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Re: Old Chester Road
[Re: pablo42]
#592173
1st Oct 2011 1:10pm
1st Oct 2011 1:10pm
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 746 Wallasey
Norton

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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 746
Wallasey
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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?
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Re: Old Chester Road
[Re: pablo42]
#598595
11th Oct 2011 3:46pm
11th Oct 2011 3:46pm
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 746 Wallasey
Norton

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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.
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Toyah . .
by GaryFromWirral. 10th Jan 2021 1:39pm
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AQUARIUM
by lincle. 8th Jan 2021 10:47am
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Toyah . .
by GaryFromWirral. 10th Jan 2021 1:39pm
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Sunrise Tue 8:14am
Sunset Tue 4:31pm
Local Time Tue 5:41am
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