St Helens Local Heritage newsletter editied by Mr Chris Coffey. Information of local history, local buildings and places of historical interest and events.
1 1 The St. Helens Heritage Network Email Newsletter. Issue 68 December 2012 Compiled by Chris Coffey, 37 Holbrook Close, Sutton, St. Helens. 01744 817130 [email protected]The St. Helens Heritage Network was founded 19 th November 1999. Please email me if you wish to add further recipients to our circulation, or if you do not want to receive future copies of this newsletter. Please send details for our what’s on guide and any other contributions and digital photos to the above email address. If you wish to receive our companion monthly St. Helens Cultural Activities (Arts/Crafts/Music etc,) let me know. Current circulation 693 NEXT HERITAGE NETWORK MEETING Friday 8 th March 2013, 1.30 for 2pm. The Friends Meeting House Heritage Groups, etc., are invited to send a member or two to represent them in discussions. WHAT’S ON THIS DECEMBER
3 volunteers and donations from the general public. The museum is a group
of men and women of all ages with an interest in maintaining the history of
the fire services within the Merseyside region and surrounding areas. We are
sort-of-twinning with them and they plan to help us out during next year’s
Local History Exhibition in June, to commemorate us losing the top bit of the
town Hall through fire.
In their capacity as Community Reporters for a Project I am working on, Paul and
Caroline will be making unannounced visits to Society meetings next year, and reporting their impressions through outlets such as this newsletter.
BACK ISSUES READY FOR SOMEONE
Someone asked me for two disks, each containing a set of all the back issues of this
Heritage Newsletter, over five years worth. However, sorry guys, I appear to have
deleted the email whom the person who got in touch. Can you email me again please.
They are ready for collection or me to post.
COLD WAR RELICS IN ST. HELENS
The Cold War was a sustained state of political and military tension between the United States, its allies and Soviet Russia which lasted from 1947 to 1991. It was called the cold war because it never featured direct military action, since both sides possessed nuclear weapons, and their use would probably guarantee their mutual assured destruction.
Cycles of relative calm would be followed by high tension which could have led to war. One of the most well known was Cuban Missile Crisis. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Crisis when on October 14
th 1962 an American U-2 spy plane discovered Soviet nuclear missiles in
Cuba.
What followed was 13 day stand off between the world’s two largest super powers.
President John F Kennedy and his counterpart Nikita Khrushchev confronted each other and after a week of secret deliberations President Kennedy announced the find
to the world and imposed a naval blockade on Cuba. A week followed when no one
backed down. Presented with the choice of attacking or accepting the nuclear missiles
in Cuba, Kennedy offered a deal to the Soviets in which the United States would not
to invade Cuba if the Soviet Union withdrew its missiles. The crisis was resolved at
the last minute on October 28th when Khrushchev accepted the U.S. offer.
During this time a British civilian organisation called the United Kingdom Warning and
Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO) utilising Royal Observer Corps (ROC) premises and
its uniformed volunteers was on high alert. In Britain the public would have had a
mere four minute warning of the approach of nuclear missiles and it was the job of
the Royal Observer Corps to warn the UK Military and civilian authorities of the
impending attack, report the explosions and plot the path of the deadly nuclear fallout.
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4 Two ROC sites were established in St Helens at Eccleston Hill in 1965 and Billinge
Hill in 1960. Both sites were mainly underground sites and formed a network of 1563
sites, each about 7-8 miles apart across the UK.
The posts where grouped in clusters of 3-4 with a main master post in each cluster. The master post had a VHF radio as well as the land-line based loud speaker telephone which ensured that communication was possible from all posts to the group HQ’s. To give protection from the fall-out of a nuclear attack these monitoring rooms were constructed 15ft underground, usually at the location of a pre-existing World War 2 post. The underground room measured 15ft by 7ft and was manned by 2-3 staff. The vast majority of the staff was unpaid volunteers with only senior staff and scientific officers at group HQ’s being salaried staff.
Other local sites included Speke Airport, Formby, Southport, Warrington, Woodvale,
Great Crosby and Parbold.
In 1968 the Corps was re-organised and about half of the posts were closed. In September 1991 the remaining 872 posts were stood down and were abandoned. All items were removed and the posts securely locked and alarmed.
The site at Eccleston Hill was on land which is now the Carmel College playing fields
near to the ‘red rocks’ and closed in 1991. The Billinge site is located close to the
Beacon and closed in 1968 however some of the the surface structures are still visible today.
The Royal Observer Corps is planning a reunion in Manchester 12-14th October 2012.
If anyone has any photographs or memories of working at these sites please can you
contact Ian Griffiths via the St Helens Star Coffey time column or this newsletter?
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Chris.. Here is a little more information in the short chapter below on the Royal
Observer Corps in my History of Aviation in St. Helens.
Royal Observer Corps
During WWII Royal Observer Corp Observation Posts were sited on high ground
around towns across the country. There was one post located at Red Rocks on the left
hand side of the footpath leading from Eccleston Hill Top to Taylor Park at map
reference SJ 488945. Billinge Beacon was also reported to have been used for aircraft
observation both during and after the war.
St. Helens then had a surprising connection with the country’s cold war defences
during the 1960s. An underground bunker was constructed just below Billinge Beacon
itself, on the town boundary at map reference SD525014 and the Red Rocks site was
also reused(1) but demolished in 1994/5. There were a number of these sites in the
NW, another being at Formby and one at Speke Airport.(2) These bunkers were
linked to Regional Defence Centres such as the one at Hack Green near Nantwich,
which has been opened to the public as a museum. Photographs of the Billinge site at the end of the century are contained in the chapter folio.
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Sources and references
(1)Dan McKenzie – Nick Catford, Subterranea Britannica.
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg
(2) Ian Griffiths
If anyone is interested, Hack Green can be found at:- http.//.www.hackgreen.co.uk
The phone and address is:- 01270629219 French Lane Hack Green Nantwich CW5
8AP
The draft of the history is held in the Local History Library if readers wish to see the photographs in the chapter folio. They are different from the one in your piece in the
Star. Whilst I am sending this to you, I wonder if you might ask your readers if one
of them would like to edit the draft and turn it into a final copy for publication. I’m
sure someone would find it an interesting project. I would be delighted to arrange to
meet them at the library to show them what is available for them to work on.
This newsletter travels much further than I have
TO AUSTRALIA AND BACK BEFORE BEING READ
Brenda in Newton-le-Willows wrote “Even though I knew about your newsletter
through reading your writings in the Star every week and enjoying it, especially the
old pictures and this week’s one of Roscoe's corner shop. I use to go into there
nearly every day for a home baked bun as I was going home from Robins Lane
School.
“Today I received an e-mail from Australia with your newsletter as an enclosure and I
have really enjoyed reading it and I would like to receive it every month.
“I was born in Sutton but now live in Newton Le Willows so I haven't gone far from
where I was born and I still have family living in Sutton and I lived there until 1960,
but I am still a Suttonite. Brenda (Fairclough) Winstanley”.
I just love the idea of something wot I wrote really going the long way round to
Newton.
Someone rang me to say when the Council has good news to report, the Council and
Press use “St. Helens” rather than Newton. It reminds me of the old saying that you
work six months or more on a community project, the press comes round to take a photo, and a Councillor pops out of nowhere to appear in the photo and take credit.
7 Ah, what a cynical bunch we are. Coming from Newton to Sutton I could not
understand the references to Lake St. Helens by Suttonites my age. It turned out to
be a reference to wishful thinking, that there was nowt wrong with this town that a
ten fathom (60 feet) deep lake to drown the Town Hall wouldn’t cure! Yes, many
former townships literally look down on St. Helens. I was reminded of that yesterday
on a bright but cold November afternoon with a brief wander into Sherdley Park,
looking towards the hills of Clinkham Wood in the distance.
SOUP KITCHENS IN CLOCK FACE
I received this email from Ernie Bate. “Hi Mr Coffey. I don’t know if the attached
photo will reproduce in the Star newspaper, but I thought it was an interesting look
back on what were obviously tough times in the Borough and Clock Face in particular. I can only surmise that this picture was taken around the time of the 1926 strike, but
can’t confirm it.”
What I did was to save the picture, make a copy, trim the outer faded edges and
pasted it into a future Star column, as it may not print so well. Above is the picture in
full before editing..
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8 Julie Saunders wrote “Dear Chris. I was copied into your email yesterday that you
sent to Carmel College (Admissions) (an advance copy re Cold War story) and wanted
to let you know that my granddad is in one of the photographs in the Newsletter. His
name was Sid Saunders of Gorsey Lane, Clock Face and my dad (also Sid Saunders)
has told me it was the Soup Kitchen in 1926. My granddad is on the front row and is
5th from the left. We have seen this photo published in a book but we cannot
remember the title of it.”
On Sat, Nov 3, 2012 at 11:01 PM, Ian Garvey <[email protected]> wrote: Hello Chris, I believe you got an e mail of my US friend, G Deitz? He got my name
wrong again, it’s Garvey, not Gravy... We played at the US base he was stationed at
in the 60s. We were called The Fugitives, a St. Helens local group, and I believe you
know my guitarist friend, Phil Fyles. You went to the same school, but what I want to
ask, the article on the Temperence bar, is the writer the greenbank butty aka Terry
Dooley or Pat Dooley, as he mentioned his brother Alan Dooley? I used to live 4 doors
away from them on Greenbank, and I haven’t seen any of them since the 60s and
would like to get in touch if you could help? I remember the Greenbank Olympics and
the only reason Alan always won is because he was bigger than us, know what Ii
mean! The temperance bar was always a regular haunt. We usually had the hot
Vimto, but if you were feeling flush you would get a Horlicks. ...WOW. so that’s it for
now. If you can help would appreciate it.
The reference to Temperance Bars is from ongoing contributions to “Coffey Time”, my
weekly Star column. Thus far we have identified four through memories, Liverpool
Road, Westfield Street, Duke Street and Park Road.
TRAM SHEDS
Hi Chris, re the tram sheds query. There were tram sheds in Lawrenson
Street, off Eccleston Street.
Yours aye,
Brian Cook
MORE ADDED TO THE ARCHIVE
My thanks to Richard Waring for popping around and loaning me a pile of
material to scan in. Here are just two examples, both Church Street.
Please find the two attachments which may be of some interest to your readers. One shows
the Prescot war memorial, with the comet Hale-Bopp passing over it in April 1997, which
was transferred many years ago from the junction of West St. and Church St. to its present
position behind Prescot Parish church. The other shows the 17th battalion of the King's
(Liverpool Regiment), the Liverpool Pals, dining in their Barracks at the former Prescot
Watch factory and where young Arthur Shacklady would have enlisted for a second time, as
mentioned in last week's Star's poignant story of Arthur Shacklady and William Stott.
Your's sincerely,
John Hopkins (Eccleston Park)
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Roger Kilshaw writes “You may remember sometime ago I told you I was hoping to write a history of Wesley Methodist Church, Corporation Street, from 1869 to the early 1970s when the building was demolished and the present Wesley House and Church were built.
“I have found this photograph of the Sunday School scholars at the anniversary, taken I think in 1951. I recognise myself (back row, 5th from left) wearing a tie I received for my 5th birthday at the end of 1950. Notice my very dodgy Victorian/Edwardian hairstyle, parents have a lot to answer for!
“I would like you to include this in your wonderful column, with a request that if anyone not now associated with the Church recognises themselves, or who has memories of the old Church, to get in touch with me please. As I was in the youngest class on this anniversary, I cannot identify many of the older children and those then referred to as adolescents.
“Apologies for the quality of the photograph, but it is 61 years old.
“I can be contacted at [email protected], or for anyone not with email facility, perhaps you would be kind enough to forward their details onto me please”
In your columns in a recent edition of the St. Helens Star, you featured an
article on the St. Helens Pals project, in memory of the St. Helens men who lost their
lives in World War One, serving with the 11th Battalion, South Lancs regiment and as
was stated, most families in St. Helens were affected by the great loss of lives.
Another group of local people, who for the past seventy years have been ignored and
forgotten, also lost their lives as a result of enemy action in World War Two. They
were the innocent civilians killed when German bombs fell on St. Helens, in 1940. At the age of fourteen, Vera Cassidy was the youngest victim when her home was hit by
a bomb in Charles Street. Bombs also fell on Talbot, Farnworth, and Morgan Streets,
with fatalities in each street.
It could be said of course that it is a bit late in the day to honour them, but there are
several precedents. Indeed the St Helens Pals project is to commemorate the
Centenary of the formation of the pals in 1914. Another recent event was the
erection of memorial stones in the borough cemetery to those paupers with no known
graves, some going back up to 150 years. Also a memorial plaque was erected
to honour those men from St. Helens who fought in the Spanish Civil War, erected
several decades after the event, all worthy causes of course.
As well as those killed in the bombing, at least two members of the Home Guard died
whilst on duty, and the three teenage girls from Sutton who were killed them when a
bomb hit the Hospital in Salford during the Manchester Blitz, where they were
working as trainee nurses.
Perhaps our councillors could add a few words on the Cenotaph that, after all, was
paid for by the people of St. Helens with their hard earned money in hard times. WE
SHOULD REMEMBER THEM.”
ROBIN HOOD FARM, PENNINGTON, ON THE ROAD TO LEIGH
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In my 11th October column I included the picture “Robin Hood Farm, Pennington”.
Because it was in a batch of old photos re Newton-Le-Willows and because
Pennington was the name of a local farming family, I just had to ask, and I was
pleasantly surprised to find a few readers who knew that area of Pennington, on the
road to Leigh.
I then found a mention on the Internet from a 1941 edition of the Leigh Chronicle
when a Mrs Aspinall died, aged 94. “She remembered the time when there was no Flash at Pennington, and when there was no Pennington railway bridge. The only
railway line in the district was a single line from Bolton to Kenyon, and Mrs. Aspinall
could remember a row of stately poplar trees running from Aspull Common to
Pennington Hall, for the houses in St. Helens-road had not then been built. Robin
Hood Farm was in those days a public house. It had a gaily painted sign of Robin
Hood outside.”
I then found an excellent page on the pubs of Leigh which had this to say. “But
enough, back to the pub many still call the 'Robin Hood'. It stands on the east side of
St. Helens Road at the bottom of Pennington Bridge. It is officially the Railway Inn,
but since the railway has gone why not go back to the Robin Hood? In years gone by
there was a whitewashed farm and licensed beer house called the Robin Hood Farm. It had a sign with the following little poem:-
“Now all ye jolly archers, stout and bold, Pray call and take a glass with Robin Hood.
If Robin Hood be not within, Then take a glass with Little John.
“By 1885 its licence had been transferred to the new pub next door called the Railway
Inn, one of several similarly named pubs in the town. For many years it was troubled
with flooding from the Flash; and in 1964 this was so bad that the landlord
abandoned ship for a time until it was pumped dry. In its rear building one of Leigh's
brass bands practised on a Sunday morning, wetting their whistles afterwards when
the bar opened at lunch time. “
John Gregson, who now lives in Newton but grew up in Pennington, remembered the
farm as he used to deliver papers to a family named Pardon, and confirmed much of
the detail given above.
THE SANKEY CANAL
Way back in the 1960s, when I was at West Park Grammar School, I was in the
cross country team because few others wanted to be in. At that time my mum and I lived in Earlestown, near the Viaduct Club. On non school days I would go on a
training run down Emmitt’s Brow and along the canal bank and underneath the
arches. In late ’64 we moved to the Bradlegh Road estate and I could nip down to the
canal past the Hospital, and I could run across the canal, past Bradlegh Hall, and
down Hall Lane to the footpath that led through the fields back to the towpath. I kept
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15 up the running to help me stay fit for playing rugby for the lower teams at first
Newton and then Vulcan, until I moved to Sutton in ’77. I just loved the buzz from
running and in such a picturesque area. Thinking of ’77 is currently topical because
Fleetwood Mac released an album called Rumours, and two spacecraft called Voyager
journeyed into space.
Nick Coleman sent me these photos and they triggered off the above thoughts.
You should determine to walk this stretch of the canal from Emmitts Brow and reward
yourself with a pint in the Fiddle Inn I’th Bag.
“Hi Chris,
Thanks for putting my steam loco photos at the Husskison Memorial on your
newsletter a while back. I'm pleased it got a few comments; I liked the one about the
lack of H & S with people wandering all over the track!
I've now unearthed some photos of the Sankey Canal and the Sankey Valley at
Earlestown which I took in 1968 before the canal was filled in beneath the Nine
Arches and some 9 years after the last sugar barges went to the sugar works which
can be seen on the 3rd & 4th pictures, which may be of interest for your newsletter.
It is surely a historic site from the industrial revolution where the world's first
passenger railway crosses the world's first true canal and it is a disgrace the canal
was not preserved here. The second photo shows Bradley lock and the last Hey lock
with the old cottage hospital at the left in the background.
