The Council had decided to build a number of bungalows for the elderly on the allotments along Station Road. There were no objectors with the exception of Johnny Naylor who had a perfectly good manufactured hen house complete with external nesting boxes and all mod cons on his lot with little chance of a sale.
That is until Tommy (Thackray) had a look at it and he bought it for next to nowt along with the problem of how to transport it to our allotment adjacent to the Mulberry Bridge. Plant hire was out of the question (1940/50’s). Dismantling, transporting and re-erection wasn’t much of an option either, as it would have likely destroyed the unit.
I don’t know who came up with the solution, but it was wooden pit props as rollers with a team of neighbours carrying the props from the rear to the front of the shed and the shed pushed along on the rollers.
It must have looked like Noah’s Ark to the regulars of the Royal Oak as it sedately passed the large bay windows (this was before the road camber had been built up). Then a sharp left turn into Bondfield Terrace -To me, To you, Left a bit, Whoa – and a few more right angled turns much to the entertainment of the residents. We finally made it including the steep down incline at the bottom of the construction that was to become The Hollings.
Finally it was positioned with a lot of straining and levelling on an old raspberry patch on our allotment along with loads of kids and stooks of straw.
Can’t say I was all that happy, it was my chore to clean the hen muck out once a week. I did enjoy however, the trip to Selby market for 48 bright yellow chicks and watching them develop over the months.