. . . . Ricks Extra Long summer ( with the fam...) . . . .: The Daveys - Part 4

Bryan Adams was a nob. The summer of 76 was the one that should last forever. It was probably one of the most important few weeks in the Davey family life. It was the summer that dad moved again for the Ordnance Survey and we upped sticks, moved from the North of 'Down South' and found ourselves in the greatest Industrial, Musical and Sporting metropolis of England and (in my opinion) the world.

The place that is home to...

The first passenger railway,

Atomic Theory,

The First programmable Computer,

Britain's First Canal,

Votes for Women,

The oldest English Speaking Library in the World,

The Submarine,

Graphene,

The Industrial revolution.

Of course, I am talking about MANCHESTER!

We were just 3 little boys moving to a new house, in a new city, but I thought that growing up in Manchester was just brilliant. The city was dirty and downtrodden in the 60s, and 70s. and into the 80s.

We were lucky enough to grow up in the city and grow up with the city - It is now one of the most diverse, outgoing and friendly places in the world and it's the place that all 3 of us boys still call HOME and where Chris is still lucky enough to live. I think we loved it as soon as we arrived and mum and dad couldn't have found us a better place to live...

The story of Manchester and the Daveys is massive. It's too massive to fit into one or two posts, so I will split it all up. But there won't be an actual timeline. I will start at the beginning, but then I intend to jump from subject to location to whatever. A lot of the stories and memories may well overlap, but that's all cool. I hope I can remember all of it, but I know Chris and Gareth will be adding their memories too at some point.

So here we g - Today I will start with the house and St Hughes

We moved into 90 Moss Vale Road, a 3-bedroom house on the corner of Winchester Road and Moss Vale Rd right on the border of Urmston and Stretford. On the side of the house was a road sign for 'Winchester Road', that dad routinely repainted every couple of years atop his ladder.

Although in the photo below the sign is dirty and unpainted! (More about the bike photos in a later post!)

This is the rear of the house with the extended kitchen and garage.

The postcode and address said we lived in Urmston, but the boundary between the two towns officially ran along the M63 motorway, which was built in 1960. So if you looked on a map we actually lived in Stretford. From Gareth. I asked Dad about this many times as they were partly responsible for marking the Council boundaries. Originally before the Motorway, Moss Vale Road was in Urmston. They kept this after the motorway was built, so the boundary of Stretford actually ran along the back fences of our Gardens. Norwich Rd, Lincoln rd etc were in Lostock (part of Stretford) and our houses stayed in Urmston.

Instead of another row of houses facing ours, we had a beige stone wall atop which was the 2-lane M63 Motorway. (now the M60 Manchester ring road) We had the corner house, so at the side was a big garden, probably 20 metres long, with a front garden, side garden, and a small area between the garage and the back of the house too. It had 2 driveways. One at the front and one at the back. There was plenty of room for 3 boys to get into trouble without leaving home!

The M63 - Just across the busy road! No nosey neighbours, just big lorries!

Mum and dad had done quite a bit of house searching and had come across this house for £9000.

It was only a 5-minute walk to Gran and Aunty Brenda's house on Norwich Road and a 15-minute drive to Nan's flat at Empress Court in Old Trafford.

Gareth- One of the main reasons we moved back was because Grandma and Grandad (mum's side) were getting very ill and mum wanted to be near, Grandad died in 1979

Dads Ordnance Survey office was about two-thirds of the way to Nan's flat on what was Warwick Road South, just a minute away from Manchester United's hallowed ground - Old Trafford - on Warwick Road North (What is Now Sir Matt Busby way)

Gareth - He actually moved back to work in the Stockport Office in Sun Alliance House before moving to OT a couple of years later. The Stockport office was next to the bus station and massive railway Viaduct . Then and now...

In dad's early days there, he actually kept a works van in a lock-up garage right next to United's ground. Old Trafford has expanded considerably since then and the old garage area has long gone Chris - Its now part of the Alex Ferguson stand. as has the Ordnance Survey offices. The office block he worked in is now apartments.

90 Moss Vale Road was our family home for about 20 years. Chris - mum and dad moved back to Skegness in 1990 It was a good house - Inside it had 3 bedrooms, a separate bathroom and toilet upstairs. An extended kitchen.A living room and dining room separated by sliding doors and that garden, that over the years would see a whole lot of abuse from us kids and tender love and care from dad.

From Gareth- Remember the ‘Maneater’ a huge prickly plant that he grew from a cutting taken from the dunes near Poole? He planted that purposely by a hole in the hedge near the phone box to stop things and people coming into the garden! I have tried to find out what the plant was - I have never seen anything like it anywhere else. It was a fast growing thing that had long green stems with sharp spikes all over. Everytime the ball went in there we just left it and got another ball, or got out the protective glove to very carefully search! I did search the interweb and the closest thing I can find is this photo -

I found some photos of us kids in the garden and actually look back at them and feel a bit of empathy with my dad. I like to look after our garden now ad the kids like to make a mess. Well, our old dad loved his garden and believe or not a few years after these photos had a wonderful blooming garden and vegetable patch growing - But this is what a mess we made of it, while we were just kids.

Little old me, just sitting in the dirt with my dominoes box

I am not sure if this is Chris or Gareth,
(I think its Chris, (it is) , I was older than that even when we moved there)
but with a lump hammer and big boy spade, they ain't messing about!,
Notice the cool diagonal brickwork, dad built by the driveway!

When e grew up we would do a lot more useful stuff in the garden, like play cricket and smash windows with the ball as well as attempting to hit it into the motorway. Gareth - (The window above the ‘cubby hole ‘ outside must have been smashed at least 10 times )Which I am sure we actually managed at least once! The house drainpipes were climbed multiple times by all of us and the big hedge that we crawled through all the time! Even as dad was trying to trim it.

Back inside the house, there was also the elephant in the room.....Literally, an elephant in the room - We had a cardboard elephant head on the dining room wall. I don't think I ever learnt the story behind the elephant, but we did joke that next door must be having a nightmare. because we only had the head - they had the rest of the elephant in their house! Gareth - We first had that in Newport I think he must have got it in Southampton…. Its eyes followed you everywhere!

There was also an unusual story about next door - When we moved in an old lady that we knew as 'Gran Stansfield' live there. She was quite old and frail and spent her days living in the back room of the house and slept in the front room downstairs as she could no longer get upstairs. She was a nice old lady but her house was a mess and didn't smell particularly good. She had run her own little newspaper delivery business and I believe Gareth actually worked as a paperboy for her for a while. Gareth - Before the Motorway, There were houses on both sides of Moss Vale Road. Gran Stansfield had a paper shop that was compulsorily purchased to enable the Motorway to be built. All her customers, who also were forced out, also were scattered around Urmston but she still had their papers delivered by Gran S but from no 92 next door where she moved to. I started delivering papers for her as a side job and only had about 12 papers to deliver, but they were spread out over 4 miles !!!

Mum and dad quickly became helpers for her and dad actually built a small gate between our front gardens, so a couple of times a day one of us kids would go through the gate with a sandwich or a cup of tea for 'next door gran.' I don't really remember how long she lived there but it was only a few years when new neighbours moved in and completely renovated the house and the overgrown back garden.

Just within a 2-minute walk of the house was the local Church - St Hugh of Lincoln, which, as a good catholic family, we would attend every week. Right next door to the church was the Nursery and Primary School - also called St Hugh of Lincoln. We all attended the school as little kids. The school hall was used by the school during the day and by the church at night and at weekends and we spent a lot of time there over the years.

Mum and dad became quite well known in the church community - Dad would help with counting the collection once a month - we would sometimes go along as kids and help count the small coins! Dad also spent a few years running the bar in the school hall - so quite often for wedding receptions, parties and the odd bingo night - we three kids would be dragged along and used as unpaid waiters - although I did often get a free bottle of Canada dry ginger ale from dad for helping out!

There are lots of 'religious; photos but here are a few from the first few months in Manchester. Chris and my first holy communions and some family 'before church photos. Plus one of us 3 boys, when I am being strangled by a priest and Gareth, was an altar boy.

The three of us also actually ended up as altar boys - working the Sunday mass, feeding the congregation the wafers and holding the plate. Sometimes we also worked for funerals and weddings too, often receiving a cash reward from the family whose function it was.

St Hughes was also linked to our Secondary school - St Pauls. St Hughes would borrow St Pauls School field for their annual Donkey Derby - a charity afternoon in the middle of summer when they would get a drove of donkeys and allow untrained toddlers and children to race them across the field - taking bets on the outcome (and probably whether any children would be maimed in the process! )

I do remember being pissed that I never won a race, so the thought that because I was so small I would be a good jockey, was probably bollocks! Here are a few snapshots of one year of Donkey Derby - Chris looked particularly happy this year, with his trophy and Ice Cream! Please note that I have grown a few inches since this and Chris is roughly the same size! (Sorry Chris, but you know it's true! 😉 )