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Quernmore
Quernmore maps
Historic maps of Quernmore and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Quernmore maps
Quernmore area books
Displaying 1 of 17 books about Quernmore and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Quernmore
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Quernmore.
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Draining The Lands
I took my father back here in the 1980s as he said he use to work on the fields around this area draining the lands. He is in his eighties now and recently we went through some of his old photos and came across Quernmore. I have old sepia photo' he had taken of this area and of the small church to the left of this picture halfway down the road on the right hand side. This was his job in 1948 to dig and drain the land around this particular location. They lived in temporary huts just a little further up from the cross roads on this picture.
1958-1964
My name is Steve Whitfield, we lived in Whitecroft (on the Crossroads) and that is where I grew up. Went most of my time to boarding school with my two brothers, dating back to the 1960s. My father was employed as Chief Accountant for Jas. Williamson in Lancaster (remember them?) and I have so many wonderful memories as a child, cycling down to Condor Bottom, or catching moles with dear old Mr Fox. John Cousins exercised his racehorses on the roads up to Clougha, past Bolland's farm, and that's where I learnt to ride. As a boy, in my school holidays, trips to Manchester and Haydock in the horsebox were dreams come true, the locals in Bowerham used to applaud us when we left the yard fully laden with our equine superstars! Unbelievable now in this day and age.
I now train racehorses in Germany, but still have wonderful memories of my youth, the rain, the sheep, the Border Collies (Ken, he was brilliant), the abundant blackberries, Bees Bros,... Read more
Lancashire memories
Williamson Park Gate House
The 1881 census shows my grandfather (John Smart) and his family living in this house. He was the Landscape Gardener of the park.
Chapel
Each week, as a 15 - 16 year-old, I used to cycle from Morecambe on a Sunday morning for an organ lesson at the chapel of the Moor Hospital. It was uphill there and downhill home. My teacher was the organist there, also Director of Music at LRGS, and my lesson started after the Sunday morning service. As I progressed I was allowed to play the recesssional after the service. Every few years I come back to look at that magnificant building (the Annex) and think of all those thousands of people, staff and patients, who kept that sanctuary alive - a city within a city - which care within the community cannot now hope to replicate. I regret its demise and the safe haven it provided for so many people.
Henrys. Market Street.
I used to work at Henrys store, in the stock room. It was my first real job. It was a great old place. In the cellar was a secret passage way to the castle, bricked up from when there was a farmhouse there, I was told.
Christmas time was fantastic with Father Christmas and the grotto, and Father Christmas was my grandfather before I worked there - I sat on his knee when I was small and didn't know it was my grandad, how's that! I loved that place. British Home Stores rebuilt on the site and I worked for them for a while too. Allan Holmes.
Old Bernard's Memories of The Park
Ah! I remember when I was a little lad! I used to walk around the park after days at school, spitting chewing gum into the water with my friend Godric Weatherballs. Lord! The fountain was like a spitting mermaid! Jovey olives, this picture does jog memories... for example, Godric, Clifford and I used to skydive here, and swim in the lake in summer. Ach! The lake! So full of fascinating creatures: dragons, Nessie, Marilyn Monroe... and, as demonstrated by this photograph, they were all black and white. I do hope you're enjoying accompanying me on my stroll down Memory Lane! I simply cannot fathom the differences between 1920s Billy's Park and the park today, in 2010! Such colour! And, tearfully, I seem to see no skydiving children in the park today. However, I have heard that weddings occur here today, which delights me slightly. Well... Lord... As you can see I'm still at a loss of wording! I wish I could list my memories all day long... This one park made such... Read more
The Flicks
The magnificent Odeon Cinema, an Art Deco masterpiece, became a multi-screen horror, then a Bingo Hall. Sadly now torn down (2010) to make way for shopping. The doors bottom right corner were where we would sneak in free after a friend opened the exit. At age 10 we climbed the fire ladders to the roof high above the city!
