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.
Here, Martin Plant looks at the life of Kyle Richmond.
Kyle Richmond was born in Ashton under Lyne in 1983 and grew up in Saddleworth. He attended Saddleworth Nursery School, and St Chad’s Primary School in Uppermill.
He remembers St Chad’s was “academically driven” but “a good day at school was when I returned home with grass stains on my knees from playing out on ‘The Banking’.”
He recalls what he considers were two “minor failures of justice: A dinner lady heard him say “Shift!” to a friend in the canteen, misheard him, and reported him to the headteacher who told him off for swearing!
And his class teacher once had to defend him from a school photographer’s annoyance when the class had to have a second sitting because Kyle had, allegedly, pulled a face and ruined the first shot!
On another occasion, during a particularly muddy Saddleworth Village Olympics, a lot of children began throwing mud at each other. Kyle threw it at the “nearest Diggler” – and was the only pupil to be caught and was “disqualified”!
His ability with IT was such that he managed to change the school passwords and the Head of IT at Saddleworth School “had to ask me nicely to let him back on the system”!
He enjoyed participating in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme, especially walking on the hills above Saddleworth and camping.
One of his tasks as a volunteer was to help look after some Gloucestershire Old Spots pigs at Castleshaw Activity Centre.
One winter’s day, Kyle’s dad offered to help lug the heavy buckets of swill to the pigs’ enclosure. His father climbed over the railings, the pigs got between his legs, lifted him three feet into the air, and he landed on his back in the frozen mud!
Whit Fridays were spent at Dobcross where children “were engaged in intervillage warfare with peashooters.” Other temptations included firing a pea into a bandman’s tuba!
Kyle studied for his A Levels at Oldham Sixth Form College, then had a gap year employed at Sainsbury’s before working his way round New Zealand, taking part in as many adventurous activities as possible.
A degree in Environmental Sciences from Manchester Met University then voluntary work for The Groundwork Trust was followed by a Post Grad Certificate in Education.
Kyle and his partner Sarah Connaughton now both teach in Manchester in special schools for young people with profound learning difficulties and with challenging behaviour.
