Christopher Sanderson a bright bouncy baby boy was born in Holme Valley Memorial Hospital, Holmfirth, Yorkshire in February 1952 . Christopher was the son of Ralph and Eva Sanderson, his father a factory worker, wagon driver and publican, his mother a cleaner and a landlady. Christopher Sanderson was the grandson of Arthur and Elsie Kaye of Brick Row, Crowedge. Christopher, the toddler, rode on the coal fired steam shunting train, with his Granddad the factory manager. Christopher fed & played with the pullets that the family kept in Brick Row, a now demolished row of terraced houses with outdoor lavatories. Christopher Sanderson went to his first school at Thurlestone; tears and the overbearing smell of cooked cabbage are the memories of this thankfully short time. Christopher continued his junior school day's at Birdsedge County Primary School. By this time the Sanderson family had moved to The Crown Inn, Birdsedge. The next nine years in Birdsedge, with the exception of having to go to Penistone Grammar School were very happy years. Christopher had play mates all over the village, games were played everywhere, especially on Hubert Tinkers farm across the road from The Crown. Christopher Sanderson was born to be a footballer; his first photographs are of him wearing an oversize football kit and huge leather football boots. The football field, that came with being Hammond's Breweries landlords, at The Crown was the village social centre; both for formal games, and for the five-a-sides that took part every night under the single street light down Park Lane; these were the beginnings of a wonderfully lucky life, with occasional hard knocks along the way, which is where the poetry begins, it is there that the rest of the life story might now be found.

Christopher Sanderson MA

Poet