Hi, I am yet another Newbie to this amazing forum. I found it a week or two ago whilst googling for information on Foxwell Street, and I was hooked. I read all of the posts over several evenings.
I lived at 10 Foxwell Street from c.1958 (aged 4) to 1970. I was delighted to find an entry posted here by a then-neighbour, and I was entranced by stories and information provided by so many people: they brought the memories of places and people flooding back and it was quite an experience.
My parents Harry and Doreen Bourne got married after their National Service, where they met. They moved with me and my younger sister Susie into a small flat in a big house on Cheetham Hill Road when I was 2. Looking at a map now, I think it was just north of the junction with Alms Hill Road, with a patch of open ground immediately to the north. After that I remember waking with wonder to ice patterns left on the inside of the windows by Jack Frost, and the high pitched whistles and hisses of the trains as they fired up in the mornings over at the railway sidings in Smedley. My brother Leslie was born in the Northern Hospital and my sister Julie at home in the flat with the help of the Midwife. I had 3 siblings and I was four by the time we moved to Foxwell Street. I went to Temple County Primary School and then North Manchester Grammar School, and we moved out to a Manchester overflow estate at Knutsford in Cheshire when we were forced to move by the slum clearances. I can understand the good intentions behind the clearances, but the upheaval and dispersal of communities, and loss of contact with best friends and the areas you know, was traumatic. I went to St. Luke's church, where I remember Sunday School and singing in the choir were fun. I also remember Pathfinders, and marching in the streets in Church parades and with the Boys Brigade. Anyway, enough of my rambling.
Can anybody help me with a couple of questions regarding street maps? I have not been able to find Foxwell Street on any of the older maps, although the street seems to be there physically. It shows as Frederick Street, and what I knew as Geneva Street, where my best friend David lived, is called Archer Street. Does anyone know why this should be? Are there likely to be any maps showing Foxwell Street and Geneva Street correctly? I think the post code when it was introduced was M8 8PA.
In a similar vein, Mam used to take me on a walk across Barney's to Ancoats, to see her mother. We crossed the railway using a high, smoke-blackened brick bridge which was called something like the 99 steps or 77 steps. Mam said that when was growing up she and the other kids used to go through or over the fence near there to collect coal. Gran's place was nearby on the other side. I'm sure it was Juno Street and it was near to Ajax Street, but I have not been able to locate either. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Thanks!