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Topic: Early Memories Page 4
david
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Early Memories Page 4
on: July 22, 2013, 19:52

At the Methodist Sunday School in 1956, we entered into a Bible quiz which involved other local Sunday schools in and around the Tunstall area.

Over a period of a few weeks and several contests, we won and I still have the certificate I was given.


At Church School we were taken to Tunstall swimming baths once a week on a Jeffrey’s bus.

When you could swim the length of the baths you were given a certificate and a pass which allowed you into the baths for twopence instead of fourpence.

I had the pass but never received the certificate.

When we came out of the baths we went into the little market next door and bought a bag of broken biscuits because we were starving hungry.


There were quite a few bus companies back then, we had the PMT, Jeffrey’s and Stonier’s in the village.

The other two that I can recall who were based in Tunstall were Brown’s and Wells’s.

They were not as well equipped as the village buses and I can clearly remember going on a trip on one bus that had wooden slatted seats.

I think that is where the expression, boneshaker came from.

Jeffrey’s buses used to operate a Sunday evening tour which for the princely sum of half a crown, they would take you over through Leek to Waterhouses and Cauldon Low, stop for a drink at Ye Old Crown Inn and back home again.

Years later when I was a service engineer, I was driving through Waterhouses village when I had a gigantic flashback to those lovely summer evenings when I was a child back in the 1950s.


Occasionally we would go for a stroll in Tunstall Park with our parents.

That was in the days that seemed so laid back and peaceful compared to the hectic times we live in now.

The boating lake nearly always had the rowing boats out and a couple of times I can remember the Salvation Army Band playing on the band stand.

People used to play tennis on the tarmac courts and bowls on the crown green.

I understand that the paddling pool is filled with plants now so it can’t be used for its original purpose.

As you strolled around and made your way to the gate you could call in the conservatory by the Floral Hall.

It was very warm, almost tropical and the plants in there seemed to flourish in the heat.

There was a small pond with goldfish and the water was circulated by means of a small waterfall.

I can still smell it now the moist heat and the plants, what a wonderful memory.

The park keepers or parkies as we called them were very strict, if they gave you the evil eye you behaved yourself immediately, no using your cheek or carrying on misbehaving.


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