I love local books and I've loads of time for the authors that put them together. This has the subtitle, My Micklefield, so you're probably wondering why I think that Micklefield is local when I write for the Wakefield Express. Well, all the family on my mum's side are from Micklefield, or, as it's always been called, 'Micky'.
A week doesn't go by that I don't go to Micky and I've certainly seen it change over the years – the pit closed and Jack Wallace got rid of his shop. Jack was a real shopkeeper in the old style, down to the overall jacket he wore. The whole village
was a traditional pit village.
But after reading this book I learned that it wasn't always a pit village – it was once a farming community.
Sweet Dreams... traces Miklefield's history, and plenty of research has gone into it. It tells us about the changes that Micky has undergone. The village club gets a mention. I remember that as a kid I was forced to go on the club trip, a sort of jolly boys outing, because all the members' kids got a fiver spending money. We never went in at any other time!
The most poignant section deals with the pit disaster. It gives a real sense of what life must have been like back then.
One touching story concerns Joe Simpson who was working Christmas Eve in 1940. Joe and his mate Cherry were working at the coalface and five minutes into Christmas Day the shaft gave way, killing Joe. Only moment earlier they were singing carols and Joe was looking forward to Christmas day with his family.
It's a fantastic book, interesting all the way through.
