Memories
This page is to share
Lydiate memories
'I remember riding out there (the old Abbey)
on our motor bikes on dark nights' - Michael
'Used to visit the Abbey grounds and manor ruins
to go birdwatching' - Fred
'We all trooped upstairs (The Parish Hall)
for refreshments-Zing, I think it was' - Kay
'Eating cockles at The Running Horses
from the Sefton Seafood man.
Then up to the Scotch Piper
for a beer out the wooden keg ' - George
Jennifer Galvin has sent this photo of a trip on "The Bootle Belle."
She writes, " I don't remember much about Lydiate unfortunately,but my relatives loved it.
The photo is of a trip on the Bootle Bell to celebrate the Queen's Coronation in 1952.
It might bring back some good memories to quite a few people.
Thanks,
Jennifer Galvin
Jean Carr remembers moving to Lydiate
My family moved to Lydiate in 1943 in the middle of the war....
we got
there before our furniture arrived .
We were hungry so
were told to go to a shop near the Weld Blundell which was called
"Pinkies" .
We bought buns and lemonade! my mother was not pleased!
My sister and I used to lie on top of the air raid shelter at the
bottom of Lambshear Lane
in the blackout and look at the stars which
were so bright.
I remember V.E.Day when we had a huge bonfire where Haigh Crescent is now .
Holidays were spent potato picking and pea picking....we got 6pence a basket..
A GOOSE FOR CHRISTMAS by TED SMITH(ex Lydiate Lad)
I cannot remember the exact
year,it would be around the end of the second world war, at that time Lydiate
Parish Hall was very well used,there were dances and whist drives as well as dramas and comedies put on by the
locals.The only player I can remember was Tommy Moorcroft,who used to live in a
thatched cottage four hundred yards on the right down Station Rd towards the
railway.
My mother was a dab hand at whist,this particular year
she won the first prize,which was a token for a goose,to be collected just
before Christmas. Going along the canal bank on my bike to Rimmer's Bridge,then
turning left into Greens Lane past Mercers where the water wheel used to be,
to the farm which was next on the left on the corner,where I was to collect the
prize from.The token was handed to the farmer,who said to me pointing to a
flock of geese,"which one do you want?",I pointed to the fattest one,whereupon
he picked it up,expertly swung it round and passed it to me still fluttering, "don't worry it's dead," he said.With that I went on my way.
To win a goose at the time was a big deal,as we had
just gone through a major war,when food rationing prevailed and a bird of any
sort was rare indeed.I was given the job of plucking it,which I did,only to
find that my trousers were soaked but
every cloud having a silver lining,we had enough grease to last us through a
couple of
In my eighty first year some recollections of early days spent in Lydiate are very
vivid,though sometimes it would be difficult for me to recall what happened yesterday.
Ted Smith
Lydiate Barge Youth Club Members (1968-1970???)
If anyone has any information about this photo please get in touch.
It may have something to do with the opening of
Lydiate Youth Club around 1960??
Kay Davies has some memories about it.............
Hi, Regarding the photo which somebody thought had something to do with
Lydiate Youth Club.Yes it was .The man standing next tothe lady with the
flowers[Miss Barnes?],on her left is Dick Davies.
He was one of
the main instigators who got the club started and was
the first leader of it
too. The man 8th from the right was Councillor Collier.
Much fund raising was
done prior to the club opening in Lambshear Lane.
I think the dances at the Lydiate Parish hall were fund raisers.
Also the Gala on the Parish hall field.I
think the club opened a little later than 1960
more like 65 but can't be sure.It was a great time though.
We made curtains and painted the walls and ran the little coffee bar.
I think the founding members of the club
will look back
fondly on those early years .
It would be interestingif anybody else can name
others in the photo.
Old Photo of the Waterwheel at Lydiate 1910's, Greens Lane
Thanks to
� oldukphotos.com
A website with many old photos of the United Kingdom
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LYDIATE SHOPS
Karen and Neil remember Coronation Road shops.........
Do you remember Timewells or the hairdressers called Maison Jeanne ???
(supposed to be pronounced in a french accent
but everyone called it Mason Jeans!)
There was Scotts on the left hand corner as you face the shops,
then there was the green grocers, the butchers, Kidgers,
Houseproud (which included the post office at the back),
hairdressers (John the barbers above), Timewells,
the off licence at the other end.
Kidgers was far better than Kemps on the corner of Green Lane. Timewells the toy shop, smelt of new bikes and sold everything
from dolls to airfix kits.
An Aladin's cave for kids full of things you could only dream of.
The veg shop was called Fresh Food and was owned by the Roberts family.
Ken Kidger the news agent...............................
and Alison remembers Moss Lane shops.............
"I bet none of you remember Scotts supermarket
[that's where the kiddies nursery is]
Jack Hallsalls fruit + veg
[where The Business is]
Foxs`Post Office + haberdashery
[ what's haberdashery I hear you ask!!!! [now the Tea Room] .
It was then taken over by Bill + Doreen Blackwell
-the post office remained,
but the shop was changed into a general grocery store.
Stanleys was started by old Mr Stanley-
he was a lovely gentleman [ I have a long standing fondness of this shop,
which has been more endeared to me since the lovely Ray took it over] .
Of the new block [well it's newer than the rest- I remember them getting built .]
There was Chris the butcher in the end one, Snips the
hairdressers in the middle .
It later got took over by Val who worked there ,
then a bookies before it was The Mace.
Oh those were the days haha.
xx"
but who remembers....
Joe Pope's general shop opposite The Mace
and the shop on Lollies Bridge !!!!!
The shops on Lollies Bridge were built by a Mr Boote,
there were four of them complete with flats
and when we moved to the house on Lollies Bridge in 1937
only one shop was occupied by a Mr Roscoe
who lived in the flat above it and delivered in a Wolseley car
( i remember it as the badge on the front used to light up),
he was followed by a Mr Iles.
The shop diagonally opposite the Weld Blundell Arms
was occupied by Mr Gittins
who used to cater for cycling clubs on Sunday mornings.
If i am not mistaken Joe Pope married his daughter.
Ted Smith |
Simple pleasures
Lydiate canal 1960's
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Memories of growing up in Lydiate in the 1960's
Lydiate was a lot more rural,the housing estates had not yet been built, at Mallory Avenue, Weld Blundell and Mannion Avenue. You could see the canal bank when walking along Southport Road,and the farm at Sandy Lane had a wide row of Poplar trees, artists used to come and sketch the scene.The children's park at Sandy Lane was directly opposite where St Gregory's school entrance is now.There was a shop on the bridge at Lollies Bridge and also Joe Pope's shop in the house opposite the Mace store.You could walk down to the canal at Lollies Bridge on the other side of the bridge, the footpath went where the large white house has been built, and there was a boat house further along, with access to the Parish hall /St. Thomas school playing field. St Thomas School was on the site of The Sheiling Nursing Home and there was a JET petrol station next door.One of the bungalows on Liverpool Road just past the flats was a general shop,and there were shops at Bells Lane Bridge,a general shop, a hairdressers,a betting shop at one time and the coal yard opposite. Wallis's travelling fair used to set up on the field at the corner of Sandy Lane and Lambshear Lane once or twice a year,a great event to us children and teenagers.The red Ribble buses ran regularly through the village,the 311,302,303,101,341,411 and the 412. Miss Leonard had a dance/ballet school off one of the roads at the bottom of Coronation Road,where Saturday morning lessons were held. There was also a piano teacher in the house opposite St.Gregory's Church next to the Path through to Haigh Crescent, and I can't remember her name.Lydiate Youth Club on Lambshear lane was a great meeting place,crowds of youngsters used to meet up once or twice during the week and on Friday evenings there was usually a disco which attracted gangs of teenagers from all over the area.There was also the St Thomas youth club on a BARGE! Honest. It was moored along the canal bank at Bells Lane bridge but on the opposite side of where the towpath now is. The vicar at the time Mr.Ward ran it, and we used to walk along the canal bank in the pitch black to reach it.
Kay Davies has written some of her memories Some may remember me as Hockenhull! Who remembers Ken Kidgers little wooden hut up by the garage where the bowling club is. I was taken there after school for liquorice root and red candy whistles!It was quite exciting when the row of shops were built and we had a self service supermarket. Was it called Scotts? I believe it may have been. I remember in the winter we couldn't get across the fields from Highgate Road to Lambshear Lane and we had to go all the way around Dodds Lane {which used to flood, }by Timewells Coach. There were lovely ponds in the fields where Coronation and Ridgeway are now. We spent many happy hours climbing up the willows which overhung them and watching the frogs below.They would be deemed a hazard now and filled in for the safety of the children. What a lot they miss nowadays. We used to take a picnic up there in summer and nobody worried if we were gone all day. At night in the summer we had cricket matches or rounders, adults and children together. No TV or playstations.They don't know what they are missing. Tim has some memories of the local area Hi there, although I do not live in Lydiate I have fond childhood memories of the area, particularly the park on Poverty Lane. I think I must have been around seven or eight at the time, this would be 1976 or 1977, and my parents, myself and my two younger brothers would bundle into the car, with plenty of provisions, and drive up from Norris Green, where we lived at the time, to the park on Sundays, or any day really if it was during the school holidays and the weather was fine. My brothers and I would quite happily spend all day exploring the park. Though a few things have stuck in my mind in particular. If I'm remembering correctly there was a long concrete tube we used to play in and a ladder set horizontally between two trees. Last but by no means least was an old disused boat with a funnel whose hull had been filled with concrete, I dont know who decided to place it in the park but as far as I'm concerned it was a stroke of genius. It became, in our childs minds eye, each in turn either a pirate galleon, a spaceship or a ship marooned in the Bermuda triangle. Put simply we loved that boat. I hope I am remembering correctly. I recently began coming up to Lydiate again and was glad to still find it a very pleasant place to visit.
Ted Smith shares more memories
Hello,
It must have been the early 1930's when we first moved to Lydiate .My first recollections are of Woods Cotttages on Southport Road, opposite what then was a saw mill ,next door to which Miss Haskayne uses to make black puddings and other associated pig products. She lived in a house with a small wooden hut in front, from which she used to sell her various wares. There was also a barge launched from the boat yard .This was quite an event at the time, all the locals turned out to see it. When it closed the yard became the Meridia drum works. Waltons coal yard was across the swing bridge next to the Running Horses ,and a farmer from Lambshear Lane called Mr Berry use to service the privys'.
The wallpaper on my computer is a picture of the woods surrounding Lydiate Old Hall, it is full of bluebells which brings me to my next thing remembered. We lived on Lollies Bridge at this time and often used to visit Lydiate woods- an old wooden caravan was parked in the woods, it was occupied by a chap called Walter Jarvis who use to plod around the village on a green bicycle. He dealt with minor ailments and was an expert in boils and carbuncles.
Mr Dawber was in charge of the village school, it was next to the parish hall then. He was assisted by Hetty Halsall and though some of his methods now would be regarded as infringements of personal liberty, he certainly got results. A few years passed , my summer holidays were mostly spent at Rose Farm in Station Road. Feeding the pigs was one of my chores, they were mostly fed with chats which were small potatoes boiled up with an occasional shovel of slack( small coal). A green vulcan wagon delivered vegetables from the farm to ships and nunneries and other institutions throughout Liverpool. The farm was then owned by Tom Haskayne. The bus which operated the Preston service from Liverpool is in my recollections as the 311, which took us to Ormskirk Grammar School for a number of yeaars, then as my end of term report did not make good reading I was apprenticed to a large bus company.
Cars were rare at the time, most people travelled by bus, the 321 used to turn around at the triangle opposite The Weld Blundell and the 302 went to Southport.
Albert Orrin was mine host at the Scotch Piper when we were old enough to spend a good night there,
Ted Smith
PLANE CRASHED IN LYDIATE(in 1942)
Going along Southport Rd into Hall Lane then into Greens Lane past what used to be Mercers Farm over Rimmers swing bridge and taking a sharp left hand turn on my bike, I went along for approx: quarter of a mile until the lane takes a sharp right hand turn, there was the plane, between the road and the canal, it had made a perfect wheels up landing and was virtually intact. The aeroplane a Bolton Paul Defiant was a twin cockpit machine,then used as a night fighter,with four Browning machine guns being operated from the rear cockpit. There was nobody with it at that time,I closely examined the machine guns (which were still loaded ) though now it is my suspicion that the guard was in a nearby farmhouse having his break and watching the plane from there. During the second world war,I visited two other plane crash sites one at Scarth Hill Nr Ormskirk where the plane was almost intact (again a Bolton Paul Defiant),and one opposite the Kings Head pub at Haskayne,the plane in that instance hit the ground at speed and was in pieces,so it was not possible to identify it.
Ted Smith(an ex: Lydiate Lad) |
Mrs Robinson's Class
Lambshear Lane School 1952-53
(thanks to Pat for this, also Sandra Craig-Howard too)
Back row - Linda Noble, Jean Ashcroft, Joyce Timewell, Brian ?, Diane Whiting, Carol?
Alex Berkely, Dorothy Cleator, Michael Sandiford, dont know.
Families enjoying Lydiate canal in the 1960's
Lydiate C.E School Christmas Party
Does anyone know when this was taken or who is in it ???
Patricia has sent this old photo of the Running Horses taken probably around 1924!!
St Thomas school photo taken probably around 1950
Mrs Carr the headmistress is on the right.
The list of names is available.
St.Thomas school logbook from 1910
Click here to see a page of the old log book.
Thankyou to Patricia for sending this.
You may need to zoom in to read it!!
The Scotch Piper around 1943
(Thanks to Patricia for this photo)
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St Thomas church monthly magazine, The Herald,
always has a few pages about local history in it, written by local retired farmer Ron Rigby.
St Gregory's R.C. Church has a brochure celebrating the past 50 years.
There are memories, photographs and snippets of history of the parish in the past 50 years.
St Gregory's School Silver Jubilee video
A great video to watch is the St Gregory's School Silver Jubilee video
which has footage from the late 1960's ,70's up to 1993.
There are scenes of Lydiate, the school being built,
the children, teachers and it gives a good idea of the mood of the 60's.
Excellent music from the era too.
Old Photographs
There are some fantastic photos of the canal at Lydiate
on the ukcanals website-go to photo album/old photos.
Does anyone have any information about a painting of Lydiate Abbey
by the Liverpool School artist Joseph Edward Worrall ?
It was painted in 1856.
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Did you know............ |
* The Scotch Piper is the oldest Inn in Lancashire.
It was formerly called The Royal Oak, the Bagpipes and Old Lolly.
Tony Blair once popped in for a drink there in December 1999.
*Our Lady's Church originally had a spire.
* Billy's Bridge was named after a nearby farmer William Jackson.
* Lydiate's first nursing home was at Oakhill House
on Liverpool Road .It was demolished in 1950.
* Rope House pre-dates the canal 1770 .
The Izzat family made ropes on this site until the 1940's.
*The poet Gerard Manly Hopkins stayed at Rose Hill Villa in Pygons Hill Lane
where it is said he was inspired to write, "Spring and Fall ."
* The mill on Liverpool Road is (was) called Forest's Mill.
There was another mill behind Our Lady's church.
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Gu