Fond memories of Saddleworth: Jack Highton part 1

Over the past four years, Saddleworth Voices have recorded almost 70 interviews to preserve fond memories and anecdotes of all things local.

With the support of Saddleworth Parish Council, Delph Community Association, Delph library, Saddleworth Museum, and the North West Sound Archive in Clitheroe, the team of volunteers has created an oral record of our times, with the added advantage of capturing accent and dialect.

Copies of the recordings are currently available in Delph library, Saddleworth Museum, and at the NWSA.

Here, Martin Plant looks at the life of Jack Highton, born in Delph in 1931.

Jack’s father, Fred, was in the building trade and a professional boxer who had 250 fights. His mother, Florence, was a cleaner and used to regularly push Jack in his pram up to a house on Grains Bar.

In his early childhood, his house had just gas lighting and an outside toilet (around the corner and up an alleyway to get to it!) There was no modern equipment, a tin bath with water heated on the range, and a pantry.

But Delph was a self-sufficient village with all the shops you needed, including a tripe seller known as Tricky Tripe. You could even get a suit or a dress made at the Co-Op.

Entertainment could be found in the form of Saddleworth Players who began performing at the Mechanics’ Institute in 1937, and concerts and pantomimes at the Independent and Methodist churches, where Jack at 7 years old saw his first magician, Fred Mills, and decided to become a magician himself.

The magician gave Jack his first lesson in magic which was “practise, practise, and practise again. The three basic rules of magic!”

By the age of ten, Jack was learning magic tricks sufficient to entertain his friends at Hill End primary school in Delph while waiting for German bombers overhead to pass by.

Jack left home at 14 years old and became a decorator’s apprentice with Fred Dobson in Delph. One of his tasks was to help mix their own paints from white lead, a job which, under health and safety, would not be allowed today.

At 18 Jack received his call-up papers for National Service, but it was deferred till he finished his apprenticeship and so aged 21, after basic training he found himself on a troop ship bound for Singapore with the 9th Battalion, Manchester Regiment.

On board he entertained troops with magic and comedy at concert parties and was promoted to Acting Sergeant and given his own room instead of a hammock.

It was the time of the Malayan “Emergency” and Jack spent time on patrol in the jungle for searching for “terrorists” and sometimes coming under fire.

He finished his time in the Regimental Police Service but was still developing his magic act when opportunities arose. On one occasion, he performed for several hundred Chinese children who rushed the stage at the end. Jack quickly left by a back door thinking his performance hadn’t gone down well, but they had all wanted to hug him!

Back in Saddleworth, Jack began going out with Irene Barraclough, a cost accountant from Dobcross. They married in 1955 and had a daughter, Lynda. They were together for 40 years till Irene’s death.

In 1960, Jack set up on his own as a painter and decorator but was in demand by working men’s clubs across the north of England as a professional magician. He earned around £20 per week as a decorator but could earn the same for one night at a night club.

Over the years, Jack, as a professional entertainer, became “Jack Steel” with his by-line “Steel by Name and Steel by Nature”.

He worked across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and appeared on stage with the likes of Les Dawson, Bob Monkhouse, Norman Wisdom, Iris Williams, and Bill Waddington (who kept a pig farm in Grotton).

Recently, Jack met an old school friend who said to him, “Jack, do you know why we’re the only ones still alive? We were the only two who didn’t smoke cigarettes!”

Part 2 “Jack Steel,  A Lifetime of Magic” to follow in next month’s issue.