progging

[davefnd]

Anyone recall bonfire progging. I can recall going from Rylestone street
down to the River Worth and over the footbridge into Fruit street and
raiding the bonfire. But they would retaliate and sometimes set our bonfire alight before Nov.5th. Lovely days.

[fsharpminor]

Indeed I remember progging. There has been a lot of correspondence on www.kbgs.com about this, I think on the thread about Yorkshire dialect. It seemed that the word progging has usage in a very small area. Chumping is used a bit further away from Keighley

Edit .... Just checked , its in the 'Yorkshire Words and Sayings' thread within the forums of kbgs.com

[maryb]

I too remember progging,the kids today wouldn't be able to do it as they would think it was too much like hard work.

Maryb.

[les972]

Another word from the local area, which I'd never heard till I came to live in Keighley and that is "twagging" means playing truant from school " twagging it from school"

[maryb]

Did that aswell!!

Maryb

[harrier]

We lived in Hainworth Lane, Ingrow, below the railway bridge, the top line which took trains into Bradford by way of the viaduct above Cullingworth. The Worth Valley line was the other side of Halifax Road. The Lane formed a boundary with Halifax Road, the railway line and the adjoining ‘Clough’s wood’ which enclosed Ebenezer Square. In the centre of the square was a derelict site with an old barn used by a builder/plasterer, with all the lavatories and dustbin alcoves for Hainworth Lane and the Square residents skirting the edge. The centre of the site was waste land and a piggery!! The stys were higher than the waste land, the high wall affording an excellent storage area to lean our prog against, much to the irritation of the owner of the piggery who lived opposite. (Mr Utley?) On bonfire night he was concerned that we might cook his bacon!!! There was only two boys who lived in this small community, both of us under ten, which meant that all the prog we collected could not be defended against the raiders, all older boys, from Spring Bank. To counter all the prog being stolen year after year, we used to collect the branches from the local woods, drag them down the Lane to the Square to the bonfire site and saw them up into manageable lengths … long enough to hide down the deep cellars of the houses in Hainworth Lane; most of these houses only had one room downstairs and one up but were built over the ‘cellar houses’ in the Square, which when viewed from the main Halifax Road gave the impression of a long terrace three story houses creeping up the Lane towards Spring Bank. Our cellars in Hainworth Lane must have slotted down behind the ‘cellar houses’, the occupants of which had a single window looking out onto the toilets and dustbins from their hovel, which basically was what they were. All the rubbishy branches and off cuts were left on site, being of little interest to the Spring Bank raiders. What used to be frightening at such a young age, was that the ‘spring bankers’ who went to the local school, Wesley Place, used to warn us that they would be raiding our bonfire on a particular night … we stayed out as late as parents would allow to protect our prog! And of course on bonfire night the cellars were emptied, old furniture, tyres, beds would arrive on site with Mr Utley ensuring that the whole pile was moved far enough away from his wall for the pigs to be safe …. This was a time of rationing … but we had plot toffee in abundance!!! How come? It was squares of jelly straight form the packet!!! I still hate jelly!!!

[ackers]

Hello Harrier.

Do you by chance have any pictures of Ebenezer Square. My mother has told me stories about the square as she lives on Haincliffe Road, but sadly has no pictures.

Ian.

[harrier]

Dare I say that if you lived in Hainworth Lane or Ebenezer Square you were not rich enough to own a camera ... no joke! One of the girls who lived down at the bottom of the Lane had piano lessons so she was classified as posh. Posh with a capital 'P' because she also went to Ingrow School instead of Weasley Place which was just across the road!! If the parents had ambitions for their kids, Ingrow was the preferred school. We didn't 'own' a camera until I was about 8 years old .... one Sunday afternoon in the summer, the family went for a walk along the canal to Bingley. On the bend before the locks, mother found a camera left on top of a wall next to the tow path. Half way down the lock rise, an oldish couple were coming towards us and asked if we'd found a camera as they had lost theirs. I was astonished when my mother told them we hadn't. I felt so guilty, so ashamed. Every time I run past the spot even now 60 years later, that same feeling of guilt returns. My mother justified her actions years later (I never dare say anything at the time) by saying the couple were stuck up and could afford a new one. We couldn't. So I have a few photos of groups of kids with some buildings in the background, but none specifically of the buildings, all courtesy of the stolen camera. Which is a great pity, because the area was so run down that historically, any photos would be of great interest.

[fsharpminor]

Well I went to Ingrow ,and also had piano lessons from just before my 6th birthday. We certainly weren't Posh though !!
I bet the girl you knew had lessons from Mary Binns in Victoria Rd.
I also knew a Hainworth Wood Rd family quite well as they went to Lund Park Church. I played the organ for one of the daughters wedding.

[elfremar]

My OH is from Bradford and thinks the word progging is hilarious as he calls it chumping!!
He also calls what we call scones (from the fish shop) cakes,and I think that's hilarious.

[dutton]

i well remember progging in the lead up to bonfire night we used to make dens in the middle of the pile of wood and old furniture and anything that would burn.we also had to guard the hard gotten pile for fear of raiders.on the night it was plot toffee roast spuds rockets in milk bottles rip raps and of course bangers.our bonfire was at broomhill where now stands boothmanway i think.some of the family's in the area at the time were the frosts the gills the scroups the coles and us the duttons all in broomhill way and the lower end of grafton road.

[sean1981]

Yes it was progging in Haworth too and we had at least three bonfires within a quater of a mile. Raiding was stopped in many instances by the mothers rather than the children I remember.

The den was a must for us and a chance to stay out late and sit to guard the bonfire. Another thing was to nip over a nearby wall, where every bit of spare ground had been use to grow things, and get a turnip (I suppose sweed really) and eat some of it and make a lantern. It was all mischief night and plot night rather than Halloween back then.

John

[harrier]

Ackers wanted a photo of Ebenezer Square. I was up in Keighley last week, and my sister has sent me an excellent shot of the Wesley Place area ... presumably an aerial shot, taken well before any development took place... the flats etc.. How do I send you a copy??

[Andy Wade]

Post it on here if you like.

Click on 'Reply' and under the subject line is one for 'Attachment' Click to browse your computer and select the one you want. It will need to be a maximum size of 1,024.0 KB though.

[harrier]

Will give you a run down of all the names of neighbours I know if you wish.

[harrier]

Photo of ingrow

Attachments:

[harrier]

Close up

Attachments:

[ackers]

Thank you Harrier great pictures my mother will enjoy looking at them. She still lives on Haincliffe Road and remembers Tebbs` shop (cobblers I think) and the families who lived at the top of the coach road. Thanks again.

[Gaffa]

Progging and bonfire night,

Great memories,
Our bonfire was always on the spare land that used to be allotments at the back of Beeches Terrace where I lived.
It was fairly well protected from "prog raiders" as it was surrounded on two sides by Beeches Terrace and Elia Street houses
and by Keighley Lifts and the 'oller on the other sides.
In the weeks before Bonfire night we would go around the neighborhood and ask people to start saving newspapers and any bits of wood for us, which we collected closer to the date.
We still used to hide some of the prog and not build the bonfire until the night before Plot Neet, as the local raiders, who were either from Bradford Street or the  "Bogallyers" from Dalton Lane, would try to set it alight.
We would still have smaller fires at night during the week or so leading up to the 5th and we would sit around on the old sofas and mattresses that we had got.
It was always great to get old sofas off people as prog because when you ripped open the back there was always a chance to find a few coppers or, if you were really lucky, a tanner, a bob or a two bob piece.
I once found a half crown and that year I bought the biggest box of Standard Fireworks that Portlocks newsagents sold.
But most of the time you just found bits of old food, bits of paper and a button or two.

One year I remember they were demolishing the Fruit Street area in Worth Village and we must have made over a hundred trips across the "oller, down the beck side (River Worth), and over the Red Bridge to get prog from the old houses.
We were like army ants taking apart a dead rat or something. It seemed like every kid in the neighborhood was involved.
Some had old prams or carts to help move the stuff.
We concentrated mainly on the wooden doors as we could stack them on the carts or a couple of kids could carry two or three between them.
I bet we had 60 doors on the bonfire that year and when the bonfire was lit it was so big and hot that it cracked some windows and blistered the paint on quite a few houses on the terrace.

It was a real community event and just about everyone in the neighborhood showed up for it. If they couldn't make it to the fire they could watch it from their back yards as the back of Beeches Terrace sits above the spare land.
All the mums would make pies and peas, and we would have parkin pigs from Allan's Confectioners on Bradford Road that has currants for eyes and little cherry slices for mouths. There would be trays of plot toffee of various hardness and chewiness and we all had our favorite - my mums was the best.

We all had fireworks, always Standards, and in the days prior, those who could afford it would buy bangers and rip raps to set off and throw at each other.
But on the night it seemed like everyone took turns in lighting the larger ones so that everyone could enjoy the show.
A few fireworks that come to mind are Golden Fountains, Pin Wheels, Roman Candles, Aeroplanes and of course rockets and sparklers.

We would all sit around on the old sofas and mattresses and as the fire died down a bit these would get thrown on until there were just a pile of embers left.
Then it was time for the roast spuds. With or without tin foil, they were put in the embers and usually taken out too soon to be eaten blazing hot and cooked black on the outside and raw in the middle with globs of margarine and salt.

Like Christmas it was a day and evening that we never wanted to end.
But it did and the next day we would pick through the embers, usually still warm, and maybe find a forgotton spud or odd bits of metal and look for nails and screws that we would use in out den building in the coming Spring.

I am truely thankful that I got to grow up in a time where community events just happened like that, without all the regulations and "political correctness" of these days.
When kids could be kids and the memories they created would last a lifetime.

Gaffa

[Andy Wade]

Fantastic post that Gaffa, enjoyed every bit as it mirrored my childhood memories of bonfire night.

[Gaffa]

Thanks Andy,

I should imagine that most of the neighborhoods around Keighley had similar Bonfire Night experiences.
I forgot to mention the Guys that we would make.
I was never much good at making them so I never got much money for "Penny for the Guy".
I remember one year one of the big kids stuffed the guys head with all kinds of fireworks and Mr Fawkes' demise was very spectacular when the fire finally reached his head.

Gaffa

[fsharpminor]

Indeed, I second Andys comment. I particulalry remember a couple we had at Lund Park Methodist Church on the bit of ground between the Sunday School and the Church, not a lot of space, an I think it was deemed to be not safe enough afte a couple of years. Others we had in the back gardens of the row of houses that was 37-57 Malsis Rd. That row (and a few houses from adjoining Upper Chelsea St) had a good community spirit, lots of families with kids who knew each other.