Library pictures tell village’s story

Posted by Digital Editor on May 25, 2007 9:00 AM

THIS week LookBack goes to Tarleton to see how times have changed and peer into the lives of individuals, families, societies and the celebrations of yesteryear.
Tarleton Library assistant Margaret Summerfield trawled through the extensive archives to produce a special display of sepia images that opened to the public for a few days from May 11.
Margaret said: “I’ve been here since the library opened and I had access to all these photos from years ago.
“I got to know the various stories but I’m trying to find out more.”

The display shows a Tarleton still very much grounded in its agricultural heritage and with a bustling communal village life.
Images stretch back to the eve of the 20th Century and forward to the 1950s and ‘60s as motor cars became more common and foodstuffs change.
Among the pictures is a sequence showing the villagers’ peace celebrations in the wake of the Great War.

Margaret said: “I like these because they mean something.
“It was a peace celebration, it’s actually dated 1919, and it looks as though the whole of Tarleton and Hesketh Bank villages were involved.
“They’re all dressed up in fancy dress and there’s even a picture of the school master, Mr Penn.”
Local Tom Taylor, 83, had wandered in to have a look himself. He remembers being taught by Mr Penn at Tarleton Church of England School.
Tom told LookBack: “I remember him, he taught my dad, too. He lived down on Hesketh Lane and his daughter was blind and taught music.
“He was very well liked.”

In another image we see a huge grouped photograph showing every member of Tarleton Home Guard during World War II, and elsewhere we glimpse a family outside their thatched cottage as a horse and cart trundles by.
With agriculture still the main industry, many families in the area took to basket making as a second income.
Mystery still surrounds a selection of wedding photographs seemingly taken during Victorian times and a favourite of Margaret’s who would “be really interested to find out” who they are.

She added: “I chose these because they depict the nature of the area and I thought they’re of people and are going to be of interest to locals.
“It also shows how Tarleton and Hesketh Bank has changed – it must have been really idyllic back then.”

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Where are they now?

Posted by Digital Editor on May 25, 2007 9:00 AM

IT’S smiles all round during this night on the town back in May, 1995.
But who are the owners of these pearly grins and where are they now?
If you know just leave your comments below.

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Do you recognise these party people?

Posted by Digital Editor on May 18, 2007 1:59 PM

THESE lads look like they’re having a good night out one January evening back in 1996. But where were they going and do you know them today?
If you recognise any of these faces, just leave a comment below.

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When did chandler sell his wares?

Posted by Digital Editor on May 18, 2007 1:48 PM

THIS image from a time gone by shows George Lund’s horse and cart filled to the rafters with stock – but just when was it taken?
LookBack correspondent Ian Swan of Poulton Road found the photograph while looking through a case of artefacts in his loft.
Mr Swan said: “He was a chandler who sold pots and pans and even offered your money back if you weren’t satisfied.
“It was before I was born but I remember my mum and different aunties and uncles talking about it.
“He lived over the road at number 39 but the whole road has changed since.
“I know from my family that he was a nice chap and he went all around the area with his horse and cart.”
On the floor behind the cart are two jugs that Mr Swan believes could have been used to hold paraffin.
But do you know when this picture was taken or what became of George Lund and his family?
If so, call Matt Hurst at LookBack on 01704-398225, and if you’ve got any quirky, interesting or just plain baffling photographs you’d like investigating in Pic From The Past please get in touch!
We would be delighted to hear from you.

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Martin turned the negatives into a positively classic film

Posted by Digital Editor on May 18, 2007 1:21 PM

MARTIN Scarffe has probably seen more of acclaimed counterculture flick ‘Easy Rider’ than anybody else on earth.
But he only actually watched the full feature film on television from his front room in England.
At the beginning of the 1960s Martin was working at Cammell Laird shipyards in Birkenhead, following his discharge from the Navy.

But as unemployment grew and a sense of depression began to set in, he and his wife decided the time had come to try their luck overseas.
Their first thought was New Zealand, but then Martin remembered his cousins in California and through their sponsorship a visa was secured.
An electrician by trade, he found the unions of his chosen profession operating a closed shop, so he looked to the giant film studios for work.
Whether MGM or Warner Bros, Martin would be there sorting the electrical rigging and connecting the stage lighting.

Martin, now 72 and a grandfather-of-two, said: “At one stage I worked three days solid without a break.
“The studios were so big at that time that as soon as we’d finished one, they’d ask us back to rig another.
“This went on for three days – my wife must have thought something had happened to me – but I made more money in those three days than I did in a month.”
Life in California was good, and soon the Scarffes left their Hollywood Boulevard home and moved to Beverly Hills, where walking past the likes of Frank Sinatra and Roger Moore was a common occurrence.
Martin, from Philip Drive, Southport, said: “It became second nature.
“I’d go to the studios in the morning and walk past and walk in with famous movie actors and actresses and just take it all for granted.”
The success continued when Martin found secure employment with Consolidated Film Industries (CFI), a firm responsible for turning the negatives from film reels into prints suitable for cinematic consumption.
And one of the biggest flicks Martin worked on was Easy Rider, the 1969 biker classic starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson.

He said: “I hadn’t really watched it because I’d printed it so many times I’d become sick to death of it.
“I only saw it years later in England and it was then I realised it was such a good one.
“If you see it on TV today, it’ll be from the prints I produced.”

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Routine exercise ended in tragedy at fire station

Posted by Visiter Newsdesk on May 11, 2007 9:14 AM

HE was just 30 years old and an only child.
Maurice Evans’ death in a routine training exercise at Manchester Road’s fire station rocked the community.

He was a man with everything to live for, a loving fiancee called Margaret and a reputation as a “popular character” who was always ready for a laugh.
But all of that was gone on one November evening in 1956 when Maurice turned up for work.
Peter Walton, who can be seen second from the left on the photograph featured in Pic From the Past on April 20, was on duty that fateful day.

He told LookBack: “Annually Her Majesty’s Fire Inspector would come and one of the things that would usually take place was a few drills in the yard to show how effective the training was.
“In those days it was Fire and Ambulance together and Maurice was on ambulance that night but because we were putting on a show he was told to go on the turntable ladder to help out a bit.
“The ladder went up but unfortunately it was a bit gusty, which isn’t something you really notice on the ground.
“Once the ladder got beyond the height of the law courts, the wind hit and before it had chance to correct itself, the wind hit again and the ladder crashed to the ground.”

Walter Ackers had just finished a day shift and had handed over to Maurice’s team just hours before the tragedy occurred.
He said: “It’s difficult to explain, we just couldn’t believe it had happened, it was like a big family in those days.”
Walter’s wife, Kathleen Ackers’ sister was engaged to Maurice.
Kathleen said: “She was devastated and, as a nurse, stayed with him while he was in hospital until he died.
“It was just terrible.”

Jean Unsworth remembers the effect the death had on the Evans family.
She said: “We had a corner shop then and the mother used to come in and she was devastated because they only had him, he was the only one.”

Peter Walton added: “He was a popular character.
“You expect if you go out for a fire there will be risks, but when you’re just doing a simple exercise in the yard to satisfy an inspection then it really hits home.”

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Trio pitch in with soccer club tales

Posted by Visiter Newsdesk on May 11, 2007 8:34 AM

Not long ago Pic From The Past featured a photograph of a Fleetwood Hesketh team that turns out to have been one of the most successful of their era.
The picture had been brought in by correspondent Freda Barker-Baskerville, whose late father Tommy Barker was the man with the magic sponge on matchdays.
Pictured are three members of the team, the appropriately named Bobby Moore alongside William Caunce and Tommy Halton.

Now 83, Mr Moore remembers playing for the team all his life and the victories they achieved, culminating in a final game of the season at Everton’s Goodison Park.
William Caunce, now 78, thinks the picture may have been taken at Bows Lane, Formby in Spring 1950 and he believes their goalkeeper, Alan Slater went on to work in the Southport Visiter office.
Tommy Halton, who played right-back for the side, said: “I played from ten-years-old and went back after the forces.
“It was a famous team that earnt promotion from the Southport and District League to the Liverpool Combination.
“As far as I know we were the only local team to gain promotion and we didn’t lose a game for who knows how many years.”

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Links to the past

Posted by Visiter Newsdesk on May 4, 2007 9:10 AM

JEAN Lilley became Mayoress almost a year ago, as her time in office passed she found herself delving deeper and deeper into the history of the mayoral chain.

Standing alongside current encumbant, Councillor Tommy Mann as the pair attended functions and events throughout the borough, the Mayoress often caught herself glancing down and wondering about the lives, loves and fortunes of those who had previously worn the 18 carat gold.

She also felt she had a duty to learn something of its past and meaning.
Jean Lilley told LookBack: “The interest was really prompted with the fact I was going to wear it for a year.
“The adults are just as curious as the children, but the kids have a more innocent approach.
“They’ll ask whether I sleep in it, or if I have servants.
“After a while, I just thought somebody is going to ask me what it all means, and I’d feel a fool if I didn’t have the information, so that’s how it all started.”
Originally in Southport and Sefton’s civic history, no chain was reserved for the Mayoress and only the Mayor was granted such an honour.

But this all changed in 1897, when, to mark the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria’s reign a competition was opened among the town’s jewellers to create a design befitting high office.
It was reported that 50 drawings were submitted in total and these were judged by a sitting panel.

A stalemate resulted however, as each judge chose a different design as their favourite.
The current Mayoress of Sefton said: “They all favoured different chains so they asked the Mayoress to pick one, and she picked the one I’m wearing.
“It was to be worn for the rest of time by all the ladies that followed her in this prestigious office.”

The Mayoress in question was a Charlotte Pollard, wife of Mayor Dr GH Pollard, a man who grew up the son of millworkers in Burnley but went on to become a MP, physician, lawyer, Mayor of Southport and eventually a knight.

She chose a design by William Stewart that featured intricate metal work, delicate seed pearls and demantoid garnets brought from the Ural mountains in Russia.
Jean Lilley said: “It’s quite humbling because when I put it on, I look at it and I wonder, what did it feel like Charlotte when you put this round your neck for the first time, the first time a mayoress had ever worn a chain.”

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Nightlife

Posted by Visiter Newsdesk on May 4, 2007 8:27 AM

WHERE are these lads giving their tongues an airing, and who are all their mates?
All we know is it’s January 5 1996, but if you think you can add something leave a comment below or call 01704 398225

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