Happy Days

A Memory of Whiston.

My first recollection of life in Whiston was as a small child waking up at my Grandma's house on the morning she moved from near the crossroads to a newly built bungalow in Birchall Ave.(although her family had lived in Whiston for a few generations).
This would be the mid fifties and heralded the start of many happy years staying over there some weekends and at summer holidays. I had cousins living nearby and soon made friends with a few local kids.
I can remember Edith, the post office lady, Fred Napton who ran the news kiosk. May Armitage who had the chippy near where the Golden Ball car park is, and Mr Eames who had a shop across the road.
The bottom part of Birchall was still a field and we'd play for hours at cowboys etc. We knew it as Ramsden's field because Charlie Ramsden, a bus driver, had a smallholding on there. At the very bottom where Birchall meets Cow Rakes Lane was another chip shop run by Aggie and Bill.
There were a few shops along High St including David Collins' cobblers and his Dad's shop where he repaired lawnmowers and bikes, etc.
The old school where both my Mother and Grandma had attended was still there under the cliff where the church presides.
Where Sorrelsykes Close now stands was a field where Mr Coy kept horses. My Father always said the development should have been called Coy's Croft just as the bottom of Birchall should have been Ramsden's Field, in order to keep the memory of the two locals alive, (but councils have their own ideas).
One final note (or I will go on all night) was my Great Grandma's bungalow which used to stand at the top of Guilthwaite Crescent. I remember going in with her one evening and waiting till she lit the gaslight. No electric there.
If anyone finds anything of interest in the above, then it will all have been worthwhile.