Memories of Times Gone By

By Hannah Entwistle

Born in a small town in Cumbria on February 22nd 1916, Hannah’s life spanned the 20th Century. While Hannah lived a relatively quiet life in the north west of England, she had a spirit of creativity that she expressed through poetry and prose.

Collected here is an anthology of her work, passed down to and kept by her family and presented as snap shots of Hannah’s view of times and tides in her memories of times gone by.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jumble Publishing
• Release date: Sep 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9780645559521

Book preview

Hannah’s Story

Hannah was born in a small town in Cumbria on February 22nd 1916, the fifth of six children. Her family moved to Lancashire when she was quite young where she lived for much of her life.

An accident when she was young where she hurt her head, caused one eye to become fixed in the inner corner. At school she was teased and bullied because of the squint and so she didn’t have a good experience in these early years. When she had an operation to fix the eye in her teens, she lost most of the sight in that eye and ended up wearing glasses for the rest of her life.

In her teen years, Hannah left school and worked in a cotton mill. She worked for long hours in noisy and dusty conditions. She and the others she worked with learned how to read each other’s lips so they could chat during the long hours of their employment. Hannah and her friends would go on bike rides around the region when they were not in the mill, and they roamed for miles to explore the north of England.

At 22 years old, Hannah met and married her husband. She fell pregnant very early in the marriage, but the baby did not survive and was stillborn. Her husband, being a cabinet maker, made the tiny coffin for their baby. Later she had two children, a boy and a girl, both of whom she cared for greatly and they thrived.

Hannah had a difficult life in her early marriage as her husband didn’t have a well-paid job and was considered disabled due to his own difficulties with sight; however, she was good at managing her home and the family never wanted for anything. When the children were old enough, she went back to work in a cotton mill in Westhoughton, where she worked for quite some time. After that she worked for a local catering business; not as a caterer, she had the job of cleaning the silver cutlery.

Hannah always played at the British Football Pools, a game that the nation often engages in to guess the outcome of the National Football League’s weekly games. As luck would have it, she hit the jackpot and won a substantial amount of money. She had always longed for a home of her own and so, with the winnings, she and her husband bought a small single-story house, or bungalow, in Westhoughton. She and her growing family settled in well and lived there for many years.

Both children grew up and married and each lived quite close in the same town, but her daughter married a man with a vision to travel the world, and that daughter and her young family made the decision to relocate to South Africa. As Hannah and her husband had never travelled beyond the borders of their own country, receiving airline tickets from their daughter was quite a thrill. This holiday made a distinct impression on Hannah with visits to places she had never imagined and seeing animals and cultures she had never experienced. She considered it a ‘holiday of a lifetime’.

Life was good in Westhoughton and Hannah and her husband lived very well in their little bungalow. Eventually though her daughter and growing family moved to Australia and Hannah took the opportunity to again explore a new land. This was another incredible experience with a vastly different culture and environment which impressed Hannah. It sparked her imagination to her own creative thoughts and became fodder for possibilities that she might not otherwise have had.

Although her son remained in Westhoughton, Hannah and her husband decided to retire to Rhyl, a small seaside town in North Wales. Hannah’s sister lived in the next town, and they settled happily there for many years. Sadly, Hannah lost her husband in 1985, but this didn’t hold Hannah back for too long and she gained a new lease of life engaged in the social life of family and friends for many years.

Of course, she made further trips to Australia. She was eager to attend the weddings of both grandson and granddaughter and they very nicely timed their special days so that their grandmother could attend both. She was brave for travelling across the world on her own and did so more than once. Hannah was able to spend time with her great grandson on one visit, a very special event that none of her family will forget.

Hannah spent many more years engaged in the seaside life and times of her small North Wales home, reading avidly and engaging with her creative craft of writing before her death at the age of 93.

Joan Whitehead

Denmark, Western Australia

Poems

Sunny Rhyl

Come spend your holidays in pleasant, sunny Rhyl

If it’s variety you want Rhyl is sure to fill the bill

There is such a lot to do, all sorts going on

Lovely shops, amusement arcades, bowling greens on the prom

If visiting beauty spots is your pleasure, there are lots of them nearby.

Make Rhyl your base, do come and give it a try

The gateway to the mountains, with lovely scenic scenery

Lovely parks well worth a visit, full of healthy greenery

Miles of golden, clean sands where kiddies love to play

Washed by the Irish Sea, always twice a day

If the sun decides to hide behind a cloud of grey

Rhyl’s Suncentre will fill all needs till the sun returns to stay

There’s theatres and shows where laughter is the aim

Come to sunny Rhyl, you’ll be so glad you came.

Jack Frost

Jack Frost is a busy lad, while we were all in bed

He roams the countryside, no rest for him, he’s working hard instead

He glazes all the windows, a very pretty sight

With feathery swirling patterns, a work of art alright

He’s really in his element, causing havoc everywhere

If there’s a tiny opening, you can bet your life he’s there

He’s a very canny fellow, never ever seen

But everybody knows exactly where he’s been

Blowing icy blasts everywhere he goes

His specialty is freezing hands and toes

He loves a dripping tap or pool of water there

He soon turns it to ice, he doesn’t seem to care

How many unsuspected folk slip and fall head long

Or how many broken limbs are caused to both the weak and strong

How many accidents are caused on very icy roads

Or what happens to wild things, animals, birds or even toads

I suppose it’s what we must expect in our wintry, frosty weather

So please be careful how you go, Jack Frost is oh! so clever.

Words

Happy words, angry words, words of praise,

When in the Home League, our voices we raise

We sing, beautiful words, wonderful words of love.

For our speech we must really thank God up above,

But how would we feel if we couldn’t talk

Couldn’t share out thoughts with other folk.

God gave us tongues that we may speak,

Words to cheer others, when life is so bleak,

Comforting words to help someone on their way,

Lovely to hear someone say, How are you today?

Words of love everyone likes to hear,

But some words fill us with dreadful fear.

Words have so many different meanings.

Words said without thought hurt our feelings,

Words said in temper and a friendship is broken,

Those are the words we wish unspoken

But once said we can’t ever recall,

Better perhaps not to speak them at all.

We can all hurt or make someone cry

So remember the words do unto others as you be done by.

Problems

People with problems are the disabled and blind

Yet it’s amazing how cheerful they are, I find

If your life was spent in a darkened room

No glimmer of light to brighten the gloom

Just think how you’d feel; what if you couldn’t talk

Not able to reply when anyone spoke,

If your thoughts were all trapped inside your brain.

It’s a miracle to me that the deaf and dumb don’t go insane.

Just think how they cope without speech or sight,

Those are the things I would love to put right.

I don’t wish to be famous or go to the moon

Or own a big house with an extra room,

If given three wishes and could wave a wand,

My wish to right some of the things nature has got wrong.

Taxes

To say we don’t pay taxes on our pensions is tommyrot,

Everyone pays taxes whether they like to or not.

Those dreadful standing charges on gas, electricity and phone,

We pay a tax before we use them, a unit, or dial a tone.

Also VAT on nearly everything we need.

There are few things the taxman doesn’t try to bleed.

Now, to confuse us even more and to please the Euro lot,

Do we have to lose the currency we’ve already got?

Do we need to do everything they say? Why must we conform?

Soon we won’t need No. 10; Brussels will be more like home.

Will someone please enlighten us about just what’s going on?

And tell us, in simple English, to which country do we really belong.

We sing Britons never never shall be slaves.

According to recent events we’re turning into knaves.

Voting

Political conferences are with us again

With talk of the Tories’ gravy train.

Promises of all sorts of things materialise and come to nought,

Just as if people’s votes can be bought.

But we all know promises are made of pie crust,

So which ever party are we to trust?

The poor and the old are put to the test,

The ones who are well off seem to fare the best.

We’ll be courted and coaxed when they want our vote,

When the time comes