Margaret Bevan Home Heswall

I was there in 1956 I hated it and was very homesick. I was in Buttercup dormitory. I too remember the conservatory and the wicker furniture. I also remember the walks each day to either the beach or the farm. When I was there we wore camel coats and red berets to church. I was there for 6 weeks which I think was generally the case. It was in late Autumn and On Bonfire Night the caretaker did a bonfire and firework display but I was only allowed to watch from the window as I was deemed too poorly to go outside in the cold. We had toffee apples and parkin to eat that night. Do you remember seaweed pudding which was really a yellowy green blancmange but must have been made using seaweed YUK. I also hated the cocoa and jam sandwiches they served each night for supper. My abiding memory is having to leave letters home on the hall table for matron to read before they were posted. I can honestly say there wasn't one thing I liked about that place. When I got home eventually my Mum had bought me a lovely Victorian Dolls House complete with furnishings.

Dear Audrey, You have an excellent memory compared to my own. It's sad you were so unhappy there, but what a nice surprise when you got home.

I can send you a photo of the house which is now in private occupation if you will send me your email address. I live in Devon now but would love to see the old place again.

Best wishes,

Nancy (Ann) Richards formally Ward.

Hi would any of you ladies be able to help. I'm looking for the children's home possibly in abergele? Could you please tell me where about it was or possibly have any photos. I'm researching for a friend who stayed there many years ago. Any information on the location would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Hello ladies I am writing a book about my mother in law she spent some time in the Margaret Bevan childrens home after she went blind at the age of 8 and had lost her mother.The family couldn't cope and Margaret Bevan Took her in and arranged for an operation (as it was only cateracts) she left the home able to see and went back to her family (this is only the start of a very colourful and interesting life).Any information or photos you could let me have would be most appreciated, as the home and all the records were destroyed in a fire. Thank you.

Hi egocbitd, I will attempt to att a photo of the Margaret Bevan Home which I believe is now a family residence. Best wishes with your book.
/Users/annrichards/Desktop/Margaret Bevan Home-1.jpg
Ann (Nancy) Richards

If this has not worked send me an email address

I stayed at Margaret bevan Heswall with my younger sister susan around 1963/64 for a month,picked up at coppras hill liverpool i recently went to see the old building and found not much change although looks like it has been made into flats. there was a long road with cabbage fieilds on one side this is still there but no cabbages,the home was at the end of the road Trinity road.the slip that led to the beach still there only no sea only moss as far as the eye could see how the land scape has changed.I remember long walks going to the post office with our postal order to be cashed for sweets.playing in the summer house with a box full of dressing up clothes, think we where in Bluebell dorm, and remember befrending a girl with blonde hair i think she was called ileane,rabbits running around the garden and hot drinking chocolate,funny i missed my family for about two weeks then the people in the home seemed to be your family,remember feeling strange coming home. Barbara [Nixon]

I too remember this place it has taken about 60 years to find i really did go here .I dont why i was there but it has haunted me all these years I recalll being in daffodil dorm and hearing the steam train when i was in my cot ,the nurse telling me its ok your mums coming soon I dont recall how long i was there but remember going down the steep steps of the house to the beach across the road and getting parcels of licorice shapes sent in from home i have never forgotton and my younger sisters told me i must be imagining it i cried all the time to go home and have always been home sick since ,love to see a pic if any one has one please x

Hi every one my mum has been give us some information of her child hood and she told us she went to Margert Beven home in 60s which she love going but did miss her family so much but she got so many happy memories been there and some sad memories too but we would love to see pitchers of this love building and pitchers of what it's like now ? But also find out if any one rember's our mum Mary Cubbin!! She was very quite but would of been well know to other kids so if u was there thought 50-60's we would love to know u!! Xx

Hi Barbara Nixon my mum think she know u from the margert been home in the 63-64 she went same year has u from copers hill in Liverpool!! So she would love to know if u would rember her and she remembers everything u said, the hall were the stage was call the finch!! This is were we dress up and dance and sing!! So if u would like to meet up and have a chat just get back to us!! Chat soon girls xxx

Oh, wow, this brings back some memories! I'd forgotten some of the things others have mentioned, such as the summer house being called The Finch and the jam sandwiches and cocoa. I didn't know it was called Margaret Bevan, I just remember it as Heswall Convalescent. I was there for a month Aug-Sept 65. One of the letters on the sign was wrong, I think an upside=down A was used for the "v" or a "w" or something. I was very homesick while I was there, but had some fun times too. I was friends with Shirley and Gillian Masters, also remember girl called Philomena and a Rosemary. Loved the milk pudding - someone told me years later it was called junket, not sure if they're right - anyway, it was blancmange made with milk, I think. Can't recollect the (carer? teacher? what did we call the staff?) name of one of the ladies who looked after us, but I remember her saying her daughter was a huge Beatles fan and playing one of her singles on the record player in the summer house,it went something like "Chains, my baby's go me locked up in chains, whoa, chains of love got a hold on me..." I was painfully shy but I came out of my shell a lot there even though I was so homesick.

I’m not sure if anyone will read this but I’ve just been going through my mums letters and found a letter she wrote to her sister dates 31.8.65 she was at Margret bevan house she would have been 16, someone has posted about remembering a girl called Philomenna, she also references a Susan, Sandra Georgina, pauline, she says in the letter how girls tried to run away and the crying that stopped her getting to sleep and the names of the dorms all named after flowers, poppy buttercup and then the finch. The letter is dated 31.8.65 and it was Georgians birthday. Not sure why I am writing this my mum was called Lyn

I was at margaret beavan in early 60s not quite sure when but I can remember all the things that people are writing about it the music room Beatles music walks on the beach trips into the village I used to hide my letters home in my coat pocket and put in in post box on walk in to village without staffnoticing would love any photos any one has of the place one name sticks out of a Georgina whip day when I was there
Regards to all Lily x

I was also there around that time, it was in March I spent my 14th birthday 🎂 there, I remember we would go once a week to buy sweets, which was put in a shoe box with our names on, as it was my birthday i received lots of sweets which was put in the shoe box,,the day we were allowed our sweets, mine was stolen an empty shoe box, will never forget that, also a postal order which was like a cheque, all so went missing,,i really was home sick but received a letter every single day from home,,on a Sunday we would go to church in a brown uniform, just hated the way people looked down on us like we were convicts, i remember a very kind lady who bought me a present on my last day ,,but the most hunting thing I remember was a man who i guess was a handyman or gardener always looking at the girls in not the appropriate way, my name is Lynn does anyone remember me

Re Emmadoran

Hi Emma, Haven't been on here for months, but was feeling nostalgic today and came across your comment, though I've had to create a new email address as couldn't remember my password.
I was at the Convalescent 25 Aug-22 Sept 1965 so around same time as your Mum, though, sorry, I don't remember a Lynn. I was just eleven, though, so big age difference. The only older girl I remember is a Lilian who was about 15. I do remember a Georgina, if it's the same girl, as she lived not far from me in Liverpool, but was 2 or 3 years older. I certainly remember we were always talking of running away, as one day the Cook was in tears when we were talking about it and saying "Girls used to be happy here years ago". My friends were from Manchester and I was from Liverpool and we had this wild idea of making our way to the Mersey Tunnel where we would separate. I don't recollect anyone actually trying to run away, however. I remember the dorms being called after flowers, but not the crying at night though I've always been a deep sleeper.

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)

Hi, I was there around 1965 as an eight year old and have various memories including being picked up from Copperas Hill. Can anyone confirm the exact address? And any photos please.
Thanks, Sue

Hi everyone.
I was sent to Margaret Bevan home in 1963, aged 11 after my mother died.
All previous comments brought back memories for me ( not that I could forget), none of them good.
I too was picked up in a van from coppras hill. My father told me I'd love it. It would be like a holiday & I'd be " brown as a berry" when I came home.
I was supposed to be there for a month.....from the minute I hot in that van I was plotting a way to get home!!!
I had 2 Pennies on me. I hid those in my socks. I remember being put in a gingham dress & shown a blazer & Berry that would be worn for church on Sunday. That was it!!!! There was no way I was staying.
I remember the matron, a large, red headed Scottish woman who I immediately didn't like. I was told iv I had anything with me I'd have to give it go them to be put in a large cupboard in her office....err NO!!!
That tuppence was my way out of there.
I wrote a letter to my father telling him I hated it there & wanted to come home. I'll never forget the matron coming into a room full of kids & reading it out, ripping it up & me being sent to the dormitory. I think I was only there a couple of days before I took flight. I remember crouching down going past the kitchen window, I think, & running. Don't ask me how but I made it to the ferry terminal in Birkenhead. As I was about to get a ticket I heard my name being called. Stupidly I turned around & it was the police. Think the gingham Frock gave the game away. Anyway, I was taken to the police station & remember being in a room with a lovely young police woman who played a beatles record for me on a record player they had.
Eventually, the ogre of a matron & her driver turned up. I'll never forget how she git hold of my hand and was like a smiling assassin, squeezing it so hard while talking to the police.
On the way back she kept asking, who told you how to get out. I said nobody, but that didn't stop her from telling the older girs I'd said it was them!!!!!!
She was totally abusive that woman.
Unbeknown to me, the police had visited my father while I was missing to let him know. He got to the police station from Liverpool only to be told I'd been found & was back there. He was asked by the desk seargent what I'd done to be there, he said nothing, she lost her mum. The seargent told him to ho get me saying, if she got all this way trying to get back to you, go get her.
When the matron got me back there I was sent to bed & not allowed the evening meal. Instead, I was given half a glass of milk with 2 pieces of cheese which had the rind on & a slice of bread & butter. I wasn't allowed around the other kids.
Later I was summoned to her office & can still vividly see my dad's trilby sat on a sideboard, I think, as I opened the door. I thought I was in deep trouble. But, he was there to take me home. She was saying you can't take her you signed....whatever?? Well, you didn't say that to my father. I remember it was a lovely summer's evening & walking holding his hand & never being more happy.
I appreciate some people enjoyed being there but for me it was a nightmare, never to be forgotten.
My name was Barbara Davies.
Take care all.x