Why ‘outsider?’ Well I was not born in Miles Platting; I never lived in Miles Platting yet the area played an important part in my life for a considerable number of years.
At fourteen years of age I said goodbye to Hague Street School and in July 1943 set out to seek fame and fortune in the great wide world, sixty years later I’m still seeking, but without that 1940s zest.
My first job, a telegram boy with the GPO at Spring Gardens in Manchester, but in 1945 I was sent to Newton Heath Post Office, where the messengers between their journeys, used to sit in one of the old cells, yes it used to be a police station. I think most of the clerks thought the cells were a good place for us. Of course Newton Heath Office delivered the telegrams in Miles Platting, and the parts of Collyhurst that were Manchester 10.
By 1946 I knew a great deal about the area and joined the Miles Platting & Newton Heath Labour League of youth, meeting in the Failsworth Co-op in Varley Street. Two other members did find fame; I refer to Charles and Alf Morris, both served many years, as Manchester M.P.s Charles was a Miles Platting councillor before moving on to Parliament.
1948 saw me working as a postman and driver at the East District office in New Street. In those days East office covered the whole of Manchester districts 9 & 10.
I spent the next sixteen years working in Miles Platting, and for a period of nearly five years I was the regular postman on what was called the Albion Street walk. It roughly covered the area bounded by Albion Street, Varley Street, Oldham Road and the Rochdale Canal.
In those days money was in short supply (so were letter boxes) but there was always a feeling of warmth in the streets. Even today, so many years later I can still remember the drinks of coffee I got from Mrs. Talton who had the corner shop opposite the Grey Mare, and Vicky who had the shop in Edinburgh St. used to give me two rashers of bacon and an egg to take back to the office to cook for my breakfast.
When the council started to demolish the area, it was time for me to leave the walk and go back to driving. But without any doubt the period I spent walking the streets of Miles Platting was about the happiest I had in the Post Office.
Fred Binks.
