Bowling Green Court is a retirement community of 49 apartments, built in 2002. Located on Brook Street, the complex overlooks an historic 18th century bowling green. 3 residents offered their varying memories of Christmas past.

Pat ” I was born in Stockport. I was 5 when the War started. I can remember very frugal Christmases, we didn’t have turkeys, we didn’t have a lot of food during the war and we didn’t have a lot of presents either.

“I remember Woolworths was one of the bigger shops in Stockport. My mother took my sister and I down, a few weeks before Christmas and she bought 2 baby dolls. They were big dolls, unclothed, one had blonde curls and the other had lovely dark curls, like my sister and me. Then they disappeared, we got them back for Christmas, dressed beautifully , with leggings, jackets, hats, the lot. Knitted and crocheted, because my mother had a very dear friend who was good with her hands.

“The second year I had the doll, it disappeared. I thought it was on top of my mother’s wardrobe. My sister used to go searching for things at Christmas, she couldn’t bare not knowing what she had for Christmas! One night the air raid sirens went, my mother rushed us down the garden into the shelter, which we shared with out next door neighbours. Then my mother rushed back out again and came back with the doll, dressed. She said “here you are, you might as well have this now, because we might not be here for Christmas”. We had a little stocking at the end of the bed, it was probably my father’s sock, with a walnut, a coin and a tangerine. We could get fruit from abroad but I didn’t see a banana until after the War. My father was Scottish ,and his family was Scottish, so New Year was spent with my grandmother, and my father’s 2 sisters. My father was never there when we were in the shelter because he was an ARP Warden. He desperately wanted to go in the Navy, he went every week to sign on, but they wouldn’t accept him because he was an electrical engineer working on aeroplanes. He was already doing that.

“We had bacon and eggs at Christmas, or anything that was going instead of Turkey!

“Another thing I do remember.. it followed me right through life. My father’s sister had a very good singing voice and I used to sing with her later in life. Between Christmas and New Year, she would take us in a taxi to The Palace in Manchester, to see a pantomime. I was stage struck from about 7. I’m still singing and I’m 92 next ! I was Cinderella or Aladdin, we did home pantomimes. I’ve been singing all my life. I was 11 when I was in the pulpit at St George’s Church in Stockport and I did all of the speeches though the nativity.

“I suppose the best Christmas, was when I was a bity older and I was singing. We went to Stockport Infirmary and we used to go round the wards singing hymns to the patients. The Mayor and Mayoress of Stockport always came with us on Christmas day, bringing presents for the patients. “

Mavis. “I was born in Chester and I’ve lived here for 82 years. Dad was in the forces, Mum was in digs in Newtown. When Dad came out of the Airforce, they were waiting for the houses to be built in Blacon. Mum and Dad had to live in a caravan on Sealand Road! It was very wet, we had to walk on boards. The caravan had 3 rooms, my sister and I slept in one room, the middle was our living area, and mum and dad’s bedroom was the other end. This particular Christmas, Mum had gone to see a friend across the field, my sister and I were laying there waiting for Father Christmas. I said to my sister, “can you hear bells?” I went to the front door, and we crept out, and at the bottom of the steps was 2 little bicycles! He’s been! He’s been! we said.

“We moved to Malvern road, we were 2 doors up from the cemetery , we lived there. I was about 7, we were still there in 1949. Dad was coming home on his bicycle and he stopped at the cattle market. We watched him coming up the path, with this great big goose on his bicycle, dangling its legs. He came round the back, he wanted to bring it in the house but she wouldn’t let him until he’d got rid of all the feathers. She made my dad sit outside plucking the goose, there were feathers everywhere, and they went all over the graves! He came in and he chased us with the claws. That was my first Christmas in Malvern road.

“There was still houses being built, the school and the Parade were still being built. The houses were being built by prisoners of war. We used to play on the site, and there was great big poles, and one hit me on the back of the head. I’m still here , but thats probably why I’m so dotty!

“I had some beautiful dolls given to me. My cousin came over and she dropped my doll and broke it, I still remember it to this day. We used to go to our grandparents, they lived in Blacon all their married life. My nan had 5 children. The cottages are still there on St Chad’s Road, they lived in the middle one. We used to go there every Christmas. She used to make a lovely trifle. It was such a nice cream, you can’t buy it today. The grown ups used to play games at night, and we 4 kids were upstairs in nan’s bedroom. I remember playing Murder in the dark, that was a favourite game! Grandad used to keep chickens, we used to have lovely big dinners. As I got older my mum taught me how to cook.

“There was a church in St Chad’s road at the time, it’s not there now, we used to go to Sunday school. Dad used to go out Christmas Eve and get us a present. He was very strict, but he was soft at the same time. We would ask him for something and we would get it in the end!

“We used to get on the train to Northgate station and then we’d go to Liverpool to see Father Christmas there, they had a big grotto.

“I remember the old Market, it smelt like a market. we got the lot from there! Chester was very bustly! There was toilets outside the Town Hall, and the buses were outside there.

“My husband worked for Manweb. Under the Town Hall steps is an electrical cupboard. My husband and his mate were in there doing the substation and they could see a little boy looking through the grille. My husband’s mate said through the grille “I am a Dalek..” Daleks were all the go in those days. He ran to his mum at the bus stop and he could see her shaking him saying” don’t be silly!” I often wonder if that little boy was traumatised!

“I remember going to school in the snow. I don’t remember when the river was frozen, but my husband was born in the Groves, he would have remembered that. I met him at the Majestic (Brook street). When I was a teenager I went to Quaintways, the Majestic had a proper orchestra for dancing. “

Marlene. “I was born in Cumbria on the border with Scotland. I grew up on a farm. The animals had to be looked after and fed. My Dad would be up about 5 o clock. Before we had Christmas lunch, because it was a rural community, there was always lots of visitors, the farmers used to come in for some sherry and some Christmas cake. Our neighbour used to make 8 or 10 Christmas puddings and give them out to people. We ate after that. My mum would cook, usually we had a Turkey. Listening to Pat it makes you realise how lucky we were living on a farm in many respects. There was geese, there was turkey, rabbits, we had a river flowing through the land. Early days I remember getting a bike, and you needed one where we lived. There wasn’t a bus. We used to polish them with a cloth and Vaseline to make them shine! After the War my father used to collect the helmets that the Home Guard used to wear, and he used them on the farm to put chicken pellets in! He went away , he was in Tobruk, Burma, and I can remember the treasures that he brought back home. Little ebony Elephants and the most fabulous fabrics. They had a letter one day for him to go up to Scotland because his brother was there on an airbase. He drove up, and there was his brother, he didn’t know where he was, or even if he had survived the War.

“I was an only child. I helped before I went to school, whatever needed to be done. I was on that farm until I went to London to art college in the early 60s. It was a great time to be in London. All the clubs and the groups. I still hankered for Cumbria, I spent so much time outside as a child. There were some very interesting families living there, the painters Winifred and Ben Nicholson, they lived in the village. As a student I used to go home for Christmas. I met my husband in London.

” I can’t make a comparison to today. Our family now live abroad, so we have experienced Christmases abroad, and they have been brilliant. Christmas in Australia on the beach, great experiences, we are very lucky. After we left London, we went back North and we lived there. Our children moved to Australia and California in the 2000s. Our Christmases have been in one place or another, but as we got older, travelling is not great, so they tend to come and see us now.

“We had lived on the Wirral, then Cardiff, then back to the Wirral, then we came to Chester. It was peace of mind in this kind of establishment, and we loved Chester. It’s the best move we ever made. Its a compact city, its interesting historically, its got everything. We go to Storyhouse, the Town Hall, the Cathedral, all the restaurants, there is so much choice. Family love coming here! “