Ellesmere Port memories
Here are memories of Ellesmere Port and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Ellesmere Port or a Ellesmere Port photo.
After John st
I was bike boy for Morris & Davis Butchers. Then went to Warringtons as a bricklayer. In 1968 I went to the Shell, 32 years later took early retirement.
Photos
I worked at the butchers, Rotherhams, delivering meat on a bike. My wife workd at Laidlers the chemist. Does anyone have any photos, or any info on when Waugh Bakery started and where?
The Milton Road Coronation Party. 1953?
A large wooden hall was built on land behind Mr and Mrs Chrime's house in Milton Road and we had a street party for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. I remember seeing bits of the ceremony on someone's TV (we didn't own one) and it being very grainy, and all the 'old' women (probably in their 20s!) ooing and ahing! I would have been 10 years old and I got 2nd prize in the fancy dress competition as a 'Stick of Red White & Blue Coronation Rock'. My brother Paul I think could have won it - he went as 'The Coronation Baby' complete with white sheet as a nappy and an oversized dummy, but he was embaressed and jumped out of the pram! Does anyone else remember that party?
The Bakery
My wife Margaret and myself started a bakery and shop in part of what had been 'The Manchester House'. We had a small gas oven, a 10 qt mixer and a pie blocker and that was about it! One Easter we made 500 hot cross buns in that small domestic oven and sold them very quickly. There was so much steam coming from the oven that the wallpaper in the room upstairs fell off the wall! In about 1970 we partnered with my brother Glyn and his wife Pat and opened THE BAKERY in Underwood Drive Whitby.
The Canal Tavern was a favourite place for an after-work drink with my brothers Glyn and Paul. Glyn and I emigrated to New Zealand in 1973, Paul stayed in 'The Port'. Margaret and I opened a bakery here in Woodville, New Zealand 25 years ago and still going strong.
Does anyone remember buying pies or cakes from the Station Road or Underwood drive Bakeries?
Meeting my Wife
I first visited Ellesmere Port in 1957 when the Shell tanker I was on berthed at Stanlow. I met my future wife, Shirley (Stokes) at a dance at the old Majestic dance hall and we were married in 1958 in the Star of the Sea church. I worked at the Shell refinery, then later in the Dock Police. I ended up working at Lobitos (Burmah Oil) before emigrating to Australia in 1968. We are still happily married after 53 years!
Cannon Street
Does anyone have a photo of Cannon Street?
Memories of Merseyside
The Queen's Visit
I cannot be specific as to the date of the Queen's visit because I was very young at the time.
On the left hand side of the road you can see what was at one time the post office but which later became a carpet shop. On the right hand side of the road (slightly obscured) was Harold Jones's coal merchants yard and next door to it was the green grocers shop which was run by his wife. Everyone was very excited because they were going to see the Queen.
Ledsham Road and Chester Road were lined with people all penned back behind metal barriers with innumerable police men trying to keep the heaving throngs back. The rain poured down and no one could see for the umbrellas. Everyone was soaking wet. The Queen came speeding around the corner in her black, shiny car and everyone cheered and waved their flags even though no-one could see her properly. Luckily I was sitting on top of Harold... Read more
St. George's Presbyterian Church
St. George's Presbyterian Church stands in the forefront of this photograph between what was the Co-operative shop and Tommy Jones the fishmongers shop. How long the Presbyterian Church has stood on this site I don't know but the Church itself was established in Little Sutton in 1838.
Legend has it that that two travellers passing through Little Sutton were stoned by the local youths and upon finding out that there was neither Church nor Chapel in the village paid for it to be built! How true this is I do not know. The Church Hall which was sited next to the old Black Lion pub was demolished in the late 1950s early 1960s and this building was, I suspect, old enough to be the original Chapel/Church which was the subject of the story. I would also add, although this is immaterial, that I was born in Black Lion Lane, and that my ancestors had lived in Little Sutton since at least 1750.
However, I attended at St. George's... Read more
The Rec!
Ah yes, The Rec! Scene of many a battle and many a cup final, in later years there was romance! You could get through the hedge and down onto the railway line to put halfpennies on the line that got flattened by trains as they ran over them.
At the End of Heath Lane, or more accurately at the junction with New Chester Road, a bobby did point duty at busy times. I can remember one day going to school and making a dash across the road and the bobby grabbed me before I went under a car! Probably wouldn't have been fatal - cars didn't get up to much speed in 1959.
When my father was a boy he and a friend were playing in The Rec and Dad got a swing seat thumped into his face that drove his front teeth right through his top lip. He still has the scar at the age of 80!
Also at that junction there used to be a... Read more
Rivacre Baths
We moved to Rivacre in 1960, within sound of the baths. I spent most of my summer holidays there. My cousin Paul James's mum worked on the gate and the owner's son Stephen Williams was my friend at primary school.
The Cubbin Twins
Yes, the Cubbin twins - Alison and Janet. They had an older sister, Shirley, who became a dancer.
I was in love with Janet for years! She was full of life, always laughing and fooling around. I never got up the courage to ask her out and never got round to telling her years later how much I had admired her. I can't now.
The twins' father, Ronnie, was my father's best friend. They grew up together in Childer Thornton and remained friends. Sadly, Ronnie died some years ago but I do remember him so well, a cheery, red-cheeked man, a true son of the soil. He used to work at Pulford's farm in Ledsham and I sometimes went with him at Christmas to slaughter turkeys. Later, he worked at Bowaters when I worked there.
My older sister Sue got married when I was 16. I worked for Hyde's Jewellers in Ellesmere Port at the time and Janet worked at... Read more
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