In the forum and chatroom areas of the site I have been inviting members to write an artical for the site about your jouneys back to the red rose county .What did it feel like comming back ,how had places and people  changed etc and what memories did you relive .Well our member BOTON LOCO  aka SYD from New Zealand Via ATHERTON has done us proud and  sent me this BRILLIANTLY long artical which I hope you enjoy as much as I did ,and I  hope this will inspier YOU to pen your memories .

NEXT WEEK  JOHN LARGE WRITES FOR LANCASHIRE RE-UNITED 

Our first trip back to Lancashire was in July and August 1982, after leaving from Southampton aboard the P & O vessel SS Orcades on December 23^rd. 1967.

The main reason for the trip was to see my Dad who wasn’t very well.

We arrived at Heathrow fifteen minute early thanks to a tail wind from Bombay, we were met there by my sister Barbara and sister in law Brenda, my younger brothers’ widow, after the greeting hugs and kisses we caught the tube to Euston, then a train to Crewe where we swapped to two cars my brother in laws Jim and Brenda’s, then round to Brenda’s place in Holmes Chapel to pick up my niece Janet then up the M6 to Dads place in Atherton .I hadn’t noticed much different so far too busy catching up un 14 year gossip.

The M6 was busier than in 1967 but not too bad.

Dads place was a three bed roomed semi built in 1937, five of us lived there Dad, mum Jack Barbara and myself, no problems we are all big ranging from five feet ten (Mum) up to six feet six and a half, (Jack). There were nine of us in the living room that night which is when I noticed my first change, not much space compared to NZ houses which tend to be larger, there are small poky places as well I’m talking about the average house in both NZ and the UK here.

Sometime in the late 50s or very early 60s the local Council planted trees on the “rucks” at the old Pretoria coal mine to “beautify” them.

In December 1967 some dark blobs could be seen from Dads place, but you couldn’t make out what they were. In 1982 the rucks were two huge green hills.

Another thing that I noticed was different was when travelling from Atherton to Elaine’s mothers place in Golborne all was fine until we got to Lowton St. Mary’s, then from there to the junction wit the East Lancs Road there was something different I just couldn’t make out what it was until the last weeks we were there when I had a real good look past the trees to the buildings, then I realised what the difference was. The trees were 14 years bigger, behind them nothing had changed.

I got a rental car the second week we were there so we were able to take my Dad and Elaine’s mother out for trips with us. I had no problems finding my way around where ever we went, the Lakes, Southport, Blackpool, North Wales, I even did my old 60s trick of leaving the main roads if there was too much traffic for my liking and just driving around until it was time to go home then I would look for a signpost to somewhere I knew my way home from, this has only let me down once, see my 2000 trip memories later.

When we were over there in 1982 someone suggested we go back in 1986 as it would be out 25^th. Wedding anniversary, so back we went, this time via New Orleans as I had wanted to go there since I was 16.

This time the increase in traffic in four years was as big as the previous fourteen year increase, there were a few changes around Atherton, Leigh and Tyldesley, one way streets and diversions but nothing major.

By this time prices had risen a lot, when we first came out here prices were spread 50/50 some things were dear here and cheap over there and vice versa, the prices were by now swinging in favour of NZ prices.

I can’t recall any major events this trip

.

This time I was on my own Elaine had died the previous year, Barbara suggested I have a trip over at the time, but I said, I’ll leave it until next year I’m not coming over there in winter”, so in May 1998 off I went.

This time the way prices had risen, and the even more increased traffic shocked me, I couldn’t get over it. Again I hired a car but wasn’t very impressed with the price of petrol roughly double what we were paying in NZ plus the cash exchange rate wasn’t in my favour. EVERY time we have been over the Kiwi $ has been on a high when we booked then the week before we leave it has crashed to 30p or less to the $NZ.

I drove all over the place most days out always seem to end up at a preserved Steam Railway somehow.

I always go to Grange Over Sands for a day, that is where we went for our honeymoon in 1961, we stayed at the Methven hotel, it is still there, well it was in 2004, on the right as you leave the town centre and head up Risedale Hill. It is about a half a mile out of town.

I try to go to some of our old haunts, by this time some of them were no longer there or had changed to something else.

Barbara and Jims eldest daughter got engaged while I was over, they rearranged the date so I could attend. The wedding was planned for 2000, Barbara asked if I was coming over for it, Wedding/ free feed/yes!

Yet more price rises and increased traffic volumes this time NZ is definitely a cheaper place to live now. Went out one day with Barbara to the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway. I was grizzling about the dawdling drivers ahead, and the amount of traffic in general, Barbara told me to “Stop nattering” I told her to come over here and see what my local traffic was like, a fraction of what you have although there is more here now as the area has become popular for holidays fishing an boating on the lakes and rivers. In 2002 Barbara and Jim came out here for a month and loved it, they will be back for a more serious tour when Jim retires.

Barbara doesn’t drive but she is a great navigator, if she has been somewhere once she knows the way.

We went out together one night to Astley to make a delivery then on to a mates place, after we made the delivery Barbara said “I’ll tell you which way to go” I said I know and rhymed off the route I knew, “You can’t go that way anymore” she said. I was right until we got into Leigh then was completely lost, we were stopped at some traffic lights at the Spinning Jenny St. Leigh Road area actually where the LUT trolley buses used to wait, two pubs opposite had changed breweries and had been repainted, and renamed, you can’t go away for five minutes without some idiot changing everything.

Generally what had been done was a row of buildings had been demolished at the beginning of the diversion and a new road laid where they had been then new buildings built where the road I remembered had been. Very confusing.

More one way systems and new buildings, I tend to expect some of the businesses from the 60s being still there, a lot of the shops are but in a different business now.

On my first weekend there I had arranged to go down to Coventry to visit Elaines Uncle and Aunt, Barbara scared the daylights out of me by saying, “It’s the May long weekend this weekend”. My thoughts were “What’s the ##$$%^&&* traffic going to be like on the M6. I needn’t have worried it was very quiet compared to a normal weekend hardly any trucks and not too much holiday traffic so I got there without any hassles.

Coming back was even quieter, I was driving in the LEFT hand lane almost all the way until I overtook another car and stayed in the second lane for a while until I noticed that the car felt a bit light and ”floaty” looked at the speedometer and found I was doing 90 MPH, so I moved back into the left lane and back to 70MPH.

I felt like having a trip over so headed off for a six week stay at Barbara’s, more of the same increased prices and traffic.

One thing I have always had a problem with on my trips back has been you decimal coins, in particular the 10P ones which were the same size as a NZ 20cent coin, I have had some funny looks from shop keepers at time who thought I was trying it on.

Another problem has been seeing an article in a shop at say five pounds 99p, forgetting where I was I have thought “That’s cheap I’ll buy one” thinking the price was $NZ but in $NZ the price would have been about $19.00.

I have never really felt a stranger but haven’t always known what people were talking about when it was things that don’t apply to a tourist, “Residents Stuff”.

One thing that I do like in the Atherton area now is the public transport. Atherton was always a good town to get away from three railway Stations, until Beeching and other clowns. The LUT buses were very good a great company and good service.

Now there seem to be more buses running to places I don’t remember them going to and the train service from Atherton Central is much increased from when I lived there more trains per day and you can now catch a train direct to places you had to change trains at various points (no pun intended) on your way in the 60s.

I would not like to live in England now; NZ is slightly larger in square miles than England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, our population is 4.1 million compared to the 66 million? You have, no contest I like the space too much.

On my way back home from a trip when I see the Kaikouras passing under the planes wings I think I’m home now.

Syd.