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Chop, chop - no, no

Harold Cunliffe
10/ 4/2008

THE prospect of winning a floral decoration from 'Bluebells' tempted many readers to enter our recent quiz.

One of our quiz photographs was taken in 1982, this showed the preparations for the Pope's visit to Heaton Park on the May Day Bank Holiday Monday. Over at Bowlee two young businessmen rented the vast ex RAF airfield from the council to use as a car and coach park. Several portable generators powered floodlights to illuminate the area. The idea was to provide a type of park and ride scheme to the Heaton Park event. Unfortunately only seven cars and an even smaller number of coaches used the site. This was due to the police closing the M66 which enabled the visitors to park free of charge on the carriageway.

At the time I was working in the area and had noticed a caterers marquee packed with food, obviously expecting to feed the large hungry crowds that would be passing. Upon entering the nearby greenhouses all was fine, however an hour later I passed in the opposite direction to find the caterers standing in the open field surrounded by thousands of muffins, and the cooking ovens etc. The hire firm could foresee a huge financial loss and decided to take the marquee back leaving the staff out in the open. As the sun shone the bread and muffins started to curl. It was decided to dispose of the food as soon as possible. Everyone filled their freezers with the muffins. At the nearby council nursery it was bacon, sausage, egg, chips and baked bean muffins for lunch for months on end.

Another one of our Bygone images, the Lung Fung Cafe, Oldham Road, brought back memories to many readers who once enjoyed a tasty Chinese meal. Lily Kwok opened the cafe and within a short time became a well known and liked local character.

During the swinging 60s pop bands from all over Manchester would meet up at Lily's cafe. After finishing gigs late at night the band members knew they could depend on Lily to feed them – even if it meant she had to get out of bed to do it.

Powerhouse, The Perfect Circle, The Tremors, Country Gents and Tom's Rigg are all Middleton bands that met at the cafe. It was the sad news of Lily’s death that prompted the band members to send me their memories of her. She was obviously a very special person. Nick Duval, formerly of the Country Gents and the Tremors said: "Our ultimate destination after the show was Lily's, even if the show was in Shrewsbury. We'd arrive about 2.30am to find the place in darkness and the doors locked, but undismayed we'd have to sit in the van until John Dean, 'Deanie' went and banged on the door to interrupt the Mah Jong, and get them out of bed. Lil would greet John with the usual pleasantries.

A kind of stand off would ensue with Lily weighing up whether it was worth her opening up, profit wise, and the starving band falsely inflating their numbers so that the cafe owner thought she was on a winner.

However, normally by the time the food was served another band would turn up and a party would ensue.

Two words you could never use in front of Lily, were ‘chop, chop’.

On one occasion John Dean said it to her and she came through the serving hatch with a huge knife and chased Deanie down Taylor Street, shouting: "You never say 'chop chop' to me John Deen, you are a naughty boy."

Roy Gibbs, Calvin 'Spud' Hudson, Peter Kay, Danny Hardman and John Firth all sent messages relating the same type of stories from the cafe. They all reminisce about the times that they sat enjoying a steaming hot 'cally and chips' served up by their favourite chef.

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