Leisure

It was a good sight to see a barrel organ with a monkey on top collecting on Church Road! The children used to dance all around it.
A good night in Gatley was Bonfire Night! Every November 5th, people held bonfires in the back yards with lots of treacle toffee and parkin. When the fire was really alight we would put our potatoes in and bake them. The fires were still alight the next morning. We always had a Guy to put on the fire.
In those days, more than now, old chairs and furniture and any old rubbish was stacked high and the sky would be red with the fires. We could see Belle Vue seven miles away with the rockets exploding into the sky. In those days the police never used to come round!

Cycling was a great sport and it was a sight to see a group of about 60 coming along the road from Manchester on their way to Wilmslow. On Sunday mornings, Cheadle Green was a great place to meet or have a rest. There were no motorways and less cars on the road in those days. Tandems were all the rage, and little motorcycles that did about 20 miles per hour.

As boys we used to hang about the corner of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Bank and nearby was a shop and a garage, but no petrol pumps. We used to see families in cars going for drives on a Sunday with picnic hampers strapped to the back. They would pull up to the garage and buy tins of petrol. Of course, we had to attend Sunday School and Church morning and night. There were three Sunday Schools, Congregational, Primitive Methodist and Church of England. There was a Good Sea Scout troop and Scouts and Cubs, a troop of about 40. They met at the Congregational Chapel on Old Hall Road. The scout master was a Mr. Griffon.

Near Gatley Green was the YMCA club. They couldn't get many members so now it is a Gospel Church. It was built by W.Barrell, the builder, who also built Baxter Park Estate. It cost a hundred pounds, more or less! It was a gift to the club and was built from the bricks from Gatley Hill Farm when it was pulled down. At one time it was a good club. It started in the cellar of the Congregational Church in 1925. There was one half size billiard table at the side of the coke storage and the boiler that heated the Chapel! It was started by a man called Dr. Thisleton Marsh. He was not a medical man but he had a degree. Even in those days he was very interested in the environment and saving the trees! Then it moved to over the top of where the Indian Restaurant is now in Church Road. It had a full time steward with a bar for soft drinks and chocolates and things like that. The steward was Mr. Harold Potts. They had collections and fundraising events and when they had enough money they moved over to the purpose built building where they had a good membership.

It had a Rose Carnival every year and people would come from as far away as Yorkshire to compete in the Band Contest that accompanied it. A Mr. West of Styal was the President, he used to donate a lot of money to it. One part of the club was in Stockport and the other was in Manchester so they had to pay two lots of rates! It was affiliated to the one in Peter St. in Manchester. Then there was a fire and the back part was burned down.

Looking at Gatley Green brings back many happy memories! Me and my friends used to play cricket and football there before the grass was laid on the green. It used to be gravel surrounded by black and white stumps. Many years ago the cottagers would hand out their washing on posts which were all along it. The trees round the green were planted in 1910 or thereabouts.

When we had a day off from church it was a trip to Alderley Edge on a cart with forms on top and a horse to pull it. The refreshments were an iced bun and a cup of milk. When we arrived we played games and held races. We always prayed it would be a nice day.
The lamps in the village were gas, and every night the lamplighter would come round to light them. I remember as a boy following him and as he lit them we would turn them out! Another game we played was "Pin and Button". One boy would go and pin a button on a window with a long piece of cotton attached. He would go to the front gate and hide in the hedge and pull the cotton. This made a noise on the window and the people in the house would hear it and come out. We ran away!

Of course, there was no wireless or television in those days so more games were played. Most of the village people went to bed at ten o'clock. There was only the picture house in Cheadle which showed silent films. They had two programmes which finished at 10.30. The trams stopped running at ten o'clock!!!
It was nice to go to the pictures in those days. The cinema was called the "Electra". We saw stars such as Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin and the music was provided by a piano. It cost 3d in the afternoon and 11d at night. We used to get the tram from Gatley and pay a penny fare. When you came out after the afternoon performance there was always something for the kids, a stick of rock or a lollypop and at the chipshop 3d would buy you chips and peas. If you wanted a fish it was an extra 2d! You would set off walking back to Gatley munching your supper. Taking your young lady to the pictures would mean buying a box of Terry's All Gold. A half pound box would cost you 1/-.
If you didn't go to the pictures you could go to a dance at the Cheadle Institute or the Conservative Club. There was always a good band and tickets were a bit expensive at 5/- but the dancing went on 'till 2 o'clock in the morning!

We used to play a lot of cards and whist drives were held at many places, with good prizes for the winners. Including refreshments, it was 2/6d and there was an MC for good measure. You could walk home at any time of night, there were no vandals! If you wanted a drink of beer it was 5d a pint. There were no betting shops, it was all done on the quiet in a backyard behind Cheadle Church! At Gatley Golf Club there used to be a large farm. The golf club was on the other side of the railway and there was a clubhouse built of wood. It was a nine-hole course and the farm was called Waterfall Farm. It is now the clubhouse. As you went through the farmyard it was a beautiful walk through the fields which would bring you out at Gatley Church. If you went the other way High Grove Rd. would bring you out at Cheadle Cricket Club. In those days they had caddies for the golfers to carry their bags and I sometimes did this for 6d a round. Sometimes you would go and find lost balls and you would get sixpence each for them. I was a caddy for quite a while when I was young. The professionals names were Bob Leather and Percy Knight. Most of the older members who are still living will remember them. I remember one player bringing a dozen golf balls to be painted one day before a match the next day. My father thought he would dry them quicker if he put them in the oven. You can guess what happened!

One of our main leisure activities was walking. Past the laundry at Old Hall Lane were fields, and where the two railways came together was a target rifle range and butts. The volunteer regiment used to practice there at weekends. All around the brook which runs through the fields grew aniseed. On Easter Monday and Bank Holidays people would come on the tram from Stockport, get off at the terminus at the Horse and Farrier and walk across Gatley Carrs to the fair at Northenden. At the fair there were canaries in cages. They were trained to pull straws out of a bundle with their beaks. Inside the straw would be a horoscope.

Mr.Millward kept boats on the river at Northenden above the weir. It cost 6d for half an hour's rowing. If we didn't feel like walking home to Gatley we would hire a boat, row up the river to Gatley and then leave it. Sometimes it floated all the way back down to Northenden and finished up against the chain which was stretched across the river at the weir.

We used to play football in the road at Gatley Green. We would put our caps down to use as goalposts. The horse-drawn carts would drive over them to park outside the Prince of Wales. The carters would go inside and have a few pints of ale. They called it a "carter's pint" and it cost 2d. After a few pints they would come past us fast asleep on the cart, the horse would be taking them home towards Wiggin's Hill.
The green was used for lots of entertainment. There were band contests and competitions like climbing the greasy pole. The winner got a pig. We celebrated "D-Day" at the YMCA opposite. That was a great day in the village.