A former Westhoughton man who had a talent for recording his life and times has left an interesting legacy.
Alf Sutton, who died in 1994 a few weeks before his 93rd birthday, sat down in the 1950s to produce a handwritten account of his life.
He was born on June 30, 1901, in Bolton Road, Westhoughton. He lived locally until he moved to Coventry in April, 1929, and spent the rest of his life in the city, mostly working for the corporation.
But he never forgot the hardships he and others endured in his early days in Lancashire.
His son Bill, who lives in Coventry, has sent me a copy of the booklet he has produced based on his father's writings - Just A Lancashire Miner. "I have given copies to family members both in Westhoughton and Coventry, but perhaps you think it would be of interest to a wider audience," Bill writes.
Well I do, so here is the first edited instalment - I will return to Alf's story at a later date.
ALF and his family lived in Leigh Common, off Church Street, in the early 1900s. He was the second son in a family of 10, and they all "managed somehow" in a two-bedroomed house with the minimum amount of furniture.
He wrote: "Cooking was done on a fire range with coal as fuel; even coal was in short supply for many people.
"Food always seemed to be very scarce, with anything that was bulky and cheap being the commonest fare. A big saucepan of oatmeal porridge with a drop of milk and a sprinkling of sugar formed our midday meal many times when the collieries were working short time.
"Before the minimum wage act, many miners could go to work for a week and have no wages because of bad conditions down the pits. It was a common sight to see children with bags outside the factory gates and collieries asking the workers going home if they had any bread left.
"Although food was supposed to be cheap, hunger stalked the industrial areas. The pantry was generally bare long before payday came round again.
"It was a regular errand for me to go to the butcher's for a penny-worth of liver and two penny-worth of bits. This, cut up with plenty of potatoes and put in a dish in the oven, was dinner for 10 of us.
"I think my mother must have gone without food many times to give us a little to eat before we went to school."
But there was still time for fun.
Alf went on: "We youngsters made our own amusements, mostly outdoors. We did not seem to know if it was raining or cold.
"Some of the games we played I have never seen since, including 'Swing Can'. In this, one had to stand in the middle of a ring of us. We had a stick each and the one in the middle had a can on a good strong string. Holding his hand over his head, he would swing the can around while those on the outside had to try to knock the can around. Anyone hitting the string had to take their turn in the middle.
"Most of our games were played in the road near our homes, before the age of motor traffic. A motorcar was a thing to stand and watch because so few were to be seen.
"Horse drawn vehicles were the chief users of our road, while steam wagons were used for heavy goods to and from the factories.
"Rivington Pike was a walk generally undertaken on Good Friday. This meant a 14-mile walk, but we always thought it was worth it if the day was clear, because from there we could see the sea and Blackpool tower, with the Cumberland mountains to the North-west and the Welsh mountains to the south-west."
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