Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

I have many childhood memories from living at 3 York Avenue in Culcheth, Lancashire during the post-war period. This is in stark contrast to my handed-down memories in our previous homes before the move. However, having only been roughly between four and seven years old around this time means I don’t possess much so-called factual information about the area. What I will share with you is what I can recall. 

York Avenue housed Atomic Energy workers such as engineers. My father at this time worked as an electrical engineer for the Atomic Energy at Risley. For a bit of perspective, I will describe our house in relation to how I remember it, and where it is located on the map here. 

Our back garden faced the back gardens of Broadhurst Avenue. Both York Avenue and Broadhurst Avenue junctioned to Hampson Avenue, which led to the centre of the village, and Warrington Road.  As a point of interest, the Co-op shop is still situated at the centre of the village, adjacent to Culcheth Village Green, as it was seventy years or more ago. Broadhurst Avenue, and perhaps also Hampson Avenue, housed working class people. Many of them worked at the Irlam Steel Works⁷⁸.

Ian and Duck Buttons

Here is a bonus photo of how I looked around that time. You can see me wearing my classic cardigan with duck buttons. You might not find anything like that nowadays anymore.

The succeeding posts right after this talks about some of my favorite memories to tell or be told about me. These stories are about our lower to middle class houses, my parents’ early days of marriage, my mother’s pelmets, mantelpieces, and other house decorations, and lastly, how mother’s collecting habits have been passed down to me and my brothers. You can find all of them here:

Lower and Middle-Class Housing | Early Days of Marriage | Sentimental Value | Furniture Brothers

⁷⁸ Closed down in 1979.