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Hello, I'm Michael - I study Maths, Geography and English Literature at A Level.
And I'm Sarah and I study Maths, English Literature and IT at A Level
We interviewed Mrs Riley about her childhood in post-war Burnley.
We took part in the project because we thought it was fascinating to learn the stories from other generations.
And how they were passed down - We hope you enjoy the video.
I'm Mrs Riley and I live in a small village of Great Harwood.
The rope on the gas mantle, yeah - and the man would come round - from the council.
And put the mantle in, and he'd come round to light it during the night - it would be on all night.
And then they'd turn them off, they had a little lever where you could turn them off.
And er, on the gas lamp, they had a - I suppose it was to put his ladder against.
It was all made of iron these gas lamps...
And as I say he put his ladder against that and climbed up to turn it off
And we used to put a rope round there, fasten a rope round...
...With a big knot in it, and sit on it - and we'd start going faster going round on the pavement.
And then we'd swing right round - and when we got to where the rope couldn't go any further...
...Then we'd push ourselves out and then we could swing round, you see.
And that were our entertainment, just playing in the street - which children can't do now.
There were cobbled back streets and in between there was what you call 'gas tar'.
What they do, they use gas tar to do the tarmac now.
But this was like liquid tar, in a big container - and they used to come round
The council used to come round with this big machine.
And put gas tar in between all the cobbled stones
Now, in winter it was alright, it was solid.
But in summer, well we used to get full of gas tar, because we used to play with it.
And, because it used to melt you see and we'd be knelt down.
And we used to have gas tar on our dresses and on our fingers - so we used to play with that as well.
Cigarette cards, because I was only young I can't...
And what they did, they skimmed them against the wall
And we used to watch the boys do this, and then they'd swap.
Like children do now with football cards, don't they...
And so they used to skim them against the wall and then the other boy
He'd skim one and if it landed on top he could keep it.
And then there was the top and whip...
Which we used to have and we'd colour it in different colours
And then she'd whip it, and all the fascinating colours.
That was one all the girls played
Invariably, it used to go round and it used to finish up in a nick and it would stop swirling then.
We had a, we got a puppy when I was about four.
We called it Mickey.
I like, took the dog on as mine - it was my dog, it was my pet.
And I taught it how to march - like the horses, you know.
We used to march, and I used to take it everywhere.
And Mickey used to also hold a skipping rope.
They used to come and ask, "Are you playing out?"
And I'd say, "No I'm not playing out but Mickey will come out".
And they'd say, "Come on Mickey" - and of course they used to skip in the street.
And Mickey would hold the end of the rope, while the other girl held one.
And then one girl would skip in the middle and Mickey would do this...
And then we'd come out, I'd come out, and I'd join in...
"Right, Mickey - Come on, you skip", and Mickey would jump there and skip, you know.
It were a highlight really with the children, with the dog.
At the top of the street there was a high wall, and we used to play on that wall.
And the lodges at the back, belonging to the paper mill...
...er the paper mill - a huge lodge, we shouldn't have been playing on it but we did.
And over that lodge was the viaducts.
And of course we used to skimmer across on the pipe, underneath.
Across, and get to the side where the paper mill were...
...and where there was buildings, where all the men worked for the paper mill.
And there was about six separate lodges
Man-made lodges, bricked in squares.
And the children used to sometimes go and take the dinners for their dad.
And they'd walk across the walls and there were a couple of children who got drowned.
But there was no law about anybody going on there.
But we used to play on this open lodge, the big lodge...
...And we'd entertain ourselves with sticklebacks - there used to be a lot of sticklebacks, fish.
And we'd play with them and we'd put them in jam jars.
And also, it became a tip on the other side
Where all the rats used to, you know, congregate.
But Mickey used to come with us, and Mickey would have a swim in the lodge.
And we'd have a ball, and the dog used to go across with the ball on its nose.
And then my friends, boys and girls...
Used to play which rat could get to the other side the quickest - just to entertain ourselves, you know.
They made a film in our street - at the top of our street
And they made a film called, "The Man in the White Suit" - with the film star, Alec Guinness.
And as far as I can remember, I was one of the children that were playing marbles
At the top of the street, with some more boys that lived round about.
And of course we were all excited about this
Because they were big cameras all over the street, you know.
And we didn't see anything like that, because there was no cars as such - Only for the wealthy people.