Normanton: Confessions of a Barreltipper

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I REMEMBER both Percy Pigeon and Puffing Billy. Percy kept pigeons in a shed on ground adjacent to a path which gave access to the back of my house. Dad kept chickens in our back yard and Percy supplied dad with meal to feed the chickens during the war years.

Many is the time Percy would chase us kids off his land. At the entrance, he kept a large barrel of water for fire watch during the war.

I managed to overturn this and gallons of water flowed out on to the road. Percy came to our house to confront my dad about what had happened.

I played innocent, for Dad had a very strong hand when it came to slaps. Dad told Percy that I couldn’t have upturned the barrel as I was so small and wouldn’t have the strength.

I sighed a breath of relief. It was my secret until this day and I’m now in my 74th year. Of course it was me who upturned the barrel.

Percy found a bicycle underneath his pigeon shed one time. When no-one claimed it, he gave it to my three sisters and I. We were so excited as our parents could not afford to invest in such an expensive item.

My sisters enjoyed riding about the streets on the bike but I didn’t. I had no balance. Then the enjoyment came to an end when a man, with a boy, came to our house and claimed the bicycle belonged to them.

He said it had been stolen and we had to return it. Our house was a joyless place to live in for many weeks after our disappointment at losing the bike.

My young sister, Mavis, started work and the first thing she invested her wages in, of course, was a bicycle. She paid a little every week and rode the bike to and from work for many years.

Then she sold it to buy a present for our parents’ silver wedding anniversary.

Percy kept a blue vintage car on his plot, next to the pigeon shed. It had a black felt hood that folded back like a pram hood. He kept it in good repair, cleaning and polishing the brass headlights. I only remember him taking it out on the road once. The car was so old it looked comical on the road.

We moved into Cameron Road, Normanton, in 1937, just before the war. Percy’s car was there when we arrived. I would love to know the year of the car. My brother-in-law, Brian, thinks it could have been a 1920 Morris.

Puffing Billy also lived in Normanton, on Newdigate Street, I think. He was a chubby man with balding hair. He would come down St Thomas’ Road, Normanton, puffing like a train on his way to the Midland Station.

He not only imitated a train, he also pretended to be a guardsman, ticket collector, anything to do with the railways.

The youth of Normanton would ask him for the time of the next train. Billy always kept a pocket watch and he would take it out and give them the time.

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This article is from the Derby Evening Telegraph and is reproduced online here.