I’ve been struggling to find something for this week’s Friday Photo so I’d thought I’d offer you something different. Earlier in the year Pat Ireland lent me a copy of a really old (circa 1900) Hoylake and West Kirby directory that listed names, addresses and phone numbers along with a number of adverts for local businesses. Â On one particularly wet Sunday afternoon in May I spent at least a couple of hours scanning all the pages onto my computer and the advert you see here is the first one I’ve posted on the site.
Joseph Iles evidently had two shops along Market Street offering not just plain but fancy biscuits too! As I’m rather partial to a nice slice of cake I’ve no doubt I’d have been popping in to his shop 🙂
Do you know what’s currently at 36 Market Street? It’s the Indira Tandoori
Grat picture.
To have two branches in Market Street just shows how shopping habits have changed in the intervening 110 years, people shopped very, very locally. Hoylake shops were built for this era, it is a real challenge to get the village shops to be relevbant for this century especially as there are so many of them.
By the way what is at No. 102 now?
Hi Peter
I think 102 is an accountants office, next to 3 Sisters grocers. Was a post office for a while.
In the 1960s that was Cooper’s, a well known local chain of quality grocers in the days before supermarkets took off. It had a long counter down the left hand side and of course you were served by an assistant. Another grocer my mother used was Peagrams (opposite Sainsbury’s)where Mr Black would cut the bacon for you to your preferred thickness. Nowadays bacon is always precut.
Even in the 1960s Market Street had a wide choice of grocers, cake shops, greengrocers and butchers. The rot set in in the 1970s and the empty shops were for a time all taken up by ‘antique’ dealers.
Peter you should get your bacon from Bill Page the butchers on Market Street. There all the bacon is cut in front of you. And very good it is too!
Thanks Gerry. I’ll try when next passing through Hoylake. I actually live in Edinburgh these days and the Scottish way of cutting bacon seems to include cutting off the rind – apparently only the English leave on the rind according to my butcher!
Joseph Iles was my grandfather-my Aunts also worked in the shop
can anyone remember the grocery store THE MAYPOLE with mr Joe Mercer the football player [early 1950s] serving from behind the counter,I think he was the store manager at the time,if you happened to be the one he was serving he would always oblige his fans with his autograph. gone are the days when you would see a footballer behind a grocery counter.
Hi Brian,
The Maypole was run by my Nan and Grandad Dawson, Anne and Arthur. They had one Son, Anthony, or Tony. Our Mum .Sheila (nee Marriott) worked there too, as did her sister, Josie. I think this was where Mum caught Dad’s eye…!
Once the Hoylake branch was closed, Grandad became the Manager of a shop in Liverpool, possibly Church Street…it’s hard to remember as I was quite young, but it may have been called Liptons, but don’t quote me on that. I still remember him going to catch the train in the morning….walking along Elm Terrace with his smart belted mac and trilby hat carrying a little battered brown gentlemans case which contained his sandwiches…wholemeal brown bread with cheese and jam……
Sadly both Mum and Dad have now passed away, in fact they and Nan and Grandad are laid to rest at Trinity Road churchyard
Gina
I have just spoken to Nora Mercer, Joe’s widow, and you are wrong.
Joe helped out in Brewers Grocers where Culture is now, and which was owned by Nora’s family the Dyson’s.
Pop Dyson, as I called Nora’s Father, used to pick my Dad up outside the Punch Bowl on a Saturday when Everton were playingand go to watch Joe play.
The Maypole, a national shop, was run by Mr and Mrs Dawson whose son Tony died recently.
Before the war my father, Eric Johnson worked with Joe Mercer as a Grocers Assistant and lived in Church Road. In October 1936 he married Christina Buckle, her father was a Carpenter and Joiner at Cammell Lairds until his death in June 1937.
Hi Jackie, really nice to see my Nan, Grandad, and Dad Tony being mentioned by you. My Mum also worked at the Maypole for my Grandad, and I think one of my Aunties worked there for a while. We have a really nice picture of my Nan and Grandad at a company dinner where he received a long service award.
Joe Mercer had 3 grocers shops. One opposite Guinea Gap baths in Wallasey, one on Banks Road, West Kirby, and the one I remember most , a few doors up from our house on Market Street. I well remember sitting in the back of the shop weighing out sugar by the pound into little dark blue bags. It was always a treat to be taken off to the Wallasey shop in Pop Dysons black van to do some work in the shop, followed by the reward of a visit to the indoor pool. When Joe broke his leg, signalling the end of his playing career, around 1953, I remember him rigging up a hoist with a weight on the end, and standing there forcing himself to build up the strength in his broken leg, in a vain attempt to get fit enough to play again.
Yes, MikeWilson the grocery store opposite Guinea Gap baths was on the corner of my road when I was growing up in Wallasey. My Mum told me about Joe Mercer owning the store and I think we called it Mercers.
Before Joe Mercer bought the Brighton Shop it was called Todds.
Is this the same Iles that ran a iron mongers shop in grange road West Kirby
I rember it sold dinky toys plus all manner of buckets etc (Opp the Co-op)
A Joseph Iles was my mother’s godfather. She was born in 1930 in West Kirby. She knew him as Uncle Jo/Joe. His wife was Nell and they had two children: Ronnie and Jill or Gill. Does anyone remember these people? Are Ronnie or Jill / Gill still alive?