How the Jewish community found a home in Southport

Posted by Robert Alcock on December 28, 2007 9:00 AM

SOLICITOR Michael Braham has uncovered how two events back in 1892 helped shape the remarkable history of Southport’s Jewish community.
The keen local historian told LookBack how that year saw crucial steps in the formation of both Southport Hebrew Congregation and the resort’s first Synagogue.
And the figure of Naphtali Levy – a respected Rabbinical scholar and boot manufacturer – played a key role in the inception of both.
Mr Braham told of how Rabbi Levy, who was also a shochet (a pious Jew trained in the slaughter of animals for kosher meat), settled in Southport after he first visited it on doctor’s orders to escape London’s fogs.
“He was born in Kolo (now in Poland) in 1836, came to England in 1874 and was naturalised in 1885,” said Mr Braham.
“He moved to Southport where he helped to found the Synagogue and became its first treasurer.”
Rabbi Levy’s efforts led to a meeting in ‘Sorrento’, an Orthodox Jewish Boarding House at 12, Knowsley Road in 1892.
Not only did that meeting point to birth of Southport Hebrew Congregation the following year, a resolution was also carried that donations should go towards obtaining a building for use as a place of worship.
That Synagogue – Southport’s original – was on the corner of Sussex Road and Windsor Road, and today is Talbot Hall.
The building is still in use by Waddington Conservative Club and its basement housed RAFA’s Wings club until earlier this year.
“The Jews of Southport were proud of their new status and enthusiastically combined all charitable occasions and celebrations in the Synagogue and in the town,” explained Mr Braham.
Following its consecration on May 8, 1893, the first Bar Mitzvah in the new Synagogue was that of Lawrence Samuelson on December 10.
The following week the Sabbath religious classes commenced and the first wedding there was consecrated on December 24, between Ralph Hurwitz and Rachael Price.
The resort’s first Jewish burial ground was acquired from Southport Corporation by the Synagogue’s trustees in May 1894.
It had to be consecrated earlier than intended as it was required for the burial of Mr J. Hompes, a ceremony which drew not only Jews but several hundred people of other faiths.
“In the space of one year there was an established Synagogue, a full-time minister, and a cemetery,” said Mr Braham, who hopes that after his retirement his research could lead to a book.
Southport now boasts two synagogues, on Portland Road and Arnside Road.
The last known figure of Jewish people living in the town was 600, recorded in the 2001 national census.
Webshout?
Have Southport’s synagogues played a part in your life? Leave your reminiscences on this and other aspects of Southport life by clicking below.

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Happy times at Southport RAFA

Posted by Robert Alcock on December 28, 2007 9:00 AM

A FAMILIAR Southport face is featured on this 1961 photograph of the Sunday School procession of All Souls Church in Norwood Road.
Before her long service as a local councillor began, Maureen Fearn led keep-fit exercises for female members of the Royal Air Forces Association, comprising former RAF and Women’s Auxiliary Air Force personnel. Cllr Fearn, a former Mayor of Sefton, is the tallest woman stood on the wagon, looking at members of the procession.
“The group, led by me, did a keep-fit exhibition at the All Souls summer fair,” she told LookBack.
Then in her 20s, Cllr Fearn led the female exercise groups at the RAFA club in Sussex Road, the closure of which was recently announced.
The RAFA at the time used to meet in the basement of Talbot Hall, on the corner of Sussex Road and Windsor Road.
Cllr Fearn she had “happy memories” of the time, and was interested to know where life had taken the women she once tutored.

Are you one of the people on this photo, or a relative of theirs? Call 398287 with your memories or email robert.alcock@southportvisiter.co.uk, or leave a comment by clicking below

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Do you have any stories from Southport's clubs?

Posted by Robert Alcock on December 28, 2007 9:00 AM

HALF a century of clubland entertainment will be celebrated in 2008 – and Southport performers are being asked to help provide the memories.
Preston & District Concert Secretaries’ Federation will mark its golden anniversary with a number of events during the year, culminating in the publication of a souvenir Preston Guild magazine charting its history.
It is now looking for entertainers past and present with a tale to tell, for possible inclusion in the magazine.

To get in touch, write to John Sissons at 4 Harold Terrace, Lostock Hall, Preston, Lancashire PR5 5SE or call him on 01772-338157.

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Vandals at work but Doddy provides festive smiles too

Posted by Robert Alcock on December 21, 2007 9:00 AM

THE recent theft of a card-laden postal van in Ainsdale is not the first time Southport well-wishers have faced a nightmare at Christmas.
A glance back at the Southport Visiter archives from 43 years ago shows a distinct lack of festive goodwill on behalf of a vandal who set ablaze the contents of postbox.
While only four cards were actually destroyed in the fire, our report made sure the tale was told in all its drama.

How the Visiter reported the post-box blaze

“Christmas wishes went up in smoke in the early hours of Sunday morning when a police constable on the beat noticed smoke coming from the pillar box at the corner of Portland Street and Shakespeare Street,” it read.
“A GPO official was rushed to the scene and found someone had put pieces of burning paper into the box and set fire to the contents.”
The act of destruction was branded “a rotten thing to do” by Mr C. J. Moore, the town’s head postmaster.
For Shakespeare Street housewife Mrs E. S. Jarvis, the panic was such she had to phone 16 of her friends to see if their cards arrived safely – followed by her sending some more, “just in case”.
Thankfully, such misdemeanours were not the only Christmas experiences of 1964 that have echoes today.

What better place than Southport for Jack and the Beanstalk in all its panto glory?

Traders reported “hectic” conditions in three big stores, much to the delight of Mr J. Adams, secretary of Southport Chamber of Trade.
And mechanical toys proved particularly sought after as gifts, while today its Nintendo and Sony games consoles on the top of many children’s wish-lists.

Brownies and Rainbows had this tree decked out – but where and when

But Christmas shoppers faced disappointment on one important front, with Southport undergoing a drastic shortage of smaller turkeys.
Festive charity was in good supply, with the Visiter’s pages filled with acts of Christmas kindness.
Take licensees Mona and Derek Horne and their customers at The Crown Inn in Coronation Walk, who ensured about 100 presents made their way to the Salvation Army Children’s Home.

Have any of these nativity stars gone on to tread the boards since?

And pupils of St Wyburn School in Birkdale performed a Festival of Carols in St James Memorial Hall, Lulworth Road, with Ellerslie Court Holiday Home (now part of the Vitalise charity) among the beneficiaries.
In sport, Southport Football Club – then in the old Fourth Division – lost three consecutive matches, including an FA Cup exit at the hands of Leeds United, then a powerhouse in the top flight under manager Don Revie.

Nurses of Southport Promenade Hospital enjoy their Christmas Party in December 1964

And as for showbusiness, some things never change.
Liverpudlian legend Ken Dodd had audiences of December 1964 well and truly tickled – with punters at The Royal Court Theatre paying only 13’6d for a night of festive hilarity.

‘I want to be a tree’ said a character in an old TV advert. Looks like these kids may have taken that on board

Do any of these images ring any Christmas bells for you? Leave your memories below. HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

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Vera recalls a busy Southport Meols Cop station during war

Posted by Digital Editor on December 14, 2007 9:00 AM

MEOLS Cop is Merseyside’s forgotten railway station, according to concerned campaigners – without staff and bereft of basic services.
But one Marshside pensioner has many fond memories of working there during the Second World War, when it was a bustling transport hub for the area’s effort to defeat Nazi Germany.
Vera Johnson, who is now 93, was forthright in summing up the changes Meols Cop has undergone since her service there as a porter from 1940-46.

“It’s a skeleton of a station now compared to what it used to be,” said Mrs Johnson, who lives in Connell Court Methodist home in Weld Road, Birkdale.
During the years of her service there, Meols Cop station was operated by LMS (London, Midland & Scottish Railway company) and was a busy stop on the line between Southport and Crossens.
Many of those using it toiled at the Brockhouse munitions factory in Crossens, and Mrs Johnson remembers: “The trains were that packed you could hardly shut the doors.”

It was the misdemeanour of one munitions worker, who lived near the station in Blowick, that earned Mrs Johnson – then known by her maiden name of Rimmer – an appearance in the Southport Visiter.
A court report headlined ‘Out-of-date rail ticket’ explained how Mrs Johnson helped alert police to a female worker using a lapsed ticket, who was subsequently fined £2, plus 15s 6d costs and two guineas advocate’s fee.

Other memories Mrs Johnson has include helping mums with their prams up and down the station steps, the paperboy (she believes he was called Jimmy Boden) meeting the locomotive from Manchester at 6am to collect the morning editions, and the station layout – complete with a central booking office and waiting rooms with toilets on each platform.
Before her work as a station porter Mrs Johnson was employed at the William Ashton & Sons factory in Tulketh Street (where the former Waitrose building stands now), which counted carrier bags for Max Brewer’s confectioners among its output.

But her home was always in Marshside, having been born in the building housing her grandfather’s grocery and shoes shop at the corner of Shellfield Road and Marshside Road.
Her husband, Harry Johnson, whom she married in 1947, was also a Marshsider.
His army service included four years as a prisoner-of-war in Austria, and after demobilisation he was employed by local coal merchant George Watkinson.
Mrs Johnson was widowed in 1973. With Harry she had one son, who is now Methodist minister the Reverend Maurice Johnson in Derbyshire.

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Wedding photo brings surprise and delight

Posted by Digital Editor on December 14, 2007 9:00 AM

LOOKBACK has succeeded in reuniting this old photo of a happy wartime couple with their son.
Visiter reader Peter Scarisbrick said he was “surprised” to see the matrimonial snap from April 1942 featured in an edition last month.
The bride and groom were his parents, John and Ellen Scarisbrick, and the photo had been in the possession of Jean Duckett, who lives near Shrewsbury in Shropshire.
Mrs Duckett had been a young girl when John (she knew him as ‘Jack’) stayed in the home of her mother, Gertrude Cross, while stationed as a Royal Engineer on the old Potts railway line during the early years of the Second World War.
Peter’s future mother Ellen (known to Mrs Duckett as ‘Nellie’) would come to visit John in the Shropshire village of Hook-a-Gate.
Peter said: “My father talked little of his wartime experiences and I had no idea of his links with Shrewsbury, though I knew that he was in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
“He did mention to me that he had been stationed at Tilbury Dock during the war and escaped both German bombs and the flying bombs called Doodlebugs.
“After the Normandy invasion in 1944 he was stationed in France and than Germany until he was demobbed in 1946.
“He later worked for British Railways, then National Carriers Limited until retirement.
“After his retirement my parents visited some of the places that he had been during the war.
“My mother died in 1994, and my father died in 1996, both aged 78.
“They had three sons, myself and my younger brothers, Brian and Alan.”

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Sausage-making machine may be the missing link!

Posted by Robert Alcock on December 7, 2007 9:00 AM

A SAUSAGE-MAKING machine could provide a link between the town’s old market, a 19th century Southport butcher, and his descendants living here today.
Janice and Brendan O’Farrell were fascinated to find a report in a 1960 copy of the Southport Visiter about the discovery of the old piece of meat-mixing machinery.
It was among other relics discovered by workers excavating the site of Southport’s old market on Eastbank Street – which had been burned to the ground in 1915.

The sausage-mixing machine unearthed from the Market Hall site by workers in February 1960

And as the only butcher with a shop in that market hall was among Janice’s forebears, she is now seeking to trace the sausage-making machine as part of her family history research, while also appealing to people who may have any memories of her family.
Christopher Wadsworth was a master butcher, born in 1828 in Withnell near Chorley.
In 1852 he married Sarah Carey in Leyland – Sarah being the daughter of Patrick, who Janice has identified as her great, great, great grandfather.

Southport's old Market Hall on Eastbank Street, where butcher Christopher Wadsworth used to ply his trade

Speaking of her research, Janice, 57, told LookBack: “I found that a few years after the marriage the new couple were running a butcher’s shop in 40 London Street. They soon had several other outlets in Southport, including in Hill Street and at 54 Botanic Road (in Churchtown). As their butchery concerns grew so did their family – Sarah went on to have 10 children.”

Janice O’Farrell

She died in childbirth at the age of 43 but her husband Christopher lived on until 1898, and Janice has learned from trade directories of the time that he had a stall in Eastbank Street Market Hall, where now stands the Jobcentre Plus.
And as Christopher was the only listed butcher in the trade directories for many years, Janice believes the sausage- machine unearthed in 1960 probably belonged to her ancestor. Christopher’s death – he is buried in the grounds of Holy Trinity Church in Hoghton Street – was not the end of the Wadsworth butchery business.

The shell of the Market Hall after it was consumed by fire on October 18, 1915

The 1901 census shows his offspring Michael, Christopher junior and Mary were trading in Southport.
“We’re sure people would remember the butcher’s shop on Hill Street, started by Christopher Wadsworth,” said Brendan.
Yet with several of Sarah and Christopher’s grandchildren emigrating to New Jersey in the United States in 1910, Janice believes fears there may be few of their descendants living in Southport today.

l If you feel you could help their research – perhaps you know where the sausage-mixer is now? – call Janice and Brendan on 01704-562547, email brendanofarrell@btinternet.com, or leave your leads below.

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Can you name dedicated crew?

Posted by Robert Alcock on December 7, 2007 8:58 AM

WITH planning underway to build a brand new fire station for Southport, what better time to puzzle over what this crew were up to back in February 1996 – almost a dozen years ago.
Looks of trepidation are clear on the face of the firefighter to the left of the ladder – what do his colleagues have in store for him? And who were the jokers with their hands up at the back?
If you know any answers, leave them below.

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