Bobby Smiths mother and my maternal grandmother were sisters but we always referred to her as Granny Smith. I remember also that WOODS the butchers on the High St had a slaughter house across the back lane of the shop, when they killed a pig, me and my sister Enid used to go to the yard and watch them, when the men hung the pig up and drained it of blood they used to carry the blood up to the corner of the yard where there was a copper boiler with a fire under it, they poured the blood into the copper, me and my sister used to stir it as it thickened the men came back after a little while and put small pieces of pig fat into the copper which then it was too thick for us to stir. Our payment for doing that was the pigs bladder washed out blown up tied off and given to us to play football with until it punctured (Happy memories)
One day we were walking down lower Stanghow near where the bridge crossed the road when one of the bogies came off the track spilling the shale onto the road below about 5 yards in front of us, I think that was about mid 1948.
And there was a Scarlet Fever Hospital at the rear of the mine when I lived there, it had been converted to a house and a family called Kettlewell lived there I think they had about 6/7 children.
George