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I received an email this morning from a lady who was once in the Girl Guides. The group used to meet in the cellar at Haggate School. She remembers how the caretaker used to keep the place really clean and how warm it was with the coke boiler down there.
Were any of you members of the Girl Guides?

Is there still a group in Briercliffe? It's not something that I ever got involved in, for some reason it never appealed to me.

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Mel

Searching for lost relatives? Win the Lottery!

Nope, didn't appeal to me either.

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Gloria

I'd be dangerous with a brain.

I once attended a meeting for The Girls Life Brigade, but I never went back.


Stephanie.

I was a Girl Guide, but in Accrington, not Briercliffe. We met on Monday evenings in the local school. There was a uniform: dark blue dress, pale blue tie, and a beret. It changed soon after I left.

We worked for badges. I got my needlework badge because I could darn socks, had lots of practice, and I had my child nurse badge, but don't remember how I earned it. I also had a badge for lighting a fire with two matches in the local woods, on a very damp evening. I thought that was an achievement although I've never needed or wanted to do it since.

I wasn't the most enthusiastic Guide, but I enjoyed it at the time. Girl Guides was one of the very few structured activites for girls in Accrington in the fifties, maybe the only one.

Joan

I never got into anything structured like this. As mentioned on another thread, there were a lot of young kids in my street and we all played together. Maybe this was why?

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Mel

Searching for lost relatives? Win the Lottery!

We played on the street much of the time when I was younger. There were few cars in our neighbourhood to create a danger. I belonged to Girl Guides when I was nine or ten and continued for about three years. We had no television at that time and none of the electronic games of today.

Before the Guides there was Brownies for the younger girls but I never tried that. In Canada there is now a group before the Brownies, known as Sparks.

Joan

Out of interest Joan, how long have you lived in Cananda, and where to you is 'home', there or here, hope you dont mind me asking.


Stephanie.

Hi Stephanie,

I've been in Canada since 1962, and I've wrestled with the question of where home is, many times in the past. I'm sure it's something that most people who emigrate think about. As I've grown older I've reached the conclusion that you make your home wherever you are, and as I've been here so long this is where I'll stay.

I often wish though that I was in England during April, when it's still very cold here and there's always chance of snow.

Joan

Do you ever get back to England Joan? you must have been in your teens when you emigrated, did you go with your parents? You must think me quite nosey, it is just that I have never had the inclination to live anywhere else, only here, and I wonder about people who have emigrated to another Country, especially those who left like Joan, so long ago. I can understand more now today why people would want to live in another Country, as sadly England is not as Great as it was.


Stephanie.

I used to visit more regularly, Stephanie, to see family members. The last few years I haven't been so much. I went in 2005 for my niece's wedding, and the following year for that of my nephew. The weddings were in Surrey but in 2005 I spent a week in Brierdliffe. I always enjoyed my visits.

Joan

Delayed reply here as I haven't been here since Friday! I was in the Brownies from age 7 till 11 at 11 we HAD to join the Girl Guides as I was ''too old '' for the Brownies! I loved the Brownies could have stayed with them much longer if they had let me. First thing each meeting was the Brownie Promise then we did things to earn badges like plaiting, weaving, sweeping etc and we were to do 'good deeds' every day also had our hair and nails checked and got encouraged to look after ourselves properly.

The Guides was a different matter one of my close friends had an older sister who was a team leader and she picked on me from the start so I left after only two attendances. I also played out on the streets with all the others but Brownies offered camping trips etc which was something adventurous! haha I remember going to York for a Brownie Pow Wow which was like a convention of Brownie packs from all over the country we sat around camp fires and sang ging gang gooley or did a verse with actions, mine was always 'I have little shadow,'' and did the lion hunt game etc after a day of more active events like running in relay etc. we arrived home late evening well and truly worn out.

My mum always used to say 'I have a little shadow' to me. I was always behind her, clinging to the bottom of her skirt.

Maybe thats why Brownies/Guides never appealed to me? I hated being away from my family. My school sent us to a place called Kibblestone (a local scout camp in the countryside) for 3 days when I was about 9. I hated it.

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Mel

Searching for lost relatives? Win the Lottery!

I, too, was never interestd inGirl Guides...my structured activities were ballet classes weekly from age 3 to 14....and piano lessons for a couple of years. I stopped when my mum would have me entertain any visitors to the house!

And, to get in on the chat about emigration etc....I came to Canada in 1966 at age 21. I came by myself...it was supposed to be the first leg of a working tour of North America...but I didn't get far at that time. Loved Canada right away. Because I had parents back in Manchester (and grandparents in Briercliffe), and I was an only child and grandchild, I did travel back and forth every couple of years...and/or my parents would travel to visit me. I always considered England to be home until one day I realized that I had spent more than half my life in Canada! From that time on I have considered Canada to be my home....and I became a Canadian Citizen.
I will always have a soft spot for England, of course...and since my mother died and father came to live with me, I haven't been back. But...I will, one of these days! Got to meet some of these folk from the Briercliffe Society!!

Would love to meet you too.

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Gloria

I'd be dangerous with a brain.

I did the opposite to Joan and Suzy. My parents left Burnley to live in Canada in the 1970’s, and I grew up in Winnipeg, only visiting England once in 1985. I must have been brainwashed because I always felt more British than Canadian, so when I finished high school I did a working holiday in Yorkshire. I obviously liked England because I ended up staying, and I now have been over here 15 years.