Sample

EARLY DAYS

    Harry Hudson was born into a working family in a mining village in the Northwest of England, one month before the outbreak of the Second World War.
    It was not really what you could call ‘a good start in life’, especially as Harry was the eldest of five children all born in quick succession in the wartime years. It was a difficult time for everyone, whatever their class and young Harry was no worse off than most of his friends and neighbours, although he sometimes thought he was.
    The wartime years meant that there was a shortage of most things, so non-essentials such as toys or children’s games etc. were in short supply and usually of inferior quality. When Harry used to tire of squabbling with his brothers and sisters over broken toys, torn books, and boring board games, he would go next door to ‘Uncle Jack’s’ to look at some ‘proper things’.
    Uncle Jack was a retired colliery worker in his early seventies. He had retired in 1940; one year after Harry had been born, so he was more or less around all the time, apart from when he was attending to his poultry plot. Uncle Jack’s house was superior to Harry’s house, by the very fact it had three bedrooms; the Hudson’s were cramped into a two up and two down, all seven of them. At least they could all come and go as they pleased any time of the day. At Uncle Jacks, they were always welcome.
    This was a relief for Harry’s mother Kitty, especially on Mondays, which was of course washday. Kitty would then pack the younger children, who were not attending school, off to Uncle Jack’s, this enabled her to get on with the week’s washing with the aid of two ‘dolly tubs’ and a coal fired boiler, taking in his washing in exchange for his childminding. This was the situation then, the Hudson’s living at No. 33 and Uncle Jack Howell living at No. 31, with comings and goings between the two houses at all times of day.
    Uncle Jack Howell was really no relation at all to the Hudson’s, ‘Uncle’ or ‘Aunt’ was an expression you were required to use when addressing very close friends who were much older than yourself. Jack Howell was known as ‘John Willie’ to the rest of the neighbours in the village of Hindsford.
    He had lived at No. 3I Green Street since the house had been built in 1900, when the first occupant was his mother. The house was one of four that had been built by the local CO-OP; they were much larger than the rest of the houses in the same street, and normally reserved for their own employees. This was a well known fact in the village. There were also several large families who wished to get their hands on any of these houses for the increased accommodation they needed.
    In reality, there was very little chance of getting one. In the first place you had to become a member of the CO-OP, then you had to wait for someone to die, and with a bit of luck if no employee required the house, you could join the waiting list. The alternative to this was to apply for a three bedroom council house out of the village; the alternative prevailed nine times out of ten.
    So, how then did Uncle Jack manage to occupy one of these houses, when all his working life had been spent working in one of the local collieries?. It was a question that had been put to Uncle Jack by young Harry after the older man had told him stories of his working life in the coal mine.
     “Well lad, if anyone is entitled to live in one of these here houses, then I am,“ said the old man.” Let me tell you lad, my mother founded the CO-OP, and there would be no CO-OP without the efforts of her and a few other women.”
    With that, the old man climbed onto the arm rest of an easy chair and opened the doors of the built-in cupboard at the side of the chimney breast. He reached onto the top shelf and grasped a large ornamental drinking mug, stepped down, and placed the mug onto the table.
    “See that” said Uncle Jack proudly, “That was made in 1886 to celebrate the opening of Hindsford CO-OP.”
    Harry gazed at the coloured decorative mug which bore, around its top rim, the words: THE HINDSFORD AND ATHERTON CO-OP SOCIETY FOUNDED 1886.
    The mug was in pristine condition, and this interested him as he was curious to know how it had survived for so long without being broken or damaged.
    ‘There is certainly nothing of that age in our house’ he thought, ‘it would have been lost or broken by other members of the family’.
    Unknown to Harry, there was something in the Hudson household that was older than the CO-OP mug.
    Harry then enquired why the mug was inscribed with the village name of Hindsford preceding that of Atherton; after all, Hindsford was only a village in the much larger town of Atherton.
    “My mother and Mrs Carter, Mrs Bolsover and Mrs So-and-so etc, got their heads together and rented No. 43 Lord Street and that is where the CO-OP was started” said Uncle Jack.
    ”But it’s only a house; it’s where the Jones’s live, I go to school with them” said Harry.
    “I know that” said Uncle Jack, ”but it’s where the first shop used to be before they moved to the larger premises on Tyldesley Road.“
    With that, the old man opened a drawer below the cupboard and brought out a small booklet. “Here…look at that” he said.
    On the front of the booklet were the words, ‘FIFTY GLORIOUS YEARS 1886-1936’. The book contained a brief history of the Hindsford and Atherton CO-OP, from its humble beginnings to present-day activities, and now boasting more than 20 shops, with an annual turnover of

View Synopsis View Information Purchase Options