Memories of a very proud town
HERE are some memories of Oldham from the 1950s and 60s, with a few famous faces you may recognise. It was a proud day when the troops of the 41st (Oldham) Royal Tank Regiment came marching through the town on a rainy Saturday in July 1954.
The regiment was receiving the Freedom of Oldham in recognition of its exploits in World War Two, where it fought in the Second Battle of El Alamein.
It was eyes left as the soldiers passed the saluting base with dignity – acknowledging the gratitude of the Oldham onlookers.
The regiment was formed in 1938 with the conversion of the 10th Battalion Manchester Regiment to a tank unit. It was dispersed after the war to provide replacements for other units.
In 1947, the regiment was reformed, but was amalgamated with the 40th (The King’s) Royal Tank Regiment to form the 40th/41st Royal Tank Regiment in 1956.
It was a proud day too for Oldham Junior Seaman John Higgins when the aircraft carrier HMS Ocean added the latest battle honours to its flight deck after the Suez Crisis, also in 1956. The 17-year-old is seen giving the thumbs up (top) with Junior Seaman Len Ball, also 17, from Manchester. The ship had just docked in Devonport.
Memories of when children played together in streets almost free from cars are brought back in our picture, below, from Oldham in July 1952.
The local ice-cream van was still something of a novelty in many areas of the country, but clearly a couple of youngsters in our photo have managed to hassle their parents for the price of a cornet or two!
Youngsters are also pictured playing around the dustbin lids outside Number Two Court in Dickinson Street, Oldham, in June 1962. Our photo shows three-yearold Robert Watson and his sisters.
Mum is no doubt nearby keeping a watchful eye.
Slum housing in Oldham in the early 1960s was no different from hundreds of other areas in the UK, especially the industrial heartlands. Communal backyards were common, often with shared toilet blocks.
It was no fun tramping to the outside loo in the freezing rain in the middle of the night.
Toilet paper choices were Izal – which doubled as tracing paper – or squares of old newspaper hung by a piece of string from a nail.
Actress Janet Munro looks a world away from the slum back streets as she basks in the sun during her days at Oldham Repertory Theatre in June 1960. The daughter of wellknown Scottish comedian Alex Munro, she began acting in 1951 at the Preston Rep before moving to the Oldham Coliseum in Fairbottom Street in 1953.
Munro appeared in a number of films including Swiss Family Robinson with John Mills and The Day The Earth Caught Fire with Michael Rennie. She died from a heart attack in December 1972 at the age of 38.
Another famous name from the 60s, actress Pat Phoenix who played Elsie Tanner in Coronation Street, also trod the boards at Oldham Coliseum.
She’s pictured with Oldham Rep director Carl Paulsen discussing her performance as Catherine in Tennessee Williams’ play Suddenly Last Summer. The date is July 1968.
Smoking in the theatre was clearly allowed then.
Joel Barnett, Labour MP for Heywood and Royton, met the mums of Blackshaw Lane in December 1969 to discuss problems manoeuvring prams round poorly sited road signs.
The mothers presented Barnett with a petition and let him loose with a pram to try it himself!
As far as babies go, there was none more miraculous than Louise Joy Brown – the world’s first test-tube baby – born at Oldham General Hospital on July 25, 1978.
Our photo shows her radiant and smiling on her sixth birthday.
The in-vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure that made Louise’s birth possible was developed by Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe.
Edwards was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2010.
Finally in our picture round-up, we go right back to 1899 and a rare image of a young Winston Churchill, prospective MP for Oldham.
The future British Prime Minister and war leader served as the town’s MP from 1900 until January 1906.
Memorable images like these – and many more like them from the M.E.N. archives - feature in Clive Hardy’s brand new book Around Manchester in the 1970s. It’s now available to pre-order at the special price of £17.99 (free postage and packing) from the iNostalgia website – inostalgia.co.uk. Alternatively you can fill out the coupon on this page. The offer, which also includes a free electronic version of Clive’s previous book Around Manchester in the 1960s, closes on September 30, so make sure you place your order now! The book will be despatched in the week beginning September 25. It will then go on general sale at a recommended retail price of £19.99. In the meantime, Clive Hardy’s previous books, the much-acclaimed Around Manchester in the 1950s and Around Manchester in the 1960s, are on sale at all good bookshops. Alternatively you can order the books from the iNostalgia website.