Summer In The Village

A Memory of Wallasey.

I remember summers in Wallasey Village being absolutely glorious as a kid. I used to live in Green Lane, and during the summer holidays,Ii and my friends worked on the market gardens, from early in the morning until mid afternoon, we would then race down to the sea front to the Derby Bathing Pool; either paying to get in with our hard earned, weed pulling cash, or sneak under the wire off the golf course. The water in the pool was always like ice until you got in and started swimming. My abiding memories of the Derby were the tar covered balconies that used to burn your feet, so hopping from one persons towel to another to get down to the pools edge, was often the only way. Then up onto the diving boards, where in your cut down jeans, covered in allsorts of patches of the day, we would line up on the boards and proceed to 'bomb' off them. The cut down jeans incidently were to protect the backs of your thighs when you hit the water from height, because if you forgot them, it didnt half hurt. If you werent bombing, you were diving and considering the boards were quite high( the top one was probably the equivalent of maybe third top at the New Brighton Pool), the pool was very shallow for high diving at 8'6'', so very scary if you didnt get your dive right.
Absolutely fantastic memeories from the years in the early seventies living in the Village. Incidently I passed my 25 yard swimming certificate at the Guinea Gap baths, whilst at St Georges Junior School. Never bombed off the balcony there, unlike some I remember. Daring souls. I remember my dad swimming under water from one end to the other and back again. I never quite managed that feat. If the weather wasnt warm enough for swimming we would do what we always used to do all year round, walk up Green Lane and into the village and buy a big bottle of pop, and a Sally Lund Cake from the bakery. Then carry on to Harrison Park, and play footie for hours on end, as we were footie mad. Sometimes if there was a big get together at the dips on the promenade, a big game would ensue from on end of a dip to the other, often that many playing you were lucky to get a kick of the ball at all during the game. It was still great fun being involved though. Another pastime in the summer was cardboard sledging down the hills in Harrison Park. The summers were hot enough to burn the grass then, and that made the cardboard slip down the hills at, what we thought at the time,were very fast speeds. Many a grass burn to the arms and legs, but great fun.

I hope this has brought back memories for others too.

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