Life was very hard in Querrin Street as you can imagine.The War was still ongoing. We lived in the bottom half of the house - three rooms and a scullery plus loo in backyard. As we were a family of eleven [originally fifteen-four children died when babies) you can only imagine just how difficult it was. We slept girls in one room and boys in the other. However, as we didn't know any other way of life we were all happy enough as we had good parents who looked after us the best they could.

Mum always had white net curtains that were washed and starched weekly. My dad was a dustman for many years. Upstairs lived Mr and Mrs Harper. Their children were Florence, Tom, and Ronald. Mrs Harper had a wooden leg having lost her leg in a train accident. I think they thought they were better than us as they hardly had two words to say. Next door was Mrs Goodenough and that's exactly what she was often lending mum her wedding ring to pawn so that mum could buy food. A lovely lady . There were several large families in the street- the Lawrences, the Hawkins the Lenahams and they all helped each other out in times of need. Half way down Querrin Street was a Sunlight Laundry Depot and the entrance of this was used as a stage on VE Day when we had a street party to celebrate the end of the War. 

I remember the shop on the corner of Broughton Road and Furness Road (Dewberry's) as we used to buy sticks of Spanish wood of which you sucked the sap out. It sounds horrible now. I also remember the coal yard at Sands End from which we as kids would earn a penny or two collecting bags of coke for neighbours.
 

I emigrated to Australia in 1964 and when I returned 10 years later mum had moved to Clem Atlee Court. She then moved to Edenvale Street where she had a one bed flat until she died in 1979.

Tom Selleck of TV 'Magnum' fame was on location in Kilkie and Querrin streets during the 80s. See pictures and article in News Stories section.