Origins And Holidays 1948 1965

A Memory of Liverpool.

I was born in Liverpool (Smithdown Road Hospital that was renamed Sefton General by the time my sister was norn there 19 months after me) and was christened in St Andrew's Church in Clubmoor. We lived for a short time at 147 Harrowby Road. I have no memories of that house that I can be sure of. I was taken to the west London area just before I was 2 (as this was where my father found a job after leaving the army). However, my grandmother and aunt stayed in Liverpool and we had annual trips up for holidays and my memories consist of the times spent in Walton (Clubmoor) every summer. My grandma lived in a prefab in Richard Kelly Drive which backed on the the large playing field (now returned to its former state) with the railway embankment on the far side. I remember the trams that ran down the centre of Townsend Avenue but by the time we stopped our annual trips in the mid 1960s these were long gone. My grandmother's older brother had the dubious claim to fame of being run down and killed by one of the first trams that ran in Liverpool in circa 1918. (I still have research to do on that for the family tree). Arrival in Liverpool was marked by the trip through the Mersey Tunnel after a 10 hour drive up from Middlesex in the days before motorways. This was usually an overnight trip arriving at grandma's house about 8am. Once in Liverpool we would spend a few days on the dunes at Ainsdale, weather permitting, otherwise we would roam the local area - running errands to the shops at Clubmoor or playing on the swings etc at the 'rec' in the far corner of the playingfield. I have not been back to Liverpool for many years as I now have no relatives there who I am in contact with, but have 'visited' virtually via Google Earth/Street View and can see the changes that have been made.