Coming back to 1947, Alice had been having various tests with a view to having a family, visiting Sharoe Green Hospital on a few occasions. Things didn’t seem to be going right with father, who said he didn’t want any babies there. So, the atmosphere became very stressed. Alice lost some weight. During the time we lived there Euxton munitions had a celebration and had asked Hills Bakery to make a giant cake, this in turn the Hills Brothers asked Alice to decorate for them. It was quite a success and the cake was very heavy. During the late summer and early autumn of 1947 we found we were going to be proud parents and, as father had said he didn’t want any babies there, we were left with very little choice. We knew Chorley Borough Council had a building programme of houses, mainly for ex-servicemen, so I applied to the Council and Mr. Tom Jackman, who was on the council, put in a word for us, so we were allocated one when the buildings were finished. So, on January 20th, 1948, we moved into what is now No. 32 Hillside Crescent, originally being called Tannery Estates, after the farm, Tannery Farm.
I had by this time, of course, gone back to Leyland Motors, the department having moved to Chorley works during the war. The winter of 1947 was very bad, coal and rations being in very short supply. The works closed down for a fortnight, owing to the electricity shortage. When we moved into No. 32 we had to buy all new carpets and furniture, along with the pram for the expected new arrival in the following May. When we moved in we had very little coal as it was strictly rationed but one or two neighbours helped us out along with the coal merchant slipping us an extra bag. He was the same coal dealer my mother had had all the time at the old cottage and was very sympathetic to our need. The road at that time, what is now the Crescent, finished outside our house and one had to walk across the fields to get into Mill Lane. During the rest of the winter of early 1948 we were very busy sorting out our new home and of course preparing for the new arrival in May. I was working long hours and we didn’t have much money. We had to find the rent of the house weekly out of my small wage; the rent at first was 17/6 but immediately put up to 24/- and we had to pay the arrears.
We had a labour government then with a large majority. It would have been a decent gesture if they had let us buy the houses as we were mostly ex-servicemen but we had to pay rent, which was dead money, every week and it was only with the advent of Margaret Thatcher that council houses could be bought by the tenants, if they had lived in them for a certain number of years. We paid rent up to 1980. During the early winter of 1948 we spent our time in arranging our house and preparing for our new arrival in the spring. Eventually on Friday the seventh of May my father-in-law rang me at work to tell me Alice had gone to Sharoe Green maternity. So, in the evening I visited her. She was still in the labour ward and as in those days one was only allowed to stay for a limited time, I had to come home. Early on Saturday morning, May 8th, I rang Sharoe Green from a local phone box as in those days very few people had a telephone. So, my great joy, I was informed that Alice had given birth to a son at around 03.10 am that morning. We had decided on his name, Paul, as we had fancied it since going to Scarborough in 1947, where there was a little boy called Paul who was a delightful little chap. I immediately went up to Prospect House and informed them of our new arrival. Irene was very surprised that we had called him Paul. I was very excited and couldn’t wait long enough to catch the bus in the afternoon to go to Sharoe Green, which meant changing buses in Preston. It was with great delight that I first saw this little baby with a mop of black hair and asked if I could hold him, which I did, his mother being so pleased. Visiting times in those days were severely restricted. I think it was two till four, so I made my way back home and then made a return visit for “Daddies’ hour”, seven till eight. As I was working I visited each evening at fathers only visiting time. We expected Alice and Paul to come home on the Whitsun Monday but as he was not quite ready for being allowed home we had to wait till the Tuesday. In those days mums were confined much longer than the present. It was a great thrill when they both came home as I had gone in the local taxi (Heskeths) to bring them back and we came down the back garden as the road at the front wasn’t made up.