a new comprehensive school and it was opening for the first time,so it was a new experience
for children and teachers alike.We actually had our own full-size football pitch and with real
goalposts .It was a real culture shock after spending the past 6 yrs in our old primary school
One of my 1st ambitions was to play football for the school not to get high grades in maths
or science,we used to play schools in the Warrington area and remember reaching the cup
final one year against Bewsey we drew 2-2.I remember my uncle Herbert came to watch
I used to travel on the bus to watch Bolton Wanderers play in their home fixtures they were
a top team then in the 1st division of the football league,in those days you could virtually
pick the team that would be playing before you arrived at the ground,not like today with
its injury list.On my paper round, there was a house with a television and I can remember
watching Bolton Wanderers play Blackpool in the famous final of 1953 at Wembley,it was
known as the Stanley Mathews final and Blackpool won 4-3.
As I grew older so did my curiosity about my father.and I finally caught up with him at his
workplace,I remember asking him when he was coming home,I was still oblivious then
why we were still in this situation.I visited him once more and that time he took me back
to introduce me to his family he had 4 children and the eldest was a similar age to me.
This was to be the last time I would see him, he died on the 6th of January 1955 the
reason given was he had a thrombosis in the leg during the night,he was 52 yrs.
A funeral service was arranged at Padgate Church and remember mother Ed and me
attending, Reg was snowed in on his farm in Cornwall so was unable to make it .Mother
insisted that we should walk behind the coffin,she never did divorce father so felt it was
still her right.It was a very sombre affair with no one speaking.
Britain was starting to recover with people having money in their pockets but USA
was always a very rich country in our minds,a haircut was costing us 9 pence in
America they were paying 8 shillings.it was a long time before the gap even started to
close,the country was virtually bankrupt after the war and had to ask America for help
with our finances,after a lot of time spent in meetings a deal was finally approved.
The Anglo-American loan agreement was a Post-World War II loan made to the United
Kingdom by the United States on 15 July 1946, and was paid off in 2006. The loan was
negotiated by John Maynard Keynes. The loan was for $3.75 billion (US$57 billion in 2015)
at a low 2% interest rate; Canada loaned an additional US $1.19 billion
The final payment was made in 2006 by Ed Balls (strictly) 43 million pounds to USA and
12 million pounds to Canada 6i years after the agreement was struck,the repayments were
to be paid annually but because of the discrepancy in the foreign exchange rate there
were some years that payments were deferred 1956/57/64/65/68 and 1976.
In 1946 Britains National Debt stood at 250 % of GDP today's comparison is 36.8 %
There were certain times during the summer months we were allowed to take time off
school to help farmers who were struggling with the harvesting of crops due to bad
weather,I never needed to be asked twice,it was an opportunity to earn extra cash as
well as missing school lessons.
I learnt many things on my local farm working with the older men they taught me many
tricks I used to help with the corn harvest and it involved putting loads on trailers there
were many things you needed to know to stop the loads falling off this knowledge
helped me later on.I could do any kind of work connected with cereal/dairy/arable farm
operations before I left school
I finally left school when I was 15yrs one of my paper round customers had offered me
a job working in his business in Warrington.he ran a wholesale provisions store and used
to deliver to a wide area including North Wales.I used to travel to different areas with the
delivery driver and some days would be spent in the warehouse preparing orders.
My brother Ed's favourite hobby was cycling and on one of his trip's to North Wales he
met his future wife,she was a student then at Bangor Normal University,I remember her
visiting us for the 1st time and it was my role to meet her off the bus and walk her to
the house I remember this creating a lot of excitement at the time within the family.
It was at their wedding some time later I was offered a position as a student on a farm
which was run by Eryl's (Ed's wife)Uncle John,They had employed a student before
but he had an accident and wasn't able to continue.I took up the offer and eventually
joined the farm in St Asaph North Wales
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