Backwords: Dressing For The Weather
Rain often falls in West Yorkshire's Colne Valley and there was a time when no-one would leave home wihout a raincoat, as Mike Shaw recalls.
Living in the upper Colne Valley in West Yorkshire has its benefits. But the climate is not one of them.
Rain often falls on Marsden and Slaithwaite while the sun is shining merrily further down the valley.
Cricketers know all about that. When I was a youth we got used to fleeing in he drizzle to the dressing room, from where we watched in frustration as play was able to continue a few miles to the east.
Perhaps that explains why so many Marsdeners, in weather terms, remain confirmed pessimists.
As a boy we had to be in the middle if a heat wave before I was allowed to set off on the mile-long walk to school without my raincoat.
“Better to be safe than sorry,’’ said my mother, knowing the uncertainty of the weather among the West Slaithwaite hills.
So the traditional navy blue gabardine was worn with unfailing regularity for most of the year.
And it was just the same when I switched from primary to secondary school.
“It’s a long way from here to Royds Hall. I might be raining down there,’’ said mother firmly.
After the war the Poles came to Marsden, and a new line in raincoats came with them.
Most of them turned out at weekends in immaculate fawn gabardine coats of superior quality.
These were expensive, so it took time for the locals to follow suit. But follow suit we did, if only not to lose face in pursuit of the opposite sex.
Brollies were only for the effeminate in northern bastions like Colne Valley.
You might see the odd insurance man with one, but otherwise they were as rare as an icicle in August.
I recall being astounded when, as a rather untravelled 17-year-old, I discovered on a visit to Oxford that what seemed to be virtually every man in the city of dreaming spires was carrying an umbrella.
Then, in the Fifties, I swapped a National Serviceman’s RAF groundsheet for civvy street’s new-fangled Pakamac.
The Pakamac heralded a complete revolution in rain-wear, as a plastic coat that could be folded up and shoved in your jacket pocket.
For showery intervals they were perfect. But in a torrential downpour their weakness was exposed when the rain ran straight off the bottom and soaked the lower half of your trousers.
Traditional raincoats have been overshadowed by the ubiquitous car coat, seemingly designed for a quick 50-yard dash from vehicle to destination.
But if you are planning a trip to Marsden, be warned. Nothing much changes there - and that includes the weather.
