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Saltaire born and bred by Audrey May Tattam

booklet

printed

1983

An account of being born in and growing up in Saltaire by Audrey May Tattam (nee Lee). Audrey was born in 1926. The booklet contains personal recollections of her early years, including attending school and the Second World War. Includes some photographs.

Personal memories

Education

Saltaire village

Tattam, Audrey

Saltaire, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Gift: Tattam, Audrey

To view the full story please contact the Saltaire Collection

Audrey was born on May 6, 1926 in the Norman Rae Nursing Home at the top of Kirkgate, Shipley – a stones throw from her family home. She was carried home by her father, John Charles (Charlie) Lee to their house at 11, Albert Road Saltaire. It was the year of the miners striking and coal shortages and a national strike, when mass unemployment allowed some employers to lower wages.

Audrey’s memories of her childhood include recalling the common practice in Saltaire residences of taking lodgers and of an unusual visitor who stayed with her family. The visitor was Learie Constantine who played cricket for the West Indies (and later went on to be a distinguished politician, High Commissioner for Trinidad and Tobago, and campaigner for racial equality) and was visiting to consider whether to play cricket with either the Saltaire Cricket Club or at Windhill Shipley Cricket Club – in the event he was offered better terms by Windhill. Audrey’s father was a proficient cricketer and captained Saltaire for some years.

Of her school memories, one described was the practice of learning proverbs and sayings that ‘taught wisdom’, proverbs such as ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way’ and ‘a stitch in time saves nine’. After starting school, Audrey could explore the village and remembers playing safely in Saltaire’s streets because horses, carts and bicycles were the only traffic.

She recalls that Saltaire’s children, both at home and at school, were taught to be good, obedient, honest and hardworking to deserve living in Saltaire and that the children were eager to conform to Sir Titus Salt’s high standards.

Audrey’s recorded memories include her fascination with the street names, the Lions on their pedestals on Victoria Road, borrowing books from the Institute’s library, her brother’s visit to Salts Hospital when a cut required stitches and a royal visit in the 1930’s.

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