Donald Stewart was an ordinary chap, just one of the hundreds of ordinary folk who lived and worked in Bollington over the past couple of centuries. Why do I pick him out for a page? Well, simply because I knew him, I liked him very much and he told me an interesting anecdote about his life.
He was born around 1900 and I got to know him in the late 1970s
as a fine old gentleman. We frequently met in the Crown Inn and
shared a few pints. He had various occupations during his life
including as a sales representative selling studs - collar studs
and cuff links - to the trade. That was in the days when men, including
the so called working classes, wore shirts with removeable collars.
The studs were mounted on cards for retail display in barber's
and hardware shops. In the 1960s he and his wife Stella took the
Dog & Partridge Inn. I lost track of Donald in the 1980s and
believe that he died in that decade.
The anecdote that will remain with me always concerned the building
of the 'new' chimney at the Oak Bank Mill printing works. This
chimney was built about 1912 and was around 200 feet high. During
its construction it was clothed in scaffolding and ladders. One
weekend, when the site was deserted, Donald and his younger sister
climbed to the very top of the scaffolding to play! The very thought
sends shivers down the spine.
