Peter Osbourn was the green grocer on the Stoney Lane estate in those days and along with Jim Gaukroger's Newsagents and 'Jaynes', the ladies and children's wear shop they were just three of the shops that formed the estate shops just over fifty  years ago - according to the Tenants Handbook issued to all council house tenants in those days.

   Peter left his green grocer's shop many years ago and sadly passed away a few years ago. The Gaukroger's also left years ago, but I can still remember delivering four of Jim's daily and a Sunday paper rounds all for a princely sum of 7/- (35 pence today) a round, per week.

   The booklet was produced in the days when Mr Fortune was the housing manager and Gilbert Lawson MBE was the Council Housing Chairman. It isn't so much a book full of do's and don'ts, but also includes many useful household hints too.

   The do's and don'ts included strict instructions that you had not to knock nails into the walls to hang up pictures. Hinges on doors should be oiled regularly as they could easily become rusty. Dry rot was a big worry and tenants were advised this was often caused by having oilcloth and linoleum covering the whole of the floor area. You had to leave a twelve-inch gap between the floor covering and the skirting boards to allow air to circulate.

   Use your wireless or television in a considerate manner so that it will not be a source of irritation to your neighbours. Something judging from the number of complaints I used to get some people still have a total disregard for these days.

   1960 was a time when many of the housing estates were little more than ten years old and for many of the new residents was the first time they had front and rear gardens and inside facilities,  fitted baths and toilets.

   These were the great days of the tenant association groups that were initially formed to foster good neighbourly relations and the spirit of friendship.

   No tenant will be allowed to keep fowls, pigeons or rabbits which reminds me of the story I heard some years ago when a tenant received a letter pointing out that he had more than one pet dog which was against the rules, in fact this particular resident had three. To say he was annoyed was an understatement to say the least. He replied by saying that he was more than willing to get rid of his dogs, if the authority applied the same rules to the people who in one case kept a pig in the front garden and a second kept cattle in his back garden. Strangely enough he never heard anymore about it.

   Constructing sheds was not allowed without written permission of the authority and if you lived in a house that was built after 1945 you would not be given permission.         

   Television aerials were not allowed without permission, and if you didn't have your  chimney swept every twelve months you were in big trouble.

   There is one thing I will never have in my house, an open fire. I still remember getting up on winter mornings at home in Holtby Grove, on the Stoney estate when my first job of the day was to riddle the fire and empty the ash bin. Make cheap firelighters by rolling a well read copy of the Green Final, a familiar weekly local sports paper I am sure some will remember, into loose balls and then carefully placing coal on top of them. The worst was still to come when I had to light it and stand the shovel on the front with an old sheet of newspaper to draw it. The number of times I shivered watching the paper set on fire is still too many to count. 

   In the back of the book are a number of useful addresses, the district nurses Mrs Sykes at Rastrick, Mrs Rushworth and Mrs Walter for Brighouse and Mrs Hopson at Hipperholme. Miss Lister, Miss McCormick and Miss Duckworth the midwives and Miss Latimer the health visitor perhaps some of these ladies around in those days will remember these ladies.

    At the first sign of frost it was the responsibility of each tenant to turn their water supply off at the mains empty all the pipes by leaving the cold water taps on and flush the toilet. Plugs should be left plugged in just in case the taps drip and the water pipes freeze and burst.

  and finally...Some people are often heard to say 'Bring back the old days'. I think I will stick to hearing the morning click of the central heating system springing into action. Rather than having to find alternatives to the old Green Final and a shovel. These residents taking part in the Smith House Estate community childrens' treat of 1954 would know about the rules and regulations for tenants. These were the youngsters who joined in by being members of the Comic Band.