RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD HADLEY
compiled by old Hadleyite Keith Harris
& including photographs by Kath
Parton
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RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD HADLEY | |
Paradise Lost,
Derek ‘Gash’ Gambie, Hadley lad, vintage 230742.
Thursday, 17 January, 2008I got onto the ‘Trip to Trench’ bit first and immediately wrote my recollections of it. However now that I have visited your CV site I need to do a bit of modifying.
First, I have some good news for you, I’ve seen your paradise muddle, it’s not a dream it is real. I went to Norman Pedley and told him I was 13 when I was only 12. He had a vacancy for a paper boy down the Trench. Towards the end of my first morning I delivered papers at the rather run down Prospect Terrace, then, went through the arch to the first house of Forge Row. I like Victorian architecture but on that wet morning in 1954 it was a dreadful place. The view from the front window was an acre and a half of tangled rusting wire and scrap metal lying on earth that was a mixture of black soil and brown crumbling patches that was nature taking iron back to its roots of ferrous oxide. I pedalled away from that poor area rather faster than I had arrived and a few minutes later I turned under the arch of The Stables and set eyes on the white house for the first time with my mouth wide open. I can see clearly why you thought the area was paradise, it was quite a long way removed from Forge Row. The house was like something out of a Poirot film but it was the colour that startled me as I had never seen a bright white house before and it looked totally out of place. Age plays tricks on your memory but I thought it had a flat roof. Am I right or am I wrong? I delivered a paper to one house to the left of the arch and to the white house which I knew belonged to a family called Schalsha. I believe I knew Michael, I think he was at my school, Hadley County Boys and he may even have been in my class as I have a photograph of the class with what I think is his smiling face right in the middle of the front row. I have a group photo of the 1st Hadley Scouts taken at a ‘bangers and mash’ party and think he is on that one too. Again, I have to say I am not sure as I heard this in a pub, he was drowned off the Welsh coast before reaching his teens. Is that true? There is also a boy called Ron Harris on the photo, I thought he came from the Stables, was he your older brother? If so then your parents are also on the photo. We played a game of cricket in the school yard one day and he bowled some unplayable balls at me. I am no cricketer but I was annoyed at this so stepped forward at the next ball and hit it clean over the railway line into the yard of Bircher’s garage. The teacher, Mr Phillips, declared this as six and out adding further to my irritation.
After I left The Stables I delivered to one of the red brick semis next to the main road where Barry Rickus lived. He was in the same class as me. Then I went through the gates to the posh house that you call The New Orchard, I had never seen anything like this either, you really were a lucky lad. I did not deliver to the main house but to an upstairs flat to the left of the house above what I assumed had been the stable block. Then I carried on through to the back where there was a single story chalet type building that I now assume had once been the summerhouse and this was my last delivery of the day. In years gone by this would have had a nice outlook but now it looked out to the drying up canal which, on the right bank, was lined by factory windows, half of which were smashed.
From your CV you are about 7 or 8 years younger than me so, as a child, this is a huge gap and you may not know the following names. Barry Poole was the four foot six middle son of the proprietor of the Esso garage near you and he had one leg 3” longer than the other. There was a sign on the workshop door that read, ‘the man who lends tools here has left’. There were identical female twins living next to the shop opposite Prospect Terrace the same age as me, also the Broome family lived next to the pub at the start of your lane. Over what I always regarded as the border line between Hadley and Trench, the lock, lived Peter Barclay, in my class, a tough guy, nearly as tough as me. John Leek, whose mother worked at the Regal Cinema in the ticket booth and a guy called Vincent whose surname I forget.
I loved my childhood in Hadley, born Manse Road and wrote about 30 short stories about it which the local newspapers have very kindly published over the last few years. I’ve also written a couple of novels based in and around the area but nobody wants to even read the synopsis never mind become my agent. I was very much a ‘Just William’ character. I have been down every street, road, lane and footpath in Hadley and up every apple tree. Watery Lane was my best bit of paradise and I have wonderful memories of roaming along its hedgerows with my best mate Ben (Cliff Bennett who is still my best mate). My favourite walk was to turn left when you reached the stream and follow it right up to the tunnel under the railway line. I saw a Kingfisher there once but doubt if he stayed as I never saw any fish. I was a total failure as a fisherman in the Trench pool, I swam and nearly drowned in the Valley pool with Ben and was warned off from going anywhere near the middle pool. Did you find the tunnel under the incline?
The top of Blackies Lane near the railway line was another favourite spot and I would sit in the shade of an oak tree and watch the tops of the corn stems swaying in the breeze. I have no idea why Hadley and the surrounding green fields were chosen to be constantly raped and pillaged by the soulless men in black suits so best hold on to your dreams and seek out your new paradise and wide open spaces elsewhere.
I have found mine, I have my spacious house which I have called ‘Nutwood’ (because in my dreams I am living next door to Rupert Bear) and I am surrounded by acres and acres of open unfenced countryside and forests. I even have my three lakes which are my Trench, Middle and Valley pools. I have my Watery Lane and Blackies Lane and there is even a town nearby that could double as Bridgnorth. It’s 800 miles due south of Hadley and they talk funny but one thing is for sure. They will never build a 17 storey tower block in my village or raze to the ground the small medieval chateau.
I have retired now so, yes, I am not putting much back into society, apart from the money I am putting into the local economy buying loads of building materials to modernise and expand my house. But I think I did my bit in days gone by. Nowhere near as many different jobs as you but I did manage 10.
Like you I went to the Walker Tech, first as a full time student at Oakengates and then on day release for 6 years getting City & Guilds, and an ONC both in mechanical engineering at Bennetts Bank. Served my apprenticeship at Audley Eng Newport and became a fitter / machinist. (mainly lathe and miller like yourself)
I’m also a founder member of the Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust which has the intention of reopening the line from Norbury junction to Shrewsbury. There are also hopes that some of the route back up towards Trench can be reopened but alas we will never see the Trench lock again.
I’m not going to put you down and I hope you will not begrudge me my current relaxed lifestyle. I wish you good luck and happiness. Keep looking for that soul mate, my aunt did not marry till she was 58!
Cheers
‘ Gash’ Gambie, Dordogne, SW France.
Footnote.
I was waiting at Bergerac airport to pick up my sister a couple of years ago when a man came up to me and asked if he had just heard a Wellington accent? His name was John Smith and he was born on the Trench side of the lock and went to the John Hunt school. He was about 10 years younger than me so quite close to your age and left home to join the marines when he was just 16 and moved to France about 20 years ago. So now you know there are at least two men from Hadley / Trench who have found a new paradise.
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Hadley ‘Castle’ (left) Hadley is one of the oldest recorded settlements in Shropshire.
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Hadley in 1928.
Visible at the bottom is the main London/Holyhead railway. The fields surrounding New Hadley to the lower right were a maze of abandoned mine workings. Sankeys (then Castle Car Works) is the grey block centre top.
Below right is a picture of The Square, Hadley c. 1905. Brittains’ family owned general store is visible in the foregound, as is Melia's shop, another family owned concern, at the back left and on the corner of Castle Street. The house in the middle of Castle Street was Henry Woodfin's shoe repairers, where work was carried out in a lean-to-shed at the rear of the house. Brittain's became a chemist before it was demolished. Melias was previously owned by Robert Heenan. Mr Heenan's grandaughter Jill now lives in Lubbock, Texas with her husband and daughter.
She writes: “I remember when the Bay City Rollers played at Sankeys, and begging my mum to let me go - but I was too young. I also spent many days wandering around Hadley. My cousins lived on Church Street, almost 'next door'. They were Anne, Moira and Stewart Robertson. Their father - Larry Robertson, worked at Sankeys. Anne is about 10 years older than I, and Moira is 5 years older. Stewart is a year younger than I am—he and I roamed the area extensively - discovering the 'new swimming pool' at Ketley (huge compared to the Hadley swimming pool). We wandered from Castle Street up Church Street towards Blockleys brick works (where my uncle worked) - close to the Middle and Valley pools. My cousin Moira would take us walking in the fields between the main road and Hadley railway station. My father would always warn us not to go near the Middle pool, even though it looked the prettiest of the three pools, he said that there was a lot of weeds in there. I hated the way you had to look down into the Valley pool, but he always said that the valley pool was the safest to swim in.”
The other section of Brittains, c. 1905 (left), with the Primitive Methodist Church visible on the corner of Gladstone Street is pictured on the left. Built in 1841 and rebuilt in 1871, the church closed in 1934 and was turned into the Regal Cinema. It then became a tyre garage before it was demolished. Gladstone Street led up to where Hadley recreation ground was later built.
The Wesleyan Chapel in the centre of Hadley (right), c. 1930— one of the few to remain through the redevelopment of the village. It is still much the same today. Hover on the door for a look inside. Does anyone recall Alan Jackson and his band The Outlaws who played in the youth club at the rear of the church on a Sunday afternoon?
Hadley Boys & Girls Junior School (left)- now a mosque. To the right and up the steps a pathway led alongside the railway track and school playground, leading down to Horton and Trench road. The author schooled here between 1957/61. Miss Firth was the well known headmistress at the school for several years, having transferred from the Hadley Infants School in Crescent Road. Raffeyetta mats and pattern painting were big at the school, which had its own playing fields at the rear. Girls and boys had segregated hard play grounds, though it was possible to use the playing fields in the summer months.
The front elevation of Forge Row (right), c. 1960, though it isn't clear if this row of houses, which mainly accommodated workers from the local steel works, was in Hadley or Trench. Some believed the Coalport Bridge was the boundary between Hadley and Trench while others held the boundary to be the Trench canal lock.
1-6 Victoria Road (left), which had to rely on outside toilets visible to the left.
Hadley High Street and the Green Dragon (below right), c. 1964, looking towards Hadley Square shortly before the buildings were demolished. The old post office was across the road on the right, next to the village wool and habberdashery shop. On entering the Green
Dragon (right), visitors would find they had to step down two or three steps immediately inside the door, a recipe for a flooded bar in heavy rains!
The Britannia Pub (below), May 1974 — a favourite with workers from Sankey's as it was located at one of the entrances to the extensive Hadley Castle Sankey's Steel Works. It was demolished to make way for a new bypass for Telford New Town, named Britannia Way. To the top of Castle Street beyond the pub was the Paradise Lost strip club, a daunting innovation for bustling and busy Hadley in the late 50s and early 60s.
Sankey's Hadley Castle Steel Works (right), c. 1955, later to become GKN Sankey and one of the largest employers in the Midlands, at one time housing a workforce of over 5,000 in the 1960s. The author trained as an apprentice works safety engineer. The factory produced automobile wheels, automobile bodies and was widely known for its production of steel office furniture and military equipment such as Saracen troop carriers.
Watery Lane (left)— a lost corner of Hadley snapped during the big freeze of 1963. Anyone with memories of Watery Lane is warmly invited to send them in.
2, 4 and 6 Highfield Terrace (right) pictured in 1963 shortly before they were demolished.
11 May 1985 and the last train to stop at New Hadley Halt (left). Built mainly of railway sleepers, the halt was located in the New Hadley fields close to Hadley Hollow, locally called ‘Adley Oller’ and there was only one wooden shelter, on the far platform. It was about a 15 minute walk from the centre of Hadley one way and 15 minutes to Ketley Bank in the other direction.
Still on the subject of railways, The Coalport Bridge (right), 30 July 1966, which many saw as the boundary between Hadley and Trench. It carried goods and passenger traffic down a branch line to Coalport, until the line was axed by Beeching in the early 1960s. Under the bridge to the left was the entrance to Sankey's cricket pitch, now a Greenhous Garage and showroom. The houses visible on the right still remain. Forge Row was reached up a track to the right immediately through the bridge.
Left - Looking from Hadley High Street towards Wellington c. 1905. The white building visible to the left is the Cross-Keys-Inn, still standing today and very much unchanged inside and out. The Wrekin is visible a few miles away in the distance beyond.
Bricks and tiles are known to have been produced at Hadley since 1681. By 1901, B.P. Blockley had opened Ragfield Tileries at New Hadley and Hadley Tileries was built nearby in 1912. By 1935, Blockleys Ltd had opened a third factory, advertised on the right and by 1963 over 20 million bricks were being produced each year. Note the single digit telephone number!
In this delightful picture (left) from 13 September 1919, the Creed family are all dressed up for their parts in the Hadley Peace Carnival—a major annual event in the village and part of the Shropshire Peace Day, which was celebrated all over the county. The Creeds lived at The Firs, a large house hidden behind tall fir trees in the centre of Hadley. John Bull to the left is Mr Creed, Britannia is Mrs Creed and Sissy Millman is the gipsy on the front row.
The old footbridge crossing the railway line at the end of Summer House Drive and leading to the fields quaintly known as The Chocolates.
Photograph supplied by of Kath Parton.
The following collection of more recent photographs of Hadley have also been supplied by Kath Parton.
Clicking on any image will enlarge the image in a new window. Resizing the new image browser
window will also automatically enlarge the picture.
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Slideshow of Hadley and Trench | Hadley VE Day celebrations 2005—slide show only
Paradise Lost - an article by Hadley old boy Derek ‘Gash’ Gambie
COMING NEXT — Trip to WellingtonRecollections from the Hadley, Donnington, Oakengates, Wellington areas?
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