New HoylakeJunction.com reader Frank Blakeway has sent in some old photos and also asks a question.
Firstly, Frank has sent me these old photos (1940’s) of the donkey rides down on Hoylake beach. As you can see it’s the part of the beach at the bottom of Trinity Road where the empty toilet block (and proposed Pebbles Cafe) is. What I like about the main photo is that you can see the wooden jetty …what was that used for then?
Frank says about the donkey rides:
The photos were taken in the late 1940s on the beach at, I think, around the bottom of Trinity Road. The ponies were owned by the Clark Bros. I remember they were coal merchants and the stables were in Rudd Street. One of the bros had a farm at the end of the Moreton Straight where the ponies overwintered.
During the season the ponies were put on Hoylake Rugby Club ground overnight. We left the saddles at Rudd St and then rode ‘bareback’ to the Rugby Club, the best bit was over the railway line on the lane down to the club where we were able to prove our riding ability. At that time there was always a fun fair in residence on the Rugby Club side of the railway line. I’m afraid that’s where I used to squander my half crown payment. We usually started at the stables at 9:00 and walked to catch and fetch the ponies. They were prepared for the day at the stables and we made our way the the beach at about 10:30 where we stayed until there was no more trade. Mr. Clark, I can’t remember whether it was Fed or Chris, would usually take his scythe to the field and cut grass to keep the ponies going during the day. We had to provide our own! For the life of me I cannot remember the names of any of those in the photos; but, I remember all the names of all the ponies.
Can you also answer Frank’s question about a couple of old Hoylake shops:
The shops, Ferris’s (or Ferriss’) and the Hague Cafe were on Market Street on the Meols side of the Punch Bowl on the railway side. They were side by side but separated by an alleyway. Both owned and run by Allan Ferriss, who may well have been a brother of Fred Ferriss. The was a newsagent called Rimmers on the other side of the road. Whatever happened to these shops and their owners?
Leave a comment if you know anything more !
I remember that the Jetty was used for motor boat trips – was it Mr Bird who owned the launch used? Those were the good old days when the beach had standing room only! Lots of people came on the train for their day out, and late in the day the queue for the train stretched the full length of Manor Road. People “borrowed” the youghourt pots from the dairy at the top of Manor Road to use as buckets for the kids. I don’t know if they returned them, but if you bought a large bottle of lemonade from the Misses Connoly shop (half way between Manor and Newton Road) there was a 3d deposit and quite often the Misses got back more bottles than they leased out, so they discreetly marked their bottles and refused a refund on bottles which had been “aquired” on the beach.
The Misses Connoly’s did not have a door bell however, they used to prop a tin tray behind the shop door so that when someone came in, the tray was knocked over with quite a clatter and they then knew someone was in the shop.
The allyway between Market Street and Hadfield Avenue was known as “Irwins Entry” and standing in the entry facing Inghams (Chandler) Ferris’s cake shop on the left, Irwins the grocer on the right (later a hairdresser) then The Hague with a cake shop downstairs and the Cafe upstairs between Irwins and Pam’s Milkbar which originally I think was part of the Butchers Oakden’s and later Horswill.
Do you know when Ferris’s went out of business and what is there now?
The Ponies on the shore were not owned by Clarke Bros. but by Mrs Clarke
…they were later taken over by the youngest son Bill Clarke.
The ponies in the photo were Punch. Bunty and Trixie…I am sure the fairhaired
boy on the pony was Frank..
The family in the Horse and trap were relations of Mrs Clarke from Wales for
the day.. The young girl in the background with the plaits is me (those
were the days) they were my cousins in the trap…I spent every spare
minute of the holidays and weekends with the ponies…Love to hear from
any of the other girls or boys who used to be with the ponies. I am
Sheila Clarke .. Jacks daughter…now living in Brisbane Australia.
I also spent every waking hour with the ponies but in the 60s.
I remember trixie, trigger ond pinto.
We would ride them to a field in meols after spending the day on the beach giving rides.
I hope there was more than 1 Trixie.
If she was working from the 1940’s to the 1960’s she must have been an extremely old working pony !!!
Hi Sheila, So good to hear from you after all those years. Quite right, that was me, you have a very good memory. Yours was the only name I remembered but I was unable to put a face to the name. Can you name any of the other faces? Thank you for refreshing my memory about the wonderful summers on the beach and incedently the name of the pony Bunty, I thought it was Nancy
Hi Frank…There are several faces that I recognise on the photo
Helena Davies (as she was then ) just behind me… Andrea Parry
just in front of me..Several others but I cannot just put a name
on them..Bunty the pony and Nancy were very alike but Nancy only
had one eye…I think Grandma Clarke bought her feeling sorry for
her…>>>>….It must be a LONG time since you were in Hoylake.
Ferriss’ shop has been gone for YEARS…That whole block has been
knocked down and ‘remodelled’. I will try and get a photo of
the block if I can….. I remember your mother working there.
Where are you now. ??…. my email address is above . Love to
hear from you.
Hi Sheila, You are right, I haven’t been in Hoylake since 1954 when we left the area to live in Poole. I’m in Southampton now. Mum worked in the shop right up until the end of 1953 and during the 40’s drove the bread delivery van. Much later a friend who had done his national service at the RAF WK camp amazed me by telling me stories about the Hague cafe, apparantly it became a favourite haunt for the recruits there. Your email address is not published on these pages but I have asked the editor to pass mine on to you. We must await results! Perhaps between us we can put more names to faces.
It was a nice surprise seeing my aunt in the group photograph of the children on the beach.She is the very tall blond girl on the far right on the back row.Her name was Helena Davies and she lived with her parents and sister (my mother),Ivy,in Sea View.Anywhere horses and/or donkeys were, you would find my aunt!She loves animals of any description.She is now 74 and still works tirelessly re-homing abandoned dogs.
I will send her this photo as I know she will love remembering all the faces!
In the summer of 1952 my wife worked with ponies, at that time Bill Clark was in charge. She told me about takeing ponies and one donkey over the railroad tracks at night. She did not remember any one in the pictures, maybe they where before 1952. If anyone from that era remember Gillian Barrett.
I worked for Bill and Doris Clarke on the ponies on the beach for about 7yrs. when I was 7 – 14yrs old. When I was 7 I started with Jippo, who was a very old pony, that Bill was particularly fond of and told us he slept in his house with him, as kids we believed him. After that I rode Polly, Trixie and Pinto. Pinto was my last pony, I had her for years. She was a rather fat piebald and I loved her. The other pony was Dinkey, who belonged to Gill Clarke, Bill and Doris’s daughter. Later on we got a new pony called Trigger from wales, I think, my friend Brenda got him, I thought she was very lucky, as he was a lovely grey pony and faster than ours. We would go to Bills bungalow and get the bridles, we would then go to the field at the RAF camp by Smiths farm, Carr Lane, bring the ponies up to the stables in Rudd Street, saddle up and prepare them for the day. Then take them down to the beach, we had three stations to take rides from, bottom of Trinity road, Baths wall and by the boating pool. We would be down there until the beach was virtually empty, then after walking miles all day, we then rode them back to the stables, unsaddle and take them back to the field to do it all again the next day. This we would do the whole of the summer holidays and Easter too if the weather was good. We loved every minute of it and had the best childhood because of them. I would very often fall asleep over my dinner at 10pm at night, tired and happy. The ponies were kept in a field in Heron Road at the end of the season. Bill did use a scythe to cut the grass for them. The last pony I remember arriving was a larger piebald called Beauty, who was given to Jean Kelly to ride. I left after that at 14yrs old.
I wonder if anyone has any photos of Clarke’s ponies, unfortunately non of us got any at the time. I would love to hear of any.
Mary Stanbridge says the white horse in the photo was called Bunty and there was another white horse with one eye called Nancy. The brother who who ran the ponies was called Bill Clark and Glenda Jackson also used to take the ponies down to the beach – they stayed all day and rode the ponies back to the rugby club.
Quote from the Hoylake Rugby Club ( John Tipping is the HRFC archivist)
13/4/51 An application for grazing a horse on the field during the summer was turned down but the application from Mrs Clarke for grazing donkeys was confirmed.
I used to help out with the ponies in the 60s, I remember riding bareback down Heron road, going over a little jump and falling off Pinto, he was a little fat piebald, I rode Trigger who was bigger than the other ponies and faster, Sue Gardner taught me to ride the ponies. My brother Stanley helped Bill Clark out at the boating lake. we spent all summer there, and if we weren’t there we would be in Hoylake baths.
Hello Brenda
Barry and I have just discovered these pictures and comments, so good to hear everyone’s happy memories of the ponies…happy days.
If you would like to meet up sometime we would to learn more about the family as we are trying to build up a family tree.
Barry Clarke.
Hi Jane and Barry,
Sorry I have lost your phone number, I would love to meet up sometime, My email address is brenda.cottrell@ntlworld.com. Mum is in hospital at the moment, and moving to a nursing home soon. Keep in touch. Brenda.
do you remember the Stone Masons in Trinity Road
Opposite the Church. Price’s Stone Masons and Memorial Stone Makers for Cemetery opposite, the family lived in the White House next Door.
Peter has retired here now, and Terry died some years ago.
Gay used to live in Meols but have not heard of her for a while.
Tjhere are two houses now on the site.
All the Price Family now want to know how you know them.
Husband of Deborah.
Kind Regards,
Allah Trigg