W

We lived at"Lilybank" Cottage No 63 Omoa Road Cleland in the county of  Lanarkshire. My father Matthew Brown was bornon the 26 July1891 in New Stevenson  near Bellshill. He was the eldest son ofJames Brown and Bridget Rooney.  Hemarried my mother on 31st December 1915 at St Mary'sChurch in  Cleland. My mother EllenReynolds was the eldest daughter of Joseph Reynolds and Ellen McDermott. She was born on the 5th June 1892 in "The  Square",Cleland  (near to where the Corn Park footballground is today).  I was born in Clelandand was the oldest of three boys my brothers were Richard Gerard (Gerry) andJohn Boyle. I had three older sisters, Ellen (Lena), Bridget (Etta) and Mary. My father's mother married twiceher  first husband was James Brown hersecond was Michael Ward. There were  ninechildren in all seven Browns, Matthew, James, John, Richard, Mary,  Jeannie, and Bridget (Beassie), and two Wardchildren Catherine (Kate) and Annie. My mother Ellen had four sisters and threebrothers, they were,  Annie, Jane, Agnesand Rose, and Hugh, Patrick, and Richard. My father's  brother John and his two sisters Kate andAnnie, they emigrated to  Australiain or about the year 1921. My earliest memories relate to my  boyhood in Cleland a mining village in Lanarkshirewhere I was born on  the 7th December 1924 at Lilybank Cottage,

The coal ownershad locked the pits and  refused to takeon workers until they all agreed they would never go on strike again. Onlythose who agreed to take a cut of a shilling per hour  in their pay were taken back, men just hungabout the cross, no work and  no pay.Those lucky ones who had a job had to travel away from home,  there was a great deal of poverty, as thewages were very low, all they  got wasabout three shillings a day. They were indeed lucky if they  brought home thirty shillings a week for sixfull days work and this to  feed maybesix or seven children. It was a depressing place to live but  we boys never experienced the really hardtimes, we were a part of it but  wedidn't know any better; as long as we got a penny at Christmas, Easter  the summer holidays and Halloween we werehappy. A penny trip on a tram  car duringthe summer holidays from Airdrie to Paisley was a great  adventure, even though we had to walk thefive miles to Airdrie to get on  to thetram. My brother Gerry had managed to get himself a job delivering  the morning rolls around the village. Therolls were delivered to our  house atabout  6:30am eachmorning by the baker Tony Petkevitch from Craigneuk. We got two big basketshanded in to the house and the rolls  hadto be put into bags to be delivered to the various households.  Gerry would take the

 There were no tables other than a card   table where some men played Dominoes or Fata card game popular amongst  the Clelandminers, The bar was the full length of the room and the  barman Mick Brennan, had a long white apronwhich had a bib and ties  which tiedbehind his back. On the floor throughout the room were  spitoons where tobacco chewing miners ventedtheir mouths with the foul  tobaccojuice. Spitoons were round receptacles made of steel and  enamelled in white with a blue rim, they wereabout nine  inches in  diameter with a removable insert which thepub cleaner had to wash out under a running tap in the yard at the back of thepub. Disinfectant was  never used only sawdustwas sprinkled on the floors as this was the only  means of keeping the floors dry from beerspillage and the missed aims at  thespitoons. The Public bar was lighted by gas mantles and paraffin  lamps. These were mainly used when it gotdark particularly in the Winter time. The gas pressure was so low at times the lights would fail  getting dimmer and dimmer the more lightsthat came on. Women were  completelyforbidden to enter the pub, except when they had to identify  their menfolk. Next to  the pub was a house which later became asweetie  shop and then a newsagents,later still the newsagent Jimsey Keeveney (Cavannah) had erected an old railway goods van on a spare piece ofland  in front of Bruntons house, thiswas the only newspaper shop in the village. Cranston's Cottage was next andthen The Dalrymple Bar a pub set  backoff the road just before the Dandy Row ,The Kirk with a tin steeple.  Paddy McKeown's Barbers was next to the Kirk.Paddy was a  little round  fat man who when he cut your hair his fat belly was pressed into your  face, he was always cracking  jokes and at times he would frighten the  life out of you by opening up a razor andflick it up and down on a razor leather strop. I personally was alwaysglad  when the ordeal was over to  get out of the barbers chair. The shop wasalso used by men of the  village whowould come to place their horse racing bets with Mick  McConnachie the bookie. Behind Paddy's shopBob Davie had his slaughter  house beforehe moved up to Main Street near the bank. The road went on   past St Mary's school gate, Jordan's houseand Casserley's to Mickie  Daly's at thejunction of Gibb Street, then on down the hill passing the  Hibs hall, and Mrs McGlinchy's shop.Hendersons Cottage and our house "Lilybank". were on the oppositeside of the road and Mary Curries sweetie shop stood at the corner of the Stable Row. From here therewas  a two storeyed house and then a rowof miner's cottages with access to  theCockyard, then came the Band Hall and Stewarts Cottage. Opposite the  miners row stood the Brick Building whereMaggie Heron had her shop and  behind thebuilding were the remains of The Square and Pottery. The road  continued to Lower and Upper Ravenshall andas far as Stevensons big  house at thecrossroads of  the Newarthill Road ,Carfin Road and the  track into DickMarshalls Farm. On the opposite side going down from the  cross there was a long row of miner'scottages with their doors onto the pavement. I cannot recall any families who lived in these cottages.Where  the cottages ended there was adirt lane called Scott's Close running back at an angle and this  cameout between  Leezie Loves sweetieshop  and the Tartan building on the MainStreet. ( it got the name Tartan from the coloured bricks  used for thebuilding  Red and Yellow).  After the entry to Scotts Close came Carrickvale a fairly large two storeyed  building which accommodated about eightfamilies.  Charlie Dobbins and  his sister Mary lived at the front next toKelly's and Lafferty's. Also  livingthere at that time was Dominic Nolan's family which included the  above wee Paddy probably one of the bestfootballers ever to come out of  Cleland. They lived at the side of Carrickvale just behind  Bean Kelly's.  Round the back lived anotherNolan "Paddy The Racker", (no relation to the above family ), his wife had died probably in childbirthwhen all his family were very young the oldest being Patrick aged about  16. There were other families living inCarrickvale including Joseph  Laffertyand his sister Vera. At the side of Carrickvale opposite the  Dandy Row a new  road of red ashes was built to give access tothe public  park when it was opened tocelebrate the Silver Jubilee of  KingGeorge  the V in May of 1935. FrankFisher who was the lamplighter for the village up to that time became the caretaker for the park when  Electricity came to Cleland in 1934-35. theprevious lamplighter was a  much olderman called Tam Johnstone, we boys and girls used to run after  him as he went about Omoa Road lighting thegas  lamps. The gas lamps  were put out about eleven O'clock each nightand in the Wintertime were  lit again atabout 6 O'clock each morning. Just past the entrance to the  Public Park, was Aitken's fish shop it wasalways full of fresh fish from Aberdeen and the East Coast fishing ports butnot many people could  afford to buy it.The tradition in those days was that fish particularly  in Catholic homes was eaten on Fridays nomeat was allowed. Only the  better offfamilies could afford fish from Aitkens it was just too  expen