EAST Lancashire's villages were marvellous places to grow up despite the hardships of the early years of the century, according to two of the oldest residents.

As the 20th century closes, reporter AMY BINNS looks back with ex-weaver Florrie Birtwell and brass bandsman Donald Barker to their country childhoods. CHILDHOOD fun and games carried on despite 12-hour shifts in a cotton mill when Florrie Birtwell began work aged 12 years old.

Florrie, now 96, started training as an unpaid weaver at a Whalley cotton mill but carried on attending Wiswell School every other day until she was 13.

She left her Wiswell home at 5.15am to arrive in time for her shift.

She still went to Sunday school and one of the biggest annual events was the field day, with races for teenagers.

She said: "We used to have needle and thread races where a boy held the needle and you had to thread it then run with it.

"It took a while because they would never hold their hands still but I won.

"I was a good runner."

She also enjoyed the annual village weddings, organised by the women of Queen Street, Whalley.

The women acted a mock wedding followed by a procession through the town and a tea.

At the mill, Florrie gradually learned to operate four looms at once to make turban cloth for India but the factories soon started producing fabric to make anti-aircraft balloons and coverings for aeroplane wings.

Florrie, of Calder Vale, Whalley, said: "There couldn't be a single mistake in the cloth or the air would get inside.

"They were hard times because every day we went to the mill someone's son or husband was reported killed or missing. "In Wiswell there's a memorial to 14 men killed and I can still remember every one of them.

"But we still celebrated whenever there was something to celebrate.

"We used to cover the looms with ribbons if someone got married."

The biggest celebration came when the war ended and 16-year-old Florrie bought a Union Jack flag on her way home from the mill.

"I nailed it to my mother's clothes prop then I climbed on the outhouse and up on the roof and put it in the chimney," she remembered.

"When my mother saw it she said, I'll want that prop on Monday because it's wash day.

"And I said, you can want it a bit longer and we'll turn the clothes inside out and wear them again!"

THE brass band was the focus of village life in 1920s Water and eight-year-old Donald Barker was determined to join in.

Donald, whose father was a double bass player, decided to become a bandsman in the Rossendale band despite having no instrument to play.

Now 87, Donald Barker, of Crow Wood Court, Burnley, said: "Water Band used to rehearse in a derelict mill.

"Part of the mill collapsed and damaged a lot of the instruments so when I wanted to join there wasn't anything to play.

"We borrowed a battered cornet off the band but there were no valves at all, so I could make a noise but couldn't play a tune.

"This old fellow told me I could just get used to the mouthpiece on it.

"So I played that for five months before I got a better one."

Donald was soon part of the band's life, playing at skating rinks, potato pie suppers, Whit Walks and field days.

He said: "We used to go Christmas playing to the farms.

"All the farmers would say, 'You haven't been up to us yet,' so we would still be playing Christmas concerts in April."

His talent became a vital lifeline in the 1930s depression when Donald would often get only two days work a week in the slipper factories and his father, a collier, was also short of work.

"Sometimes we didn't get any work at all for four months, so when I was 14 or 15 I used to go busking with my friends.

"Once, in Longridge, we saw a farm at the end of a big field.

"There were pens of chickens along both sides of the field as we walked up.

"We stood in front of the farm and as we started playing, all the chickens flew up in the air into the netting.

"The farmer ran out shouting, 'Clear off, what the bloody hell are you doing?'

"We legged it back down the field and all these chickens were hanging down with their heads caught in the netting, squawking."

Donald Barker and Florrie Birtwell appeared in Radio Lancashire's new 16 week series The Century Speaks, which started on Sunday.

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