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Two Latchford snippets.


harry hayes

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Some will know Halla Way, by Dickie Flourbags school. This is a bit from the Knutsford road book 'Bridge to Bridge'.

 

"A short road named Halla Way. At this spot a former Town Clerk of Warrington, Augustus Thornburn Hallaway, was involved in a dreadful accident in that road, which srangely, had previously been named in his honour. On 8/5/39 his car hit a stone wall at the end of this road, fatally injuring him."

 

A second snippet - which just jogs in my memory - "Between 1920 and 1940 a section of Victoria park opposite to Park avenue, became the resting place of genuine British fighting world war one tank.

It was taken for scrap in 1940 when the government called for all non essential metal to be used for the war effort. Also, all the iron fences surrounding the park were ripped out and sent to the furnaces".

 

Happy days.

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The town hall fountain was also taken with the gates for scrap.

 

There is a replica of the fountain in Alexanda park near Glasgow. I went to see it about 2 years ago now. Couldn't believe the size of it. Made a great picture.

 

Shame the fountain was never replaced. See how much Glasgow want for there's. :)

 

Never knew about Victoria parks gates or the tank. That tank would have made a great feature even to this day had it survived.

 

It appears Warrington made a good contribution for scrap metal with the above and also the Arpley Cannons.

 

I never knew about Halla way either. I guess you do learn something new every day.

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I believe that most all of the iron railings fronting the Victorian row houses all over town, lost them to the war effort. However, I did hear - don't know if it's true, that after the war, most of them were found stacked in warehouses. Apparently, Churchill instigated it all just to convince the public that it was necessary to make sacrifices.

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Pots and pans were also collected, and it's questionable as to whether they were appropriate metals to the war effort - seems it was a propaganda exercise by Beaverbrook. :unsure:

Aluminium or Bauxite is not a natural ore to be found in this island, the main source being mined in Australia, China, Brazil and India, not easily imported at that time, consequently aluminium pots and pans were a contributor to providing aluminium sheet for the production of aircraft wings and fuselage's. :rolleyes::wink:

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All fascinating stuff :D

 

Harry, I have the book you mention as I bought it from the authors (Latchford History Group) when they had their display of photo's at the Stockton Heath Festival. They also had a huge collection of fantastic old local photo's on show and they said they meet weekly in Latchford and anyone is welcome. I keep meaning to go down one week but I never get around to it.

 

Anyway back to the topic....

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Interesting, one of our best WW2 aircraft was mainly of wooden construction - the Mosquito. :wink:

You wont get any argument from me over that one, obs. :wink:

although would not have fared well in the dog fights of the battle of Britain it was a bit in the style of the Me110 only far superior, built as a light attack bomber and PR aircraft. :D

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Ok so I thought you were joking about the wooden plane, I am clearly uneducated :oops:

 

There's a great video clip here about the Mosquito showing old footage of it's build, it's action and it's people. Lasts about 9 minutes (the video not the plane before anyone says anything sarky :P )

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I remember walking past Latchford BA in the mid 50's and seeing mountains of USA fighter jets piled up waiting to be put into the furnaces they were(to my memory)silver coloured with flat noses and a USA Air Force logo on the side.My Dad was with me (he was taking me for a bottle of pop to the Pickering Arms)and he used to say that they were from the Korean War which meant absolutely nothing to me and mattered even less to a five year old off for a ride on the Penny Ferry and a visit to the pub :D

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I remember walking past Latchford BA in the mid 50's and seeing mountains of USA fighter jets piled up waiting to be put into the furnaces they were(to my memory)silver coloured with flat noses and a USA Air Force logo on the side.My Dad was with me (he was taking me for a bottle of pop to the Pickering Arms)and he used to say that they were from the Korean War which meant absolutely nothing to me and mattered even less to a five year old off for a ride on the Penny Ferry and a visit to the pub :D

 

A mate of mine used to go around that heap and he said that they were still whole with the guns in place etc. Lost of souvenirs to be had.

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