Great views across the city from cable cars at Trentham Gardens!
I AM always interested in the photographs and stories in The Way We Were and wondered if readers would be interested in mine.
They are copies from slide film that my father Alfred had, dated 1968.
Many of the pictures are of Trentham Gardens, showing the swimming pool, the train station and the cable cars.
You can see Hem Heath pit in the distance in the top right of the cable car photo (below).
The cable cars were just inside the gardens and travelled along the edge of the fence by the park.
Even today the concrete bases that supported the masts holding the cables are still there.
You can see them through the fence when walking up the path in the park next to Trentham Gardens.
The train station was on the far side of the Italian Gardens.
The track ran along the far side (west side) of the lake with a stop off at the swimming pool.
I am at the top of the high diving board, aged 12, on the photo of the pool (middle right). I did not dive, just posed for a photo.
The indoor photos are inside the
Joker Pub, Blurton. The only people I know are pictured left with my mum and dad, Dorothy and Alfred, both originally from Hanley.
Our neighbours Mr and Mrs Welsby are on the right and their daughter Jeanette in the middle.
The first names of Mr and Mrs Welsby were Walter and Esther, although in those days you would not dream of using first names for adults.
I was born at home in 1956 at 5 Netley Place, Blurton.
I went to Hem Heath Infants School, Sutherland Junior School and Blurton High School.
I had three brothers (two older, Paul and John, and a younger one Tony) and two sisters (one older, Ann, and one younger, Carol).
My mum and dad died a few years ago and my second oldest brother John died last year.
DAVID BYTHEWAY
■ Do you remember the cable cars and trains at Trentham Gardens in the 1960s? Or do you recognise anyone in The Joker pub? Tell us your memories by emailing waywewere@ thesentinel.co.uk