Here’s an unusual photo that was kindly sent to me by new HoylakeJunction.com reader and local photographer Carol Tipping. It’s a view from Cable Road South of the old Hoylake gasometer. A gasometer is used to store natural gas at the right pressure and temperature (so says this Wikipedia article). I think you can see a gasometer today on the approach to the Wallasey Tunnel.
Years ago Hoylake had it’s own gas works. In fact this article (in pdf format, opens in a new window) at the London Gazette from 1877 refers to the Hoylake & West Kirby Gas and Water Company. The works were located on what is now the Carr Lane estate. I briefly mentioned the gas works in this post from last May.
In the left of the photo you can see a shop. I seem to remember this was an antique shop at one stage. Can you shed any light on what it was?
Here’s the same gasometer back in 1969:
The Hoylake gas works made the ‘town gas’ and stored it in the gasometer – that was in the days before the area was converted to North Sea gas and presumably the area had its own self contained gas network with no gas grid.
The tiny corner of the shop that you can see in the bottom left of the photo is now a house. it was an antiques shop in the late 1960s. It remained an antiques shop in the 70s and 80s and the England family who were upholsterers lived there and were my neighbours. Vicky England used to sit on a chair outside the shop most fine days in the summer and in the evenings sometimes a few of us neighbours would bring our chairs and join her. A lady called Elsie lived opposite – across the road in No 1 Cable Rd South and we called her the Ears and Eyes of Hoylake because she always sat in her window and could tell you if anyone had passed by that day! Elsie worked in a sweet shop just nearby, around the corner on Market Street. She was famous for her fudge. (If I can find her hand-written recipe I will post it!) The England family moved to a larger premises in Market Street and for several years the premises was lived in by their son who was an upholsterer. Then the second son moved in and had the shop changed in to a house. The house was sold about two years ago and has a new occupant.
I remember having chairs upholstered there.
You mention the sweet shop in the now vacant restaurant premises. This was Masie’s and it was always a great treat to be taken there to choose sweets. The other part of these premises was the Norvic shoe shop where we used to get school shoes and it had a wonderful elaborate brass cash till using ‘old money’ denomintions in £.s.d!
Incidentally does anyone know why Cable Road is so-called? Was it a route for a telegrahic cable or something?
Peter, you mention the Norvic shoe shop – do you remember if this could have been a Timpsons shoe shop? Im sure there was a Timpsons in Hoylake at the same time as Boots Chemist.
Yes, Timpson’s was just along the road in what was Barrie Menswear until recently. Norvic was on the corner of Cable Road South! Then there was a Dick’s shoe shop (very old fashioned!)nearby in the next block along between Cable and Alderley Roads.
Carol,
The lady you have been describing is Elsie Pringle. Although many children called her Aunty, she was my mother’s sister and her baking was a treat I looked forward to every week. I would love a copy of her fudge recipe if you have it. I would love to make it for my mum (Gill Pringle).
Hi Lyndsey
Sorry I haven’t looked at this post or a while- unfortunately I can’t find Elsie’s fudge recipe but I have a piece of paper on which she wore down 3 recipes- Easter Biscuits, Shrewsbury Biscuits and Fruit cake. I photographed it but I can’t upload it on my iPad will try again from computer.
Lyndsey you are very welcome to have this piece of paper with her recipes- let me know
Elsie’s Fruit Cake
1 cup sugar
1cup cold water
2 cups mixed fruit
2 cups SR flour
Quarter lb butter or marg
1 or 2 teaspoons mixed spice
Method
Warm together in pan, water, marg ,sugar and fruit.
Leave to cool. Stir in flour and spice.
Bake in large tin for 1 to 1.5 hours
Gas mark 3
Carol that would be wonderful! It would be a lovely suprise for my mum. You are welcome to email me at lyndsey_gordon@hotmail.com.
Regards
Lyndsey
Mentioning the bit of a shop that you can see on the far left on the corner of Cable Road and Charles Road – that was England’s antiques and upholsterers – the shop and the adjoining houses either side – 3 Cable Road South and 1 Grosvenor Road (which has its back entrance in Charles Road) – were once one single property. I have heard but not been able to find any information about it, that the property used to be a Dairy – and a School – not sure in which order. The property was built around the 1860s.
Anyone know anything about this other Dairy/or school in Hoylake?
I’m pretty certain that the colour photograph of the Gasometer taken in 1969 is actually one which looks like it was located around the site which is currently occupied by Hoylake Commercials (though I may be wrong).
I was born in the end house in no 5 Cable road sth in 1940. The lady Elsie Carol mentions, lived at no 13 opposite Miss Jonese’s who owned it then. As children we used to shop there a lot. She served pots of tea and delicious hom made fudge. The shop I recall where Elsie helped out I think was Maisie’s sweet shop. My mother bought it from Maisie in the late 60s. I also remember Miss Jones shop being a florests, owned by a lady called Carol. My sister also worked in the Norvic shoe shop when she left school.
Hello Helen,
I have just picked up on this thread, and you have stirred more memories in the back of my brain.
Are your sisters named Carol and Babs, and your mother Nellie? Margery and Gillian Pringle lived next door to you, and Tony Parry lived a few doors further down. Phil and Ernie Sandalls lived on the other side of the road, and the little shop on the corner opposite your house was a dairy. I’m not sure if it didn’t belong to old Mr. Harrop, who lived in the first house which backed onto Charles Road. Your sisters may have played with my younger siblings, Vic, Jenny and Barbara.
I well remember going to the gasworks on Saturdays with an old pram to collect a sack of coke, after doing my paid Saturday job of delivering the meat for Dewhursts butchers, which was near Maisies sweet shop, but I could only start that after delivering the papers down Stanley Road for Austins newsagents.
Saturdays were all go in those days.
Hello Mike
You are right in saying
“and the little shop on the corner opposite your house was a dairy. I’m not sure if it didn’t belong to old Mr. Harrop, who lived in the first house which backed onto Charles Road. ”
I live in that first house that backs on to Charles Rd. Mr Harrop owned it and I believe the house and little shop were once one house. I know it was a dairy – also a school but have no info re the dates. I was told that the corner shop was adjoined both sides by what are now 1 Grosvenor Rd and 3 Cable Rd
Hello Carol,
I don’t remember the little shop ever being a school, but I can recall seeing milk crates in the yard of No. 1, which had access to the back of the shop. I can’t remember if there was a house between the shop and where Phil Sandalls lived. Their garden went down to Grosvenor Road. They later moved to No. 9 Grosvenor Road.
MIKE :- A ‘ long-shot ‘ perhaps , but would your ” sibling Vic ” be Victor (Vikky) Wilson born around 1945 who was a school friend of my brother John ?
Hello Stu,
My brother Victor was the first child born on May 8th 1945 in Clatterbridge Hospital on that day, VE Day, hence his name, chosen by the nurses. He was supposed to be called David.
He was a postman in West Kirby for many years, and lived in Lake Road, Hoylake. He now lives in Meols. He could well be a friend of your brother John. He went to Hoylake Primary school before going on to the Parade.
Mike :- That all makes sense , I remember I met Vic a few times , thanks .
There were actually three gasometers in total, though in my time only two were used. The gasworks itself was in operation till about 1954 /55. When it closed each weekend, the gasometers would gradually drop as gas was consumed, then rise again when production was resumed on Monday. The gasometers continued to be used for many years after the gasworks closed, being supplied, presumably, by the Wallasey or Birkenhead gasworks.
Local people were able to go and buy coke from the gasworks, which was a gret help during the war.
Sited alongside the gasworks was an electric station which became Manweb’s training centre for the mains gangs and overhead cable workers, which was the cable tiers that can be seen in one picture. I spend several months working there when I was with manweb.
Re the former Englands Upholstery shop: I remember the late Mr England,with his fine beard, coming to collect some chairs from our house to be re-upholstered, sometime in the mid 1980s. He stayed for a couple of hours, and told us a lot about his house/shop. I distinctly recall him telling us that some of the rafters in the roof were made from round lengths of wood, which were from masts from sailing ships, which he thought had probably been washed up after ships had been wrecked.
I remember the strong smell of the gasworks in the 1950s, when I used to visit my grandmother, aunt and uncle in Curzon Road. Being taken to watch the trains go over the level crossing was one of my great pleasures as a young boy.