My Cousin Phill

By Simon Mellor age 64 and a half

 

Phillip Michael Bagnall or “Baggy” as he was effectually known to his friends and family was born on the 14th June 1952 at No 5 Lock Cottages, Malkins Bank.

Phill's dad Len worked at Fodens and his mum Jean worked for the Electricity Board.

Phill was an only child and had a happy upbringing in their small cottage by the canal. The cottage had an outside toilet and the bath could be found by lifting up the work top in the kitchen!

Things were a bit different back then...

 

My Mum and Dad were married in 1957 and moved into their first home at No 8 Lock cottages, just three doors away from mum's sister Jean. Then in 1958 I arrived, completely unaware that just three doors down was my cousin Phill, a 5 year old tearaway with a head full of fishing tackle, motorbikes and all kinds of secret plans to terrorise the residents of Malkins Bank, he would just have to wait a few years for his apprentice to grow up!

 

Grow up I did and for about 10 years I became Phill's shadow, I must have spent more time at number 5 than I did at home at No 8.

We had a little gang and Phill being 5 and a half years older than us was always the leader.

Phill taught us the art of bomb making, which I'll come back to in a minute! How to make the perfect catapult, how to set the railway embankment on fire, how to play pranks on poor Ron Statham and how to race old cars around a field up where the golf club house is now.

On cold nights we'd all huddle together in front of the shop while Phill explained the mysteries of the fairer sex to us, we stood open mouthed while our guru spoke!

We were a bit like Fagin and his band of pickpockets!

 

Back to the bombs..

Phill would come home from work at British rail with a substance called carbide, which when water was added produced Acetylene gas.

Phill had got fed up with ordinary fishing and decided we were going to blow the little buggers out of the water!

A strong bottle was found, some carbide dropped in and then water was added, the stuff started to bubble so you had to put the top on and get rid quickly.

If everything was OK the bottle would sink to the bottom and go off with a huge thud, a bit like a depth charge!

Sometimes the bottle didn't sink and we all had to run like hell to avoid been struck with flying glass.

This was all good fun until one day one went off in Phill's hand!

How he wasn't severely injured I have no idea but he went home looking very white and dazed and was not seen again for a couple of days.

We never stunned any fish anyway and that was the end of the Phill's bombing campaign.

 

About this time Phill also had a brief career in rocketry, it didn't last long as most of them blew up on the pad or only made it a couple of inches of the ground.

 

Next came our career in Banger racing!
Mac Maroney lived in a house on the bridge at Malkins Bank, he had loads of old cars, still runners but not road worthy.

Phill would buy them for £5.00 each and we'd get on our bikes and ride down the canal side to Wheelock and buy 2 gallons of petrol at 30p per gallon!!!

Up where the Golf club is now was a big expanse of grassland and we'd race the old cars around until they broke down or we ran out of fuel, Tony Parkes actually rolled one over! We had no seat belts, no crash hats, no roll cages, No anything!!
How I'm still here to tell this story is a miracle!

​

One evening I was watching Look Northwest with mum and dad when a report came on about a huge fire at a chemical dump near Malkins bank, I ran to the window and sure enough there was a huge black cloud rising up into the air, the report said it could be seen from Manchester and I believed it could.

We were always messing about up there it was a kids paradise, there were lakes of what can only be described as GUNK!

Phill said “I'll bet that stuff would burn.” and boy did it burn!

The police never did find out who set the gunk on fire, but as I watched that big dirty cloud billow into the sky I thought “Nice one Cuz, that'll teach 'em for dumping their disgusting chemical waste right under our noses!

And that was the end of Phill's career as an arsonist...

All that waste is still there, burred beneath the second nine of the golf course!

 

I mentioned Ron Statham, we made his life a misery, mainly playing knock and run but Phill thought he could do better.

Phill put his fishing gear to good use by using a drawing pin to attach some fishing line to Ron's front window frame, he added a fishing weight about a foot down the line, we would then unwind the line across the road and all hide in the long grass.

Phill would gently pull on the line and the weight would tap on Ron's window, he would come belting out of the house only to find no one there and as it was dark he couldn't see the line.

Ron got wise and would leave the door open just a little so he could get out faster, he never caught us and we would wet ourselves laughing seeing him peeping through the crack in the door.

Looking back now I suppose it was a bit cruel but life was different then and no real harm was done..Well, I hope not?

​

When not blowing things up or setting fire to chemical tips Phill could be found partaking in more gentle pastimes like fishing and building model aero planes.

I often went fishing with him but I never got the bug.

One stint of all night fishing at Taxmere did it for me.. Never again!

I've seen him catch two or three fish at a time, he was a master and he loved it.

He would sit on the canal bank for Hours with his dog Cindy at his side, even a criminal mastermind has to take some time off!

 

Phill would build model planes and we'd fly then in field where the golf course second hole is now.

They weren't radio controlled but controlled by long wires attached to a handle, I can still see Cindy running around in the field barking at them as they went over.

I remember the maiden flight of one particular plane that Phill had built, he'd spent months on it but it didn't even make one lap before it crashed and broke into a hundred pieces, Phill was not happy.

 

Talking of not happy, Phill kept chickens and was particularly fond of a small white bird called Cluck! Phill had obviously spent a lot of time thinking about the name!

All was well until one day I called round with my dog Jake and Jake ate cluck! Phill went absolutely mad but couldn't catch Jake who had the sensible idea of running away. Jake lived to be 17 but his number would have been up that day if Phill had caught him.

 

Phill rode a Yamaha 250 motorbike and I'd love it when I went riding on the back, it scared the living daylights out of me but I never said no.

​

I look back on those days with great fondness, life was never dull when you had a cousin like Phill.

I couldn't wait to get up in the mornings to see what plans Phill had been churning over in his mischievous mind.

He was more like a big brother to me really, and the days we spent together in the 60's and early 70's will be etched in my mind forever.

 

Unlike Peter Pan the rest of us have to grow up, I left school and discovered girls, Phill left home and moved into No 29 Malkins Bank and a new set of boys could be found huddled together in the cold outside the shop.

 

Time passed by and we all got on with living our lives.

Phill's mum passed away in 1989 and his Dad in 2001.

 

In 1988 Phill's first wife left him, but as I've got older I've come to think that things happen for a reason and Phill being on his own left the way open for the love of his life to appear, and appear she did, in the shape of Hazel Holinshed, they were both working at JSB in Holmes Chapel at the time and it appears that cupid was on top form that day, it was love at first sight.

 

Phill and Hazel were married in1990 and I drove Phill to his wedding in a slightly better car than the ones we used to race around in.

For the next 30 years Phill and Hazel would lead an idyllic life with their dogs in their small cottage by the canal.

Phil said that Hazel had made him the happiest he had ever been.

They would holiday all over the UK but always somewhere close to water so Phill could carry on his passion for fishing,

But then in 2020 something happened which would turn Phill's life upside down!

​

The date was March the second 2020 and we we're all at my dad's funeral, dad had passed away on the 10th of February and the whole family were at the Old Hall in Sandbach giving him a good send off when my cousin Nick Hatton took me to one side.

 

“I think I've found Phill's daughter” he said to me “I'm not sure what to do about it?”

 

In 1970 Phill and his then partner had had a baby girl, I don't know the exact reason but they were unable to keep her and she was given up for adoption.

The law states that a Father can't go looking for an adopted baby so for the next 50 years Phill would have no idea of what had become of his little girl.

We all know now that she had grown up to be a beautiful woman with a successful career and a family of her own but until Nick tapped me on the shoulder that day Phill knew nothing.

 

Nick spent hours on ancestry sites on the internet and so it seems did Jo and through the wonders of modern technology their paths crossed, the universe hiccuped, the birds all went quiet and BOOM! the connection was made!

 

I bumped into Phill a day or two later at the shop in Price Avenue, to be honest I was a bit reticent about telling him as I didn't know how he'd react.

He was taken aback a little but I could tell that he was dead chuffed.

 

A few days later seeing pictures of them together on Facebook brought a tear to my eye. I've never seen two people look more happy it was a joy to behold. Family and friends were delighted, it was like Phill had walked into a ray of sunshine.

 

 

From then until Phill's death they were inseparable, they were in contact daily and travelled to each others houses to meet their new found families and just a few weeks ago Jo took Phill to see Brian Adams in concert.
Everyone who knew Phill were so happy for him.

Meeting his daughter after all those years had filled his life with joy but It's so sad that they would only have a short time together, but they DID meet and that's what counts!

 

When Phill and Jo finally got together, Phill's health had already started to deteriorate, he had a poorly heart and also suffered from diabetes.

Last year he had to have a toe amputated and only a few weeks ago he was taken into hospital and told that he would have to lose his left leg above the knee or he would die, but they were frightened that his heart would never stand up to an operation like that.

 

On Wednesday 6th of July at about 10Am while they were still pondering on how to proceed, Phill took a nap and while he was asleep his heart stopped and he passed away....

Hazel phoned me from the hospital, we both cried...

 

I carried Phil's mum and dad on their last journey and today I am proud to be with Phill as he takes his.

 

I'll miss Phill, my cousin, my stand in big brother but most of all my friend...

 

See ya later Cuz...