The Daveys - Mum and Dad - The Beginning.

Thanks to Chris I have a number of updates and corrections. I thought about just removing the errors, but decided instead to annotate the post with the updates. They are written in BLUE, just like this bit, so you can compare what I got wrong and see what I didn't even know. 

Some of the stuff Chris sent me was just mindblowing for me and I have had more than a few tears reading it. It turns out Chris and mum had a few conversations after dad died and Chris also got loads of info from dads PC hard drive, which will add a lot of stuff to this and future posts. Please take another look through this post for now and I will start working on the next post later this week.  

Thanks, Chris xx

My mum and dad were (excuse the language) fucking awesome. 

Having spent the last few weeks delving into the old photos and my old memories I have realised this more than I ever did before. 

 Being a dad of two brilliant kids and knowing how hard it is to try to be a good parent - I know they were awesome. My memories of mum and dad are wide and varied and I intend to go through the whole spectrum of emotions in the next few months. I hope this will generate good memories for those of you who were lucky enough to know or to have met Mick and Alma. I also hope that some of you will comment either here or on Facebook to fill in the blanks and the parts that I either get wrong, don't know or were too young or too drunk to remember. If you want to add anything just get in touch however you like and I will update the posts with the relevant details. 

I am doing this for me, for the family but mostly this is for Hannah and Oliver. Two of the three most important people alive on this little blue planet today, Buffy is a close third. They will never be lucky enough to have two sets of Grandparents. The Grandparents they have are just amazing and brilliant and generous and crazy, but I feel for these two little mites, that their friends at school will most probably have two lots of everything Grandparent related, but due to age and distance and ill health, all Hannah and Oliver will ever know about Grandad Mick and Grandma Al are the stories we tell them. 

I intend these stories to be legend - to be amazing and to make Hannah and Oliver laugh, cry and remember their English Grandparents as closely as possible. They will learn the good and bad parts and I hope that this will leave them curious to ask more from us and from you all about MJ and TA. 

I am still searching through the photos I have, but so far - THIS next one is the only photo I have found of our family all together - Mum, Dad, Gareth, Chris and Rick - without anyone missing or without anyone else in the photo (Rascal was family obviously and was cool) I hope I find more of the 5 of us, but it wouldn't surprise me, that this was the only one. 

It is joyous and amazing and wonderful and also a little sad, but I love this photo. It's just us. Family. We don't look particularly happy or sad or anything really, but the photo shows us, ALL TOGETHER, 

I love it. 

Gareths remembers this better than me - It was at Blue Dolphin Holiday Park in Filey! (Just before one of dads anger episodes, which we will cover in later posts.)

This is NOT the only one!!! There are more photos of the 5 of us! Chris found this one below and I have also scoured through old scans of photo albums and found at least 2 more - They will appear in later posts, but I think I love this one even more than the one I posted above. I am pretty sure this was from the holiday we had in Poole around 1974/1976

Here goes....Part one of the Davey family story - I have no idea how many parts there will be, but this is the best place to start - the beginning....

The beginning takes us back to the 1940s to Sheffield and Manchester. 

Dad - Michael John Davey  - was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire in 1941 28/06 1941 at Jessop Hospital, Norton.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessop_Hospital    

I'll be honest I don't know what his mum and dad - My Nan and Grandad did for a living. Nan had been a nurse and we think Grandad was working for what became Trafford Council, overseeing the installations of bathrooms into council houses. - 

The Preston's (Nan - Aunty Mary, Aunty Norah, Uncle George) Were all based at a house called 'Gannow' in Killamarsh, just South East of Sheffield. Heres some pics of the house itself and the family - plus one of dad and Uncle Tony as kids in the garden there

Aunty Norah used to live in one of the prefab bungalows on Shhpcote Road, a couple of hundred yards from Gannpo - this means that we (Gareth, Chris and Rick) may have been there as we used to visit every now and then as kids. This is a photo of Aunty Norah's house on eth left and Uncle Georges on the right - Thank Gareth!

It's now a very different house from others in the area and quite a bit older. It would have been stand-alone and posh - this is because Great Grandad was 'Under Manager' of the two collieries in Killamarsh  - (Under manager is the guy in charge of everything below ground)  - very different than Mums family who lived in Ancoats in the early 1900s (I have added some photos of Old Ancoats later in this post)

We believe that Gannow,  the house, is still standing today and that this is it.

But I do know that they were pretty damn cool. One of my favourite family photos is of my Nan - - sitting astride a Triumph motorbike, with my Grandad (We think taken in 1939, just before they were married - Possibly at Gannow?) - I guess it was before my dad was born, but I don't know - All I do know is it's such a good photo of two people in the prime of their lives. You couldn't take a photo like this nowadays - the world is a different place - This was before TV was around or any of the other social devices we are besotted with today - This was when the world was black and white and simple. I would love to bottle the feelings I get from looking at this photo....

It's just amazing.

Dad was born in 1941 and he was one of 3 kids - Dad, Eleanor and Catherine. They always seemed like pretty close siblings to me and we all still keep in touch over the interweb every now and then. Catherine now lives in Manchester with Hubby Andrew and has grown up kids of her own. 

We have Great Granddad (Dads Grandad) funeral report from the local paper - not sure of the year)

Eleanor married David and our two other cousins Mark and Sarah are also grown up now with their own kids! 

I remember visiting nans old flat when we were little - there will be more about his in later posts - But it was always fun - hanging out on the 9th-floor balcony and riding the lift - all really exciting for us as little kids.   

I have a few old black and white photos of dad with various people  - it looks so long ago - Its scarcely believable that this was real,.,,

This is either dad or another small boy with Nan!

Dad in the back middle

I love this photo  - it reminds me of my little Oliver!

I think this might be a street party for the Queens coronation

 1953? 

Mum - Teresa Alma Monaghan, was born the following year somewhere in Manchester - Mum was born on or near to Hullard Street in Old Trafford Manchester on 5th Feb 1942

One thing I am really a little sad about is that I don't have any knowledge or photos of mum when she was little. (We do now) Here are some old photos of the area Malta Street and Pollard Steet IN Ancoats where mum was brought up - A real old world, almost slum area in a lower-class area of Manchester. It's so different to Gannow - the house where dads family, The Prestons, were based. 

Pollard St 1903 - Just next to where Gran was
 born around this time

This is the Malta St Pollard St junction today - You can still see the old Vulcan Mill standing  - a hint of the areas industrial past

A map of the area from the mid-1900's

Most of what was there has been demolished, but there is a cool website about Pollard Street, and it has some cool history. 

https://www.pollardstreet.co.uk/history 

Maybe dads half of the family was lucky enough to own a camera and mums didn't I know that not every family could afford a camera back then, but whatever the reason I would love to see and learn more about her as a little girl. This is the earliest photo I have of mum and Gran  - in what looks like Skegness - This could even be after mum and dads wedding - maybe when mum and dad had moved to Skegness, but I really have no idea! (Skegness 1966 - as labelled by dad)

 

Chris found more photos, which I didn't know were of mum and Brenda as well as some with her family. Here they are

This is Mum and 'Brenda'

Mum and Brenda in the front row, with Grandma, Nanna Monaghan, Anuunty Maud, and Lillian

Mum was brought up in Manchester and was one of 3 siblings just like dad - she had a brother Bryan (Whose real name was actually Anthony as I found out after he died in 2004/05 when I found his passport!) and Brenda, who still live in Gran's old house now, in Stretford.)

Note on the Monghans - Grandad Albert Monaghan was brought up in Hulme - Gran (Mums mum) Catherine Stringer was born in Ancoats - Malta Street  - a proper poor area. Gran's birth certificate was signed - 'For her mother' as her mum would not have been able to read or write. They later moved to Hulme where they loved next door to each other (Grandad at 100 and Gran at 102 Boston Street in Hulme. This is roughly where Asda and Princess Parkway/Greenhays Lane West is now. . They married on 3/12/1938. Grandad was a Chef in the war and they all worked for some time (including Mum and Brian) at Turner Asbestos Factory in Old Trafford. This was the probable cause of all the lung-related issues in their later lives. Grandad Monaghan also worked at Fergusons Tractors for a time in Trafford Park, which secretly made parts for Lancaster Bombers during the war!

Bryan was married to Aunty Pat and they had a daughter  - Susanne. While Brenda never married. (Brenda's first name is actually Anne!) Hi Aunty B ( Or is it Aunty A?) :-)

Dad used to tell us stories of riding a pedal bike pretty often from Sheffield to Manchester as a young man - a 40-mile ride, through the stunning Peak District - up and down pretty significant hills. I am not sure whether he did this for work, college or school but I do know it's something he enjoyed as a young man. At some point and for some reason, I don't yet know (Can anyone fill in the blanks?) Dad and Nan ended up living in Manchester ( Because of Grandads work) and met mum somewhere in Old Trafford. (Dad lived on Clifton Street and Mum lived on Hullard Street - less than 50 yards apart) Here's an old map of the area. You can compare it to the up to date Google maps and see how things have changed. 

I know Nan used to have a house there, and have photos of us as little kids, visiting the demolished remains after It was knocked down. So I am guessing that Nan and Grandad moved to Manchester from Sheffield, sometime in the 50s or early 60s. Dad was 7 when they moved and they had lived in Rhyl for a short time before moving to Old Trafford

This actually wasn't Nans house but one across the street. Nans was still standing at the time

The demolished house in Old Trafford - with a young Aunty Catherine in the top one!

Anyway, mum and dad met sometime around then -I think they were in their late teens when they met.

They met a lot earlier and mum told dad (when she was aged 110 that she was going to marry him. This was when they were kids playing on the corner)

I have recollections about nan thinking mum was a 'floozy' - and not being too happy with dads choice of girlfriend. (That makes a little more sense now looking at where the two families were brought up) 

We also heard stories about mum once dating someone from Gerry and the Pacemakers - I have no idea whether this was true or not, but the dates match - mum would have been 16-18 when the band were popular in the late 50's. But whatever happened we do know that mum and dad eventually got married in 1964.  It was actually Freddie Garrity, from Freddie and the Dreamers. The band was formed in Manchester in the early 60's.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_and_the_Dreamers

Now if you are reading this and never met my mum and dad you should know we weren't the tallest family - Dad was just 5ft 8ish and mum was a diminutive 4ft 10. But they were great people and great parents. As we continue through this story I will tell you all about them - this post is really just an introduction!

Mum and dad  - 

with Aunty Eleanor

I believe at this time dad was already working for the Ordnance Survey - Dad left school and went to Xaverian College - earning an A level in Geology and then joined the Ordnance Survey at 19 years old. 

He worked for them until he retired mid-1990's. (He retired from the Ordnance Survey on his 49th birthday in 1990) His job was to make maps and this enabled him to travel quite a lot around the country in the 1970s. 

Here are a couple of pics of him learning his trade in the 60s..

At some point in the mid-1960s after they got married dad got a posting to Skegness, Lincolnshire, (Almost as soon as they got married - 1964)  where he moved with mum to work in the local Ordnance Survey Office. His job in Skegness was to map the Coastline.

They fell in love with Skegness and the beautiful beaches as well as the bracing weather, so much that when they finally retired they moved back there and spent the last 20 years living in a little bungalow just a short walk from the sea. More about that in later posts though. 

Mum and dad were living happily on the East Coast at 10 George Avenue, enjoying the sunny summers and quiet winters when they decided they wanted to have kids. That's when we 3 boys arrived and that will be where we begin in the next post.

To finish this post here's a photo of mum, with a motorbike in the back garden of their house in Skegness..

I wanted to update this (again) I had no idea I had these photos, but apparently at some time in the past mum, or more probably dad sent me some of their wedding photos from March 1964. I thought some people might like to see them. Here they are in no particular order (My favourite is mum and gran with the bike behind them!)