We used to go up to the Wellow Institute playing billiards or cards or whatever, the lads and myself, and I came down one night back with my bike, I must have been fifteen, and it was a dark night, just gone ten o’clock, just a little bit of light. I had my head down looking at the ground, and all of a sudden, there was this shape in front of me and ‘bang’. The front wheel went straight between Charlie Bryne’s legs, Ron Hillier was helping him home. Yes, they’d had a couple, or several, and I went over the top of Charlie Bryne – didn’t do the bike a lot of good, but it did me a lot more harm, it really hurt. Charlie got up, the air was somewhat blue. Apart from bruises up his back he had nothing wrong with him. I got home and put my bike away and I’d taken the top off one of my ankle bones.
And I thought: ‘I’ve hurt my head’. There was all blood and went to see Dad, who was listening to the radio and he come and had a look. He said, ‘Mother, I think you’d better come and have a look at this.’ So mum came out in the kitchen – ‘ Oh, I don’t like the look of that’.
Poor old Gran, who was staying with us at the time, she came out and she put it right. She got the scissors out and then cut my hair away and put a plaster on it. The damage to my ankle made me limp for a while. Charlie Bryne, he was fine.
Ron Wallis b 1935
Tag Archives: Mike Smith
Eileen Smith, Mike Smith: Thorley, Blacksmith’s Lane
Blacksmith’s Lane, that was the original bridle path, went right through the copse down by the side of the two cottages, across the stream. Hec Stone’s – it must have been his grandfather – said he used to drive a coach and horses up through the copse. The bridlepath was still up through the copse… you’ve still got the dip. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921
The bridleway went up through the copse and over across the railway line and right through to the other road. Even when we were kids where they used to go across the stream, it was all hard gravel there. You could always get across there because it was shallower. Mike Smith b 1951