22 Years in Higher Tranmere

I was born in St Catherine's Hospital during 1943 and spent the next 22 years living right across the street from it until I emigrated to Canada in 1965. I can remember my mother, my sister and I walking along Derby Road with the empty pram to pick up a bag of coal (in the days of rationing)! The corner shop was Morris's just at the bottom of the hill near North Road - we used to go there for a llb of broken biscuits and a little bag of Dolly Mixtures. At the top of the hill was the Post Office, Newton's and a family called Peacock used to have an icecream/candy shop next door - lovely home made ice cream. We used to walk down to play in Mersey Park and an extra long walk took us over to Victoria Park where we would watch the cricket being played on a Sunday afternoon. On Saturday morning we went to the film shows with the Auntie Gladys club from the Birkenhead News - singing to the bouncing ball at the Plaza cinema and cowboy movies at the Regent Cinema on Church Road. I think there was a Territorial Army camp on Derby Road opposite the hospital. There used to be quite a few bomb sites around the area as well - down near St Joseph's Church off North Road. My old school Holt Hill Convent was on Church Road (no longer there - knocked down in recent years for a housing development).