I LIVED in Tyldesley's 'Jig' and attended the Mission School (Journal Heart of our Heritage column), but any memories are very mixed.

I recall, quite vividly, queueing-up for soup in the classroom during the 1926 strike in the land that our fathers fought for. The land they thought would bring them untold riches.

My dad, John Joseph Cunliffe, served in the Grenadier Guards and won the DCM for bravery.

We youngsters used to march up and down at election time singing "vote, vote, vote for Joseph Tinker", although who he was I don't think any of us knew.

Yes, I remember mum not having much but, bless her, kept us clean coping with mice, cockroaches and, of course, the inevitable nits.

Maybe we laughed a lot as children playing hop scotch and piggy.

Were we happy? I suppose so, because we felt safe.

Memories good or bad, I wonder?

Gladys Worth (nee Cunliffe),

Hollins Close, Tyldesley.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.