Norpig wrote:Did your Mum work in the mill on Gaskell St Sluffy? I remember you saying you grew up round there i think? My Gran worked there for many years.
I went to Gaskell Street County Primary School (the old one which was knocked down, not the new one that you probably know of).
The school was almost directly across the road to the mill (but they offset each other if you see what I mean - if you think of a cross roads they were on the diagonal corner to each other)
I found this photo and think it shows the mill in the background and if I right the picture is more or less where my old Gaskell Street school stood, albeit it fronted Gaskell Street, but with the entrance in Wallace Street.
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/11021577.gaskell-street-school-memories/There used to be a ginnel at the side of the mill and every week we used to have to walk up to Sheppard Cross Street playing fields to play football or cricket.
I was frightened to play cricket because we played with real cricket balls and there was never a session when some kid or other got injured - true story.
To answer your question, no my mam worked in a mill near where she lived with her parents, around the bottom of Derby Street, close to the town centre (I might be misremembering a bit but I think the ground floor of it turned into a snooker club for a short while?).
I think she might have carried on working there before my brother and I were born and she became a full time housewife while we grew up but when we were old enough to look after ourselves she went to work at Roocrofts, Brownlow Way where they made these -
I bet your granny must have been an excellent lip reader too, working in the mills as she did.
Happy days, eh?