Looking back with Margaret Watson

A lot of people contacted me with photographs and memories, including John Whitworth, who lived at the bottom of Victoria Road, Springfield.

He opened his photograph album to me, and I am showing a few pictures which will provide a picture page this week - in the hope it will bring back memories for readers of his generation.

The school photograph taken at Batley Carr Council School (now Carlton School) will be eagerly scanned by former pupils.

John remembers all their names, bar one, a girl who had started at the school that year.

Here are the names of those pictured:

Back row L to R - Graham Whittingham, Terance Webster, Brian Hutchenson, Michael O’Neil, Eric Firth, Paul Jackson, Richard Walker, David Merrit, Alan Brook, Kenneth Drye, Kenneth Smith.

Middle row - Alan Whitworth, (no relation) Michael Wood , Peter Buchan, Carol Lodge, Ann Moore, (name not known) Denise Saville, Peter Glennan , John Whitworth, Martin Godbold, Mr Kitson.

Front row - Christine Brear, Denise Keyworth, Carol Nelson, Anne Daniels, Christine Richardson, Janet Allen, Christine Ryder, Sheila Farwell Christine Hunt.

John told me that his mother, in her wisdom, had told him to write down all the class names, which he dutifully did, but he couldn’t remember the girl in the middle who had only just joined their class.

Some of the other photographs are family ones, but somehow I think they will resonate with those of us who like to look back and recall how life used to be.

Even looking at the windows of the houses, the stones of which they were built, the back yards we played in, all tell a story of their own.

We recognise them instantly, even if they weren’t in our village, because the design of houses built in streets like ours, were almost identical to all the others.

John lived at the bottom of Victoria Road, Springfield, next door but one to the Co-op on one side, and the Deaf Institute on the other.

He played in the streets in summer and in winter sledged down the steep hills and went chumping for the annual bonfire. Happy days.

I am sure readers will enjoy looking at John’s photographs and sharing in his childhood memories.

If other readers wish to share their memories and photographs, ring Dewsbury 468282 or e-mail me - [email protected]