Barleyfield

We lived on Fishers Lane, Pensby then moved to Barleyfield Road where my little sister was born in the front bedroom of no 1. We walked down to Greenbank Junior School every day, three little kids holding hands through fields of barley that towered over our heads! Then the builders came. Before we knew it we were walking home through little streets like Bennet Walk. The houses went up so fast that I got lost walking home one day! Weekends were spent playing up at 'Devils Dyke' where the boys had made a rope swing. We 'nicked' potatoes from our kitchens, lit a fire and tried to 'bake' them, they were rock-hard but we ate them anyway! At the bottom of Barleyfield Road they built an 'old peoples home' which meant we could not get through to Fishers Lane any more, we had to go round through Old Wood Rd instead. I was petrified of walking through Old Wood Road because of the vicious dog that lived there and nearly always ran after me! Often, at weekends, we went looking for our dad to scrounge some money. He would be down at the Anchor Inn on the Pensby Road or up at the Irby Club in Irby. We walked miles through fields and farms up to Thurstaston Common in complete safety, fearing only the bulls! On the way back we would pray that Dad would be in the Irby Club where we would 'stop off' in the hope of much needed refreshment. We moved away in the 1970s and I have not yet been back. In some ways I'm afraid to!