There are Beestoners and Beeston Linnets. Annie Benge is a Beestoner. She brings to these pages a lifetime of experience that only one born and bred in Beeston can tell and in the process explains the difference between those two qualifications.
Readers may be interested to have some background knowledge as to what old Beeston was like before most of the old property was demolished by Leeds Corporation in the 1950s - a heartbreaking time for many old people who had to be re-housed in other parts of Leeds/
From 1901 to 1917 my father, a shoe repairer, occupied a small wooden lock-up shop (one of four shops) which were sited where now is the frontage of the working men's club. In 1917 he moved to 3 Town Street / 5 Webster Fold, a shop formerly occupied by Mr Roberts, a tailor. From 1917 to 1956 father carried on as a shoe repairer. In 1956 this property was demolished and during the last few years there he attended to Leeds United football boots and running shoes.
These stone-fronted cottages ran from Old Lane to Town Street. The electricity sub-station was built in what used to be a farmyard and was just behind the first cottage - the sub-station still stands, although clad in new brickwork to form a bridge in the passageway beside the Co-op. The farmyard belonged to Mrs "Farmer Wood who lived on the other side of Old Lane in a little white-washed cottage below the level of the road.
When I was a small child in our early days at No.3, stables adjoined our shop and ran parallel with Town Street. I well remember hearing the horses stamping and neighing when things were quiet at night. These stables were set back a little from Town Street and were hidden from the street by hoardings.
The hoardings and stables were pulled down in the 1920s when Beeston Picture House was built, and later a garage and billiards hall covered most of the old farmyard site. A row of lock-up shops between our shop and the Picture House completed the development. Before the farmyard and stables disappeared, in the farmyard was a garage for a Crawford's Biscuits delivery van.
In Roger Row, off Town Street at the far end of the Co-op, a woman and her son used to make brushes. In front of Roger Row was Amblers Printing Works, a small family business with house adjoining and a pretty garden; I well remember as a small child a summer-house with rambler roses climbing round it. I believe there was originally a large farmhouse somewhere near Amblers and a pond near Back Lane.
Parallel to St Anthony's Drive was Taylor's Laundry, approached from Mill Fold. At the junction of Old Lane and Town Street were two red brick cottages and hoardings. One cottage faced Webster Fold Cottages and was occupied by Paddy Mills who for years was caretaker and bell ringer at St. Anthony's Church.
Beeston was well served by a variety of good private shops- and even had two Co-ops! Leeds Co-op and Butcher's Shop was beyond the White Hard and Beeston Co-op was opposite Beeston Hall which was where the Oldroyd Estate is now situated.
Public services included a good and frequent tram service. This was a railway station and a Police Station opposite the old school with policemen who walked their beats - no patrol cars then.
Churches and chapels swerved our religious needs. Beeston Parish Church of St Mary replaces an earlier building ad was reconsecrated in 1886; this has been a religious site since at least the thirteenth century. St Anthony's Church in Old Lane was built in 1904 to give a permanent home for Roman Catholicism in the village. There was a Methodist Chapel in Chapel Fold until the new Chapel was built in Town Street, the foundation stone of which was laid on Whit Tuesday, 1865, and the chapel opened on 30th July 1866. The Primitive Methodist Chapel was almost opposite Beeston School and I seem to remember it being in use in 1945.
The Methodist Cricket and Tennis clubs were in a field behind Ivy Cottage, Town Street and alongside Back Lane opposite what is now Thackray's. The 1939-1945 war put an end to this. Much of the social life centred round the churches and chapels, their dramatic societies, concerts, guilds, socials, etc.
To be called an Old Beestoner one must have been born here. A Beeston Linnet is one who was born in the old village, beyond Old Lane. I am an Old Beestoner but do not qualify to be a Linnet. I wonder how many readers can say they are true Beestoners - or even Beeston Linnets!
Showing posts with label daily life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label daily life. Show all posts
Monday, 14 June 2010
Monday, 7 June 2010
Harold Tinsdale
For a great many years Harold Tinsdale was one of Beeston's best known characters. In all the time he delivered the morning milk to our doorstep he was never known to miss; even when ill he managed to drive his little van so that his wife could do the legwork. Sadly, Harold is no longer with us but before he died Helen Lyman managed to record the interview from which she has compiled this article.
Harold Tinsdale was born in 1899 and lived at 58 Bewerley Street with his parents and three sisters. His father worked at a foundry in Dewsbury Road and then at Hawthorn Davy.
He attended Bewerley Street Infants' School in Hunslet Hall Road and moved to the school in Bewerley Street at seven years old. He remembered Mr Kirk, the headmaster, Mr Bates and Mr Leathley. Attached to the school in Hunslet Hall Road was a joiners' shop where Mr Jarvis was in charge.
When he was eleven he got a job delivering groceries after school and every night worked from 4.30 until 8.00 pm. He had a pair of wheels for delivering the orders and had to walk pushing the wheels.
He remembered making deliveries to a house in Tunbridge Road at the back of the Infirmary and one day he had a large earthen ware bread bowl among the goods. He lost his grip on the wheels and the bowl fell off and broke. The owner of the shop said he would 'stop' the price of the bowl from his wages, so his mother wouldn't let him continue working there.
He left school when he was thirteen and went to work at Boyne's Engine Company in Jack Lane The engines were all hand painted - "beautiful, they were," he said.
his pay was four shillings and six pence (22 1/2p) per week, from which he was given three pence (1p) pocket money. He started work at 6 am and was not paid for holidays or bank holidays.
After the first world war he was out of work for a while and eventually went to work for a milkman for just over £2 a week. He collected the milk in large 17 gallon urns from the milk train every morning. These 17 gallon urns were emptied into smaller ones and then the milk would be ladled out with gill and pint measures into the housewives' bowls and jugs. He left the milk round when his employer wanted Harold's job for his son.
He then went to the Post Office as a 'Temporary'. He would be 'knocked-up' if any of the regular postmen did not go in to work, so he worked hall over Leeds, including Harehills and Woodhouse.
He started work at 5 am sorting out his first round, then delivering it. He also had to sort and deliver a dinner-time round and a tea-time one. If you were quick you could get an hour or so at home during the day, between deliveries.
He remembered an old, retired post office worker who would stand at a postbox in tempest Road, where the last collection was 9 pm, with his watch in his hand. When Harold arrived to empty the box he would say, "You're two minutes early. It shouldn't be emptied until 9 o'clock." Harold would answer, "By the time I get this lot out I'll be two minutes late."
"The heavy sacks of mail had you bent double," he said, and when he was at Hunslet Sorting Office he delivered to the Copper Works, an hour's walk each way.
At one time he delivered to Armley Prison. He had to wait for the door to be opened to him, they step inside and 'sign-in', hand the mail over, then 'sign-out' and leave. When he complained that it was a waste of time signing-in as he only stepped over the threshold he was told, "If you step through that doorway you sign in," and that was that.
From Holbeck Sorting Office he delivered to Wood's Farm (which stood opposite St Anthony's Church) then he went along Old Lane which was a dirt road. There were no houses except for two whitewashed ones in a field near where Moorhouse's jam factory was built. Then along to Tommy Wass (which was an ice cream parlour) and then nothing until he got to the water tower up the Ring Road. There he delivered to Miss Maude at Middleton.
Harold was over ninety when he died but when he was taken out by his family it was like a royal procession. He once said he never got as far as the Park because everyone was stopping him to talk. He was one of the characters of Beeston.
Harold Tinsdale was born in 1899 and lived at 58 Bewerley Street with his parents and three sisters. His father worked at a foundry in Dewsbury Road and then at Hawthorn Davy.
He attended Bewerley Street Infants' School in Hunslet Hall Road and moved to the school in Bewerley Street at seven years old. He remembered Mr Kirk, the headmaster, Mr Bates and Mr Leathley. Attached to the school in Hunslet Hall Road was a joiners' shop where Mr Jarvis was in charge.
When he was eleven he got a job delivering groceries after school and every night worked from 4.30 until 8.00 pm. He had a pair of wheels for delivering the orders and had to walk pushing the wheels.
He remembered making deliveries to a house in Tunbridge Road at the back of the Infirmary and one day he had a large earthen ware bread bowl among the goods. He lost his grip on the wheels and the bowl fell off and broke. The owner of the shop said he would 'stop' the price of the bowl from his wages, so his mother wouldn't let him continue working there.
He left school when he was thirteen and went to work at Boyne's Engine Company in Jack Lane The engines were all hand painted - "beautiful, they were," he said.
his pay was four shillings and six pence (22 1/2p) per week, from which he was given three pence (1p) pocket money. He started work at 6 am and was not paid for holidays or bank holidays.
After the first world war he was out of work for a while and eventually went to work for a milkman for just over £2 a week. He collected the milk in large 17 gallon urns from the milk train every morning. These 17 gallon urns were emptied into smaller ones and then the milk would be ladled out with gill and pint measures into the housewives' bowls and jugs. He left the milk round when his employer wanted Harold's job for his son.
He then went to the Post Office as a 'Temporary'. He would be 'knocked-up' if any of the regular postmen did not go in to work, so he worked hall over Leeds, including Harehills and Woodhouse.
He started work at 5 am sorting out his first round, then delivering it. He also had to sort and deliver a dinner-time round and a tea-time one. If you were quick you could get an hour or so at home during the day, between deliveries.
He remembered an old, retired post office worker who would stand at a postbox in tempest Road, where the last collection was 9 pm, with his watch in his hand. When Harold arrived to empty the box he would say, "You're two minutes early. It shouldn't be emptied until 9 o'clock." Harold would answer, "By the time I get this lot out I'll be two minutes late."
"The heavy sacks of mail had you bent double," he said, and when he was at Hunslet Sorting Office he delivered to the Copper Works, an hour's walk each way.
At one time he delivered to Armley Prison. He had to wait for the door to be opened to him, they step inside and 'sign-in', hand the mail over, then 'sign-out' and leave. When he complained that it was a waste of time signing-in as he only stepped over the threshold he was told, "If you step through that doorway you sign in," and that was that.
From Holbeck Sorting Office he delivered to Wood's Farm (which stood opposite St Anthony's Church) then he went along Old Lane which was a dirt road. There were no houses except for two whitewashed ones in a field near where Moorhouse's jam factory was built. Then along to Tommy Wass (which was an ice cream parlour) and then nothing until he got to the water tower up the Ring Road. There he delivered to Miss Maude at Middleton.He walked all the way with, perhaps, only a couple of letters to deliver. He said, "Then you walked back through Middleton Woods until you came to a tree with a sign "HK" on it (Holbeck Sorting Office code), there you turned right to the main road where you caught the tram back." One day a "temp" was sent and they had to send out search parties when he didn't return. He had missed the sign and the turning.
He spoke of buying a Jowett car for £25 and giving Fr O'Connell a lift from Millshaw. Fr O'Connell said the car would not get over the bridge. "But it did," said Harold proudly. "It was a grand little car."Harold was over ninety when he died but when he was taken out by his family it was like a royal procession. He once said he never got as far as the Park because everyone was stopping him to talk. He was one of the characters of Beeston.
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Beeston Station
Some thirty years have passed since we had a station in Beeston. Another thirty years before that Cyril Clark lived in the station house, so who better to recall the years between the wars when the railway was an integral part of village life?
My father was appointed Station Master at Beeston from a station in Lincolnshire in 1927. He remained and lived there for about six years till 1933 when we moved to Lofthouse.
I followed his footsteps on the railway. Within a year of leaving school saw me in 1932 as lad porter then telegraph lad at Ardsley LNER. 1936 saw me going to Lincolnshire as a signalman where I have remained ever since in the Boston district, the last thirty years as relief signalman from which position I retired four years ago after 48 years railway service.
I can well remember as a boy of twelve arriving at Beeston with father, grandfather, grandmother, my elder brother and two sisters and on alighting from the train taking my first sight of Yorkshire and of the station house. I was not very impressed with its black walls in the middle of the other station buildings on the Up Platform.
My bedroom was above the office and general waiting room. At about 5.30 am, after my first night, I was awakened by strange sounds and voices unlike any I had ever heard before. I looked out of the bedroom window and was amazed to see the platform full of miners in their clattering, wooden soled clogs going to the train which would take them to their respective collieries in the district and was further surprised at about 3 pm to see them returning with blackened dusty faces and clothes. (No baths, showers and changing rooms in those days!)
Breakfast time saw many people catching trains to Leeds for work, among them Mr Drury, the then station master at Leeds Central, who lived in a Station Road house high above the station in the hollow. The same people started returning on trains from 5 pm.
Saturdays saw hundreds of football fans arriving at Beeston to walk to Elland Road to watch Leeds United when playing at home. The waiting rooms and platform were so crowded whey they all returned to travel home after the match.
Later on I got to know very well Ernest Hart, that great Leeds and international player of the time, (along with his partner and right half, Willis Edwards) who also used the train to Beeston from his home and then walked to Elland Road on match and training days. After the match, while waiting for his train home, he would sit talking to me about the match etc.
Being railway minded, having lived all my short life on stations, it was not long before I became "part of the station" and big friends of all the staff.
There was Harry Cramm, dad's clerk, who lived in Old Lane, Jim and Walter the signalmen, porter Charlie Ingram from Leeds, John Capstick at Beeston, and a lad porter Clifford. Charlie later went to Leeds Central and was followed by Harry Fant from Morley. After the early morning trains Clifford used to load up his two wheeled parcel cart with parcels to deliver all round Beeston. On Saturdays and school holidays I often went with him to help and got to know a great many people in Beeston.
I also well remember that tragic day when the afternoon Kings Cross - Leeds express, coasting full speed on the falling gradient from Ardsley tunnel to within a couple of miles of Leeds, ploughed into the Beeston gang of platelayers working on the line between Beeston Junction and Beeston Station killing with terrible injuries either three of the five man gang, of five of seven; of which I can't quite remember.
I know the tragic scene of the accident shocked and upset father for weeks after. Being young I cannot remember the outcome of the ensuing enquiry and inquest into the fatalities, as to why the lookout man gave no warning and no one else saw or heard the approaching train.
In the winter when the lines were greasy father was often also called out to trains sticking on the sharp incline from Beeston Junction to the Tingley branch.
The goods yard dealt with all manner of goods, from coal for the merchants to waggons of shoddy manure from the mills and bones from the bone factory down the road being loaded and sent away. So with the goods yard, parcel and passenger traffic, Beeston in those days was a very busy little station.
My father was appointed Station Master at Beeston from a station in Lincolnshire in 1927. He remained and lived there for about six years till 1933 when we moved to Lofthouse.
I followed his footsteps on the railway. Within a year of leaving school saw me in 1932 as lad porter then telegraph lad at Ardsley LNER. 1936 saw me going to Lincolnshire as a signalman where I have remained ever since in the Boston district, the last thirty years as relief signalman from which position I retired four years ago after 48 years railway service.
I can well remember as a boy of twelve arriving at Beeston with father, grandfather, grandmother, my elder brother and two sisters and on alighting from the train taking my first sight of Yorkshire and of the station house. I was not very impressed with its black walls in the middle of the other station buildings on the Up Platform.
My bedroom was above the office and general waiting room. At about 5.30 am, after my first night, I was awakened by strange sounds and voices unlike any I had ever heard before. I looked out of the bedroom window and was amazed to see the platform full of miners in their clattering, wooden soled clogs going to the train which would take them to their respective collieries in the district and was further surprised at about 3 pm to see them returning with blackened dusty faces and clothes. (No baths, showers and changing rooms in those days!)
Breakfast time saw many people catching trains to Leeds for work, among them Mr Drury, the then station master at Leeds Central, who lived in a Station Road house high above the station in the hollow. The same people started returning on trains from 5 pm.
Saturdays saw hundreds of football fans arriving at Beeston to walk to Elland Road to watch Leeds United when playing at home. The waiting rooms and platform were so crowded whey they all returned to travel home after the match.
Later on I got to know very well Ernest Hart, that great Leeds and international player of the time, (along with his partner and right half, Willis Edwards) who also used the train to Beeston from his home and then walked to Elland Road on match and training days. After the match, while waiting for his train home, he would sit talking to me about the match etc.
Being railway minded, having lived all my short life on stations, it was not long before I became "part of the station" and big friends of all the staff.
There was Harry Cramm, dad's clerk, who lived in Old Lane, Jim and Walter the signalmen, porter Charlie Ingram from Leeds, John Capstick at Beeston, and a lad porter Clifford. Charlie later went to Leeds Central and was followed by Harry Fant from Morley. After the early morning trains Clifford used to load up his two wheeled parcel cart with parcels to deliver all round Beeston. On Saturdays and school holidays I often went with him to help and got to know a great many people in Beeston.
I also well remember that tragic day when the afternoon Kings Cross - Leeds express, coasting full speed on the falling gradient from Ardsley tunnel to within a couple of miles of Leeds, ploughed into the Beeston gang of platelayers working on the line between Beeston Junction and Beeston Station killing with terrible injuries either three of the five man gang, of five of seven; of which I can't quite remember.
I know the tragic scene of the accident shocked and upset father for weeks after. Being young I cannot remember the outcome of the ensuing enquiry and inquest into the fatalities, as to why the lookout man gave no warning and no one else saw or heard the approaching train.
In the winter when the lines were greasy father was often also called out to trains sticking on the sharp incline from Beeston Junction to the Tingley branch.
The goods yard dealt with all manner of goods, from coal for the merchants to waggons of shoddy manure from the mills and bones from the bone factory down the road being loaded and sent away. So with the goods yard, parcel and passenger traffic, Beeston in those days was a very busy little station.
Beeston Station was opened in 1860. It was built on the Great Northern line from Leeds through Tingley which was the Bradford, Wakefield and Leeds Railway at its incorporation in 1854. The Low Moor Company's ironworks was close by (opposite Stank Hall, this side of the Woodman) so a station in Beeston was a commercial necessity. The line passed from GNR ownership to LNER and British Railways before the station closed to passengers on 2nd March 1953. It remained as an occasional halt until it was dismantled early in the 1960s.
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