Bygone Bolton

Mr Magoo wrote:

Breadman wrote:I'm ready for him.

I've lived in Burnley and it was fucking grim.

It made Halliwell look like the Vegas strip..........

OY nothing wrong with Halliwell in the 80s, i grew up on that road, O what fun that was.

Whoa, calm down there, Maggy.

I grew up down there and I know of what I speak.

Robin Hood, Raglan, Lamb, Peel, Crofters, Ainsworth et al.

And then a kebab from Shimuls.

Peace.

The last time i went there, i was in my pjs getting that bloody black brick of the bottom.

We had some fights in the rag in those day's, it was  always mad.

Most of the pubs down there have shut now and it's heart-breaking.

But The Rag stands proud,shining as a beacon of drunken idiocy, refusing to yield under the weight of economic pressure.

And the bogs still stink.

Growing up in Salford I always thought Bolton was posh .

Not posh at all Angry, spent  most of my early life in a freezing fucking Prefab.

The people who lived in real houses were rough as fuck.

Mr Magoo wrote:

Breadman wrote:I'm ready for him.

I've lived in Burnley and it was fucking grim.

It made Halliwell look like the Vegas strip..........

OY nothing wrong with Halliwell in the 80s, i grew up on that road, O what fun that was.

I'm a Halliwell 80's boy too, i went to St Thomas' and went to Moss St baths every week. My Mum still lives just off Halliwell Road and it is a shame about all the pubs shit down now, especially the Robin Hood. Spent many a night doing the crawl from the Ainsworth to the Lamb and back!

You know what I miss most in Bolton?

Boltonians!

Another Halliwell boy here.

Used to go swimming in Moss Street Baths too.

I don't know if it is only me or not but I always refer even these days to going to the 'baths' rather than going 'swimming' or 'to the swimming pool / leisure centre'.

Used to play in Mere Hall Park as a kid but mainly on the streets with the other kids.

Got moved out of our house in the sixties during the slum clearance era but I'll tell you what, those 'slums' were kept cleaner and much better looked after than many of the private rented and social housing that the chav familys, the teenage mums, drugies and our freinds from abroad who are here for the benefits and free education and health care - bother about their homes provided gratus via the gravy train known as Housing Benefit.

It is a real shame about Bolton but then again you could say the same about many of our countrys towns and citys these days.

We got what we deserved I guess

Happy days looking back on them.

Makes you wonder what lies ahead for Bolton and the rest of this 'green and pleasant land'?

Does anyone remember sandy park, the one with the big steel dome, used to go there every day as a kid.

Mr Magoo wrote:Does anyone remember sandy park, the one with the big steel dome, used to go there every day as a kid.

Never knew it as Sandy Park, but if it's the one I'm thinking of, at the top of Halliwell Rd behind the Fox & Stork, accessible via Whowell Fold through the garages, I remember it.

We played cricket there during the summer.

However, we spent most of our days playing either football or cricket on Shepherd Cross St fields.

The top level was ours and the hard kids from The Victory had the bottom pitches.

Happy days before Xbox 360 had convinced kids that you played football sat on your arse with a controller in your hands....

Na thats not it, if you went up esrick street to the top, then straight across the junction, past the old scooter boys pub on the left.
Carry on for a mile or so, it was on the left, behind a large stone wall.

Ah, I get you now.

That's now where Bolton Rugby Union Club have their pitches and clubhouse.

I bet you fell in the Mortfield a few times too, didn't you, Magoo...?

i do Magoo, spent many an hour sliding down the sides and not managing to injure myself too much.

I think i saw a picture a few months ago of Sandy Park, the dome has been removed now! its just empty now, such a shame

Breadman - the park i think you're thinking of was known as Tootles park when i was a kid, its behind st Pauls

Norpig wrote:Breadman -  the park i think you're thinking of was known as Tootles park when i was a kid, its behind st Pauls

Ha Haah ! Yes, Tootles Park.

Cheers, Norpig...I've been racking my brain over that one and Google wasn't helping.

I haven't been to Bolton in about 15 years or so...what's it like?

Is Little Lever still a ghetto?

Norpig wrote:i do Magoo, spent many an hour sliding down the sides and not managing to injure myself too much.

I think i saw a picture a few months ago of Sandy Park, the dome has been removed now! its just empty now, such a shame

Do you remember the hill leading down to it, we used to go down it in shopping trolleys.
Fecking hell that hurt. 

Halliwell local history society

http://www.halliwell-lhs.co.uk/

My place of birth is Burnley but I've never lived there.

Proper folk though.