Margaret Clark was born in 1933, in Walker Street, the only daughter of David and Eva North. Because she had seven brothers it was inevitable that she was a tomboy, more comfortable playing football and cricket, than playing with dolls.
Later the North family moved to Fir Street and finally to Elm Street, where Margaret lived until she married Lewis Clarke her childhood sweetheart.
In 1939 Margaret and her younger brother Ronnie, were evacuated to Bradley in Derbyshire, where they stayed for three years.
On their return to Miles Platting, the war was in full swing. When the sirens whined out their blood-chilling wail, the North family joined their neighbours in the air raid shelters. One night there was a big bang that shook the shelter. Next morning at the sound of the ‘all clear’ it was found that houses in Varley Street had been flattened.
Margaret loved school. She went to Nelson Street, but for cookery lessons she went to Holland Street School. It was there she first met Lewis.
Being the only daughter, Margaret had to help her mother with the housework. One of her jobs was to clean the stone flags outside their house. She used a cream donkey stone. People would walk in the road, rather than walk on her cleaned flags.
Another job for Margaret was to go to the gasworks for coke, where her dad worked. Yet another job was to take the glass accumulator battery for the wireless (Radio) to be refilled with acid.
After leaving school, Margaret and Lewis met up again while they were both working in the mill.
Margaret sang in the Boiler Makers’ Club and at the Casino Dance Hall. She won an audition to appear on Hughie Green’s Opportunity Knocks. However, when she attended the audition, the pianist refused to play in her key, so she left without taking part. Her father was furious, because Lewis, who was a talented pianist himself, could have accompanied her.
Lewis was called up to do his National Service when he was eighteen. On his demob he went back to work for Mather and Platt. He worked there for many years; eventually he had to retire due to ill health. It was found he had a fairly rare disorder, called Shy Drager Syndrome. Sadly, at the age of 63 after 45 years of happily married life, he passed away.
Margaret was sixteen and Lewis was seventeen when they married in 1949. At first they lived with Lewis’s mam, on Tripe Colony, Miles Platting. Lewis’s granddad lived there too.
Then the babies came along. They had four girls and four boys, who have since multiplied to twenty-three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Since Lewis’s passing, Margaret’s big family have rallied round and as she enjoys being busy, this suits her fine.
Eva Moffat & Alf Almond
