The Chambers Family

A Memory of Oscroft.

My family's houses were situated next door to the chapel. In fact part of the chapel was built on what was some of our land. Family name was Chambers and in the early 1900s my Great grandfather William was the village blacksmith. When I was a young girl I lived at the smithy: now called Willow View. At the time it was literally one up one down with the smithy at the back. I can remember the large iron rings in the wall which my Gt Grandad have tied the horses up to be shod. The anvil and fire pit were still there.
There was no mail sewage in the village but we did have electricity in 1950. We did not have a bathroom and only WCs at the bottom of the garden. Then my parents had an extension added, adding a kitchen 2 bedrooms and a bathroom.
My Grandmother lived next door at "The Cottage" and my father's Uncle Frank Chambers lived with his wife Ethel at the other end of the terrace. We kept pigs and hens and had an orchard with apple, plum, pair and damson trees.

My brother, sister and I used to attend Sunday school each week at the chapel in our garden. Miss Sutton was the Sunday school teacher and very stern. In fact it was hard not to go because she would knock on our door if we didn't.

My dad of course used to tell us stories about living in oscroft. He also told us about a spitfire which crashed in the field behind what is now the golf club, during the second world war. Apparently when the enemy bombed Liverpool they would fly over Oscroft. If they had any bombs they hadn't discharged they would let them go on the way back and some landed in the fields around Oscroft leaving craters which are now fishing pits.

There was very little public transport 2 buses out in the morning one back about 5pm and one at about 10pm. To Chester of course. Other than that you had to walk from the top of Shay Lane or from Austin's Hill. A nasty walk in winter.

We did have a shop in the village...owner Mrs Higgins.. At the side of the shop situated in Shay Lane at the junction with the Village ,Green, the Higgins family had a woodworking.business. They made just about everything from stairs to coffins.

Towards Austins hill just out of the village is a bridge over the brook upon which we would play Poo Sticks. Up stream over the fields from the back of our house we used to dam the brook and swim in it in summer of course that was before it became overgrown as it is now.

There were 3 farms in the village and the property at Fir Bank kept pigs.

At Halloween every year we would go out dressed up and go Souling (no trick or treat rubbish then). We would bake Cheshire soul cakes and we would sing at our neighbour's doors just for the fun of it.

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