Hoylake Junction

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?

Good to see that the model boating lake is still holding water!

I’m only joking of course, the newly repaired boating lake should be fine for a few years yet. It’s currently just about as full as it could be – in fact I don’t think I’ve seen it so full. When it’s windy (that’ll be quite often then) the water in the lake can splash over the sides. Typically it’ll be the righthand side due to the prevailing westerly wind and the water pours into what was the kiddies splash pool part of the old outdoor pool:

As it has rained heavily during the week the boating lake and the splash pool are pretty full. I have even seen people sailing model boats in the splash pool too. There is however, one particular reason why this splash pool won’t stay full of water for long:

Thanks to Ian Davies (Hoylake RNLI) for sending in a photo of the boat that will be used for planting. Situated on the grass next to the lifeboat station the Hoylake In Bloom team (their latest news) will soon have this old dinghy looking blooming lovely.

Funnily enough, I took a photo of the boat myself on the day that Ian sent me the photo although the sack of soil hadn’t arrived at that point. As you can guess from the photo it wasn’t the nicest of days – the heavy raining making that area of open ground even more saturated.

Wouldn’t it be great if this area was better landscaped? It’s a great location offering lovely views all year round and I’d suggest it should really be one of Hoylake’s best public spaces. I know it’s a topic of discussion within Wirral Council,  so we’ll just have to watch this space.

I look forward to publishing another photo of the boat in the summer when the wind is light, the sun is shining and flower boat is in full bloom!

Following on from the recent Ashfield Dairy photo Syd Bird has sent me this really old photo. Milk deliveries by horse and trap …and we buy ours in plastic jugs from the supermarket.

Apparently Saughall Dairy also operated out of Manor Road in Hoylake – perhaps they were subsequently replaced by Ashfield? I’ve no idea where this photo was taken …any suggestions?

Many thanks to Kevin Radford who sent me the above photo of an old milk float belonging to the once Hoylake based Ashfield Farm Dairies. The road in view is Rudd Street and Kevin is on the left – his dad was having a tea break.

Kevin recalls that Ashfield Dairies were located toward the main road end of Manor Road. Express Dairies later took over Ashfield and moved to the Carr Lane. I’m guessing that the garage in Manor Road that is there today and pictured below used to be part of of the dairy. Am I right do you think?

The front:

the rear from the entry:

I emailed myself a link ages that I’d forgotten all about until this evening. Somehow, I can’t remember now, I found an article in the free archives of the New York Times (official site) about Hoylake back in June 1883. You can read the archive in pdf (you’ll need a pdf reader if you haven’t got one) format by clicking here. Funny what you find on the internet

Phil Quine has been in touch and has a query that perhaps one of you can answer? Whilst out for a walk recently, Phil took a couple of photos of this concrete ramp in Carterton Road on the Carr Lane estate. Coincidentally, my good mate Mike is the current occupant of the building at the top of the ramp – he runs his Wirral Vans business from there.

It’s my understanding that the ramp was once used by bin lorries – the lorries drove up and dumped their rubbish (in to what I’m not sure). But Phil wonders:

My belief is that it was used as an incline for railway wagons to dump their load either into lorries/carts or maybe into some sort of foundry? Having ‘Google Earthed’ the site, it would appear that the incline (ignoring the curve at the bottom obviously added in recent times) continues across Carr Lane and what appears to be a trackbed runs along the side one of one of the buildings on New Hall Lane. If you follow it on it then appears to cut across the 1939 Municipal Golf Course and joins the West Kirby line about half way between Hoylake and West Kirby

What more do you know? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts. And here is another photo for you, in case it helps:

Have you seen the tree outside The Row on Market Street decorated with lights? The tree pictured (not particularly well sorry – I must read my camera manual at some point) is the first of what will become three Memorial Trees. Jackie Hall has been in touch with more information:

This is the Tree we dedicated last year particularly to the memory John Chapman and also other Hoylake Residents who had passed away over the years.

A Memorial Book presented in memory of Ron Hall was placed in the Co-operative Funeralcare Office, behind the tree, for anyone to add a name at any time.

We are delighted to say that as a result of the fundraising efforts during the year we are now able to light the other two trees either side of this one.

Island Electrics have kindly agreed to carry out the work in the next two weeks and these lights will hopefully be lit from 5 p.m. to Midnight every night throughout the year. They are not part of the Christmas Lights.

We would be grateful for donations in memory of Residents, to complete the amount required, and paying in slips are available from Cooperative Funeralcare or Jackie Hall on 632 2152.

Additionally, have you noticed the small flower beds around each of the trees? These flower beds are maintained by local school children (Holy Trinity I think) and there have been notices on the trees asking dog owners not to allow their dogs onto these little gardening areas.

Thanks to Jeff Chequer who has sent me some details about the newly formed Hoylake Model Boat Club. Jeff says:

We are a newly formed club which was started on the 1st October 2009, with at present 33 members and growing. Most members are already from other model boat clubs clubs, such as New Brighton, Wirral and Ellesmere Port. We also have members from Liverpool and the surrounding areas.

We encourage people of all ages to join, and we think of ourselves as a fun club. Boats can vary from scale models such as merchant, naval, fishing and inland pleasure vessels. These can be from small to large kit form and even scratch built models.

We meet and sail at the lake every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, starting about 10am weather permitting. We hold meetings every second Tuesday of the month at Sheridan’s at 7.30pm (the old Black Horse pub) Wallasey Village. If anyone would like to join us, or just to bring the kids down to watch the boats on the lake, they are very welcome.

A new website is currently being published and for further information you can contact Jeff  (Club Secretary) on (0151) 606 9472

Maintenance work continues down at the Meols Parade Gardens – as you can see, the railings are currently being repainted. Seems like it’s three coats of primer (white), undercoat (grey) and gloss (black). Elsewhere, rendeering has been replaced or made good and the entrance paths have been re-concreted. I can’t say the concrete looks the most attractive though.

By the way, did you know that the Parade Gardens are 100 years old this year? According to the book (Hoylake & Meols Past by Stephen Roberts) I’ve got from the library, the Parade Gardens opened in 1909.

Around this era Hoylake was changing quite dramatically. The Town Hall opened in 1898, Central Hall also in Market Street opened in 1902, the Hoyle Rd school opened in 1909, the bandstand was constructed in 1912 and the open air pool was opened in 1913. Hoylake Cottage Hospital opened with ten beds in 1910 …so this building will just manage it’s centenary before it’s demolished.