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The transcript is an interview with Eddie Chatwood as transcribed by Microsoft Word and summarised by ChatGPT and subject to errors.
Personal Background
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Name: Eddy Chatwood
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Born: 1946
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Early Home: Factory Street, Ramsbottom
Memories of Ramsbottom Shops & Businesses
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Unique shops:
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Low Mixes: famous for Lumix ice cream.
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Buckle Banks chip shop: known for homemade puddings.
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Vic Norman’s: only bicycle shop in town.
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Lesters grocers: remembered for the smell of coffee beans sold in small purple bags, alongside raisins and sugar.
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Pork shop: opposite the council offices.
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Cocktails Blotches (Bridge St) and tobacconist near the Clarence.
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Ken’s music shop: first place Eddy saw real instruments (trumpets, guitars costing around £9 in the late 1950s).
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Temperance bar: sold real sarsaparilla from small wooden barrels with taps.
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Streets & Daily Life
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Streets were cobbled, not tarmac.
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Steam rollers worked on roads.
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Horse and carts still delivered milk; metal milk churns rattled in the mornings.
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Police presence: Only one policeman, Mr. Johnson, on a green motorbike – children feared him and would scatter when he appeared.
Incidents & Childhood Memories
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He and a friend once threw a brick at a Ramsbottom single-decker bus; they were caught and grounded for a month.
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Bus depot: near the Esso petrol station.
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Haulage: horses and carts still used around Garden Street and John Woods Foundry.
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George Leach: known for his large grey horse.
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Blacksmiths: on Paradise Street, where horses were reshod.
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His mother worked on a farm using horses and carts.
Living Conditions & Home Life
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Early home at Factory Street near St. Paul’s Church and School.
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Communal yards and shared outdoor toilets.
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A neighbor’s pipe noises scared him when using the toilet as a child.
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Later moved to Kenyon Street/Heap Street:
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Two-up two-down houses with shared toilets.
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Toilet paper was newspaper squares; doors had no locks, so people sang to show they were inside.
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Gas lights hissed through the night.
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Moths cast huge, frightening shadows.
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Winters: ice formed inside windows; children dressed quickly in the cold.
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Bathing: galvanised tin bath filled in front of the fire; side nearest fire became scalding hot. Bath had to be carried out and emptied.
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Sounds of the Town
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Railway wagons shunting at night – loud but became a familiar background noise.
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Cotton mills: constant vibration of looms.
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Silence at mealtimes broken by women laughing, then the looms resumed.
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One could “tell the time of day by the sounds.”
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Work & Industry
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Father: wagon driver, worked in cotton mills and transport.
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Eddy spent time in boiler houses, helping shovel coal (“banking up”).
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Doors of boilers glowed, giving off dazzling light.
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Loud clanging of boiler doors common in the streets.
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Large groups of workers walked across fields from Stubbins to Ramsbottom daily, wearing paths that have since disappeared.
Overall Reflection
Eddy describes a tougher but close-knit way of life, filled with strong community ties, simple pleasures, and the industrial sounds of mid-20th century Ramsbottom. Many of these practices, places, and sights have since vanished, replaced by modern developments.
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