Broughton neighbours reminisce about life on Charlotte Street

This month’s Star Story from Keith Gallagher in Australia is a lovely reminder of what Who-Remembers-Me.com is all about:

“About two years ago after a lovely dinner and an even lovelier couple of bottles of red wine, I was feeling very melancholy and started thinking about the lovely Old Town I’d been born in, Salford in the UK - not to be confused with the Dirty Old Town!

I turned on my computer and started looking for sites in relation to Salford and soon came across Who-Remembers-Me.com.

My family (my parents, one older sister and two older brothers) and I immigrated to Australia in June 1960 and I often wondered what had become of where we used to live, No 26 Charlotte Street in Broughton. Did anyone remember the Gallagher family?

I knew our old house had since been demolished circa 1963 but did anyone remember anyone from my family and more specifically, did anyone remember me?

Well I checked my emails for two years but I didn’t receive any replies from the Salford area. Salford Council did send me some lovely photos of the front and back entries to our house, but nothing from any of my former neighbours.

Then a couple of months ago I checked my emails again and there was one from a lady named Rosemary. I nearly fell off my chair. Rosemary and her family used to live next door but one from us in no 22 and she and my sister used to play with their dolls together! Incredible!

I definitely remembered the family name which was McColl and I remembered her family. When we started corresponding it was just like the years rolled away; we spoke of people in the street who we both remembered and although I was only 11 when we left England I could recall them vividly (my family have always said I have a good memory).

Rosemary still lives in England, in Cheetham, and has grandchildren of her own now, and I’m still in Australia, in Sydney, New South Wales, a great part of the world. I married an Aussie girl and we had five children. Sadly I lost my wife to cancer but I’ve been lucky enough to meet another lovely lady since, so at the moment life is pretty good.

However there will always be a part of me in Charlotte Street. We lived in a typical ‘two up two down’ terrace. It was not one of the most affluent areas of England in the 50s & 60s and life was always a struggle for my parents, even though as kids we were too young to realise. We never had great wealth but we did have a lot of love and fun, (love provided by my mother, a wonderful person).

Our neighbourhood gang got up to lots of innocent mischief; playing football in the street sometimes until 10 at night, the occasional broken window - then run for your life! It was amazing the fun you could have with no money in your pocket.

I remember we had a game we liked to play and the nearest spelling I can get to it is ‘uralio’ (where you picked equal gangs and then tried to capture everyone in the opposite gang – does anyone remember it?).

But my favourite memory is of bonfire night, gathering firewood for weeks beforehand to have the biggest and best bonfire, toffee apples, treacle slabs all made by the women of the street and my favourite of them all, potatoes in their jackets put directly on the coals and when cooked, smothered in butter - magic memories. I am 60 now but I can still taste those buttery jackets…!

Since that initial email from Rosemary we have corresponded regularly and she seems to be a lovely lady. It’s hard to believe we lived on the same street nearly 50 years ago, but that’s how long it’s been since I left England.

I’m glad I joined Who-Remembers-Me.com and as pleased as punch I drank those two bottles of wine two years ago! Had I not I may never have gotten around to thinking about my old house on Charlotte Street. Thanks for bringing the past that little bit closer.”