As I always do I was looking on Flickr for a picture to illustrate this story of the run to Copster Green. Usually I find that there is plenty to choose from. But on this occasion I have to say that there was really very little. However, I am very pleased with the one that I did turn up. As this picture was actually taken in July then it doesn’t look much like the windy day that the Bolton CTC run experienced on that day in 1923.

Their route took them through Tockholes. Now I don’t know about you but I have always thought that this was a strange place name. I also searched for pictures of Tockholes and found this one looking over towards Winter Hill – of course those masts wouldn’t have been there in the 1920’s.

Strangely I wasn’t able to find any pictures – or indeed references of any sort – to the Treacle Mines at Tockholes! I can’t understand why not because on every one of our regular family visits to my grandparents during my childhood (a journey which would take us through Tockholes) my Dad would always remark upon them. Maybe you know something more about them and can point me in the right direction?

In this first instalment of Charlie’s account of Whitsun weekend 1926 it does seem to take Charlie a little while to settle to the task. First he eulogises at some length on what it is that gives his favourite parts of North Wales that something extra for him. Then we get a glimpse into some of Charlie’s thoughts on religion before finally he seems to settle to his task of describing the first stage of their overnight ride – which took them as far as Chester.

I was very intrigued by his reference to ‘Rude Boreas’ – which in my ignorance I had to look up. It turns out that Boreas was the Greek god of the north wind! So, I think that we can take it that things were pretty windy – in all probability a headwind. In fact I have the reader at a slight advantage in that I have read the other instalments and thus am in a position to advise you that this is a subject that Charlie will be returning to in the subsequent instalments.

But above all of these references that one that really sticks out for me is the throw-away reference to the Hindley Boys being part of the coal lock-out. Now, sad to say, I am not a great student of modern/social history so I didn’t immediately recognise this – though it didn’t take much searching for me to realise its significance as a consequence of the general strike! What I find most remarkable is that one of the most significant political and social events that occurred, certainly in that year – but possibly even in the whole decade – should warrant so little comment from Charlie. And yet he has no difficulty whatsoever, writing at length about his love of the North Wales countryside.

The general strike lasted for 9 days from Tuesday 4 May to Thursday 13 May. It seems that Friday 28 May was a holiday because “Whitsuntide decreed that we others should be free from the Thursday night” though Charlie seems not to have set out until after 9 in the evening on the Friday. At this time Charlie would have been 21 and I imagine still an apprentice and perhaps this provided him with enough security to give so little care to the monumental events that were going on around him. Yet, we know from what Charlie wrote about his long periods out of work in The Dole that he was to become very much affected by the future economic conditions.