june
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Post by june on Mar 5, 2008 17:51:58 GMT -5
Hi everyone...I moved here to Lee Park in 1962 at the age of six, to Westbrook road. I have lovely memories of growing up here with no fear. (It's a very different story now). We would go (as our mums would say) on a message to the shops were the police and fire stations are now and one of the mums would always give us tuppence for sweets. As we got a little older we were allowed to cross the road to the shops on the other side of Childwall Valley road. The boys made dens in the shrubs that edged the playing field (I think this was guys park) next to the Mobil garage and when they went elsewhere us girls would go into their dens with our dolls and prams. They always knew and we never knew how they found out. They'd chase us for what seemed like miles if they caught us in their dens..... We also used to go potato picking in the farmers fields and take them home to our mums. One day we saw a small plane overhead and someone said it was the farmer coming for us, we ran for our lives dropping potatoes all the way through the fields. When we got out of the fields and almost home we were all red faced but laughing and happy. Lovely countryside taken away for much needed housing, but our memories they can't take away. We used to play stepping stones in the brook under Naylors bridge and if we fell in and got wet there would be hell to pay when we got home. We would balance across the big slippy old gas pipe, thinking we were so good if we could get across it. Life was a big adventure..... I remember the old co op because I worked there in 1971/2. The overhead cash system had gone by then. Seven of us worked there, Mr Roberts the manager, Josh the butcher, Bernie the butcher, Vi, Sue, me, the assistants and who I think may have been the miss dodds spoke of earlier Bert. Her name was Alberta but she preferred Bert, she was Mr Roberts right hand man, so to speak. She was in charge if the boss was on his day off. She was very strict but fair. We used to have to go in through the back in the morning and there was very often rats running around. Josh was so quick. Ive seen him catch one by the tail and bash it against the wall to kill it..... I remember the two old houses on Belle Vale road, (they are still there just before the corner where the fire station is) one was owned by a nice lady named Mrs Jones. As kids of about 10-12 we used to visit her to make sure she was ok after she lost her husband. She did have family but lived alone and liked our company once or twice a week..... I also went to Belle Vale (as did my sons and now my granddaughter). I remember the head master, Mr Quale and I had two favorite teachers, Miss Davies in the infants who listened to me read for ages after school when I wouldn't let her go home, and Mr Graham in the juniors, he made teaching so interesting, he must have touched many lives. I went on to Gateacre comp which I have to say I hated until 4th year, the first three were so strict. I remember Mrs Lloyd, miss Evans, miss Spears, Mrs Harold, not my favorite time..... My mum used to clean in the Black Bull in Gateacre village and Mr and Mrs Crosby had it then. I was allowed to go and sit and wait for my mum during the holidays. I would sit at the big copper table and Mr Crosby used to bring out big bags of copper for me to count. The bus terminus for the 66 used to be in Lee Park Avenue (just at the top of our road). Does anyone remember jack the bus conductor? He used to let us on the bus to the next stop for a ride. My dad worked on Garston docks at the time and knew Jack well. Well thats it for now except to say, Ken, write a book, please, I would buy it.... I am quite new to this site but it brought back so much that I thought was long forgotten, thanks to all who have taken me on a trip down my childhood memory lane. June
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ken
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Post by ken on Mar 7, 2008 12:04:20 GMT -5
Hi June, Thanks for that, some great memories there! I'm still trying to put everybody's recollections together into some sort of sensible arrangement.
In 1960 we had the big field where the maisonettes were built, and the open countryside at the bottom of Childwall Valley Road. You must also remember Netherley Road when it led off into the countryside beyond the Bridge Inn and Lee Park; you've probably read my efforts to describe it in the Netherley thread, but it's almost impossible to imagine it as it was 45+ years ago. What a world it was back then! playing out for hours, not a care in the world, and little traffic to watch out for in Lee Park estate,
Cheers, Ken
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ken
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Post by ken on Mar 7, 2008 12:16:48 GMT -5
Hi Jean1954, No chance of being bored with all these memories! It's a good job I've got a few pictures, and snaps of my own, to back up our recollections; wish we had more, though. As I said in my reply to June, you just can't imagine it now, the junction of Wood Lane & Netherley Road which is buried under the housing estate. It really must seem like another world when you're living a long, long way away!
Regards, Ken
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june
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Posts: 16
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Post by june on Mar 7, 2008 18:26:33 GMT -5
Hi Ken, your welcome. Do you, or anyone else reading this remember the van that used to come round each road at night? I think it was blue or green. It was run by a man called Ronnie. We all used to wait for him every night and go to buy sweets, crisps and bottles of lemonade. Then there was the best ice cream man ever, Pepe. Our mums didn't have much when we were kids and he used to always give us the broken lollyices. He was always fair though, those that had money to buy would, but there would always be one or two hanging around at the back with no money. He would always make sure they were not left out. My dad before his national service used to deliver bread in this area. I think he was about 15 and lived in Garston then. I lost my dad in 1992 so I can't ask him anything now but he remembered it all being farmland from before Lee Park was built. Yes I do remember Netherley road, the farm we used to go to would have been somewhere around there. Where the Netherley health center is now I think. If I remember anything else I will let you know. Bye for now. June
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Post by jean1954 on Mar 8, 2008 8:58:27 GMT -5
Hi Ken, thanks for taking the time to reply, it's so nice to read your memories and that of others who like me 'grew up' in Gatacre/Lee Park, I have enjoyed reading them all, so many of us, who probably went to school with or 'knocked around' with someone from this site.. small world eh! I hope the memories keep coming, I have so many of my own.I would love to see the old photos, and any recent ones, it would be interesting to see how the old places look now. thanks again. regards Jean1954
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Post by jean1954 on Mar 8, 2008 9:21:02 GMT -5
Hi June I remember that van it was blue and the driver would ring a bell when he pulled up in our street, you could buy almost anything from him, all us kids would hang around it and our mums used to buy anything from tea to a 'loosie cigarette' it was great!I also remember helping myself to peas/potatoes whatever was growing in the farmers field (Naylors Road) and playing in the field next to the brook with the gas pipe over it, like you I have so many memories, thanks for adding yours to this site. regards Jean1954
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Post by Chaplestead on Mar 9, 2008 2:38:32 GMT -5
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ken
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Posts: 109
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Post by ken on Mar 9, 2008 4:42:41 GMT -5
Hi Jean1954, Would you like to send me a personal message with your e-mail address, and I can send you the old pics I have. They're just old family snaps, but with interesting backgrounds of the Beechill Close/Fordcombe Road area around 1960, and those wide open spaces across Fordcombe Road! I'll see if I can root out any more recent views. And for LIN (see message on 27/1) I've also got an old newspaper cutting of the demolition of those 14-storey maisonettes which I must post on the forum. In the meantime, have you looked at www.192.com If you click on "maps & travel" you can zoom in to anywhere in England, with excellent aerial views of Lee Park, much clearer than Google Earth! Regards, Ken P.S. Chaplestead, it was reading those early posts that inspired me to start the Lee Park thread, due to the lack of response. So I'm also guilty of failing to respond to your message in the first place! But many thanks for getting it going, and maybe more people will now appreciate those first precious memories, Ken
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ken
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Posts: 109
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Post by ken on Mar 9, 2008 12:35:08 GMT -5
Hi lin, I was so busy responding to Jean and June, I forgot to reply to your message! It's nice to hear from someone who still lives in Lee Park. We were living there when the maisonettes were built in 1962, and to think your father-in-law blew them up - I often wished I could have blown them up in the 1960's!! I used to have a school pal who lived in the flats in Woodlee Road in the early 60's, and one who lived in the flats in Lee Park Avenue. Have you ever thought of taking some pics around Lee Park, for those who live far away and would like to see how it all looks now? I managed to get over there last summer, to take some pics of the Comp, before it closes, and as always, my mind gets yanked back to the 60's in a kind of golden mist, when I walk around the estate and through the Nook, etc. I must sort out some more of my pics to post here,
Regards, Ken
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ken
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Posts: 109
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Post by ken on Mar 10, 2008 16:14:04 GMT -5
Here's a couple of newspaper cuttings about the demolition of the Lee Park maisonettes: Liverpool Echo 14th Sep 1992 Daily Post 14th Sep 1992 The man who pressed the button, John Evans, must be lin's father-in-law as mentioned in the message here on 27th Jan
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ken
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Post by ken on Mar 10, 2008 16:25:56 GMT -5
Some pics I took of the demolished site on 5th June 1993: Looking across the site from King's Drive Looking across the demolished site towards Fordcombe Road and Beechill Close The junction of Lee Vale Road and King's Drive, with the site on the right. This end of Lee Vale Road used to be the terminus of the 79C bus service to the Pierhead The corner of Beechill Close and Fordcombe Road, directly opposite the site Ken
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ken
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Post by ken on Mar 11, 2008 19:27:24 GMT -5
We were the first family to live at 32 Beechill Close in 1957. Here is our front door in August 1970, shortly before we left And this is looking up towards the top of the close from our front garden in August 1970 The same house on 5th June 1993 Going back to the Summer of 1969, this was the view from the end of King's Drive, with the 18th Century Nookfield Cottage on the left and The Nook in the Summer of '69, looking towards the railway bridge Also slightly further afield in that same far off summer, an area of wild uncultivated wooded land between Orient Drive and Out Lane, near Woolton County Primary School. I called it "No Man's Land" and we used to walk through here, to and from school. Deep inside was a sunken region we called "the crater" - quite mysterious really! The whole area is now a housing estate Ken
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ken
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Post by ken on Mar 12, 2008 6:01:36 GMT -5
Some pics taken on 26th March 2002: The former Gateacre railway line, now part of the Liverpool Loop walk Junction of Belle Vale Road and Lee Vale Road, seen from the railway bridge over Belle Vale Road The Nook seen from the railway bridge The former Gorsey Cop, now the Grange Manor Hotel, Grange Lane Looking across from Cuckoo Lane
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ken
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Post by ken on Mar 12, 2008 6:08:01 GMT -5
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Post by jean1954 on Mar 17, 2008 23:18:48 GMT -5
Hi Ken These pictures are fantastic- thanks for posting them. It would be great to see more of the 'old place' there must have been so many more changes since I left way back in 1970.. and did I read that Gateacre Comp is closing....thats a whole lot of other memories.. thanks regards Jean1954
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