Reader's Reflection: Life in Cheadle During the 1930s and 40s

When you were young, if you came from a family, you all had jobs to do, like fetching milk from a farm in a billy can or going to the woods to collect sticks for the fire. Scrubbing floors or polishing them because they were red tiles. You had to sit at the table for breakfast, which was always porridge that had been soaking all night. For dinner and tea, we had to eat what was given to us or go without.

Sunday, we were not allowed to cut our nails as it was supposed to be bad luck. We had to go to Sunday school. We enjoyed that because we could put our best clothes on, but then take them off again as soon as we returned home.

At Christmas, there would be a stocking hanging over the mantelpiece with an apple, an orange, and a few nuts and perhaps doll that had new clothes your mum knitted.

The toilet was right at the bottom of the garden. Not a flush one. You went down in the dark with a candle in a jam jar with a piece of string tied around the rim. The home guard man used to shout, "Get that light out," because the planes used to fly over and try to bomb Froghall Works and Cheadle Listening Station, but at that particular time, they were surrounded by loads of trees.

We were in a one-bedroom cottage, 6 children plus Mum and Dad. We used to sleep 3 in a bed with screens around each bed. We had a bath once a week in a tin bath. We used to heat water in a boiler, which you lit a fire under.

We could play in the road as you never saw many cars. We all had to walk to school over a mile away in all weathers. You left school on Friday and had to start work on Monday. You had to hand your wage package over and had half a crown pocket money. There were plenty of dance halls, theatres, and picture houses.

We had no fridge, just an old slab in the pantry used to keep our milk cool in a bucket of cold water. No washing machines, just a dolly tub and dolly pegs or a puncher. No phone, only a red box somewhere in the village or town. No television, just a radio on and Winston Churchill talking on it sometimes.

You never went to see the doctor very often as you had to pay. I remember them declaring that the war had ended, everyone had a holiday, and they had big bonfires and the school put on free food for the children. But there was still food rationing for quite a few years after.

The Americans used to come through on big lorries with a canopy over them, and they used to throw Gum Chum, which is what they used to call chewing gum.

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Reader's Reflection: Life in Cheadle During the 1930s and 40s - Created 18th March 2026