T67 – Summary – Ramsbottom Heritage Society

The transcript is an interview with James Isherwood as transcribed by Microsoft Word and summarised by ChatGPT and subject to errors.

James was born around 1938

James recalls his childhood in Starling Street (Nuttall Village).
He lists many families who lived in the street, house by house (Whitesides, Grimes, Horn the horseman, Tailors, Edwards, Morses, Blundells, John Meade, Ben Cliff, etc.).
His own family lived at number 10.

Homes were stone terraced cottages (“two up, two down”), built around 100 years earlier, demolished in the early 1950s.
No electricity – they had gas lights (indoors and street lamps).
Staircases were stone-flagged, leading to bedrooms.
No bathrooms – only outside toilets.
Friday was bath night: water was heated in a gas boiler, poured into a tin bath hung outside during the week.
Heating came from a stone fireplace and oven, later supplemented by a separate gas oven.
Household tools included a gas iron, connected by a rubber pipe to the fireplace.

No TV or radios – instead they had a “relay receiver” (similar to cable radio) that played programmes like The Archers.
Recreations followed the seasons:
- Winter: Monopoly, stamp collecting, sledging (sometimes in old tin baths).
- Spring/Summer: Games like “top and whip,” kite-making (box kites from cotton mill scraps), bows and arrows made from willow.
- Autumn: Conker season.
- Year-round: Playing football and cricket on the village green, riding bikes, and making bogies from pram wheels.
Bonfire Night was a big annual event, with villagers collecting wood, making huge fires, and roasting potatoes.

A large, partly-ruined building on the village green known as “The Big House” was a favourite children’s play area.
It had no doors or windows, apple and pear trees in the garden, and felt like a “giant playhouse.”
Next to it was the Tower and farmyard gateway, which doubled as the village football goalposts.
The farm (owned by the Proctor family of Whalley) was extensive, stretching across local fields, mills, and woods.
Farm work involved horses and tractors, with Irish seasonal workers coming for potato picking.
As children, James and his brother “helped” on the farm but mostly just watched.

A small village shop existed, but most shopping was done at Toll Lane.
There were multiple specialist shops: pork butcher, grocer, chip shop, greengrocer, clog maker, cake shop, paper shop, tobacconist, post office, and others.
Shopping was carried home on bikes with baskets.

The nearby Ocen Chemicals factory produced cyanide.
Children often got rides to school by jumping onto the company wagons heading past the village green.
He remembers soldiers (Prince of Wales regiment) marching to inspect the factory during wartime.

James left the village around 1950 (age ~12) when his family moved to Bolton Road West.
He lived there until he got married.

T67 – Summary