James Barratt

They spent their honeymoon the same month in Jersey, where they stayed at the Manon Villa boarding house, and during the holiday, the couple spent a day in France. By July 1927, Jimmy and Elsie were living at 15, Osborne Road in Oldham when their son, Ken, was born.

At some time during the year following Ken's birth, Jimmy suffered some failure in his health. It is not known precisely what this was, but his son Ken recalled that he first suffered from alopetia.

James, known within the family as Jimmy, was born in Saugus, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts in the USA, whilst his parents were staying in that country.
Jimmy returned to England with his parents before 1901, so he would have been younger than 7 years old when he came back.

From 1906 to 1909, Jimmy and his parents lived at 26, Tudor Street in Oldham, before then moving to 29, St Thomas Street South, Oldham. It is likely that he lived with his parents until he married in 1926.

Jimmy married Elsie Platt in August 1926, although we do not know where yet, although it is likely to have been one of the congregational chapels.

Jimmy’s hair eventually returned, but despite being only 34 or 35 years old at the time, it was completely white. It regained its colour a little later before turning white again with age. Jimmy smoked heavily all his adult life, and his son Ken recalled how he used to buy in bulk from a corner shop not far from Osborne Road in order to secure a discounted price. Having bought say a hundred packs and stored them at home, he would then place the normal selling price for a single pack in a jam-jar each time he took a new pack from the store, and in this way he would build up not only the purchase price for the next bulk buy, but also a small bonus.

In 1934, Jimmy moved his family to Skipton in Yorkshire, where they rented a small house off Gargrave Road for about 6 weeks. This was a temporary arrangement whilst their new house "Corbière" in Raikes Road, was being finished. The rented house was situated in a small cul-de-sac off the northern side of Gargrave Road, just past the Grammar School, and lay behind the Post Office almost opposite Gladstone Street. Jimmy’s new house "Corbière" was next door but one to Thornfield, where his future daughter-in-law Margaret, together with her parents, moved in at approximately the same time.