Middleton Library.

I’ve had a really fun day today.  My lovely cousin, Sylvia, and I met up at Middleton Library.  As kids Syl and I spent tons of time in this library, it was one of our favourite places.  So going in there today was a little trip down Memory Lane for us.

Middleton is where we were both born and brought up and the library is the place where copies of births, deaths and marriages records can be found, plus old photographs of the town.  We are both interested in our family tree and what Middleton used to be like before the crackpot powers that be/were took a sledgehammer and just about knocked any character and beauty Middleton had right out of it!    So, after being spurred on by seeing photo copies of the house where we lived when we were kids which my brother had acquired from the library, I asked Syl to go with me and have a nosey at this treasure trove of antiquities.

We saw so many photographs of old familiar places.  The memories came flooding back of how it used to be in the 50s and 60s.  We oohed and aahed over everything we saw, falling over ourselves to put the memories into words.

We found my mother’s baptism record in the Wesleyan-Methodist Chapel book.  We viewed the 1901 Census on microfilm and found our family’s details.  You wouldn’t believe how exciting it is when you find the name you’re looking for. 

This pub, The Olde Boar’s Head, stands across the road from the library.  It dates back to around 1586.  Thank goodness the sledgehammer never went near this  fine old building.

The only problem we had was time, we ran out of it.  The library closed for the day at 12.30 .  We’re going to go back again soon though and see what else we can find..

The day didn’t end there.  After this we paid my sister, Jean, a visit and happily my brother was there too.  My brother, Ken, has a phenomenal memory, it seems he remembers everything from the day he was born!  We all had a really good old chin-wag about who remembered what , where and when.  We laughed a lot and it was fun.  Today was a good day.

TTFN.