down to us.
The local corner shop was known as Dadders, he had a penny, twopenny and theepenny tray. I can remember strips of Aspros and cards with hairnets on, Fennings little lung healers and their cooling powders [for babies]. My mam would send us to buy 5 Woodbines. That was at the age of 7, when children were safe to go to the shop, to play all day long in the park.
I'm so pleased to have been lucky enough to have lived in Collyhurst flats at that time.