A Horse's Tale — Stop 2
Hannah visits Valeside
Hannah snorted loudly as she pulled the cart full of milk churns up Old Brow. She stopped at Valeside while people came out to fetch their milk and she watched a lady kneeling in front of her house scrubbing her step with a donkey stone. She was obviously very proud about keeping her step clean. There was a dip in the step from her scrubbing it so often.
Illustration by children of Livingstone School
In the next house the door was open and Hannah could see a man sat in front of the fire in a tin bath.
She heard a child’s voice pipe up: “Dad please don’t stay in the bath too long, there is mum and the other four to go before me. I hate that just because I’m the youngest I always get the cold dirty water!”
As Hannah got to the last house in the row she saw the pig bin was waiting to be collected. A tasty carrot top poked out the top she just grabbed it when a loud beep made her rear up and the pig bin went flying. No-one noticed though because everyone was staring at a metal contraption came roaring and beeping down the cobbled hill. It was a motor car! The first one that Hannah had ever seen.
Eli Whalley in Ashton produced 2.5m donkey stones a year during its heyday in the 1930s. He used a lion as his trademark inspired by childhood visits to Belle Vue Zoo.
The first motor car used in Mossley was a 3-wheel Morgan owned in 1907 by a yarn salesman who worked at Southend Mill. Dr Cameron owned the second, a Star in 1908. He drove behind a red flag.