Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Old Chester Road

Come across this photo of a bus in Old chester road

cracking photo atmospheric cant beat the black and white.

Looks like they are building summat in the foreground, any idea what it is?

the building work in the foreground was the construction of Merey Mount flats. Two blocks. Aprox 1961/62

The double fronted shop to the rear of the bus was Gellavere's (cannot remember correct spelling) I delivered newspapers for them in the mid 50's

Not far from Fred Goldstraw's antiques shop. Great for old gramophones, radios, etc.

Good photo, brings back memories. It must have been taken from the corner of the building site or the bowling green next to it, showing the ground floor of the southern tower. There used to be ATC huts there and I have a mental picture of these flats going up probably no later than 1960, as it was a couple of years later that the even bigger flats went up at the top of Mersey Park between Sydney Road and Sydney Terrace (after demolishing some old sandstone cottages). In the book 'Nostalgic Wirral' there is a picture looking down Sydney Road, over Old Chester Rd, towards Lairds. The picture was obviously taken from some part of the new flats under construction, and is dated as 1961.
Back to the photo and I guess that the small road on the left is Randle St, so the garage on the corner must have been rebuilt sometime later. The end of Randal St. that we see there looks more like a piece of hardstanding now, and modern building and renaming of streets there could make you thing it was Beaconsfield Rd., which was the next road to the north.
The house numbers between Randle St. and Union St. (the next road to the right, out of shot but still there) are 147 to 167 Old Chester Road.
The premises of 'A Gellavere, Newsagent' were at No. 153 according to the 1964 phone book (BIRkenhead 7473).
Fred Goldstraws is one place I remember well, not so much for the aparrent junk inside, but for the SMELL. It stunk in there, probably due to the pipe tobacco he used to smoke. Very organic, shall we say. But Fred's shop would not have been in this picture. He was a couple of hundred yards further south, at 211 Old Chester Rd, (thanks again to the 1964 Phone Book, with tel. no. ROCk Ferry 3799). The premises were next to the corner shop at the junction of Cobden Place - or approximately opposite the end of Crofton Road, where Wyverns fruit and veg shop was, very close to the Collisieum Picture House.
So, before I put the large-scale OS map away (SJ3287SW) I'll just run through the properties along that section of road, so covering the East side of Old Chester Road from Orchard Road to Cobden Place, as follows.
Opposite St. Lukes Church is Orchard Rd. Between here and Beaconsfield Rd. we have numbers 119 to 123. Between Beaconsfield Rd. and Randle St we have the garage. From Randal St to Union St. we have numbers 149 to 167. From the south side of Union St. we have numbers 167A to 179, then we reach the Methodist Church. Then we number up to 199, next door to the Tranmere Congregational Church, then numbers 201 to 213 take us to the corner of Cobden Place.
I seem to remember a Greek fish and chip shop openning up around there in the early 60's. They were good too, and the first place that I came across 'Golden Wonder' Crisps - only 3d. small or 5d. large, and no blue bag to chew on! Great!

Any more thoughts on this part of Old Chester Road?

between,the congregational church and the corner of cobden place was cunninghams fish and chip shop[the best at the time,] there was a sweet shop on the corner of cobden place called,charlies[charlsworths]

Ah yes, Cunninghams. Great chippy.
The Greek chippy I mentioned (later it became a Chinese) was closer to the bottom of Well Lane, I think.
And there was another chippy in Crofton Rd (north side) by the junction of Moorland Rd (I think). They used to fry with Bibbys lard, and boxes of it often used to line the wall and the kids sit on them while waiting to be served..

crofton rd chippy is still there

The greek chippy was called the golden sunrise and was on the left hand side of Old chester road if you where facing towards rock ferry. It was in the stretch of shops between Grenville road and Glastone road. Wyverns fruit and feg shop was actualy on the corner of Tuder road.

I used to live for a short while in one of the sandstone cottages, that was next to a junk store. Was that Fred Goldstraw's , if i remember correctly the house was #100,later moved to # 14 old chester road opposite Green Lane Railway station. There was a steep hill next to the house and I remember some guy on a bicycle killing himself accidently by running into the sandstone wall trying to stop when his brakes failed riding down the hill

Fred's shop was 211 Old Chester Rd - on the other side to where you were thinking of.
I think you must be thinking in terms of the early 60's, as I remember this happening, too. Bicycle accidents were quite common then, with people travelling too fast down any of those stee roads, e.g., Holborn Hill, Hillside Road, Holt Road, Sydney Road, etc.
The sandstone cottages and shops I remember were on the west of Old Chester Rd, between Sydney Terrace and the Quarry. They would have been even numbered. In the middle of one block was a shop where the owner would still recharge batteries (accumulators) for radio's, mend bicycles straighten buckled wheels and stocked all sorts of associated items.
A little further along on one corner was a junk shop (perhaps the one you are thinking of) and on the opposite corner, the shop sold secondhand clothes. I can't quite place which road was between them, but it was a steep one leading up to Holt Hill.
They all got demolished around the same times as the ones at the top of Sydney Road & Sydney Terrace, in preparation for the flats being built.

I had forgotten about those sandstone cottages, they were on the left of oldchester rd going towards cammel lairds. There was also a shopfront that was boarded up (bomb damage) a little furthur on. I worked as a delivery boy for a butchers shop that was there, trying to ride a heavy bike up those hills to make a delivery was something else I had forgotten.

I know where you mean, the very top end of Old Chester Road down to its junction with Queen Street. I rarely went down that way so don't remember it much. It's all new houses on the left (west side). Some of this was built on the site of the very old properties, and some is built where more recent buildings were.
The terraced houses on the right, between the Station and Chamberline St. were demolished and now form part of the station car park.
The sandstone shops and cottages I was thinking of could have been nearer the junction with Queen St, or actually on Queen St itself.
I also mentioned Hillside Road where it joins Old Chester Road. The most memorable feature of Hillside Road at the point is the fact that it is not a road at all, but a passageway consisting series of broad, wide steps (perhaps a hundred or so), which winds its way up the hill to the road propper.
Sidney Terrace had something similar - a sloping passageway, a few steps, another 50ft of sloping passageway and a few more steps etc.
Both were passageways that a cyclist would remember..

Known locally as the Monkey Steps.

I remember the sandstone cottages on Old Chester Road. They were white washed and protruded out making the road very narrow. The chip shop in Croften Road was run in the 40's / 50's by Mrs Garnet.

There used be an old cottage opposite the green lane station, would have been number 20 or22 maybe, it was supposed to have a well in the front room, and there was a rumor of tunnels that run to birkenhead priory. It had raising damp on the walls which were said to have been high tide. Only went in there a couple of times, kid who lived there was nicknamed "snotty ronnie" cause he never owned a handkerchief.
The other source of mystery was at that time that the quarry close to the monkey steps , had tunnels and had supplies that were left over from ww2

There's loads of info. here on the Tranmere Air Raid Shelters.
Just do a search for "tranmere tunnels". (Include the quotes).

does anyone know or have any photographs of any of the said above shops or streets around old chester road? regards

There is another Old Chester Road topic running on this site click here.
In the Pubs section, there are photos of the Queens Arms / Yard and the Prince William.
A local book, published last year 'The Changing Face of Tranmere' has a number of pictures in it, including the 'White Cottages' and loads of other useful info.

A few photos of the Green Lane end of Old Chester Road in the mid-1960s, and a view of the same area in 1977 from the top of the flats in Sidney Road.

hi marty. thankyou very much for these pictures. i remember sidney flats aswell as the other 3 that were in sidney road. i dont remember the other pics as i was 5 when i moved to the area. however its good to see what it was like. do you know wether the two cottages in one of the above pics was situated opposite the pub named the crooked billet? i do remember the field opposite that pub as i used to play there as a kid. there was also a bit of grass land a bit further along towards green lane, opposite a building thats still there and makes signs. i was wondering if the cottages were situated there instead?

thanks

The White Cottages were indeed almost directly opposite the Crooked Billet, which is the pub on the right in the final photo. The site of the cottages is the plot partially bounded by the hedges on the opposite side of the main road.

Thank you for posting those pics, they brought back many happy memories, can I ask where you got them from are they your own collection etc?

My Uncle's Mother used to run the Golden Fleece pub which was just up the road on those pics. I was born in Orchard road again just off those photo's so I knew that area very very well.

Thanks for posting the Pics
My Wife has just looked at the pics and they also bring back memories she was also born in Orchard road. lived in the area from the 50s until the 70s

Oh what was her name.. pm me if you want.

does anybody have any old photos of old chester road, rockferry? i was kindly sent some on here....much appreciated, marty. i have been looking for a few years for old pics of the other end of old chester road which had shops called: kellys the butchers, my mums shop, galviers (newsagents), and various other shops along there. or does anybody know of anywhere i might find these?

regards

does anybody have any pictures of the top end of old chester road.......around st pauls road, well lane areas? regards.

I would love to see photos of that area as well. Blue Bird Cafe, Franks the butchers,Taylor's shoe shop and Rostances on the corner . Happy memories !

Hillside road is a road. I know someone who lives there. Go up steps, through passage way, onto Hillside road.

Does anybody have any pics of the other end of Old Chester road.......near the Fairfield pub, St.Paul's Road area? Thanks.

Thanks for that but where about in Old Chester Road is that 'cos I don't recognise it?
It looks more like Derby Rd. or Whetstone Lane to me.

Photo of 'The Monkey Steps', taken earlier this year. The pub to the right is 'The Old House at Home'.

As a reminder and for those recently asking, the original picture of Old Chester Road from Pablo42 was taken in about 1961, from the club grounds at the bottom of Downham Road. In the foreground are the foundations for the Mersey Mount Flats (now demolished) and the block of shops runs between Randal St and Union St, also all demolished. The only remaining part of Randal St still visible on Old Chester Road is a little piece of hardstanding next to the 1960's garage, opposite the entrance to the park gates.

For more info on Old Chester Road, Rock Ferry, there is another thread on here called 351 Old Chester Road which might help.

I reserve the right to edit posts in the History forum for spelling and grammar, as I have done with some recent posts.

And quite rightly so! Well done that man.

Thanks, Tatey. I'm going to do it when I have the time and the inclination. I realise that spelling and grammar are out of the window in our forums, which pains me, but I think that in an essentially serious forum, where readers may be relying on information they read, that information should be not only accurate but also well presented and therefore easy to read. Is it really too much to ask that people use an initial capital for names and use a bit of punctuation? My aim would be, to be happy to have an article copied and pasted elsewhere without shame.
My efforts may be sporadic, dependant on time available. If I see a post which is beyond reasonable repair, I may ask the author to re-write it. In extremis I may delete a post.

I should mention that, since Norton made the last post before I acted, this is in no way aimed at him.

Here here !!

Joke !!!.......hear hear ^_^

I remember running up and down those steps many years ago.Would struggle walking up them now.ha ha.Thanks for the memories.

Yes, I remember Cunninghams chippy, but does anyone remember Tunners chipshop? It was over the road from the Crooked Billet.

Does anyone know what house numbers the stone (white) cottages on old chester road used to be please.
My grandparents used to live opposite the crooked billet I have one photo which I will post later, which has the crooked billet in the corner opposite where they lived.

homer

I am now thinking that the photograph that I have posted was taken in the garden of the right most cottage on the second and third pictures posted by Marty99fred. woo hoo!!

Just spotted this, bigpete and you're absolutely correct: a dependant is a person. Sorry.

Hi homeraway, welcome to WikiWirral.

I think your picture may have been taken from a garden a little closer to Holt Road, judging from the angle looking at the end of Queens Place and the Pub.

I don't have a map with house numbers on, but the attached composite should help. It is taken from an 1875 map and a 1916 street directory. Other maps and directories are avaliable, as they say, but I don't have them. A lot of that property was demolished from about 1965 onwards. The cottages amongst the first to go, but I do remember them being there, as well as some of the shops.

I hope the map helps.

You may need to use CTRL + several times to enlarge. CTRL 0 restores. Actual size is A4 landscape.

Further to my last post
It wasn't in fact the cottages but the house set back off the road number 84 which was between the cottages and the dark stone building on the corner.
ah ha you map is really helpful thanks

i think i may have crooked billet and golden fleece mixed up on the other pictures posted.
they definately lived opposite the crooked billet

Garnets .Best chips by far.I used to accompany my mate at the time Jimmy Taylor early 50s delivering the Liverpool Echo and was often given a free portion of chips.

I know it’s an old post but I wonder if the butcher’s shop was owned by Joseph (Joe) Leay who was my fathers elder brother. I think Joe’s parents also worked there, Joe & Florrie. For a few years post war my father also had a shop opposite which was a chandlers/ironmongers.

1952 Directory,
51 Old Chester Rd,
Leay, RT, Hy, Chandler
Next door to the Harp Inn.

Guessing to be more or less opposite,
70 Old Chester Rd,
Dillion, Chas, Hy, Butcher

1952,
Joseph Leay,
52 Queens Street, Butcher.

Apologies, only just seen these 2 replies from March. Yes, 52 Queens Street, Joseph Leay was an uncle and 51 Old Chester Road, which was I believe directly opposite, was my father, Robert Henry Leay, who ran a Chandlers for a few years post war. Many thanks.