|
Where I Come From
I was born in 1935 in Bradford, Yorkshire, UK, living at Hill Top Road, Thornton, 5 miles west of Bradford. Most of the time it was at number 64. Initially, this had two rooms upstairs and two downstairs with an outside toilet in the back yard. As shown below, this was not a nice place to go in winter. My north facing bedroom window overlooked the back yard with views across open fields to Baildon and Ilkley moors in the distance.
The view from the front windows was across the valley to Queensbury, at a similar height, and the railway viaduct lower down.
Back Yard
My father’s three brothers, sister and their father also lived on Hill Top Road, in four houses beyond Long Row. Most worked for Wm. Longbottom and Sons, formed by my grandfather and based across the road from number 64 in the Wood Yard. During WW2, they were coal and firewood merchants, later building chicken huts and wooden garages. It was also said that they built the Thornton Cricket Club wooden pavilion, the cricket field being behind Long Row.
I moved from Thornton on marrying Dorothy Horton in 1957, initially to nearby Brighouse and then to Rayleigh in Essex.
Roy Longbottom 2008
|
|
Hill Top Road
Front View
Wood Yard
|