Alright Davey - thanks for confirming the location (and existance!) of the ponds. Goes to show I haven't completely lost it! If you knew people from Eastham Rake, I'm guessing that you are more from 'Central' Eastham rather than from the 'North End' (lol) like me, so doubt our paths crossed (I went to Mendel Primary in Bromborough). We lived in Eastham, but it was nearly Bromborough. The name Hopwood sounds familiar though.

I think the furthest I was allowed to venture on a regular basis towards the 'Eastham Metropolis' was to get my sweets from 'Morris's' on Raburn Av. Anyone else remember Morris's? It was just a tiny shop, and that's all - detatched, not built into a house or anything, and just single story. An oasis of glass jars full of delights (quarter of cough candy, please mister!), four mojoes for a penny, or if you had a thrupenny bit, a Barretts Sherbet Fountain could be yours! Not to mention the Stingray and Fireball XL5 cards with the bubblegum! Oh yes, and the 'Zoom' ice lollies...lucky to still have a tooth in my head with all that lot!
I'd love to see a photo of it, but doubt if one exists.
All gone now - can't even find where it was on Streetview.

Sorry But I wasn't born till a few years later. South Wirral/Eastham Sec was built 3 years earlier.

Yes, I used to use that shop too when I went to Heygarth junior school, I remember buying my first ciggies there, aged 13! It took me 30 odd years to get the sense to pack 'em up,..I remember they were consulate menthol fags in a green carton,..I wonder if they had been a bit more strict about under age smoking I might have saved my poor lungs all that pollution...I doubt it. I let my dog out at that spot last year whilst visiting my home town/village, we walked past where the shop used to be onto the playing fields just behind. Yes, I was born on Eastham Rake just as the Mill park estate was being realised, so perhaps our paths never crossed, cheers..

Nice to know someone else remembers the old shop - thanks Davey.

Just going back to the Bridle Path 'Where did it start?' discussion, I've found a map showing the area - no date unfortunately, but I'm guessing maybe mid-50s?
It would seem to show that Woodley is spot on about it starting at the top of Manor Rd, as Bridle Rd noticably narrows there, and then widens again before Elgar Av. But I notice that Princes Av does not span Raeburn Av and Bridle Rd like it does today - it finishes at the Manor House (Abbey Grange) and Griffith's Farm. I think when the road was extended to Bridle Rd in 1960-61, Bridle Rd was then metalled to Kilburn. (Sorry Woodley, I've just missed off Woodyear Rd, 'cos I had a heck of a job trying to persuade the map into my tiny scanner!)

The map is interesting too, in that it shows a definate 'path' for the electricity pylons (the dotted lines) away from any buildings (well, apart from Carlett Farm, that is) - not like now, when they'll build anything underneath them, as PaulTaters mentioned in his 9th Dec post on the Eastham topic:


I think the map shows that the pylons were there first, and the houses bunged in underneath them!

Hi Billy. You actually did get the beginning of Woodyear Rd. in your map as it was directly opposite the main driveway into Knockaloe. I can even see what we called the "back woods" just before the allotments. I spent my whole childhood being annoyed that my parents didn't buy on that side of the road as the "back woods" were right at the end of the back gardens.
At Knockaloe there was a little lodge just inside on the left of the drive where the stables and cobblestone yard were. From there to Allport Rd. there were two more huge houses with very large grounds.
Do you remember Nancy's pond at the very back of Knockaloe? That's where we went fishing for sticklebacks etc. My cousin tought me to throw lighted fire crackers into the pond with the expected results. Boom!!!
Should also mention I fell through the roof of the delapidated barn there and broke my wrist. Yeah right - happy days.

Good grief! Nancy's Pond!
Forgotten about that. Wonder if it's still there? If it is, and it's never been dredged, there's an Action Man Tank in the middle of it - sank with all hands, trying to make an amphibious assult to the other side c1968...
Thanks for the reminder!

Been busy scanning again - here's a few more pics of Eastham and one of Raby Mere (I know it's not Eastham, but my excuse is that it was on the multiview card of Eastham I posted earlier):

Great pics. Looking at pic 1 I guess the council did'nt keep on top of keeping the grass cut.

Brilliant pics Billy,..I remember the co-op well, along with Sando's chip shop(greasy Lill's), and Hatton's news-agents at either end of the row. 'Fraid I can't help you with the Bridle Rd thing, I recall quite vividly one of that line of pylons being toppled and a house being built in it's place over the next year or so..it was at the top of Renfrew Ave, just where it joins the alleyway that connects it with Heygarth Road. That was about 1970, just before they carved up the land we used to play on to build the lovely estate that stands there now!(Just correcting myself,..there was a cake shop at the end of the terrace, next to the news-agents.)

We found a window in the manor that wouldn't lock (2 brothers and I) and regularly "broke in". Found what must have been the baby/child clinic with a cupboard containing bottles of orange juice and bottles of castor oil - we all got a very bad dose of the "runs" and Mum was convinced it was the Heygarth Rd. school dinner. Also remember a nightmare visit to the dentist there with the dreaded gas mask.
Told ya!!! That's definitely where the Bridle path started. Spent too many, MANY long hours there to ever forget.
Nancy's pond had a broken fence going across it in those days. It vanished under water half way across and we used to see who could go the farthest across it without coming to grief.
What about the rhododendrons? I have never since seen anything like the display they had. I know I wouldn't recognise it any more if all the fields, farm and manor house are gone. Sad, sad!!

(just remembered, it was Paula Hopwood, not Penny,..my excuses if she reads this, not likely ..I know!)

I have found out a bit by chance that the estate that owned some or most of the land to the left of Eastham rake (Millpark, Pickmere etc) went bankrupt in the later years of the 1930's, the record's where held at the liquidators in Liverpool, the records where lost due to "enemy action" in 1941.

morrises started as georges