Apart from visiting this site every day, enjoying the wonderful photos - thank you so much for placing them, I love poetry. When I retired - 19years ago (early!) One of the groups of pupils - girls, bought me a book - "Poem for the Day1" Since then I have read one before going to sleep at night. A couple of years ago, my son bought me the 2nd. book, so I now read 2 each night. I admit, not all of them are to my taste - Gerald Manley Hopkins I find difficult to understand.  I am fond of Masefield, especially Cargoes which I have managed to memorise.  One video I enjoy is one from the GPO film unit, from 1937, "Night Mail" - my dad being a railway man, we went everywhere by train, he did have privilege tickets. This film takes the route from Euston to Glasgow & Edinburgh, I do not know the line north from Carlisle very well,  but the rest is so familiar, the music and the poem which fits the rhythm of the train so well.  One sadness in my life is that I have lost my hearing completely, which makes me feel isolated, I carry paper & pencil around with me so if someone wishes to speak, they can write it down.  This is where Cargoes comes in, I can repeat it myself when I feel the need. daft I know!

it was a comment on a photo on the Album that brought this one back - someone said something about unloading bananas from a train. When WW2 broke out, I was very ill. As was usual in those days, if you needed the doctor to visit, the bed came downstairs. I have never yet managed to find out what was wrong with me, the doctor & the nurse both came every day. The Government nationised all goods wagons in the country. Ffyfes had just loaded a train with bananas at Liverpool, and they were all taken off the train and placed by the side of the tracks. All the railway workers were told they could help themselves. This my Dad did - supplied the whole street with them & of course, we had a lot. I remember sitting up in bed for the first time & eating one. To this day, I love them when they are just under ripe. I had to have an operation at home & I had a lot of sores all over my head. These, the nurse dressed every day. I still cannot stand the smell of Dettol - that was the signal for me to start screaming.

A dreadful Hit & Run happened recently - a young couple were knocked off their tandem by a car which drove off (the driver has been arrested) and they died. Just what is the connection with Wigan? The place it happened was in Hanham, Bristol. At one time this was in the Somerset Coal Field where the main or sole occupation was mining. Seeing the way the local community reacted to this incident reminded me of the past of this area. The area was regarded as being a lawless place where no decent person would go. Living in Bristol at the time were the Wesley brothers. John decided that he would go to Hanham, Kingswood, and preach there. the local bigwigs were appalled, he was not to go unless he had an armed escort. he refused and went on his own. In Hanham there is a small hill called Hanham Mount. There he stood & preached to the gathering crowd around him. They were so moved that channels of tears ran through the coal dust on their faces.  He persuaded them  to give their few pennies to a fund to make a school for their children. That school is now Kingswood School, a posh public school in Bath for the sons of weathly Methodists. The building where he & his brother lived is called "The New Rooms" - it managed to escape the Blitz & the re-development of the area - it is now in the middle of a post war shopping development. it is a very interesting museum, The main hall - anyone who knows Queens Hall would recognise, smaller, but the same design. There used to be several Methodist chapels in the area (I haven't been there for a long time), just as there used to be when I was a child.

Seeing the photo on the Album of a class at St. Nats has brought it all back to me.it was a long time ago and thank goodness Education has changed so much.It was in the Junior school, our class teacher was Miss Minnie Rimmer, the Headmaster was Mr. Davenport.It was 1943  and every attempt was made to make me feel stupid and hopeless. For a start, I was born left handed, that was wrong then & I was forced to change. As a result, my handwriting was (and still is) terrible, nor could I draw. That led to some cruel things being said. However, my English was of the best. One day, Miss Rimmer read "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" to the class. Rhen she told us that in a couple of weeks time, the top boy & top girl would each receive a copy of the book. I worked so hard, especially at numbers and everyting I could. I ended up the top girl in the class. Came the day, the copies went to the top 2 boys - I was not given a chance.. Many years later, I bought the complete Beatrix Potter books for my Grandaughter. I felt so happy as I read Peter Rabbit to her - I had bought the book with money I had earned myself. Another example of her cruelty, one of the boys came from a desperately poor home. Needless to say, he smellled a lot. As a punishment, she would make a "naughty" child sit next to him. As I was in a state, my parents decided what to do. My Mum went back to Coops to her old job as a buttonhole maker. I was then entered for the entrance exam for the Wigan High School - run by the Council as a private/State school. Mum didn't tell me what was in the note I had to give to Miss Rimmer, so I hadn't a clue when she & Mr. Davenport began to poke fun at me for taking the exam - I was told that |I had ideas above my station & should stop it there & then. Luckily, I passed the exam & left that summer - 1944. I can still feel the joy I had when I had my first homework back that Miss taberner had marked, it had a large tick at the bottom and the word "Good".  Came the 1944 Education Act which changed the system so much. We had to take the exam, we all passed.  my Mum used the money  to buy my piano and pay for my lessons.

it is a long time since I wrote anything on here. things have been a little difficult for me since a recurrence of an old problem which has lost me my balance & my hearing.  I wrote under a photo of the Brickcroft that I would try & pluck up the courage to write about a sad memory I have of here, so here it is. I am not sure of the date, it was very close to the end of the war. I was walking with my brother past the site of the photo. I don't know where or why we were there. we met an old friend of my brother's. he was very kind & gave me a handful of liquorice bombers - lovely - he then began to tell my brother of his expecience. he was in the army, in the Far East, in the jungle somewhere. The Japanese were advancing, and during one skirmish he was wounded. His companions were forced to retreat & they were not able to take him with them. They found a hiding place, put him here & went. The enemy came by, luckily he was well hidden and was not found. Eventually  his companions were able to return & rescue him. Even for me, a very young innocent girl with no life experience, it was obvious he was reliving the incident and it was harrowing to say the least. I have no  knowledge of his name or anything about him and my brother did not discuss the incident with me, I expect it moved him as much as it did me.

Our first visit came some years ago. We had taken a group of pupils from the school where I tught to Bath's german Exchange city of Braunschweig. Our host, a lovel man, shared with my husband a great interest in WW2, they used to rabbit on for hours. We had a free day, so Frank asked us if we would go to Belsen with him, I did not wish to go - I have a memory of the British army on entry into Belsen, it was not a film a child should have seen. Anyway, I realised that it was important to Frank that we should go with him, so we did. It really did  mean a lot to him, I could see it on his face as we went round. On entry, we saw one of the stills from the film, inside, much work has been done, there are several mounds with the number of dead on them. What was odd, although there were trees around, there were no birds singing. The 2nd. was just a few years ago when we were on a train holiday. We visited Krackow - a lovely city - one of the trips was to Auschwitz. On entry, we were asked by a receptionist not to take photographs of the displays - hair, shoes etc. Going round at the same time that we were, there was a large party of Israeli teenagers. Their arrogance was breathtaking, they wrapped them selves in the Israeli flag - I have no objection to that, but it was their behaviour that I felt was not suitable there. They took photos, pushing people out of their way and generally swaggered around, paying no respect to what had happened. When it came to the other part of the site, I could take no more, and sat down by the area where the railway line went into the next part. What happened next made me feel a whole lot better. An old man came & sat next to me & began chatting to me - he had heard my speaking English, so we were able to chat. he was an old prisoner from there, not Jewish, but a freedom fighter, he was in the area to visit his wife's grave. he was such a dear. I asked him where he lived in England, & he replied "Wigan". I told him that was where I was born & he went on to tell me how wonderful his welcome had been there & how happy he was.

After all the news at present about corruption and wrongdoing, it was lovely to watch the programme on "Great Ormond Street hospital. The staff there are so wonderful & devote so much of their time and emotion to help the children & parents in their care.  There is an emotionally charged atmosphere in our house when this programme is on - in 1946 - when he was a small boy, my husband was ill and it seemed to impossible to diagnose the problem, he went from hospital to hospital & no help could be given. His paternal grandmother - who was a midwife & a founder member of the Midwives' Society - used her contacts to gain him admittance - the tradition waws as good then as now, he was immediatle diagnosed with appendicitis and operated on that day. He had a lovely Christmas there, but he is still affected by what happened. Thank you so much dave for your comments. have you been to Auschwitz? I have, it was a nightmare.

I grew up in Wartime Britain & believed the propanganda about the superiorrity of our nation. However - we saw the programme on the fall of Singapore which angered me - one of the superior beings - a toff - actually gave the Japanese the knowledge needed to build their own weaponry to begin their attacks, & even then, when the powers that be knew what he was doing, he was still allowed to continue. Then I was reminded that today  - May 22nd.  in 1915 the woarst raiklway accident in the U.K. took place at Quintishill. Unless you read the book "Red for Danger" you will not learn from accounts of this event that one of the main reasons for so many soldiers dying was the fact that they were locked on the train in case they tried to desert. it was made very plain to me during a terrible year I had at St. Nats. that I  was of the "lower orders" - being a girl & a Methodist and should not even begin to consider myself to try to raise my self out of that. Thank heavens that has gone now. There are some lovely friendly people on this site & i am grateful for this.

Thanks to the wonderful Internet, I have been able to buy a CD which has brought back such lovely memories. it is by The Glasgow Orpheus Choir. my brother took us to some of their concerts, one of the venues may have the Queen's Hall, I know we went to Liverpool & Manchester.  The music is so lovely & i am crying most of the way trhough it. daft I know, but there it is. What a wonderful culture we grew up with, despite my being led to believe I was  of the lower orders. There was music, books & amateur dramatics.

yesterday, after listening to some of "Any Questions" on radio4 & hearing Nigel Farage spout his venom against Europe, I saw a concert that we had recorded given by Andre Rieu which had been performed on an island in Lake Constance. The contrast could not have been greater. His orchestra and soloists are made up of people from round the world, the audience - young (children) and old are probably from around the world, and yet they were all united in the enjoyment of the fun & music that was happening there. What is wrong with our world that we have to show bias against other people?  I have met people from all round the world & have got on with them. When I first began my teaching career, in London, the school population  consisted of around 16 different nationalities. One day,  at break time, the teacher  on duty rushed into the staff room calling for help as there was a race riot going on. As we got out onto the playground, you could hear all the usual racial insults flying around. However, the warring factions were about as evenly divided between the ethnic groups as you could get!  We did have a laugh!  it is people who cause trouble, not their nationality.