How many remember Mickey Sharkey from Bridge Street Hilden? He had a nickname "Mick the miser ", never married,was a devout Church goer and was employed in Hilden Mill as an Accountant or some other high clerical position. His house was one of the few in Hilden that had gas lighting. He always seemed to be poorly clad and it was rumoured he had a lot of money which he kept at home, behind pictures . We believed that crap in those days
As boys, at Halloween and other dark winter nights we kept him going, knocking his door, he was always good for a chase. Looking back he was probably a very lonely man.I don,t know why but everytime I hear Barnbrack sing " Mickey Marley,s Roundabout " he comes to mind
Donald

Hi, I remember Mickey well, Big Ernie Ervine from delacherois and I had lunch every Friday at Hilden Mill canteen with Mickey, fish and chips, Mickey only eat half of his fish and said the rest was for his cat, Big Ernie and I used to laugh as he had it for his supper when he went home, never very clean man , he was a real miser in the true sense of the word.

hi Fraser
Do you remember Ernie,s mate, Bobby Gorman? He worked in the Printing in Hilden, very dapper little man, even polished the bottom of his shoes between heel and sole, or so my Granny said.
Another time I remember one Sunday about 50 years ago the printing store caught fire . It was facing Bleakley,s shop , through the top gate. It burned to the ground and after that the site was used to store coal for the mill boilers. My uncle Barney Watters from Barrack St. worked in it, then worked to his retirement in the furnishing store.
Looking back generations of my family must have had a total service in the mill of several hundred years, as did no doubt lots of other families from the region.
Everything was centered around the mill, being born, Nurse Cook, midwife, going to the mill school, shopping in the mill shop, living in a mill house, billiards in the Hilden reading rooms, mill property, playing as children in the EMB and Hilden park, football on mill football pitch down Victory St.We arose , ate, started and quit work to the command of the mill horn.
Donald

Hi!I WAS ONE OF THE BOYS THAT THAT KEEP
MICK SHARKEY GOING.I LIVED IN 49 BRIDGE
STREET,HILDEN.DO YOU REMEMBER ME AND MY
BROTHERS PAUL AND JOHN

Hi Harry
Welcome to the forum, the McKittericks I remember were related to the Spences, were was No 49? I lived in 90 ,I think, after the McCormick family moved out halfway down ( before we had to vacate it when my father left the mill ), two doors from Mickey. The Curry family then moved in. Was old Mrs McKitterick your Granny? There were also McKittericks who lived in Lawnmount Cresent, who in the late 50s emigrated to Australia ,relations of Spence. John and his brother Jim , (Jim emigrated with the McKittericks) were schoolboy chums. They lived also in Bridge St next door to the McArdles who were also part of our gang. Ned Alexander who spoke so quick nobody could understand him, the Walker family , Crossey and an elderly couple Sarah and Billy ? who had a small dog all lived at the top end. At least one of the houses there had gas lighting.
Donald