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Post by Sfance on Sept 7, 2019 1:29:11 GMT
I hated that aerodrome with a passion. When LHS was up Sandon Road we used to have to play rugby on it - freezing cold, foggy, ice-bound - I'm surprised we didn't all die before we could get back inside again.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 2:34:00 GMT
This will tease the brain. Flannel Foot.
Anyone remember him?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 2:50:53 GMT
Just to put the record right lads. Cromwell's Caves was accessed by taking the path at the top side of the reserviour and following it down towards Lightwood Road. There were two caves... a long one and a short one. Last I heard was from a mate of mine who bought a new house in Lightwood Road and he told me the caves had been demolished to make way for the gardens of those new houses. I was gobsmacked. Those caves must have been centuries old. When we were kids we used to camp out there. I remember the aerodrome when it was actually in use. Spitfires used to land there after they'd been flown over from Canada. I lived in Anson Road at the time. After the war there was talk of making it into a proper airport for the city but the PTB pooh-poohed it. It was then used by a few rich buggers for their own light aircraft and then the ATC used it for glider training. I remember it when it was pretty much all grass except for Staffs Pots at the bottom on Uttoxeter Road. Everybody played nogger on there but my most abiding memory of it was the grass was filled with wild flowers before they moved it. And there were loads of skylarks who used to nest there. Us kids would lie in the grass and watch them for ages as they flew up, singing as they went, until they were almost out of sight and then come back down in stages until they landed again. Me old mam used to work in the canteen at Creda and according to her, there's loads of Spitfire parts - engines and stuff - buried by the side of Grindley Lane when they decommissioned the aerodrome. Everybody in them days used to use celluloid aircraft windows to start fires. Bits of the stuff was everywhere, and if you couldn't find any, you could always break a wartime lorry window and use that. Brilliant stuff it is. Once you set fire to it there's no stopping it. There were some air raid shelters at the bottom of the aerodrome as well the one at Jack Ash's lane. They would have been opposite where Meir Infants stood by the railway bridge. The only Oakes I knew was Les Oakes from Chaydle. Bit of a lad was Les. Me and mar mate called in to see him one day and he asked us if we wanted some breakfast. So we sat in his bungalow chatting, as you do, and then him and his missus had a big row. He ended up throwing stuff about and broke most of the windows in his bungalow. When we left he was still ranting and raving and throwing stuff. The Meir was a bastion of Stokieness and nogger. There were always queues outside paper shops on a Saturday night waiting for the football edition of The Sent'nul, and then later, The Green 'un. And you're right lads... Brookfields was the most fantastic shop ever. I bought all my Dinky Toys and balsa wood model aircraft from there. They had petrol pumps there at one time. When that shop closed they kept the one on the other side of the road open and it's only just closed. Enough for now before I get arrested if I tell you some of the goings on at The Meir back in those days. And just to keep this thread on a Stokie path, one of my most abiding memories is seeing the masses of Stokies walking along Lonsdale Street just before the game. The smell of fish and chips and ale was like a nogger aphrodisiac. A sea of red and white it was and the atmosphere was electric. Lifts the hairs on the back of my neck just thinking about the emotions and tribalism of the old days at The Vic when there was no internet. Rather than letting off steam every minute of every hour of every day as we do now on here, that's when the passions were released... during those few crazy hours of a matchday. Beautiful madness. OS. Great post mate. What I will never understand is why was the airodrome so difficult to land on. It apparently was. Loads of crashes. New pilots used to do their circuits and bumps training there. I bought a balsa wood glider from Brookfields. One of those that you towed up, you didn’t just throw it. I could only have been nine years old. I built it myself, put the tissue on the wings and then doped it. It flew like a bird. It was called a Nomad. I had a pogo stick from there. What about a top and whip? That thing used to sail across the playground. Mamod steam engine. Trying to remember the name of the owner. Mr Whimple or something. His son took over eventually. I also remember the sky larks. To be honest, I don’t think that I have seen one since then.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 2:58:21 GMT
Of course Meir also had a railway station. From Grange school, once a year, we had our day to Llandudno. We filed down to the station and had a great day out. Someone always ate too many crisps and honked on the train......
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 3:04:56 GMT
I vaguely remember a Les Oakes that had a car scrap yard. The Oakes that I am on about was a builder.
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Post by Laughing Gravy on Sept 7, 2019 9:22:41 GMT
I vaguely remember a Les Oakes that had a car scrap yard. The Oakes that I am on about was a builder. Les Oakes was a scrappy from Chaydle. Had a ‘Reclamation’ yard in Oakamoor Road. As OS describes above he was a proper ‘character’. Been dead 20 odd years now I would think.
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Post by stiggerstackle on Sept 7, 2019 9:29:55 GMT
Yeah I drove past it the other day and the top end of the field is still there, I was actually thinking about all the happy times I’d spent there playing cricket and thought about the shelter too. Odd - not thought about it for years. We were off Golborn Avenue. A real long shot here but, does the surname Oakes mean anything to you? That isn't my surname. No Clem, only in regard to Les as above
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Post by somersetstokie on Sept 7, 2019 9:37:28 GMT
Meir Airodrome was for some reason extremely difficult for planes to land on. Planes did occasionally land and take off in the early 1960s. From what I remember of Meir Aerodrome it was most usually used as a base for flying Gliders. As a kid I would watch the ones that had just taken off as they circled and wait for them to "drop the cable" to set them free.
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Post by OldStokie on Sept 7, 2019 9:50:58 GMT
I hated that aerodrome with a passion. When LHS was up Sandon Road we used to have to play rugby on it - freezing cold, foggy, ice-bound - I'm surprised we didn't all die before we could get back inside again. Dead right Sfrance. Played rugger on there mesen. Renascor. OS.
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Post by somersetstokie on Sept 7, 2019 9:51:43 GMT
Meir Aerodrome; "I remember the aerodrome when it was actually in use. Spitfires used to land there after they'd been flown over from Canada. I lived in Anson Road at the time. After the war there was talk of making it into a proper airport for the city but the PTB pooh-poohed it. It was then used by a few rich buggers for their own light aircraft and then the ATC used it for glider training".
Interestingly, there was another North Staffordshire wartime airfield at Seighford, near Woodseaves. In the late 60's it was used by English Electric avionics division for servicing and testing Lightning fighters. But there were later plans to turn that field as well into an airport for Mid Staffordshire but it never happened, and we're still left with East Midlands as our "local" transit point.
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Post by OldStokie on Sept 7, 2019 10:47:00 GMT
I vaguely remember a Les Oakes that had a car scrap yard. The Oakes that I am on about was a builder. Les Oakes was a scrappy from Chaydle. Had a ‘Reclamation’ yard in Oakamoor Road. As OS describes above he was a proper ‘character’. Been dead 20 odd years now I would think. Les Oakes's place is now famous. He built most of it without planning permission and Chaydle Council tried for years to get it demolished. Then young Joe Bamford stepped in and all was sorted. Les was killed in 2000. He was on his way back from an auction and had stopped in a lay-bye to tighten his ropes. He was roadside and when he pulled on one of the ropes it snapped and he fell into the road and was run over. I was at his funeral. Les wanted to buy the A-frame from Hem Heath pit before it was demolished so he could put it up in his back garden. Clem, the reason why Meir aerodrome was not so good because it was built on a steep'ish slope and the only way aircraft could land was to approach it from the Weston Road side of The Meir. Then it was like hitting a bankside when they touched down. I remember Dr Toh's light aircraft coming a cropper one Sunday. He got it wrong and the plane ended up upside down at the back of the houses in Harrowby Road. As a kid I can remember the searchlights at the Drill Hall that was at the back of the Broadway Cinema. There were three of them and us kids would sit on the fields opposite The Broadway watching the magnificent beams of light searching the skies for planes. Grange School wasn't built when I was a Meirite. That area was all open fields. Another Stokie anecdote. When Stoke played at The Vic, when we scored the roar could be heard for miles around. Some folks from Blurton knew how many goals we'd scored and they'd been sitting in the house a couple of miles away. Nowadays when I don't get to the games I know when we've scored because the lads drinking in the Park Inn at Dresden let out such a roar that it makes my house shake. No Failites allowed in Dresden. OS.
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Post by somersetstokie on Sept 7, 2019 11:05:08 GMT
Quote "As a kid I can remember the searchlights at the Drill Hall that was at the back of the Broadway Cinema. There were three of them and us kids would sit on the fields opposite The Broadway watching the magnificent beams of light searching the skies for planes". OS; Its only a short step from here to starting your next post, "During the war......." Uncle Albert on one nostalgia thread. Royal Albert on another.
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Post by GRUMPY 1 on Sept 7, 2019 11:17:46 GMT
I can remember a light plane landing on Hanley High school fields. As it turned out he had mistaken it for Meir aerodrome in the fog.
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Post by OldStokie on Sept 7, 2019 11:30:22 GMT
Quote "As a kid I can remember the searchlights at the Drill Hall that was at the back of the Broadway Cinema. There were three of them and us kids would sit on the fields opposite The Broadway watching the magnificent beams of light searching the skies for planes". OS; Its only a short step from here to starting your next post, "During the war......." Uncle Albert on one nostalgia thread. Royal Albert on another. During the war we never, ever, ever saw a banana; apple cores were a delicacy; orange peel was scrumptious, and we used to beg chewing gum off the Yanks as they passed through town. We'd run beside the convoys of trucks, shouting, "Chongy chongy Yankees!" They would laugh at us and sling us some Hershey Bars and chewing gum. The very first black people I ever saw was a truckful of Yanks. We didn't dare shout at them. We were scared to death and ran off when they parked up by the pub. One of my very best buddies is a black lad and he's built like a brick outhouse. He's the perfect gentle giant. He almost pissed himself when I told him that tale. Then he gave me a big hug and said, "Yo ma homy Mick an' arm gonna eat you for breakfast." OS.
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Post by crapslinger on Sept 7, 2019 11:31:51 GMT
Les Oakes was a scrappy from Chaydle. Had a ‘Reclamation’ yard in Oakamoor Road. As OS describes above he was a proper ‘character’. Been dead 20 odd years now I would think. Les Oakes's place is now famous. He built most of it without planning permission and Chaydle Council tried for years to get it demolished. Then young Joe Bamford stepped in and all was sorted. Les was killed in 2000. He was on his way back from an auction and had stopped in a lay-bye to tighten his ropes. He was roadside and when he pulled on one of the ropes it snapped and he fell into the road and was run over. I was at his funeral. Les wanted to buy the A-frame from Hem Heath pit before it was demolished so he could put it up in his back garden. Clem, the reason why Meir aerodrome was not so good because it was built on a steep'ish slope and the only way aircraft could land was to approach it from the Weston Road side of The Meir. Then it was like hitting a bankside when they touched down. I remember Dr Toh's light aircraft coming a cropper one Sunday. He got it wrong and the plane ended up upside down at the back of the houses in Harrowby Road. As a kid I can remember the searchlights at the Drill Hall that was at the back of the Broadway Cinema. There were three of them and us kids would sit on the fields opposite The Broadway watching the magnificent beams of light searching the skies for planes. Grange School wasn't built when I was a Meirite. That area was all open fields. Another Stokie anecdote. When Stoke played at The Vic, when we scored the roar could be heard for miles around. Some folks from Blurton knew how many goals we'd scored and they'd been sitting in the house a couple of miles away. Nowadays when I don't get to the games I know when we've scored because the lads drinking in the Park Inn at Dresden let out such a roar that it makes my house shake. No Failites allowed in Dresden. OS. Les was indeed killed on his way back from Chelford market, proper character as has already been stated pulled a shotgun on the planning officials when they came to discuss the building he had built without planning permission, the place is now ran by his son's Dave and Jimmy both chips off the old block still can get a bargain if you haggle with Jimmy especially was up there last week buying some oak beams off them.
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Post by werrington on Sept 7, 2019 11:32:25 GMT
I can remember a light plane landing on Hanley High school fields. As it turned out he had mistaken it for Meir aerodrome in the fog. Somebody from the abbey had nicked the fucker 😊
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Post by marylandstoke on Sept 7, 2019 12:59:11 GMT
Great thread. 👍
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Post by march4 on Sept 7, 2019 13:04:25 GMT
Brookfields toy shop in Longton. Heaven on earth. Toys R Us could never hold a candle. Well said. If I needed to take any of my children to the GP or dentist in Rosslyn Road, I would always take them to Brookfields afterwards to buy a treat. Then we would call in the cake shop half way down Trentham Road as we walked home.
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Post by march4 on Sept 7, 2019 13:06:22 GMT
Meir Airodrome was for some reason extremely difficult for planes to land on. Planes did occasionally land and take off in the early 1960s. From what I remember of Meir Aerodrome it was most usually used as a base for flying Gliders. As a kid I would watch the ones that had just taken off as they circled and wait for them to "drop the cable" to set them free. I spent many a happy Sunday afternoon watching the planes and gliders. I had a friend who flew gliders there but I was never tempted to join in. It is like a different world when I think back.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 14:00:18 GMT
Just to put the record right lads. Cromwell's Caves was accessed by taking the path at the top side of the reserviour and following it down towards Lightwood Road. You are of course absolutely right. The old sand quarry was on the right hand side of Gravely Bank, and the caves on the other. For some reason we spent more time messing around at the quarry rather than the caves. The caves were also closer to home.
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Post by greystokie on Sept 7, 2019 14:52:10 GMT
This will tease the brain. Flannel Foot. Anyone remember him? The legendary burglar in the 1960's? Our house in Clayton got done around about that time and I remember my Dad saying it could have been him.
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Post by nott1 on Sept 7, 2019 14:55:22 GMT
In the fifties we could catch a train from the bottom of Limekiln Bank to Stoke Station and on to the the Vic, what fun, but of course our infrastructure is so much better nowadays........oh!!! And we had our wooden rattles too.
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Post by nott1 on Sept 7, 2019 15:00:53 GMT
From what I remember of Meir Aerodrome it was most usually used as a base for flying Gliders. As a kid I would watch the ones that had just taken off as they circled and wait for them to "drop the cable" to set them free. I spent many a happy Sunday afternoon watching the planes and gliders. I had a friend who flew gliders there but I was never tempted to join in. It is like a different world when I think back. Our doctor was killed when his Tiger Moth nosedived there. Doctor Bradwell his name was!
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Post by Caerwrangonpotter on Sept 7, 2019 15:10:57 GMT
Anecdotes & mumblings according to Caerwrangon
With one of my God Parents being a very well known landlady of the time, any 70s mention of Longton would not be the same without The Shamrock. Some of the tales I heard as a kid....Being a Jollees Junior, and other such stories from the Nightclub to beat all others
The Oatcake shop that was close to Longton Library. The Sunday walk up there & you could smell that wonderful aroma from around George Hughes's Newsagents at top of Greendock St
A mention of Meir Railway Station, well....Longton when it actually was a proper Station with booking hall & waiting rooms. Used to have a goods lift too before I was born (in the early 70s) Of course Potters Holiday Specials to Blackpool or Llandudno, with a loco & carriages all the way
Stoke anecdotes for me was walking via Longton Hall Lane, and coming across the back of Hem Heath. Night games with the floodlights enticing you towards The Vic. Having to wait outside the Social Club for my brother, and not being able to spot him inside a thick haze of Park Drive & stench of Worthington ale. Eventually a glass of orange & packets of crsips, and the promise of "wunna be long youth..." always eased my concerns.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 15:29:26 GMT
My family had a few connections with the pub trade.
My Gt Grandmother Martha Harvey (1876 - 1971) was born in Gregory St, Longton. The family were connected, through marriage with the Byatt family. One pub was the Furnace Inn (Gregory St). When Martha was asked how she had managed to live so long, her reply would usually be "Bloody hard work!" I remember her well. She actually used to receive a half bottle of brandy a week on the NHS! She used to clean the front step and the pub itself. In those days a pub was actually not a great deal more than a terraced house. Anther pub run by the Byatts was The Tiger Inn (Caroline St I think).
I have a recording of her singing Farmers Boy with her son (my grandad). There are hours of recordings all from mid 1960s as we lived abroad and used to send small reel to reel tapes to the family at home. They, in turn, sent tapes to us.
We did live in Meir 1963/64(ish) - then back off abroad.
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Post by somersetstokie on Sept 7, 2019 16:19:05 GMT
Anecdotes & mumblings according to Caerwrangon With one of my God Parents being a very well known landlady of the time, any 70s mention of Longton would not be the same without The Shamrock. Some of the tales I heard as a kid....Being a Jollees Junior, and other such stories from the Nightclub to beat all others The Oatcake shop that was close to Longton Library. The Sunday walk up there & you could smell that wonderful aroma from around George Hughes's Newsagents at top of Greendock St A mention of Meir Railway Station, well....Longton when it actually was a proper Station with booking hall & waiting rooms. Used to have a goods lift too before I was born (in the early 70s) Of course Potters Holiday Specials to Blackpool or Llandudno, with a loco & carriages all the way Stoke anecdotes for me was walking via Longton Hall Lane, and coming across the back of Hem Heath. Night games with the floodlights enticing you towards The Vic. Having to wait outside the Social Club for my brother, and not being able to spot him inside a thick haze of Park Drive & stench of Worthington ale. Eventually a glass of orange & packets of crsips, and the promise of "wunna be long youth..." always eased my concerns. The strange thing I remember about night games at the Vic, was that there was then no smoking ban or restriction, and most people smoked, so there was a perpetual flash of cigarette lighters in the dark around the ground. Spooky and pretty at the same time.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 20:15:25 GMT
My family had a few connections with the pub trade. My Gt Grandmother Martha Harvey (1876 - 1971) was born in Gregory St, Longton. The family were connected, through marriage with the Byatt family. One pub was the Furnace Inn (Gregory St). When Martha was asked how she had managed to live so long, her reply would usually be "Bloody hard work!" I remember her well. She actually used to receive a half bottle of brandy a week on the NHS! She used to clean the front step and the pub itself. In those days a pub was actually not a great deal more than a terraced house. Anther pub run by the Byatts was The Tiger Inn (Caroline St I think). I have a recording of her singing Farmers Boy with her son (my grandad). There are hours of recordings all from mid 1960s as we lived abroad and used to send small reel to reel tapes to the family at home. They, in turn, sent tapes to us. We did live in Meir 1963/64(ish) - then back off abroad. Somewhere along the line there must have been a "difference of opinion" over religion. My "Little Gran" as we called her (probably because she was little), started referring to her son and daughter in law as "Methody Buggers". Well if it were never a spade she never called it one.
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Post by mrcoke on Sept 7, 2019 20:40:05 GMT
Anecdotes & mumblings according to Caerwrangon With one of my God Parents being a very well known landlady of the time, any 70s mention of Longton would not be the same without The Shamrock. Some of the tales I heard as a kid....Being a Jollees Junior, and other such stories from the Nightclub to beat all others The Oatcake shop that was close to Longton Library. The Sunday walk up there & you could smell that wonderful aroma from around George Hughes's Newsagents at top of Greendock St A mention of Meir Railway Station, well....Longton when it actually was a proper Station with booking hall & waiting rooms. Used to have a goods lift too before I was born (in the early 70s) Of course Potters Holiday Specials to Blackpool or Llandudno, with a loco & carriages all the way Stoke anecdotes for me was walking via Longton Hall Lane, and coming across the back of Hem Heath. Night games with the floodlights enticing you towards The Vic. Having to wait outside the Social Club for my brother, and not being able to spot him inside a thick haze of Park Drive & stench of Worthington ale. Eventually a glass of orange & packets of crsips, and the promise of "wunna be long youth..." always eased my concerns. The strange thing I remember about night games at the Vic, was that there was then no smoking ban or restriction, and most people smoked, so there was a perpetual flash of cigarette lighters in the dark around the ground. Spooky and pretty at the same time. As I remember it, you didn't need to light up, you could just breath in all the smoke from people around you!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 20:55:11 GMT
The strange thing I remember about night games at the Vic, was that there was then no smoking ban or restriction, and most people smoked, so there was a perpetual flash of cigarette lighters in the dark around the ground. Spooky and pretty at the same time. As I remember it, you didn't need to light up, you could just breath in all the smoke from people around you! Yep. No worries about brexit - just breath in and enjoy yourself. Just watch your back for some arsehole with a fag in his mouth coming to get you!
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Post by orfyboothen on Sept 7, 2019 21:17:03 GMT
Just to put the record right lads. Cromwell's Caves was accessed by taking the path at the top side of the reserviour and following it down towards Lightwood Road. There were two caves... a long one and a short one. Last I heard was from a mate of mine who bought a new house in Lightwood Road and he told me the caves had been demolished to make way for the gardens of those new houses. I was gobsmacked. Those caves must have been centuries old. When we were kids we used to camp out there. I remember the aerodrome when it was actually in use. Spitfires used to land there after they'd been flown over from Canada. I lived in Anson Road at the time. After the war there was talk of making it into a proper airport for the city but the PTB pooh-poohed it. It was then used by a few rich buggers for their own light aircraft and then the ATC used it for glider training. I remember it when it was pretty much all grass except for Staffs Pots at the bottom on Uttoxeter Road. Everybody played nogger on there but my most abiding memory of it was the grass was filled with wild flowers before they moved it. And there were loads of skylarks who used to nest there. Us kids would lie in the grass and watch them for ages as they flew up, singing as they went, until they were almost out of sight and then come back down in stages until they landed again. Me old mam used to work in the canteen at Creda and according to her, there's loads of Spitfire parts - engines and stuff - buried by the side of Grindley Lane when they decommissioned the aerodrome. Everybody in them days used to use celluloid aircraft windows to start fires. Bits of the stuff was everywhere, and if you couldn't find any, you could always break a wartime lorry window and use that. Brilliant stuff it is. Once you set fire to it there's no stopping it. There were some air raid shelters at the bottom of the aerodrome as well the one at Jack Ash's lane. They would have been opposite where Meir Infants stood by the railway bridge. The only Oakes I knew was Les Oakes from Chaydle. Bit of a lad was Les. Me and mar mate called in to see him one day and he asked us if we wanted some breakfast. So we sat in his bungalow chatting, as you do, and then him and his missus had a big row. He ended up throwing stuff about and broke most of the windows in his bungalow. When we left he was still ranting and raving and throwing stuff. The Meir was a bastion of Stokieness and nogger. There were always queues outside paper shops on a Saturday night waiting for the football edition of The Sent'nul, and then later, The Green 'un. And you're right lads... Brookfields was the most fantastic shop ever. I bought all my Dinky Toys and balsa wood model aircraft from there. They had petrol pumps there at one time. When that shop closed they kept the one on the other side of the road open and it's only just closed. Enough for now before I get arrested if I tell you some of the goings on at The Meir back in those days. And just to keep this thread on a Stokie path, one of my most abiding memories is seeing the masses of Stokies walking along Lonsdale Street just before the game. The smell of fish and chips and ale was like a nogger aphrodisiac. A sea of red and white it was and the atmosphere was electric. Lifts the hairs on the back of my neck just thinking about the emotions and tribalism of the old days at The Vic when there was no internet. Rather than letting off steam every minute of every hour of every day as we do now on here, that's when the passions were released... during those few crazy hours of a matchday. Beautiful madness. OS. OS, you sure know how to paint a picture with words. Your 'voice'reminds me of the type of character Michael Morpurgo would generate a historical childhood perspective from for a belting tale or two. Beautiful stuff.
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