Another great old photo from the Syd Bird archives! I’ve not seen these cottages mentioned before …they were the coastguard cottages situated where the boatyard/Government Road flats are now behind Hoylake Sailing Club.

Syd says that these cottages were also home to the original coast guard station and they were demolished in about 1960 to make way for the flats. You can see in the left of the photo the old Lower Lighthouse.

And here’s an artists impression of the cottages, dating from about 1900:

Anything to add? Feel free to comment of course!

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Friday Photo: Coastguard Cottages

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Many thanks to Ian Powers who captured the above row of big terraced houses that once stood on Market Street, to the left of St Lukes Church and now a large apartment block. Ian writes:

I photographed the ends of the block in 1999. I think it has now been demolished!

In the left hand hous was the Dentist’s surgery. (I think it was Kenworthy?).

In the right hand house which I believe was No.19 lived Dr Browne. He was my mother’s GP. By co-incidence, my mother spent the last years of her life there when the whole block was converted into to an old folk’s home.

I researched Dr Browne and found the following:

Dr Hablot John Moxon Browne. Born Feb 6 1869 died March 16th 1953. Registered as a Doctor 1 Aug 1892, he was sometime a house surgeon at Liverpool Royal Infirmary, then spent about 50 years as a doctor in Hoylake.

In Hoylake, Dr Browne was also an officer to the Children’s Day Nursery and was interested in paediatrics. Dr Browne’s father, also a doctor, helped set up the Liverpool ENT infirmary in Myrtle St. His grandfather was illustrator of Charles Dickens’ books under the pseudonym of “Phiz”.

I have checked some of the Medical Registers and have seen Dr Browne resident in No 19 Market St between 1911 and 1947.

How about you …anything to add?

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Dr Browne of Hoylake

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Comet

Here’s some discount codes to enter at the checkout at Comet. All expire on 3rd August, 2010. Excludes Apple ipad.

• 8% off products over £1000: 8OFF
• 6% off products over £500: 6OFF
• 5% off products over £200: 5OFF

Click here to start shopping.

Currys

Here’s a Currys voucher code relating to washing machines, washer dryers and tumble dryers. Code: LAUNDRY7 Offer: 7% off all laundry products over £249 + Free Delivery & Recycling. Expiry: 02/08/2010 @ 09.59am Take a look

Currys also have these sale codes that expire Monday 2 August 2010 @ 23:59:

• 5% off all orders over £199 – Code: SALE5
• 6% off all orders over £499 – Code: SALE6
• 8% off all orders over £999 – Code: SALE8

Take a look

Debenhams

A range of online offers from Debenhams:

20% off selected matching bras and knickers – ends 1st August here
20% off selected footwear – ends 1st August here
20% off selected Handbags and purses – ends 2nd August here
Up to 20% off Swim and beachwear – ends 2nd August here

M&S

Marks and Spencers are currently having a sale with reduced prices on a wide range of products. Take a look and shop now because sale ends today, 28th July!!

Woolworths

Not on our high street any more of course, but still going strong online. Stacks of offers on at the moment including savings on DVDs, Books and back-to-school ! Take a look

And finally, something local! A review of the new carvery available at The Blue Anchor on Market Street from Jackie Hall:

…was most impressed. Tables decorated in blue and white cloths, smart staff uniforms, well presented carvery bar with Chef carving.

Beef, gammon and turkey, Yorkshire pudding and stuffing,  freshly cooked  veg and gravy and sauces, tasty and hot. All for £4.50 with a glass of wine for £2.50 or a bottle for £7.50. Excellent value!

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Midweek Money Savers: Highstreet Stores

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Hoylake residents seem to have taken to the Big Lunch (official site) event and several lunches were held last Sunday despite the not-brilliant weather …though thankfully the really heavy rain held off until earlier this week. From what I’ve heard it sounds as though even more Big Lunches will take place next year. Caroline England kindly sent in the above photo, taken in Lake Road and writes:

The Lake Road Big Lunch was a big success. Residents from Strand, Marmion and Government Road were also invited along to the party. With a turn out of over 70 people, The Lake Road Ladies hope to organize another next year promising to be even bigger and better. Here is a photograph of The City Of Liverpool Pipe Band who came along to kick the celebrations off. Local singer songwriters Caroline England and Mark Roberts (his site I think) also performed.

Who’d have thought …street parties in 2010!

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Friday Photo: A Big Lunch

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A few years ago we used to go to the video rental shop on the corner of Market Street & Lee Road …where Booze Busters is now. It was okay but the popular films were always out and it was always a bit of a panic to get the film back in time before you had to pay for another night’s rental! There is still that little film rental shop opposite Hoose Court and I think there’s one in West Kirby along Banks Road.

We’ve recently started using LoveFilm and we’re finding it very easy to use. It’s an online service; you make a list of films you’d like to see and they send you them in the post, one at a time. When you’ve watched the film you simply use the special pre-paid envelope they send you and drop the DVD back in the local postbox. You can keep the DVD out for as long as you want too. There’s a choice of subscriptions but we’re on the cheapest one

There’s a huge choice of DVD films, TV shows and video games to choose from. I’ve recently watched the Pixar film Up which was absolutely brilliant and could easily bring more than a tear to your eyes. And having just looked, they’ve even got that old ITV show Watching (filmed in Meols) that we discussed a couple of weeks ago.

Anyway, for more information click here.

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Midweek Money Savers: 21st July

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Fancy a 5 bed semi-detatched with large garden in an attractive road in Meols for under £8,000?

Me too! But unfortunately we’d need to travel back in time …back to 1970 in fact, when the above advert was published in a local newspaper. Many thanks to Dave Cowderoy for sending me the above press cutting.

Interesting to see the asking prices of local properties 40 years ago. I like the message at the bottom of the ad saying Substantial Mortgage Available …not quite the substantial mortgages that we see today I’d suggest.

I wonder what house prices were in earlier decades?

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Five Bed Semi-detached Just £7,500

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Model Weekend – 17th-18th July

This weekend a Model Extravaganza is taking place at Hoylake Community Centre. Here’s some of things to see:

• Hornby Layouts in ‘O’ gauge, Hornby ‘oo’ gauge (in both three and two rail)
• Collection of Hornby model boats
• Meccano Working models
• Model boats, both on static display and sailing on the model boating lake
• Dealer’s trade stalls
• Mersey Class ‘All Weather Lifeboat’ on display at RNLI station

Saturday 10am-5pm. Sunday 10am-4pm. Adults £3. Children £1. Proceeds go to the 1810 Memorial Fund. See here and here for more information.

Diving With Sharks

Brave chap that he is, Hoylake Village Life founder member Mark Howard is undertaking a sponsored shark dive. For further details visit this page.

Recycling Bins

I’ve not seen them myself yet, but I gather that there are new recycling bins outside Hoylake Library. Wirral Council have installed 23 more recycling bins around Wirral and Hoylake along with West Kirby have received them. You can recycle empty drinks cans, drinks bottles, newspapers and magazines.

Old Lifeboat Station

You’ve probably read in the local newspapers that the proposed sale of Hoylake’s old lifeboat station has been rescinded by Council members. There is a local campaign of course that aims to convert the empty building into a lifeboat museum and there is now a period of time available for a firm proposal to be put forward. I’ll attempt to gather further information and publish a separate item soon.

The Big Lunch

It’s the Big Lunch again this Sunday and I’ve seen posters in a few house windows for a couple of local events. If you visit that official site and use the map, you’ll see the registered Hoylake lunches. Hope the weather is fine for you if you having a Big Lunch!

Esther McVey Maiden Speech

Want to know what your Wirral West MP, Esther McVey had to say in her maiden speech? Click this link to find out.

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News Roundup: 16th July, 2010

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Here’s a view of the Royal Mail sorting office at The Quadrant, directly opposite Hoylake station. I reckon it’s quite a nice building really, rather 1930’s looking – how about you, what do you think? Looking at the satellite view in google maps it looks like it’s a flat roofed building and there’s a car park behind. Think I might have to have a nose around the back at some point!

Has it always been owned by Royal Mail or did it have a previous life? Is it just offices upstairs? I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments!

Photo taken back in January, 2010.

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Friday Photo: Hoylake Sorting Office

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If you’ve never changed energy providers then you’ll be in a strong position to save a fair bit. We swapped a few years ago and then left it at that until recently. Then I moved with from a traditional nPower account to their current online-only account and saved myself around £250/year.

It’s easy enough to compare prices, just visit a comparison site such as uswitch or visit energy providers directly such as npower or Scottish Power. Well worth spending 30 mins to see how much you can save I’d say.

I switched to O2 broadband before Christmas, primarily because they offer cheaper prices for O2 mobile phone users (both PAYG and contract). They now have a new deal incorporating home phones too. O2 have their own equipment in the local Hoylake telephone exchange so you might find that they offer faster speeds as well.

We don’t have a subscription TV package, so presumably that’s why Sky keeping sending us their latest offers. I think their current deal for about £20 includes Sky+, free setup, home phone and internet – more details here.

BT Broadband customers can currently get Sky Sports 1 or 2 for £6.99/month.

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Midweek Money Savers: 14th July

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Many thanks to Dave Cowderoy for sending me this 1970 press cutting about a fire at the old Hough’s Timber yard. You’ll recall that we had a good discussion about Hough’s in this post.

And by chance, yesterday I received this photo taken by Syd Bird of old houses in Hazel Road (off Chapel Road). The houses were demolished to make way for the Hoose Court buildings but you can see Hough’s yard behind them and to the left you can make out the old Hoylake YMCA.

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Fire At Houghs

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