大象传媒

The battle ground was the quarry embankment where a pitch battle was fought between two gangs, a number of neighbouring streets had come together to do battle with the gang of Cogganers. Dustbin lids were used as shields (they were made of metal in them days), stones were thrown from both sides and I can tell you blood flowed freely in both directions. As they started to advance from the main Sheffield Road end, somebody came up with the bright idea of setting the long grass on fire to hold them back.
A lad on our side panicked and collapsed in the fire, Bert Eadie had to jump in and pull him to safety. God only knows what might have happened to him if Bert had not pulled him out of the fire, the only damage done was a little less hair and no eye brows.

Dismantling of the sheds

The day came when my world seemed to turn upside down. Men came dressed in great coats and trilby hats, one by one the sheds would be dismantled and taken to other destinations. Hens would be taken away by these strangers - holding them upside down by their legs, chicken, lots of them taken away in boxes. The incubator would disappear, we would never be able to see these small creatures hatching and jumping out of their shells again.

Coggan Street changed its name

The street where the gang lived was called Coggan Street, named after the Land Lord. He was so ashamed of the street and the people who lived there that he changed the street name to Gateford Avenue without informing the local council.
I believe he paid a large sum of money to a charity to save himself from going to prison.

Running away from the Cogganers

Before becoming friends with the gang, every day Terry and I would be chased to school and back home again in the evenings, which meant we had to go miles out of our way to school to avoid them, it must have seemed like fun to them chasing us to school.
I finally became fed up with the carry on and said to Terry 鈥渨e are going to stop and fight our way out of this鈥�, as we stood in the field we were surrounded by the gang of lads. Terry鈥檚 crying 鈥渢hey will kill us鈥�, I said 鈥渃ome on and I will take the biggest of you鈥�, but none took up the challenge. We all became good friends after that episode.

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