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Internment?


observer

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Would that be perhaps before they fully entered the war and a gut re-action to Pearl harbour.

 

I have an idea we practiced internment as well. Quite funny in the war, whenever you saw someone who didn't look "British" the word went round that he was German spy.

 

Happy days

 

 

In Britain government bodies also became involved in carrying out acts of discrimination against foreigners. Some local authorities turned aliens out of council houses. The Home Guard rejected applications from men with alien parentage or origin. In one case, an English soldier who had won the Victoria Cross during the First World War, was turned down when he tried to join the Home Guard because of his "alien parentage".

 

The three largest internment camps were at Wharf Mills (Bury), Huyton (Liverpool) and on the Isle of Man. Others were sent to the prisons at Brixton and Holloway and to a camps at Kempton Park Racecourse

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We have the benifit of hindsite, the populace and authorities back in 1939/40s' did not consequently everyone had a suspicion of anyone they thought may pose a potential threat to our national security and unfortunately if you had any family connection with the enemy the inevitable happened.

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Thanks Algy.

 

I "think" the site I am refering to was on Winwick road but I could be wrong.

 

I remember my grandparents saying that they used to get spat at by the Italians that were in there, as they were walking past.

 

Sorry , just had another look at the photo. It does come onto Winwick road.

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During the war years there was a docking/unloading wharf on the ship canal just west of the Acton Grange railway bridge that crosses the canal, the wharf was owned by the Richard Evan's & Co. and ships unloaded tree trunks that were then supplied to the Lancashire coal fields & used as pip props, there were Italian POWs' that were brought each morning to work at the site, these men must have been fairley local so it's possible that they may have been in a small POW camp perhaps the one that your grandparents talked about?

 

More Info:-

On from the crossroads with the nature reserve on one's left is Acton Grange warehousing site on the right. Now used only for road transport this was once the "Haydock Coal Wharf and Lay-Bye", so-called as it belonged to Richard Evans & Company who exported coal here from the mines they owned at Haydock, Colborne and Bryn. The National Coal Board took over the site following the nationalisation of the coal industry after the Second World War and latterly ships would arrive from Scandinavia bringing wooden pit props. Transport to and from the wharf was, of course, by rail in those days. The railway link is long gone but further along some rails are still embedded in the road. One can't see what's happened to the wharf but the Coal Board had it rebuilt in the 1950s.

 

Credit to - Canal Cuttings, Author - Nicholas Coleman.

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Pretty sure there was no internment camp Winwick road/ Long Lane. Could the below be of any help?

 

Well remember the "cotton dumps" for anyone who doesn't know of them, they stretched fairly well ( all the way ?) back on the Long lane side of Alder lane. Apparently large deposits of cotton under huge tarpaulins. Rumour had it that there were tanks concealed therein.

 

Happy days

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Hi again Harry.

 

I'm pretty sure I have heard my Grandmother mention you (only good things) :wink: And I think that is where I first knew you from as I spent a lot of my childhood around there. Happy Days. My Grandmothers name was Babs, she lived on the corner of north Avenue (Alder Lane end). Strange how we both now live near to each other in a different part of town.

 

One small incident that I remember. I got into a bit of mischief as a young lad, and hid under the bed when the local bobby came looking for me. The neighbours just wanted to give me a fright to quiten me down. I can remember seeing two shiny boots stood by the bed, thankfully the bobby didn't look under the bed. It wasn't you was it Harry. :D:wink:

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Intriguing. Think I saw your'wanted' picture on the board outside the police station. Might still be there. Love to know your grand-mothers name. Glad she lived in North avenue cos Alder lane had a bit of a reputation in the old days. Think some of them went to Beamont and the far end to Bewsey school.

 

Some of them were certainly harder than those on our side. Still, lots of happy memories of Alder Lane and its people. Perhaps I have mentioned before, the only sprint race I ever won in my life was on the field at the back of Orford Lane (separate from the park). St Ann's walking day field for one year only I think.

 

Happy days

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Harry, you have a mail message.

 

I'll tell you what the piece of mischief was.

 

The chap who lived next door to my Grandmother grew tomatoes in his greenhouse. I thought they were apples so I climbed over the air raid shelter and pinched them. It seemed like a good thing to do at the time. The next thing that I saw from behind the bedroom curtains where I was watching from, was the neighbour talking to the local Bobby. I watched the Bobby come into my Grans house, so I hid under the bed. I heard him comeing up the stairs to find me. Then the Bobby came into the bedroom. I was bricking it {{:shock:}} I knew it was wrong what I had done, and one way or another I was in for a good rattling.

 

But it was a better community, and good community policing in those days, and the fright that I got from the Bobby, which was set up between himself and the neighbour taught me a lesson. I spent the rest of the Summer hollidays helping the neighbour in his garden, and we became good friends.

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Another memory I have of the Cotton dump, is that is where I first went to see Billy Smarts Circus when I was in my early teens. I got two free tickets from another local Bobby. Bobby Dixon or Nixon was his name from Longshaw Street. I got the tickets in return for taking his young son to see the show. And his wife made me my first tank top. White with black stripes going down it, was the pattern, never had it off since. :D:D:D

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It's a pleasure for somebody such as your self Harry.

 

Remember the outside toilets (soil closets) at the top of Alder Lane Winwick Road end? Old Bob or old Dick as he was known had an off licence there. When you went into the off licence, he used to say, Show Me Your Hands in a sharp voice. He allways reminded me of Arthur Askey :D I held my hands out for him to inspect. And if they were dirty, he would say get out of my shop, and don't come back till you've had a proper wash.

 

 

Every Saturday morning, I considered it my bounden duty to creep along the backs where his shop was and wait for somebody to come out and use the toilet, I'd give em a couple of minuits to settle down, then open the hatchway where the council used to pull the tubs out from, and shove a lighted newspaper underneath them.

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