PATRICIA Blakemore has fond memories of her childhood days living at the old Obelisk House at the junction of Church Street and Huddersfield Road, Barnsley.
She was evacuated to Scotland during the Second World War and later moved to Barnsley when her father got a job at the former Beckett and St Helen Hospitals taking charge of the labs there.
The year was 1941 and her mother and father with their seven children, aged between nine years and 15 months, were given the Obelisk House as their accommodation. There were 18 rooms, five bathrooms, four indoor toilets and many cellars and outbuildings so one can imagine there would be plenty of space for the children to play.
Patricia, who was only seven years old, backs up this theory when she says: “I absolutely loved the place. We had lots of fun because there were so many rooms to investigate.”
The family originated from Ruislip, but when war was declared in 1939 the children were evacuated to Prestonpans, Scotland, to stay with their grandmother in a tenement flat.
