Katy MonaghanSend a message to

Katy Monaghan

Katy Monaghan

Barbara Eckersley's Story - Interviewed on 13/10/2011 by Katy Monaghan. “Born Barbara Catlow on 6th February 1940 in Hope Hospital the eldest of 3 children, David born 1941 and James born 1944 to my mother ‘Alice Ann Catlow’ (maiden name Rea) and my father ‘James Robert Grange Catlow’ born 1921. In June 1941 Hope Hospital was bombed and many nurses died. Hope Hospital is known to have a ghost of a ‘White Lady’ who was the matron of the ward and is known to walk around the ward with her candle lit lamp at night. As a result of the damage in 1942 my mother gave birth to David her second child in a spare bedroom in our neighbours house, Mrs Bennet. Living in a two up two down terrace house on '52 Ash Street', which is now the area of the ‘Upside Down Houses’. My house had two bedrooms upstairs one of the rooms was very large so my father used plywood to separate the room, so I had my own bedroom with my own door away from my brothers. I was very lucky because most children had to share their bedrooms and beds. There was no bathroom in our house just an outside toilet that would freeze up in the winter so we regularly had to put salt down it to keep it from freezing up. One of my jobs when I was young was to cut up old newspapers and place the cutting onto the nail of the wall inside the outside toilet to be used as toilet paper. Every Friday night the tin bath that was hung in the backyard was brought into the kitchen and filled up with hot water from the boiler. Then we would all take a bath in the shared water, the children would go first then we were sent to bed whilst our parents took a bath. The Second World War broke out in 1939 and rationing starting in 1940. As a child we had a metal air raid shelter in our backyard and I remember one night when a bomb meant for Salford Docks dropped two streets away on ‘Alder Street’ and ‘Highfield Road’ killing many people. After that when the sirens went off my mother made us evacuate to the local area, air raid shelter which was under Chimney Pot Park. The shelter was split into two parts. I remember being around 3 years old, all huddled up and being taken to the park in the early hours and candles lighting up the inside of the shelters. As a child I found it fun and exciting sleeping on a piece of wood that was coming out from the side of the wall. Years later after the war I remember playing in the air raid shelters as a child, today they are still there but have been filled in. I remember the winters being very bad and in the heavy snow my friends and I would build igloos. That’s when we had season’s… winter, summer today we get them all at once. In winter my mother would take the metal shelf from out of the oven, wrap it up in some old cloths and put it into my bed to warm it up at night. In the morning I would forget about it, wake up and bang my legs on it, leaving me many of bruises. In them days we didn’t have duvets on our beds instead we just had army blankets and coats lied over us to keep us warm. Bonfire night was very exciting each street would have there own bonfires in the middle of the street and we would all share homemade food. I spent many hours playing with friends from my street and other areas. At 5.30pm I would go home for tea then play out until 7pm then I would go inside and listen to 'The Archers' on the radio, which was the highlight of the day. I also enjoyed going to the local picture houses there was ‘The Langworthy’ which was 4 streets from my house. This once stood opposite the new Methodist Church on ‘Langworthy Road’ it survived the bombs and would show cinematic pictures 3 nights a week and then would change the film over for another 3 nights and there was ‘The Royal Picture House’ overlapping ‘Highfield Road’ and ‘Fizwarren Street’. Ticket prices would cost one Shilling for an adult and 6 Pence for a child. There was also a pub on ever corner of a long street my father would go into ‘Langworthy Road Pub’ every now and again. It still stands today but will soon be demolished, its stands on the left hand side next to the new Methodist Church but has been shut for many years. My father James was a caring and gentle man who didn’t believe in the war and when he was called up for national service he passed his medical but didn’t have good hearing. Age 23 he was sent to Norfolk to work on the farms. He planted vegetables, which was an important job to be able to maintain Britain’s food supply because all the imports coming into Britain stopped. I remember him going off to war and my father’s cousin, which we referred to as our uncle John Wallace from Southampton coming to see us in his uniform. After the war John settled in Salford. My father also came back to Salford after the war and worked at the ‘Co-op’ delivering bread. When the Manchester Irwell flooded badly in the 1950’s he would drive his van to the houses in the affected areas and give bread, milk and cakes to the people through their upstairs windows by standing on the ¬top of his delivery van. I got my first doll when I was 8 years old only because my mother worked at a doll making factory on ‘Ellor Street’, making doll’s clothes after the war. We were allowed to leave school aged 15, either at Easter, in July or at Christmas. As I was aged 15 in February I was allowed to leave in March, which was Easter time. I started work on the Tuesday of Easter week and worked at ‘Affleck and Brown’, which was a large family run department store in Manchester’s town centre. My wage in 1955 was £7 a week, I was allowed to keep £3 each week but had to give my mother the rest. Out of the £3 I kept, I had to pay for my own bus fare use it to buy myself lunch and my own clothes. I lived on ‘Ash Street’ until I was 22 years old. Then I got married to my husband Patrick Eckersley in St James RC Church on 1st September 1962. After we got married we lived on ‘Langton Street’ this house doesn’t stand anymore the rows of terraces where knocked down. Although the houses on the other side of the street and further down the road are still standing. Today the land where my house stood was sold to the houses in front to form gardens to their properties. As a married woman I would go to the community wash house every week to use the big industrial size washers and dryers on ‘Hough Lane’. I would pile my dirty washing into a pram. I enjoyed doing community washing even had an area where you could iron your clothes... Nothing like today."

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