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Of course in the day time, you just got them; you did some silly things like going swimming in the canal. There鈥檚 a place not very far from here, a road called Frederick Road and on Frederick Road there used to be a big metal place called Cox and Dance? All the stuff was sent there, from train crashes or car crashes, all the scrap iron. It was one big massive scrap iron yard. Anything that used to come back in the war used to be sent there. Aeroplane cock pits, from abroad or from here, where a plane had crashed in a farm or something. Somebody was swimming in the canal and they got this bag and when they opened it, it was full of revolvers what had been found in the scrap during the war. The trouble is that they didn鈥檛 crush them, they just bagged them in bags when they got in the yard. So a kid used to climb over and get them. He got the road beneath me one time, police would come down in vans or lorries knocking at doors, running round the streets with rifles. They swam across, got to the railings and found these {guns}, but they鈥檇 supposed to be bent or destroyed. Well they were, they wouldn鈥檛 work. We went playing cowboys with them and the police come round collecting them all. You think, 鈥淲hat I used to do, I was crackers!鈥� playing with these revolvers. Mind you, they wouldn鈥檛 have fired, there was no firing pin in them luckily. But you could have found the odd one that did work because they were thrown in the river, someone might have stitched them down there, I don鈥檛 know. The place is no longer there now. All the war stuff went there and was destroyed, melted and went back to building new aeroplanes I suppose. Little funny stories like that 鈥� it was comical.

When I lived in the house in Alderson Street, near Burrow Street. We lived there at number 4 and she lived in number 12. One morning about 10 o鈥檆lock, a lovely sunny morning, a plane went over and believe me it was about a foot over the chimney breast. There was smoke coming from it. It circled over the street where I lived and over the old street and was going round a left turn. It was going towards the little park where the air raid shelters was and it went past there and the pilot was doing his utmost to keep it up. If it had dropped in the trees it would have killed thousands. But he kept it going. Up Littleton Road, you get the playing fields. There was the playing fields where we used to play cricket and football. There was 2 hooks on it where we used to get changed and it actually skidded along the ground there and knocked one end for a Burton, over the old River Irwell and into the embankment across the road and blew up. The van jammed in the bomb door and there was 7 people on it; the pilot and all the crew were killed. They made a big gravestone at Agecroft Cemetry and as you go in, there is a bus shelter there and a church there and right next door to it is the big gravestone monument to the pilot and the other men that were killed. They were all in the 20鈥檚, 30鈥檚. You couldn鈥檛 put it where it killed them because there were rail roads there and all the houses back doors were onto it. So they put it in the cemetery, a memorial and every so often they have a memorial service. This plane crash happened about 1946, not long after, the war was over. It was a shame because we only had a few more years to go and they鈥檇 have been alive today. I was so interested in the history that I could tell you a few things about Salford鈥�

In the war, I was at a school called St. Georges. If you go down Whit Lane now, near Pendleton Church going towards where the Cromwell is, or used to be, near the race course. Well if you go round the church, on the left-hand side there was a bus stop, where that bus stop was there was my playground at St. Thomas鈥檚 school. Go past that and you go over a railway. As you get down to the bottom of there, there is Burrow Street and then the next is a bend called Whit Lane and there鈥檚 traffic lights there. And if you go down there you get right to Agecroft Cemetery. Just round that corner there used to be 4 streets: Chapel Street, Williams Street, Ashton Street, Alderson Street 鈥� that鈥檚 where I live and Alderson Street is still there! The sign is still there.

School went on as normal. If you turn left at the lights after the maypole, you go over the railway bridge and then you come to a set of traffic lights 鈥� that鈥檚 Whit Lane. It goes right the way to Agecroft Cemetery. Off that street was where I lived, Alderson Street. The street where Anna was killed where that oil bomb went off 鈥� all that鈥檚 down there. The little park鈥檚 still there. Further down you got Littleton Road and you go up there and that鈥檚 where the aeroplane crashed. There鈥檚 part still there but I know exactly where things are. Parts of it are still perfect, exactly how it was. If I go down there for some reason, I always see them coming home on the bus. The street where that lady was hanging out of the bed 鈥� that鈥檚 still there. It鈥檚 normal now, gardens and houses now. That place where my friend was killed, where that bomb went off, it鈥檚 just all deserted round there now, they鈥檙e building odd houses and things. It just isn鈥檛 the same as it was. I can still go to parts, the church steeple is still there, where we were in the air raid shelter. They pulled the church down behind it but they鈥檝e left the steeple. I used to go and sit in children鈥檚 corner, reading prayer books. After that, you get to Douglas Green, that鈥檚 where he was carrying the bombs on his arm and he let them off in that field.

We had gas masks and we had to put them on. We had that many laughs over them because they used to whistle sometimes. You used to put it over your head and you鈥檇 be sitting in the air raid shelter for hours and hours with it on.

The Lancaster Bomber that crashed in the river bank: 鈥淒ear Sir, for the last year I have been searching into an incident that involved a Lancaster bomber that crashed on the river banks in Langley and Pendleton. A memorial has been forever extracted to remain鈥 local man, would you enquire if the council would support an appeal to provide funds for such a memorial so that this tragedy will not be forgotten by future generations. When the crash happened, Lancaster bomber PDCO4, F sergeant was returning from a bombing operation over Normandy and Germany 106 squadron and took off from Nottinghamshire to Lancashire at 0.55 that normal Sunday July 30th 1944. It was one of the 62 aircraft taking part in a raid supporting an invasion by the British second army division. Weather was very bad and due to a low cloud, that force were ordered to return with their bombs. Many of the bombers were sent home via Chester, Blackpool to the wash of a鈥�

It was 1944 so it was after D-Day. I did hear about D-Day but I can鈥檛 remember what it said.

I finished school while the war was still on. When I left school, I went working in Allcomouth? Cotton mill in a cotton factory. In those days you had to do an apprenticeship. I used to have to oil the spinning machines that used to spin the cotton to make uniforms or aeroplane parachutes, anything. My job was to grease the machines and oil the bobbins, where the bobbins used to go on, keeping sure you couldn鈥檛 hear a sound out of them. I鈥檇 have to do about 20 machines in the morning; that鈥檚 oil all the pulleys and oil all the bobbins and in the afternoon, it was run by a cracking band. You鈥檇 ground a drum, round the spindle and used to tie it on tight and then cut it with a knife and then double thread. So all the bobbins would have new belts on them. Then the girls would start the machine up again with a big bobbin on the top, she used to go through metal eyes, through the machine, underneath and over and come out at the other end. It come out a very thin shred, you could thread a needle with it. But when it started off, it was near a quarter of an inch thick. It spun round that much that it wore it right down so you could thread a needle with it. And that bobbin was taken off by girls, moved to the next department which is called a weaving machine. Then they鈥檇 put it on their machines and walked through a roll again, through another metal eye and it would go through like a cat gut, like a comb-effect, 6 foot long by 2 foot wide, and it used to go up and down and back a bit. One at the back, one at the front. And it used to go up and down like that. When the cotton when through it, it went up at one end and the other one would drag it down at this side again. Then it went round the machine. Then it was being hit by a bobbin and the belt used to hit it and it would go right under the machine and the belt used to knock it back again like tennis. It used to go backwards and forwards, the cotton鈥檚 coming through the machine, over it, under it, in other words, like making a cloth out of it. When it got to the other end it was one big cloth and it went round a reel and eventually the reel was about 4 foot wide. It was no longer threads, it was a sheet. The whole reel was about 3 foot wide, what you call a big bobbin and that was taken away and it was either dyed or bought material, for uniforms or whatever, curtain material, to cover settees with it. That was the end of the process鈥�

The factory had its own air raid sirens. In fact, all the sirens that you heard all around the area were coming from the factory; on top of the engineering works in Trafford Park, Winny and Winny 鈥� they had different names. Wirling Winny, used to scream like an air raid shelter. The other one was called Wiry Willy, that used to whistle. All them together, believe me it were a terrific din. They were all going off. Some would start low and work their way in the air and come back down again. When you got about a dozen or more going! All the factories around here all had their own sirens and they all had different noises 鈥� we had nick names for them. No matter where, you would hear these going off. Wherever you were, work, home, shopping, you made for the nearest air raid shelter. On lampposts, arrows pointing to nearest air raid shelter from where you are then. You never worried about not being in there before, you鈥檇 go in. Fortunately, three weeks ago I was invited to Rochdale (Stockport?) and some children from the school in Eccles and us and men and a couple of women to a place in Rochdale. They had people there that used to go in the air raid shelter during the war and they鈥檇 instruct you what went on. So you鈥檝e got 2 dozen men and 2 dozen women, so the women took some men one way, and the women took the other women the other way and you went down deep passages dug up through the ground and you could see the shovel marks where they鈥檇 dug it all out and it went on for about 2 miles. Along there was forms, and you used to sit there all night until you had the all clear. It was freezing cold. In some parts of it you were 4 feet down, in the graveyards. I never went in those during the war. Ours was the same, it was under the bowling green, built special under the bowling green so that you wouldn鈥檛 see them. Even if you鈥檝e got one in your back garden you wouldn鈥檛 find it. You would assemble it yourself so you dug 4 foot hole and it was about 6 foot long, 4 foot wide, 4 foot deep and you got these air raid shelters. You鈥檇 put the sides in and they used to curl over at the top and there was holes in, and you鈥檇 put one hole on top of the other and bolt it down. Two at the front, with a square piece missing, two at the back. But the back ones a square piece of metal used to slide down it. It was like a letter L and you bent it one way it would drop so it was where you escaped if you got buried alive in it and all them were put down the bottom of your garden. So if you had a garden right at the back of your house, that was built right in the very corner and it was covered over with all the soil that you鈥檇 dug up and flower beds so you would never know it was there. The siren went and inside there was metal bunk beds and they had, my dad must have got straw mattresses from somewhere. We used to kip in there, in fact, we used to go in there all night without going to bed in case the sirens went.

When I say the air raid shelter was under the bowling green, the bowling green wasn鈥檛 holding it up, air raid shelters were built underneath it so that you could sit in there quite safe and (it鈥檚 like I was telling you in Rochdale), it went on for about 2 miles right round the area and you was sat on forms, you even had a little hospital, a little place where you could brew tea and places where you can get bandages, iron bunk beds. In one part where the iron bunk beds were, was a maternity ward. So you slept on these bunk beds and if you had a baby the nurses took you and bobs your uncle, you had your baby there and then! In fact, there was a notice in there where one man was born in there and got his name and address and everything. He鈥檚 now 60 odd, or maybe more, but he was actually born in this maternity ward in the air raid shelter. There were all sorts going on inside the air raid shelter, sing-a-longs. We had sing-a-longs. I used to play the accordion. There was one family who were marvellous on the accordion and they used to bring it down to the air raid shelter and sit playing all the songs all night over, probably doze off and get on a bunk bed. In there, there was one big air raid shelter with about 14 spaces in it, 2 beds in it and the one next door, and the one next door again. You鈥檇 sit on forms on the wall here and if you got tired you used to go in a little alcove and get on a bed and have a kip. Take some blankets down with you. Most of them were like this. They had them in the street, two brick walls and a concrete top with iron bars through it and that was set solid. There was a door with a bolt on it. When the sirens went a warden used to open it and we used to run in it. They had lights on as well. You鈥檇 sit there all night 鈥� just depends how long it went on for, could be 2 or 3 days. Some air raid shelters were dug in, like the one in the back yard, and some were like they鈥檇 built in the street and they were like a 12 inch roof on it of solid concrete.

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