Nostalgia with Margaret Watson: Fond memories of old Batley Carr

Margaret Watson writes: For, who else can tell us where these places were before they disappeared, except the people who lived there?

I also receive many requests from readers for more information after I have shown photos like the one pictured here of Mill Road, Batley Carr.

This is one road in Batley Carr which I knew well because it was just around the corner from where I lived in Springfield.

I was shown the picture some years ago and I immediately felt an emotional attachment to it, and even though there was no road sign and no landmarks to indicate where it was, I knew it was Mill Road.

To make sure, I got out my magnifying glass and discovered on the left-hand side near the top of the picture, a pub sign – the Saw Inn.

This was proof I needed to identify a road which I had traversed almost daily as a child, either to go to Batley Carr Park or visit relatives.

Also, my school, St Joseph’s, Batley Carr, was further up the road on Tate Naylor Street, making this one of the most familiar roads I walked up as a child.

The stone gate posts, at the bottom of the picture on the right-hand side, and the iron railings, also indicated to me that this might be the entrance to Batley Carr Park.

All these familiar landmarks disappeared in the early 1960s when nearly every house in Batley Carr was demolished and the size of the park reduced, to make way for new housing.

I am always grateful to readers who contact me with information about these fast disappearing streets of Dewsbury, and also to those who write to correct me if I get them wrong.

Some years ago, John Whitworth, who lived in the same street as me on Victoria Road, Springfield, contacted me after I first showed this picture.

He confirmed it was Mill Road and recalled his father working as a driver for Speight’s lampshades in the 1950s, and delivering their famous lampshades as far away as Scotland.

John could recall all the streets of Batley Carr as well as all the little side streets and yards which ran off Mill Road.

He remembered one of them being Firth’s Yard where his mother used to work for Henry Secker’s rag merchants.

Also in this yard was the firm of Sam Mason and Son, blacksmiths, where John, as a youngster, used to go to and watch Sam and his son make gates and railings.

Just past the Batley Carr Park gates, shown on the left of the picture, was another yard, known as Willians Yard where his grandma Powick lived.

John recalled her house having an outside toilet and a very large garden which backed onto the warehouse of Speight’s lampshades.

Her house was one of the many hundreds demolished in Batley Carr in the 60s as part of the council’s slum clearance programme.

Next to Willians Yard, just a few yards further up was Speight’s Yard, so called because the lampshade factory was situated there.

John’s dad also worked for the Co-op delivering coal from their depot in Batley Carr, but when he got to a certain age, was offered the tenancy of the Duke of Leeds public house on Union Street, Dewsbury, owned by the Co-op.

And, after he retired, the Co-op closed the Duke of Leeds.

Some time later it was demolished.

John attended Carlton Road Junior School in Springfield under the watchful eye of headmaster Percy Rouse, and later went to Batley Carr Secondary Modern School, which is still there but renamed Carlton School.

There are still many people who will remember as children visiting Batley Carr as I did, even though there wasn’t much there for children to play on.

There were just a few swings, a slide and a roundabout. Nevertheless, it was still a place of beauty to children like me who had no garden at home in which to play.

There were lots of beautiful rhododendron bushes, pleasant pathways and wooden park benches where we could sit and rest our legs.

And at the top of the park was Marlborough House, a large mansion which was occupied at the time by a private school called Marlborough School.

There was also a bowling green but I can never remember daring to venture anywhere near it because it was out of bounds to children.

Looking at the picture above still tugs at the heartstrings because Mill Road was a part of Batley Carr I traversed frequently as a child.

I not only walked up there to go to the park, but also to visit my Uncle Joseph who lived in a little yard on the right-hand side of Mill Road.

And also to visit other relatives who lived on Dale Street, my Uncle Albert and Auntie Lillian, and their daughters, Gladys, Edith and Anne.

Their house was the very last one at the top of Dale Street, and almost on their doorstep were the allotments and rhubarb fields where we would spend hours playing.

These visits to Batley Carr were always a great pleasure for me, especially when it included visits to the locally famous Collins Cinema at the bottom of King Street – or was it Dale Street? I cannot quite remember.

But I’m sure there will be readers who will be happy to let me know which street it was.

* This interview with John was some years ago and I don’t know if he is still with us, but if he is, I would like to thank him for his contribution to this article.

You can email your recollections of Dewsbury in years gone by to [email protected]Read more: https://www.dewsburyreporter.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/heritage/nostalgia-with-margaret-watson-stories-and-old-photos-bring-back-happy-memories-of-the-dewsbury-we-once-knew-3581953