At the end of the houses on Gamble Road stood the Burn Naze public house. A double storey building facing what was then the ICI Recreation Ground No 1 football pitch.

We used to walk down Gamble Road, sometimes to the park just off Wembley Road, before going to the large pavilion at the entrance to the Recreation Grounds. Endless hours lazing in the long grass watching all the bugs and firing sticky grass at each other.

Later on, I had a paper round delivering to Gamble Road and the surrounding streets. Gamble Road was best because there were no gardens so I could stay on my bike, fold the papers and push them through the letter boxes. I also got to read all of the comics – Beano, Dandy and Hotspur to name a few.

Into my teens, we would occasionally go into the off sales entered from the black door into a narrow room with benches on either side and a glass hatch into the bar area. Other kids might be in their being bought cool drinks by their parents sitting inside. It was warmer than being outside, but if we were being noisy the landlord would throw us out.

At 18, I got a job working behind the bar which helped me through college and I carried on right up until I joined to Army and moved to Deepcut Barracks in the June of 1975. I left Baines Grammar School in 1972 and went to study for my OND in Business Studies and Lytham. After 2 years, I received my diploma and stayed a third year to do some A levels. Part of that decision was that I had applied, attended and failed the officer selection for the RAF, so what next.

I worked 5 nights a week as well as Saturday and Sunday lunch times at the pub and many weekends stayed behind to serve ‘lock in’ until the early hours of the morning.

Sometime at the end of 74, I had a serious accident in the pub, I slipped and landed on a handful of stem glasses, severing nerves and arteries in my left hand (no, not lucky as I am left handed!). However, after a few months of physio I regained most of the use in my hand, but it was touch and go whether I would be able to join the Army,

I was away for 18 months and when I returned I did visit the Burn Naze a few times, but it felt different – maybe it was my time away that changed things – the conversations in the pub hadn’t changed, as though stuck in time – like GroundHog Day.

But I have fond memories of the place and it was sad to return to Thornton after many years away to see it boarded up and now erased all together. Most of the people who would have been the ‘regulars’ will have disappeared.

There is more to tell – the Friday dress up, the self appointed bouncer, the usual suspects and these will follow…