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Willaston
Willaston maps
Historic maps of Willaston and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Willaston maps
Willaston area books
Displaying 1 of 13 books about Willaston and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Willaston
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Willaston.
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Hadlow Road Station
This is Hadlow Road, looking towards the village over the old railway line.
Merseyside memories
The Bike Shop, The Sweet Shop, Leighton Court And The Last Neston Family to Catch Shrimps
On The High Street, Neston as you look towards Liverpool Road with The Cross just behind you you may still be able to see two alleyways. One used to end in a shed where a man had a bike shop. It was an Aladdin's Cave stacked with spare parts. My Dad bought me bikes. We had the lawnmower fixed there too.
The second alleyway had the doorway to a house halfway down it. The house was occupied by the Armitage family. The father had been Captain John Armitage. He died and his wife remarried. She died and he remarried. The result was many children and almost none full brothers and sisters as they all had different sets of parents. Two boys I remember were Andrew and Jamie. Andrew ran away with the fair one year. The door was a stable door. They would have the top half open so that you could peep in and see them all sitting on the floor 'shulling'. This was taking the shell off... Read more
Neston Cross
Remember The Cross very well, worked my apprenticeship at Leighton Printing Works from 1950 to '55 when I joined the RAF, the photos bring back lots of memories. Went back in '77 to visit the old works to see if anybody remembered me. (No). Took a visit to Parkgate too, it has changed so much (no water anymore), but still nice to see. Came out of RAF and moved to Canada in 1957, been back to England once in '77, maybe one day would love to visit again.
The Queen's Visit
I cannot be specific as to the date of the Queen's visit because I was very young at the time.
On the left hand side of the road you can see what was at one time the post office but which later became a carpet shop. On the right hand side of the road (slightly obscured) was Harold Jones's coal merchants yard and next door to it was the green grocers shop which was run by his wife. Everyone was very excited because they were going to see the Queen.
Ledsham Road and Chester Road were lined with people all penned back behind metal barriers with innumerable police men trying to keep the heaving throngs back. The rain poured down and no one could see for the umbrellas. Everyone was soaking wet. The Queen came speeding around the corner in her black, shiny car and everyone cheered and waved their flags even though no-one could see her properly. Luckily I was sitting on top of Harold... Read more
St. George's Presbyterian Church
St. George's Presbyterian Church stands in the forefront of this photograph between what was the Co-operative shop and Tommy Jones the fishmongers shop. How long the Presbyterian Church has stood on this site I don't know but the Church itself was established in Little Sutton in 1838.
Legend has it that that two travellers passing through Little Sutton were stoned by the local youths and upon finding out that there was neither Church nor Chapel in the village paid for it to be built! How true this is I do not know. The Church Hall which was sited next to the old Black Lion pub was demolished in the late 1950s early 1960s and this building was, I suspect, old enough to be the original Chapel/Church which was the subject of the story. I would also add, although this is immaterial, that I was born in Black Lion Lane, and that my ancestors had lived in Little Sutton since at least 1750.
However, I attended at St. George's... Read more
The Rec!
Ah yes, The Rec! Scene of many a battle and many a cup final, in later years there was romance! You could get through the hedge and down onto the railway line to put halfpennies on the line that got flattened by trains as they ran over them.
At the End of Heath Lane, or more accurately at the junction with New Chester Road, a bobby did point duty at busy times. I can remember one day going to school and making a dash across the road and the bobby grabbed me before I went under a car! Probably wouldn't have been fatal - cars didn't get up to much speed in 1959.
When my father was a boy he and a friend were playing in The Rec and Dad got a swing seat thumped into his face that drove his front teeth right through his top lip. He still has the scar at the age of 80!
Also at that junction there used to be a... Read more
Rivacre Baths
We moved to Rivacre in 1960, within sound of the baths. I spent most of my summer holidays there. My cousin Paul James's mum worked on the gate and the owner's son Stephen Williams was my friend at primary school.
