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Latchford Memories?


Viki Lauda

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After I moved out of Warrington in the early 90's I missed Latchford, terribly.

My first job after leaving Dickies (Richard Fairclough) in 1984 was at Waltons fruit, veg & florist, only part time but I loved it. I bought all my shoes at the shoes shop oppersite (can't remember the name) & me & my dad used to love a liquid Sunday lunch at either the Railway or the Cheshire Cheese. My nan had at tiny flat at Brooke House on Grammar School road & I used to do some shopping for her in the 80's at Kwik Save on Latchford square. At the time I was best friends with Louise (Bernie McNamee's youngest daughter) & we used to have such wonderful times!

Does anyone else have memories of Latchford around this time? Would love to hear!

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welcome to the forum.

I went to the grammar school but left in the mid seventies. by the late eighties i was married and only ever went to latchford to pick up fishing tackle for my uncle from the tackle shop on the corner near the bridge.

only other times i visited latchford was to get money out from lloyds bank cash machine as it was the nearest one to where i live, even though that is on the other side of town.

i do remember there being a shoe shop but have no idea what it was called as i only ever shopped in that square once and that was to get some tomato sausages for my gran on my way home from work, a slight detour for me but not much out of my way.

no doubt some of our select band of *elders* will be able to chip in with a few choice anecdotes of their own.

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Hi Vicky and welcome to our little group. It's pretty quiet here these days so a fresh face is always most welcome.

Growing up in Orford, Latchford was just a place you went through to get to somewhere else. Then in my mid-teens (@1965) I got interested in homemade radio equipment and there was an army surplus and hardware place on the row of shops between Kingsway and Powell St that for me was an Aladdin’s Cave of spare parts to spend my pocket money on.

The shop is just another Chinees Takeaway these days but for me the “junk shop” as we called it back then will always be my most enduring memory of Latchford.

 

Bill 😊

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Hi there Sid & Bill & thank you for the replies.

Sid you made me so very hungry mentioning tomato sausage!

I have not had these for years are you can't buy them for love nor money down here in the west mids. My mum used to buy them every week at the market.

I think I can remember the hardward shop as my dad used to go in there for bits (he drove trucks for Poplars Transport, Lymm 60's - 80's) & pieces & my auntie Dot used to live on Powell street. I had a CB in the early 80's too. Handle was "Cherry Brandy" yet I was only 14 LOL! It was great fun. I met my first serious boyfriend on CB & he lived in Howley. Oh them memories!

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No need to thank us Vicki, we’re just glad to see a new face on here for a change.

Actually, most of my father’s side of the family was from the Latchford area or it may have been classed as Westy not too sure but either way they all emigrated to Australia when I was a teenager. I also have a good friend, John Cooper who grew up in Powel Street but who now lives just over the bridge in Grappenhall. I know he looks in on this forum but like so many others never posts anything. We do have one regular here with the username Latchford Locks and I’m surprised he’s not chipped in with anything yet.

I didn’t get too involved with CB radio as at that time I had a full radio ham licence. I did however end up with the CB handle Mr fixit as I used to repair sets in my spare time for a local dealer. Doesn’t sound quite as much fun as Cherry Brandy but a fiver for each fix paid for my beer at the weekend. 😊

 

Bill 😊

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Hi Viki - welcome to the forum and great to see a new face - My memories of Latchford from the 80s was the great little restaurant in the corner of the square - but i can't recall the name! I was also a CB'er and went by the handle The Editor!

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Wow, the mention of CB Radios in the late 70`s early 80`s brings back such fun memories of my late teens early 20`s.

I used to go by the handle of `Man In The Moon` at the time.

Bill, perhaps a long shot, but were you ever familiar with a chap having the handle of `Strawballs`? He was our local dealer in the Lymm area at the time.

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No Ian, the dealer was another radio ham from the Penketh area with the rather appropriate name of Bill Sparks. He was a very likeable entrepreneurial type of bloke and helped many of the CB enthusiasts to become radio amateurs. Each week he’d bring me a box of faulty radios to repair, the majority of which had simply been connected the wrong way round and so was a two-minute fix but I can only admit that now. 😊

 

Bill 😊

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5 hours ago, Bill said:

No Ian, the dealer was another radio ham from the Penketh area with the rather appropriate name of Bill Sparks. He was a very likeable entrepreneurial type of bloke and helped many of the CB enthusiasts to become radio amateurs. Each week he’d bring me a box of faulty radios to repair, the majority of which had simply been connected the wrong way round and so was a two-minute fix but I can only admit that now. 😊

 

Bill 😊

Good business at the time for your beer money though.

I remember the difficulty in getting an aerial that didn`t look out of place in the days when CB radios were not strictly legitimate. I remember thinking I was the bees knees having an AM/FM model with 120 channels on a slide out attachment in the car. I do vaguely remember the handle `Cherry Brandy` but it`s many many moons ago now and memory not as good as it was.

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Hi all! 😀

I remember the restraunt on Latchford square, although can't think of the name. I also remember Sayers cake shop in the corner with yummy cakes. When my Dad retired from trucking at Poplars Transport Lymm about 1985 he got a job with Currals pie shop delivering pies & would sneak me the occasional meat & potatoe pies which were lovely!

My dad bought me my CB a CB-Master 2080 AM 80 channel from another trucker at his yard in 1981 for £10. I started with a tiny ariel mounted on a biscuit tin lid & when I took to it like a duck to water dad treated me to a highly illegal 18 foot DIpole which he installed at the back of our house & the range was awesome, but it occasionally interferred with our TV & mum would go loopy if she was trying to watch Crossroads. LOL. I used to chat to another older lady from Padgate who was also a home base (in fact I would talk to anyone) although I can't rember her handle, & my old school boyfriends handle was Firedragon. I used to keep a note of all my copies & their handles & the range, quality of reception & distance but like Ian said this was more than 40 years ago, so I can't remember much more. I do remember having a clunky DC powerpack for the CB which used to smell of burnt Bakelite & got amazingly hot, so much so I though I would blow myself up, but it was terrific fun, with lots of excellent copies from lots of lovely different people.

How time flys! I am in my mid 50's now.

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21 hours ago, Viki Lauda said:

I started with a tiny ariel mounted on a biscuit tin lid & when I took to it like a duck to water dad treated me to a highly illegal 18 foot DIpole which he installed at the back of our house & the range was awesome, but it occasionally interferred with our TV & mum would go loopy if she was trying to watch Crossroads. LOL.

I remember my Parents banning me from using it in the car while parked outside the house after they heard that the neighbor's had had some strange interference on their TV`s. Trying desperately to remember the `Handles` of people I regularly spoke with along with the place name `Handles` that we used.

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Hi Ian! 😀

Now I have had a think about it I have remembered a few other handles of some people I had copies with. The lady in Padgate was "Silverlady" & there was another young lad in Pagate called "Penut" there was also a trucker I used to speak too called "Pie Man". That handle would have suited my dad as he used to deliver pies for Currals bakers on Thelwall lane in the 80's.

I was also banned from using my CB if Crossroads was on. My mum was obsessed with it. Mum was originally from St Helens but lived in Warrington all her life. She sadly passed away last July aged 88, which is how I found this forum as I wanted to reconnect with my roots.

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I have memories of putting up an aerial in my garden one time just to see if I could do it single handed. Quite soon I had several people complaining about it interfering with their TV, so I told them all I’d turn it off for an hour and they all agreed the interference had now stopped. Of course, I wasn’t transmitting anything in the first place and the antenna wasn’t even connected, but that's people for you. :)  I did often used to break though on the neighbour tv, especially when I pointed the antenna in a certain direction. She was an elderly lady and said she didn’t mind in the least because listening to me was often more interesting that what was on telly.

The first directional beam I put up looked like a bigger version of a TV antenna. It was made from shiny new aluminium and had four different length elements, each identified by a colour coded plastic end. This was at the time when colour tv was just coming out, but nobody could afford them. Of course, word spread and soon people could be seen standing outside my house pointing up at what they thought must have been a colour tv antenna. We dined out on our little deception for a while which was ironic as at that time we didn’t even have a working black and white tv.

 

Bill :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was born and bred in Latchford  and what a place it used to be .There was no need to leave the village and go to town as everything you needed was here a real self sustained community.

But all good things come to an end 😏.The social clubs and pubs and great range of shops from butchers to shoe shops ,pie shops to garage and Church plus schools and banks and doctors. Even our own Railway station  !  See the source image 

You name it; it was there. Plus so many places you could work. Most sadly missing these days.

A wonderful place to live back in the 50's till 80's (my era)

And here is the place I lived  , What a fantastic building(if a tad cold in winter🥶)

593278432_LatchfordStation.jpg.0ad8bc5e5a3a09066a80c274d8786d9b.jpg

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On 1/3/2022 at 8:24 PM, Bill said:

We do have one regular here with the username Latchford Locks and I’m surprised he’s not chipped in with anything yet.

.  

The reason I have only just posted on this topic is the position of the History post's section it' a wee bit out of the way where it is situated.

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  • 4 months later...

Hi Viki,  I have just discovered you while searching The History of Latchford. How wonderful it was to read your comments about the village in the 80s and 90s. I moved to the Village in 1975 just across Knutsford Road from the center with my wife who was born on Madeira Island Portugal. I met her in the Oak Tree Hotel in Newton-Le-Willows where I was born and bred. 

Your memories coincide with mine. You mentioned working in the fruit and veg shop belonging to Mr Walton. we used the shop at the same time you worked there until he sold the shop and opened an Iron Mongers next door which was taken over by his son when he passed away. I still use this shop regularly and have mentioned you to him.

I used to buy my shoes at the same shop opposite. Further down on the left was Burgess's News Agents and across just before the bridge was the Cobblers where I took my shoes to be repaired.

I remember Kwik save, the cake shop in the corner and the Wine Shop before the Square was developed and modernized. 

You mentioned using The Railway Pub which was my local from 1975 to 2000 and had a fantastic Land Lord, Bill Crompton. Sadly the pub is now closed. 

                                Wonderful Memories.   Many Thanks.     

                                                                         Fond Regards.

                                                                                                  Wayne.   

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  • 1 month later...

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