Maureen Hunt reminisces about living in Edge Hill
Resource Type: Audio | Posted on 12th September 2011 by Liam Physick
Maureen Hunt gives her memories of growing up in Edge Hill. She recalls stealing fruit and vegetables from the Edge Hill goods yard. Pat Moffat, sitting in on the interview, recalls how she once saw a cow escape while being transported to the slaughterhouse on Prescot Road, while Maureen remembers that a bear escaped from a circus, but was caught, and the man who caught it - at the cost of losing his arm - was rewarded by being appointed manager of the Red Brick pub!
Interviewee: Maureen Hunt
Interviewee Gender: Female
Interview Transcript
Pat: Have you always lived in this area, Maureen?
Maureen: Yeah.
Pat: Yeah.
Maureen: I . . .
Pat: Born and bred?
Maureen: I lived off . . . Chatsworth Street, between Chatsworth Street and Willoughby Street. Now, Willoughby Street run along Tunnel Road, the beginning and the end, with an entry in the middle, and I was born in Chatsworth Street, in Chalmers Street . . .
Pat: Yeah.
Maureen: . . . off Chatsworth Street. Right opposite the school.
Pat: Do you ever remember the smell of, of, the fruit and veg, when it was rotten here? (Jenny laughs)
Maureen: Oh, yeah.
Pat: Yeah. Because the gates were on, right on the corner where Iceland is, is now.
Maureen: Pat, we used to, we used to go over the wall and pinch . . .
Pat: (sounds astonished) Did you?
Maureen: . . . pinch the, the food . . .
Pat: Oh, no!
Maureen: Oh, yeah!
Pat: As, as a kid, me dad would take us to the park, but we’d have to walk Tunnel because his mates, we lived, drink, drank with in the Red Brick, worked on the railway, and we used to have to walk past the gate so as he could give them the nod, you know, for the Saturday night, to join him in there, and the smell of the rotten fruit and veg . . .
Maureen: Well, we didn’t know that.
Pat: . . .and there was one time a cow got out . . .
Jenny: Really?
Pat: Yeah, it, it, it was here, right here on the road . . .
Maureen: Yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah!
Pat: . . . they were transferring cattle to . . .
Maureen: . . . the abattire (sic) in . . .
Pat: Prescot Road.
Maureen: . . . Prescot Street. Prescot Road. The abattire’s (sic) still there . . .
Pat: Yeah.
Maureen: . . . it’s been used for a few films . . .
Jenny: Oh, yeah!
Maureen: Yeah.
Jenny: Yeah.
Pat: And, it was a cow, and we thought it was, we, I mean, we’d never seen, like, a real-live cow, if you know what I mean it got, it (indecipherable) . . .
Jenny: Especially on the street!
Pat: Yeah.
Maureen: Pat, there was a bear let loose, where it got away from one of the circuses in the, the park, and that’s where the bear’s paw come in . . .
Pat: Oh, down the bottom, yeah!
Maureen: . . . because, cos the manager that pub caught the bear, but he lost his arm (Jenny gasps), so . . .
Pat: Yeah.
Maureen: . . . he, he, he was manager, anyway, they bought the pub for him, and give it to him, as a, a reward . . .
Pat: Yeah.
Maureen: . . . for catching the bear.
Jenny: Oh, I never knew that!
Maureen: This place is full of history, you want to get our Bernard, he’s wrote a book on it, Kensington Fields, he’s wrote a book.
Categorised under: Social Life
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