SPECIAL EVENTS IN CASTLE HALL

SPECIAL EVENTS

This page is intended to be for those " one-off " occasions such as Coronations and VE Day and is dependent on you
telling us your stories.

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This is an account of VE Day, and the events leading up to it, given to me by Castle Hall resident Mary Edwards (nee Dimelow).

I was seven years old when the war started on the 3rd September, 1939. A month before an army vehicle with an officer in
had called to tell my Dad to report to the Armoury on Old Street in Ashton-under-Lyne within the hour and with his full kit.
He was on reserve as he had served in WW1 and he was in the Territorials. He was sent to France and was in the Dunkirk
evacuation.One day a neighbour of ours, Mrs Winship (nee Woolvin) knocked on the door and said
" your beloved husband is coming up the street " and my Mother replied " not mine Kit, he's in France ".
I didn't wait to hear anymore, I ran up the street to meet him. He was one of the lucky ones who got back safe to England.
You can imagine how thrilled we all were when the war ended. The kids collecting wood for a bonfire and Mums getting food ready
for a party in the backyard. I remember Albert Lowe, he kept the shop on the corner of Forester Street and Walmsley Street,
walking up the ginnel dressed immaculately in a dark suit and green trilby which he took off, kicked it into the yard and said
" it's a day for kicking your bloody hat about ". He went in their back door and came out with a white enamel bucket which he
gave to someone along with some money to go to Fairclough's shed for a bucket of ice cream.
My Grandfather, as the eldest person present, was asked to light the bonfire and the celebrations began.
" HAPPY DAYS "