Eric himself

I was born in the year 1906 in Church Road, Gatley, and I have lived in Church Road all my life! When I was born my parents lived at 35 Church Road, that is now Ivory Towers dress shop. At that time it was a little cottage with four steps up to the front door. There was one room downstairs and one room upstairs. After a short while we left there and moved to 49 Church Road. This is where Pampers the hairdressers were until they moved. My dad opened it up as a decorators shop, he had a dozen or so men working for him then.

There were thirteen of us children in the family. Five boys and eight girls. I was the eldest of them all, there were three sets of twins amongst us! I went to school in the old church hall next to the church itself. Before going to school I would help out delivering milk and after school there was always the evening paper round. There were no houses on Styal Road in those days, my last call was at Worthington's farm at the back of Gatley Hill. There were no street lights up there and I used to get scared of the dark.
When I left school at fourteen I went to work for my dad. I studied at Stockport Tech. for four nights a week and finished up in the life class drawing models! A lot of our work at that time was doing stencilling in churches and painting murals on church walls. We also had to put on heavy embossed papers and create Adams ceilings to match the fine fireplaces in some of the big houses.
When my father died my brothers and I carried on the business for our mother. It was called A.C.Chandley and Sons and it later became a limited company. We did signwriting, marbling, graining and all types of specialist work besides ordinary painting and decorating.

I got married to my wife, Elisabeth, in 1932. I was 26 and she was four years younger than me. I met her when she started bringing flowers to my mum. One day there was a knock on the door at No.49 where we lived. When I answered it a man I knew told me that his sister was having to go into hospital and would have to give up her house. Did I want it? It was one of three cottages that stood where the Red Lion car park is now. It was No.69 Church Road and the rent was 6/9d a week! I told Betty about it and said, "How about getting married?"
We were married in St.James' Church by the Reverend Tyler Whittle. Dad gave us a three-piece suite and my brother gave us a bed and we moved into the cottage. Four years later there was a knock on the door! It was the caretaker from the primary school. He was leaving his house and he wanted to know if we fancied taking it over. This was "Rose Cottage", on Church Road, opposite the green. The rent was 7/4d a week and at first we didn't think we could afford it! He said that if we wanted the house he would take us to the agent who lived in Didsbury, opposite the Old Cock. He was the agent for Baxters who owned lots of property in Gatley even though they lived in Bournemouth. Baxter Park is named after them.

When we were at the agents he poured four glasses of cider, one for each of us. I drank mine and also Mr.Potts'! The agent polished off the other two! So in 1936 we moved into "Rose Cottage" and have lived there ever since!
I have two sons who live in Gatley. Derek Leigh Chandley who is a painter and decorator and John Barry Chandley, who is a greengrocer. I also have my granddaughter, Sarah Louise, John's daughter, who was born in April 1974.

During the nineteen-thirties I was a volunteer fireman. The fire engine was kept at Cheadle and I often missed going to fires because of the length of time it took to get to the station. When the war started I was called up for National Service. I was listed at Grade 3 so I couldn't join the forces, they sent me to Oilwell Engineering on Bird Hall Lane instead. I became a charge hand in the maintenance department. I started work at seven o'clock in the morning and finished at seven -thirty at night. After that I went on Home Guard duties!

When I left Oilwell after the war one of my brothers was running the business. When the other one came back from the RAF we carried on the painting and decorating. We still had the shop on Gatley green but the registered office was at 173 Gatley Road. This is two houses down from the optician's going towards Cheadle. In 1972 I left the business and retired. I have spent my time gardening, cycling, writing stories and other pursuits, including making a screen which is covered in pictures, newspaper cuttings, and various other things that will help my descendants remember some of the things that have happened in my lifetime. Yes, things were all very different in that far off time when I was young. They talk of progress and I must admit that life is much more comfortable these days but I sometimes have a yearning to be back to when I could stroll across to the "Mop" for a pint from a big white jug, listen to the village band practising for the Christmas Carol concert and have a game of dominoes in front of a roaring fire in the Tap room! Now it's a Karaoke in the Wine Bar but the village.....My village ......will remain...... Eric Chandley