Introduction
Julie's welcome to the archive
Voices of Women of Cornforth:
Lets hear it for the girls.
I grew up in the High Street in West Cornforth. Like all children home was the centre of my world. I had a good idea of where the village ended. As a child that was more significant to me than where the start of the village was.
The edge of the village was where as a child the adventures began. After school, at weekends and in the school holidays my friends and I were spoilt for choice about where to go. We often left early in the morning and returned home late afternoon. We took bait and a bottle of water to keep us going.
All we were told was ‘mind the road’, ‘stay within the village’ and ‘behave yourself’. I knew my address but I was never sure where West Cornforth started. I thought of The Green and Three Bridges as Cornforth and knew that the area was usually referred to as Old Cornforth too.
It was all Doggie to me. No one ever called Doggie Wood, one of our favourite destinations, anything other than Doggie Wood. I found the swing in the wood quite amazing.
I loved the walk to the Three Bridges, round from the garage at Slake Terrace, past Money’s Buildings and the entrance to the Hills and Holes, down the Back Lane going through the outside arches of the three Bridges shouting and listening to the echo. The Three Bridges were lovely; the railway bridge had three curved arches. The road ran through the middle arch and those on foot used the pats under the outside arches. We usually went through the right hand arch, turned right and followed the stream where the Paper Mill used to be.
My favourite place was the Hills and Holes especially in winter. I also liked going to the Jubilee Bridge on the edge of the other side of the village, to see the main line engines and trains that ran underneath. There was a pond on the way to the Jubilee Bridge where in spring, if we were lucky, we could get tadpoles and newts. Tadpoles and newts don’t hold the same fascination for me now as they did then.
Sometimes we walked to Tursdale Road ends to plodge in Coxhoe Beck in Ferney’s Field. I was responsible for a near disaster when one of the young children I had taken with me fell fully clothed into the beck. I panicked but my friend Jean acted swiftly and we managed to get the little girl out. We set off for home and hadn’t gone far when her uncle passed in his van. He bundled her into the van and fortunately for me got her home before she caught a bad cold.
My parents were usually busy working and I was very lucky to have been looked after by a number of strong, funny, caring women who were very important to me.
I went to college and moved away to work. When I married I moved to live in Lancashire, Once our children arrived I struggled to keep all the balls in the air even with all mod cons. I appreciated how hard the women in the village had worked to care for their families and have fun too.
I was also fortunate to get to know many men in the village who worked hard in difficult conditions. Dad went out for a drink most nights (someone recalled his dad, on a similar mission, saying he was off ‘to wind the station clock’). Dad came home with affectionate tales of his friends; the men he shared ‘the last hour with’ each day. They all seemed and often were larger than life.
I have used the Cornforth history page to collect memories of the way we used to live, and the women who shaped our lives. I have been helped by many people and done my best to acknowledge them in the articles and the acknowledgement page.
I believe that behind every good man is an amazing woman and I thought it would be good to celebrate the contribution women made to village life. I have called it Cornforth Women because Cornforth is the name of one of the first settlements in the area that make up Doggie. I consider Cornforth as the whole area from Tursdale Road Ends up to Stobb Cross on to and along Garmondsway Road and back down to the Three Bridges.
If you would like to share memories of village life, your story, the story of your sister, mother, grandmother, aunt or friend who lived and or worked in Doggie please contact me Julie Leitheiser by e mail J.Leitheiser@sky.com and they can be included on the Website,