As part on my ongoing family tree project for my Mother in Law, I've found out that her Great Grand Fathers family had a tobacco shop at 60 Oxton Road in both 1871 and 1881. Google maps shows it but I can't work out which shop is 60? anyone with any knowledge or old pics? Also any tips on how I may find out more about the shop and hopefully the Penn family who lived there. I've found them in Piggots directory but am now a bit stumped.
The Cheshire County Council web-site has a big selection of the old Cheshire directories available to view for free on-line. See - cheshiredirectories.manuscripteye.com
Some of directories include picture adverts for the various local businesses. You might find something useful in there.
where the old brewary is Now marriorts the motor bike shop. then you have a Take away then there a newsagent that been there for years Used to be called Mays and I was A Paper boy for them in the late 70s. Then next to there is marriots which sold hardware stuff like Buckets and mops and toys.And there another chipshop next door to them and to compelte the block the last building is the insurance brokers.So I Think the shop Number to mays was 68.
Now Mei Feng the takeaway (is it still Mei Feng?) is number 60... opposite what used to be Wilkinson Street but is now a car park next door to Chris Pluck...
shame google weren't about over 100 years ago with their google cars...
...wouldn't that have been a Google 'horse & cart', polo-phil?!! Or maybe a tram load of underpaid street urchins frantically sketching the passing scenery!
Thinking caps on !! As Oxton Rd has come up can anyone remember the name of the cycle shop which was on the left going into town. Also further into town on the right there was an Espresso/Milk bar, any ideas. All I can remember was the Gaggia machine which seemed to produce more steam than coffee !! I'm talking about 50's early 60's.
Alex Green is the cycle shop I think - and he's still there I think.
122 Oxton Road Birkenhead Merseyside CH41 2TP
There's a real danger that the left will drag Britain back to the 1970s, with secure well-paid jobs, ample housing, properly-funded NHS and social care, free tuition, student grants, final salary pensions, affordable rail fares and fabulous films and music. David Osland 2025
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
All I can remember was the Gaggia machine which seemed to produce more steam than coffee !!
Don't remember the coffee bar, but do remember the machine. We sometimes used to visit the Hilo coffee bar in Parkgate in the early 1950's & used to be amused by the Gaggia machine, belching steam & with the sign on it "Funczione senza vapore" (works without steam).
Yes wireman, it was a great shop. Another good one I used as a lad was Felthouse's in Woodchurch Lane. Used to help me sort out the Derailleur gears on my "big" bike ! Never took any money at all. A real gent.
Yes Alex Green magic man. Got my first "big bike" from him. He had his work cut out maintaining it. No BMX bikes in those days !! Usually buckled wheels !!
As part on my ongoing family tree project for my Mother in Law, I've found out that her Great Grand Fathers family had a tobacco shop at 60 Oxton Road in both 1871 and 1881. Google maps shows it but I can't work out which shop is 60? anyone with any knowledge or old pics? Also any tips on how I may find out more about the shop and hopefully the Penn family who lived there. I've found them in Piggots directory but am now a bit stumped.
Ever grateful
Emmski
As of 2011 this block building on left of 1st pic would have been the brewery on map
Aren't they the stables or dray-houses for the brewey? Looked at them myself a few times.
There's a real danger that the left will drag Britain back to the 1970s, with secure well-paid jobs, ample housing, properly-funded NHS and social care, free tuition, student grants, final salary pensions, affordable rail fares and fabulous films and music. David Osland 2025
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
Alex Green is the cycle shop I think - and he's still there I think.
122 Oxton Road Birkenhead Merseyside CH41 2TP
Even farther back - My g-g-grandfather, Alexander Elmslie, occupied that shop. The 1891 census lists 122 as his residence and his occupation as "bread and flour dealer, baker".
Those 'Stable Blocks' in Tetbury St always puzzled me, and the mystery deepend as my large scale OS map has numbers on just about everything, except the buildings in Tetbury St, even though the extract from Willmers in an above post does actually number them. I only ever went there to get my bikes MOT'd, at Ken Stuarts Motor engineers. A nice bloke who liked old bikes and cars, and kept an old Vauxhall of his in the left-hand building, where he had his inspection pit. The car was a either a Victor, Velox or Cresta from about 1962, in pale primrose yellow and had a 4-digit number plate with 2 letters (Liverpool, KD or KF, I think). The MOT side of things dropped off a bit when Marriots relocated to the top of the road. Ken himself was not in the best of health by now and the buisness must have closed in the mid to late 80's.
However, when there was still an operating brewery on the corner of Oxton Rd, it had an unusual feature in its outside wall, in Tetbuty St. There was chute built into the wall. At the time, (late 50's) there were still a few horse drawn wagons in use. It was not unusual to see a horse and cart outside the chute, getting the horses nose-bag filled with what I assume to be spent malt and hops. I guess it was their treat for the day. After the brewery ceased brewing, the chute was removed and bricked up, but you could still see where it was - a square in the bricks, about 18 inches wide.
As to Midland Street, well I only remember it from being knocked down (about 1967), including the terraced housed and the prefabs at the end it and those in Carlisle St, behind it. I presume that the prefabs went up during the war, as it had all been terraced houses there before then. I guess they would have been basically flat fronted with lower bay, almost right on to the street, with no garden, and a little larger than a 'two-up two-down', all in one long terrace. Carlisle St was bombed twice at the end of September 1940, and again in early October. Two of these raids corresponded with the nights that the Argyle Theatre (and many other places) were destroyed.
As a new member I don't know whether it's worthwhile answering the questions on the old threads, but I will anyway. the ice cream parlour at the bottom of Oxton Road, was "Fabris", lovely coffee and ice cream, I used to go in with my mother in the 40s and early 50s, I lived in Mornington Street at the time. I went to the BI with young Alec Green, I also bought my first big bike off his dad when I started work in 1959. I also knew Ken Stewart through motorbikes.
Our houses in Warwick street were knocked down about 1971.Ken Stewart was my Uncle George's Brother.There was a Chandlers on the corner of tetbury street, think it may have been called Wrightsons.My relatives lived in Mornington street and also Carlisle street.Happy times growing up there in the 60's.So much has changed in and around that area now.When you think of all the lovely Shops that were all around that area. I wonder what became of them.Seddons the bakers my mum worked there.Twice as nice the fashion shop I was a Saturday girl there I know that became The Entertainer Video store in The eighties.The Variety store owned by Roy and Celia Davies who first had The Chip shop next to Dewhursts Butchers, before going into Hardware and toys I worked there too after School and weekends 1969 to 1971.Peberdys and Mays the sweetshops Pollocks the pramshop, Madame Nelsons Ladies Fashions.The Globe Cleaners, Rostances Dashleys pie shop.Landays the stationers.Mary Apters fruit shop My Auntie Audrey worked there.My Uncle Harold worked in The Brewery where Marriots cycles are now.There was a Milk bar in the 60's next to the Park view pub Think their son was called Roland.Barnards is still there .Wirral pets became a chinese restaurant.The coffee bar became the Himalaya indian restaurant.And The Chinese Laundry owned by the Sui Family becamme Marriots hardware and toy shop.The Dance hall at the top near Alec Green was also a grocery shop that opened late,Bryant Glass was over the road by The Belmont.
It's the Fabbri's in Grange Rd. that I remember, near St.John's church and opposite Tudor House, the Co-op store. I don't actually remember one in Oxton Rd. I do remember the Post Office, just up from Charing Cross, on the left.
I'm pretty sure I remember Fabbri's as a child. At the bottom of Oxton Road, on the RH side, just before the (then) roundabout. The thing I recall most is the they had a large plastic (?) model of a cherubic looking child holding a giant (4 ft tall ish) ice cream cone on the pavement outside the door.
In the 1938 directory, I'm not suggesting this was Pinz's childhood, knowing he's only a young whippersnapper, it has 3 addresses for Fabbri's, as advert posted earlier. From 1949 to 1960,phone books, it only shows at 58 Argyle St. Nothing as yet for Oxton Rd. The other 3, Market St, Conway St and Grange Rd were described as Milk or Milk Cocktail Bars. Wondering where they are in the 50s, name change perhaps?
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.
The milk bar was in between the old Post Office and the Park Hotel, I'll have a look tomorrow and see what's there now. although I said it was called Fabbris, and I still think it was, but their adverts seem to disprove it, I'm wondering whether it was Olivieris, the same as the one opposite Hamilton Square station.(which was a big café on the corner), I can remember the Fabbris in Grange Road opposite the Co-op, it was bigger than the one in Oxton Road, perhaps someone could look it up. Regards to all
Thanks, Bert, I enjoyed the ice cream. Here's a clip from Willmer's 1915 directory: I see No.3 was then an ironmongers. The only name I recognise here is Tutty's; didn't they later move to Grange Rd. West?
Interesting. 258 is almost at Charing Cross. The gas engine seems to be second hand. Was it to generate electricity to light the shop and did Mr. Tutty find it unsatisfactory for some reason? Here's an entry from Gore's directory 1900. Interesting that it show him firstly as a brushmaker, then a hardware dealer. I suspect that he had just started to be a hardware dealer. I can't find Alexander Rd. Claughton, I can find Alexandra Rd. off Grange Mount. By coincidence, the next entry, Mr Tuzo, lived at 24 Windsor St. My grandparents lived at 22, but probably not until the 1920's.
Previously in 1897, the Mercury again I think, there was an advert for the job of Grocery Boy, Tutty's 258 Grange rd. Sounds like it was everything in one shop kind of place.
Last edited by bert1; 23rd Sep 20146:02pm.
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.
there was also a small chandler's at the top left hand side of Whetstone Lane, run by an elderly man named Mr Bathgate, I never heard anyone address him by a first name, he was related to Tutty's, he was one of nature's gentlemen, when you went into the shop there was a chair to sit on while he disappeared into the darkest inner recesses of the shop, he always had what you wanted. On leaving the shop the door opened for you, he had a rope and pulley operating the door from behind the counter. when he died the shop stood unused for a long time. He used to ride a BSA Bantam, and visit the manager of Tutty's Grange Rd West shop, who was one of my neighbours.
Previously in 1897, the Mercury again I think, there was an advert for the job of Grocery Boy, Tutty's 258 Grange rd. Sounds like it was everything in one shop kind of place.
Sounds a bit like Arkwright's in Open All Hours. I wonder if Granville applied for the job.
See what happens when you add to an old thread, locomotive.
Here's another memory of Oxton Rd. Morton's bookshop was where the International Food Store is, next to the casino. Actually, calling it a map of Birkenhead is a bit of a cheat: the map covers from Blackpool in the North to Stoke in the South and Sheffield in the East. I guess any local seller could have his name and the location printed on the cover for a fee.
I have very fond memories of Mortons Bookshop, it was always so quiet in there it was like going into the Library, I used to go in there on my way home from school in the mid 50s, as a child I thought the stairs and the balcony were superb. My wife worked there for a while in the 70s when it became Collinson's shoe shop. I like the description "Danger Hills", the one from Arrowe Park roundabout down to the bridge (roundabout) was our favourite one in the 60s, before the speed limits, I daren't say what speed we used to do down that hill
Did the Tuttys store become Rostances .And the casino was that Mckenzies.Has anyone got a list of all the shops that were trading in Oxton rd 1960-1971 please
