Baz

By Barry R. Hale

This book begins when “Baz” starts his life, growing up with his siblings, growing up through his school, working, and then married life. This shows his life with the highs and lows until just after his retirement.

It is hoped that younger readers will see that they can achieve many things in life, and that many readers will be able to relate their own experiences to the stories narrated in this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Aug 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9781398492578

Barry R. Hale

This book is about the author, who grew up in Cheshire, in a family of ten, his early years were quite shy; this left him as he got older especially when leaving school and starting work. After he married and joined the Territorial Army gained confidence and later in life ran a successful butcher’s business. Only once retired began to put his past life down, when family and friends read his first manuscript, then decided to write Baz with the backing of his wife, who has supported him through his married life.

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About the Author

This book is about the author, who grew up in Cheshire, in a family of ten, his early years were quite shy; this left him as he got older especially when leaving school and starting work.

After he married and joined the Territorial Army gained confidence and later in life ran a successful butcher’s business. Only once retired began to put his past life down, when family and friends read his first manuscript, then decided to write Baz with the backing of his wife, who has supported him through his married life.

Copyright Information ©

Barry R. Hale 2023

The right of Barry R. Hale to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

All of the events in this memoir are true to the best of author’s memory. The views expressed in this memoir are solely those of the author.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398492561 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398492578 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgement

With thanks to my wife Sylvia, family, and friends for encouragement in getting me to finish this book.

Introduction

Barry Robert Hale, born 19th October 1948, (Chester City Hospital) first son of Gordon Hale and Elsie Hale, nee Rowland, (third child).

Grew up in my early years at Edge, Nr Malpas, Cheshire, moving to Sunnyside, Malpas in 1953 with my brother Christopher and sister Marilyn.

I was the third child to my mother as she had Geoffrey and Sylvia.

As I grew up, I was not a confident child, quite shy in my early years which only left me when I left school and started work.

As I grew up there were to be more siblings, ten of us and I was the third oldest, Geoffrey, Sylvia, Me, Christopher, Marilyn, Malcolm, Wendy, Tim, Jonathan and Robin.

This is about me, from 1948–2021, my family gets mentioned as and when, they will not agree about everything.

Well, here I am, 72 years young, a bit different from the early hours of 19th October 1948, about 12.30 am when I came into this world, the first son/child of Gordon and Elsie Hale.

Well, I will try and tell it as I remember but some of my siblings will tell you differently, here goes.

Early Years

My first years as a baby/young child were at Edge in a small two up, two down cottage, our neighbours were Hewitt’s and we were only a quarter of a mile from Granny and Granddad’s, (that is, Mum’s parents, Percy and Harriet Rowland) who lived further down the lane. I say lane as it went to Mate’s Farm (Granny and Granddad’s). Along the lane there is a farm (Mathew’s), then Eddie Horton’s bungalow on the right and Pierce’s over the railway bridge opposite Granddad and Granny’s at Mate’s Farm, also two cottages next door (Mrs Tushingham and the Crumps), and the road surface was made up of ashes from fire grates, no tarmac surface until the late fifties.

Edge School and Chapel were just around the corner from us, Geoffrey and Sylvia attended that school when they were infants (Mum had also attended it), later, going to Malpas Alport Junior School when Edge School closed, and they both lived with Granny and Granddad.

My first memories of Edge where the house was small and our neighbours were Hewitt’s and Prodlove’s who had a haulage business, they had a daughter Susan who I would go and play with and also had a sleepover when Mum went into the hospital when she had Marilyn. Also remember that I got stuck in the mud across the road in the farm gateway and lost a shoe in the mud, Dad had to cycle to Malpas to get a new pair for me before we could go out.

We would go to Chester on the train from Malpas station and on the way back, the train would stop at the other green to let people off, (there was a small platform and the train would only stop for about two minutes), this would save about three-mile walk from the station back to Edge.

Not sure how old I was but gave Mum quite a shock as I started to walk up the lane to Granny’s, cannot remember who found me first, my recollection of this was being with Granny and Mum in the lane near the school, funny how some things stick in your memory.

While we lived at Edge, Christopher was born on 19th July 1951 and Marilyn, 26th December 1952.

We moved to 16, Sunnyside, Malpas in 1953. As I said, it’s funny what you remember, Sunnyside house back then seemed enormous with a large garden (the garden bit being wrought), Mum and Dad then had to decorate as the wallpaper was dark, but the house grew smaller as and when more of my siblings were born.

Now we had a lot of neighbours, other children to play with, not as this was always happy times to start with as most of the kids in the street were older and I can still remember Dennis Corbett taking my three-wheeler bike from me and my big brother Geoff getting it back for me.

Neighbours back then kept themselves to themselves and the only time they mixed was during the coronation when they all came out and put up butting between the houses and across gardens.

Yes, we were the new neighbours and as time went by, they got more friendly. There were the Hewitts at number 17 and the Downeys at number 18, we were number