(Photo - © Kathryn J Ing)


Top Street -July 1965 Here you can see the famous ‘Butchers Step’, this was a gathering place for everyone in the village, a place for children to sit and eat sweets or a place for the women folk to meet and have a chat. As you will see on this particular occasion the occupants of the step are a group of ladies of all ages that have gathered for what could have been one of the last few times they got to sit on that butchers step as not long after, the village was deserted and finally demolished by the National Coal Board who saw the village as a place that could no longer make them any commercial profit. Next door to the Butchers was an off-licence. This off-licence was the only source of alcohol in the village as there was no public house, the closest pub for the miners to retreat to after a hard shift down the pit was the Crewe Arms, named after Lord Crewe who owned all the land in that area at the time. The off-licence was owned by Mr Lawton who also owned the butchers adjoined to it.

The ladies who are sat on the step from left to right are:-
Janet Elliott - (Blue Pinny)
May Broadgate
Mona Maddox - (Young Girl sitting)
Mrs Maddox - (Older lady sitting)
Maureen Elliott - (Brown dress sitting)
Paul Lawton

Eventually these ladies moved from Leycett with their families in search of work.Although the Lawton family who owned the Buthcers still remain in Leycett today.

Looking Down Top Street


(Photo - © Kathryn J Ing)