Quote:
Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington
No but I was sent with a push chair along Nuttall street to Bob Wilkinsons Hardware shop for a gallon of paraffin and two packs of coal bricks.
This was because the coal man would not come up the hill unless there were a few people getting coal.
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If I remember rightly, the hardware shop that you mention, used to sell Fishing baskets, laundry baskets etc. I have mentioned in earlier posts that I think that my father could well have been one of, if not the last (tradesman trained) basket makers in Lancashire. I do know that he carried on his trade after getting a job at Huncoat Pit and he made many for a shop on Nuttall Street. that shop plus other outlets for his wares kept him in beer money for years.
They say that you shouldn't look back on life but I do regret not taking up his offer to teach me his art and it was an art, anything from shopping baskets to baby's cribs and antique wickerwork chairs.I fact anything made from Cane or Willow.