Margaret Beavan

A Memory of Heswall.

My late wife Sandra stayed at the home, with her sister Carol, for 6 weeks in the summer of 1957. Sandra was just turned 11 and Carol 9 and a half. About 20 years ago Sandra and I went back to Heswall and, as others have commented, the house is now private and the beach is overgrown. The railway line has long since been built over. However. the rhubarb field is still there!
The following is an account of her stay which I came across in an old notebook. (Unfortunately, I don't have the photo she mentions).

Margaret Beavan. Heswall.

My sister and I were there for 6 weeks during the summer of 1957 and were in Poppy Ward, overlooking the beach. The beach was lovely, clean sand and I remember finding half a crown one day. Fields ran down to the beach and one grew rhubarb which we used to pick and eat raw.
We wore their dresses and on Sundays went to church wearing brown corduroy skirts and jerkins and berets. I remember the Bendix room which held a large washing machine.
We had lots to keep us occupied and on one of our many walks we were once entertained by a group of Scottish men. We often walked to Parkgate and were once treated to a meal by a stranger. Once a week we went to the lower village to buy sweets etc. Popular were small pink vases for our mothers. I remember going to a café called Annabelles.
One day the Queen was due to go past by train and we all went to the matron's house as her back garden overlooked the railway.
The gardener and his wife had a cottage in the grounds.
The photos; lady on left is the matron, lady on right a nurse. Girls' photo; me on front left. Anyone remember me?

Sandra Watson (née Bott)

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