Memories of Longton & Area - Including Penwortham, Middleforth, New Longton, Midge Hall, Hutton & Howick, Walmer Bridge, Hoole, Bretherton, Tarleton, Hesketh Bank, Holmeswood, Sollom & Burscough, by Jane Riding Smyth
Published privately by the author in 1997, 110 pages. A4 size paperback (A5YWSO)
Longton is a small village in Lancashire that lies a few miles south-west of Preston, and this book collects together the memories of people who have lived, grown up and worked in the village and surrounding area over several decades.
From the introduction: As the world strides into the twenty-first century and a new millennium, much of our history is disappearing forever. In the next century, what will remain of the places we loved?
For a record of the villages I undertook the mammoth task of gathering together the memories of residents of many years, that we may picture again how life in Longton and area used to be at the beginning of the 1900s and even earlier; a labour of love indeed.
The first book of Memories of Longton & Area was so much appreciated and enjoyed that I have continued visiting and recording the memories of the people not included last time and have now built up another delightful collection of oral history for your pleasure. Step back in time and see village life as it was then, and ponder awhile about Victorian and Edwardian Longton.
Here are memories of childhood, family homes and relatives, school-days, occupations and work-skills; wage-rates, shortages, and Wartime memories; memories of the schools, the pubs, the cottages and farms, the lanes and the marshes....
Condition of the book is generally good. The cover has some minor scuffs, blemishes and creases, and light wear along the edges and corners (including a crease running across the bottom right hand corner), but the spine is intact, and all pages are intact, unblemished and bound. There is a name in pen on the first inside page, and a crease across the bottom right corner of page 9 that has caused some scrunching. There is also a small area of discoloration on the rear side cover where a price sticker has been removed.