72 Victoria Street, Littleborough

This is the last post of 2023 and completes 5 years of this Blog with 175 posts in total so far.

It has been suggested that I should include more about Hileys of more recent generations, so a theme of 2024 will be to do just that.

Starting next month will be an occasional series of posts about the life of Henry Hiley, illustrated with some of the many photos which he left. In his later years Henry recorded his life story on to cassette tapes, later copied on to 24 CDs. This wonderful collection of memoirs, 'HH remembers', covers Henry's entire life.

As a foretaste of this project, here is a photo of 72 Victoria Street, Littleborough, the house where Henry was born.

72 Victoria Street, Littleborough c 1938

I was born in the 'front' bedroom, above the shop, on 10th January 1919. The shop was also the bakehouse, the warmest room in the house after the old black gas stove was replaced by a magnificent coke fired, double-tiered oven.

I slept in the garret, the room with a skylight, reached by a wooden ladder from the ‘back’ bedroom. 

Note the writing in the shop window - 'Hiley's Noted Pies'. The gentleman by the car may have been Henry's father, Harold Hiley. The car was a Morris Cowley 'Bullnose' 4 seater Tourer.

Next post: more about 72 Victoria Street