Thursday, February 17, 2011

Ralphs lake and the pit hills 1948 1960s

pits hills winter 
When I lived on Rothesay Ave as a young boy we had farm land behind our house horses and cows in the fields from Reeces farm ,we had what was left of a large lake just outside Ralph orchard , now the Lakes care home. the lake was filled in around 1948 but not completely photos below show the lake prior to 1948.
We played in this area and in the orchard until Ralph or his Gardiner chased us out apple and pear trees in the orchard attracted many kids including me visiting the site today brought back many happy memories and some sad ones.
The pit hills are long gone and the whole area is now flat two football grounds on the site and some trees where the lake was but its still the pit hills to many of us.
The Lake lakes Ralph's house in background now Lakes care home

  

5 comments:

martin hill said...

nice picture of me playing in the show...how did it become copyright of Tameside MBC??

JohnWagTaylor said...

Because someone gave it to them.

Anonymous said...

I have many happy memories of the Pit Hills in the fifties as a child. Health & Safety wasn't invented then, thankfully. Sliding down the steep slopes on a hearth tin doesn't get any more exciting, exhilarating or dangerous, although to my knowledge not many kids did actually loose limbs or were decapitated.
Do you remember the old ladies sometimes with a wooden barrow or pram with a sack in it sorting through the pit spoil for little nuggets of coal?

JohnWagTaylor said...

I remember Mr Rawson off Inverness she was always on the hills digging for coal,and remember Fred Moseley getting buried when he was digging with her.
Some of the best snow runs in the area were on the pit hills and it was great track biking on the hills.
Not many photos of the hills but I keep searching.

mary owen said...

Yes, John, i lived on Inverness Road, and remember my grandparents,aunties and my mum and dad, picking coal from the pit hills, i thought a new school was to be built on there,