JIM Walton has been researching and writing about the history of Dalton for many years but today we start a look at his personal story of life in the town through the decades.

Mr Walton, now 87, lives in Nelson Street but was born the son of Madge and Tom in a shop which sold mainly sweets at number 4 Tudor Square.

Tom was born in 1897 at Haslingden, Lancashire, and enrolled as a private with the Royal Welch Fusiliers at Fulwood Barracks, Preston, to serve in the First World War.

Mr Walton recalls: "It wasn't at all cushy in the Somme trenches and once while going 'over the top', probably at Mametz, a German bullet wounded him in the leg and this ended his Army career."

Tom got a job as a clerk at the Dalton Labour Exchange, in Chapel Street while Madge ran the Tudor Square shop.

His grandfather John William Walton was born in 1873 and started his police career at Hindley in Lancashire where he married Jane Ellen Whittle.

After promotion to sergeant he was offered a choice of Lancashire postings.

Mr Walton said: "He chose to come to Dalton where he lived in the Police House which was attached to the Police Station in Market Street.

"Here he remained as inspector until the age of 48 when he retired and went to live at 135 Ulverston Road."

His other grandfather, Nicholas Newby, was born in 1854 and married Isabella Hunter at Urswick in 1886.

They lived at 59 Market Street, Dalton, which was a shop selling women's clothing.

Isabella ran the shop and Nicholas worked as a financial assistant at Millwood for the Furness agent to the Duke of Buccleuch.

They later lived at Market Street. One of Mr Walton's earliest memories is losing money on a trip to the shops.

He said: "After school my mother gave me a coin and her Co-op book and asked me to go to the Co-op at the top end of Broughton Road - it is now a block of flats - for some shopping.

"You can imagine her consternation a bit later when I returned in tears, escorted by a lady shopper.

"I was crying because I had lost a pound note at the Co-op, which was a very serious business indeed.

"It all worked out more or less all right when my mother explained to the lady that it wasn't a pound note but a halfcrown - one eighth of a pound - but even this was more than most people could afford, money was very scarce in those days."

He would watch his mother cook for six with primitive equipment, boiling kettles and heating pans on the fire.

He said: "The boys knew our countryside much better in those days than they do now.

"We used to play in the fields, fished in ponds and did all sorts of things which are unheard of today.

"We often played cowboys and Indians and all sorts of enemies.

"On more than one occasion we went as far as the rather wild countryside of Stainton Crags to play games."

His Dalton pals had a Boer War carbine gun which had been deactivated and loaned to them by a retired Army major.

Next week we will look at Mr Walton's memories of the effects of the Second World War on Dalton.