Hello, has anyone got any info on the old building firm of Tate, Pumford and Doherty (spelling) ? Trying to find more info on this firm and the last address is "Cosmo Garage, Wallasey"
Any help appreciated
Cheers Chris.

Don't recognise the name, but the Cosmo Garage is now the car sales place next to the Farmers Arms. Eric Gringrod used to run it when it was an Esso garage & when I was a kid Ronnie Ward had it as a wooden shed with motor bikes in which he used to race on the beach.

I have a picture of the old Cosmo Cinema which later became the Cosmo Garges.

Hi, my Mum was good friends with Nora and Irene Pumford, (Father was Harold the builder), she thinks some of them moved to Chester. We think that they built along Grove Road and the cul-de-sacs, but not sure. If my Mum finds anything will let you know.

Paul

Your picture (1916 I think) clearly shows the sweet shop on the right (still there but closed now) and you can see the sweep of the tram tracks off into Sandy Lane on the left.

However, my record says the Cosmo opened in 1913, reopened as the Coliseum in 1924 and became the Phoenix in 1951 (and that closed in 1983). The buildings after that were apartments. I am not aware of any garage on that site.

Question - where is the Farmer's Arms? maybe I just can't make it out in the picture. It should be the building immediately south of the Cosmo in your picture ie the one with the advertising boards on the wall - but the building shape is all wrong. My pic shows the Farmers and the bike shop beyond. I suppose that when the bike shop went it could have been replaced by a Cosmo Grarge. For sure the present car sales place is on the site of that bike shop. My mum (92 next week!) remembers buying a bike at that bike shop. She will also remember who ran it, who they married, what they had for dinner etc etc. Mum is like that. Tomorrow I will ask her about Tate, Pumford and Doherty. I certainly know the name Tate from the village. Mrs Tate ran a greengrocers just by the top of Stonehouse Road (now the hairdressers). May not be any link of course. I have heard the name Pumford (or was it Pulford?) mentioned but cannot recall in what context. I'm getting old as well.

Snod

Thanks for the info so far,
Chris

Telephone directories between 1940 and 1970 show no entry for a "Tate, Pumford and Doherty", there is however, a listing for "Joseph Tate and Sons, builder".

Joseph Tate and Sons was located in Breck Road in 1940 but had moved to 241 Wallasey Village by 1950. 241 is, as far as I can make out, just about where the Cosmo/Phoenix was.

The 1955 directory gives their address as 150 Wallasey Village (probably within the St Mary's College site) and they remained here until the 1963 directory, in which they do not appear.

This looks like where Toronto garages were and then parkmere auto centre, i used to work here and was told there used to be a cinema here.

Toronto/parkmere has now been knocked down and the land has been sold.
If i`m right the building on the right of the picture is now a hairdressers.

No, Toronto and the car sales were the OTHER (northern) side of the sweet shop with the barbers on the other side.

Snod

The pic below (1907) gives the view north and the area to the left is about where Toronto used to be. The stone walls on the left were removed when the road was widened to make way for the tram lines. The building 'end on' at the left is still there (the barbers - Andrea's)

Snod

Ahh, i see now, thanks snod.
My how the village has lost a lot of its character over the years
Life as we know it now is always rushed and its places like this once wonderful little village what take the backlash from modern day society
Sad really.

Been having a look through a "Kellys" directory from 1937 and Tate Pumford and Doughty are listed as being at 223a Wallasey Village, Wallasey. This address is also listed in the same directory as a "Garage Propriotors" (spelling). I wonder was the firm also selling motor cars ?
Cheers Chris.

The Farmers is 225 Wallasey Village so the address you give is right for the site now occupied by Classic Cars.

I spoke with mum yesterday and she agrees that the present Classic Cars site is where the bike shop used to be - then she went on with names of the bike shop owners etc as she knew them in the 1920s/30s ie Gringod etc.

On seeing the pic I posted of the Farmers and the bike shop my dad commented that the wall advert for a Raleigh bike at £14-19-6 is VERY expensive for the era.

This still does not answer my query - where is the Framers Arms in the pic originally posted by Liberator? The Phoenix was BEFORE the pub and on the other side of the pub was the bike shop. Similarly, the Cosmo should have been before the pub with the bike shop on the other side. However, despite using a magnifier I cannot see any sign of the pub and maybe there is a "space" between the Cosmo and the bike shop?? When did they build the Farmers Arms?

I suppose it is JUST possible that the Farmers was built between the time someone too the pick Liberator posted and someone took the pic that I posted and which definitely shows the Farmers.

Looking past the bike shop to the house further down ie towards Spark's market garden area, close by that is a sign/ placard leaning against the wall. That sign will have been advertising the drinks sold by Mrs Povall. Mrs Povall had a small shop (very small, almost a big shed) that you accessed down some steps. As I remember it (early 50s) she had an all-glass "hubble bubble" machine that generated carbon dioxide from baking soda and that was used to make fizzy drinks. I think she used to make her own drink fruit concentrates from fruit grown on the market gardens of just collected from the hedgerows.

Anyone else remember Mrs Povall?

Snod

Took me a minute to realise you were referring to me when you said "Liberator"!! Been a long day!

Here's a small pic of a map of Wallasey Village 1898.





This is before the changes were made (nearest I can get to the date). Maybe where I have put the black cross on the map is where the Cosmo Cinema would be built. That means the building next to the Farmers is the first building in the picture. Looking at the map there is then 4 buildings (after the black cross I added and where the Cosmo would be built) and if you look at my picture there is 4 chimneys. The last of the 4 building along slightly juts out on the map - and if you look in the picture you can just see the 4th building along, after the Cosmo, just jutting out.

Any clearer mate?

The present Farmer's Arms has a date on it of 1924, which is after that picture was taken (c1916)



But

The Farmer's Arms wasn't next to the Cosmo cinema, or at least not next to the Coliseum cinema according to the 1938 Kelly Directory the road is as follows:

215 & 217 Povall, Mrs Harrison tobccnst.
219 Little, Mrs Elsie
221 Webster, Miss Margaret
223 Concannon, Jsph corporation employee
223a Cosmo Garage Co, garage proprtrs
223a Tate, Pumford & Doughty, builders
225 "Farmer's Arms" Mrs Alice Mand Parkes
229 Burton, Miss Nancy confectnr
231 Coliseum Picture House, Henry Manchester mngr
233 Brown Jn, hairdrssr.

Theres some little houses down the side of the Farmers Arms called Wirral Villas, does anyone know when they were built? Be interested to know.

I remember Mrs. Povall, she used to take our bikes over to her shop while we played in the "Anderson" shelter on the bombed site opposite her & used to tell us off when we went to retrieve them !!! Strongs dairy was next door to the bombed site if I remenber correctly.

George Strong and Son, dairymen are listed at 194 & 196

For those who are interested, this is a complete listing of Wallasey Village from the 1938 Kelly Directory.

That will keep mother busy for HOURS

ta!

Snod

Really interesting, can remember my Auntie mentioning many of those names, thanks for them

[quote=Snodvan]
This still does not answer my query - where is the Farmers Arms in the pic originally posted by Liberator? The Phoenix was BEFORE the pub and on the other side of the pub was the bike shop. Similarly, the Cosmo should have been before the pub with the bike shop on the other side. However, despite using a magnifier I cannot see any sign of the pub and maybe there is a "space" between the Cosmo and the bike shop?? When did they build the Farmers Arms?

The simple answer to this one is that the first building in the photo past the Cosmo, the one with the advertising hoardings on the side, IS the original Farmers Arms - thats why the name of Spragg's Wallasey Vale Brewery is painted on the gable end. Spragg's was taken over by Higson's in 1919, & it was they who had the Farmers rebuilt in 1923-4. The new building was set further back from the road, the frontage lining up with that of the cinema, and the area in front of it was handed over to Wallasey Corporation to allow that section of the road to be widened.

That would actually make sense. The tram line seems to travel along Harrison Drive and is making its curve into Sandy Lane. I have always put the cinemas to the left of the Farmers as the picture confuses the issue. So many people have told me that the sheltered hosing to the right of the Farmers is where the Phoenix once stood.

Even I remember hearing many of the names being mentioned. When I gave the list to mum yesterday she sat there and more or less went through it telling stories / anecdotes about the people concerned. She has lived in the Village for 92 years and at the date of the list (1938) she would be just 20 so hardly surprising.

There was no way I could write down all she said about people of course - but I have persuaded her (I think!) to go through the list again and in a note book to jot down things she remembers about people. Of course, SOME of the things she remembers the folk concerned would probably rather not hear

Snod

That would be great if you could. It would be fascinating for me as I too have lived in the Village for some years, off Grove Road and have seen things change but I still love the place. My mum used to take me to the Pheonix! The last film though I saw there was Who dares Wins, I was about 17

Just to clarify matters, here's the same area as shown on the OS maps of 1909, 1936 & 1980. As you can see, the cinema was built on the vacant plot immediately to the north of the original Farmers. The Cosmo Garage & the builders' yard were to the south of the Farmers - on the 1936 map you can see what appears to be a long row of lock-up garages belonging to the Cosmo Garage directly behind the pub.
The fourth pic shows the modification to the building line when the Farmers was rebuilt in the mid-20s.

Thanks for info so far,
cheers Chris.

Very interesting to see the place opposite the Pres. Church, marked as hall / club. We used to go in there after a movie at the Phoenix & listen to a short bible reading & were then given sweeties for correctly answering questions on the reading.

A company I used to work for rented one of the lock up garages behind what was then the Esso station, managed by Eric Grindrod of Leasowe Rd. We stored drums of resin there for use in cavity wall insulation. The company was "Thermalon" & as I was there nearly every day some may have seen my yellow J2 van.