Coal Strike "

Army Lane, Buckley

1926

ARMY LANE.

There were two versions of where the Salvation Army had their barracks - one was on land behind the shops and houses between the Cross Keys and Army Lane, the other on land off Brook Street almost opposite the present Workingmen's Club. [I favour the latter due to difficulties the Council had acquiring this plot for the erection of Prince of Wales Court]. Hence the name of the lane which led to Drury.

During the General Strike in the mid-1920's, Buckley again resorted to digging into the many spoil-banks dotted round the area, looking for nuggets of coal for the home fires. Some people even went to the extreme of sinking shallow shafts in their gardens or adjoining land. One such shaft was at the back of 47 - 53 Chester Road, adjoining Army Lane. One morning we awoke to find that part of Lane End flooded. The digging had caused the water main in Army Lane to collapse washing away the Lane for several yards along its length onto Chester Road. The Lane, being an unadopted road was never properly repaired and remained rough-surfaced until 1973, when Buckley Council decided to spend their cash reserves on tarmacing the many small unadopted roads in the area in preference to handing the cash over to the impending new Alyn & Deeside District Council to be formed on 1/4/74. The pock-marks on the spoil-banks remained until the heaps were removed many years later - some by the Tunnel Cement Company.

Author: Hayes, John Eric, 1918

Coal Strike "

Army Lane, Buckley

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