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Wanderers Ways. Neil Thompson 1961-2021

Roughest Manc or Scouse Area's You Have Worked In.


leigh white

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Reminds me of a headline in Bolton Evening News back in the day.

I was working as a leading fireman at Farnworth around the time they were demolishing parts of Little Hulton; Armitage Ave area.

Car fires every few hours throughout the night where the kids stole a car, drive home then set fire to it. Two or three house fires in the houses they had emptied ready to knock down. Basically a busy station to be working at. 

Every morning a Bolton Evening News reporter would ring the station asking for a few column inches of what had happened.  I gave her a list of all the fires from the previous night, after which she asked,  off the record, what Little Hulton was really like.  I glibly told her to think Beruit without the guns. 

That evening's front page headline - "LITTLE HULTON IS LIKE BEIRUT" SAYS FIRE CHIEF.

I was sent on a Press Relations course a week later because I'd set relationships with the locals back about ten years. 

(I still think I got it right though.)

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34 minutes ago, MickyD said:

Reminds me of a headline in Bolton Evening News back in the day.

I was working as a leading fireman at Farnworth around the time they were demolishing parts of Little Hulton; Armitage Ave area.

Car fires every few hours throughout the night where the kids stole a car, drive home then set fire to it. Two or three house fires in the houses they had emptied ready to knock down. Basically a busy station to be working at. 

Every morning a Bolton Evening News reporter would ring the station asking for a few column inches of what had happened.  I gave her a list of all the fires from the previous night, after which she asked,  off the record, what Little Hulton was really like.  I glibly told her to think Beruit without the guns. 

That evening's front page headline - "LITTLE HULTON IS LIKE BEIRUT" SAYS FIRE CHIEF.

I was sent on a Press Relations course a week later because I'd set relationships with the locals back about ten years. 

(I still think I got it right though.)

Risky move on her part, she'd have been getting nowt else from me next time she needed an easy word count.

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6 minutes ago, Anderson said:

Risky move on her part, she'd have been getting nowt else from me next time she needed an easy word count.

That's exactly what happened. All the Bolton fire stations refused to speak to BEN for a few months. As officers move on and people come in to replace them it all gets forgotten and becomes the norm again.

Another time we refused to speak to their journalists was when they got a new Circulation Manager. Her job was to get circulation up. One payback for the number of stories we (and police & ambulance) enjoyed was the free delivery of three papers at each station. (Bolton, Crompton Way, Farnworth and Horwich) so a dozen papers six-days per week. Suddenly we got a bill for a few hundred pounds because this new woman saw that we'd never been billed. We pointed out to her that we'd had these free papers for ever and a day and that she was pretty much biting the hand that fed them.

Eventually the editor phoned and asked why we were refusing to speak to his journalists. He was furious. We didn't pay the bill and I'm guessing they still get free papers.

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When our sprog was on the way I got told about mother care having a closing down sale in Manchester City centre.
That was a stretch because it was Cheetham hill. Fuck me I’d rather go self catering in downtown Damascus than go back there. 

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I worked in Wavertree, I liked it. Old Swan, Tuebrook, areas that are meant to be rough were fine, no worse than Bolton. Then we played 5-a-side in Croxteth, jesus, stick your bags in the back of the net and the keeper's job was mainly to guard them.

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4 hours ago, MickyD said:

Reminds me of a headline in Bolton Evening News back in the day.

I was working as a leading fireman at Farnworth around the time they were demolishing parts of Little Hulton; Armitage Ave area.

Car fires every few hours throughout the night where the kids stole a car, drive home then set fire to it. Two or three house fires in the houses they had emptied ready to knock down. Basically a busy station to be working at. 

Every morning a Bolton Evening News reporter would ring the station asking for a few column inches of what had happened.  I gave her a list of all the fires from the previous night, after which she asked,  off the record, what Little Hulton was really like.  I glibly told her to think Beruit without the guns. 

That evening's front page headline - "LITTLE HULTON IS LIKE BEIRUT" SAYS FIRE CHIEF.

I was sent on a Press Relations course a week later because I'd set relationships with the locals back about ten years. 

(I still think I got it right though.)

It was a lovely Little little Village when I lived there. 

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50 minutes ago, leigh white said:

Uncle Tom's in L/H was a great nightclub in 71, had some great Northern Soul acts on back in the day.

I have read a good few stories about the acts that played at Uncle Toms, some world renowned household names played there, the bloke who owned it had a couple of clubs around Manchester think one was called Browns, he quickly realised a cabaret club in LH was a bad business Idea and bailed out.     

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Just now, Mounts Kipper said:

I have read a good few stories about the acts that played at Uncle Toms, some world renowned household names played there, the bloke who owned it had a couple of clubs around Manchester think one was called Browns, he quickly realised a cabaret club in LH was a bad business Idea and bailed out.     

Look at the Golden Garter in Wythenshawe and Talk of the North in downtown Patricroft, they lasted for ages in rundown places, but the big act's kept the punter's coming in.

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