I’ve got three old images from Ian Powers for you today – a couple of them slightly different than normal.
By the way, did you catch the interesting comments about the buried boat in the sea wall in last weeks photo? Well I’ve had a little search and in this post (opens in new window) on a Liverpool genealogy site it’s suggested that Emblematic was further along the coast at Leasowe and was covered in concrete by German prisoners of war. Furthermore, in the hot summer of 1976 the boat was rediscovered, floated out and some of the hull was sent to Liverpool Maritime Museum and subsequently lost ! This other page about Leasowe also refers to the Emblematic.
Anyway, above is an old photo of children about to go on a trip with the Hoylake C of E (which church is that?). Ian suggests the boys were born in 1917 so maybe this photo was taken in the 1920′s? Do you recognise anyone?
Below is a page from an old menu from a long-gone Chinese restaurant called The Bluebird. Seems that diners had issues with onions back then! I reckon 74 Market Street was where The Row is now – am I right?
And finally for today, an old flyer for a production of The Messiah at the old Kingsway Cinema in Market Street (where Home Bargains is now) during WW2. By the way, if anyone has any old wartime photos I’d love to see them.
My recollection of the Nobby found under Wallasey Embankment in 1976 was that it was much closer to Meols than to Leasowe, not that far along from the Hoylake Castguard station, but I am a bit vague on that although I remember cycling there to have a look!
Peter I agree with you, I went to see it in the embankment when they were renovating it and it was just a few metres on from the coastgaurd station. I also walked out on the hoyle bank when they brought it out, it was left out for a few weeks and the tides started to break up the hull. I did take some photographs of it; it was quite a good sized hull, I would guess at least 40′ and in a well preserved condition. The story I remember was that it had slipped its mooring in a storm and run aground in the late 1890′s? and the owner wouldn’t move it in time and so they ended up building it into the new embankment.
The Bluebird Chinese restaurant certainly was where The Row is now. Starting from the Ship Inn and going south, first there was (and still is) the building which was Jesse Bird’s Furniture Removals, then later Hoylake Antiques (don’t know what it is now), then there were Lesley’s Greengrocers and Haskins sports shop, both two storeys and set a bit back (Haskins later to become Hoylake Sports after Sid Haskins’ tragic suicide in 1961). These were followed by a group of shops three storeys high and much nearer the road, making for a considerably narrower pavement : Ye Olde Tuck Box (a sweet shop), then the Bluebird, followed by The Handy Stores (a hardware shop). Then the shops were further away from the road : Sara Wilcock (a ladies’ clothes shop, I think), Pullars of Perth (dry cleaners)and finally Cumpsty and Miller (gents outfitters). All these were demolished to make way for The Row in about 1964/65. I think the shops south of Cumpsty and Miller survived. I am looking at photos in front of me which I think included all the shops involved, but I can’t be certain. The names and business of the shops were as pertained in 1964.
I’ve just discovered the earlier photos on the site and realised the predecessors of ‘The Row’ have already been covered, so my contribution above is superfluous; sorry about that !
I think the photo of Market Street school might be from circa 1928-29. My father Peter Mills is sitting on the very end on the left front row. He was born May 1921 and would be about 8/9 in this photo.