Hilary's story
I was born in Seacroft at 48 Foundry Mill Drive in the front bedroom. I have two older brothers, John and Geoff and a younger sister called Debbie. I was the only one that was born at home. The others were born in hospital.
Hilary at 10 months.
Sandy the dog and Hilary at Bowfell Close
I had a brilliant childhood. Our parents would let us play out until late at night. We used to play marbles under the street light, Hide and Seek and we used to do dress up in the garden. We used to borrow my mum and grandma’s clothes and we used to dress up and have shows. All the neighbours used to come in and watch us. We used to go on Whit walks, and on a Sunday my dad used to go down to the Palace Pub in town and he used to take us down to show us off with all our new clothes. Sometimes we liked it and sometimes we didn’t and then when we used to get home on an afternoon he would make us parade around the street like all the other parents did with their children with all the new clothes on at Whitsuntide. My two brothers hated every minute of it but over the years me and Debbie got used to it. We used to love dressing up and showing off.
Teenage Hilary (middle) and friends
We went to Parklands school. All four of us went to the infants school first and then the junior year and then from Junior school we went to High school. We didn’t have a secondary school, we went straight to High school from Junior school. I loved school. The day I left school I cried. Debbie, my younger sister she liked school too. My two older brothers didn’t. They just used to like to go for the foot ball and sports.
Growing up in Seacroft was lovely. It’s not like it is today. Nowadays you can’t let your children play out. You can’t even let them go in the garden. I had a happy childhood with happy memories. We used to go to a youth club, it was called the Civic. It was at the side of the library up near Tesco’s at Seacroft. We used to go there two nights a week. It used to start at 6pm till 8.30pm. admission was free. You could play table tennis, football, artwork and trips out. It was brilliant.
St James' Church, Seacroft 1983
When we were growing up my dad was really strict with me and my sister. My brothers had a bit more lee-way with him. Us being girls, we weren’t allowed to wear any make up. It took us ages to get him to let us go to the Civic Youth Club and we could only go if my two older brothers took us but once we had been going for a while he wasn’t really that bothered as we were used to going.
We started going to Crossgates and we also joined a youth club at Foxwood School. We used to go there every night and we learned how to apply make-up, knitting, sewing and hairdressing. It was a good experience. As we got older, my brothers John and Geoffrey started going out drinking but we weren’t allowed to do this until we were old enough and then he couldn’t really stop us. He would let us know that he wasn’t happy about us going out.
We used to go all over town dancing, we’d go to the Mecca bingo. All the boys used to stand on the outside and all the girls used to stand on the inside dancing. All our bags would be piled up in the middle of us. We used to have to go to Sunday school at the congregation hall at Seacroft. My two brothers didn’t go but me and my sister did and we absolutely loved it.
I had my first kiss at Sunday school. There was two brothers, they were twins called Peter and Alan. They used to take us up to the Galas up at the Village Green. There was always loads and loads of Galas and they used to be the fair that came which was also on the Green. We used to go there quite a lot. The Springfield Nursing home used to be Youth club, a dentist a doctors.
My mum worked as a dinner lady so that she could have school holidays free to look after us growing up. My dad worked as an asphalter he used to asphalt all the roads and he absolutely loved that. My oldest brother did a little bit of painting and decorating when he left school and my other brother Geoffrey went to work ducting in hospitals and schools and he absolutely loved that. I went to work in a shoe factory.
I left school in 1976. I left school on the Friday and went to work on the Monday and I was there until I got married and had my kids. Debbie, my younger sister worked at Top Shop in town when she left school because she was into fashion. She did that for about 4 years. We used to both love getting a wage packet on a Friday with a wage slip in and we would go home and give our mum our board. My first weeks wage was £8.11. I gave my mum £4 board and I had £4.11 to go spend. We thought it was a lot of money back then.
Debbie left working in fashion and came to work with me at Appleson Shoe Factory on Granville Road, down at Lincoln Gree,n Leeds which she absolutely loved. I had all intentions of going back there when I had my children but it ended up closing down. Next door to Applesons there was a big sewing factory. The buildings are still there but don’t know what they are used for now. When everybody left school at that time a lot of us went in to making shoes and a lot of girls went into sewing. Applesons now is a Garage and the sewing factory is more of a warehouse now.
I met Colin my husband on the bus going to work. I used to catch the bus from Seacroft to go down to Lincoln Green and Colin used to get on at Gipton and we had been seeing each other on a morning and then a good few months after that when I was old enough to go night clubbing we’d been going to Tiffany’s and later went to Oceana at the Merrion Centre and I’d gone with a few friends and there was a room downstairs and there was a room upstairs called the Bali Hi. so if you got fed up with the music downstairs you used to go up stairs. And we had just been upstairs and I saw Colin and I said to my friend I’ve seen this lad before but I can’t remember where I have seen him from. I went over to him and asked him and we got talking and I said he remembered seeing me on the bus on a morning going to work and then that’s how it all happened and we have been married now 32 years. With twin girls, Donna and Louise.
We started going to Crossgates and we also joined a youth club at Foxwood School. We used to go there every night and we learned how to apply make-up, knitting, sewing and hairdressing. It was a good experience. As we got older, my brothers John and Geoffrey started going out drinking but we weren’t allowed to do this until we were old enough and then he couldn’t really stop us. He would let us know that he wasn’t happy about us going out.
We used to go all over town dancing, we’d go to the Mecca bingo. All the boys used to stand on the outside and all the girls used to stand on the inside dancing. All our bags would be piled up in the middle of us. We used to have to go to Sunday school at the congregation hall at Seacroft. My two brothers didn’t go but me and my sister did and we absolutely loved it.
I had my first kiss at Sunday school. There was two brothers, they were twins called Peter and Alan. They used to take us up to the Galas up at the Village Green. There was always loads and loads of Galas and they used to be the fair that came which was also on the Green. We used to go there quite a lot. The Springfield Nursing home used to be Youth club, a dentist a doctors.
My mum worked as a dinner lady so that she could have school holidays free to look after us growing up. My dad worked as an asphalter he used to asphalt all the roads and he absolutely loved that. My oldest brother did a little bit of painting and decorating when he left school and my other brother Geoffrey went to work ducting in hospitals and schools and he absolutely loved that. I went to work in a shoe factory.
I left school in 1976. I left school on the Friday and went to work on the Monday and I was there until I got married and had my kids. Debbie, my younger sister worked at Top Shop in town when she left school because she was into fashion. She did that for about 4 years. We used to both love getting a wage packet on a Friday with a wage slip in and we would go home and give our mum our board. My first weeks wage was £8.11. I gave my mum £4 board and I had £4.11 to go spend. We thought it was a lot of money back then.
Debbie left working in fashion and came to work with me at Appleson Shoe Factory on Granville Road, down at Lincoln Gree,n Leeds which she absolutely loved. I had all intentions of going back there when I had my children but it ended up closing down. Next door to Applesons there was a big sewing factory. The buildings are still there but don’t know what they are used for now. When everybody left school at that time a lot of us went in to making shoes and a lot of girls went into sewing. Applesons now is a Garage and the sewing factory is more of a warehouse now.
I met Colin my husband on the bus going to work. I used to catch the bus from Seacroft to go down to Lincoln Green and Colin used to get on at Gipton and we had been seeing each other on a morning and then a good few months after that when I was old enough to go night clubbing we’d been going to Tiffany’s and later went to Oceana at the Merrion Centre and I’d gone with a few friends and there was a room downstairs and there was a room upstairs called the Bali Hi. so if you got fed up with the music downstairs you used to go up stairs. And we had just been upstairs and I saw Colin and I said to my friend I’ve seen this lad before but I can’t remember where I have seen him from. I went over to him and asked him and we got talking and I said he remembered seeing me on the bus on a morning going to work and then that’s how it all happened and we have been married now 32 years. With twin girls, Donna and Louise.
Donna in pink, Louise in yellow. 2 months of age.
They were premature. They were born 13 weeks too soon. I had them at 6 months. They was only given 48 hours to live. Louise had an infection in her bowels, so she had to have a colostomy bag for 6 months and then after the 6 months they reversed all her bowels back in to her stomach. Donna was born with a heart murmur but they told us as Donna grows the hole in her heart will close up with her, which it did. But they were both in hospital for 7 months before we got them home.
Hilary and the twins on their first birthday August 1985: Louise on the left, Donna on the right.
We got them home on the 16th December 1985. They are 31 now so they have both made a good recovery. Donna weighed 2.1ounce and Louise weighed 1.15. Louise has had her own child now, Ebonie. She will be ten in March. The doctors did say that Louise might not be able to have children but she proved us all now. It was hard work when I got them both home. They weren’t used to being fed as they had been tube fed for 6 months when they were in hospital. Donna was allowed home first and then a few months after I got Louise home but because they weren’t used to being spoon fed they were back in and out of hospital because they didn’t know how to suck off the spoon so they stayed in hospital for a few more weeks until they learnt how to eat food and how to suck from a spoon. They have had a few problems growing up, especially Louise because she was the smallest. Louise has had her gall bladder removed, her tonsils removed. She’s had her appendix removed but Louise is the one that went on to have a baby of her own. They are both doing really well at the moment and I am very proud of them.
Donna, first left, with the late Richard Whiteley
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Donna and Louise aged 30
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Hilary at school dinners: Front row, second row from the right. Goodbye to Mrs Margaret Dobbie who retired after 25 years at Parklands Girls High school.
When Colin and I got married we saved up enough money to put a deposit down for a little back to back. When we started courting we saved up, we had a bank account and when we both got paid on a Friday we would meet up in town and put money away into the bank account so that when we decided to get engaged and get married we would have enough money to either put a deposit down on our own home or get married. We were engaged for 6 years and in that time we saved up and we had enough money to put a deposit down on our own house but then we were told that we were having twins, we lived in there for about just over a year and then I fell on pregnant with twins and so we left that house because we decided that it was going be too small. That was in 1985 and then we moved back up to Seacroft and we started to buy a bigger house with three bedrooms. We had to sell the car that we had because that wasn’t big enough; we only had a three wheeler so that had to go so we saved up and got another car. That was in 1985 and we are still in the same house in 2015.
Seacroft has changed. It was nice to come back up to Seacroft because of my family. My dad died in 1980 but my mum was still up at Seacroft. She used to live at Bowfell Close opposite the Seacroft club. My grandma lived just over road from Seacroft club so I wanted to come back to Seacroft. I still like living here but it’s changed over the years. It’s still a nice place to live. There are rough areas in Seacroft and there are lovely areas in Seacroft. Just like anywhere now. I have had some good times and met some great people.
I wish the Seacroft town centre was still there but whoever had designed it hadn’t designed the roof properly and when we had bad weather it used to rain in. On a Saturday Majorettes used to go up there and there was always something going off inside the old centre. Especially on a Saturday afternoon. Bands used to go up and play. Salvation Army played up there. There was a market. People used to come from all over to go to the market and then over the years as things started getting more expensive a lot of the traders could not afford the rents so what they did was they closed that off and they opened one inside.
There was everything you could possibly need. There was a cafe. There was two pubs. But it just didn’t seem right. Everyone wanted the old market back but it was just getting too expensive for the shop keepers to keep up to it. You could get everything you wanted under one roof not like it is now. It was a shame it had to go because it was there for a long, long time.
I don’t remember the Queen coming to open it. I was too young. I remember us all playing out at Foundry Mill Drive and it was Christmas time and mum and dad told us that Santa Claus was coming in his sleigh. These big trucks had been trimmed up. We used to call it the Sana and it was that big field where those big flats are, Park Way Grange and Parkway Court. At the back of there is a big field that slopes up and growing up as kids we called it the Sana. At the bottom of there is still the main road and it was two days before Christmas and we were all getting excited waiting for Father Christmas to come up on the road. The first truck that came up was absolutely covered in lights and they were people dressed up. There was Cinderella and Snow White. There was a person dressed up as Tom Thumb, Thumbelina. The second truck that pulled up was all in ice. There was a snow man and penguins the third one a coca cola truck that was just full of bottles of coca cola but then the last one, everyone was talking about it for days and days after.
It was this huge big truck and it was all green and red and gold and absolutely covered in lights. Santa Claus was sat on his sleigh with his reindeers. That was just absolutely gorgeous that. On Bonfire night where I used to live at 48 Foundry Mill Drive, opposite the fields still there and then you’ve got the beck and the entire family all used to club together. Some families would go buy pork pies, someone else would get mushy peas, toffee apples, cinder toffee and we would all get together on that field and all the kids would go chumping for the fire wood. We would have lads that would sit out for most of the night so that no one would come and pinch the fire wood. Each of us used to do a bit for the Guy Fawkes. And then on the actual night everyone couldn’t wait to get home from school. By the time we got home our parents had put chairs around the wood and we all used to get together and then we all put together and bought fireworks. They weren’t like they are now they were only little. Everyone just got together, you don’t see much of that now a days but everyone used to get together and help out with everything. They were brilliant days.
While the kids were little I worked as a dinner lady so Icould have the school holidays of with them but as things got more expensive I got another job in a nursing home looking after the elderly. I did this for about 9 years. When I left there I worked in a nursery just to get more hours because school dinners wasn’t enough hours by the time you paid all your bills out. When the children grew up a still worked in Seacroft. My husband went to work at Barnbow factory at Crossgates and he was there for about 25 years and then it closed down. Then he went to work at Corus an engineering place and he got made redundant from there after 3 years. He applied to work at the post office but they could only set him on at that time on part time hours so that’s why he went to work at Corus because from going from full time work to part time hours he needed another job to make up his wage and then after he got laid off from Corus, they offered him full time hours at the post office and he worked there for about 12 years maybe more.
While he was there he used to come home and see to the kids and I changed my hours and did nights at the nursing home. We ended up like ships that were passing in the night because he used to get home from work and I used to go out to work so we took it in turns with the children. As you get older and you start getting your aches and pains and then I went back to work on school dinners and I was there for 23 years but I had to leave because of ill health.
Seacroft has changed. It was nice to come back up to Seacroft because of my family. My dad died in 1980 but my mum was still up at Seacroft. She used to live at Bowfell Close opposite the Seacroft club. My grandma lived just over road from Seacroft club so I wanted to come back to Seacroft. I still like living here but it’s changed over the years. It’s still a nice place to live. There are rough areas in Seacroft and there are lovely areas in Seacroft. Just like anywhere now. I have had some good times and met some great people.
I wish the Seacroft town centre was still there but whoever had designed it hadn’t designed the roof properly and when we had bad weather it used to rain in. On a Saturday Majorettes used to go up there and there was always something going off inside the old centre. Especially on a Saturday afternoon. Bands used to go up and play. Salvation Army played up there. There was a market. People used to come from all over to go to the market and then over the years as things started getting more expensive a lot of the traders could not afford the rents so what they did was they closed that off and they opened one inside.
There was everything you could possibly need. There was a cafe. There was two pubs. But it just didn’t seem right. Everyone wanted the old market back but it was just getting too expensive for the shop keepers to keep up to it. You could get everything you wanted under one roof not like it is now. It was a shame it had to go because it was there for a long, long time.
I don’t remember the Queen coming to open it. I was too young. I remember us all playing out at Foundry Mill Drive and it was Christmas time and mum and dad told us that Santa Claus was coming in his sleigh. These big trucks had been trimmed up. We used to call it the Sana and it was that big field where those big flats are, Park Way Grange and Parkway Court. At the back of there is a big field that slopes up and growing up as kids we called it the Sana. At the bottom of there is still the main road and it was two days before Christmas and we were all getting excited waiting for Father Christmas to come up on the road. The first truck that came up was absolutely covered in lights and they were people dressed up. There was Cinderella and Snow White. There was a person dressed up as Tom Thumb, Thumbelina. The second truck that pulled up was all in ice. There was a snow man and penguins the third one a coca cola truck that was just full of bottles of coca cola but then the last one, everyone was talking about it for days and days after.
It was this huge big truck and it was all green and red and gold and absolutely covered in lights. Santa Claus was sat on his sleigh with his reindeers. That was just absolutely gorgeous that. On Bonfire night where I used to live at 48 Foundry Mill Drive, opposite the fields still there and then you’ve got the beck and the entire family all used to club together. Some families would go buy pork pies, someone else would get mushy peas, toffee apples, cinder toffee and we would all get together on that field and all the kids would go chumping for the fire wood. We would have lads that would sit out for most of the night so that no one would come and pinch the fire wood. Each of us used to do a bit for the Guy Fawkes. And then on the actual night everyone couldn’t wait to get home from school. By the time we got home our parents had put chairs around the wood and we all used to get together and then we all put together and bought fireworks. They weren’t like they are now they were only little. Everyone just got together, you don’t see much of that now a days but everyone used to get together and help out with everything. They were brilliant days.
While the kids were little I worked as a dinner lady so Icould have the school holidays of with them but as things got more expensive I got another job in a nursing home looking after the elderly. I did this for about 9 years. When I left there I worked in a nursery just to get more hours because school dinners wasn’t enough hours by the time you paid all your bills out. When the children grew up a still worked in Seacroft. My husband went to work at Barnbow factory at Crossgates and he was there for about 25 years and then it closed down. Then he went to work at Corus an engineering place and he got made redundant from there after 3 years. He applied to work at the post office but they could only set him on at that time on part time hours so that’s why he went to work at Corus because from going from full time work to part time hours he needed another job to make up his wage and then after he got laid off from Corus, they offered him full time hours at the post office and he worked there for about 12 years maybe more.
While he was there he used to come home and see to the kids and I changed my hours and did nights at the nursing home. We ended up like ships that were passing in the night because he used to get home from work and I used to go out to work so we took it in turns with the children. As you get older and you start getting your aches and pains and then I went back to work on school dinners and I was there for 23 years but I had to leave because of ill health.
Hilary and Colin on holiday
