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Long before census details and parish records were at your computer fingertips, those of us researching our family trees had to set off to local and distant libraries, record offices and churches where the original hand-written record books of the parish’s births, marriages and deaths were sometimes held.
You could get the bare bones from library microfiches (and seriously damage your eyesight into the bargain!) and some parish records that had been published in book form, but there was no substitute for touching, smelling, reading the actual record made at the time in the churches.
I spent one glorious night in the company of the vicar of the Pennine village where my ancestors had lived for all of the nineteenth century. A convivial sort, he brought out two volumes from the vicarage safe and let me loose on them; he also brought out two bottles of his home-brew, then two more, as the evening flew by.
The first two entries in one book were appropriately Adam and Eve but sadly these were two child deaths. There was more detail in these records than I could expect from Bishops’ Transcripts including the names of fathers of relatives who were born out of wedlock (yes, it happened a lot!). All fascinating stuff.
And this fascination continues for me, albeit now mainly in the comfort of my own home by computer, and for many others who long to play detective and discover their family’s past.
Hence the popularity of TV’s generation game, Who Do You Think You Are?, and Down Your Way’s own Yorkshire Roots. In our February issue – out now – we feature a major heritage event – A Window on Your Past – being held at Wakefield’s Ridings Shopping Centre next month (details on www.a-window-to-your-past.com). Down Your Way will be there, as will a professional documentary makers filming people with interesting stories and pictures.
See you there.
Kevin Hopkinson
Wedding days are supposed to be one of the happiest of our lives… but you wouldn’t think so from the faces of this bunch. Yes, it’s my mum and dad’s wedding in 1938… well there was a war on - maybe smiles were rationed! Still, the marriage lasted over 50 years so it can’t have been all bad!
Paul
Down Your Way’s main office at Broughton near Skipton looked a picture in the snow on Friday – a real Christmas card scene. Snow and icy weather might not be everyone’s cup of tea but how fantastic it is to see rosy-faced youngsters sledging and enjoying the snow. I hope you are able to get out and pick up the January edition of the magazine which is due in the shops on December 23. Actor Jack Meadows of The Bill tells us about his upbringing in Bradford and readers recall memories of good old Woolies. Older readers also tell of their sighting of the ‘great, grey monster’ – a German zeppelin over Yorkshire. Have a great Christmas and New Year.
Paul
The latest edition of Down Your Way hits the streets next week and having had a sneak preview I can reveal it is a real festive treat. I particularly enjoyed a piece by Roberta Best who recalls her grandma’s Christmas cake and pudding. It reminded me of the cakes we had at home when I was a youngster – there was always a thrupenny bit to look out for in ours while my wealthier friend down the street had a silver sixpence in his, and as he was an only child he was the lucky one… I had to do battle with an elder brother and sister. There’s also a super article in December’s issue about the winter of 1947. Now I’m too young to remember that devastating time but it brought back memories of the bad winter of 1963 and many days off school and endless ’sledging’ down a steep hill near where I lived. Kids today miss out on that kind of simple fun. I bought my son a plastic sledge when he was around four… 13 years later it’s in the loft having been used just twice due to a lack of ‘proper’ snow.
Paul
A friend of mine was told off by one of her neighbours recently for chalking a hopscotch grid on the pavement - ‘You’re not setting a good example’ was the accusation. She was showing a grandchild the kind of games she used to play as a youngster. My friend is no shrinking violet and swiftly told the neighbour ‘to get a life’! I wonder how many of us have been tempted to hop down the grid on coming across one - maybe you have and came a cropper? I visited a school recently where they had a hopscotch grid painted on the playground – the head teacher told me it was still very popular and I’m glad to hear it.
Paul
I got into one of those conversations recently, with some friends of the same age as me, in which we got on to nostalgia and the subject of comics. Three of us ‘lads’ recalled taking the Eagle and remembered fondly good old Dandy and Beano. There was a ‘broadsheet’ one called Topper I think. But the one I had most affection for was Buster… for one reason only: because I had a joke printed in it. Somewhere in the loft is a letter I received from Buster himself in which he said my joke made him laugh. Aah, I knew from an early age I was destined for a life which involved writing. Do you recall other comics from the 50s and 60s? Click on ‘Comment’ and let me know.
Paul
I was lucky enough to be at Headingley recently for the launch of Harry Gration’s new book, Yorkshire’s Sporting Heroes. What a fabulous trip down memory lane it turned out to be for an aging sports fanatic like me. To be in the company of the likes of Brian Close, Lewis Jones, Roger Millward, Dickie Bird and many others was a real privilege. Footballers Eddie Gray, Tony Currie and Norman Hunter swapped stories about the good old days when men were men and only the goalkeepers wore gloves. Harry lists his top thirty heroes in the book - you may not agree with all his choices but you can’t argue with his reasoning. He also takes us around some of his favourite Yorkshire arenas and there are dozens of nostalgic photos. The book costs only £9.99 (less 20% discount for magazine subscribers) and is available on our website or by calling 0176 701033.
Paul Jackson, editorial director
The August magazine has many stories to tell as Down Your Way readers reminisce of ‘those hazy, lazy, crazy, days of summer’ and wish that ‘summers would always be here’.
 Averil is the one with the alice band - third row, fifth from the right. Every month I bring readers articles ‘to life’ with the inclusion of nostalgic images, sometimes provided by readers themselves or by the many contacts I have built up over the years. Beth Belshaw, for example, wrote in with a wonderful article entitled ‘No More School No More Stick’ in which she tells of her memories of childhood summers in the 1950s accompanied by photos from her family album. One photo is of Beth as a young girl which has the caption ‘Me on the beach in a bubble cozzie and swim hat that pulled your hair out when you took it off’. I remember mine well, in fact I did have a postcard of me wearing the said costume sitting on a donkey. After the ‘photo-shoot’ I was unceremoniously dumped by my donkey much to the amusement of all onlookers! Continue reading…
It is always an exciting moment for me when I receive delivery of the latest issue of Down Your Way ‘hot off the press’ and the July issue was no exception. This edition has been themed ‘The Freedom of the Countryside’ to coincide with another great event in the Yorkshire calendar -The Great Yorkshire Show. Being a ‘country lass’, farming memories always tugged at the heart strings, country life was, for me, one big adventure and I would have loved to been a fly on the wall when one of our readers got the pigs drunk! How does one get a pig drunk? No, it is not a trick question: the answer is in the article on pages 42/44 of the July magazine (issue 139) But, if you want a ‘country smile’ or two the comic postcard article this month is entitled ‘Bull by the Horns’ -need I say more? On a more serious note there are many other recollections from readers who look back with fondness at a long-lost way of life that will never return and from the Land Army girls who sang with pride.
‘Back to the land we must all lend a hand
To the farms and the fields we must go
There’s a job to be done
Though we can’t fire a gun
We can do our bit with a hoe …
And now, at last, recognition is theirs.
The letters I receive each day take many forms but there is one in particular in this edition that brought a lump to my throat, telling of the part Down Your Way has played in helping a Doncaster family to cope with a relative’s dementia. But in fact it is the readers who are to thank, they are the source of these priceless memories that mean so much to so many. Why not get a copy of issue 139 and see what I mean?
Averil
This month we’re telling your holiday tales in Down Your Way, so here our web geek, Phil, recalls his love/hate relationship with one certain bit of beach furniture.
 The dreaded striped box. Image by Simon Howden A beach isn’t a beach without a red and white striped box, dormant for about ninety percent of its life, but awash with all of human nature for the other ten percent. Ok, so, yes, as an adult I enjoy secluded bays, cliffs and the peace and quiet provided by our coast in Yorkshire, but as a child, we hadn’t really ’seen the sea yet’ until I saw that box.
We spent most of our holidays, ( a week, or possibly two each summer) in Swanage. My dad would pack up the Cortina (beige with brown vinyl roof) with bucket, dinghy, windcheater (with yet another patch or pole replaced from the previous year, in fact, i think the whole thing had been replaced entirely within a few years) and towels early in the morning, ready for the massive drive down. You could tell it was a holiday, rather than just a day out, as the flasks weren’t full, which in turn could only mean one thing; We would be stopping at one of dad’s favourite road side cafés for lunch.
That alone was exciting enough for a young lad. The promise of a hamburger (MacDonald’s had a long time until they landed in Britain) and a milkshake, a thick one that would take half an hour of noisy sucking and slurping to polish off, was an integral part of the ritual.
We never arrived in the middle of the day, but often when the sun was beginning to settle into the sea. This meant a hurried tea of corned beef sandwiches before taking a walk on the beach before it got dark. That’s when I acquired my irrational fear of the Punch and Judy kiosk. Continue reading…
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