Mrs D. Thornley (nee Williams), formerly of Great Lever, but now of Little Lever, tells me that the other day she went into the chemist's shop, and while waiting her turn she looked around at the goods on offer.

"I thought how different it had been when I was a child," she writes. "I don't remember fancy soaps, shampoos, make-up and scents that people buy now. Thinking back, I suppose I was lucky in a way, because I was never really ill, apart from having my tonsils out -- I think that was the only time I was in hospital.

"I probably had all the usual coughs and colds of childhood, but the surprising thing was, given the conditions that families lived in at that time, there was very little illness.

"In those days, the sole means of heating and hot water was a coal fire in the living room, which had to be lit first thing in the morning by Mam. With four school-age children, washing clothes and bedding (no duvets then) must have been a nightmare! Baths were limited to one each per week, as the hot water boiler behind the coal fire had to cope with all the everyday wash as well. We never used toilet soap, only plain washing Fairy soap. I started to use shampoos when I was earning, and that came in little sachets. As for our health, a spoonful of malt and cod liver oil once a week, or Syrup of Figs if we were constipated, must have done the trick. Our chests were rubbed with camphorated oil, and we were forced to swallow Scott's Emulsion (horrible!) 'to build us up'.

"If one of us had a cough, Mam would send me to the chemist for a 'shilling mix' (bring your own bottle), which consisted of three-penny-worth each of glycerine, syrup of squills, liquorice, and ipecac wine. This was then diluted, and taken a spoonful at a time. We must have been a hardy lot, because to this day we are all OK.

"I remember having chapped hand and knees because, of course, nobody wore long trousers in those days. Boys wore short pants in summer and winter alike until they left school at 15. To get rid of the chapping, we used a medicated block of ointment called Snowfire Healing Tablet, which you had to melt in front of the fire before you rubbed in in.

"We slept two to a bed then, and to keep warm we had hot-- water bottles and each other. We walked everywhere -- there was no money to spare for buses -- but I am sure it didn't do us any harm. We had the plainest of food, our only recreation was playing out in the street, the park, going to the local library and the swimming baths. What was important, although we didn't realise it at the time, we had to look after each other."

Thanks for those memories, Mrs Thornley.