Daisy Bank Farm, Stockport Etchells
 

“Daisy Bank Farm was let with a traditional red brick and stone roofed farmhouse in a local 18th Century style. In the 1970s, it was completely unmodernised with an outside toilet, no damp proof course and stone slabbed floors. There was a cobbled yard, traditional buildings and about 60 acres: paddock, Backside Field by the house and Long Hey and part of Front Meadow on the south side of Finney Lane running next to the railway station.

To the east of the house was a long redbrick and stone roofed building that was split into four stables with lofts above and a double height hayshed in the middle. Across the cobbled yard was a long brick shed that had been cow cubicles in the time of Bill Grundy. There were two pigsties at the end. Above the pigsties was a pigeon loft with pigeonholes in the brick and stone slab perches on the outside. At the end of this block, was another outside privy, with a long wooden seat with a big hole and a smaller hole on a lower level leading to a ‘longdrop toilet’ for adults and kids.

To the west of the house was square dairy room that would have been used for making butter and cream, privy (outside toilet) then open sheds for storage of logs and machinery. North of that was a Dutch barn type hayshed. As kids we spent lots of time making ‘dens’ in the hayshed, as they were the small bales that could be moved by hand. If a load of hay or straw was brought from the fields it would have to be unloaded and stacked by hand (approx. 14 tonnes). If we were not about sometimes the poor wagon driver would have to unload it on his own.

Daisy Bank Farmhouse at that time had four bedrooms upstairs, but one was turned into an inside bathroom. Downstairs a scullery, kitchen, dining room, living room, pantry with stone flagged shelves and a cellar with stone steps and stone flag shelves partially underground. On one occasion the yard flooded in a storm and filled the cellar up to the top step with water. We were scared it was going to flood all the way into the house, but we managed to start pumping the water out in time.

The kitchen had stone flagged floors but was very damp, so bitumen was poured to make a new floor. The ceilings were very low, with woodworm eaten ceiling beams. In the kitchen the beams still had the meat hooks. Above the scullery was a room that could only be accessed by stone steps outside. Inside the house it was always drafty with a breeze under every internal door and all the floorboards squeaked.

The outside walls at the back of the house and inside walls were whitewashed with lime and horsehair. It was refreshed every now and again by mixing a big dolly tub full of lime and water and we got horsehair from Walter Slack’s Clydesdale horses. It was very difficult to mix never mind apply on the walls. The yard was mainly cobbles and setts and Hugh used to brush it clean every now and again but it would take most of the day to do it all and his arms must have been burning.