Heritage
Young people from local group Next Generation have recorded the stories of their family and others in the Pakistani and Kashmiri community. Spanning almost 70 years, the story starts with those who left their homeland, embarking on a journey of many miles and recounts why they came to Wakefield and how they settled here.
The learning resource is available through My Learning website
Go to www.mylearning.org and type ‘Pakistani community’ in the search bar.
Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
I would stand in the street watching the older kids play during the summer. In particular, I would watch the 4 Ahmed brothers who lived directly opposite our house play cricket in their back garden. They used a milk crate for the wickets, one of the brothers batted, one was the wicket keeper, one was the bowler and one was the fielder. Because they had no gate in the back garden, they would hit the ball onto the street and if the ball reached the wall (behind me), it was 4 /6 runs. I watched the brothers for a number of years before I eventually joined in with them at the age of around 5. The wall was also used as goals for football with the goalposts drawn on using chalk. I also remember there being a hole in the wall with a marble in the hole which remained there for many years until some refurbishment was done. I would estimate the marble remained in the wall for at least 10 years despite the best efforts of the kids who lived on the street to prise it out. We also used to have races in the street, with the start being the end of the street and the finishing line being our back garden gate.
