These are some of the memories of John Harley who emigrated to Australia with his parents in 1948. I was born in 1936 and my parents resided in a small cottage, one of a group of three, in Dundalk Lane and my mother, who is now 86, remembers the doors and ceilings being very low indeed. In 1938 we moved to 43 Station Street and then to 10 Rosemary Road in 1941. This house was one of a group of three double houses and was the last in the road and we lived there until we left for Australia on 10th December 1948.

As a youth I would spend a lot of time at Hawkins Pit watching the men work, and at the Canal Basin and the nearby Lock. I loved to see the trains pass through the Railway Station, and I’d walk around the Reservoir to watch the Colliery Shunt Engine at work at the rail yards at the end of Littlewood Road. More…

I enjoyed being out of doors, no matter what the weather was like and would roam miles at the weekends and during school holidays. I was taught by Grandmother Birch to recognise harmful plants and insects as he had a vast knowledge of herbs and their uses. However I often suffered pain when playing around nettles and then out would come ‘the blue bag’.

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