QUEENIE was something of a wonder horse. For, despite being blind, she knew every address on her master's milk round, especially the special house where she received a daily tit-bit.
Former Saints' stand-off star Peter Harvey of Pike Place, Eccleston, takes us back to his boyhood in recalling that faithful white pony and he wonders if anyone has a photograph of Queenie and the milk trap.
Between the ages of nine and 11, Peter helped with milk deliveries from Bob Harrison's dairy (Harrison's farm was at the top of the lane at Laffak). For this he received the princely sum of threepence.
"The horse was really clever, stopping at every house we delivered at," recalls Peter, now 59.
"Not only was Queenie able to find her way around (there were very few cars around in those days) she knew exactly when she had arrived at Mrs Finney's."
Queenie would stop near Stratton's corner shop, on the homeward route, and plonk her front feet on the pavement before stretching her head into Mrs Finney's ever-open door.
The good lady would then provide a daily tit-bit - perhaps a piece of bread or an apple - and, after the command of 'Walk on!', a contented Queenie would complete the journey home.
The kind-hearted Mrs Finney was the mother of Ken Finney who, Peter suggests, was possibly the first local sportsman to appear on television. A pro with Stockport County, he appeared in one of the pioneering TV soccer matches.
Ken's nephew, Geoff Pimblett, former Saints full-back, always mentions to Peter that he and Ken played in 'black-and-white days.'
Peter, in fact, didn't handle a rugby ball until he went to West Park in September, 1952. "We kids at Carr Mill played soccer and cricket on 'the plot' - a piece of land between Carr Mill Road and the railway line, bordered by the wood yard and Laffak Lane."
'Big' matches were played on Laffak fields, later to become the home of Haresfinch Rovers.
BUT that, as Peter says, is another story...
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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