Chester Road in Eastham 1960s

Thanks for posting this Pablo42, I moved to Eastham in 1960 so it is interesting to see what the place looked like then. This will promote quite a bit of discussion when I show it to my sons and they try and remember the names of all the other shops. Thanks again!

in this row in 64 there was a haidressers called the morley were i was an apprentice love the pic but dosen't it look old fashioned sue ha ha ha

i remember the morley hairdressers ,i lived in eastham for 14 years and now my mum has moved there so im visiting there again it s changed loads my old school is now houses .

look at the parking spaces ha ha things have changed since then you can't park easy there now or anywhere else for that matter when you look at old pics there are not many cars are there? i used to have a morris minor like one in pic (moggie1000) lol

your dead right the road there is always busy,its nice to see it looking quite it looks totally different.

Wasn't Irwins taken over by Tesco in the sixties?

I've got some more of this area, I'll dig them out

Not sure if he was there at that time`I remember Mr Kinnerston(how you spell it??) He owned the cycle shop on the end,Nice bloke very helpful.
regards Davy 1970 and today

Mr Kynaston had the bike shop, he was a really nice guy - later lived in Bridle Road.

is that K's cycles end of Bridle road

That`s it

A nice picture, about 15 years ago i bumped into a friend i had not seen for ages, he was very old by then, he told me he had recently visited Eastham for the first time since he used to visit with his soon to be wife in the 1930's, he told me his was very put out to find that the place he rememberd had been destroyed and wondered how "they" had got away with it over the years !.
By "they" i presume he meant Cheshire CC/Borough of Wirral and developers.
His comment's have often made me think what eastham actualy looked like in the 1930's, not the village but roads such as the A41, Easthem rake, Bridal road etc etc.

Another story i was told by someone else...sometime during or slightly before the second world war a mother took her eyes off her small child for a few moments, the child crawled into a pig enclosure and was eaten by the pigs, the person who told me this story said he was there at the time and could still remember the screams of the mother as she tried to do something !.
The incident so i was told was somewhere on Plymyard avenue, has anyone else heard this story or have anymore info on it ?.

Post card of Ferry road, not sure of date though !.

Nice pic of Ferry Road. I happened to walk up the road last week. It's certainly changed! Although, there is still a small field next to the road. As I walked past it, something snorted at me. I really thought it was a pig, but when I looked through a gap in the hedge, it appeared to be some sort of podgy dog, perhaps slightly irked at me walking past.

I also walked past the shops in the original photo. That hasn't changed so much, seems instantly recognisable, because of the layout of the set-back shops. Also similar layout to another set of shops near Allport Rd, Brombourough. Every time I walk along that strectch of the A41, the scenery seems to repeat.

Funnily enough I also walked the length of Plymyard Avenue that day too. Didn't see any pigs or anything, but did notice a 132kV distribution pylon very conspicuous by its presence sandwiched between two semi-detached houses.

...and this seems to be about the same era!

What an awful story, there must surely be some information about this somewhere in the local History books, it's too gruesome a tale to not be recorded!

It seems there was a farm on Plymyard Ave which stood where the Argyl & Sutherland Pub is now. It was called Slacks Farm, whether this was were the pig incident occurred it doesn't say. I expect there were a lot of rural farm buildings down that way though, years ago.

Great photos guys and some good stories too, nice one

I may well have mentioned this before but my grandfateher was an agricultural contractor he gave up in 1946 to concentrate on other parts of his of his company, i am lucky to have some of his account books from this era.

looking in his ledger i find these folowing names etc.--

All from the 1930's

E. Griffiths Lowfields farm Eastham.

J. Beecroft, farmer, Bankfields Eastham.

W. Lewis, farmer, Rake lane Bromborough.

J. Griffiths, farmer, Eastham rake.

J. Singleton, farmer, Rake lane Brom.

There are about the same again but no farm address is given !.

What a fine picture it must of been all them years ago`I remember Coopers farm on Plymyard next to the old Plymard Towers` which I think was the last to go`got to be honest with you I dont miss the smell which hit you in the face coming down Moorlands Avenue on to Rayburn

Nothing like a name to go on !.

The bloke who told the story worked for my grandfather and after an hour of looking i found he (grandfather)had done some contracting for Thomas Slack of pymyard avenue, he only worked there three times so thats why it was not so easily spotted in the books as he had no dedicated pages. The date's where July and nov 1942 and October 1943.
So the incident may well have happend at Slack's !.

Gosh I feel like a detective now . It's fascinating when you delve into the History books, especially when it's local it becomes all the more interesting.
A lightbulb just went off in my head now regarding Slacks Farm/Argyl & Sutherland Pub. There's apparently a rumour that the Argyl is haunted which would fit in with an untimely death and the soul not being at rest. (I apologise though as this is somewhat off topic with the original photo which began this thread, maybe I should have put this on the paranormal section)

Just been reminded of the smell from Cooper's Farm! (How could you forget it!? ) Cheers Vanman.

Here's a multi-view postcard from the same series as Pablo's original post...

Nice one Billy, not seen that before

thanks for the memories not changed a lot more cars and less water at raby mere lol

yes-Mr.Kyniston,(Kinny), used to do most running repairs on the bikes that we'd use to do the job b.m.x.'s do today, though with little suspension, on the rough, hilly terrain near the "ghost woods" and the area where the stream ran through near the "little shop" (now bargain booze!)on Eastham Rake. He would fix a puncture for pennies so I never was too proficient at d.i.y. inner tube repairs! the "K" in "K" cycles is, of course, his legacy.

i used to ride my bike by the little shop when i was little it seemed massive now my mums just moved back to eastham and i seen the hills the other day and there tiny lol

i went to raby mere alot as a kid and loved it when we went out on the boats, ooo happy childhood memories

i loved going to raby mere to feed the ducks with my dad x

does anyone remember there was a kind of machine at raby mere, it was about the same size and shape as the old fag machines if i remember correctly, and there were 2 toy cars inside, i think the idea was that you put your penny in and if your car won you got it back again, but i could be wrong, this was in the '60's when i was about 8! i also remember loads of geese in one of the gardens near-by.

I don't remember that one, but I remember the one where you put a penny in and held two knobs and when you turned one you got an increasingly powerful electric shock. Must have been powered by a 12 volt car battery. Several of you could join hands and you all got the shock, so good value.

The only penny-in-the-slot machine I remember at Raby Mere was the electic shock machine. You gripped two brass knobs on the front. One fixed. You twisted the other one. The more you twisted it the more powerful the shocks you received!

The H & S dummies would have a blue fit at the thought of something like that now!

There were other machines there, but I used to home in on the "shocker".

Grrrrrr. I type too slowly!!! You beat me to it Chris!

remember the swinging boats by the slots and the tiny cafe by lake circa 1960s great days by the mere on the bikes with transistor radio for sunday top of the pops simple cheap happy days

Bridle ROAD??? I go back to when it was the Bridle Path. Oh dear!!!!

There was a farm on the Bridle path, round the corner from Manor Rd. almost opposite the rear driveway into the manor. There were some very old workers cottages on Manor Rd, set well back from the road on the right-hand side going away from the Bridle path.
I lived in Woodyear Rd. till 1959 (address was Bromborough and I never realised that it was the last road before it became Eastham).

Mr K had a 1934 Austin 7 cabriolet he used to drive on Sundays when the shop was shut.I went in his shop one day to find him with the gearbox in bits on the workshop floor.It passed me on the Rake a couple of days later.Lovely car,wonderful man.
Not many like them today,mores the pity!

I remember all of this!

The swing-boats at Raby Mere, the electric shock machine...
The only other penny-in-the-slot machine I remember there was a football game, one player each side (one in red kit, one in blue - 1930's style kit), each about the size of an action man figure and stood in front of a goal, all contained in a glass fronted case. Think you had to twiddle a brass lever to boot the ball.

The Bridle Path! I used to love walking to Eastham down it - as I remember rightly, it was a tunnel of hawthorn trees running from Kilburn Av between the Plymyard playing fields and stopped just before Elgar Av. After Heygarth Rd there was another short section of path before opening out again at Carlett Boulevard.

Then you'd get to Kynaston's. I used to love it for the Hornby Dublo model trains (still got my reciept for my 1st train set from there somewhere) and the stacks of Airfix kits behind the counter. Yes, nice man.

Woodley - the farm behind the Manor we always knew as Griffith's Farm, but those worker's cottages you mentioned - where they not on Kilburn Avenue? I remember playing in them as they were being demolished (1965-ish?) despite being told not to go near! I suppose they were our equivilent of a bomb site. If you look down Kilburn today, there's a couple of sixties houses slightly set back from all the others on the road - that's where they were.

Hi Billy. Sadly I don't remember Kilburn Ave, but I'm fairly sure the cottages were on Manor Rd. We used to walk behind them and through Knockaloe to get home from Heygarth Rd. school when we went that way instead of through the fields when it was raining. I don't think I ever knew the name of the farm, but the old bloke chased us out of the bales of hay in the barn with a big stick more times than I care to remember. I believe the Bridle path started earlier than that, do you remember the old lodge which actually sat right on the edge of it on the right just before the allotments on the left. I'm sure that's where it started. I remember them taking all the kids out of school one day to show us the newly invented machine on the farm next to school - it was a combine harvester. Wow!!! I also remember there was a farm round the corner from the Royal Oak in Bromborough with rubble from demolished buildings next to it. Round the other corner from the hotel was the big old house where Dr. Garson had his surgery.
You should remember the risque pictures slot machine at Raby Mere too then and who can forget Fox's Hill in the snow?

Going back to the farm on Plymyard,

Mum and Dad were among the first to move in to Argyle Ave. They had a photo of the kids playing in a neighbours back garden and behind that was the pig farm. The farm is where South Wirral High school (or Eastham Sec) is now.

My brother took all the family photos when mum and dad died and we have since falen out so I can't share it with you. Sorry.

I was in K cycles recently looking for a bike for my boy. I used to go to school with a girl(Late 70s) whos dad owned it. I asked if the family still owned the shop. Sadly they sold up a number of years ago.

oh dear!!!! so do i,we must be a pair of dinosaurs lol

yeah, I reckon I may have got the machine you mentioned and another someone else remembered and got the whole lot completely and illogically mixed up in me bonce! Also, big bruv reminded me that they weren't geese at all, but turkeys,-one attacked a mate of mine as he was playing the big man trying to frighten them, I was made up when he lost his bottle and had to retreat in fear! Happy days..

Woodley - I think we may be both right regarding the start of the bridle path - if I read you right, you left the area in 1959, and that was the year I appeared on the planet. After speaking to my Mum, she said that the bridle path did indeed start at the lodge (and yes, I remember the lodge), but in my time, it definately started at Kilburn. So I think what happened was when Manor Road, Princes Av, and Kilburn Av were extended and built up to the bridle path (1960-61?), it was metalled and became an extension to Bridle Road proper. Which is what I remember. That road was then pushed through fully to Eastham in about 1968.
...I think! I'm trying to find maps to confirm.

'My' workman's cottages were deinately on Kilburn, so it looks like there was another set near Knockoloe?

Brocks - Do you remember before the Argyle Ave devlopment was built? I only ask as I used to play around there sometimes, and there were three distinct ponds or flooded pits - but all sort of interconnected, where we used to collect frogspawn, frogs and newts in glass jam jars. It would have been somewhere near to where the Argyle and Sutherland Pub was eventually built.
One day, me and my mate found an amazing stone in the mud at the edge of one pond - stained all weird colours and obviously (I was well into dinosaurs,cavemen, etc, then) a stoneage hand tool. It was all knapped and shaped into a point and would have fitted neatly into an adult-sized hand. My mate wouldn't give it to me, and I don't know what happened to it (and never will, as he's now passed away).
Does anyone know if anything else ancient was found around there when that area was developed?
Just like to know really.

Wonder what other priceless artefacts have been lost to the country by little boys nicking them as prizes and not telling anyone?

Alright Billy, I was born in '59 in Eastham too..so we probably knew each other,..yes, I remember those ponds, I got into loads of trouble because Stuart Hopwood made me take my sisters fishing rod to the place,as you say, just where the Pub is now,-and he managed to lose the thing in one of the ponds! I was only about 8 so he must have been 10 or so, I didn't half cop it from my sis though! Wonder what became of Stuart?, I think he had a sister called Penny and they lived at 75, Eastham Rake...anyone?!

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