jack mitchell

This is Buslingthorpe Vale.At the bottom is a narrow bridge over the beck,then into buslingthorpe Green which goes to meanwood road.Coming back up Buslingthorpe Vale,it takes a steep uphill turn to the left,then merges with Stonegate in front of cottages,which are on the left, before entering Buslingthorpe Lane.At the end of the cottages just on buslingthorpe lane,is the springhill Tavern.Nowthen,approximately 1949.There was a call out for people to save waste paper.If you saved enough, you could weigh it in at various places. For example, your local shop,he or she would give you a few coppers(pence),depending on the weight.THey would then take it in bulk to a major collector and make a fair profit.Me and my mate Cyril Young,Who lived on our veranda in Scott Hall Road,decided to do our own thing.We had got the wiff(information),that the factories in this area were saving their own waste in bulk.Some of these factories backed on to the beck.On the Sunday we went down the Vale here,got down over the bridge and walked along the beck side to the left, looking for an easy entrance to any one of these factories.We came across one. I think it was called (Cohen & Wilks),but i'm not 100% sure.Anyway we got in Through Large open windows that were virtually at floor level. And there they were. Massive sacks of waste paper,the sacks were about a yard high, and a yard in diameter.To us kids they were bloody heavy,but Cyril was much bigger than me.We humped it out of the window, along the metal veranda which ran under the windows to the beck wall, and threw it over.We dragged it back to the Vale bridge,but it proved too difficult to get it up.First we were going to leave it and sod it.Then we decided to drag it to the bridge which crosses Buslingthorpe Lane at it's bend.We'd got about40 or 50 yards from the vale bridge, then looking round there was this big copper(Bobby)stood watching us, and saying nowt.Believe me, kids were frightened of bobbies in them days. Well, we stood looking at each other for a while ,then cyril decided to use his perogative(ooo0OOOOO).He waved a piece of scrap paper and shouted "Waste Paper"He had to do this 2 or 3 times.The bobby looked,as if to say, aye, but where have you pinched it from,as he turned and disappeared up the Vale.We carried on to buslingthorpe bridge.All the while i was feeling sick,and worried,expecting the police to be waiting for us.(Today i would have been expecting the (gun squad).I need'nt have worried though.We got the stuff home,and when we found out where we had to take it,(Bloody Dewsbury Road),And how much we were likely to get for it,We took it on to the back fields (Now known as Prince Philips Playing Fields),And burned the bloody lot.

astrojack7mars@msn.com