In January 1965 two young Eccles brothers, John and Steven Corps who lived at 75 New Lane went ‘exploring’ in the cellar of their house along with two pals, Allan Ogden and Kevin Lee.
The fearless four discovered a tunnel which led to a disused air raid shelter.
It was there that they came across an astonishing find, a spaceman’s helmet!
50 years ago, the mass media of newspapers and cinemas were dominated with tales about the Space Race between Cold War rivals America and the Soviet Union.
It was perhaps this pervasive story that led the boys to think they had made such an incredible discovery: the Soviets already had the advantage over the Americans sending Sputnik 1 into orbit in 1957 and putting Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, in April 1961.
Eccles was not to be left behind and in June 1967 saw the launch of Rocket Mail from Barton Airport.
Sadly this plan to fire a series of commemorative stamps into space and catch them as they parachuted to earth was to end in disaster.
More on this bizarre piece of local history here: Eccles blasts into space…almost
The boys hot-footed it to the nearby Green Lane police station and breathlessly showed the find to the bemused desk sergeant.
Steven Corp, 10, a pupil at Godfrey Ermen school, told the Eccles and Patricroft Journal: “We had no idea what we had found but we thought it might be something important.
“We showed it to the policeman who told us to take it to Monks Hall Museum, which we did.”
The curator of Monks Hall Museum was Frank Mullineux. He met with the boys and explained to them that the spaceman’s helmet was actually a baby’s gas mask dating back to the Second World War.
Mullineux was delighted with the curiosity, saying: “This particular case serves to illustrate the fact that there are probably many more hidden relics of a bygone age lying forgotten and hidden in houses in the Borough of Eccles.”
One can understand the boys’ confusion with a spaceman’s helmet and a infant gas mask when you look at period photos.
Parents would place their baby – up to two years old – inside the mask so that the head was inside the steel helmet and the baby could see through the visor.
Then they wrapped the canvas part around the baby’s body with the straps fastened under its bottom like a nappy, and its legs dangling free below.
The canvas had a rubber coating to stop gas seeping through the material, and the straps were tied securely so that the mask was airtight.
Attached to this was a rubber tube that an adult could push back and forth to pump air into the mask.
Sadly Monks Hall Museum was closed down in the 1980’s and all the acquisitions were transferred to the Salford Museum and Art Gallery for safekeeping: hopefully that’s where the infant’s gas mask is today.
50 years ago in Eccles: ‘Never removed’ Eccles Cakes sign taken to Monks Hall Museum for safe keeping
Do the Corps brothers remember making this rare historical find and if so what are their thoughts on that momentous day, some 50 years later?
If you can contribute to this story please contact tonyflynn@salfordonline.com.
Main image: Film poster for 1963’s Soviet cosmonaut picture Mechte navstrechu
