Hoylake Junction

A victim of a burglary in Cable Road writes:

A buglary took place on early hours of Saturday (14th August between 3 AM to 4.30 AM) at a house in Cable Road, Hoylake. A burglar got into the house after breaking a window panel and appears to be slim person, wearing gloves and carrying kitchen knife. The knife was subsequently found outside.

Items stolen:

• Sony Vaio white 15.4 inches, 3.5 kg family laptop
• new X-Box games machine
• 2 Nintendo DS game players
• other items

I believe that there is a reward available for the safe return of the Sony laptop. Please contact the local police or even HoylakeJunction and I’ll forward the information on to the owner.

Many thanks to Ian Hazlehurst for his great photograph of the Spitfire flying over Hoylake this Bank Holiday Monday for the annual Lifeboat Day. A Hoylake man himself, you might know Ian from his Hoyle Blinds shop in Banks Road, West Kirby (formerly Hazlehurst’s Linen). Not a cloud in the sky on what was quite a lovely day in west Wirral!

Many people incorrectly presumed the Red Arrows would be appearing again, however the above Spitfire gave not one but two displays during the afternoon. Lovely to see such a graceful aeroplane that played such an important role in WW2, flying over the beach. Thanks to whoever organised it!

As I felt a little under the weather during the day I didn’t manage to walk along the promenade during the afternoon.  I did however do the prom earlier in the day and I’d say that it looked pretty busy. But I’ve heard a few people say that this year’s event didn’t seem quite as busy as previous years. I’ve no idea if that’s actually correct and in fact as it’s a ticket-less, admission free event, I wonder how the visitor count is actually recorded?

Lifeboat Day does compete with other events, notably this year the Mathew Street Festival in Liverpool and the Wirral Food Festival at Claremont Farm in Bebington. The organising team behind Hoylake Lifeboat Day therefore need to put together a strong enough line up to entice visitors to come to Hoylake instead of going elsewhere.

I thought I’d give you the opportunity to offer your thoughts on what you’d personally like to see in Hoylake on Lifeboat Day. Maybe you think the day is just right, or maybe you’ve thought that it could be even better …well here’s your chance to say so!

By the way, I haven’t been asked by the organisers for your thoughts, but I’m sure they’ll be interested to hear them. Some topics to discuss could include:

• the stalls along the promenade
• the fairground rides and simulator rides
• is the beach utilised enough – could there be more events on the beach?
• although it’s free to attend is the event expensive after paying for an attraction/refreshments?
• traffic management  - parking problems and long traffic jams can be a problem
• do local retailers in Market Street benefit from the increase in visitors
• would live music be an attraction?
• does Lifeboat Day indirectly promote Hoylake in regional media?

Those items are just off the top of my head to get you all thinking and I’m sure I’ve not even scratched the surface. Please feel free to have you say

Remember, if you’re commenting for the first time your comment won’t appear until I’ve checked that you’re not really another of those very annoying spammers from some far-flung place in the world.

Over to you!

I stumbled upon the War Graves Photographic Project (official site) recently and considered it worth a mention. The aim is to undertake:

the immense task of recording, archiving and making available to the descendants, images of the graves or memorial listings of every service casualty since the outbreak of the First World War.

Whilst it appears that no photographs have yet been submitted you can view those buried at Hoylake Cemetery (Holy Trinity) by clicking this link. Of course you’ll be able to search for other local and national cemeteries. Do let me know if you subsequently contribute to this project.

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?