Tuesday 17 September 2013

me and parson cross

I lived on the estate between the ages of 11 and 21 (and my mum and dad still live there).
We lived on Holgate Road with our back garden coming out onto what is now known as (and probably always was officially) Tongue Gutter. We called it the Brook. There was a concrete pipe out of which one of the two brooks on there emerged. It was at the bottom of our garden. It is still there. This is a very recent picture of it:


The iron grill preventing entry into the pipe wasn't there when I was young. So, me and a friend went up it. Very quickly we came to a place that opened out into a comfortable space. In the concrete was written (it would have been in wet concrete and written with a finger) the words P.O.W. and then a date that I can't remember but was 1940 something. Maybe there was a name too?

Anyway, I found out later that part of the council estate was built by Italian prisoners of war - after the 2nd Word War. Our houses were said to be built by them. Here was proof! And such an exciting thing for teenage kids to find.

That's one of my Parson Cross stories.

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