- Contributed by听
- Lancshomeguard
- People in story:听
- Jim Ashton
- Location of story:听
- Huncoat, nr Accrington
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A3889731
- Contributed on:听
- 13 April 2005
My name is Jim Ashton, and I have lived in the historic old village of Huncoat since I was a boy of 14 in 1941.
Soon after I came to live in this centuries old village, 64 years ago, I started work as a young apprentice in the toolroom at the Bristol Aircraft company's Aero Engine factory at Clayton-le-Moors. In those far-off days of my youth, many apprentices often became victims of a popular tradition that took place on Shrove Tuesday.
A few weeks after I began my apprenticeship at the "Bristol" in January 1942, I became an embarassed victim of this popular Pancake Tuesday tradition....sometime during the morning of "Poncake Toosday", I was pounced upon by 2 of the toolroom fitters, who pinned me to the workshop floor before smearing my face with black shoe polish!
Like all the other apprentices employed in the toolroom, I was allowed to finish work at 11 o'clock that morning, as a reward for this humiliating experience. I was so embarrassed of being an Al Jolson look-alike that I couldn't face going home on the bus, so I decided to walk the 2 mile journey to my home, through the countryside between Clayton-le-Moors and Huncoat.
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