STORIES of building bonfires, playing in the street and getting up to all sorts of mischief seem to be told in many families in Bolton.

John Connolly lived in the Waterloo Street area of Bolton at The Robin Hood Hotel between 1950 to 1961 and recalls all the interesting characters who graced the local streets, including Bullock Street.

It makes you wonder if today’s youth will have similarly interesting tales to tell or will this be impossible as they spend so much time inside on their games consoles or watching television?

When many of our readers were young the only “inside” activities would be reading or listening to the radio.

Children would be out from early morning until late at night although they would pop back to eat.

They would play in the streets, making all sorts of things from old boxes, pram wheels and firewood.

They knew their neighbours and neighbours would look out for the youngsters.

One such neighbour John remembers was Eddie Platt the “reputedly rich” bookie. 

He says: “Every time he came in the pub he would buy a round of drinks for the vault lads.

“He would also put a good donation into the funds for the Christmas party and he would contribute generously to any celebrations and for funerals.”

We love to hear reader memories and we know other readers love to read them.

John Connolly, who lived with his family in the Robin Hood Hotel in Slater Lane, has plenty of stories to tell of the Waterloo Street area of town and remembers a grocery store run by Mr and Mrs Wainwright.

They both wore brown socks when behind the counter and they were lovely people,” he recalls.

The Bolton News:

Nearby was Gregory’s off licence where you could buy drinks and other items even on a Sunday when other shops were closed.

On bonfire night the children from Turton Street had a very large bonfire on a piece of waste land in Arthur Street.

“But we would often walk around to the other bonfires to brag that ours was the biggest.

“As we walked up Back Waterloo Street we would see at least six or seven different small bonfires spread along its length.
“Further up Waterloo Street was St James Church and School,” explains John, who was christened there and where his uncle and aunt were married.
Moss Street swimming baths was at the top of Waterloo Street. “We had to be careful because the gangs at the top of the street were rough,” he says naming Abraham Street, Trafalgar Street and Croasdale Street.

At the top of the street was Jack Sheffs, a temperance bar where you could get hot dandelion and burdock in small glasses for 1d.

“These were most welcome when you had spent two hours freezing in Moss Street baths.”

His childhood at The Robin Hood and around Waterloo Street and Turton Street provided “great times” and he will never forget these experiences and the people he met.

He also recalls Bullock Street which was also featured in a recent Looking Back story.

We understood it had been called a “short street” but John says he has never heard this.

“It was quite long from Folds Road to Mill Street which would be about 150 to 200 yards. It was also relatively posh with some big terraced houses at the Fold Road end which used to belong to solicitors and doctors in the 1880s.”
The two neighbouring streets were Lum Street which had the Gas Works’ at the end near Mill Street and Goodwin Street which had the bus depot along most of its length. “Goodwin Street, unusually, had a row of stone cottages at the Mill Street end which was quite incongruous in the sea of bricks.” A number of John’s friends went to Folds Road School and his father was a pupil there in the 1920s. Folds Road School had a very good “lads’ club” a couple of times a week, he says.