Gone, not forgotten

Posted by Digital Editor on October 26, 2007 9:01 AM

THEIR buildings may have been demolished years ago, but memories linger of two long- gone Southport schools.
Both located in the Blowick/ High Park areas of town, during their existence Norwood Road County Infant and Junior School and All Saints Infant and Junior School offered a start in life to thousands of Sandgrounders.
Few can claim a longer relationship with Norwood Road School than Derek Edwards, who is now 73 and lives on Gladstone Road.
“I must have been a very slow pupil because I joined in 1939 and finally left in 1999 – 60 years at one school,” he joked.

After the demolition of Norwood Road School its playground and garden area were redeveloped as Keats Terrace

In reality, Mr Edwards returned to the school in the 1960s as a parent governor, when his daughters Jennifer and Linda attended there.
He performed the role of honorary auditor until he retired at 65, by which time the school had transferred across the other side of Meols Cop Station to become Norwood Primary School, on Norwood Crescent.

Although they coincided with the Second World War, Mr Edwards’ days as a pupil at Norwood Road bring back many fond recollections.
He said: “The headmaster of the juniors was “Daddy” Rimmer, who was a keen stamp collector and had many exhibitions in the town library.”
Another of Mr Edwards’ anecdotes shows just how much car use has increased since the 1940s.
He recalled: “Outside the school was a Belisha beacon crossing. One day a teacher took us outside to explain how to cross the road.
“I still remember her words, ‘If we wait a few minutes we might see a car!’”.
Mr Edwards, who lived in Haig Avenue as the son of a railway signalman, went on to attend Meols Cop Secondary School and King George V Grammar School, before pursuing a career in factory management and lecturing.
Arthur Nettleton also has generally positive memories of his primary schooling, attending All Saints between 1950 and 1956.
“I enjoyed most of my time at school,” he said.
“Of course there were always a few teachers and pupils you didn’t get on with.”

A music class at All Saints school, probably in 1953. Arthur Nettleton is back row, second right

Arthur then lived in Sidney Road – his father Cyril worked at the then Promenade Hospital – and the school was also attended by children from Churchtown.
Now 62, Arthur has lost touch with many of his old classmates, but identified one – a bus driver named Les Sephton – who he believes still lives locally.

A playground scene from All Saints school, probably taken in 1953 while Arthur Nettleton was a pupil. The old air-raid shelter is visible in the background

Decades after Arthur left, All Saints was knocked down to make way for Poulton Court, and the school merged with nearby All Souls to become Bishop David Shepherd CE Primary on Devonshire Road.

The details of this photograph of All Saints’ class 3a seem to have been lost in time. Please leave your comments below if the faces mean anything to you

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Triumph recalled

Posted by Digital Editor on October 26, 2007 9:00 AM

FIFTY years ago, a team from Norwood Road Juniors was triumphant in a local inter-schools contest held at Southport FC’s ground.
John Rigby was one of the school’s winning 11 at Haig Avenue, the year before he went on study at Meols Cop Secondary (now Meols Cop High).
Now 62, John has lost touch with his old teammates from 1957, after spending 24 years away from Southport working in the fishing industry in North Wales – returning to his old home town about seven years ago.
John can remember the names of seven of his 10 team-mates photographed with the trophy from the contest.
Clockwise, starting with the back row, centre, is goalkeeper Norman Graney, unknown, Stuart Holmes, ‘Spud’ Robson, unknown, Barry Campbell, Bobbie Burns, the son of the then headteacher Mr Cotton, John Rigby, Tommy Worthing and unknown.
Are you one of John’s old teammates? Can you fill in any of the blanks on this team roll-call? If so, leave your memories below.

Norwood Road School’s winning football team in the 1957 finals at Haig Avenue

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Medals find home in museum

Posted by Digital Editor on October 19, 2007 9:01 AM

A PAIR of First World War medals unearthed in a High Park garden will go on display at a military museum.
In July, LookBack told the story of how Paul Edwards discovered the medals in undergrowth while working in the grounds of his daughter’s Canning Road home – and started a quest to return them to the descendents of their rightful owner.
All that was known about him was his name, a Private Frank Webb, and military number, which were engraved on the medals.
Southport’s branch of the Royal British Legion was enlisted in the search for Pte Webb’s family which – after months of research plus an appeal in LookBack – has proved ultimately unsuccessful.
Eric Lewis, RBL branch president, told how a colleague had apparently made a breakthrough by searching through old copies of the Southport Visiter.
One edition listed local soldiers returning home from the front and linked a Frank Webb to an address in Hawkshead Street.
“We went through the deeds of the people who lived there but found no reference to him or his family, and the trail went cold,” said Mr Lewis.
That outcome led to the decision to donate the two medals – an Allied Victory Medal and a British War Medal – to the Royal Logistics Corps Museum at Deepcut barracks in Surrey.
The medals had shown Pte Webb to have been a member of the Army Service Corps, a forerunner to The Royal Logistics Corps.
A letter of thanks from the museum made clear the value of Mr Edwards’s find to their collection.
It said: “It is unusual for a museum to receive these medals with their original ribbons intact as they were originally issued and worn by the recipient.”
Mr Lewis, who recently turned 91, added: “We were a little disappointed not to locate the family of Pte Webb, but very pleased at the museum’s interest in these medals.”

Southport Royal British Legion president Eric Lewis with Private Frank Webb’s Great War medals, which have now been donated to a military museum

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Fond lines recalling the old rail shed and ‘Steamport’

Posted by Digital Editor on October 19, 2007 9:00 AM

LIFELONG trains enthusiast Arthur Nettleton has fond memories of the old rail shed that stood on Derby Road.
The 62-year-old worked at Derby Road train station and its accompanying shed in the years before its closure in the 1960s.
Where now stands Central 12 retail park was a terminus on the West Lancashire line to Preston, which had opened back in 1882.

A class 5 steam loco passes Portland Street crossing in July 1961

And although Arthur left Derby Road to work at British Rail’s shed in Edge Hill, Liverpool, in the mid-1960s, and the West Lancashire line to Preston closed down, it was not the end of Arthur’s association with the resort’s steam train heritage.
Southport Steamport opened on the Derby Road site in 1980 and now, nearly a decade after its closure, Arthur has spoken of his memories.
“A group of enthusiasts started up Southport Steamport in 1980 and I started visiting after it opened,” said Arthur, of Poulton Court.
At that time Arthur was using his mechanical know-how to operate the boilers at Greaves Hall Hospital in Banks, which restricted the time he could devote to his passion for locomotives.

Arthur Nettleton today, wearing a hat bearing badges from his years as a trains enthusiast

That passion started with regular train journeys with his father to Fleetwood as a young Southport schoolboy.
After leaving Meols Cop High School, Arthur worked for British Rail from 1961 to 1968 – progressing from cleaner to staffing the engines as a fireman.

‘Stagecroft’ awaits its next turn of duty at Southport Railway Centre in July 1990

But after Greaves Hall’s closure, Arthur became increasingly involved as a volunteer at Steamport, the rail heritage site that became known as Southport Railway Centre.
He said: “When Southport Railway Centre first moved in they had to re-lay all the track as British Rail had taken it out.
“I was involved in a number of ways – from operating the push-pull trains to playing the part of the Fat Controller during the centre’s Thomas The Tank Engine days.”
Those Thomas The Tank Engine days were particularly popular, when children delighted in seeing locomotives resembling ones from the much-loved animated television series.

Jubilee class locomotive ‘Bahamas’ arriving at Southport Railway Centre in September 1989

The steam trains that operated at Derby Road were also a vivid reminder of a rail system that Arthur saw disappear during the 1960s, as British Rail completed its move to running its trains on diesel.
Southport Railway Centre shut its door for the last time in December 1997 in order to move to Preston dockside and became Ribble Steam Railway.
The move took two years and the final demolition of the Derby Road rail shed took place in 2000, to make way for Central 12.
“It was sad because I’d seen the shed close down twice,” said Arthur.
“But I still keep in touch with a few of my friends from it and go to Ribble Steam Railway three or four times a year.”

An amazing old image showing a pre-1900 shot of the old Southport Railway Station in Lord Street

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Little Vikings

Posted by Digital Editor on October 19, 2007 9:00 AM

THEY will be 20-somethings now, but back in February 1996 these four were little Vikings.
Can you remember why they were dressed in the attire of the Scandinavians who ‘visited’ our shores, centuries before our first hotels opened?
And what are they up to now? To let us know, leave your comments below.

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Supermarket to celebrate 25th anniversary in style

Posted by Digital Editor on October 12, 2007 9:30 AM

TODAY, October 12, marks 25 years to the very day since Sainsbury’s on Lord Street first opened its doors to shoppers.
The store, which opened on October 12, 1982, has seen lots of changes over the years, including the introduction of food scanning at checkouts in 1990, two refurbishments in 1995 and 2002, and three different staff uniforms.

Shoppers pile into Sainsbury’s when it first opened, on October 12, 1992 Picture taken from the Sainsbury’s Archive Museum in Docklands

Nicky Plaistow, a customer services assistant for the store, has worked there for 18 years since starting evening shifts in 1989.
Nicky said: “We have got a good group of people at Sainsbury’s and we have had some great times.
“There’s a really good social life here.”

Store staff in 1994

Over the last quarter of a century, the store has seen its staff getting up to all kinds of mischief in the name of charity, in particular, Comic Relief.
Staff member Andy Whiting sat in a bath of beans for an entire day for Comic Relief in 1997, and brave Paul Lord and Michael Williamson had their legs waxed to raise money for the charity in 1999.
Staff have even been known to dress up as Ninja Turtles to collect money.

Paul Lord (front left) and Michael Williamson (right) have their legs waxed for Comic Relief in 1999

Staff in fancy dress on Red Nose Day in 1991

In addition to their many fundraising events, the store organised a big clean-up of Southport beach in 1991, when staff raised £500 for the Mayor of Sefton’s charity.
The branch has also produced some award-winning staff, such as Clare Thursfield, who, as well as scooping the award for ‘Most helpful retail assistant working in a national retailer’ at the Southport Ambassador Awards in April this year, was also nominated for Colleague of the Year at a national awards ceremony.
Clare, 26, whose father David was manager at the store during the late 1980s, began working at Sainsbury’s after sitting her GCSEs.
She took part in the beach clean-up as a 10-year-old, her photo featuring in the Visiter at the time.
She said: “I first started when I was 16, after sitting my last GCSE exam. I worked here while I was doing my A-levels, and during holidays when I was at university.
She added: “The people here make it brilliant. It’s the people that keep you here, it’s such a good team.”

Nicky Plaistow (left) and Clare Thursfield (right), who was nominated for Colleague of the Year this year, with Ken McMeikan, retail director of Sainsbury's

What are your memories of working or shopping at Sainsbury’s? Leave your comments below.

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Dramatic times on and off the stage at Little Theatre

Posted by Digital Editor on October 5, 2007 9:01 AM

LAST week we took you through the first part of the history of Southport Little Theatre, from its beginnings in the late 1930s, through the Second World War and its success with musicals in the 1960s.
When the venue on Hoghton Street opened in 1937, the Southport Dramatic Club president was Sir Barry Jackson, who saw the group through its first 14 years at its new home.
From 1951, the celebrated Dame Flora Robson took on the role, which she held until her death in 1984 – there is a seat in the auditorium in her honour.
The Club went without a president for 12 years, before the current incumbent, international director and former SDC member, Ian Judge, took on the task.
Drama at the Little Theatre hasn’t always been on stage.
In the summer of 1974, a blaze ripped through the building the week before summer show The Fantasticks was due to open, with every single costume destroyed.
In a history of The Little Theatre, published in 1997, SDC’s then chairman, John Evans, remembered: “Although the Theatre stank for months with the acrid smell of charred timbers, the show went on in the best traditions of the SDC.
“It was one of the loveliest musicals we ever did with a very distinguished cast, most of whom, happily, are still active around the Theatre.”

Night On the Razzle, a special SDC production in 1989

On New Year’s Day 1987, a fire caused much more damage.
A major fundraising drive took place to reach the £50,000 required to get the Theatre back to its original working state.
That was duly achieved, and noted actor Cyril Luckham who had played there during the war (see last week’s LookBack) performed the opening ceremony.
The next problem to hit the SDC came in the autumn of 1995, when landlords the Victoria Friendly Society announced they were leaving the resort– potentially leaving The Little Theatre high and dry.
Unless, of course, the SDC bought the Theatre building.
And after the biggest fundraising drive in the Club’s history, that’s exactly what they did.

The Wizard of Oz at Southport Little Theatre in 1975

Its future secured, the Theatre, Southport Dramatic Club, and the many other performing groups which use the venue, continues to encourage young talent and nurture its existing members.
Past members, such as award-winning Southport- born actress Miranda Richardson and actor Andrew Lancel, now a regular on The Bill, have gone on to great success, and the coming years will no doubt produce more bright young stars.
The curtain doesn’t look set to fall on The Little Theatre for some time yet.

Programme for Hobson's Choice at the Little Theatre in Sept/Oct 1990

SDC production of Outside Edge in 1981

Hobson's Choice at Southport Little Theatre in 1990

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Bunny time back in ’96

Posted by Digital Editor on October 5, 2007 9:00 AM

COWGIRLS and bunnygirls – party nights of Southport past had them all.
Were you there to get shot down in flames by these adventurous young ladies on a town centre night out back in April, 1996?
If you have any leads on where they are now, leave your thoughts below.

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